The 12 Days of Christmas - The Great Holiday Mystery

The First Day of Christmas

~Poseidon Cabin~

'Wake up, lazy bones!'

Percy groaned and complained into his pillow, 'But I'm comfortable!'

Annabeth rolled her eyes, 'Come on, Seaweed Brain. Piper called an emergency meeting at the Big House.'

When Percy showed no signs of stirring, Annabeth grabbed a cup filled with ice cold water from his cluttered bedside table. She stood back and tossed the water all over Percy.

Caught off guard by the sudden splash, the freezing water drenched the son of Poseidon to the bone. He sat bolt upright in his bunk, shivering and blinking water out of his eyes.

'Was that necessary?' he coughed.

'No,' Annabeth admitted. 'But it was fun.'

Percy shuddered and yawned. With water still in his eyes, he reached out to the bedside table for support, missed and fell out of bed, tangled in sheets. He grunted in pain and sat up, blinking sleepily at a smirking Annabeth.

'Congratulations! You not-so-successfully got out of bed,' Annabeth said cheerily.

'What do I win?' he mumbled. 'A kiss from my girlfriend?'

Annabeth sighed, grabbed a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt that was hanging off a nearby lamp and tossed it to Percy.

'Get dressed and turn up to the meeting, Seaweed Brain. Then we'll see.'

Percy shrugged and pulled the shirt over his head as Annabeth head out the door.

~Rec Room~

'So what's the big emergency?' Percy yawned. 'I was in the middle of something very important.'

Annabeth had an excellent poker face, 'You were sound asleep.'

Percy sunk down in his seat, 'Beauty rest.'

Piper chuckled, 'What beauty?'

Percy tried to respond but the words seemed to catch in his throat. His mouth opened and closed without a single sound.

'You look like a fish,' Thalia remarked slyly. 'Oh, the irony.'

Percy settled for crossing his arms and sulking, muttering some choice words in ancient Greek.

Reyna shook her head, 'So, what's the big emergency? And why did you call us?'

Piper bit her lip, 'Because you were all there yesterday when we found that note.'

'Note?' Annabeth questioned. 'You mean the one inside the bottom of the star?'

Piper nodded, 'The twelve of us were all there when we found it, so I thought one of you might know something about this.'

'About what?' Jason asked nervously.

'This,' Piper brought a piece of paper out of her pocket and lay it flat in the middle of the table.

It was made of the same parchment as the note Annabeth found the day before. It was old, yellow and had several holes dotted here and there. Two single lines were written on paper.

Travis and Connor exchanged a look.

'What does it say?' Travis asked. 'Some of us have worse dyslexia than others.'

Piper didn't bother arguing. She just pulled the paper towards her and took a deep breath, like she was gathering her courage.

'"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, mistletoe up a pine tree."' She folded the piece of paper up again. 'See why I called the meeting?'