The Demigod Selection

Chapter 53

Hazel's POV

There's a knock at my door in the early morning, startling me into waking up. I struggle to get to the door, wrapping a purple robe around my body tightly. I open the door to reveal the face of the guard I met at the ball.

"Want to have some fun?" he asks, wiggling his eyebrows. "Because I know just how to do it."

"Won't we get in trouble? Besides, I don't think I'm supposed to be alone with a guard. Especially not after the events of last night."

We both shift uncomfortably. I don't know who it was. They escorted us all out quickly after the guard screamed his announcement.

"But you won't be alone. There will be other guards, and another Selected girl. So, that way, no one can get in trouble."

I still feel uneasy, but I dismiss it quickly. All my weeks in the Selection have been dull, other than the life threatening situations.

"Alright, I'm in."

"Good," Officer Valdez says, not sounding the least bit surprised. "Jason, come on in."

He shoves past me and sits on my bed. Another guard shows up. He's the opposite of Officer Valdez. Where he was thin and tan skinned, Jason is muscular and fair skinned. Piper is right behind him and she gives me a friendly smile. I return it before closing the door behind her.

"So, what are we going to do?" Piper asks, stealing the words from my lips.

"I'm glad that you asked, Beauty Queen. You know that grumpy guard that likes to pick on me? We're going to get back at him."

"Who, Officer Zhang?" Jason asks. "You want to prank him? You do realize that if we get caught, we'll be in trouble, right?"

"That's why we don't get caught," Officer Valdez says, rolling his eyes. "Duh."

"What are we doing?" I ask.

"You, Madam Levesque, will be the distraction."

My cheeks turn red and I look down so that no one will see my blush. "Why me?"

"Because you'll be good at it. And we need Piper for something else. So unless he secretly has a thing for good looking bad boys," he flexes nonexistent muscles, "then you're the only one who can do it."

I blush again, but nod.

"Good. You're going to give him this," he hands me a woven contraption, "and tell him that you can't solve it. So while he's busy trying to get his fingers out, Piper and I will come up from behind and dump all of this flour on him."

"That's your genius plan? I got out of bed early just to dump flour on someone?" Piper scoffs.

Officer Valdez slaps himself in the forehead. "So silly of me. I forgot to mention that Piper would be dumping water on him beforehand, so that the flour would stick really well. Jason, you'll be guarding the hallway to make sure no one comes down to witness it."

"Wow, Leo, and I thought that replacing my Jell-O with shaving cream was a bad prank," Jason laughs. "Come on, man, that's not a good one."

"That's the brilliance of it! It's such a stupid prank, no one would suspect me. Everyone knows that I'm a genius."

"You're the only one who thinks that, Valdez," Piper chimes in. "But I'll still do it. I didn't get up for nothing."

"That's the spirit."

"What is this?" I ask, starting to play with the woven contraption Officer Valdez had handed me.

He takes it back from me. "That handy little gag gift is called Chinese Handcuffs. Watch. You stick your fingers in either end of it and they're stuck. The trick is to not pull them out, but slowly ease your way out."