For most of the night, Annabeth and I tried to separate ourselves but the handcuffs just wouldn't break. I took a closer look and read the label. It said "MAGIC HERMES HANDCUFFS" great I thought to myself. The only way to take them off is the key, which is non-existent right now.

Anyway, the Hermes cabin was really uncomfortable and stuffy, and pretty much the worst sleep ever. Well, the bad sleep might not be all because of the crowded Hermes cabin and might have to do with the fact that my conscience was talking to me all night, keeping me awake! But eventually I fell asleep and woke up in the morning, somehow lying on the floor with Annabeth's head resting on my chest. And that's when it hit me: Aphrodite. She's the goddess of love and beauty. See where I'm going with this?

Here's the plan. I go over to the Aphrodite cabin and somehow find Aphrodite. I haven't really worked that part out yet, but somehow I'll have to make the Aphrodite campers get their mom to come to Camp. Then I'll ask her for help. And if all else fails, well, I don't want to have to do this, but… I'll use my birthday wish. I know, 'gasp', right? But seriously, my sweet sixteen birthday wish is probably extra special. It probably has extra awesome powers. But hopefully I won't have to use it.

I didn't really want to wake up Annabeth, so I just lay there, with her head resting on me, staring up and the ceiling fans spin around and around, while I plotted my plan. 'It'll work' I told myself. And if it doesn't work, well I'll probably be the worst friend ever. So it'd better work.

It was about 7:30 in the morning when Annabeth and I reached the Aphrodite cabin. We sort of had breakfast. If you count my stash of Hallowe'en candy, which consists of: Swedish Berries, Fuzzy Peach, and Sour Patch Kids as breakfast. I explained my whole 'plan' to Annabeth who agreed with me (for once).

Knock knock knock!

A girl in a tight blue tank top and baggy pajama pants opened the door and yawned. "Hmm," She blinked a few times and continued to say, "Morning. What can I do?" She seemed half asleep still.

"Um, we need a favor." I said. I told her about the little problem and she said she could help, but only for an exchange.

I was completely fine with the deal, but Annabeth wasn't too thrilled. "Annabeth, please? For Thalia?" I begged. She frowned, but she still looked so pretty.

She let out a huge sigh and I knew she was going to give in. "Fine." She muttered with clenched teeth as she rolled her eyes.

The trade was they would call their mother, in exchange for making over Annabeth. I sat there for an hour while the Aphrodite kids painted her face with make up. I have to admit, she did look pretty when they were done. Then they called their mother and held their end of the deal.

"Oh, my favourite couple, I see!" Aphrodite greeted us. "How are you two love birds doing?"

"Um, fine, but Lady Aphrodite, we need a favor." And then I explained the whole Nico-Thalia situation.

"Oh dear. This is quite a problem you have here." She said with a smile. Why is she enjoying this? I asked myself. "But I'm afraid I can't do anything." Lady Aphrodite said sweetly.

'Are you kidding me? You're the goddess of love! Wha-? Seriously?' is what I was thinking in my mind, but of course, I wouldn't say that out loud. Instead I said "Please, Lady Aphrodite. You are the only one who can help us. You are the most beautiful and loving out of all the gods." Flattery always works, right?

"If I helped you, that wouldn't be as much fun, now would it?" she replied.

"But if you don't help us, then there won't be a Nico-Thalia soap opera to watch anymore." I coaxed.

Aphrodite looked like she was considering helping me. "Hmm, you seem to have a valid point, and I do love my Saturday night Nico-Thalia episode… All right Perseus, I will help you."

"Here." Aphrodite said as she held out her hand. I took the contents in her hand.

"Umm… tissue paper?" I asked.

She sighed. "No, it's not tissue." She said sounding annoyed. "Look inside."

I unwrapped the pink tissue paper and found a whole whack of beads. "Umm... beads?" I asked, sounding stupid, again.

"Yes". "But everything you need is in there. I can't help you anymore, it's against the rules, and besides, then I wouldn't have a show to watch tonight." She winked and disappeared. Kind of like a magician. Only no top hat, and no parrot. But anyways, we had some super magical string on our hands and we weren't sure what we were supposed to do with it.

"Maybe we're supposed to tie them together until they work things out." I said enthusiastically. Annabeth just sighed.

"Well, she said everything we need is in the tissue wrapping. Let's look again." Annabeth suggested.

I pulled out the package from my pocket and we examined the gift. "Let's see; beads, chain, heart charms, instructions…" I said as I took out everything. "Wait, instructions!" I screamed. "Friendship necklaces?" I asked as I read out loud the title of the paper.

"Yeah, that's it! We have to make them friendship necklaces, I guess." Annabeth said.

"'Kay, good. So, do you know how to make them?"
Annabeth shook her head.

An hour later we were in the same spot as when we started. "These instructions make no sense! Why is this in English?" Annabeth growled in frustration. "These pictures don't resemble anything!"

"It's okay, Annabeth. We'll figure it out." I said reassuringly. After another hour of attempts, we finally got it. We decided they should be the same pattern for the magic to work. But see, we're not exactly sure how it's going to work, or if we're doing it right, because the instructions are in English, and well, we didn't read them. So since we're guessing here, the best guess would be to make them the same, right? So we picked black and gold beads. You know, to represent their godly parents. Okay, so I wasn't exactly sure what colour represents them, but if I were to guess, I would guess black and gold. Besides, black and gold look cool together. And if I'm all wrong and this doesn't work out, you can blame Annabeth for not correcting me.

After another hour of 'string, bead, attach to chain' we were finally finished.

"Okay, we're done!" Annabeth said happily. "So now we just have to give them to Nico and Thalia. I'll talk to her and subtly give this to her, and you give the other to Nico, okay?"

"Yeah. Meet you back here in forty-five minutes." I said and turned around to head off to the Hades cabin, which is new, by the way.

I knocked on the door. No response. I tried again.

'Mmmm' and a grumble was all I heard.

"Um, Nico? Can I come in?" I asked shyly, afraid he'd be mad. I heard no response, so I invited myself in.

I saw he was just lying on the covers of his bed, face planted into his pillow.

"Um, are you… all right?" I cautiously asked.

No response. Again.

"Okay… um, well, here." I held out the friendship necklace. He just looked at it and at me. He didn't budge. "It's from Thalia." I persuaded.

He thought for a second and then took it. I new that'd work.

"You know what? I hate that Thalia." Nico said. What? That's not supposed to happen! I thought.

"Uh, why?" I quickly and nervously asked.

"Because." Was Nico's answer. Then he went on and on about why he didn't like her which I accidentally tuned out. I sat there for half an hour listening to him gabber about how much he 'hates' Thalia. Finally I looked at the clock on Nico's wall and said "Oh, look at the time, I've got to meet Annabeth. I'll see you later." As I was leaving his cabin he yelled one more thing. "And you know what else? I hate names that start with T!"

"It's terrible. Thalia claims she hates Nico." Annabeth said.

"Yeah, Nico too."

We, or maybe just Annabeth, took a few minutes to think about the new situation. "Oh no." Annabeth finally said. "You remember the instructions? There was more than one pattern design. We must have used the wrong one. That's the only explanation." Annabeth concluded.

"So now what?" I asked. Every time I try I make things better, I make them worse.

"I asked Artemis to stay a few hours more." Annabeth said.

"And what did she say?"

"No." Annabeth answered

"Oh." I said.

"But then I told her some of the campers need help with their archery and she agreed to help them. But we only have one extra day. So, to the Aphrodite cabin?"

We told Kayte our problem and she asked us "Well, what colours and charms did you use?"

"Black and gold, with the half heart." I answered.
"You can't use those. The heart that is split into two halves like regular friendship necklaces is for making two people hate each other. That's why the heart is split in half." Kayte said with a 'duh' kind of tone.

"Ohhh…" I said, my voice dropping as I said it.

"What can I do to fix it?" I asked.

"I dunno." Kayte said uninterestedly.

Later we saw that Artemis was all packed up with her Hunters, and was about to leave early. This was our only chance. Who knows when the Hunters will be back at camp? We could see in the distance that the Hunters were leaving the camp borders. We ran as fast as we could trying to stop them before they leave, so we could straighten this all out, but we were too late. They disappeared. I felt like the worst person in the world. And it was all my fault.

I bolted upright with a gasp. It was a dream, or more like a nightmare. Then I exhaled slowly, and noticed everyone standing around me. I looked around and I was lying on the Athena cabin's couch. I fell asleep waiting for Annabeth.

"Happy birthday!" Everyone around me shouted.

"Happy birthday Percy!" Annabeth said bending down to give me a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks everyone." I mumbled still half asleep.

All my friends took me to the party they set up on the beach and I told them about my dream.

"Haha! Like I would ever listen to your advice!" Nico said laughing with Thalia.

"Let's play Truth of Dare, the Extreme Demigod version." Rachel suggested.

Oh no, here we go again! I thought.

Sorry about the extremely late update. I was really busy, but I finally finished. Better late than never, right? Thanks for reading my story!