Divergent Path

I Almost Forget to Start a War

***Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Very thankful for all of you and I hope you've enjoyed reading my story as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I'm trying out a new style of chapter titles that look a lot more like uncle Rick's original ones, please let me know what you think and I may change all previous ones to match them. Anyways, hope you enjoy the chapter and have a great and safe Thanksgiving.

Chapter 12: I Almost Forget to Start a War

If the hunters had to be described in a word, it'd have to be unruly. Thalia lounged on a sofa with her legs kicked up against one of the bunk beds inside the Artemis cabin. Even her earbuds blaring Dead Kennedys didn't do much to drown out the ruckus caused by the nearly thirty girls crammed into the building meant to house fifteen. The scene around the daughter of Zeus consisted of hunters sleeping strewn across random furniture, aggressive chatter about maiming male campers, and full-on wrestling matches. All of it silenced at once when they heard a sharp rap on the door.

Thalia hopped up from her seat and reached for the handle. She opened it to find a sniffling Annabeth wiping tears from her face. Thalia looked at her stone-faced. This was her best friend that she had recently found out cheated on her other best friend who was also her brother-ish. And there was a lot of divine manipulation involved, so it made their relationship a little complicated to say the least.

"What are you doing here?" Thalia settled on, doing her best to keep her voice neutral.

"Hi, Thalia. I guess you know about everything, but that's not why I'm here. I, uh, was going to check on Percy, just to see how he was doing," she started.

Thalia's eyes flicked down to Annabeth's hands, which were fiddling with her magic Yankees cap.

"You mean you were spying on him while invisible," she rightfully assumed.

"That wasn't - yes. I didn't know if he wanted to see me but I needed to see him. But anyways, what I came to tell you was that he was with Artemis. As in, with Artemis. In his bed."

This caused every hunter behind Thalia's head to snap in the direction of the open door. Thalia maintained a stony expression. She was working to both conceal her own excitement at the opportunity to catch them, and her apprehension of her sisters' reactions now that everyone had heard. She cleared her throat before responding.

"We'll handle it," Thalia said before slamming the door shut.

Annabeth took a few steps away from the cabin and stared into the night sky. She had immediately run from Poseidon's cabin to Artemis' after what she had seen. Annabeth took a moment to reflect on why she had just exposed what she was certain was a big secret to the hunters. Was it jealousy? Desperation? Some unfair need for revenge? Whatever it was, she realized it was the wrong decision, and she was tired of making the wrong decisions, especially when it came to Percy. She turned on her heel and knocked again, set on somehow taking back what she had just said.

Thalia opened the door again. Annabeth swore she watched several of the hunters wipe massive grins off of their faces as if they were trying to hide something from her. A smile seemed to be tugging at Thalia's lips as well but Annabeth shrugged it off, focused on undoing her decision.

"Actually, I just thought about it and I was probably wrong. She's THE man hater right? So it wouldn't make any sense, anyways. I most likely saw something that wasn't there; it's already dark out and I'm obviously not the most unbiased party. Sorry for the confusion," she tried to explain as convincingly as she could, fumbling through her words.

Thalia's eyes softened a bit listening to her; she knew what Annabeth was trying to do. She still had her reservations, but it showed her Annabeth still had a good heart, even after the mistakes she had made.