lacuna [connor stoll]

VII. Snake in the Aphrodite Cabin

CHAPTER SEVEN: SNAKE IN THE APHRODITE CABIN

Things healed slowly.

Nothing could be bad forever. Slowly but surely, Ellie healed from the trauma that occurred in Manhattan.

It had only been a week, but Ellie found herself pulling harmless pranks with the Stoll's again, and helping new campers be sorted.

Grover had taken over the satyr seekers and was sending them out across the world to find unclaimed half-bloods. So far, the gods had kept their promise. New demigods were popping up all over the place—not just in America, but in a lot of other countries as well.

The Hermes cabin was a lot less crowded now, because most of the unclaimed kids had received signs from their godly parents. It happened almost every night, and every night more demigods straggled over the property line with the satyr guides, usually with some nasty monsters pursuing them, but almost all of them made it through.

Nico had some undead builders working on the Hades cabin. Even though he was still the only kid in it, it was going to look pretty cool: solid obsidian walls with a skull over the door and torches that burned with green fire twenty-four hours a day. Next to that were the cabins of Iris, Nemesis, Hecate, and several others. They kept adding new ones to the blueprints every day. It was going so well, Annabeth and Chiron were talking about adding an entirely new wing of cabins just so they could have enough room.

Ellie's claiming still hadn't happened, but she hadn't lost hope that maybe some day it would come.

She was currently playing a volleyball game, Apollo against Ares. Apollo had wanted her on their team, and they were currently destroying the Ares team, despite how much they were cheating.

"Hey, come on!" Austin complained. "You just gave yourself for three points, and we won that point!"

"No you didn't!" Clarisse roared. She pointed to a knife strapped around her waist, scary enough for Austin just nod quickly.

"Right." He squeaked. "You're right."

Clarisse huffed in approval, but Ellie just put her hands on her hips.

"Clarisse, you can't just care people into agreeing with you," She complained. "Since when can you play volleyball with knives?"

Clarisse opened her mouth to yell at her, but someone yanked her away from the volleyball court.

"Sorry guys!" Connor yelled. "I need her for a second!"

"Now it's not fair!" Kayla complained.

"It's completely fair!" Sherman yelled back.

"There's no way that's fun," Connor laughed.

Ellie just shrugged. "I like the game, not the fighting,"