I wrote this at 7am in the frigging summer holidays. Expect errors XD

(Changed Haphaestus to red team because I forgot about that, swapped with Nike)

Annabeth's pov:

I woke up the next day with a groan, my legs and head and arms and everything single joint in my body were sore, all because of yesterday's event.

Despite my whole body wanting me to  stay and sleep longer, I came out of bed and got myself ready.

Gods, this is going to be a long and painful day. I thought as I tyed my hair into its usual ponytail, I had already brushed my teeth and I couldn't be bothered to eat breakfast.

"Hi." Will said as I came out.

I nodded to him with a smile and say down, wincing as my leg started to cramp.

"Capture the Flag made you sore, isn't it?" I nodded in reply.

Will sighed and gave me a bowl of oatmeal, included with a spoon.

"Eat this, it will help."

I obliged, though it didn't really look good. However, the taste of the oatmeal quickly outweighed the looks.

"Oh Gods," I said, in between bites. "This tastes amazing!"

Will laughed, whispering quietly. "Put some ambrosia in it, but don't tell anyone." He winked. "Usually not allowed to do that."

I smiled uncontrollably, knowing that most- if not, all- of the pain was going to vanish, due to ambrosia's healing powers.

I scraped the bowl clean, and sadly looked down at the bowl, noticing that there was no more food.

"Thanks," I said as I opened the infirmary door, no longer feeling mild, but annoying, pain.

"Anytime."

Opening the door, I walked over to the dining pavilion, and everyone was eating breakfast. That is, until I came. Now everyone was staring at me shamelessly, and I quickly hung my head and walked over to the empty table I usually sat in.

Since I already ate breakfast, I just sat there, fiddling with my fingers and whatnot.

"Hey," Hazel's voice brought me back to reality.

I smiled as she sat down next to me, the other campers giving her quizzical looks.

"So," I said. "How long are you going to be staying here?"

"I don't know," Hazel replied. "Probably a week or two?" She replied uncertainly.

"That's good." I smiled, as she continued to eat and we talked.

Everyone was still staring at us, and I hated the newfound attention. Realising why they couldn't keep their eyes off us, I turned to Hazel.

"Shouldn't you be sitting with Nico over there?" I asked, nodding towards the Hades table.

"I should but," she smiled shyly. "Nico said he didn't mind, so I went to sit here with you."

I smiled at her, giving her a playful shove. Hazel returned it, and we carried on shoving each other till I nearly fell of the table, and we both laughed uncontrollably.

. . .

"You should really talk to others." Hazel insisted, putting her hand on my shoulder.

"Do I?" I groaned, making her laugh a little.

"The campers are literally dying to talk to you, but you're shoving them out."

"It's not my fault." I said stubbornly.

Hazel sighed. "Annabeth, if you don't mind me asking." I gestured for her to to carry on, giving a slight nod. "Why don't you speak to the others- did, did they do something?"

"No," I shook my head. "I mean, they didn't something, but the other they, the fake they- I think- did something."

"What did they do?" She asked softly.

Hazel was my only friend here at camp, and I really needed to just say it all. I laughed nervously, and blurted everything out. In between sentences, Hazel would nod, or gasp and put her hand to her face.

Once I was done, Hazel wrapped me in a hug. "Oh Gods, no wonder you won't speak to them."

I nodded. "I want to, Gods," I sighed. "I want to speak to them so so much, but I can't."

Hazel put a hand on my shoulder. "It's okay, it'll all be okay."

"Do you think that they'll talk to me?" I blurted out without even thinking, cursing myself after.

Hazel gave me another hug, and I didn't hesitate to hug her back. "Of course they'll want to talk to you." She said. "I know for a fact that Percy is going to be ecstatic once you finally say something to him."

"I mean," I shrugged. "We kind of spoke after Capture the Flag."

"Annabeth," Hazel insisted. "That was just a spur of the moment kind of thing."

I sighed, but still agreed with her. "I'll speak to them," I decided, then shook my head. "Not now no, not even soon, just that I'll make sure I'll speak to them."

Hazel shrugged. "Better than nothing."

"Sure is." I agreed.

"Come on." Hazel tugged on my arm, trying to pull me up. "Your cabin and mine have archery in a minute, and I don't want to be late."

I rolled my eyes, but still followed her to the bows, adrenaline coursing through me.

I love fighting, I thought to myself as I grabbed a bow. Sure, it was tiring and definitely risky, but it was fun. Seriously fun.

"Oh no," Hazel whispered as we made it to the targeting range. "The Stolls are here."

"And?" I thought. I vaguely remembered them before, but I only spoke to them for about two minutes, so I never really knew them.

Hazel sighed. "They're going to do something, I've learned to steer clear of them ever since they pranked the Pluto cabin." She shook her head. "Sorry, Hades."

"What did they do?" I asked.

"Spray painted the whole cabin pink while we were away," she shrugged. "I don't mind pink that much, but Nico? Nico was downright furious, and I had to watch him for that whole day to make sure he didn't kill the Stolls."

"Wow," I muttered to myself, but Hazel seemed to hear and laughed.

"Hazel!" Someone shouted although they were standing in front of us. "Annabeth." One of them jokingly curtsied, holding the imaginary ends of their dresses.

"What do you want?" Hazel asked, as she adjusted her position. "I'm kind of busy right now."

"Nothing," one of them insisted, though the gleam in their eyes said otherwise. "We just wanted to stop bye and say hello."

Hazel quickly checked her pockets, then let out a sigh of relief. "Travis, I swear to the Gods if you do something to -"

"Chill, Hazel." He nodded to me. "We just came to say hi to Annabeth."

Hazel's features softened, and she smiled. "You had me there for a second."

He held out his hand, and I gladly shook it. "I'm Travis," and he pointed to his brother, who I noticed was slightly shorter. "And this is the weirdo called -"

"Hey!" He pushed him half heartedly, "I'm Conner, and- random question, but you don't know us, right?"

"Know you guys?" I asked, and they nodded their heads. "Sorry, I don't really -"

They both shook their heads. "That's okay, really okay actually, amazing!" Connor was laughing, and I was seriously suspicious now.

"Well then, it was nice talking to you," Travis said. "Bye, Annabeth." Connor saying the same thing.

I smiled at both of them, returning the favour and turning back to Hazel.

"Come on," she said. "We still have to do this."

I picked up the bow I had dropped, and went over to a target, Hazel going on one close by.

"So I just hold it like this?" I had the arrow aimed to shoot, and Hazel nodded in suprise.

"That's exactly how you do it." She sounded shocked, and I closed one of my eyes to regain balance.

Shooting the arrow, it landed a couple of inches away from the red target, much to my dismay.

"Gods almighty!" Hazel cried. "It's your first time doing archery right?"

I nodded, and her jaw dropped. "Annabeth, you're amazing!" She said. "Frank does archery, he's really really good, you should go ask him on some tips, he'd be happy to help, and you should also go to -"

"I'll do that, sure." Hazel beamed as I said that. "I think it would be pretty awkward if I asked for Frank to help."

Hazel shook her head. "Everyone's confused as to how I managed to speak to you," she said. "Frank's going to be so excited if you ask him for help."

"Really?"

"Definitely." She assured me, as she shot an arrow and went closer to the target than I did.

Crash! Me and Hazel both turned to each other, then ran towards the sound, weapons drawn.

"Hello?" Hazel called in the darkness.

"Relax," Percy said. "It's just me, there were plates and -oh, Annabeth?" He tilted his head to the side in suprise.

And me, being the chicken I was, I yelped in suprise and walked away, leaving Hazel and Percy both in shock.

I heard another crash, though I had a nagging feeling that that one was on purpose.

Going back to the bows, I cursed uncontrollably. Hazel heard and put a hand over her mouth.

"Annabeth!" She cried. "I'd have my mouth washed with soap if I said those words!"

I glared at the ground. "Why did I have to run?"

Hazel's shocked face softened into a small smile, and she put a hand on my back. "You had the right to do that."

I sighed. "No I didn't, me and you both know that I definitely didn't." I kicked at the dirt. "Gods, why do I have to be so stupid? He probably thinks I hate him now."

"You don't hate him?" Hazel asked softly.

"I mean no," my cheeks felt warm, and I instantly knew I was blushing. "There's a small part of me that wants to hate him, but I - I just can't."

Hazel gave a look of adoration. "That's so sweet."

I rolled my eyes. "Enough with the affection, let's go eat."

"Annabeth," Hazel said. "Lunch is in two hours."

"What? I'm so hungry!" My stomach rumbled and I pouted, patting my stomach.

Hazel started laughing. "We could go to the strawberry fields."

"Ok then, that's next on our list." I grabbed her arm, pulling her towards the long green fields. "Come on, the strawberries need to be picked."

Hazel rolled her eyes- well she tried to, but couldn't, ending with me laughing on the ground. "You can't roll your eyes!" I laughed as she crossed her arms.

"Not everyone has to know how to do that." She argued.

I left it at that, and picked myself up, following Hazel to the fields. "Someone might see we're eating instead of working."

"And?" I said. "I'm hungry, people take risks when they're hungry."

Me and Hazel both laughed as we sat down on the strip of land in between the long fields of strawberries. We had grabbed a basket on the way, though we both knew the only thing being filled was our stomachs.

I bit the strawberry, making a face as I chewed. "I hope there's no bugs in these." I said, examining the already bitten strawberry. "I hate bugs."

"So do I." Hazel said, examining hers. "I don't think there are though, these crops are blessed by Demeter and other farming gods and goddesses, we have nothing to worry about."

"Hm." I said to myself, as we talked. "Why does the camp have a field of strawberries? There's no reason for that."

Hazel pointed at me. "I asked that same question when I had first come here." She said. "The camp needs money and funds and also an alibi, so they have their own strawberry farm business." She pointed at the vans with the bright red strawberry logo. "Hence the cars."

I nodded as I bit into another fruit, wincing a little at the sourness. "So all of these strawberries taste good?"

Hazel nodded. "Every single one of the fruits are sweet."

We carried on talking and laughing, not knowing that our little feast was eating into Lunch time.

"Oh." I said, as I noticed the large amount of people in the dining pavilion, the wood nymphs getting ready to serve.

"Come on," Hazel said. "Lunch has started."

I made a face. "I'm full now."

Hazel sighed dramatically. "What am I going to do with you?"

. . .

Lunch today was exceedingly slow, and due to already filling up my once hungry stomach in the fields, I had no choice but to just stare into space and pretend I was busy. Hazel was preoccupied, talking to Nico and I actually didn't mind. She was spending so much time with me, I hardly thought she spoke with the others as much now.

"Annabeth?" Chiron said. "You need to eat."

I shrugged it off. "I'm not that hungry."

"You've barely eaten this week." He looked down at my empty plate, no food had been placed on it.

I cursed myself for eating so much at the fields. "Chiron, it's no big deal."

Chiron sighed, but he didn't speak about it further, which I greatly apreciated. I looked up at the ceiling, admiring the wood. The harpies are really good cleaners, I thought to myself, as I noticed there were no stains, no rotted material or even visible dust on the ceiling, showing that the harpies even cleaned there.
Yeah, because they can fly. My subconscious said. Oh great, I thought. It's back.

Just then, a loud bang and cries of annoyed Ares campers filled the silence that once hung across the room. I turned towards the loud sound, only to see the food the Ares campers were chowing down on were now sprayed across their faces, two Hermes campers laughing in delight.

"Stolls!" Clarisse's unmistakable voice roared, and they both gulped, their laughter now replaced with shrieks. "I'll kill you, I'll kill both of you!" She ran to them, the Stolls both running whilst laughing. The food and the spear she was holding tightly on her hand was weighing her down, and the two campers ran faster, much to Clarisse's distaste.

"That was rather unfortunate." Hazel's soft voice startled me, my plate nearly falling in the process.

I smiled at her. "When did you get here?"

She laughed. "When you were staring at their little argument."

I raised an eyebrow. "So you snuck up on me?"

"No," Hazel clarified. "I sat down normally, you just happened to be scared."

I lightly shoved her. "No, I wasn't."

"So the plate just miraculously fell over."

"Touché."

. . .

Nightfall was rising, and everyone was heading out to the campfire. I was completely terrified, knowing that there would be tons of people and we would all be sitting close together. This thought had scared me since I first realised Camp Half Blood did this.

"Let's go meet some other people." Hazel said, a gleam in her eye.

I raised my eyebrows. "Who are these people."

Hazel smiled a little. "Frank."

"What?" But I couldn't say anything else, because she had already dragged me over to him, and he was talking to Jason.

"Hi," Hazel said to both of them, and they both said it back, sending me a quizzical look.

"Hey, Annabeth." Jason said, Frank giving me a nervous wave. I sent one back, though mine looked more awkward than nervous.

"Can we sit here?" Hazel asked, patting on the area beside Frank.

They both nodded, "Yeah, sure." Jason added.

They sat down, and I stood up for a second, not knowing what to do.

Just then, a massive black dog came running at me, causing me to jump up a little. "What the hell?" I said to myself as it slowed down, but it was still running.

Hazel turned towards the dog -no, hellhound and sighed. "It's okay, that's Mrs. O'Leary."

"Mrs. O'Leary, that's a weird name for a hellhound don't you think?" I sat back down, though I still kept my eyes on it.

"Exactly what we said to Percy once we found out." She shrugged. "But he doesn't mind it, he says it matches her."

"So this is Percy's?" I pointed at the hellhound, Hazel nodding in reply. "So why is it coming to me?"

"She used to know you before -" Hazel stopped. "She used to know you, and I guess she remembers your scent."

"Oh." Was all I said.

. . .

They were all singing at the campfire, I was just watching the flames engulf the sky, marvelling as it crackled. Being a city girl, I had ever been able to see natural fire, except for when the boys at school lit a cigarette behind the dumpster, but that wasn't really the same thing.

"Hey," Hazel said softly. "Were you listening?"

I shook my head. "What were you saying?"

"Jason asked if you wanted to hang out with him and Frank more." Hazel whispered to me.

I let out a smile. "Seriously?" Hazel nodded. "Of course, I'd love to!"

I didn't realise I had said it that loud and most of the campers turned towards me, a certain Aphrodite girl giving me a look. I didn't care though, turning back to Hazel who was whispering to Frank. Frank nodded, and Hazel went back to talking to me.

"So, how did you like it?" She asked as the songs ended and the fire was put out. The campers were all getting up, it was time to sleep anyway.

"It was nice," I said, Hazel smiling.

"That's exactly what I said."

"Hey Hazel." My tone suddenly serious.

Hazel noticed that, and turned to me slowly. "What's wrong?"

"Umm well, you basically know who I knew, right?" I asked nervously.

Hazel nodded.

"So could you tell me some of the people that you knew." I said. "I don't want to feel like I'm leaving them out."

Hazel smiled. "Was that all?" She laughed. "I'll tell you that tomorrow, you knew a lot of people."

I smiled to myself as I walked back, everything was turning great. For the first time since -for the first time ever, I felt elated, and I prayed to the Gods that whatever feeling I was having, I hoped it stayed for a damn good time.

I looked around for my five dollars that I had managed to scrummage at the police station. I didn't steal it, no, the police were just sorry for their actions and gave it to me. Pretty odd gift, but at least it was money.

"Hey, Hazel? Have you seen my money?"

Hazel shook her head, then muttered a few words.

"The Stolls." We both sighed.