With the Hope of a Swan

Four: Russian Roulette Is Definitely Safer

Nico pushed open the painted blue door, upon which the word INFIRMARY was painted in orange. Terrible choice of color. It must've been designed by the same twit that put all that velvet in Cabin 13.

A blond guy with blue eyes glanced at him when he appeared in the doorway. 

"Look who decided to show up!" 

Nico rolled his eyes. Will pulled him off to the side, out of earshot of his patients. "Where've you been all day? Crap went down at the arena with the hellhound and we really needed you."

Nico scowled. "It's like ten thirty in the morning, Solace. Most normal people aren't even out of bed yet. And the hellhound has a name."

Will huffed. "Demigods get up earlier."

"Anything worthwhile that I missed?"

"Well, the Hypnos cabin decided to strike, but they all fell asleep in the end, as they usually do."

Nico smirked, noticing the way Will's hands moved animatedly while he talked. It was really quite distracting. "What were they protesting about?"

"Prank war. They don't want to be involved in it."

"I saw Malcolm Pace yelling at Jake Mason about all his daggers having flimsy hilts or loose blades or something," Nico recalled. "It does seem to be escalating."

"The latest plans- wait, hang on-" Will reached into his pocket and produced a folded piece of paper "-are to put laxatives in the food to get the Hermes cabin back for Harley. We're gonna be doing that this afternoon, so look out for potential retaliation. Also, someone appears to have bombed the arts and crafts center."

The week after the war, after the Romans had packed up and left, the Hermes cabin started business as usual again. After the Demeter cabin had gotten spray-painted purple, Katie had pranked them back. Eventually, the entire camp had taken sides.

"Retaliation," Nico muttered. "If one more person sticks a bucket of water over my cabin door, I can't promise there won't be fatalities."

Solace had the audacity to laugh. "You have to admit, though-"

Nico never found out what Will was about to say, because at that moment, the conch horn blared three times- the signal for a counselor meeting.

⇔~⇔~⇔~⇔~⇔

The meeting was beginning as usual: clamor and chaos all around. Except it had even more clamor and chaos than usual (if that was possible), so Nico was doing his best to sit in a corner and avoid all the yelling, gesticulating people in general. 

"I'm telling you, Malcolm, it wasn't us!" Sherman Yang spat. "Ares wouldn't drop that low."

"You're saying someone stole your prized explosives." Malcolm Pace crossed his arms. "You know, the landmines that explode when they're moved. The landmines that only the Ares cabin knows how to deactivate and use. Wouldn't you say, then, that the Ares cabin would have been the ones to use a landmine to bomb the arts and crafts center?"

Sherman shot a nasty look at Cecil Markowitz from Hermes. "Someone stole something. Wouldn't Hermes be the likely culprit?"

"I'm with Sherman," Jake Mason put in. "We wouldn't bomb anything."

"Kirsty's covered in second degree burns," Malcolm growled. "Someone's gotta answer for this."

The camp director cantered into the room. The quarreling demigods shut up almost immediately, and Nico let out a sigh of relief.