Chapter 17

Kayla had barely recovered. Her wings felt better, and she had bandaged her palms up that were mangled from the Stymphalian Bird beaks. She had managed to fall asleep for all of ten minutes. God, she would have slept for hours if she hadn’t been woken by Travis telling her there was a meeting at the big house; considering there had been no ghostly whispers as she had slept in the daytime instead. Perhaps becoming nocturnal wasn’t such a bad idea.

Travis had gone out of his way to make sure Kayla knew there was the meeting. She appreciated it, or else no, she wouldn’t have known. Regardless, it was odd he seemed to be so weirdly nonchalant around her as of late.

“Are you almost finished?” Travis called out, leaning against the doorway of her cabin.

“Will you shut up? Yes, I am.” She came out of her room in fresh clothes, shooting him a death glare. He flinched as if it actually hurt him.

“Don’t do that.” He pushed himself off the wall, allowing her to exit.

“Do what?”

“The eye thing.”

“What eye thing?”

“The death stare thing, it’s terrifying.”

She scoffed. “You gonna turn into the others and scurry off?”

“No,” He replied simply, turning a corner with her. “I just mean, like  you’ve perfected your death stare. It’s scary.”

Kayla snickered, shoving him jokingly.

Upon entering the big house, there was already a crowd in the living room. Some campers sat on couches, some leaned against walls. Some stood with arms crossed, waiting. “Here, over here.” He motioned to a crowd of Hermes campers. Kayla knew them well. She tucked her wings in and stood with them all, huffing amd picking at her nails in boredom. She had no energy to be all jokeful and sarcastic right now.

Eventually, Dionysus and Tantalus walked in, calming the chatter and forming a circular crowd of campers around them.

“So, that happened,” Dionysus spoke loudly, grabbing everyone’s attention. “And it was alot… But as your camp director and as a parent, to… at least some of you, I solemnly promise that as soon as the repairs are done to the track, the chariot races will be rescheduled.”

Around half of the demigods clapped. Kayla wasn’t one of them, she rolled her eyes. She was all for the chaos of it- maybe she was just a little jealous of mot having her own chariot or a fighter to help her.  Jealous. If anyone asked, yes, she would admit it. Happily.

“After consulting with the driads, I have learned that the barrier generated by Thalia’s tree will not fail.” Tantalus spoke, earning a few quiet cheers from everyone. “For atleast another week, to which ypu will then all have to run for your lives.” He smiled. All those cheers turned into gasps and worried whispers.

“Simmer down! No, simmer down, simmer down. For the key to survival has been foretold to me in a dream. Three of you must go on a quest for the Golden Fleece. Thirty, twenty four, seventy five, twelve.”

“Those aren’t the–”

“Those are the sailing coordinates to the island of Polyphemus.” Tantalus cut Percy off, who only a few people heard. He was stood next to Kayla, actually. She gave him a dirty look, amd went back to listening to Tarantula.

“Our champion will brave the Sea of Monsters, steal this powerful treasure, and restore our borders to their full strength.”

Percy inclined his head to Kahla secretly, “He said the numbers all wrong.” He whispered. The look Kayla gave him was dirty. Why was this priss talking to her?

“I don’t care.” She spoke back, ending the conversation.

“Thankfully, our choice of champion has never been more clear. When the camp was attacked, only one of you showed the strength and courage to prevail against all odds,” He continued. “Clarisse La Rue!”

The room errupted in cheers. Especially from the Ares cabin, who had reached a new level of loudness. Clqrisse herslef jad stood up robotically- shocked. She quickly  schooled her expression, stern once more, and strolled to the front.

“While the rest of you gave up, she continued on, thus passing the test.”

Okay, Kayla felt a little annoyed- Clarisse hadn’t been the only one to fight, even if she had been the only one to carry on the race and win.

“Wait, hold on!” Percy called out. Oh, here we go, Kayla thought. He had already managed to silence the room. “The dream came to me, not Tantalus. And those numbers aren’t even–”

“Shup up, Jackson.” Kayla replied- making sure he heard it despite being right next to him.

“Yeah, sit down.” Another camper called out.

“I, Clarisse, daughter of Ares, will save camp!” Clarisse’s words caught the crowd back in an instant. She smiled, and everyone cheered. Kayla clapped.

“Yay, okay, okay, camp,” Tantalus clasped his hands together. “Now just pick two lucky winners, amd let’s get this show on the road!”

Before Clarisse could open her mouth again, Annabeth interrupted. “Clarisse.” She called out, her voice sounding confident. “You’ll want someone with quest experience. With skills that compliment your might. Annabeth sounded sure in herself. Okay, fair, Kayla thought.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay…” Clarisse mulled it over in her head. “I choose Annabeth Chase!”

The crowd errupted in cheers and clapping.

“It’s an ocean quest,” Percy opened his mouth again. Kayla’s face went deadpan, as she turned a stiff neck towards him. “You’ll need someone good in the water. Annabeth, we make a good team. I should be on this quest.”

“Dude, you had your time last year, sit down-” Kayla argued, pointing to the sofa infront of her like a fed up mom. A few campers giggled at the small outburst. Clarisse bit her lip to stop from laughing, since she was actually thinking of taking him. 

Percy replied, “No, I’m right-” He trailed off as he watched Annabeth and Clarisse.

Clarisse, who was very quickly pulled down to Annabeth as something was said into her ear- just before she was about to call out Percy’s name.

“Pick me!” A camper shouted.

“Pick me!” Another called out.

Dionysus and Tantalus interrupted. “Alright, alright, sit down! Sit down, enough.

Clarisse pulled her head back up and focused once more. “I- I choose…”

Campers mumbled in anticipation.

“Kayla Graves.”

Kayla’s face paled. Comically, so did Percys. Embarrassingly enough, the cheers stopped just as fast as they started when realising who Clarisse had just called out. Only a few faint claps remained. Like Malcolms, and some of the Hermes cabin.

Everyone loved her before this damn claiming. Kayla looked around nervously. You could probably hear a pin drop. She swallowed, taking a few small steps forward at first. Don’t let them crush you, she told herself. “You’re all just jealous, I know, I know. Please, ladies, one at a time.” She rolled her eyes, walking up to the front to a funny-faced Annabeth and an ego-fueled Clarisse- who took one wrist of Kayla’s and one of Annabeth’s, raising them up. Now everyone cheered. Except Percy. He and Annabeth were exchanging really odd looks, worried looks.

…

“Why did you pick me?” Kayla asked for the fifth time. Clarisse was taking long paced steps down to the cabins from the Big House. Annabeth had veered off with some others. Kayla padded along as fast as she could.

“Do you see Annabeth still hanging around too after i chose her? No, so go, Kayla. Shoo.” Clarisse snapped, standing still to make her voice more authoritative and direct.

“No, I wanna know why you chose me. I hate Percy, but he does have quest experience, I do not.”

“If anyone can make sure we don’t die, it’s the daughter of death,” Clarisse poked her in the chest. “You.”

Kayla scurried along as Clarisse kept walking. “There’s supposed to be a peaceful in there-“

“Point is, I stand in the opinion that your powers are not dangerous, they are useful. You are nothing to be scared of, and any camper that is, is a wuss. Sure, ‘peaceful death.’ Whatever, I don’t care. Your father is a softie. He is not a raging god of anger and death. He does his duty of collecting souls and does as he should to keep death happening. Without him, the world woukd be in shambles. There’s nothing dark about that. People should do there research.”

Kayla froze. Clarisse kept walking. She shook her head of thoughts and quickly caught up. Ofcourse Clarisse would know that. Clarisse was a nerd when it came to Greek Gods and war strategies, actually. And it made sense- it was useful knowledge for battle.

“Okay, okay, wait, one more thing..and thanks for thinking that of me, but-“

Clarisse groaned as she came to a stop for the third time.

“Do you have an ipod player or anything? Or something spare that plays music?”

Clarisse’s annoyed expression scrunched up into one of utter confusement. What type of question was that?

“Answer, please.”

“Yes- yes. I do, why?”

“My cabin is haunted. Can I?”

Clarisse huffed, focusing on death staring her, but quickly looked away, nodding to her cabin.

“I hate you. And I’m not questioning your stupid reason. Let’s go.”

Kayla followed along immediately. “I should just have a good sleep before this quest right? Six PM tomorrow?”

“Yes, meet at Firework beach.” She opened her cabin door up. She walked to the back where her cabin counselor room was, muttering to herself.

“Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou–”

“Thank me one more time, I dare you.”

Kayla watched as Clarisse rummaged through a box pulled out from under her bed. She pulled out a Walkman, the bottom of the box full with tapes. “Yes,” she cheered quietly, kneeling down. Old things like these were common in camp; hand-me-downs from other half blood generations that left them at camp. Most were either somewhere in Apollo cabin or already claimed by some camper.

“If you dare make fun of these tapes, you are not seeing another day on earth. Cause this is good music I found in the lost and found boxes.”

Kayla nodded. She would rather not get beat up by the girl. But- “Britney Spears, seriously?”

“What did I just say?!” Clarisse snatched the tape away, glaring at Kayla across from her. “Its her 1999 album. Its good.” She argued.

Kayla bit the inside of her cheek, looking through more tapes. A lot of metal tapes that Clarisse had salvaged. “Did you make some of these yourself?”

“Maybe,” She replied, standing up. “Pick some and I’ll say if you can have em.”

Kayla hummed, settling in a heap of tapes and CDs. Clarisse had a CD player in the corner of her desk, covered in stickers and what not. How hadn’t she noticed that last year? “’90s Mix.’ You like the 90s?”

“Any music that isn’t this generation is fine.”

Agreeable. Kayla nodded. “Favourite band?”

“Guns N’ Roses, easy.”

“‘Madonna, Like a Virgin and True Blue.’ You made this one?”

“Kayla, one more word about my tapes out of your mouth and I’m gonna-“

“Not judging! Good songs, I’ll take em.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.” Kayla smirked, picking out a few more. She chose one tape from separate Genres. The main one she was focused on was the Jeff Buckley one. That would help her sleep.

“So what is it… when you mean the Thanatos cabin is haunted?”

“My dad blessed the cabin, like all gods do, and that must have allowed some sort of… pass through for lost souls or from the underworld. I don’t quite know yet. But they always come out at night.”

Clarisse made a face, spinning side to side in her desk chair calmly.

“Don’t blame me if I fuck this quest up, by the way.” She added.

“If you fuck it up, we’ll all die anyway. I’ll take our fight to the underworld, don’t worry.”

Kayla shivered, scratching her back. Atleast she didn’t have the oncoming sense of dread; of death. That was a good sign.

“You done? I want an early night. Been a long day, and I want to be with it for the quest.” Clarisse spoke, looking down at Kayla. She had packed up anything she didn’t want and pushed in back under the bed.

“Yeah, im going. I’m gone.” She replied, shoving the Walkman in her pocket, putting the headphones over her neck, and holding five different tapes. She made her way to the door. “Thankyou, thankyou so much.”

Clarisse threw her pencil case from her desk at Kayla, but it hit the door as she slipped through it.

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