Stealing the Weasleys

A Game to the Gods

Travis Stoll

Camp Half-Blood is awesome, but that's mainly when everyone is here during the summer. In the wintertime? It's just a cold mess. Plus, there is no one to pull pranks on or steal things!

You don't know what Camp Half-Blood is you say? The name states it all. Still don't understand? Well, let me explain. It's a camp for half-bloods. Half-mortal, half-god. In other words, it's a camp for demigods. My brother and I are demigods, sons of Hermes.

Each camper has a different parent of course. For example, Percy Jackson, the star for the camp since he arrived back from returning Zeus's Master Bolt, is the son of Poseidon. Annabeth Chase, the one camper who has a dislike for Percy, is the daughter of Athena. These are just a few of the campers, but of course, all those campers only come for the summer.

So that leaves Conner and I by ourselves, with a grumpy god. Mr. D wasn't the most pleasant of gods, as he always wanted to turn us into dolphins. Well, there were a few other campers there, like a girl and boy from the Apollo cabin, a few Aphrodite girls, a Demeter boy, and a few others, but not enough to do major pranks or even play a game of capture the flag. So, here I am, stuck in the Hermes cabin tampering with a pair of winged shoes while Conner is out flirting with those Aphrodite girls.

"Hey, Travis," I turn to face the door, spotting my little brother standing against the door frame. "What are you doing over there?"

I look down at the pair of black converse to find them almost torn apart. "I don't really know. I was lost in thought."

Conner nods. "Bored out of your mind, I'm guessing?"

I smile. My brother knows me too well. Suddenly, a random thought came to mine, causing me to glance down at the winged shoes. My smile grew even brighter when I meet Conner's eyes. "What if we play a prank on the whole camp?" Conner smiles and motions me to go on. "We take a bunch of these shoes," I start, pointing to the boxes of colorful Converse, "and switch each camper with these. Then, we challenge them to a game of capture the flag. We active the shoes in the middle of the game."

Conner smirks. "That sounds awesome! How would the capture the flag game work though? There are only, what, 16 of us at camp, not including Chiron and Mr. D?"

"Simple, teams of 8. Me and you on a team with the two Apollo kids, the three Ares, and the Demeter kid. The other team can have Annabeth, the five Aphrodite kids, the Hephaestus kid, and Pollux."

"Sounds like a plan. Should we challenge them tomorrow after have switched the shoes or-"

I cut him off with, "Tell them tonight. Give them suspense about the game. We can announce the teams then, too."

Before Conner could reply, the dinner bell rang throughout the camp. Time to put this plan into action. Before one of the other cabins came and started to bang on our door, my little brother and I walked out the door up to the pavilion. The other cabins were already scraping a portion of food into Heista's fire by the time we arrived.

Quickly, we got our food, giving some to the gods, and sat down at the empty Hermes table. To some, it would seem weird that the table was empty, but since Luke Castillian betrayed us, Conner and I were the only ones who stayed all year. The just of the cabin went home.

Conner and I chated most of the time until we saw that most of the year-round campers were finishing up. Flashing my brother a smile, I stuff the last of my roll in my mouth before standing on the table, drawing everyone's attention. I raise my hands in the air, "My dear campers!"

A few campers laugh at my silly statement as Chiron shakes his head in amusement in the back. Conner jumps on the table to join me before continuing, "I wouldn't laugh, dears."

"We have some news!"

The room fell silent. Annabeth stood up, looking us directly in the eyes. "And what would that news be? We have had enough of that this past summer."

We smile and simply say, "We challenge everyone to a game of Capture the Flag tomorrow night."

Whispers fill the hall. Clearly, no one was expecting that from the prankster brothers. Chiron looked like he was about to object, but Mr. D stood up. "That sounds like a fantastic idea, Charles and Trevor. This camp needs something exciting."

The other 14 campers cheered. I held my hand up to silence everybody. "As you know, there are only 16 of us here currently," A murmur of agreement echoes around us. "Because of this, we have divided teams into 8 campers each."

"On the red team, we have the Hermes, Apollo, Ares, and Demeter cabins," Conner says.

"And on the blue team, we have the Athena, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Dionysus cabins," I finish.

Giving my brother a high five, we both take our glasses and raise them up. "A game to the Gods!"

"A game to the Gods!" Everyone echoes.