[1] 𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐁𝐈𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐋𝐋 ― p.jackson ✓

004.

「004. they fell in a hole, but that sounds wrong 」

"RIGHT," QUINTUS said, standing on the head dining table, "gather round."

he was dressed in black leather and bronze. in the torchlight, his grey hair made him look like a ghost. mrs o'leary bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps.

"you will be in teams of two," quintus announced. when everybody started talking and trying to grab their friends, he yelled, "which have already been chosen!"

everybody complained and let out protests. and barbie shrugged, the worse thing that could happen was she was paried with somebody she didn't know. and maybe that was a bad thing, but most people at camp knew her. but secretly, she did hope she was with somebody like or percy, val, cherry or annabeth.

"your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying-"

yeah, though barbie, secretly rolling her eyes at his statement, that's soooo simple

"-the wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. there are six monsters. each has a silk package. only one holds the laurels. you must find the wreath before the other teams. and of course ...you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."

the crowd started murmuring excitedly. the task sounded pretty straightforward. but nothing about challenges in camp half-blood ever turned out to be 'pretty straightforward'.

"i will now announce your partners," quintus said, "there will be no trading. no switching. nocomplaining."

"aroooof!" mrs o'leary buried her face in a plate of pizza. quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names. beckendorf would be with silena beauregard, which beckendorf looked pretty happy about. the stoll brothers, travis and connor, would be together. no surprise. they were basically attached at the hip

quintus kept reading off the list. barbie was silently hoping she either got percy, annabeth, val or cherry.

"annabeth and valentino," called out quintus.

annabeth and val turned to each other, grinning happily at the choice as they began to converse amongst themselves and barbie shot them a semi-knowing look and one of semi-confusion.

"will solace and cherris-"

"it's cherry," piped in cherry politely with a grin, "sorry mr swordman but i don't really like people calling me that."

"of course," nodded quintus, he continued with the names until he got to her, "barbie and percy."

"sweet," grinned percy.

"yup... let's hope you can keep up, jackson," she mused, "you've probably gotten slow since last summer."

"is that a challenge, barbie doll?" he grinned, looking at her with a mischievous.

"maybe it is," countered barbie, winking at him slightly but instantly regretting it moments later. but percy didn't seem to mind.

"bring it, barbie doll."

aw...aren't you two cute, spoke jerald to the two of them.

"shut it  jerald!" whisper-shouted the both of them, the both of them flushing red.