「020. demon peacock birds. 'nuff said. 」

GOING BACK to normal routines was kind of weird for barbie. like doing normal things like having a camp sing-along at the vampire (which honestly, she did miss). or having normal bonding nights, or just, not sleeping on the ground or constantly getting chased by monsters. not that she missed the constant danger. definitely not. but after doing it for so long, it just felt weird to have a curfew again, or the fact she had to actually get up at a certain time or clean her bed. but the whole summer was a blast.

she'd taken off her crutches weeks ago (thank the gods) and was now free to move around without them and the constant annoyance of taking so long to get everywhere. that, and percy no longer whined at her to try her crutches, to which annabeth would scold him ("percy you're not a fucking two your old. sit down and have your juice box-" "hey-" "do it percy," val had said, "you don't want to defy her. she's scary." "i've been friends with her for four years. i think i know.").

within camp, there had been a few weeks of prank wars and semi-competitions. the prank war actually began due to the hermes kids (no surprise there really) who had once again pranked the demeter kid cabin, placing crickets on their roof and successfully taking any amount of sleep the demeter kids could've gotten away. this set off a chain of events, which led to the semi-competition of who could prank the other cabin better. barbie had relished in the fact percy was all alone and definitely wouldn't get help ("bitch is gonna get fuckin' crushed i tell you that now.") and her whole cabin had devized several plans.

first, they planted a glitter bomb on the apollo cabin, making the bunch of shakespeare-obsessed kids have glitter in their hair for weeks. they'd then gotten a lovely rhyming curse back from them, but it was so totally worth it. as for the the second time, they'd painted percy's cabin hot pink and each of them had drawn a joke or drawing on the cabin (barbie had to stop val from... uh, drawing a di-) and barbie cackled as she saw percy storm up to her, uttering the words, "why the fuck are the words 'wap' on my fucking cabin-?"

but in the end, no matter how many times the aphrodite fucking killed the pranking game, the hermes cabin had actually ended up winning, with their grand finally making the camp half-blood t-shirts shouting violent insults and turning different colours. percy thought they were great, to which annabeth scolded him, but barbie had too, until one of them had shouted 'daddy issues!' (a rough topic).

they played capture the flag like usual, but most of them tended to stay away from zeus' fist.

as for barbie and annabeth's episode... they had chosen to ignore it. barbie would still wake up crying sometimes, seeing the bettered version of her dad, or perhaps her dad with two children and a husband, a loving family. a loving and complete family. that didn't include her. but it was fine, sort of, she had percy, at least. and he was always there to hang out with her. he didn't care what time it was, and would always let her in, hug her and try to comfort her. she actually probably had forgotten how many times she'd sneaked into percy's cabin just to talk and hug (and maybe try to stop blushing).

but apart from percy comforting her... the rest of their friendship had turned awkward in a way. it wasn't... one sided? she doesn't think it is. every time they hugged, she could feel him stiffen slightly, sort of like he was arguing with himself, and he'd let go. but then sometimes, he'd do something so fucking unexpected, like that one time he'd kissed her forehead without realising, or her hair, or just playing with her hair. annabeth and percy had a sort of brother and sister relationship, so they were used to be close and bickering and play fighting. but with barbie and percy, she had no idea. one moment he was awkward and funny, the next he was pulling shit like kissing her forehead (it had only happened twice. but still, barbie was over analyzing this way too much. which actually didn't always happen with her).

she guessed camp was like usual, sort of.

you know those english essays where they ask you to analyse things? (well, barbie doesn't. but for the sake of relatability, the question still stands). you know, the ones where they ask you to analyse somebody? the ones where you painstakingly pick out key quotes, expound on the simplest of nouns, pick up on perhaps the structure of how they speak, or just analyse the things they say, deducing their personality.

well, barbie didn't need a large-ass essay, a long and boring analysis, or any of that to tell her that hera, queen of the heavens, was a bitch. a certified one.

at ten o'clock in the morning, she stood at half-blood hill with annabeth and percy, dressed in her camp half-blood t-shirt (which she didn't always wear. chiron was sort of lax with what they wore and mr d promptly couldn't give a flying fuck. they just enforced it which usually made the newbies want to follow it) and a bear of shorts. she laughed at something annabeth had said, before sending an awkward and sneaking glance at percy, before turning away.

this happened a lot, until they began discussing the last line of the prophecy when a familiar (and annoying) voice spoke, "you have nothing to be sorry about, my dear."

oh, gods damnit what the fuck was she doing here?

"hera," frowned barbie, trying to restrain herself for the other two's sake as she snapped, "what do you want?"

hera smiled, one of those annoyingly tight smiles. the type you see from people who know they're 'the shit' (when really they're not). it's the type which is so phoney that they don't try to hide it. and then, she turned, ignoring barbie completely. which did not help the thin line barbie was treading on between self-restraint and blatantly attacking the goddess.

"hera," annabeth greeted, eying the goddess with some sort of suspicion.

the goddess smiled, "you found the answers, as i knew you would. your quest was truly a success."

"a success?"

she couldn't stop herself, alright?

"it wasn't a success! you can hardly call that shit-storm of a quest a success!"

"barb's right," spoke annabeth, nodding along, "luke is gone. daedalus is dead. pan is dead. everybody we love and care about is dead. campers have died. death. how is that-"

"our family is safe," hera interrupted, as if that would make everything better, like it would take away all of their woes. she continued, speaking, "those others are better gone, my dear. i am proud of you."

"better gone? family?" snapped barbie, "you don't know the first thing about family, hera. you have a cheating husband, and you fucking threw your son off a mount olympus because he was ugly. i promised myself i'd never talk to you after i was eight. you know, when you tried to kill me? you literally led me to a group of giants-"

"to test your strength!"

"bullshit! i had to be saved by gleeson hedge, and even then, do you know how long it took for those nightmares to go away? to stop seeing that giants face, almost twisting my arm clean off my body?"

hera dismissed her with a flick of a wrist, as if what barbie said wasn't important. correction, as if barbie wasn't important.

"you. you're the one who paid geryon to let us through the ranch. the one who kept barbie there, weren't you?" percy spoke, his voice deadly calm, a wave of silent anger festering beneath.

hera shrugged, her gorgeous dress shimmering rainbow colours, "i wanted to speed you on your way."

"but you didn't care about nico. or barb. you were happy to see them turned over to the titans. how's that fair, hera?"

"oh please" hera waved her hand dismissively, "the son of hades said it himself. no one wants him around. he does not belong. as for barbar-"

"as for what?" challenged percy, "what?"

"she's already said what she has said," shrugged hera, "i thought she was of no use to you in the quest."

"no use?" seethed percy, "hephaestus was right. you only care about your perfect fucking family, not real people."

hera's eyes morphed, turning dangerously bright as she spoke in a low tone, "watch yourself, son of poseidon, i guided you more than you know in that maze. i was at your side when you faced geryon. i let your arrow fly straight. i sent you to calypso's island. i opened the way to the titan's mountain. of course i might have overstepped with my comment of barbara, but girls, surely you can see how i've helped. i would welcome a sacrifice for my efforts."

"no offence, queen hera," said barbie, "but since i'm just a lowly demigod, no use to anybody, i don't think my supposed sacrifice will be much use to you either. not as if i'm valuable enough, am i?"

"percy.. is right," decided annabeth, turning her back on the goddess, "you're the one who doesn't beong, queen hera. so next time, thanks... but no thanks."

"you will regret this insult, annabeth chase and barabara allen. you will regret it. very much."

"tough talk," grumbled barbie, the three of them averting their eyes as the goddess reverted to her true divine form and disappeared in a blaze of light. the hilltop, thankfully, was no peaceful again. the silence was welcomed by barbie, glad it wasn't just some whiney goddess asking for a sacrifice when she'd practically left barbie and nico to the dust.

annabeth whistles awkwardly, before she shot a glance at barbie, her eyes wide as if trying to urgently tell barbie 'talk. to. him.' barbie gulped, the wide-eyed annabeth seeming to intimidate her as she turned back to percy, a small smile as she ruffled her hair.

"so," she said, whistling awkwardly, "that was fun."

percy rolled his eyes, "only you'd say that."

"is that a compliment?"

"i don't know, is it, barbie doll?"

"why don't you stop being so cryptic?"

"why don't you stop being so cute?"

barbie froze and percy coughed, suddenly saying, "so i'll i.m you?"

"uh, sure," barbie laughed, before she impulsive stepped closer to him, hugging him, "don't blow up anything while i'm gone. and... just stay out of trouble, dumbass."

"not likely."

"it was worth a shot."

barbie never usually hated animals. after that time percy had genuinely tired to sneak them out to visit an aquarium (they ended up getting caught. so he brought the aquarium to them), she had began to appreciate every sort of animal. but sacred animals? not always her favourite. especially hera's. a peacock. that's what it was. and they were currently reigning terror on her at camp. the first time it had happened, she'd never expected it.

she had just been walking, grinning with val as she teased him, with him forcefully shouting, "shut up i don't have a crush on her barb!" to which she had cackled as he shoved her away, shouting, "i'm going to visit annabeth! and no not like that barb i swear to the fucking go-"

and then a group of peacocks had ambushed her. they were so speedy and quick and she'd hardly noticed as they came for her, pecking her feet and at one point, pecking so much that blood was drawn. their plumage whacked her in the face, with their sharp claws trying to rip her gorgeous outfit.

safe to say, she was not impressed, and she was screaming, running for the hills as she woke up half of the curse words.

at first, it was funny, and most of the half-bloods at camp giggled as she huffed, often having to pull out feathers from her hair. but when it came to the fact that they were being woken up at one in the monring, screaming bloody murder after barbie was outisde (she had said she was taking a stroll. but literally everybody knew she was just i.ming percy), well, they'd had enough really.

but it was ok, sort of. cherry was able to talk to barbie more, and for some reason, the peacocks really hated the strawberry field, so it worked out for them. they'd spend hours a day just laughing and talking as barbie helped cherry pick strawberries, so much so that barbie actually grew to get a tan (which was sort of weird, but she liked it). it wasn't much of a difference for her normal pale skin, but it suited her, sort of.

but, as much as their conversations were light and airy, they happened to turn sad. like today. they were there, sitting as barbie sneakily (it wasn't sneaky at all) stealing strawberries and munching them. she was laughing at something cherry had said, until they'd stopped. the silence lasting for a few moments, before cherry had said quietly, "there's a war coming. i know it."

"what-"

"katie doesn't want to tell us," murmured cherry, "says that she doesn't want to scare anybody. but i know it's true. you know to barb. you do. that... that labyrinth battle... it was just a warning-"

"cherry where did this come from?" barbie spoke, looking at her.

"i just know," she spoke, "i know it's going to happen. you're not exactly slick moma barb, i know about percy being the one of the prophecy, even if i don't know the prophecy."

"well that doesn't matter," barbie spoke, trying to cheer her up, even if it was only slightly and temporarily, "because i'll protect us. the both of us. i can't have you or me dead before we go on our world tour, can we?"

"you mean you can't die before you kiss percy-"

"i- huh- what- hey!"

rosie speaks!
yoyoyoyoy i'm actually
here.. probably wasted my
only energy for this but i
guess yall have been waiting
long enough!!

so here is the last chapter
of act two !! last year innit !!
then we move onto our darling
book two but also yes
stan valbeth !!

thoughts ??

word count: 2,629 words