The snowball hit my head with surprising force. I turned around and saw Grover high-tailing it—wait, no, hoofing it—out of the sword arena and quickly followed him, dropping Riptide neatly into my pocket and scooping up snow to use as a weapon instead.

Running up behind the Demeter cabin, I looked around and didn't see any sign of Grover. Suddenly, there was a loud SPLAT and the back of my head and shirt were soaked with slush. I whipped around and didn't see anyone, but I heard invisible giggling about three feet to my right. I pounced, and Annabeth appeared, twisting out of my grasp with her Yankees cap slipping off her head into the snow.

"I guess Poseidon's domain doesn't extend to the frozen kind of water," Annabeth taunted, still laughing and brushing snow off herself as she stood up.

"I guess it doesn't," I snapped back, digging half-melted snow out of my shirt collar. I tried to scowl at Annabeth but she just laughed at me again and grabbed by hand.

I was leaning in to kiss her as a conch horn blew in the distance (don't ask me how I knew that it was a conch horn, I just did). Annabeth turned in surprise, her blonde hair softly smacking me in the face.

"What do you think it is this time?" She asked with an edge in her voice.

"Oofph," I replied, trying to recover my dignity and pulling strands of her hair out of my mouth. Still holding my hand, Annabeth strode toward the Big House, with both of us wondering how the world would decide to end this time.