The Child of Hera

Chapter 31-Birdie

The day passed by too quickly. Birdie was up at breakfast, and tons of people came to sit with her. Namely the seven, Nico, Reyna, Calypso, and Luke.

Luke was sitting extremely close to her, but trying not to touch her. Every time they brushed shoulders, they blushed, and Piper awed.

During breakfast, Will came up and shoved a paper into her hands.

"This is your schedule. Every day, you'll be training personally with me. That's four straight hours and two hours after lunch of wing developing. We're going to make them strong enough to fly. Starting tomorrow."

Afterword she told Luke, "This is going to be torture."

He just smiled and told her that if she got it over with, then she would get to stop eventually.  

The day was gone before she knew it.  Piper was dragging her to her cabin after dinner to get pajamas and other stuff when she had second thoughts about going.  

When they got there she said, "What's going to happen?"

"At the slumber party?" Piper asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, we'll probably play some games. Like truth or dare, two truths and a lie, and other stuff. We might watch a movie, or talk about boys, snack all night, the usual."

Birdie raised her eyebrows. Since when had any of those things been the usual? The usual, was making sure that no one stole your food while you were sleeping. The usual, was trying to find a place to sleep in the first place. The usual was being able to wake up and fight at a moment's notice. That was the usual. Not snacking, and watching movies, and talking about boys. Were they really safe enough that they could do that?

Piper picked out a pair of fuzzy peacock blue pants and a white T-shirt for her. She then went rummaging in the bathroom, and found her toothbrush and other necessities. She picked up a blanket from off of her bed, and pulled Birdie out the door.

"How are you so fast?" she asked.

"I'm a daughter of Aphrodite. Slumber parties are my thing."

Birdie was so confused. They ran into the woods, and when they reached the cave, Rachel opened the curtain for them.

"Get inside before Mr. D. finds out!" she giggled.

"Wait," said Birdie, "Mr. D. doesn't know?"

"Chiron does," said Hazel, "but Mr. D. hates it when we have little get togethers like this."

"Why?"

The girls shrugged. Whatever.

"Let's start with truth or dare!" exclaimed Calypso.

Everyone else nodded. Except for Birdie.

"What's that?"

They all stared at her.

"You've never played truth or dare?" asked Reyna.

Birdie looked down. "I never had any friends to play anything with. I never had a permanent home before now."

The girls looked at each other.

"Well," said Annabeth, "we'll just have to teach you."

After they briefly explained truth or dare, the group started to play.

"Piper, truth or dare," asked Annabeth.

"Hmmm. Truth."

"Have you ever kissed anyone besides Jason?"

Birdie was astounded. Why would anyone play a game that threw around such private information?

"Yes," said Piper, "My dad!"

The girls laughed. How sweet!

"Calypso, truth or dare?" asked Piper.

"Rachel," Calypso insisted.

"What?"

Annabeth laughed. "Rachel Dare! That's funny!"

Then the other girls started to laugh, getting the joke.

"But anyway, I dare you to eat three of Rachel's Old Greek Peppercorns."

Calypso eyes widened. Rachel got up and pulled a big jar with read bean looking things in it out of the cabinet. She handed Calypso three of them, and she dropped them onto her tongue. She winced, but the other girls looked confused.

"Huh," said Rachel, "Usually that makes people cry and call for their mothers."

"They're not that hot," said Calypso, "It's like kissing Leo."

Everybody laughed.

"Annabeth, truth or dare?" asked Calypso.

"Truth."

"Have you ever kissed Luke?"

Birdie's stomach seemed to take an elevator down to her feet. She looked at Annabeth, who was looking back rather nervously.

"When I was little, I would kiss him on the cheek, to say goodnight, but never a real kiss."

Birdie breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. Not that it mattered, but still. She really would have appreciated it if Luke had never kissed another girl.

"Truth or dare?" Annabeth was looking at Birdie. Whoops.

"Erm, truth?"

Annabeth smiled. "What is your favorite thing to do?"

Seriously? Wait a minute, this could be embarrassing if she answered honestly.

"Um, truthfully?"

The girls nodded.

"Read people's minds and start spouting their most embarrassing memories."

Everyone laughed.

"Do me!" said Rachel. "What's my most embarrassing memory?"

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely!"

"All right," Birdie answered. She placed her hand on Rachel's head and began to see. She immediately started giggling. She ended up laughing, rolling all over the floor.

"Nothing could possibly be that embarrassing," said Rachel, "I'm an open book."

Between gasps, Birdie said, "Does Annabeth know that you kissed Percy?"