Fire boy and water girl

Is she a psychic?

   The next morning was odd. Percy didn't say anything through breakfast and stared at a fissure Nico had made before I meet him.

   We walked with Annabeth for cabin inspections afterwards. The Poseidon cabin had to do reports for Chiron but we decided to do our chores with Annabeth. I wasn't about to object.

   We started at our cabin first.

   "I think we deserve a 4 Percy."

"most definitely, a 5 at least."

    Annabeth made a face. "Your being generous." she said as she picked up one of Percys shorts with a pencil.

   "Three out of five." We didn't argue and kept going.

   I tried to skim through Chiron's stack of reports as we walked.

   There were messages from demigods, nature spirits, and satyrs all around the country, writing about the latest monster activity.

   They were pretty depressing, and my ADHD brain did not like concentrating on depressing stuff. 

   Little battles were raging everywhere. Camp recruitment was down to zero. Satyrs were having trouble finding new demigods and bringing them to Half-Blood Hill because so many monsters were roaming the country.

    Next was the Aphrodite cabin, which of course got a five out of five. The beds were perfectly made. The clothes in everyone's footlockers were color coordinated. Fresh flowers bloomed on the windowsills.

   I wanted to dock a point because the whole place reeked of designer perfume and was too girly for my liking, but Annabeth ignored me.

   "Great job as usual, Silena," Annabeth said.

   Silena nodded listlessly. The wall behind her bed was decorated with pictures of Charles.

   She sat on her bunk with a box of chocolates on her lap, and I remembered that her dad owned a chocolate store in the Village, which was how he'd caught the attention of Aphrodite.

   You want a bonbon?" Silena asked. "My dad sent them. He thought—he thought they might cheer me up."

   "Are they any good?" Percy asked.

  She shook her head. "They taste like cardboard."

I didn't have anything against food, from my years of running away and ate one, Percy doing the same.

    Annabeth passed.

    We promised to see Silena later and kept going.

   As we crossed the commons area a fight broke out between the Ares and Apollo cabins.

   Some Apollo campers armed with firebombs flew over the Ares cabin in a chariot pulled by two pegasi.

   The roof of the Ares cabin was burning, and naiads from the canoe lake rushed over to blow water on it.

   Then the Ares campers called down a curse, and all the Apollo kids' arrows turned to rubber. The Apollo kids kept shooting at the Ares kids, but the arrows bounced off.

   Two archers ran by, chased by an angry Ares kid who was yelling in poetry: "Curse me, eh? I'll make you pay! / I don't want to rhyme all day!"

   I laughed.

  Annabeth sighed. "Not that again. Last time Apollo cursed a cabin, it took a week for the rhyming couplets to wear off."

  "What are they fighting about anyway?" Percy asked.