It's the next day. I'm standing, waiting to be selected for Capture-The-Flag. The Blue Team Captain is a Nike girl called Laurel. Her brother Russell is the red captain. Holly, their sister, begged Chiron to let her make a purple team so she could whoop both of their butts, but he said no, so now she's standing behind her sister, acting grumpy.

Russell squints and points to me. I step up and put on the helmet. I've selected a silver Celestial (haha, Celeste, Celestial) Bronze sword that fit well in my hand, and just felt right. After all the campers were picked, my whole team huddled around Russell. "Ok, Maddie, Jemmie, Annabeth, Jensen, you guys are defense. Guard the flag. Celeste, Wilbur, Phoboe, and I will be offense. We fight off the red team, a.k.a my sisters, and we try to get their flag, a.k.a. show my sisters that I always win. Everybody got that?" We all nod. "Ok. Court adjourned. Defense, stay put. Draw your weapons. Offense, follow me." Maddie, Jemmie, Annabeth, and Jensen (a daughter of Aphrodite, I learned recently) draw their weapons and surround the flag. I draw my sword and follow Russell along with Phoboe, a daughter of Apollo and Wilbur, a son of Hermes.

We don't see anyone. "It's quiet. Too quiet," Russell says. "Ahhhhh!" Phoboe lets loose a scream. She shoots upward as a boy in a blue team helmet falls from the sky, yelling his battle cry. The arrow shoots up his foot. He crumpled to the ground. "Sorry, Jack." "'S ok," the boy, Jack I assume, says weakly. He looks like a son of Hermes. "That was too easy," Wilbur notes. "Yaaaaaah!" Laurel yells, falling from the trees, along with two other kids : Holly and Chris. Laurel and Holly both attack Russell, making for an interesting three-way swordfight. Chris jumps at me, and Wilbur and Phoboe stand around looking useless. "Hi, Celeste," says Chris, his sword clinking on mine. "Yeah, hi." "How are Maddie and Jemmie?" "Probably doing ok. I don't know. They're doing defense." "Huh. Same for Leslie." "Oh. Hope they don't disembowl one another." "That makes two of us." "Hey!" he yells as he falls to the ground. (I kicked him.) "Sorry. Nothing personal. I'll say hi to Leslie for you." "Go ahead." Russell has knocked Laurel to the ground, but is still sword-to-sword, face-to-face with Holly. He looks like he needs some help. I jump in, pushing Holly's sword away from us. "I don't need your help," Russell says. "Yes, you do." "Two on two!" Laurel cries, hopping up with obvious effort. She pushes against our blades. We push back, and I notice a chip being cut into Russell's blade. "Just wondering," I begin. "Why this particular style of swordplay?" "Imperial gold. Deadly to demigods. We can't afford to fight Roman." "Roman?" "Stabby-stabby." "Got it." I turn my blade slightly and strike with the butt of my sword, causing both of the Nike girls to fall over. Russell glances at me appreciatively. "Thanks." I wrinkle my nose. "I thought you didn't need my help."

Having defeated the blue team's offense, it was time to get past their defense. Leslie, Percy, a daughter of Iris called Janna, and Damion stood in front of a blue flag with their weapons drawn. Damion pounces towards Wilbur. Phoboe shoots at Janna, but her arrows ricochet off of her golden dagger, flying back at her with almost-deadly accuracy. Russell easily beats Leslie. Percy charges me. "Hey, Perce." "Oh, hey." "You're going to kick my butt, aren't you?" "No doubt about it." Wilbur grabs the blue flag as Damion backs him into it. A trumpet sounds. "Oh, well, sorry, bro, but you didn't have to. So sorry," I say jokingly. He laughs.