Apparently, according to Annabeth, helping the Stoll brothers play a prank on the Ares cabin was a doomed idea to begin with. Who knew?

The Stoll brothers had approached me during breakfast a couple of days ago, both sitting either side of me, their mouths already set into matching one-sided smiles.

"Morning, Leo." Travis drawled, the older boy picking up the chocolate muffin sitting on my plate and taking a massive bite from it.

"Hey-!" I started to protest but Connor cut me off by slinging one of his arms around my shoulders, his brown hair falling into his eyes.

"Has anyone told you how awesome you are? I mean, you do whatever anyone asks you, no questions asked. You're just so loyal." Connor said, blue eyes gleaming earnestly, eyelashes batting.

I groaned and looked between the two brothers; Travis still had his mouth full of my now half-eaten muffin with a few crumbs falling on to his chin and Camp Half-Blood shirt; Connor was still smiling creepily at me, a slight manic look in his eyes, making me edge very slightly away from him. He didn't appear to notice and I groaned again, knowing perfectly well whatever they were trying to get me into was not good.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"We want you to help us prank the Ares cabin." Travis said at the same time that Connor said, "We just wanted to talk to our best bud." The brothers looked over at each other, Connors eyes glaring daggers whilst Travis just sat back casually though his blue eyes watched me carefully, waiting for my reaction.

"What prank?" I questioned while my mind was already racing with all the possibilities. A smile played on my lips just thinking about Clarisse's reaction.

Connor coughed and then spoke up, ducking his head towards me and speaking in a low voice. "We were thinking somewhere along the lines of greasing all their swords and arrows." He said and chuckled lowly.

I smiled as well, a scheme already coming to mind. "Why don't we take it a step further?" I inquired, lifting my eyebrows at the boys and smilined mischievously.

A couple of hours later when the whole of the Ares cabin were doing their archery practice, Connor, Travis and I snuck into the deserted place, a packet of 800 plastic cups, jugs of water that magically refilled themselves after we had used them all up and bottles of cooking oil between us. Travis and Connor started laying down all the cups into the rows on the floor then filling them with water. I went to the part of the cabin they harbored all of their weapons: swords and arrows gleamed and winked in the mid-day light and I couldn't help but brush my hand against the pieces of art before me. I took all of the bows out, well at least the ones that were left, and splashed them all with oil, making sure that they were greasy and slippery.

This was going to be fun.

An hour later we were done and slipped out of the windows of the cabin, laughing and stumbling away. It only took another 30 minutes until we heard the yells and screaming coming from the sons and daughters of the God of war. Travis smiled gleefully and jumped up, running to the door of the Apollo cabin, quickly followed by his brother, as well as me and some other Apollo kids.

When I saw what had happened outside I burst out laughing, clutching my ribs and falling against a wooden beam.

Clarisse stood outside, her brown hair matted to her forehead and water stains clear on her jeans. She was yelling at one of her siblings to "Stop kicking all of the damn cups over" while the others slipped and fell on the wet floor of the cabin. Weapons lay everywhere and they looked slick in the light of the sun.

Once I started laughing Clarisse turned towards me, her eyes already growing darker and her right fist clenched tightly while she pointed at me with her other hand.

"You," was the word that came out of her mouth and I stopped laughing, though I couldn't help but smile. Connor and Travis both laughed quietly at the Ares cabin, which only made Clarisse madder. She started to stalk over to us, eyes hard and angry and mouth twisted.

"Oh Gods..." murmured Travis and leaned away, shoving his hands into his back pockets.

"It was you wasn't it, Valdez?" Clarisse spat at me. Up close I could see that her arms were shiny with oil and her clothes wetter then I had thought. Practically all of her shirt was wet and stuck to her body tightly.

A smirk came on to my face, because I obviously have a death wish. "I wouldn't go so far as saying it was me, exactly." I said smoothly.

At that precise moment Percy, Jason and Hazel rounded the corner. Percy had his eyebrows pulled together, because obviously seeing a cabin that had soaked teenagers walking out of it was not the usual thing round here. Hazel's mouth was turned down in a frown and Jason was looking at Leo, eyebrows raised and questioning. I just shrugged at him, as if to say, "What am I to do? I'm going to get murdered by Clarisse anyway."

"Hey, Clarisse, chill out." drawled Travis. Which was exactly the wrong fucking thing to say. Clarisse leapt at him with her hands fisting into his shirt and shoved him against the pillar. He let out a small grunt, and then shoved Clarisse away. They both glared at each other before Travis started to walk towards her again: which is luckily when Jason slipped in between the two demi-gods and looked at Travis, his face disapproving.

"Don't start a fight, Travis. We need to stick together." Jason said, authority in his voice, just like an older brothers. Travis blinked at Jason, his face angry and eyes squinted.

"Get out of my way, Grace! I'm going to chop Stoll's balls off!" Clarisse yelled and shoved Jason aside but yet again he just span back around and placed himself squarely between Clarisse and Travis.

"No, you're not. Travis and Connor played a prank on you. Now move on. You would be more helpful if you went and helped your siblings." Jason said with a slight edge to his voice.

Clarisse stared at Jason for a second before she growled at him. "You're so dead, Gra-"

"Enough, Clarisse!" Chiron yelled and the small group that had formed when Clarisse and Travis started to fight, all turned around to face the fatherly figure they had all come to respect. "You have done enough for one day. As for you, Travis, you can go and help clean the Ares cabin along with your brother. I am sure your assistance will be welcomes with open arms." Chiron said and pointed to the cabin, looking between the two Stoll brothers.

"But Leo helped as well-!" Travis began, his face pleading.

"I have to talk to Leo alone. He will come and assist you later. Now, run! You too Clarisse."

All three groaned and trudged towards the Ares cabin, Clarisse's shoes making a squelching sound as she walked forwards; she tossed a glare to the Stoll's and straightened her posture up, already yelling at her siblings again.

I turned to Chiron and frowned at him, wondering what he wanted to talk to me about: I mean I hadn't really done anything particularly bad, besides pranking the Ares cabin and setting a basketball on fire when I was playing. I winced at that last thought and Chiron scrunched his eyebrows together, looking at my expression quizzically.

"So, what do you want, C-Dog?" I questioned with my usual smile. It was a nickname that I had come up with a couple of weeks ago and it had caught on; I hardly ever called him Chiron anymore, and he kind of hated it.

He ignored the nickname and instead placed a hand on my shoulder: his calloused fingers were ruff against the skin that my shirt didn't cover; his smile was full of sympathy, almost apologetic. I stepped back slightly, getting ready to shield myself for whatever he was about to say. I don't know why, but I already knew it was something bad. Maybe because there seemed to be nothing good about the way his eyes bore into me, like he was seeing how ready I was for whatever news he had.

Chiron turned towards the lake and started walking, obviously expecting me to follow. I hesitated for a second, considering the possibilities, then thought screw it and ran after him. When I caught up the short distance he had covered we walked in silence for a while.

I could hear laughter and chattering from the campers.

I saw birds and insects flying around; the water of the lake reflecting the sun.

Then Chiron stopped suddenly and turned to face me. The comfortable silence we had had only seconds ago breaking and shattering into a place that I had buried deep inside my mind.

"Leo, this morning I was told of a prophecy of sorts." Chiron studied my blank expression and continued "It involves you." And at that my heart sank. Another prophecy?! Do the gods hate me, or something?

"Okay... so what is it? What do I have to do? 'Cause, I mean, I'm all for helping people and saving the camp, but I don't think I can deal with more Titans." Simple question, a sarcastic remark, but I couldn't deal with the answer I would get.

"You have to save your sister, Leo. Before she dies."