Chapter 27

Nice fluffy chapter teehee

Clarisse.

Operation jar full of spiders started two nights after the chariot races, at eleven PM in the North woods. Clarisse held a glass jar that read strawberry jam on the front. The red and white checkered top was snug in her cargo pockets.

So far, four spiders had been gathered. Harmless, fuzzy little things that were wriggling about in the bottom of the jar. Kayla was infront. She was picking up everything aswell as spiders. Clarisse had told her off atleast five times already.

‘Ha, look at this,’ Kayla would say, and it would be some weird beetle or worm. Clarisse would call her disgusting and move on.

“But wouldn’t it be better if we just… filled their cabin with a bunch of bugs aswell as the spiders?”

“No, not direct enough. Not personal enough. I want atleast one giant, ugly, fat spider. Bonus if it’s colourful.”

“Joro spider?” Kayla questioned. Clarisse scoffed.

“I like bugs, and they’re like- the really big colourful ones that can be found on Long Island. There should be a few in here, if we dig into some tree holes and stuff. I swear they’re spreading over here.” Kayla explained.

“Still sounds rare. But… we can try, I guess. We’ve got one more hour until the Harpies search these woods.”

Kayla nodded. She started to ramble about something different before pausing. Clarisse stopped her footsteps infront, shrugging. “What?”

“I have… an idea. What if we called on Arachne?”

Clarisse twisted her body around, her arms going limp besides her. “Oh, no- no, no- don’t, that’s bad, if Athena finds out, Kayla-“

“Oh Arachne, victim of Athena, bless me with spiders in the North Woods of camp Half Blood!” Kayla exclaimed jokingly, rising her hands. Clarisse swallowed. Sure, Arachne was not a Goddess, nor a person anymore. But still. The world worked in weird ways.

“See? Nothing happened, Risse. Everything is A-okay.” She started to walk again, catching up to Clarisse. Clarisse sighed, then continued her journey, looking down at the pleading spiders in her jar, she did not expect the sight she was met with. Clarisse had never clasped her hand over her mouth so fast before to prevent a scream.

Kayla furrowed her brows. “What is your-“

Looking down at the jar, the four small, fuzzy spiders they had collected had weaved some giant, sticky webs that looked way too out of the ordinary for those type of spiders. They were running around frantically, creating more webs. “The top! Put the jar top on!” Kayla shrieked, going in Clarisse’s back pocket herself and slamming it ontop of the jam jar. Kayla swallowed. Clarisse jumped. “-Hey! don’t touch-“

“That’s not right.” Kayla cut her off. “I’m not opening that jar now. That’s a bomb. You keep it.”

“…But we need more spiders.” Clarisse held the jar up to her face. The spiders were not enjoying their punishment of less oxygen.

“Um, I dunno. We’ll have to carry it.” Kayla shrugged.

“You’re carrying the… Joba spider or whatever you said.” Clarisse warned, crouching down to a tree trunk. She picked up a stick, prodding around at a little hole inside. Thankfully, there was no animal- yet there was a cluster of harvestmen. Those small-bodied spiders with the giant legs. Clarisse stumbled back when they all stuck to the stick, quickly standing up. “Okay, what in Tartarus have you done? There’s about two hundred-“

“Harvestmen!” Kayla exclaimed. “These are good, grab a handful. We should put them just outside the door to their cabin.” Kayla was already scooping some up in her hands like they were sand.

“You are… not okay.” Clarisse whispered in concern, before grabbing a small, single handful. They walked back to the Athena cabin quietly. As casually as possible, they crouched down at their doorstep and let the family of harvestmen run free. Some slipped under the door, others scurried into the grass. “Okay, the jar.” Kayla held her hand out. Clarisse looked at it once again and handed it over with a grimace.

“No God knows what the hell you did when calling upon her, Kay. Look at those things.”

The spiders in the jar had created webs like funnel web spiders. They were way too small and, well, not funnel-ly to be doing that. Kayla swallowed, opening the jar and lining it up with the crack underneath the Athena cabin door. They quickly scurried out to create webbed havoc in the Athena cabin.

With that, she picked the jar back up and they both sprinted off back to Clarisse’s cabin, through her window. It was a fit of laughs when they finally got inside. “That’s some real karma!” Kayla giggled, taking a seat on her desk chair. Clarisse sat on the edge of her bed, clicking her tongue. “You’re crazy, you know that?” She asked, flicking here eyes up to Kayla.

Kayla shrugged a shoulder, humming. “Stubborn, I like to say. Like you, actually.”

“No, no, my stubborn is different. Your stubborn is crazy.”

“Different? Yeah, right. You like to tell yourself that.” Kayla chuckled, twisting herself about on the spinny chair.

Clarisse went quiet as her laughter died down. She let out one last chuckle of amusement before finally looking back to Kayla. “Go wash your hands, you scruff. You’ve been picking up all sorts of things.”

Clarisse had lost count of how many different things Kayla had picked up. Thankfully, she listened, padding into the bathroom to clean herself up. Clarisse did so too, afterwards.

Ah, petty revenge. It was so rewarding.

…

Most campers the next morning woke up due to Athena cabin raining down hellfire with their screams that could be considered that of agony and despair.

Kayla had gone back to her own cabin early in the morning, leaving Clarisse alone.

No one knew who to blame for the weird spiders that were somehow making funnel webs when they were normal house spiders. Infact, lots of Athena cabin got into trouble for starting physical fights.

Kayla had told Clarisse that if Malcolm ever found out about this, she would be a dead woman walking. So, both girls kept their heads down and their mouths shut. It actually got blamed on Connor and Travis Stoll, because a day earlier they had targeted Hephaestus cabin with a bad prank due to the races. So, everyone figured they were going around each cabin.

Nothing ever came to light.

Even two months later, their little secret was kept nice and safe. Camp was thriving. The Golden Fleece had even worked it’s magic too well; Thalia Grace had been ressurected. Exiled from the tree like the poison itself. No monster sightings, no bad weather. Just a nice, warm summer. The only thing that kept moods down sometimes was the fact that Luke was still out there, and Kronos’ army was still rising. So many people knew that life as a demi-god was not going to get any easier. Just harder. Lot’s of kids had to ring up parents to say they wouldn’t be coming home for summer for safety reasons. Thankfully, many parents understood.

That just meant a very chaotic summer.

Kayla.

“Auntie? Aunt? Yeah- yeah, hi! I- I know, it’s been a while, no, I’m okay. Are you? Yeah, I’m hanging out with friends. Yeah, uh, just one right now, no, no, I’m on the only phone in camp, I don’t have long, Auntie.”

Kayla’s Aunt was relentless. Lovely, but relentless. For a daughter of Aphrodite, she was a humble woman. Not sassy or stuck-up. Matured, kind.

“So I’m not coming home this summer, you should have heard about everything, and especially with you, it would make it worse. Yeah, I know. Yes, I have everything I need. No, no boys either,” Kayla took a sassy, bored stance and rolled her eyes up at the Gods. “I know, I’ll be celebrating my birthday here, I’ll make sure to call you. And I’ll call you before then too, okay? Bye- bye bye, I love you.”

Kayla had never placed a phone down so quick in her life. She lifted her head up to Chiron, who nodded his head in approval. “Nicely done, Kayla. I’m looking forward to having you stay a full year this year. First time, hm?”

“Yes.” She said bluntly. Not the happiest. “Well, I’ll let you get off. Get to training, now.”

She left with a bored huff, pushing the Big House doors open. Clarisse was stood waiting with a sword in hand. “About time, come on. I’m wasting my minutes here, waiting for you.”

“Well, I had to tell her eventually, it’s almost September. She’d be expecting me around December.” Kayla started her walk down to the training grounds with Clarisse.

“Well, I never tell anyone I’m staying.”

“Dork, yeah? Who do you have to tell again? You want me to go find your mom in the underworld?”

Clarisse’s eyes widened, letting out a shocked scoff at the dark humour. She shoved Kayla on the shoulder. “Uncalled for, Kay. You’re lucky you’re actually my friend.”

Kayla agreed. She was lucky, or she would be six feet under right now.

“What did you say to her?” Clarisse asked, twirling her sword around.

“She asked me if there were any boys, if I had everything I needed, if I was okay, then I told her I wasn’t coming home, how it was too dangeous, especially with her and things.” Kayla recounted.

“With her? Damn, that’s harsh. She sounds caring, is it that bad?”

Kayla chuckled, lifting her head up to the sky. Dumbass. “No, no, not too much. She’s a demigod, too. So was my mom. They’re children of Aphrodite.”

Clarisse’s eyes bulged out of her sockets. Even then, she could still mindlessly twirl her sword as they walked. “Really? So- your mom… and Thanatos, like, Thanatos fell for a woman of Aphrodite?”

“Yes, my mom was a mortician. She did makeup on dead people. It
Kinda tracks, doesn’t it? She was amazing at makeup, I have some pictures… somewhere.”

Clarisse smiled at the thought. “That actually does track, yeah. Damn. So that’s where you get it from, the sass.”

“My aunt says she used to be real sassy, yeah. But- hang on, I’m not sassy!”

Clarisse left that opinion to go without answer, nodding. “Don’t you like makeup?” Clarisse asked instead.

“I do, but I never owned any until last Christmas. I’m wearing mascara right now, aren’t I?”

“Yeah, but- doesn’t mean you like it, I just thought I’d ask.” Clarisse rolled her eyes, unzipping her zipper hoodie and throwing it on the floor. Her armour was already on underneath. “Enough talk, let’s fight, birdie.”

…

That summer, everyone noticed the newfound friendship. Clarisse and Kayla were new training partners, infact. Her boxing had gotten much better when she started to train with Clarisse. Ofcourse, Malcolm and her still trained, too.

They rubbed off on eachother alot. Clarisse became alot better at jokes, and being able to take them. While Kayla became alot more stubborn.

“Don’t you want to go home? Chiron isn’t forcing you, he just recommended it.” Clarisse asked one night as Kayla ranted about staying. It made her go quiet.

“But I don’t want to get eaten by a monster. Luke is still out there trying to ressurect Kronos. I know I need to stay here…” she huffed, letting her arms flop back onto the bed. Clarisse was drawing some war mechanism blue print on her bed. Kayla lay on the end, making shapes from her fingers with the shadows on the ceiling.

Clarisse agreed. Valid point. “Atleast it’s my birthday tomorrow. That will make tomorrow ten times better for everyone.” Clarisse replied in a bland tone. She didn’t seem very excited herself. The twentieth of October. Clarisse’s big day.

“Aw, your sweet sixteenth, Clarisse. Big cake?” Kayla smiled, turning her head. They were having a sleepover for it, but that was it. It was all Clarisse had asked for.

“I don’t like cake.” Clarisse replied, dropping her pencil to fiddle with her thumbs.

“You said you like chocolate, except everyone always gets you vanilla.” Kayla corrected. “I might have made you one.”

Clarisse looked up. She didn’t believe her at first, so she scoffed. “Gee, thanks. Burnt to a crisp, perhaps?”

“Chilling in the mess hall kitchen refrigerators. You ever watched Matilda?” Clarisse slowly grew a sheepish smile on her face. “You didn’t. The ooey and gooey one?”

Kayla nodded. “Dark chocolate, don’t worry. I’m terrible at keeping secrets.” She whined to herself, chuckling with a face palm. “So I have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to have a slice?” Clarisse inclined her body.

“Mmh, I can’t be bothered to sneak into the kitchens an hour before midnight, so yes.”

Clarisse was already putting a pair of trainers on.

“Wa- Clarisse, I was going to surprise you, this will-“

“If you made it a surprise, it would have ruined it. I hate surprises, Kayla. Come on, it’s an hour or so until midnight. I wanna test this stuff.”

Kayla bit her lip, slipping her shoes  on. She sighed, following Clarisse out of her window.

“I didn’t know you were capeable of looking so excited.” Excited on Clarisse’s face looked like this: a determined face as she bit the inside of her cheek to try and not smile.

Ever since the quest, Kayla couldn’t stop thinking about the conversation she overheard down in the boiler room. She doubted Clarisse would get much from her father. And it wasn’t like anyone hung around her except for her own brothers. And sure, a birthday cake wasn’t much either, but everyone deserves a cake that they could actually bare to eat; especially on their sixteenth birthday.

“But you should heat it up, it goes way more gooey-“

Clarisse had long sinced opened the correct kitchen refrigerator. She was staring at it in awe. It was pure dark chocolate, three tiers, and some ooey chocolate sauce had been dolloped ontop, which dropped down the sides. Stuck in the top was one of those sticks that people used for arts and crafts- a thin red one, and a piece of paper used to make some sort of flag that read in red acrylic pen: ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGATORN.’

Kayla didn’t realise Clarisse was laughing until she rounded her body. The girl was silently chuckling into the refrigerator as her shoulders shook. “Mega- Megatorn? Kayla, I’m gonna-“

Yeah,” Kayla smiled cluelessly, raising an eyebrow. “Megatron, cause of that one time I-” When her eyes flicked over to the cake, she started to giggle too. Oh. “Megatorn, oh, okay, well- ignore that. We all have dyslexia, don’t we? Just focus on how delicious it looks.” Kayla slowly took the cake out of the fridge, a giant grin ear to ear at her own mistake. She placed it on the kitchen side behind them and went to scout for a knife.

“This is the best thing ever, you’re ruining me,” Clarisse chuckled quietly, trying to contain her laughter. “Let me cut it.”

“Need I remind you that it isn’t even your birthday for another forty minutes! This is not-“

“Let me cut it.” Clarisse repeated with a smile, taking the giant knife Kayla had found. Clarise cut atleast one quarter of the cake to eat. She heated it up like Kayla said, then they dug in together as they leaned on the side. It definitely looked as good as it tasted. A fat, gooey, delicious mess.

“How did you know how to do this?”

“Well, you never asked if I could bake. My auntie does it all the time,” Kayla shrugged, her mouth full.  “So, I hope you like it though. And um, this summer has been great… even the almost dying fifty times part. It’s funny to look back on now. Happy Birthday, Clarisse.”

Clarisse didn’t reply straight away. She was looking at Kayla, yes. Some cake in her mouth that was being chewed with a smile that Clarisse was desperately trying to hide, but it just made her look all the more giddy. Them walls she had, they seemed none existent right now. Clarisse didn’t like it one bit.

Kayla averted her gaze after not getting a response even though Clarisse had been starting at her face for five seconds, maybe more. It was only when Kayla looked away that Clarisse pulled her gaze away too, back down to the cake. “Thankyou. And me too, I really enjoyed the almost dying part, for your information. Nice adrenaline rush.”

Please vote!!

Also since coming back to this story last month (yay!) I have gained 10k reads in less than a month!! Didn’t know my audience would even slightly pick back up so thankyou all who helped that achievement😭

Lil sort of unimportant note:

If you havent read the books then spoilers!! Sorry tv show only people💔

Reminder that Clarisse isn’t exactly in book 3- but ofcourse as this book is very much including her, she will be. We all know how she’s searching for Christina while Percy is gone saving the sky with Annabeth and what not at the end of the year sea of Monsters takes place (December). The ending date for Sea of Monsters in story is around the mid/end June, so a nice summer follows book 2, and in the book, that December which i mentioned above just then is when Percy starts the Titans Curse(which he completed in like 2 weeks canonically). That time- the end of Sea of Monsters in summer until the start of Battle of the Labyrinth NEXT June, is where my personalised book 3 will be taking place pretty much. Capiche? Chapiche. If it doesnt make sense that is fine, just dont pay attention to the timeline and all will be well.

Book 3 starts NOW! Start praying mwahaha😛