「003. arguments are for all   」

THE DAY after the joyful chat about the prophecy, barbie was the first awake. it was barely a reasonable time to be awake. yet instead of waking up all her siblings like she usually would, with an animated smile as she would often shout, 'if the apollo kids can wake up now then so can we!', she let them sleep. she sat up in her bed, stretching before finally standing up. silena was still curled in her bed, the same way she had been last night, and it made barbie's heart ache when she heard a little whimper come from her. try as barbie might, helping silena was cabin councillor duties was difficult. and honestly, barbie was kind of glad she wasn't cabin councillor. she walked to the bathroom, grabbing her clothes on the way before she entered. once she'd stepped out, she inspected herself in a mirror. a camp shirt, and some old jeans with rips in them paired with sneakers (and of course, her trusted heartbreaker in it's sunglasses form on the very top of her head).

after a few moments longer, she finally began to wake people up. she walked over quietly to nessa and shook her awake, whispering kindly,"wake up nessa."

"mmm i don't wanna-"

"you're gonna have to," barbie spoke in a singsong voice, "percy and annabeth are coming round for cabin inspections."

"cabin inspections?" groaned val, who seemed to have just woken up, "really? right now-"

"not now, dumba- i mean, silly," barbie spoke, a small smile on her face, "later."

"of course you'd know when your boyfriend is going to meet us here," val teased back.

"you're one to talk val, been blushing and fantasize about kissing annabeth lately?"

"shut up."

with a few more minutes of arguing (playfully, of course) between val and barbie, they finally made their way to breakfast, with a weary and emotional silena leading them, with barbie right at the back making sure that nobody was to be left behind. nessa lurked with her, holding her hand as cherry ran up to them, greeting them a good morning.

"how was the rec room with silena yesterday?" asked cherry, "katie came back real worried."

"it was-oh, hey nessa i think val wants to talk to you," barbie quickly lied, not wanting nessa to hear what she was about to say.

"really? ok!"

the young blonde girl skipped off and barbie smiled at cherry, who still wore a smile, no matter howgrave things seemed to be come. cherry sighed, leaning her head onto barbie's shoulder as she hugged her, "i don't want this whole war thing to happen."

"neither do i," mumbled barbie, a frown on her face, "but... if we can stop kronos.. i think it'll benefit us all. i don't know- might just... leave camp for a month after that."

"to do what?" wondered cherry, staring up at barbie with a curious gaze, her natural hair looking gorgeous,moving ever so slightly as cherry tilted her head.

"i don't kn0w- might go on holiday. you can come too, of course. heard the grand canyon is lit-"

"sorry," laughed cherry as they approached tables set out for breakfast, "but 'the grand canyon is lit' ?"

"shut up, soda pop!" whined barbie, a small pout forming on her face as she said, "it sounded better in my head!"

barbie made her way to her usual spot and slid down next to val, who looked like he was staring somewhere. of course, barbie automatically guessed it was to annabeth's direction,and when she turned- she found out she was correct. as there he was, staring directly at annabeth with his-

"did you put hair gel in your hair?" she blurted out, looking at him with wide eyes. there were only two times he'd ever worn hair gel. once was because he had a crush on a hermes boy, and the other time was because ms garcia had wanted a picture of the two of them together a few christmas' back and they had to be 'presentable'. and now...

"no..." he mumbled, averting his eyes from her scrutinizing gaze.

definite lie, dude, commented jerald inside barbie's head.

"yeah you're lying,"agreed barbie out loud, "man i knew you like liked annabeth but this is like- oh this is like like like liked- i- that was too many 'likes' in a sentence."

"you think?"

"well it wasn't my faul- hey stop trying to change the subject!"

cabin inspection was usually a breeze for the aphrodite cabin. they prided themselves in always have the cleanest cabin. barbie and the rest of her cabin had walked back to their cabin, ready to do the usual protocol. two aphrodite cabin kids stepped out and threw a few seeds at the peacocks to distract them long enough for barbie to enter the cabin. with a fair bit of success,barbie managed to sneak into the cabin undetected by the peacocks. she glanced at the ornate clock on one of the walls of the cabin and huffed, they had around twenty minutes before annabeth walked in for cabin inspections. silena sat on her bed, looking hollow and lifeless as she stared at the floor. barbie was walking around, making sure everything was fine with all of her siblings. she walked around smiling at them and giving a few of them hugs or just being smiley. she tried to keep her cabin morale up, because she honestly felt like they needed it.

she heard a few sighs and whines as she walked around, trying her best to smile and keep everybody smiling too. as she arrived at drew's bed, she frowned slightly at the unmade bed. "drew i expected better of you, c'mon just clean it."

"stop acting like your our cabin councillor or something, it's so irritating," snapped drew, grumpily following barbie's orders as she punched her pillow, trying to fluff it.

"i'm just trying to help silena," said barbie with a frown, "don't be a downer, we've had enough of that to last us a while."

"well that wouldn't have happened if silena had completed her right of passage, now would it?"

"what was that?" barbie spoke, knowing damn well what drew said, but just wondering how she had the fucking nerve to say something like that.

"you heard me."

"damn right i did," barbie frowned, "drew why would you say that? the right of passage doesn't necessarily need to be completed."

"tell that to silena's dead boyfriend."

there were numerous gasps around the cabin, barbie being one of them. gone was the small spark of hope where she reasoned with drew because now, she had no reason to. she knew drew was just jealous (she'd said so herself). she was lonely and she wanted somebody to talk to, but that was no reason for her to say something so harsh and insensitive as this. especially with it happening less than a day ago.

"drew," she spoke in a low tone, "appologise. now."

"n-"

"don't you dare tell me 'no'," she found herself seething, "what you said was not only insensitive but fucking rude. we get it drew, you're sad people will leave you. you have trust issues- almost every demigod does. but that gives you no right to pull this shit especially with recent events. so i suggest you appoligise right now and then go back to making your bed. are we clear?"

"..."

"i said," barbie growled, "are we clear?"

"...yes."

"good," nodded barbie, a smile coming back to her face, "now go apologize."

and then she heard a cough from behind her.

barbie had been so engrossed in her little spat with drew that she didn't even realise that val had opened the door for annabeth and surprisingly percy as well. barbie realised her whole cabin had been staring at her and turned to annabeth and percy and her face flushed red. she froze when she looked at percy and nearly fell as she walked back to her bed.

"uh, hi beth," spoke val as annabeth walked around, ticking and checking boxes.

"hi tino," she replied and barbie shot val a look. to which he replied with a shrug.

annabeth was just about done when she called, "hey barb? wanna come with?"

"uh i-"

"i'm sure tino can take care of silena, you'll be fine," said annabeth.

"but i don't want to platonically third wheel," spoke barbie in a hushed voice.

"shut up and start moving," said annabeth with a roll of her eyes.

percy couldn't take his eyes off barbie. he wasn't sure why, but she was just so... pretty? no, not pretty. beautiful. yes, that was definitely the word. her hair seemed effortlessly perfect. the curls he had seen yesterday looped loosely around and bounced as she walked with him and annabeth. she was smiling at something annabeth was saying, the corners of her eyes crinkling slightly as her dimples showed. the freckles across her face were more prominent than the last time he'd seen them and she'd gotten slightly taller. but percy still managed to be taller than her. her hair was shorter too. but it looked really good on her. it was cut nicely, unlike the past time when it was jagged from the metal giant. now, it was touching her shoulder blades and seemed shaped perfectly. if barbie was beautiful before, then now she was straight up ethereal.

"what was with you and that other kid in your cabin?" asked percy curiously.

"she said some stuff about beckendorf and silena," muttered barbie, "i put her in her place."

"she seemed scared," mused annabeth as they walked to the athena cabin, "good job."

barbie grinned at her and percy found himself wanting to grin too.

when they arrived at the doorstep of the athena cabin. annabeth handed barbie the clipboard she'd been carrying around for inspections.

"hey, can you do my cabin quickly for me? i just remembered i had to do something. i'll be back soon."

percy stepped inside the athena cabin that was orderly and clean as usual. the books were perfectly stacked and stored and the beds were made neatly. except for annabeth's. she had notes strewn around and a her laptop was still running. barbie rolled her eyes and percy didn't know why but it looked attractive.

gods, he was acting stupid.

"we'll uh, leave you to it," spoke malcom as he signalled for the rest of the athena campers to he's outside.

percy shuffled awkwardly. technically, campers of the same sex shouldn't be alone in the same room together. which percy thought was a bit stupid and outdated because you know, some people were attracted to the same gender, or to all, or to both. lgbt was a thing. but being in the same room with barbie alone... just made his face heat up. the rule had come up a lot when silena and beckendorf had started dating. which would have sounded gross to a normal person because the gods were all related. so wouldn't their kids? but that was stupid. because the gods didn't actually have dna. so if two people from different cabins dated it was perfectly acceptable. and for some reason, percy was thinking about that a lot as he stared at barbie (in a totally none creepy way).

percy looked at barbie who was writing something on the clipboard. percy noticed she had a faint dusting of pink on her cheeks and thought it looked positively adorable. he smiled at her as she finished writing something on the clipboard.

"and done! four out of five... because i'll cut annie some slack!" she grinned.

"how's annabeth been with the laptop?" asked percy.

"gods," said barbie looking at percy, "she won't shut up about it. daedalus had so many ideas..."

she looked at the ground sadly, "he helped me when we were fighting last year. i never really got to properly thank him."

"nico said he was doing ok in the underworld he actually loves his eternal punishment."

barbie looked to the ground again, "you know.. with beck dying and all... it just makes me think about the important things. like... the people you love most."

"yeah," mumbled percy before he impulsively said, "...so how's cherry?"

"huh?" she said, looking slightly disappointed for some reason, "yeah, she's good.. scared... like most of us are. c'mon," she said dejectedly, "lets get your shitty reports done."

barbie sighed as they continued to walk to the big house. percy was either really oblivious to her hint or just didn't like her. but she had so many things on her mind. like that stupid bet that the whole camp was in on. she flushed red at the thought of it.  she appreciated the weird sentiment, but she didn't really think she was going to confess to him in such a short time period. seemed like a lot of people would be losing money.

on the way to the big house, they read the last report, which was handwritten on a maple leaf from a satyr in canada.

"dear grover," percy read aloud, "woods outside toronto attacked by giant evil badger. tried to doas you suggested and summon power of pan. no effect. many naiads' trees destroyed. retreating to ottawa. please advise. where are you? – gleeson hedge, protector."

"gleeson hedge? i- he was the guy that brought me to camp!" said barbie, standing on her tiptoes to read the note, "what about grover? you haven't heard from him? even with your empathy link?"

percy shook his head dejectedly.

"barbie," he stopped her by the tetherball court. by the look on his face, he was about to ask her something that might cause problems between them. but she didn't stop him, "listen, i had this dream about, um, rachel..."

and then he told her the whole thing with rachel and mentioned luke as a child. in all honesty, she didn't really care about the luke as a child bit. more so that percy was dreaming about rachel. i mean, you don't just dream about somebody and have it mean nothing. and she knew she shouldn't be jealous- rachel was a really cool person even if barbie hated her so much (well, tried to hate her) and it was just-

"cool," she said, but her tone suggested she was holding herself back.

"that's all?" he asked her, "no shouting? no snapping?"

"well," she said with a glare, her eyes glowing pink as she looked up to him and crossed her arms against her chest, "what do you want me to say? great job percy you dreamed about rachel?"

"no... that's not it. just... you're really good at advice. i was just wondering... if you were kronos what would you do?"

"i'd use typhon as a distraction. annabeth and i were talking about it. she said she'd probably send the gods west and hit olympus directly whilst they don't have high defences."

"just like in rachel's picture."

was he just trying to make her annoyed? she really liked the dork. was he trying to shut her down? what was happening? did he always have to bring rachel into this?

"percy," she said, feeling her fists clench, "rachel is just a mortal."

"but what if her dream is true? those other titans, they said olympus would be destroyed in a matter of days. they said they had plenty of other challenges. and she was-"

"we'll just have to be ready."

"how?" he said," look at our camp. we can't stop fighting with each other. and i'm supposed to get my stupid fucking  soul reaped."

"i- really?" she frowned, a huff coming from her as anger startled ot boil, "did you really have to mention the prophecy?"

"what's the point of not," percy mumbled bitterly, "not as if there's a way aroun-"

"can you stop talking about it like you're going to die every fucking second? you should have never read the thing in the first place! you're acting like such a jerk right now,  jackson! you're just even more scared! you're running away from the real problems by talking about dying every second! stop it!"

"me? run away?"

"yes, you! you're a fucking coward, percy jackson!"

barbie looked at percy and she pushed him away, "are you that insensitive that you don't think this death talk is making us worry? percy when you got lost in the maze i thought you died! i didn't sleep for two days! i was sick with nerves. and when i read about that stupid ogygia-"

"what? what's wrong with calypso?" he said.

she glared at him, she was a meter away after pushing him, but she stomped towards him and slapped him across the face.

"why are you so dense? you're- you're so infuriating!"

she stepped away and wiped a tear away, she'd gotten so worked up over this. she sighed and said sadly, "maybe you should go back to your precious rachel or calypso-"

"maybe i will!" he challenged.

she shot him a glare, "well if you like her so much. then don't come near me, you asshole."

"me? the asshole? you're worrying about nothing! if i die, i die-"

she pushed passed him. she began to walk quickly before running down the path to the strawberry fields. as she ran, she bumped into annabeth. barbie quickly wiped away her tears.

"woah, barb what-"

"tell jackson he's an asshole, i-" she sniffled, wiping away the tears that came down her cheeks faster than before.

"what?" asked annabeth in confusion, "you don't-"

"i do," snapped barbie, "i don't understand why i liked him in the first place. insufferable prick-"

she scowled in the direction of percy before running to the strawberry fields. hoping cherry would be there to cheer her up.

percy was still standing there in confusion and anger. what was up with barbie? she'd never heard her call him by his first name... or even his full name... was she angry at him? he stood there, his cheek stinging from where she'd slapped him.

"i give you two a moment alone to have a cute moment," sighed a voice behind him," and i find her crying. percy jackson what the fuck did you do now?"

"i- what?"

annabeth sighed, "you're both so oblivious."

rosie speaks !

yellow there my dudes
omfg i literally— why am
i writing so much? this is
like almost the end of an
era like shit gets real for
the next few chapters and
then we literally move
onto book two !!

also theories for what
might happen?

and any bonus chapters
you might want ??

word count: 3,695 words