All's Fair In Love And War

Sitting In A Corner

After a few days of letting us do what we wanted, Cupid and Venus decided that we needed another official mixer thing.

"It's not just any mixer though, contestants!" Venus promised us. "It's a poolside mixer."

I scowled. This was just going to be a competition of who could find the skimpiest swimsuit.

"Juniper, shoot me now."

"You'll be fine." She insisted. I couldn't even see her from my seat, she was so far back in the racks of clothes. "And I think I found something you'll like."

"If it's two piece I'm not wearing it."

"It's not...completely." She stepped into view.

"That it?" I asked.

"This is what we're starting with. Put it on so I can decide on the rest of the outfit."

"Yes, ma'am." I rolled my eyes and began to strip so I could put the swimsuit on.

"Reds and browns." Juniper said from behind me.

"What?"

"Colors that I think will work." She responded absentmindedly. I could hear hangers rattling."Also, you have to have your hair down. Venus specifically said so with you."

I grunted and stood in front of the mirror, scowling. "Did you have to pick this one?"

"It was that or a bikini." Juniper appeared behind me and held up a strange see through shawl like shirt. "Put this on and tie the little strings."

I did so, looking at my appearance. "Where did you find these?"

"Each stylist gets to pick from a community style catalog. We aren't allowed to use things that others have until their contestant leaves. The kimono style shirt is from Phoebe's closet."

I nodded slowly. "Hey, can I pick the shoes?"

"They have to be sandals, but sure." Juniper pressed silver earring studs into my hand. "Put these in."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

"Fine." I wrestled with the earrings as I looked at the shoes Juniper had.

"These are pretty good." I pulled a pair of simple brown strapped sandals.

"Alright, no makeup because it's a pool party and you hate makeup anyway." She pulled me to the chair and sat me down. "Your hair is so wavy."

"I always have it in a braid, so yeah." I watched in the mirror as she began a waterfall braid across the back of my head.

"Hold still, Reyna."

"Sorry."

Juniper stepped back and inspected her work. "Alright, you're good. The waves should stay, I made the a little more obvious. Have fun!"

"Don't count on it." I stood and slipped the sandals on, then trudged out of the room. I noticed that I was the first one out, every single door in the hall that had an occupant was closed.

After wandering up to the patio, I glanced around.

No one was there yet.

"Great." I walked over and sat in a chair, the brightly colored flowers climbing up the wall across the pool from me catching my eyes.

Purple entwined to yellow to red. Out of boredom, I began to name things that were those colors.

"Grapes. Sand. Tomatoes." I wasn't really paying attention to anything around me or what I was saying.

"What are you doing?" I jumped about three feet in the air.

"Nico!"

"Hey. So what are you doing?" He stepped into my view and I suppressed the urge to giggle a little.

I knew Nico was skinny, but this was a bit ridiculous. He was wearing plain black swimming trunks that made his pale tone more noticeable. There was a little muscle, but he seemed rather emaciated.

"Naming stuff with colors. I dunno, I was bored."

"Interesting." Nico sat down on the ground next to the chair and looked up at me. "What's up with your outfit?"

"I'm required to act like a girl, apparently."

"UGH!" We turned to see Gwen marching over, looking completely furious and like a unicorn barfed all over her.

"My stylist is a FREAKING moron!" She enunciated angrily as she plopped down on the chair next to me, giving Nico the smallest glance.

"I noticed." I eyed her. Her rainbow bikini had long strings hanging from the top. Her shoes were striped and the see-through dress she was wearing over it was the same.

"I'm going to chuck these shoes in the nearest trash can. Not only are they ugly, they're probably THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE THINGS ON THE PLANET!" Gwen ripped at the strange plastic that made up said shoes.

"I can deal with them for you." Nico offered.

"Really? Can you do the dress too?"

"If you want." 

"Thank the gods!" Gwen all but tore the dress from her body and tossed it to Nico. The shoes followed into his arms.

A ball of concentrated shadows appeared in his arms and when it disappeared, the strange outfits were gone.

"Where'd you send them?" I asked.

"The nearest Goodwill. Someone will try and make them look good." He smiled.

"Look who's trying to get this over with." A voice teased.

We turned to see Piper and Jason standing there, hand in hand.

"Nah, we're just early." Gwen shrugged. "Might as well actually have some fun before everyone's here. Speaking of," She turned and shoved me backwards, into the pool.

"Gwen!" I spluttered, spitting water from my mouth.

"Incoming!" She jumped in after me.

"You're crazy." Nico commented.

"Course I am! Life would be no fun if I wasn't." Gwen splashed at him.

[A/N So if you've read some of my other stuff, you'll notice that I write Gwen differently. I do that because she's not mentioned very much so she doesn't have much of a character, which means I can shape her. Hope you enjoy, the outfits go Reyna, Annabeth, Silena, Rachel, Calypso, Lou Ellen, Gwen, Bianca. I'll explain their outfits a bit more next chapter]