The argument began when Connor checked his reflection to make sure he didn't have a milk mustache.

Chiron had called all head councilors to the Big house in order to hold a meeting. Me, being the only child in the Artemis cabin, had assigned myself head councilor. That wasn't the smartest move, because being my own personal leader was a lot of work. "I don't want to go!" I whined as Piper and Annabeth dragged me across the strawberry fields unwillingly, "I haven't had breakfast yet! I hear a chocolate taco calling my name!"

"Come on, Astra," Piper rolled her eyes, "We're going to have to get this over with eventually."

"At least we didn't have to resort to the ice bucket challenge," Annabeth giggled, which was something you didn't see every day, "Too bad." She had her hair tied up in a high ponytail, mostly because of the heat. Her stormy grey eyes stared straight ahead, as if she had a master plan for world destruction hidden in her brain.

"You guys are nutso," I grumbled, feeling a bit of pain from their grips on my wrists. The sun continued to burn my head, even though it was only nine in the morning. The dryads were watering themselves, or rather, the plant that embodies them to make sure they didn't prune in the heat. Even though it wasn't officially summer yet, everyone was dying and praying to Apollo stop parking above the camp and go torture Camp Jupiter instead.

"And that's how, kids," We heard Percy's voice a few feet away, and we saw him gesturing to a group of young children as if he was telling them a story, "My nosebleed caused the end of the world. And what lesson have we learned today?"

"To wipe our runny noses," They synchronized, and Percy nodded gleefully like a parent.

"Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth called out to him, and his head jerked up suddenly out of shock.

"Whatever it is you think I did, I didn't do it!" He cupped his hands around his mouth to amplify his words.

"Oh my gods, you idiot, come over here!"

"Good job today, kids," Percy patted each individual on the head, and ran to our direction. His hair was sticky with sweat, as if he took a five mile run. His green eyes were as bright as ever, like a Hawaiian beach. He rolled his sleeves up on his Camp Half-Blood shirt, and his jeans were torn. "Hey Astra, Piper, Annabeth. Water you doing?"

"Oh no," Piper and Annabeth sighed, and I looked at him in confusion, obviously not getting a hold of the situation.

"Did you sea what I did there, Astra?" He made a snapping gun gesture at me, and I suddenly got it.

"Yeah, I shore did!" I went along with him, and we burst out laughing.

Annabeth took a deep breath, "Please stop... Now."

Percy coughed into his fist, "Whale then."

"He dolphinately will," I said, and he nearly doubled over cackling while holding his stomach in agony.

"Good gods," Piper groaned, but even she cracked a grin, "Save us now."

"Did you not know that all the head councilors were scheduled to meet up in the rec room today?" Annabeth asked as we continued to head to the Big House. They finally released me, but I was looking around anxiously to find an escape route. I absolutely detested these meetings. They were mostly about Mr. D complaining about too much blood in the arena or a trash can was extra smelly on a specific day.

"I must've missed the announcement," Percy shrugged, "I also had a lesson scheduled with the younger demigods today. It wasn't that bad." We climbed up the stairs, and I opened the door into the building. As I was about to close the door behind them, Piper grabbed my wrist once more, and pulled me inside. Dang it. We entered, finding our way to the rec room.

"I really hope Grover doesn't eat the Ping-Pong balls again," I mumbled as we walked down the hall, "I have a score to settle with Lance."

Percy raised his eyebrows, and Annabeth elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow," He muttered. I stared at him, puzzled and unable to comprehend what he was trying to imply.

* * *

The council was held around the Ping-Pong table again, with chairs pushed together to make more room. Mr. D was sitting at the head of the table next to Chiron, and he waved his hand to supply snacks such as Cheez Whiz, crackers, and cups of milk because he believed that the drinks had to be age appropriate. It didn't stop him from downing a can of Diet Coke, though. There was also a nacho cheese machine, and let me just say that the machine is the one of the only pieces of technology in the camp, and the most worthy of my acknowledgement. Percy sat himself in between Jason and Nico, who were already there. Piper sat on the opposite end in between the Stoll brothers and an empty chair; Leo was probably going to be late again. Lance was standing behind the brothers because he'd kind of became their personal assistant. Whenever they ran out of crackers or nachos, they'd send Lance to do the job, or when their mouths were full of food, Lance would do the explaining instead. As I made eye contact with him, he made a fist, and punched the palm of his other hand. I drew a line across my neck in response, indicating that I was going to beat him today in our match.

On the other end of the table, I sat with Clarisse and Will Solace, with Austin standing right behind him. Butch sat at one corner, and Katie Gardner was diagonal from him. Austin placed a hand on my shoulder, "Hey. How's it going?"

"Not too bad, I guess," I replied, "I didn't have breakfast this morning. Who knows how well this meeting's going to go."

He laughed, showing off his blinding white teeth, "I'm guessing that I'll need to stand at a five mile radius to avoid the blast zone."

"You know me so well."

Lance, who was on the opposite side of us, suddenly frowned. Why'd he do that? Did one of the Stoll brothers secretly rip one again?

I decided to start the meeting off positively. "I'm bored." I placed my feet up onto the table, and no one bothered to stop me.

"Cheez Whiz!" Grover, who was standing in the corner of the room rushed to the table and began scooping whatever he saw into his hands. I swatted his grabby fingers away from the Ping-Pong balls, though.

"Thank you for your contributions, Astra and Grover. We're here to talk about something that has been troubling this camp for a while," Chiron leaned his elbows on the table, sitting in his fake wheelchair. I wondered how he could possibly fit a whole horse butt in a metal box, but I don't know anything about physics.

That might be the wrong scientific thing, but no one ever said I was going to be the female reincarnation of Albert Einstein.

"Hm, yes, I don't really care," Mr. D picked up a wine magazine and started to flip through the pages, "Tell me when you get to the exciting part. Which is probably never."

Chiron, ignoring the god, continued, "There have been rather spontaneous fights breaking out recently, and might I add more than usual," He gave a look towards Clarisse who had her hand raised, and she lowered it with a huff. "Now, I do not know what the causes are behind them, but I'd hate to force campers to sit in a locked room together and have them work out their problems with a hug."

"The reason for our breakout yesterday is because of the annoying Iris cabin rituals," Clarisse spoke up, "I'd like to request getting rid of it all together to make more time for more sword fights, but I'm also fine lowering it down to half an hour instead."

"That might've been the kindest thing you've ever said all year," Travis popped a cracker in his mouth and chewed on it delightfully.

"Butch, what do you say?" Chiron's eyes twinkled with amusement.

"I'll talk to mother, but I'm sure it'll be fine..." He muttered, crossing his arms and his rainbow tattoo rippled.

"There. That is one argument resolved. And the others..." Chiron flipped through a bunch of documents strewn across the table, "This one with the Hermes cabin stealing items from the Nemesis cabin to make it 'unbalanced', another for the Hephaestus 'accidentally' burning the Demeter cabin's garden, and... I'm missing a paper."

"Sorry, sir," Grover swallowed nervously, "I might've eaten that one."

"No matter, Grover," Chiron placed his hand against his forehead, "But as you can see, these fights over the little things are over the top. It is almost as if the camp is in total discord."

I bit my lip. Now that he mentions it, I thought people were shoving others around more than usual. One time I saw one of the Apollo kids shove an ice cream up someone's face, but I mean, who wouldn't want a face full of deliciousness? As I was thinking this, I saw Connor reach for a cup of milk, took a swig, and lowered it back onto the table.

"Dude. You've got a mustache," Travis pointed at Conner's upper lip.

"Oh, I've got to see it before I wipe it off. Hand me a mirror," Connor held his head back in order to keep the milk on his face.

"Hey, here's one," Travis reached for a shelf behind him and picked up a small, green, compact mirror. He opened it, stared at it for a bit, and handed it to his brother. Connor bent over to look at his reflection, and froze as still as a statue. Their eyes dilated like cats, and looked fogged over. Chiron continued to rant on how we, the leaders, should be a good example to our friends and other campers. Out of nowhere, Connor banged his hands on the table, and everyone turned to look at him. He pointing his index finger at Will, and shouted, "Dishonor on you! Dishonor on your cow! Oh, wait! YOU DON'T HAVE ANY!"

Will blinked, probably feeling a bit offended, "Pardon?"

Travis stood up alongside his brother, and pointed at Clarisse, "Your cabin smells like hellhound farts! But I bet you produce most of the gas there!"

"Excuse you, you brat?!" Clarisse immediately went for her knife, and I hurriedly grabbed at her arm.

"H-Hey, let's calm down, okay?" I tried to make her relaxed, "Be a good example, and who's a happy, calm, pretty princess?"

"Clarisse? A princess?" Connor scoffed, waving his hand in front of his face dramatically, "She's more fit to be Grumpy from the seven dwarfs."

"THAT'S IT, PUNK! YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" She grabbed a handful of food off the table and hurled it at the brothers. Lance luckily ran out of the way, but the Stolls got their face full of cheese and saltines. Grabbing more food off the table, the Hermes brothers started throwing food across the room, and everyone tried to run for cover.

Mr. D didn't once look up from his magazine, and caught a cracker out of the air and munched on it peacefully.

"What is wrong with them?!" Jason yelled over the chaos, "Connor, Travis, stop it!"

"You too, Clarisse!" Percy suddenly jumped on the table, slid across, and grabbed her beefy wrists in an effort to stop her, "You wouldn't want to be on probation."

"Go away, Prissy!" Clarisse flexed her arms, and tossed Percy against a bookshelf. He was totally unprepared for it, and grabbed the back of his head in pain. Will quickly went to his side, and pulled some medicine out of his pockets. The three went back into their food fight, and everyone else in the room was trying to get them to calm down. The mirror fell in the midst of the chaos, and Katie, realizing this and being a totally organized person, picked it up. Her eyes glazed over as she met her reflection, and placed it back on the table.

Spontaneously, she yelled, "Hey! Austin! Why don't you tell your dad to move his car somewhere else and stop burning up our beautiful gardens!"

Austin, never once having a conversation with Katie in his life, suddenly raised his eyebrows, "What are you trying to say?"

She smirked, which was an expression you never see on that kind girl, "I'll forgive you if you give me an Apollo-gy."

"Do NOT use our father's name for terrible puns!" Austin flared, and already scooped up a handful of balls.

I grabbed his shoulder, and stared straight into his amber irises, "You better not do that." His face turned bright red, and he instantly put them down.

"Sorry... I have no idea what came over me," He said, watching as Katie ran over to other people and screwed them out for touching her tomatoes.

"Something is causing us to act like this," I tried to think, "Like an epidemic."

Lance was trying to pry Clarisse's grip off of Travis' arms, and Connor was uselessly kicking her in the shins. Butch was trying to hold a spazzing Katie under control, but even he was shocked at her behavior. Nico sat at his chair, obviously uninterested in what was going on. I was thinking that he was also going to pick up a wine magazine at any point.

"What has come over everyone?!" Chiron cried, attempting to get out of his wheelchair.

Luckily, Piper took the reins, "EVERYONE. BE QUIET."

Lulled by her charm-speak, the room suddenly went silent. Even Dionysus looked up from his magazine to see what was going on. Annabeth patted her arm to give her a bit of strength, and Piper pointed to the chairs, "Go back to your seats, and remain silent until Chiron tells us otherwise."

As if under a trance, everyone, including Katie, sat themselves down in their original spots, and kept their mouths shut. Even if I tried, my jaw wouldn't open. I guess her charm-speak affected me too. Mr. D, reaching for his Coke can, accidentally knocked the mirror onto the ground. The glass broke into pieces, and in the blink of an eye, the fogginess from Katie and the Stoll brothers' eyes cleared up and they blinked. "What came over me..?" Katie muttered, and immediately started to bow, "I'm sorry for everything-!"

"It is alright," Chiron gestured her to sit down, and she did so.

The room was a total mess. Food was scattered everywhere, nacho cheese dripped from the ceiling, and I saw Lance cough out a ping-pong ball. Suddenly, there was a sudden rush of footsteps, and Leo's elfish face burst into the room. "Hey, guys! Sorry I'm late, Festus had to take a dump, but the problem was, metal dragons don't use the restroom-." His words stopped when his vision landed on the chaotic room. He went over to his seat, pulled out his chair, and sat himself down. "Did I miss anything?"

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I am totally infatuated with this chapter. Even though it's pretty long, I totally enjoyed writing it!

So... What do you think of Austin and Astra? Good friendship? Probably should remain a friendship?

Idk where I'm going with this lol.

Please vote if you enjoyed it, and leave a comment on your thoughts about this chapter. I can't wait to see what you all have to say!

XOXO,
Arisa