stollen things || c. stoll

2.4 ~ Let's Be Honest, I'm A Capture The Flag God

Yeah, Connor avoided me all week. It was probably for the better. It had reached Friday, and it was Capture day.

Just past lunch, I got called to the Big House. I was probably about to get kicked out of camp for the kind things I'd said to Tantalus.

I opened the door and peeked in. "Maddy Callaghan? I was summoned?"

"Ah! Mindy." Mr. D said. "There's a phone call from your brother. He says it's important."

There was only one phone in the entire camp, and it was the landline in the main room of the Big House.

I picked up the phone and leaned against the wall.

"Adam? What's wrong?"

A laugh came from the other line. "Adam? What's wrong?" The voice mocked. "It's me, silly."

"Charles?" My jaw dropped. "How did you get this number?"

"I asked your dad."

I made a mental note to kill my dad later, but I just smiled. "Wow! Uh, that's great, Charles. What's up?" I glanced over at Mr. D, who was still in the room.

"Uh, sir?" I covered the phone with my hand. "Do you mind giving me just a minute alone? It's important." I lied.

Dionysus grumbled and got up to move.

"Right, sorry. What's up?" I repeated.

"Do you want to make us official? Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

I was so taken aback that I said something really intelligent along the lines of "Urghh huh?"

"Mads? You still there?"

I swallowed, and said, "Yes. Uh, sure. Yea."

"Fantastic! See you in August!" He hung up before I could say anything else.

I put down the phone and walked out of the room, stunned. I wasn't expecting Mr. D to ask if I was okay, so I just left the house.

I went through my afternoon activities — volleyball and firework making — and spent all of free time telling Madge and Katie about Charles.

At dinner, Connor didn't look at me once. Travis sent me a few apologetic looks, but I knew why Connor was avoiding me. He must've been embarrassed about the chariot race last week.

•

"Alright. Again, you know the rules. Go have fun I guess." Tantalus growled. The whole quest ordeal had put him in a very bad mood. If you thought he was sour before, then you'd be blown away by today.

We all ran into the woods and began to strategize. More of my cabin had joined us this week. I was assigned to defense with a few Athena kids. We stuck the flag on top of Zeus's Fist, and waited at the bottom of the pile of rocks.

Turns out Athena pumps out a lot of pricks, because the Athena kids were acting elitist and being rude. When they left me alone to guard because they told me I was stupid, I was almost glad. Except for the fact that I was guarding a flag all alone.

An Ares camper came bursting out of the tree line, but I easily grabbed him with vines and threw him far away before he could even get close. My victory didn't last long, as two of his siblings followed right away. They were much faster and I soon found myself fighting off two children of the god of war. I was impressed with myself, to tell the truth. All until one got around me and scampered up Zeus's Fist.

Upon noticing this, I hit the other boy on the head with the handle of my sword, then turned and pulled an arrow to shoot him in the foot. It worked, and he fell. I wondered if that counted as maiming.

The other boy wasn't knocked out, and soon came to his senses. I'd let myself get backed into a corner defending the flag, and the boy was pressing me further back. Soon I had no space to even jab with my sword, just block his movements. I couldn't keep it up forever. I just prayed that there was an Apollo kid hiding in the trees or something.

No such luck. The boy suddenly stopped fighting and slumped forward onto me. I let out a small shriek and pushed him to the ground. Someone had knocked him out.

"Don't worry, princess," Connor grinned. "I'm always here to help a damsel in distress."

I allowed myself a small smile. "Well, thank you. I'm not used to taking two guys at once."

He smirked as I said it, but I was eternally grateful he didn't make any comments on my phrasing. He didn't really have any time, as even more campers on the red team popped out of the woods.

"How about I take you up on that helping a damsel in distress?" I got into a fighting stance, and he matched it next to me, each having the others back.

"No choice, Callaghan."

The Ares campers wasted no time in attacking us. I knocked one guy's helmet off, then kicked him in the chest into a tree.

"Sorry!" I called out.

"You're sorry to the guy trying to hurt you?" Connor chuckled.

"No, I'm sorry to the tree, silly."

He let out a real laugh this time, almost letting his guard down.

"Stoll!" I hissed as I tossed my shield at the boy coming right for Connor's neck. "Am I the damsel or are you? Pay attention."

The impact had put the boy out of commission as well, and there was just one more to go. We both pressed against him until he  fell and dropped his weapon. I stomped, and the sword fell right into the earth.

"Nice." Connor actually sounded impressed. "Pleasure doing business with you." He took my hand in his to shake, but instead he flipped it and kissed my knuckles.

Electricity flew from my knuckles all throughout my body, but I just cleared my throat and looked away. "Yeah, uh, we gotta make sure the flag doesn't actually get taken."

We both turned up to Zeus's Fist, but with all our fighting we hadn't noticed the Hephaestus boys grab our silver flag and run off with it.

"Shit!" I growled, and the conch horn blew. I had lost us the game. Connor and I made our way back to the creek in shame, but were surprised to see that it wasn't the Hephaestus kids celebrating, but the Apollo kids. By the looks of it, Michael had made it across the creek just before the other team had.

Connor and I both let out a sigh of relief and embraced with excitement. We let go almost immediately and stepped back a few feet. We both looked away at everything but the other.

"I have to-"

"I'm just gonna-"

We rushed off to join our cabin mates.

•

early update! i have SO many drafts backed up so i'm cutting your updates in half be thankful

guys i'm on a roll rn writing like a chapter a day however i'm so tired like all the time lol and also would y'all want a heroes of olympus sequel when i finish this

aLSO i know you're reading this in the middle of the night >:( ily but go to sleep