Queens of the World.

We have to go where?

Clarisse POV

We were lounging around in our sitting room with a movie on in the background when there was a knock at the door and we realised that our parents had showed up.

"DON'T LET THEM IN!" Niamh yelled from under a pile of blankets. "I can't deal with them right now." She continued. "I'm tired and want to sleep so will someone please tell 'em to 'eff off." Sh yawned and rolled over, eight of her blankets falling off the sofa she was on. "Y'know what? I genuinely can't be bothered to pick those up. I hate life."

"You and Nico are more alike than you care to admit." Hazel stated fondly. "But we can't leave them outside, we might get a months ban from our favourite stuff - dancing🩰, archery🏹, sparring🗡, shopping🛍, metalworking🧰." She looked at Niamh when she said dancing, Kayla when she said archery, me when she said sparring, Silena and Lacy when she said shopping and Nyssa who paled when Hazel mentioned being banned from metalworking. "None of us want to be banned from that do we?"               

Reluctantly we all said no and Piper went to let them in.

"What do you want?" I asked bluntly when they had settled themselves around the room.

"Who says we want anything?" Aunt Persephone said stroking Niamh's forehead. "Can't we just spend time with our kids?" 

"Cut the crap, mum." Niamh said. "You, auntie 'Dite, uncle H and Hades maybe want to spend time with your kids but everyone else doesn't show up unless it's absolutely necessary." 

Our parents shifted uncomfortably at that and she continued. "Now if this is something that involves all of us and not just me then I'm going to sleep." She rolled over buried her face in the cushion and started snoring.

"Is she actually sleeping?" Aphrodite asked curiously.

"Yup." Silena, Lacy, Piper and I chorused. "She can fall sleep anyplace, anytime, its a gift and a curse. Extra sleep  but the price is extremely bad nightmares."

"So," Thalia's dad, Zeus, cleared his throat. "You have to go to school."

All hell broke loose there and then. Annabeth was cussing in greek, Reyna was screaming in Spanish, Piper, Silena, Hazel and Lacy were yelling in French and the rest of us were cussing our parents out in English.

"SHUT UP!" Grandma yelled, effectively silencing us all. "You are going to Goode high school no arguments. You can buy stuff for school today, school starts back in a week. And where's Niamh?" We looked around surprised. While we'd been arguing Niamh had snuck out of the room. "How do you manage to lose a twelve year old?" She demanded of us.

"Well maybe if you paid any attention to us you'd know how easy it is for Niamh to disappear." I muttered.

"What was that girl?" She barked at me.

"I said 'maybe if you paid any attention to us you'd know how easy it is for Niamh to disappear' and don't deny it, it's the truth." I sassed her, much to my dad's horror and my uncles Hermes, Apollo and Hephaestus's delight.

We found her in the kitchen eating whipped cream with sprinkles in it, 'because why not?' 

"Auntie 'Tia called." Niamh said in between mouthfuls. "She's taking us shopping 'cause she doesn't trust any of us to not attempt to murder someone else while shopping."

"Auntie 'Tia." All of us repeated happily. Our auntie Hestia was the definition of a 'cool aunt'. She was twenty five- younger than her oldest stepsister's daughter- a paediatric neurological consultant, a single mother to her twins, Tiara and Prometheus, her main view in life was 'we're only here for a short time, might as well be fun and spend it with family', her hair was short, and a dark red colour and she had two dogs, a guinea pig called Percy and a hamster called Spot.