I woke up to the sound of somebody yelling my name.
"Alice! Alicia Di Angelo, wake up!" the person said, shaking my shoulder. I groaned and opened my eyes to see my best friend, Thalia Grace.
"Thalia, what are you doing in here? And what time is it?" I snapped, pulling my covers over my head.
"I am getting you ready for water training. And it's 7:55...so you are kinda late..." Thalia smirked.
I suddenly noticed that she was wearing a white bikini top and bottom, decorated with lightning bolts.
"Did you wake Nico up" I asked.
"No," she responded, "He's sick, remember."
I sat up, and looked over at Nico's bed. Sure enough, he was laying there, snoring away. I wasn't entirely convinced that his "satyr fur allergies" were real.
Nico is my brother. We both go to Camp called Camp Half-Blood. Kids like us come here because they are special. Not special like mentally insane, or talented in maths or something. No, we are special because we are half Greek God on either our mother's side, or our father's side. In my case, I, Alicia Di Angelo and Nico Di Angelo's case, our Godly father is Hades, God of the Dead. And unlike most demigods here, we actually have the same mother.
Thalia is the daughter of Zeus, God of the Sky, King of the Gods, and also known as (behind his back) The King of Stupidity.
Percy Jackson, the person I dislike most here, is the son of Poseidon, the Sea God.
Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades are known as the Big Three. They all rule major parts of the world, while the other gods rule things like love, wine, and brains.
While this might be fun for them, it is not fun for their kids. Being the daughter, or son, of a Big Three God attracts a LOT of monsters. In fact, several times, monsters have told me that I stink of the earth. I'm still not sure if they mean that as a complement, or an insult.
"Alright, I'm getting up...let me get changed though.." I sighed, as I left my warm, comfortable bed.
"Okay, and you may want to play nicely in the lake, because Percy will be there...and I don't think Chiron wants another fiasco like last time." Thalia was struggling not to laugh.
Let's just say it involved a lot of water, armed skeletons, mud, and jellyfish.
I didn't bother answering, and instead stalked into one of the two large walk-in closets. I heard Thalia laugh a little, but then she walked out the door.
Water sports were supposed to teach us how to swim, and canoe, and not panic if you are thrown into water by an enemy. But mostly, it consisted of splashing, waves crashing down on my head because of Percy's "accidents" and well placed kicks and bone balls from me to him.
I quickly put on a black bikini top and bottom, and marched out to the lake. After about 5 minutes of walking, I wasn't shivering, and I didn't have goose-bumps. Unfortunately, Percy would probably make it extra cold for me.
I arrived at the lake, and sure enough, there was Percy, grinning mischievously at me. My heart felt like it was doing a back flip, which was very common when I saw him. I hated it when it did that, because there was absolutely no reason for it to be doing that. I despised Percy.
I stepped into the lake, and Percy immediately focused on the water. Suddenly, just as I predicted, the water grew to freezing cold. Unfortunately, I was the only one affected by this new temperature.
I saw about 24 kids there. I spotted Thalia, who waved, Percy, who stuck his tongue out, and then I noticed Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. Aka, Percy's girlfriend who hates me. The feeling is mutual.
Annabeth was glaring at me. I met her gaze cheerfully, and smiled sweetly at her. I quickly glanced at Thalia, who was watching the scene with mild interest, and made a cloud of sand rise up. Thalia's eyes lit up with excitement, and she caused the winds to make the sand into a large sword, and threw it at Annabeth.
The sand sword exploded when it touched Annabeth, showering her in sand. She quickly dove underwater, and when she came back up, her eyes were blazing with fury. But before she could do anything, Chiron trotted up.
Chiron was our camp director. He was also a centaur. He trained any hero that comes to Camp Half-Blood.
"Heroes!" He began. "Today, we will begin by canoeing. I will be putting you in pairs, and there is to be no fighting about it!"
He pulled a list out of his brown leather bag, but before he could begin reading, Travis and Conner Stoll ran up.
"Wait!" They both yelled breathlessly.
Travis and Conner were sons of Hermes, the god of pranks, thieves, and messages. They were also twins, making it almost impossible to tell them apart. They both have trouble maker smiles, tan skin, and sparkling brown eyes. The only difference I can tell is that Conner is 16, like me, and Travis is 17, meaning Travis is taller. I kinda have a crush on Conner, though it is very tiny, and if anybody found out, I would die of embarrassment.
"Ah, how kind of you boys to join us." Chiron said dryly.
"Yeah, sorry Chiron we were busy prankin-ahem, visiting the Aphrodite cabin." Conner and Travis said.
"Uh huh," Chiron didn't look convinced, but let it go.
"As I was saying, I will be pairing you up, with no arguing."
Once again, he looked at the list, and began to speak. I silently prayed I wouldn't be with Percy, or Annabeth. Thankfully, it was only the Aphrodite, Poseidon, Zeus, Hades, Athena, and Hermes cabins, so I didn't have to worry about my other rivals, such as almost the entire Ares cabin, and a couple Nemesis kids, and some Hecate kids.
Chiron began calling out names.
"Thalia and Annabeth"
I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Travis and Conner"
"Nick and Drew"
"Malcolm and Elizabeth"
"Kate and Jack"
"Jill and Chris"
I was starting to get worried. Percy's name hadn't been called, and neither had mine.
"Bruce and Ruby"
"Jason and Piper"
"Peter and Lily"
"Aiden and Carly"
"Lisa and Daniel"
I knew it was coming. There were only two uncalled kids left, and they were...
"Percy and Alice!"
I groaned. Hello, water in my face for an entire hour.
I trudged slowly through the water, not even attempting to move quickly. Percy, apparently, was not having that. He summoned a short, unnoticeable wave, and sent me splashing through water towards his canoe. The wave didn't go down until I was a foot away from he and the canoe.
I stepped back angrily and turned around. Percy clearly wasn't done antagonizing me. He spun me around with water, until I was once again facing him.
"What do you want, Perseus?" I said his name as if it was poison in my mouth.
He grinned, and dunked me under the water, knowing very well that I hated being underwater. I stayed very still, determined not to give him the satisfaction of watching me struggle. When I felt like I was about to pass out, he let me up.
I angrily got into the chariot, and listened to Chiron's instructions.
"You will all play fairly, with good sportsmanship." he said
I wanted to laugh. Percy and I in a boat together was bad enough. But to actually expect us to play fairly. That was kind of unrealistic.
"You are to work together as a team, to reach the finish line. The winner gets this." Chiron held up a ziploc bag of drachmas, the Greek demigod currency. "In here holds 60 drachmas. I will equally divide it between the winning team, so that you both get 30. Good Luck!"
Percy immediately began to paddle. I did absolutely nothing with my oar for several reasons: my father was Hades, and he owned all riches under the earth, and was happy to give me what I needed, so I was practically rich, and had no need for drachmas. Also, Percy could control water, making the boat go much faster. And lastly, I would not lift a finger to help Percy win.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
I answered with my eyes closed, while leaning back on the canoe. "What does it look like? I'm relaxing while the most annoying boy in the world wins a race."
"Ok...I'm just going to pretend that I didn't hear that first part," he cheerfully said, "But I must say, it's a bit unfair for you to not have to do anything."
"Says the idiot who can control water." I retorted.
I saw Percy's face light up.
"Oh, shoot." I muttered.
"Speaking of controlling water..." Percy grinned.
All of a sudden, waves of water crashed over my head. Over and over again, never stopping.
"Will you help me now, Alli?" Percy asked innocently.
"Fine. But don't call me Alli." I said angrily.
"What was that Alli? I couldn't hear you...Did you say you wouldn't help?" Percy looked at me with wide eyes.
I clenched my fists and tried to keep myself from smacking my dagger at him. It wouldn't kill him, at least. I have three different daggers, and two of them are hidden. I learned from Jason, Piper, and Leo that it is always good to have silver on hand, so I keep a thin silver dagger strapped onto my navy blue jacket that I wear whenever I leave camp. I have a celestial bronze dagger, for monsters, strapped to my arm. I usually keep that on my arm, or in my drawer beside my bed. My favorite is my jet black dagger, strapped to my knife belt. I use it on demigods, because it does not kill. Instead, it freezes my opponent.
"Yes, seaweed brain, I will help." I growled.
Before he could pretend he didn't understand, I sat up, and grabbed an oar, and began to paddle. Percy seemed smug as he resumed paddling.
As predicted, every drop of water from our oars hit my face. I didn't say anything, but I was seriously considering using my awesome daughter-of Hades demigod powers to open up a underground tunnel. Or Shadow-Travelling to my cabin. Both of those options sounded pretty good. But before I could make up my mind on whether I should do anything or not, something hit me in the back of my head.
I picked it up from the bottom of the canoe with one hand, the other handling the oar. It turned out to be a note that read:
"How's the romantic boat ride?-Thals"
I rolled my eyes. I wondered how I would write a response. As if she'd read my mind, a pencil knocked into my nose. She really needed to work on her aim with her daughter-of-Zeus wind powers.
I quickly glanced at Percy, who was paying me no mind, and scribbled a response.
1. Not "romantic" dummy
2. It's terrible, he is deliberately splashing me.
3. I'm probably going to ditch at this point.
How's your boat ride with Annabeth? Also, how'd you get a pencil?
I set the paper and pencil behind me, knowing that Thalia would use her wind powers to summon it to her once again. You might say demigod note-passing is a bit different from mortal note-passing.