The seven lay in Percy's cabin, driven to the air-conditioning by the heat from outdoors. Percy and Annabeth sat on the far edge of one of the beds, Percy leaning against his girlfriend and complaining about the heat, saying "If we go outside, our bodies will boil and evaporate."

Annabeth frowned, "I don't think that's possible, Seaweed Brain."

"It feels like it." Jason said, who was sprawled out on the floor with his head in Piper's lap.

"Does that mean we can freeze too?" Hazel wondered aloud, sitting with Frank on the floor leaning on a bed next to Percy's.

"I'd definitely rather be a popsicle right now," Leo groaned, laying over the side of the bed opposite of Percy with his head almost touching the floor, his eyes trained on Jason. "Hey, Superman."

"What?" Jason looked at the son of Hephaestus who had a huge, lopsided grin on his face, which looked funny seeing it upside down.

Leo extended a hand. "High five!"

Jason frowned, but obliged.

"Maybe Nico can make it cooler in here." Percy whined.

"That only happens when he summons the dead, so unless you want to hang out with some skeletons…" Hazel let her voice trail off.

"Uh, nevermind." Percy muttered.

Suddenly, Leo's eyes widened and he bolted upright, his arms raised above his head. "I have an idea!" he cried, then realized he was facing the wall and turned around to find them all looking at him apprehensively.

"We should build sandcastles!" Leo announced.

"Yeah!" Percy agreed enthusiastically.

"Sure," Hazel said cheerfully.

"I bet I can build a better sandcastle than Percy," Jason called.

"Oh, no, this won't end well." Piper moaned.

"Of course it will end well. This will be fun Beauty Queen." Leo grinned. "Let's vote. All in favor?"

The mechanic's hand shot into the air, followed by Hazel's, Jason's, and Percy's. After a moment, Frank raised his hand too, after seeing the eagerness on Hazel's face. Annabeth couldn't turn down an opportunity to us her architect skills and raised her hand too. Piper was the only one who hadn't voted for Leo's idea. She was fairly certain that this would end up being something more than just a friendly competition between Percy and Jason. "I don't have any better ideas," Piper said as she relented and stuck her hand in the air with her friends.

"What are we waiting for," Leo shot out of bed and raced to the door, looking back at his friends expectantly.

"We should invite Nico." Jason said.

Percy thought about this. "I'd like to see a sandcastle of death. Maybe it will come with mini skeletons."

"It couldn't hurt to ask." Hazel said, hoping that Nico would say yes, but doubting that he will.

Jason stood up and walked past Leo and into the heat.

….

"You are building sandcastles?" Nico said in disbelief, stand in the doorway to his cabin.

"Yeah, you should join us!" Leo exclaimed.

Nico rose an eyebrow and looked at Leo for a long time. Just as Jason was beginning to gain hope, Nico rolled his eyes and grunted, "This shouldn't surprise me. No." The cabin door closed, leaving the Seven standing on cabin 13's doorstep.

"Okay then," Leo said, taking off toward the beach with Percy right beside him.

The other five demigods trailed after them at a much slower pace. Jason watched as Leo's shoe dug into the sand, bringing the son of Hephaestus to the ground, face-first. As he fell, he managed to grab Percy's leg and pull him down too.

Jason sighed and ran to the fallen demigods.

"The sand tried to swallow me!" Leo cried as Jason helped him to his feet.

"Dude, did you have to take me with you?" Percy complained as he stood up.

"Yes, if I am going to be taken, I need to offer you for my freedom."

The rest of the Seven caught up to them. Piper turned to Annabeth. "We can't even get to the beach without problems."

Annabeth turned to watch Percy and Leo bicker. "You didn't expect something like this?"

…..

Waves lapped on the shore of the empty beach and sunlight reflected off of the water. Some seagulls called out in the distance. The peacefulness was interrupted by the excited chatter of a certain group of demigods.

"I say Percy will win," Piper said.

"Not me?" Jason whimpered, giving his girlfriend puppy eyes with his bottom lip pushed out in a pout.

"Come on, Pipes. How can you resist that face?" Leo asked.

Piper smiled. "His puppy eyes won't change his sandcastle."

"I'd say Annabeth," Percy admitted.

"Yeah," Frank agreed.

The daughter of Athena had already pulled out a blank sheet of paper and was drawing on it.

"Definitely," Hazel said.

"Aww, mine won't be too bad. It will be better than Percy's," Jason said.

"No, Annabeth will win, but mine will be better than yours," Percy said with confidence.

"See you when I have made an awesome sandcastle," Leo said, sitting down on the soft sand.

As the rest of them split up to find their own spots, Hazel asked, "Can Frank and I team up?"

"Yeah, sure," Leo said, busy with the wet sand.

Hazel smiled.

….

Nico closed his cabin door behind him and shoved his hands in his pockets, walking toward the beach. Curiosity of how the Sevens' activity would end up had pulled him outside. Besides, he didn't have anything better to do.

He stopped at an impression in the sand that looked like two people had been laying in the sand. After a moment's thought, he decided it must have been Percy and Leo and continued towards the beach.

He skirted around the group, staying out of sight. He came up on their left and started walking down the line of demigods.

He stopped at Piper's castle-in-progress, pointed at it, and said, "Nice block."

Piper laughed. "Hi, Nico."

"Hey."

"Nico, you came!" Jason shot to his feet. "Want to sit next to me and build a castle?"

"No."

Jason's face fell. "But, Nico…"

The son of Hades ignored him and continued down the aisle.

Next was Annabeth with her blueprints laid out on the sand next to her. "Complicated," Nico grunted as he looked over the blueprints.

Percy had a small cylinder of sand for a castle with piles of shells and pearls beside it. Nico nudged the pile of shells with his shoe, toppling it over. "Interesting," he commented, then walked away, leaving Percy watching him go with a smile before tidying up his shells again.

Hazel and Frank sat across from each other, a pile of sand inbetween them. The two looked clueless as to how to build a sandcastle without it falling apart.

Nico knelt beside his sister, kissing her forehead before saying, "You'll get it, just keep trying. Getting it wet helps keep it together."

He nodded to Frank and walked over to Jason, Hazel looked after him with a smile.

Jason's sandcastle looked the same as Hazel's – as if he had taken an armful of sand and plopped it on the ground in front of him.

"Jason, why haven't you started yet?" Leo teased him.

Nico frowned at the mound of sand. "Nice pile of dirt."

"It's beautiful! It's all going according to plan," Jason insisted

"Come back here, Travis!" someone shouted. Nico looked up to see Travis being chased by Connor. They were heading straight toward Jason's sandcastle, if it could be called that.

"Hey, Jason!" Travis yelled as he planted a foot into the sandcastle.

"My masterpiece!" Jason cried dramatically.

In one swift motion, Nico unsheathed his Stygian iron sword, flipped it in his hand so he was holding the blade and held the hilt out in front of him, catching one of Connor's legs as he attempted to leap gracefully over the now foot-imprinted mound of sand. Connor face-planted into the dirt, just missing Jason's castle. Nico smirked, "That's for last week."

Connor scrambled to his feet, spitting sand out of his mouth. He looked at Travis, who was getting away while he could and grinned at Nico. "Nice one." Then he took off after Travis.

"Well," Nico said to Jason, "you're castle looks much better now."

Nico walked over to Leo, who had an old style castle with a mechanic drawbridge and a moat. In front of it was a small banner that said "Welcome to LeoLand!" A group of sand people stood looking at the banner with their hands in the air as if they were cheering.

Nico crouched beside it and looked a little closer at the people. "Are those zombies that are going to invade the castle? Cool."

"No, they are celebrating the grand opening of Leoland!" Leo received a glance from Nico and threw his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, they can be invading zombies. Just give me a sec and I'll fix it."

Nico stood, satisfied. "We'll see."

…..

"We need Piper to help convince people to judge," Percy said.

"I'll stay behind and make sure that Travis doesn't ruin anything," Leo offered.

"You're just going to ruin my masterpiece, Leo," Jason accused.

"Don't you trust me?"

"No."

"I can stay," Hazel offered.

"I'll watch the sandcastles with her," Annabeth said, heading over to Hazel.

Percy's eyes narrowed. "Okay, but if you touch my castle, yours is going to end up looking worse than mine."

Jason looked at Nico, who was standing off to the side adjusting a few bones in his hands. "You coming with us?"

"No, I'll stay with Hazel."

"Don't touch my castle Nico, or I will send the ocean after you," Percy warned.

Nico scowled. "Why would I want to touch your castle, Percy? It's not like it is the best one anyway."

"Hey!"

"Alright, let's go find some judges," Jason said as he started walking towards the camp's infirmary.

…..

Jason looked around the infirmary.

"Jason!"

He turned to see the person he was looking for – Will Solace.

The son of Apollo scanned the five demigods, but could see no injuries, "What are you doing here?"

"We were building –," Percy was cut off by someone calling Will's name.

Lou Ellen came racing around the corner with a confused look on her face and a mug in her hands. She bowed to Will and presented the cup to him, "Your coffee."

"Thanks," Will took the mug from her and looked back to Percy. After seeing Percy's questioning gaze, Will waved his hand in Lou's direction and said, "We had a bet-"

"Ahh, I see. So, we wanted to ask you if you would be interested in judging a sandcastle competition."

"Am I invited?" Lou Ellen asked, excitedly.

"Sure," Percy responded with a smile.

"I don't see why not," Will shrugged.

…..

Connor and Travis Stoll were standing in front of the Hades cabin, covering it with glitter and pink hearts.

"You know that Nico will get you back for that, right?" Percy asked with a frown.

"He can try. He hasn't gotten me back from last week yet," Travis smirked and Connor pouted.

"Do you want to judge our sandcastles?" Piper asked sweetly.

Connor shoved Travis toward them. "Take Travis, just spare me!"

"Dude, they're just sandcastles. I didn't even put any bombs in mine this time," Leo said seriously.

"If I get coffee afterward, then I'm in," Travis said, looking at Will's cup.

"We'll see," Will responded.

"Okay," Travis said, leaving his brother to finish the prank. He sarcastically called over his shoulder, "good luck, bro!"

…

As the group returned to the beach, Jason saw Nico place something on top of Hazel and Frank's castle.

Nico stepped back, saying, "Now it's defended."

Upon closer examination, Jason saw that it was a mini human skeleton made mostly out of real rats' bones. It even had a mini toy gun.

"That's so cute! Thanks, Nico!" Hazel hugged her brother.

Nico frowned, "skeletons aren't cute."

"That is adorable, di Angelo." Leo said.

Nico scowled. "Then I suppose that you think full-sized skeletons are adorable?"

He didn't get a response. Jason cleared his throat. "We have our four judges."

"Four?" Hazel asked, only seeing the three campers that were standing beside Percy.

Jason looked at Nico.

The son of Hades narrowed his eyes. "You are suggesting me."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Nico…" Jason whined.

"Please?" Hazel asked sweetly.

Nico's eyes softened. "Fine."

"Thanks Nico!" Hazel smiled at her brother.

"But only for you." Nico said, glaring at everyone else.

"Someone has a soft spot for their sister," Will remarked.

"Shut up, Solace," Nico muttered, watching the Seven sit by their castles.

"I think it's cute."

Nico turned slightly red as he turned away.

…..

Travis, Lou, Will, and Nico approached Piper, who had a princess castle decorated with little shells. The door had a little heart engraved into it and there were windows scattered throughout the castle.

The daughter of Aphrodite looked up with a bright smile from her place beside her castle. "Hello!"

"Hi," Will responded. He looked a little closer at the designs engraved in the walls. "Cool design."

"It's cute, I like it." Lou Ellen announced.

"Thank you!" Piper smiled.

Annabeth still had her blueprints out beside her in a neat pile.

Her sandcastle was three stories and about as high as Will's waist. It had fancy pillars and huge windows on each floor that allowed the viewer to see inside. Inside were mini sand replicas of average household items. In front of the castle was a statue of Athena. "It reminds me of a dollhouse. You even made the furniture for all of the floors!" Will exclaimed.

"Fancy," was Nico only comment.

Percy had a cylinder of sand, decorated with seashells and pearls.

"Are the pearls real?" Travis asked.

"Yeah," Percy said.

"Percy, that sucks," Nico announced.

"It does not!" Percy defended his castle.

"It kind of does."

"It's beautiful, and anyway, it is better than yours; you didn't even make one."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Really, Percy, that's the best you've got?"

"Nico, don't be so negative. I know you are a son of Hades and all, but Hazel isn't this bad." Will chided.

Nico shrugged, "She isn't the Ghost King." He moved on, not waiting for a reply, to his sister's and Frank's castle.

Nico heard Percy exclaim, "Hey, where are my pearls?"

Travis came up beside Nico and showed him a pile of Percy's missing pearls in his hand. Nico smirked and turned to Hazel and Frank. The two of them had built a basic turret, a cylinder with the big blocks for soldiers to hide behind on the top.

The small skeleton that Nico had placed on top still stood there, ready to defend the castle.

"I like it," Nico said, receiving a smile from his sister.

"I have an idea," Lou Ellen snapped her fingers and the tiny skeleton started tap dancing.

After a moment, Nico frowned. "Skeletons don't tap dance."

"That one does," Lou Ellen protested, releasing Nico's creation from her spell.

Nico looked over at Jason, who gestured for him to come over.

As the judges came over, Jason presented his sand castle with a flourish, waving his arms around. "Behold, the amazing fossil of Travis Stoll."

Travis grinned at the sight of his footprint surrounded by a wall. The son of Hermes doubled over with laughter.

"Interesting…idea," Will noted slowly.

Nico snorted. "That's all you got, Grace?"

"Perfect replica of Travis' footprint," Lou Ellen clapped her hands.

Travis finally recovered, "That is truly amazing!"

"Thank you, it took all of my artistic abilities," Jason said, standing and bowing.

"To build a wall?" Nico asked, unimpressed. He didn't wait for an answer and moved on to Leo's.

The mechanic had the same ancient-looking with the celebrating people, except now, there were people climbing the wall to get to the roofless top. "This is LeoLand!" Leo exclaimed, pressing a remote control button. The banner lit up and started changing colors. Little fireworks went off from inside the building and exploded at about eye-level to Nico.

"Why are people climbing the building?" Travis asked, "Are they stealing something?"

"It is a zombie invasion, courtesy of Nico di Angelo," Leo responded.

"Not bad," Nico admitted.

Leo grinned wider than he already was. "I did something worth of Death Boy's approval."

"Yeah, yeah," Nico waved it off.

"It's very detailed," Will complimented.

"I like the fireworks," Lou said, watching the last one explode above the castle.

"Which one's your favorite?" Percy asked the judges.

Will answered immediately, "Annabeth's."

Lou Ellen thought for a minute. "Piper."

Travis grinned at his protected footprint, "Jason."

Nico didn't provide an opinion until Will nudged him expectantly with his shoulder. The son of Hades scowled. "Leo."

"Team Leo!" Valdez shouted.

Nico rolled his eyes, his scowl gone. "Don't make me change my mind."

"That means that I built a better sandcastle than you, Percy!" Jason yelled triumphantly.

"At least mine's actually a castle!" Percy yelled back.

The judges grouped together to discuss the overall winner.

"Mine's original," Jason reminded them proudly. "Hey, where'd it go?"

The remaining seven demigods looked down to see that their sandcastles had also disappeared.

"The winner is. . ." Lou Ellen turned around to face the Seven and two castles came back into existence – Annabeth's and Leo's.

"It's a tie?" Leo asked

"Yep," Lou said cheerfully.

"Annabeth's has an incredible design and was executed perfectly while Leo's had some amazing mechanical additions." Will explained.

Leo stood up and started doing the hokey-pokey. After a moment, Travis joined in. Percy pouted at his own loss and refused to join in their dance. Leo stopped and went to go high-five Annabeth. Travis high-fived Will for who-knows-what. Lou returned all of the sandcastles and looked at Nico, who was watching his friends, looking slightly amused, with his arms crossed.

….

Connor Stoll finished the last heart on the Hades Cabin and ran across camp to hide behind a different cabin to wait for Nico to return. After a while, Nico came into view with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the ground. As he approached Cabin 13, Nico looked up and stopped, staring at the cabin for a moment. Then he summoned some skeletons, sending one to get Connor, one to get Travis, and sending the rest to repaint the cabin black. Nico walked around to the back of his cabin and found a bucket of pink paint and some glitter in the bushes.

The son of Hades turned around to see two skeletons returning with Connor and Travis in tow. Nico took the pink paint and dumped it on the two unconscious brothers before dumping the glitter on top.

The skeletons picked up the sons of Hermes and brought them to the center of camp and laid them on the ground before returning to Nico, who disappeared into his cabin, leaving his skeletons to finish repainting the cabin.

Percy, who was on his way back to his cabin, took one look at the Stolls and knew that Nico had gotten his revenge and the son of Poseidon decided he was not going to use his water powers to help them clean up.