PJO/HoO Around the Campfire

Stapler Scars

The campers who showed up for campfire did the regular campfire activities such as eating s'mores and singing along with one of the Apollo campers, who was playing the guitar. After a while at the campfire Chiron and Mr. D went to play pinochle on the porch of the big house, when they were out of earshot Piper and Annabeth stood up to address the rest of the campers.

Piper spoke first, "So I was thinking, we could have a party tonight. There is no curfew right now, and the party will be here. If a lot of people decide they would rather sleep, we can move the party so we do not disturb you. We are not 'leaders' or anything like that."

"Piper and I have some game ideas, if no one else can think of any."

Immediately after Annabeth and Piper sat down it seemed as if all the campers that were younger than sixteen left to hangout in the Hermes cabin. That left seventeen campers still sitting around the fire. Jason suggested they play 'never have I ever'. Everyone seemed to like that suggestion.

Rachel asked what specific rules they were playing with, because she had heard of many different versions, Leo spoke up.

"I think we should play where you have all your fingers up and if you have done the thing then you put one of your fingers down, if you run out of fingers then everyone else gets to come up with a dare for you."

"That sounds good, we could make up the dare now or tailor it specifically to the person, what do you guys think?" Percy responded to what Leo had said.

Most of the group wanted to tailor it specifically to the person getting dared because as Jason pointed out, "It will be so much funnier and more embarrassing this way."

"Alright, since Jason suggested the game, he should go first." Nico piped up, it was probably so that he could go last. "He was sitting next to Jason with Piper on Jason's other side, and Piper would have no problem going second.

"Okay... Um, let's start this off easy, never have I ever... shoplifted." As soon as he said it he realized his mistake, he looked beside him at his girlfriend, she did not look too mad, just irritated, she did not really like talking about that. Along with Piper, both the stoll brothers who were sitting across from her, put a finger down.

"I guess I'll go next." Piper interjected, "Never have I ever gotten a scar from a stapler." She said while side eyeing her boyfriend. Jason put a finger down, most of the camp already knew that the scar just above his lip was from when he tried to eat a stapler at the ripe old age of two. To everyone's surprise Malcolm also put his finger down, he was sitting next to his half-sister Annabeth.

"I was busy working on an essay for school, back before I knew I was a demigod, I was so flustered because of... everything, I didn't notice my finger was in the way when I pushed the stapler down." No one knew what to say, so Jason diffused the situation by walking over to where Malcolm was sitting and just high-fived him saying something along the lines of, "Only the coolest get stapler related injuries."

"I guess it's my turn then?" Leo said, almost too happily. "Never have I ever kissed anyone." To that Jason and Piper both put a finger down while smirking at each other, Percy and Annabeth each put a finger down while sharing a small peck on the lips. Along with the two couples, Lou Ellen, Clarisse, Drew and Rachel all put down one finger each.

The rest of the campers, who hadn't had their first kiss yet, all looked a little uncomfortable until Percy broke their attention away from the ground.

"Never have I ever... sung in front of people. Don't look at me like that, I'm a terrible singer and I don't sing at the campfire." He said in response to a few disbelieving looks. Everyone except Nico put a finger down, a few people noticed that, definitely not people who would use this knowledge later that night.

"Okay, never have I ever... these can be tailored to specific people right?"

"Yep, as long as it's funny, I don't think anyone except the person you are targeting will have any arguments." Leo supplied helpfully.

"Alright, then I have the perfect one. Leo, I think you'll enjoy this one. Never have I ever thought about a friend's parent as being extremely hot." As Annabeth finished it she took a quick glance at Leo, then as an afterthought, she glanced apologetically at Piper. Leo and Drew both put a finger down slowly. Everyone else burst out in a fit of laughter. Jason asked them to explain and Leo went first.

"Well, a lot of you have met Percy's mom, Sally, right?" At his words both he and Percy were blushing, everyone else erupted in laughter again. When people started settling down they moved their attention over to Drew and looked at her expectantly.

"Right, you want to hear my story, okay. Well let me just say, I think some of you aren't telling the truth, what about Piper's dad? Tristan McLean?" Piper knew that was coming, but she still didn't like it. At Drews words a few other campers discreetly put their fingers down, but Piper caught all of them, Katie, Kayla, Will, Rachel and, surprisingly enough to her, Nico.

"I think we should move on from that subject. Never have I ever snuck out of my cabin at night to go to someone else's cabin." Malcolm said as he looked pointedly at his half-sister and whispered, still loud enough for everyone else to hear, "You think you're sneaky with the invisibility hat, huh?" At that both Annabeth and Percy started blushing a deep shade of red. Piper and Will also put a finger down along with Annabeth.

"Okay, so obviously Piper and I have, but Will, care to share your story?" Annabeth said, just to get the attention of her, she looked a lot less frazzled than she felt.

"If I have to, uh, well, one night I couldn't sleep, so I was just going to go for a short walk. It was a pretty bad decision, because of the harpies. Anyway I noticed Nico on the roof of his cabin, so he invited me up and we just talked for a while." Piper looked at Annabeth and they just smirked at each other. Kayla knew there had been more than one occasion but she decided not to bring that point up at the moment.

"I believe it's my turn," Katie said, which gave both Nico and Will a chance to calm down, they were both pretty embarrassed. "Never have I ever played a prank on someone else at this camp. I really just want one of the Stolls to have to do the dare."

At her words Travis, Connor, Cecil, Clarisse, Drew, Piper and Leo each put a finger down. Apparently there was a lot of spare time at camp. Piper made a big show of putting one of her hands behind her back, she was the first one to reach the halfway point.

Travis grinned at everyone sitting around the campfire, his smile made everyone, except his brother, feel uncomfortable. "Never have I ever kept a diary at camp."

Everyone could tell by the way he was looking around, he wanted to know so he could snoop. He took in the information with open arms, looking around the circle he noticed Percy, Annabeth, Malcolm, Kayla, Cecil, Drew and Nico all put a finger down, when he shot a glance at Katie as she put a finger down, his grin grew noticeably bigger.

Drew only had five fingers left but she didn't really want the others to find out, they obviously would, but she did it discreetly.

"Never have I ever had a crush on anyone from the Hermes cabin. Guys, that means I have not." He quickly added after they all shot confused and disgusted looks at him.

He wanted to know if Katie liked his brother because he knew that Travis liked her a lot. And if he's being honest, he would have to admit, they would make a cute couple.

To his and Travis' delight Katie did put a finger down, along with Lou Ellen, but they didn't really notice her because they were both looking in Katie's direction, although pretty secretively.

Everyone decided that they wouldn't pry right now, they sang a chorus of 'truth or dare', 'later' and 'oh my gods, really?'s. Katie, and Lou Ellen were blushing a very deep shade of red.