A Frozen Heart - Leo Valdez

7- The Prank

This has been one of my favorite chapters to write so far!! I really hope you all like it<3 Anyway, thanks for reading!! Remember to comment and vote!:) 

My lovely sleep is interrupted by no other than my mother. We fade into a black room, with only snowman in the center. The room smells like burning logs and-... I sniff again to make sure my nose is not playing tricks on me. Death. The room smells of rotten corpse and long abandon skulls.

Khione is decorating the snowman when her eyes meet mine.

"My child... You are failing me." She says, her eyes as dark as coal.

"How?" I ask quickly. I personally think I am doing a very good job with this plan so far.

"Have you even spoken to any of the seven besides, Leo?"

"Of course," I argue. "I talk to Piper a lot in my cabin. She trust me, don't worry. I also talked to Percy and Annabeth the first day and-"

"The first day!" She roars. "You need to be talking to them very frequently, child!"

"I-I'm sorry, mother." I hang my head. I hate when she yells at me.

Khione clears her throat and adds the final touch to the snowman: A carrot nose. The snowman seems to be staring at me, judging me. Instead of a smile, the snowman wears a frown, as if saying 'You're not good enough! Shame, shame...'

"I also talked to Frank and Hazel last night..."

"That's not good enough. You barely talked to them at all! One little conversation, that was it. Have you even talked to Jason grace?" I shake my head and Khione sighs. " I have a sad excuse for a daughter. Do you not know what fate lays ahead of us if we do not complete this plan? You have done good with the Aphrodite cabin, I have witnessed some pretty nasty conversations already. But the seven is the main mission. Eliminate them and I will have forever glory, side by side with Gaea..."

I notice how her eyes begin to sparkle when she says the last line. I also notice how she says 'I' instead of 'we', but I don't question her. "Okay, mother. Then I shall prepare a day with Jason Grace and girls night out with the female half of the seven to get them to trust me?"

Khione nods. "Very well thinking, daughter of mine. And drop in on a guys night out with Jason, Percy, Leo and Frank. Learn each of them before you crush them..."

"Yes, Khione." I reply. This is going to be a lot harder than I thought...

The room begins to slowly fade into white. Before my mother is fully gone, she opens her mouth to tell me one last thing. "And watch out for a daughter of Apollo. You haven't seen her yet, but she can't be trusted. Also, the daughter of Athena that you have been troubled by,  don't worry about her. She is clueless, trust me. If she were to find out the truth, you know what to do, daughter of snow." She suddenly chuckles and looks amused. "And a certain handful of campers have a surprise for you once you wake up. Enjoy."

❄


The first thing I notice when I wake up is a ticking. The children of Aphrodite are still asleep, so I'm guessing it is still pretty early.

Tick... Tick... Tick... Tick...

What is that? I jump down from my top bunk and make the worst mistake of my life. A barely noticeable white string is tied tight from one bunk to another, making a perfect trick for somebody who is not paying attention to trip over. And of course I do.

My face makes contact with the floor, making a banging noise that wakes up the others in my cabin. Then things start to get out of hand.

The others jump out of their beds, startled by the sudden sound. They each take one step and also take a nasty fall. This must of started a chain reaction, because as soon as everybody has took their turn falling flat on their face, water balloons begin pouring from sky.

Screams fill the cabin, several of the girls run and hide under their beds or covers, but it does no help against the million of wat- suddenly a huge balloon hits against my face. I'm blinded by the gooey substance. I stand up and wipe it from my eyes so I can see. My tongue licks the white gush that has been smothered on my face. "Mayonnaise?" I whisper.

My eyes open wider as I realize these are not ordinary water balloons. I search around the once neat and pink room, to find it replaced with a messy, stained, out of control wreck. An odor so disgusting, feels my nostrils and I gag.

"The door! Get out! The door!" I hear Piper yell. Her voice is drained out by the smashing of balloons, but I hear enough to make a dash.

All at once, we all run for the door. I'm the first one to arrive, I wiggle the doorknob but it doesn't open. The door is lock. "It won't budge!" I yell as more and more mayonnaise balloons drop on us.

 As if the prankster expected us to make a break for the door, at that exact time, I hear a rumbling sound above us. I look up in horror to see the biggest balloon I have ever seen in my life. Before any of us have time to react, it  crashes down into us, submerging each one of us in a yellow goo.

"What in the Hades is going on!?" I hear Drew scream. She is covered in what I believe to be mustard, from head to toe. I look down on myself to see I'm covered in it as well. My newly panda pajamas are completely  ruined.

The bombs of mayonnaise stop falling instantly. "Is it finally over?" A boy says. He pokes his head out from underneath the bed to my right.

"I think so," Piper replies. She pulls on the door handle but it still doesn't budge. "The door still won't open, our cabin is wreck, we are all covered in this disgusting mayo and mustard, what else could possibly be worst!?" She cries.

Man, I wish she never said that. As soon as she did, a burst of air erupts through the cabin. Wind is spiraling everyone everywhere, I lose my balance and collide into another camper.

  And that's when the feathers start coming in.

Green feathers, that look much like vomit, scatter everywhere. They stick on  to the others and myself very well and they decorate the room in a feathery wreck.

The mustard has already dried to my face and body, so when I try to take off the feathers, it's almost impossible. "Ugh!" I yell. I can't even see the others past the blizzard of green. The feathers hit my skin more harshly, super gluing themselves into my skin.

Finally, the horror stops. My eyes bulge at the new sight.  My once beautiful roommates are now replaced with shocked, mayonnaise and mustard stained, green chickens. If it weren't for me looking the exactly the same, it would have been funny. But this? It's defiantly not funny.

Heat rises to my face as anger overtakes me. Who would do such a cruel prank like this?! I turn towards the door and begin to furiously beat on it. "Let us out! Jokes over! Let us go you, stupid assholes!"

To my surprise, the door creeks open. I hold my breath in the anticipation to know my pranker.

"You all look lovely this morning. Would you like a beak to go with that outfit?" Connor and Travis Stoll stand in front of me. They are laughing uncontrollably and high fiving each other. Half of the camp is standing a few feet behind them. Chiron is flickering his tail back in fourth, he looks angry. Leo stands in front of the crowd, wearing an expression in between amused and shocked. I pick out the rest of the seven as well, they are all laughing.

I've only encountered Travis and Connor Stoll once since I've arrived at camp, not counting this time. They were playing a prank on the Athena kids, putting spiders in their beds. I laughed along with them as the daughters and sons of wisdom ran around frantically. I didn't feel sorry for the Athena children, because it was just a joke, right? But as of right now, being the person who just got pranked, I feel terribly incredibly sorry for whoever has been the center of one of Travis and Connor's jokes.

The rest of my cabin quickly runs out, half of them are crying. They immediately run up to Chiron.

"Punish them!"

"Look what they did to us!"

"Our cabin is ruined!"

"It's all their fault! Now I'm going to stink for days!"

"How am I suppose to get this out of my hair!?"

The Children of Aphrodite complain all at once, you can barely hear what they are saying. Chiron clears his throat. " Okay now! Listen up. It was very wrong of the Stolls to pull such a cruel, out of control prank like that," He narrows his eyes at the Strolls who are still laughing. "The Strolls, as punishment, will be responsible for redoing the Aphrodite cabin. They are to clean it, and redecorate it back to how it originally was." The Connor and Travis break out in a protest, and start blaming the idea on each other. "Silence! You will also be cleaning the stables of the Pegasus for three whole weeks! And that is final. Now get to cleaning, boys."

He walks away instantly. The Stolls also walk away grimly to get their cleaning supplies.   

"I'm sorry about them," A towel is flung over my shoulders  and I find myself looking into the sea green eyes of Percy Jackson.

I bring the towel closer to my face, breathing in the fresh scent. "It's fine... I should have expected them to pull something like that."

"No, it's not fine. You're new here, it wasn't right of them..." He shakes his head. "And you should probably go take a shower or something. No offense but you stink." He cracks a smile.

I roll my eyes and smile back. "Thanks."

❄

After about an hour in the shower, I think I finally got out all the mayonnaise and mustard. I put my hair into a high ponytail and walk down to the mess hall.

To my surprise, only Piper sits at the Aphrodite table. She grimly picks at her salad but when she notices me approaching she smiles.

I plop myself down next to her. "Where is everyone?"

Her eyes slightly widen. "They're still in the shower."

Wow. I thought I was taking forever in the showers, and they are still in there? "That can't be healthy. Their skin is going to wrinkle up like an old person."

Piper laughs.  "They would probably kill themselves if they develop wrinkles. Or go get plastic surgery."

I grin and nod. "Anyway, do you want to go somewhere tonight? I realized I don't really know anybody here, so I was thinking maybe you can gather up some friends and we can go to the movies or something?"

"That would be awesome! I'll get Jason, Annabeth, Percy, Hazel, and the others!"

She begins to get up but I quickly stop her. "I was thinking more of a girls night?"

Piper looks a little less excited but she smiles anyway. "I think that would be wonderful. I know this really nice restaurant near the Empire State building and we could go get out nails and toes done?"

Even though I'm not the biggest fan of painting my toenails, mainly because my pinky toe is crooked beyond belief, I nod. "Where should I meet you?"

"Meet us by Thalia's tree in exactly one hour," She replies getting up to leave. "And don't be late!"

Soon, I'm left alone at the table. Lunch is about over and the others campers are already clearing out. I rest my head in my hands and sigh. I really hope this going to be easy. I hope they learn to trust me easily. But most of all, I hope I won't upset Khione.

"Hey!" A familiar voice says, causing me to jump.

"Leo," I whisper, pushing back my bangs that are covering my face.

"How are you doing?" He asks sitting down next to me.

"Well, considering I was ambushed this morning by those demon twins, I guess I'm doing all right." I smile.

He laughs. "That was hilarious."

My eyebrows furrow together. "Was not! I still have the odor of mustard on me.."

"No you don't!" He sniffs my hair. "You smell like strawberries. Sprinkled with mustard."

"Hey!" I say, making him laugh.

Leo suddenly shifts awkwardly. "I actually came to talk to you for a reason," He reaches his hand into the tool belt he always wears and pulls out an rectangular present. "I made you something."

I raise an eyebrow. "For me?" I take the gift from him which is horribly wrapped. "It's not going to explode, is it?"

He chuckles and runs his hand through his hair. "Well, let's hope not."

My fingers run along the blue bow that is tied around it. I tear through the wrapping, reveling a black box. When I open it, my throat runs dry. My stomach whirls and I feel like I'm going to puke. I pick up the beautiful necklace, my eyes staring  at the small symbol hanging from it.

Everything else seems to disappear, and it's only me and that necklace in a room full of darkness.

The symbol hanging from it seems to be glowing brighter and brighter, daring to take me over. It grows eyes. It grows a mouth along with arms and legs. It detaches itself from the silver chain and jumps onto my face. It jabs itself into my eyes until it is all I can see. I can't see anything. Nothing but the crafted symbol that seems to be becoming my eyes.

"Chase? Hello? Chase? Do you like it?"

I come back to reality. I glance at Leo who looks nervous. I'm still holding the necklace out in front of me. I touch the symbol with my other hand, then command my shocked tongue to move again. "It's a snowflake.."

Leo manages a small smile and looks at me awkwardly. "Yeah.. I made the chain the first night you came here. I couldn't figure out what type of symbol I should attach to it, but then I kind of had a vision.. It was snowing and for some reason I thought of you."

"T-that's sweet, Leo. Thanks." I manage to move my glued gaze from the snowflake to Leo. "Can you put it on me?"

"Yeah!" He replies, taking the necklace from me. He smiles in excitement and soon I feel the cold chain touch my neck. "I'm glad you like it."

Once the necklace is safely fastened, I look at Leo questionably. "Why?" I ask, touching the smooth snowflake.

"Why not?" He answers quickly.

"Do you make all new girls a necklace when they arrive at camp?" I question, a playful smile on my lips.

"Only the ones I like."

I feel heat trickle up to my cheeks and I quickly rise from the table. I can't deal with this right now. First girls night, then fake love Leo.

"I forgot I have to meet Piper somewhere," I get up to leave and head for the door. Before I can completely leave, I take a glance back at Leo who is staring at the ground. He is muttering some words and looks as if he is having a mental argument with himself.

You can't leave like this! The plan! Remember the plan!  I take a deep breath. "Let's go somewhere tomorrow."

Leo looks shocked. Then he smiles. That crazy Leo smile he did when I first met him. "Maybe.. If I'm not busy."

"Come on, Leo.."

He chuckles and walks over to me. "Is this going to be considered a date?" He asks, a grin plastered on his face.

I bite my bottom lip. A date...Well, this is what my mother wanted, right?

"Yes, " I reply. " It's going to be a date."