The Untold Story of Annabeth Chase

Chapter 30

Camp Half-Blood got better with every summer.

Last year had been awesome, but this year, I had new friends, I was the junior counsellor, I was getting to be old enough that people didn't treat me like a little kid anymore. Even Isaac and Aaron didn't tease me quite so much.

I never wanted this summer to end. I didn't want my friends to go back to school in the fall, and I didn't want to be here by myself. I mean, I had Luke and Skye and Grover, but there were other people I would miss during the year. Still, I put these thoughts aside and focused on having my best summer yet. I trained hard, beat Isaac at trivia as much as possible, and spent countless perfect days on the beach and at Thalia's tree.

But by far the best- and strangest- day of the summer came when we ended up with some unexpected visitors on the beach.

There was no notice. One day we were just relaxing by the water during swim time when the ground began to shake. We all stared into the distance, contemplating whether earthquakes could get past the camp's magical boundaries. Just when I had decided that they could, and we were all about to die, I heard a whooping holler in the distance.

I squinted, and eventually made out a blob of color racing down the beach.

As the blob grew closer, kicking up a massive sand cloud, I realized that they were horses.

"PARTY!" Someone yelled from within the blob.

"Centaurs!" Someone with sharper vision than me called out.

As the stampede got closer, I saw that they were centaurs. But not the centaurs I was used to, like Chiron. These centaurs carried NERF guns and balloons and those huge blow-up hammers you win at carnivals. Some were neon sunglasses or baseball caps. Most were splattered with splotches of bright pink or green paint, like they had been pooped on by multicoloured pigeons.

Then the centaurs reached us, and I staggered back in fear, finally understanding where the splotches came from. Almost all of the dozens of centaurs carried a colorful, fully loaded paintball gun that was now trained on the unsuspecting campers relaxing on the beach.

The centaurs grinned maniacally as we scattered, and paintballs began flying everywhere. They hit sand and people and beach bags, making us look like some weird abstract art piece. Paintballs ricocheted off the ground and burst at people's ankles, and some of them got caught in our clothes and you didn't notice them until you moved the wrong way and felt something squish. But most just exploded on impact, sending paint flying in every direction. It was the most terrifying form of ambush, because we didn't really know if they were trying to hurt us or not. Paintballs were apparently really painful, but the centaur's expressions made it seem like they were just having fun.

Eventually, they stopped shooting, and we all clumped together, cowering from the horses and inspecting the damage. I had a huge blob of blue in my hair, and my swimsuit was a mess, but I didn't have any major bruising, like many of my friends did.

"WOOO!" the centaurs yelled, completely oblivious to the fact that we were all bruised and moaning and terrified.

"PARTY PONIES IN THE HOUSE!" Someone hollered, and the rest of the crowd cheered in agreement.

"Whoa, whoa," Luke emerged from the crowd of wounded demigods with his hands in front of him. A paintball had hit him right in the face and splattered across his eye like he was a member of KISS, but otherwise he was fine. "Let's just calm down."
Luke's attempts to tame the party were interrupted when a NERF dart hit his face and suctioned right between his eyes. He crossed his eyes, attempting to see where the dart had stuck, and the centaurs erupted in laughter.