Our dashingly brilliant plan worked perfectly. The Hermes cabin appeared from nowhere and in seconds Aphrodite and Hypnos cabins found themselves with weapons to their throats. Piper was the only one who appeared to care. She hopped to attention, blade in hand, but a few of my cabin mates and I surrounded her and Hernando whacked her dagger away with his sword. I gestured to Rob. “Get the flag”
He had just turned towards the shimmering blue flag when we all heard a loud conch call in the distance. Everyone else dropped their weapons. Piper let out a yell of excitement and appeared to be trying to encourage her cabin mates. They would have none of it. “What just happened?” I asked like an idiot.
“We lost genius,” said Travis, “The other team got flag first.”
“Clarisse is going to be PISSED,” Said Connor, “Royally pissed.”
Everyone began to pack up their weapons and such and I followed the dejected Hermes Cabin back to the main camp. My new necklace felt heavy around my neck. I thought I was practically dragging myself along for the short hike. Even worse my idea weighed heavy on my mind. Everyone decided to come along but it was my idea that lost us the game. My smart plan brought the whole team down.
We had just about reached the dining area when Clarisse yelled to our cabin some words that aren’t fit to repeat on a civilized document. She bore down on us like a tank ready to fire. “You idiots!” she yelled in our faces, “You wrecked my war plan!”
Her spear was strapped to her back but it still crackled with electricity. The necklace was getting heavier by the second. I knew I had to do something before I collapsed under its weight. “I came up with the plan,” I said with as much courage as I could muster “I thought that because Hermes is the fastest cabin that we could get the enemy flag first.”
For the first time her anger seemed to cool the tiniest fraction. “Well maybe you should’ve trusted me new kid. I knew Malcolm would try that stupid pincer move for the third week in a row. That leaves only the Hephaestus cabin to search for the flag. You guys could have taken it and outran them while the rest of us broke the enemy lines. Instead the metal heads found the flag totally unguarded.”
By the end of her monologue, she was speaking at a fairly reasonable volume again. “I’m sorry Clarisse,” I said, “It was my fault. I lead them the wrong direction.”
In truth I hadn’t felt that I’d done much leading at all but the weight of the necklace around my neck seemed to disappear. It actually felt like normal jewelry again. “Just don’t let it happen again.”
She scoffed and stomped off to join the rest of the Ares cabin gathered around Chiron. Our aged teacher proceeded on through the laurel ceremony, heaping glowing praise unto the victorious team before finally awarding the winning laurels to Athena cabin and its teammates. I nudged Hernando. “So I guess your dream about us winning the laurels didn’t turn out.”
“Hey Frosty, it was your dumb plan that got us into this.”
There was mock cynicism in his voice but he kept his smile the entire time. “Just you wait. I won’t be wrong again.”He said.
Chiron finished as the sun began to set over the tree line. I caught myself staring at my shoes when a felt a friendly punch in the arm. I looked up to see Jake with his goofy smile and some grass stuck in his hair. “I heard what happened at CTF man. It wasn’t your fault. You’re new, you’re still figuring things out.”
“Is figuring things out always going to suck this much?” I replied.
“Cheer up friendo. You go get yourself sorted out and then call me and we’ll play some ping pong in the Big House.”
“How am I supposed to call you?”
“Whistle, moron.”
Whistling had always been an inside joke between us. One day during my 5th grade year, we sat down on the playground and tried to figure out what the birds were singing out. Jake would try to tell me but I thought he was full of crap. Then I had the idea for us to try communicating by whistle. Somehow we kept it up over the last few years. We’ve even developed an elaborate code system so we can whistle in class or when we’re too far away to talk or when we just don’t want anyone else to know what we’re saying.
I decided to take a stroll by myself like I usually do when I need to think. I wandered aimlessly around camp for a while, letting my thoughts drift, like an iceberg lost at sea. Soon, I found myself in the woods right near where we had been guarding our teams flag. I sat down on a moldy log and slipped off the necklace Chiron gave me. I felt a huge weight missing from my shoulders. I hadn’t realized it but the necklace had been getting heavier and heavier since I had left Jake behind. I still wasn’t really even sure why I had it. The other campers in Hermes said that magic items were super important, especially ones gifted by horse man himself. They told me he gave Percy a magic sword. Piper got a dagger that could see visions. Even Travis had magic socks, or maybe it was Connor. They were always fighting over them because the socks never needed to be washed. The only thing that this sword necklace had ever done was remind me when I screwed up. “I hope this isn’t going to be a pattern,” I said aloud to no one in particular.
I checked my old wristwatch by the moonlight. It was approaching 10 pm and Jake told me the harpies would eat anyone out after curfew. I decided not to take any chances. I started on the path back to the camp cabins
…
When I got back to the Hermes cabin, everyone was playing cards as per usual. Agatha was winning the hand with a full house. “Well look who’s back,” she said.
“Finally,” said Connor.
“We were worried about you,” said Travis with mock concern.
“Yeah I’m sure,” I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
I climbed up onto my bunk and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Notes

This chapter is a little dull. I'm sorry the story is going so slowly but I can only write with depth. That means you need to deal with chapters like this every once in a while.