Chapter 46

Kayla.

Kayla was quite certain that she wouldn’t have woken up if it wasn’t for interruptions. She was sure Clarisse had the same thought.

It was still light outside when they woke- they had slept through the evening, the night, and into the morning. Her leg was draped over Clarisse’s waist, her head turned into the crook of her neck.

With how fast she jolted up at the knock on Clarisse’s door, she didn’t think Clarisse noticed how comfy she had gotten. Thankfully. Her wings popped out in a flurry of feathers, dust, and dirt- having not even brung up the idea of trying to clean them yet. Clarisse damn near almost made them both airborne with how she sat up like some ressurected body. Kayla rolled off just as one of Clarisse’s brothers popped his head through the door.

“You’re supposed to wait after you knock, Axel, you dummy.”

Axel stared in awe at his sister. He bobbed his mouth open and closed a few times, before catching himself. “Someone’s at the door for you. And uh, this isn’t your room anymore. It’s Sherman’s.”

Kayla cleared her throat, acting casual as she rolled off the bed and being super interested in tidying up a few pencils.

“You bet it’s Sherman’s. I’m back now, now anymore.”

Kayla could hear look on Clarisse’s face. Utter ‘I dare you to’. “He slept on a bunk for last night, but you’re gonna have to sort it out with Chiron- and Sherman.”

Clarisse went to snap back, but she caught herself and scoffed, shuffling off the bed. “Aren’t you happy to see me, Axe? Now move, who wants me?”

“Annabeth.” Axel replied, shifting out of the doorway as Clarisse stormed out, only to almost trip on the carpet. “Who?”

“It’s good to have you back, sis.” He replied with a shrug, patting her on the shoulder. Kayla watched how his eyes lingered along with his hand for a moment before he walked off to the bathroom. Her brothers had missed her. Even if they hated showing it.

“Annabeth?” Kayla dropped a pencil, padding over to the door- she didn’t dare walk out of the cabin counselor room, not with all of Clarisse’s brothers there. Plus, the smell could kill. Clarisse continued her stomping towards the door, where one of her younger brothers scrambled away when Clarisse came forwards. Kayla listened from where she was.

“You’re back,”

“What do you want thats so important to come to me?“

“You have my Labyrinth writings!”

Silence.

“And I want them back. And-“

“And nothing, priss. You can have them back, they were pretty useless.”

Kayla snickered. They both knew that wasn’t true.

“Useless?! There’s dozens of pages there, I spent hours and hours on. I want them back, and I want to know more from your time down there!”

Clarisse grumbled, said something about how she would get them back for her, then went to close the door in a lame manner.

Annabeth, typical Annabeth, put her foot in the door and shoved it open, storming through to the cabin counselor room- Kayla’s direction.

Oh, shit.

She scrambled away from the door to avoid getting hit in the face with it.

Look, Annabeth Chase could be scary when she wanted to be. That girl knew everything. She knew what she wanted, too, and how to get it. Clarisse might like to think she was number one on the camp charts of scariest camper, but in Kayla’s eyes, there was no competition on Annabeth.

The door swung open with a huff. She wasn’t angry per se, but certainly… had a few ruffled feathers.

Kayla fell on the floor after loosing balance when her wings flapped in fright.

“Where are they? I- Oh, Kayla,” She hummed, pausing. Clarisse was behind the girl, rubbing her forehead and mumbling in annoyance. Kayla watched from the floor with wide eyes and a tense jaw as Annabeth analysed her. Shock, then confusion, then… ew, was that sympathy? “Kayla, I’m… glad you’re back. What happened to your hair? It’s… short. Um, well, I need my papers back- if you know where Clarisse is hiding them.”

Annabeth walked close and offered a hand, to which Kayla took to pull herself up. She didn’t have time to thank her as Annabeth already averted her eyes to study the entire room. Not long before starting to snoop.

“I don’t even have them,” Clarisse argued, shutting her wardrobe door when Annabeth left it open. She saw the grimace on Clarisse’s face when she saw how it was full of mostly Sherman Yang’s clothes. “Hey! I’m not lying. I don’t have them!”

“Then tell me where they are instead of telling me you don’t have them, genius!”

“I have them,” Kayla butted in, waving an arm and shrugging. “They’re still in my bag, from when me and Clarisse swapped bags. You can go get them if you want, my bag is in my room, just walk straight in.”

“Kayla, you’re doing it again.”

“Ugh, but I don’t want to go in there.”

Clarisse sighed. She seemed stressed, and honestly not that angry. Just… defensive and stressed.  “Let’s go, all of us. You have to try and get over it.” She replied, walking off to the bathroom.

Kayla huffed in defeat. Annabeth turned back to her. It was annoying being stared at by Annabeth. Like if she stared at you for long enough you could almost hear the cogs turning in her head. “What?”

“You look rough.”

“I’m as fresh as a daisy, thankyou very much.”

…

Kayla’s bedroom floor was non-existent as soon as Annabeth got her hands on those pages.

She replaced them in order since Clarisse had messed them up, screamed because one page had been messed up with water, asked why there were red lines now sectioning out certain sentences, and threatened to kill Clarisse about ten times. “You are so lucky I have a spare copy of all of these, Clarisse.”

“You know what, it’s nice to see you too, Chase.“

“Don’t start, we both know that’s a lie.”

“Well you’re not usaully even at camp this month! why are you back during April, nerd? Got fed up of your prissy father?”

“I’m supposed to be on vacation, you-“

“Ugh, shut up! Both of you!” Kayla jabbed Clarisse in the ribs and death glared Annabeth. The two had been bickering for the past hour. Personally, Kayla just wanted to sleep for atleast another twelve hours. She had already been nudged away from nodding off on Clarisse’s arm three times. “You’re both being childish. Annabeth, Clarisse stole your sheets and it helped her immensely, alright? If it wasn’t for what she did, I might be dead. So, in favour and apology of Clarisse stealing your original notes, she’ll share the information on what else she found out about the Labyrinth. Happy? Does that work?”

The two girls exchanged glanced at eachother like toddlers having been told off for snatching toys. Eventually, they both nodded. “Fine.”

“Fine.”

Annabeth turned to Kayla. “What about you, you were down there for longer, you would be even better for more information.”

“I-“

“You’re being insanely insensitive, by the way.” Clarisse crossed her arms and sat up straighter. This time, Annabeth bit her tongue, instead averting her eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m getting too caught up. I know it must still be a sore topic.”

“I just- I need to write a story thing on it,” Kayla spoke up, lifting her head. “I have to share it with Chiron, but I’ll see if I can copy the notes for you. And- Clarisse knows most of it, anyway. If she’s still gonna tell you everything.”

Annabeth nodded and looked down, biting the inside of her cheek. “That’s alright, we’ll take it slow. Maybe… get some snacks and stuff, too. Put some music on?”

Clarisse and Kayla looked at each other in consideration. After the Labyrinth, Kayla could never ever deny any sweet treat or snack ever again, and she was sure it was the same for Clarisse. They gave eachother a silent nod, then Kayla stood up to scrounge around her room for something. She came back to the circle with her Walkman. “I haven’t had this thing in ages.”

“It’s actually mine.”

“You gave it me, and one of these days I’m actually going to be able to listen to it again. Like right now.” She pressed the play button on whatever tape was inside, turned the headphones up to full and placed them away for a make-shift speaker.

“Snow Patrol? Did you just purposefully take all of my best tapes? And I said borrow, dork.”

“Can we focus, please?” Annabeth butted in, tapping her pencil on a sheet of paper. “I’ll be right back, I’ll get some snacks, and a notebook. Don’t kill eachother in the meantime.”

With that, Annabeth up and left.

In the background, It’s Beginning To Get To Me played softly in the background- just the right volume.

Don’t make it awkward.

“So, what are you planning on telling Annabeth, Risse?”

“Anything she asks,” Clarisse shrugged, leaning her weight on one hand. “I don’tmind, but if you want me to leave some stuff out about you, that’s cool.”

Kayla shook her head. “You can say whatever. Are you sure you’re okay with talking about it all? I don’t get how you don’t end up a spluttering mess, I can’t even-“

“I am, I promise.” She nudged her shoulder into Kayla’s arm for reassurance. “Don’t worry your head about it, yeah?”

“Stop promising, promising-“

“‘Promising doesn’t end well,’ yeah yeah, I heard it all before,” She mumbled. Kayla swallowed, turning her head to Clarisse- who was already staring at her.

At sudden, awkward eye contact, she averted her eyes as quick as she could. Oh, fuck! Not her lips, you idiot-!

“What made you so cautious about promises?”

She averted her eyes to the pages back infront of her. She squeezed her eyes closed, opened them back up, then turned back to Clarisse. “Uh, just-” She shook her head. “Promises, and swearing, it’s all a bunch of crap or whatever.”

Clarisse huffed. She opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. Instead her eyes drooped and her lips stayed soft. “I… can–”

“Does everyone like popcorn? The tuc-shop had bags of it.”

Well, to put it simply, Kayla had never seen Clarisse jump like a literal scaredy cat. Her shoulders jolted, she pulled a funny face, and quickly pulled herself to sit up straight. Oh, wait, had they been that close? “Yes, it doesn’t matter, anything, jesus.”

Annebeth gave her a dirty look before sitting back down on the floor. She made room in the middle for the bag of popcorn, some chocolate bars, and some chips. “Okay, so let’s take this slow, like we said,” She bit the end of her pen, scimming through the notes she already had. “So, you went to the Labyrinth initially for Kayla, but you were also told to not tell anyone, and basically retain any information, yes?”

“…Yes. pause. Can I ask how you know? This entire thing was supposed to be a secret.”

“Oh, please. As soon as I got off my quest I realised straight away my original notes were missing. And that apparently you had gone on a quest. It’s not that hard to sum up where, especially with all the war business currently. So, back to it, what-“

“No, pause, again,” Clarisse shook her head, reaching for a chocolate bar. “War business? I know it was a bit rough in January, but how bad can it get so fast? I know there’s war, I can feel it I just- I can’t see it. Or haven’t, I suppose.”

Annabeth sighed, dropping her pen. “Did Chiron not tell you anything?“

Kayla cleared her throat, shrugging. “Uh, no.”

She picked up her pen again and scribbled something down with a groan. “He’s pretty stressed right now, don’t take it personal… but yes, there’s been like, four attacks on camp since you’ve been gone. The campfire is destroyed, the pegasus stables got set on fire by a Laistrygonian Giant, the armory got ransacked by campers that turned to Luke then fled camp. You might think it’s quiet because it’s not summer break, but it’s also because atleast a dozen have fled to Luke.”

“I didn’t… see any of them.” Kayla spoke up, glancing to Clarisse with confusion.

“See? Why are you surprised?” Annabeth inclined her head.

“She was with Luke,” Clarisse spoke up. “She’s not talking about it all until it gets written, but he took her hostage, forced her to work with Kronos and rise him faster, for… uh, a long time down there.”

She watched how Annabeth’s face softened. Her eyebrows raised inwards slightly- a worried look, but not confused. “So he is working in the Labyrinth.”

Kayla shuffled uncomfortably, nodding. “I only saw Alison Simms and Ethan Nakamura down there,  They’re Luke’s side kicks or whatever. Chris- Chris was from a different place. There’s multiple bases down there.”

“Hm,” Annabeth hummed in curiousity. “Why would they need multiple… I wish Chris was- literate,  to put it lightly.”

“Yeah… well you can try, he speaks in riddles.” Kayla shrugged.

“Okay, from the top.” Annabeth shook her head, sitting up straight. “Clarisse, go from the start.”

Clarisse was not happy with having to say everything she had told Chiron just yesterday, that much was clear.

Annabeth was estatic, however. She had wide eyes, and Kayla was surprised her pen hadn’t ran out of ink. She butted in at times, shared a few little details.

The only reason Annabeth’s curious face dimmed down was because of how serious the conversation got; borderline nightmarish. From the encounter with her father, to the gremlin cyclops, to realising the Labyrinth was rejecting her and all of her experiences with different monsters and Ethan. Annabeth had told Clarisse she was incredibly lucky to not have lost her mind at some point if the Labyrinth had been rejecting her.

They both recieved an ugly look of sympathy. “Are we done?” Kayla asked, tucking her knees up. “I’ll give you a copy as soon as I write my stupid experience, alright?”

“Okay, done.” Annabeth agreed, closing her notebook. She knew when she wasn’t welcome anymore. Kayla didn’t mean to sound rude, but it still felt so odd. She didn’t know if she’d ever settle into camp again.

“And you said you were supposed to be on holiday this school year,” Clarisse spoke up. “So why are you here right now?”

Annabeth sighed, rolling her eyes like she had a strong distaste to the outside world. “I just keep visiting every now and then. I’ll be back in another few weeks, I’m leaving again tomorrow morning.” She replied, standing up and and stretching. “I hope you’re doing okay so far. I know not everything has been sorted out yet, but once it has… even better, you know?” She spoke, giving a friendly smile to them both. With that, she left, leaving Kayla and Clarisse alone yet again.

“I’m surprised you remembered everything for a second time, the first one was impressive enough.”

Clarisse chuckled, standing up with a groan and cracking her back. “I feel like an old woman…”

“Feel? You are, Clarisse La Rue. Very old.”

“Yeah, right. Shut up and sit down at the edge of your bed, how about we finally sort out those wings.” She suggested, sitting down on the corner of her bed. “Go get your hairbrush and things, Birdie.”

Please vote!!

Im gonna theorise as we never saw this in the books, but Annie was insanely interested and nosy in Clarisse’s time in the labyrinth hence why they started talking. Ofc this isnt all that would have most definitely been said, but we all know Annabeth. Thats it ok bye. I like that thought.

Not sure the time Clarisse was in the labyrinth in the books, and when she came back, but ive done it so they come back in April (Book 4 starts in June just as summer term starts).