AN: So, I've had this headcanon for a while that Clarisse is secretly deathly afraid of something, and this happened. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Disclaimer:
Me: Clarisse, do the disclaimer.
Clarisse: No.
Me: I'll tell everyone about the coconut incident.
Clarisse: Geek Without Glasses owns absolutely nothing. All rights go to Rick Riordan. Are you happy?
Flashback
Twelve year old Clarisse was angry. Which was perfectly normal for the young daughter of Ares. Her mom had dragged her to Los Angeles for her great aunt's fiftieth birthday, and she didn't appreciate it at all. Clarisse would much rather be at Camp, where she didn't have to worry about prissy relatives, and monster attacks.
But, the Fates seemed to hate her. So here she was, sitting on one of her aunt's fancy iron benches, and looking absolutely bored. Eventually, Clarisse decided to go blow off some steam.
After what seemed like an eternity (but was more like five minutes), Clarisse found a palm tree that didn't seem to have too many thorns. She then began using it as a punching bag. Unfortunately, she'd forgotten to look up, that was her biggest mistake.
The coconut came down almost silently, and Clarisse only noticed when it was already too late. The round, heavy fruit hit her square in the centre of the forehead. She didn't even have time to yell before the darkness overtook her.
Clarisse remembered that day well. She'd woken up about an hour later in a hospital bed, with her mother staring down at her disdainfully. Long story short, her mom never took her back to California.
Now, nearly six years later, Clarisse La Rue was still deathly afraid of coconuts. It was their little secret, only she and Chris knew, and Clarisse intended to keep it that way. No way in Hades would she ever let those obnoxious Stolls find out.
Sherman barged into the cabin then, where the eighteen year old daughter of Ares was currently lounging on her bed after a particularly nasty wrestling match with Percy. She'd forgotten about the Achilles' heal, and had gotten shamefully defeated by the son of Poseidon. Clarisse was now the proud owner of two hundred and fifty seven battlescars, having just received a new one on her forearm, and embarrassingly, one from a certain coconut incident.
"You know, you've never told anyone how you got that scar." Sherman said as he put on a new shirt
"What scar?" Clarisse asked him, playing dumb
"You know what scar." He answered simply "The big faded one on your forehead."
"Why are you asking this now?"
"Because you seem so approachable."
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, you're unarmed, and don't look like you're in any position to beat me up." He said while gesturing to her newly sprained wrist, which was slightly bent the wrong way.
"Fine!" She practically yelled "I'll tell you, but if you say anything to a single soul," Clarisse made a slicing gesture across her neck. "You'll be sorry."
"Consider me warned"
"Igotknockedoutbyacoconut." She said it so quickly and quietly, it came out as a blur.
"You what?"
"I got knocked out by a coconut when I was twelve, okay."
Sherman actually had the nerve to fall over, laughing. "What'd you do, get in a fight with a palm tree?"
"No, I just punched it."
"Wait, is that why you didn't go to the luau last summer? You're scared of coconuts!" He all but yelled
By this time, Clarisse was done. She stormed out of the cabin without looking back, but literally ran into a certain son of Hermes, who decided to take that moment to give his girlfriend a big hug.
"What the Hades are you doing?" Clarisse demanded.
"Well," Chris answered "you looked like you could use a hug, so I gave you one. What are you so worked up about anyway?"
"Sherman asked about the scar."
"Which one, you've got about a gazillion of them?"
Clarisse glared at him, which was a terrifying sight. That look had made countless satyrs run away, normally leaving a trail of goat pellets in their wake. But for some reason, Chris seemed to be the only one who wasn't even slightly intimidated by 'the look'.
"Oh, he knows about the, um, incident?" Chris said, finally putting the pieces together
"Yes, ugh, now he's probably gonna tell the entire camp." Clarisse stated while slamming her head into Chris's chest in exasperation.
"Wanna go spar?" He asked in an attempt to cheer her up
"Can't." She replied simply
"What do you mean, you can't?"
In answer, Clarisse raised her right arm, which hurt a lot more than she'd like to admit, and pulled her shirtsleeve down.
"I don't want Chiron to notice."
Chris's eyes widened in surprise. "That looks serious. What happened?"
"Percy."
"You should go to the infirmary."
"It's fine, I don't need to."
"Judging by the way you were wincing, that isn't fine."
"Well, I'm not going."
"You're so stubborn."
Before Clarisse could say anything, Chris had picked her up and was carrying her towards the Big House. She said a silent thanks to whatever god was listening that there were no campers around. At this time of day almost everyone would be doing either archery, sword fighting, picking strawberries, or canoeing.
And she enjoyed the trip a lot more than she'd like to admit.
"Will, I've got an injured daughter of Ares!" Chris called once they reached the Big House
Clarisse let out a silent sigh of relief that it was Will in the infirmary, and not some other child of Apollo. He was the only one she'd ever been able to tolerate, and who wouldn't make a huge deal over the fact that she'd been beat up by the one and only Prissy Jackson.
Will Solace walked in then, looking the same as always. Straight blonde hair hanging in his eyes, a slight smirk on his face, white jeans, and a yellow T-shirt.
"What happened this time?" He asked
"That good for nothing, stupid son of Poseidon!"
He seemed to take this as a good enough answer and immediately set to work.
"It's sprained pretty bad." He stated
"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Clarisse muttered sarcastically
Will just rolled his eyes and continued wrapping gauze around the cut Riptide had made.
"You're gonna have to stay away from sparring for a while." Will informed her after he finished
"I kinda figured that."
A shout rang out from the front room "Harley fell off the climbing wall again!"
"I've gotta go." Will said to the two of them as he ran towards the commotion.
The next morning, Clarisse almost had a heart attack.
She walked into the dining pavilion, and sitting next to the brazier for sacrifices, was a giant pile of coconuts. She froze in her tracks. Her first thought: What the Hades are those bloody balls of death doing here? Second thought: Stolls!
She looked over at the two little devils and saw them staring at her expectantly, as if waiting for her to start screaming like a little girl. That was enough to steel her nerves, she would not let the sons of Hermes embarrass her in front of the entire camp. So she took a deep breath, and walked to her table, because Clarisse La Rue is a warrior, and she would not let a stupid pile of fruit change that.
AN: I'll admit that wasn't my best work, but it's fun to write something different every once in a while. Feel free to leave a review to tell me what you think.