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—JUDITH was conflicted about what occurred that morning. On the one hand, she should be happy about the 'win,' and on the other, she was aggravated that Tantalus failed to see ( or probably just failed to care ) that the whole camp was just stormed by flying machines that could peck your eyeballs out with little effort.
Now, don't get her wrong, Judith would not say that Percy or Annabeth deserved the golden laurels for their 'bravery,' because they didn't. But they definitely did not earn themselves kitchen duty either. If anyone did, it was probably the Stoll brothers; they had sucked during the races and weren't too much help during the fight either; they could be forced to clean out the stables for all she cared, so long as they were miserable about it.
Yet another reason Judith was upset, was because she had been forced to sit next to the camp director himself at a special luncheon he ordered for her and Clarisse's victory. His praise was only nice for the first five minutes, but it got rather old rather quickly. She could liken his flattery to that of someone out to get something in return. What it was he wanted, Judith didn't know nor did she care. She would not do anything for him.
There was absolutely nothing to make her mood better. Not even the Apollo cabin's sing-along at the camp fire was amusing to her — and Ellis did his best to cheer her up by tossing peanut projectiles into their open mouths. Instead, that night, Judith was shivering at the little heat being produced by the small enchanted fire. It was gray and looked about ready to flicker out and die, much like what Judith felt in that moment. She curled a knee up to her chest and hugged it, silently begging for the night to be over soon.
As the last song came to an agonizing end, Tantalus stood up and walked in front of the fire basin to address the campers. Mr. D had long since gone off to the big house after suffering through the songs, leaving them under the supervision of an under qualified babysitter.
"Well, that was lovely!" He reached for the marshmallow on his stick, but Judith — mildly delighted — saw the tasty treat fly off the stick to shrivel up in the tiny flame. Tantalus' eye twitched coldly before looking back at the camp ruefully. "Now then! Some announcements about tomorrow's schedule."
"Sir," a voice said in the front. Judith leaned over Sherman's shoulder to see who had spoken. She was met with the back of Percy Jackson's head and rolled her eyes. ( Leave it to him to speak out of turn when it's the last thing he should be doing. Judith swore that he just liked to hear himself talk. )
"Our kitchen boy has something to say?" said Tantalus, very strained.
Percy stood up defiantly as some of the campers laughed. Judith couldn't find it in herself to even smile at anything the man joked about, he wasn't funny. Out of the corner of her eye, she could also see Annabeth standing within her cabin, willing to back up the son of Poseidon.
