G(r)eek Tragedy

11.

After dinner that night, it was their first game of Capture the Flag. Chiron enthused it was every demigod against thirteen Hunters, but although it sounded like an easy win, Eithne did not believe it. Bianca was the only nervous Hunter, whereas three Ares kids already puked in the bushes. The stench was worse than Connor, who she learned yesterday could blow the roof off their cabin after eating hellhound jerky.

Clad in bronze breastplates several sizes too big and helmets with ridiculous blue plumes, Nico and Eithne watched the Ares kids stumble to the medics on standby.

"This is so cool," he laughed.

She gave him a weird look and pushed Nico's helmet down until it practically swallowed his face. "Okay, squirt. Just go grab their swords."

"Sweet! I'll be right back!"

Eithne kept a close eye on him, praying Nico remembered to wash the vomit off, when a slim brunette suddenly stomped on her foot.

"Fuck!"

"Sorry," the brunette whined as she adjusted her unbuckled armor. "They've just-! I mean, love? Worthless? Ugh!"

Her smile twisted at the corners like frayed thread, and her eyes glowed as they flickered between colors too quick to get a read on. It was then Eithne had a brilliantly bad idea. She put on her best sympathetic smile and helped tighten the girl's shoulder straps.

"You're Silena, right," Eithne questioned. It would be weird if Eithne didn't know the girl with how popular she was, but she shouldn't sound too eager either. "From Aphrodite? I heard all about that at dinner. It sucks that wasn't the worst of it."

Silena froze, eyes narrowing into gray slits. "What do you mean?"

Now, look, Eithne hadn't lied to Nico earlier. She wasn't mad at Bianca for joining the Hunters. She was just annoyed at the manhandling his sister did. And maybe she paid a little extra attention when Travis gossiped about how Silena Beauregard worsened the longstanding feud between the Aphrodite cabin and the Hunters when she swore to defeat them. 

This was just giving the feisty cabin leader...a little extra nudge. After all, it doesn't matter what you do when your Jenga tower starts leaning like a drunk tourist. The next move will always send it crashing down.

"Well," Eithne whispered, glancing at the Hunters like she'd die if they heard her. Silena watched them too in a perfectly practiced move that made it look like she wasn't. "I know they don't like boys and everything, but they really tore into this girl. She was just trying to decide what to wear, and the way they acted was like reading Facebook comments-"

"No!"

"Yeah," she sighed, "the poor thing cried a river and hid in the pegasi stalls. And! They think they're so much better than us! Chiron said they won the last few times, and now I bet they don't even take us seriously. Something about ex nihilo nihil fit? "

Despite her crappy Latin, the message came through loud and clear: Camp Half-Blood was nothing compared to the Hunters of Artemis. Silena shook so hard at the insult that her spear rattled.

"Those bitches! When I get my hands on them..."

Eithne watched with a satisfied grin as Silena turned on her heel and marched on, pulling several other campers with her to tell them the news. She must have been an even better gossip than Eithne thought because soon they all matched her fury, one even taping their nail filers on like Freddy Kreuger. It was amazing what a pissed-off chick could do.

"Hey, Eithne," Nico called out, his voice brimming with enthusiasm.

Turning back to her friend, Eithne couldn't help but grin. Nico was bounding towards her like an excited retriever, awkwardly half-carrying-half-dragging two swords. His eyebrows scrunched into a fuzzy caterpillar as he tried to get a better grip, fumbling with the hilts. He barely managed to reach her, breath coming in shaky gasps.