~Aphrodite Cabin~

‘This is never going to work,’ Piper grunted out of the corner of her mouth, annoyed out of her mind. Already her legs were sore from crouching

‘Yes it will,’ Annabeth called back from somewhere. ‘Now go; you’re on!’

Piper sighed and summoned the power within her. She soaked it all up in her throat and generated it into the magic known as charmspeak.

‘What’s that you say? Chiron is giving out free makeup and clothes at the Big House to all the Aphrodite kids? Well they all better get there right now and stay there for as long as they can.”

For a moment, there was silence. Piper’s doubts about Annabeth’s plan were just about confirmed until a sound like an approaching thunderstorm shook the bush were Piper hid. The sound soon became recognizable as the flurry of high heeled feet attempting to run to the Big House where Chiron was supposedly giving out free beauty supplies.

Screams mingled with hurried footsteps as six Aphrodite girls and two Aphrodite boys burst forth from the giant Barbie house and raced in the direction of the blue house in the distance, the out of place bush Piper hid in going completely unnoticed by the eager demigods.

‘Urgh,’ Piper groaned and shook leaves from her hair as she stood.

‘Told you it would work.’

Annabeth’s smug voice drifted from the back of the Aphrodite cabin as she and the others snuck around to the front, wary of being seen.

Piper wisely said nothing. Jason sidled up to her and snaked his arm around her waist, depositing a gentle kiss on her nose. She chuckled and snuggled deeper into his embrace.

Annabeth frowned and turned to Percy who was smiling at the couple. Annabeth tugged on Percy’s sleeve and he laughed, wrapping an arm around her.

‘Jealous, Wise Girl?’ he joked.

‘No,’ Annabeth pouted. ‘Maybe. No.’

Percy shook his head and leant down to touch his lips to hers. She responded gently, but enthusiastically.

‘Guys!’ Grover called. ‘On a mission, remember?’

‘Yeah, to find Cupid’s bow before love falls apart,’ Percy grinned. ‘Shouldn’t that mean we show all the love we can before it does?’

Grover laughed, ‘Maybe. But if we just find the bow, love is safeguarded forever.’

‘True,’ Annabeth smiled. ‘Looks like we’ll have to wait a while, Seaweed Brain.’

Percy sighed in fake exasperation, ‘Fine. But you so owe me, big time.’

Frank stifled a laugh, ‘Back on track, guys, we have a cabin to sneak into?’

Piper frowned, but complied as the rest piled up on the terrace that extended past the doorway.

‘Okay,’ Piper said, leading the way. ‘Drew has a lot of stuff, so it may take a while to search through everything. I don’t know how long-’

She stopped, realizing the others weren’t following. Looking back, she found them all still standing in the doorway, gaging on the perfume scented air and retching at the Barbie look of the Aphrodite cabin, everything neat, tidy and mostly pink.

‘Guys!’ Piper yelled. They didn’t move. Then she tried a different tactic, ‘If you stand there, the Aphrodite kids will be back in no time. They’ll spray you with perfume until you beg for mercy!’

Five demigods, a satyr and a wood nymph were suddenly by her side.

‘That’s better,’ she smirked.

‘I don’t want to be perfumenated,’ Annabeth explained weakly.

Piper laughed, ‘No one does. This is Drew’s bunk. We should split up.’

Eventually they got sorted out. Annabeth, Hazel and Juniper pulled out all the boxes from under the bed which mainly contained pictures of last year’s movie stars and out of date magazines. Groaning, Annabeth, Hazel and Juniper began to sort through what was honestly a three women’s job.

Jason lifted up using the winds and searched the canopy hanging above Drew’s bed. He claimed that there was piles of clothes up there to sort through, but a sag in the covering suggested otherwise.

Piper grappled with the sickly pink covers on Drew’s bed, the happy looking yellow butterflies making her nauseous. Grover claimed searching the bathroom and left Percy and Frank to riffle through the chest at the foot of her bed. They complained the entire time about its irritating perfectness.

Over half an hour passed and the eight had found nothing.

Piper groaned in frustration, ‘Nothing. Guys, I don’t think Drew took it. Or knows anything about it.’

‘You just say that ‘cause she’s your sister,’ Hazel voice said from somewhere under the bed.

Piper made a sound like a growl, ‘Like you’re any better. You’d believe the world was flat if Nico told you so.’

Bang. Percy and Frank winced as Hazel came out from under the bed, biting her lip and clutching at her head where a lump was already starting to form.

‘Excuse me?’ she demanded. ‘You did not just say that!’

‘I did,’ Piper said. ‘Because it’s true.’

‘You hang off every word Nico says,’ Juniper added. ‘He knows just as much as you about the modern world.’

‘He knows more than I do,’ Hazel shouted.

Piper sneered, a most un-Piper expression, ‘Barely. He could tell you that mobile phones didn’t have internet, and you would believe him.’

‘I would not,’ Hazel shouted hotly. ‘And what in Hades is the internet.’

‘Okay, that’s enough,’ Percy beckoned Frank and Grover over to all restrain their respective girlfriends.

Percy grabbed Piper’s shoulder as she started throwing punches and knocked on the bed’s frame. A shape that was probably Jason tumbled to the floor in a very undignified heap making a very unmanly yelp.

‘Grace, get a handle on your girlfriend,’ Percy demanded. Then he cringed, ‘I’m sorry. Just, please calm Piper down.’

Percy tried to help the others, once again becoming the go between.

‘Hazel,’ Frank was saying. ‘They didn’t mean to insult you. It the bow, its magic is preventing us from getting along.’

Hazel’s kicks stopped flying, but a rumbling sound in throat said she was far from satisfied.

‘Juniper,’ Grover whispered. ‘Trees, leaves, apples, forest; calm down.’

Once they’d got the three girls relaxed enough to apologize to each other, Percy stood beside Annabeth and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin atop her honey blonde curls.

‘We’re never going to make it, Percy,’ she mumbled. ‘We’re already fighting.’

‘We can do this,’ Percy said. ‘I know we can. We just have to remember what’s important.’

Annabeth raised her head and smiled at her boyfriend, rising no tip toes to kiss him, if only briefly, as that reminder. Green eyes stared into grey as they held on to the memories that could make or break their relationship together.

‘We need to get out of here,’ Jason’s voice jerked them both back into the Barbie house. ‘And fast.’

‘Why?’ Juniper asked grumpily.

‘I think I know,’ Grover replied weakly. ‘Listen.’

And they did. One by one, hands shot to mouths as they recognized that heavy, slumped gait that signalled the Aphrodite kids returning to the cabin.