When Clarisse feels weak, the only thing that runs through her head is I'll Make a Man out of You.

She doesn't know why. She hated Disney growing up.

But Mulan was special, ya know? She was another girl who just wanted to join the army and get the Hades away from her family and the makeup and the matchmaker.

Kindred spirit, that's the word.

Everyone knows that boys are stronger, her weak side says.

They're better.

But in the end, her other side thinks, it's Mulan who triumphs.

When Clarisse is upset or betrayed, Stronger plays nonstop.

Not that she'd ever admit that Kelly Clarkson has ever appeared on her iPod. Kelly Clarkson? How pathetically girly can you get?

But nonetheless, that's the song that plays. Why? Because she knows that the only person she can rely on is herself. She knows that when her mom walked out, she spent three weeks making her way to Camp Half-Blood by herself.

She knows that when everyone in the entire camp she ever liked turns out to be a Titan, she never was and that's the important thing, right?

That's the important part.

When Clarisse is angry, she's thinking about So What.

Which is just sad, really. She doesn't even like Pink. Or P!nk, or whatever it is. She actually thinks Pink (whenever she puts in the exclamation point, she feels stupid and conformist) is overrated. But the song is surprisingly good at getting out all her anger.

She plugs in her iPod and thrashes the guys at the Arena, makes them bleed and cry in pain.

And it feels good. Because so what? She's still Clarisse the Freaking Fabulous Warrior, who fought for and won that Senior Counselor title with everything she had when she was eleven.

So what? Who cares that her life is kind of falling down around her? Who cares that Percy Jerky Jackson is the camp's Golden Boy?

Because she's still Clarisse. And she's still Freaking Fabulous.

When Clarisse is sad, she's listening to Barbie Girl.

She feels like such an Aphrodite when this happens. But someone once told her that you couldn't be sad and laughing (or maybe it was afraid and amused. She doesn't know) and there's something she finds funny about the whole song.

She hates the song, she swears. But there's something so horrible about the song that pulls her right out of her funk and gets her back to normal.

This is why nobody ever sees her iPod. Because Clarisse La Rue has a reputation.

And this why she uses Barbie Girl. Because Clarisse La Rue has two emotions: Pissed Off and More Pissed Off.

When Clarisse is happy, she doesn't need music.