It's a Demigod Christmas

It had been a long month. The demigods and satyr had talked and fought with the gods just to get each other presents, but today was the last day. Today they would find who had given them their gifts and they could all go back to their normal lives (or as normal as a demigod's life could get).

Today was December 25th, and all the demigods were snuggled into the Big House for their last gift giving with a few new friends.

Calypso had decided to come a spend the Christmas with Leo so she sat with him on the couch.  Juniper also came for Grover and they sat on the opposite side as the fireplace. Shel had come with Piper and she sat next to her friend who was cuddling with Jason. Rachel had come out of her cave to watch the final gift swap ad even Tyson was there, putting a new star back on the tree because Percy broke the fist one. 

"Who's gonna guess first?" Leo asked the circle of demigods. No one really wanted to go first, mostly because they didn't want it to end. Yes it had been stressful and weird, but they liked seeing the look on people's faces when they saw their gifts and getting to open their own form some unknown person.

"I'll start," Will finally gave in with a sigh. 

He surveyed the room for a minute, looking at everyone's expressions. He had received medical and musical things, which meant this person must not know him super well, giving him safe gifts that he would like. That meant Nico, Leo, Annabeth, Percy, and Jason were out. 

Will also knew that this person must know some kind of god or something because no one could have gotten him that serum from a store. That knocked out Frank, Grover, and Piper, which left Thalia, Reyna and Hazel.

"Was it. . ." Will guessed uncertainly. "Hazel?"

Hazel shook her head in a no and Will frowned.

"Okay, now whoever is Will's Secret Santa can stand up and give him his gift now," Leo told them.

Will looked around at his friends faces and was shocked to see Grover stand up and hand him a box.

"How. . ." Will trailed off. "How did you get the. . ."

"Medicine?" Grover finished. "I sort of, ran into a god."

Will could tell there was ore to the story but he didn't push. Instead he unwrapped the present and stared at a little sun globe.

"It's a sun lamp-orb-thing," Grover explained bashfully. "Mortals use it for light therapy and it can help you feel recharged. Hermes said you might be need it soon."

Will held the lamp-orb-thing in his hands and spun it around. "So Hermes was the god you 'ran into'?"

Grover nodded, "do you like it?"

Will smiled brightly, "I love it! Thank you!"

Grover smiled and everyone turned to look at him exspectantly.

"What?" he asked, confused. 

"You have to guess your person now," Jason told him.

"We aren't going in a circle?"

"No!" Leo groaned. "Just guess your person."

"Oh, uh," Grover looked around. He hadn't thought much about his person but one thing sticked out to him, the tree he had gotten was from the Underworld, and only two children of the Underworld were around.

Grover looked across the room at Nico and asked, "is it you?"

Nico gave him a smirky smile, "Nope."

Thalia Grace then stood up and handed Grover his last gift.

"It was you!" Grover gasped.

"Sure was, Recycling bin," Thalia grinned. She looked to Valdez and he smiled cheekily. 

Grover didn't understand the name reference but he opened his gift to see a reed pipes inside.

"Didn't you break your old one?" Thalia asked as she sat back down.

"I lost it," Grover corrected. He held the pipes in his hands but before he could put them to his lips. . .

"Grover," Nico said seriously. "I love you and I think you're a great musician, but don't play that now."

Grover laughed and set his pipes on his lap. It was now Thalia's turn.

"Hmm," she hummed. Thalia had no idea who her person was so she just did enimine-miny-mo and her finger landed on Annabeth so she picked her.

Annabeth, surprisingly, stood up and handed her a box. 

Thalia gave her a fist bump as she walked back to her place next to Percy before she ripped open the box. Inside lay a photograph in a frame. It was of young Grover, Luke, and Annabeth posing in front of her tree.

"We took that a month or two after we came to camp," Annabeth old her. "I thought you'd like it."

Thalia touched the frame, afraid that if she touched the actually picture or even the glass on top on top, she would smudge it. She had read Luke's letter that had said how sorry he was for everything and how he was grateful that he could finally rest peacefully.

"I guess it's my turn," Annabeth said, taking all eyes away from Thalia. "It's Piper."

Piper rolled her eyes as she stood to give her the gift. "It's no fair that your a daughter of Athena."

"You all have magical powers," Annabeth playful fought back, "I have a brain."

She opened her small package and cheered when she saw it was new and softer hair ties.

"Thank you," Annabeth told Piper thankfully, "I've needed these."

Piper smiled and then turn her eyes to Leo. "It's my turn and Leo is my Secret Santa."

"What?" Leo exploded, jumping up. "You were my Secret Santa!"

"No dummy. Annabeth just got my gift!"

"What? Well, I'm not yours!"

"You're not?"

"I am," Reyna broke up the argument and gave Piper he gift.

Piper and Leo both 'oooh'-ed and Piper open her gift to find a Target gift card.

"Yes!" she exclaimed.

Reyna smiled and then looked around at the group. She had gotten weapons and one of them was a lipstick taser so it was either a girl or a guy with a girlfriend. So, that was Percy, Jason, Annabeth, Hazel, Frank, or Piper. Annabeth and Piper had already gone and Hazel wouldn't gift such weapons since she wouldn't even know what a lipstick taser was. She shuffled through the last suspects when one seemed more obvious.

"Jason Grace," Reyna said playfully accusatory.

The former Praetor stared dumbfounded at her. He stood up and gave her the gift but with a shaking head and a smile.

"How did you know?'

"You aren't very stealthy," Reyna told him with a smile. She opened her box and found a black ring inside.

"Aphrodite had intended for it to be. . ." Jason said, "something different. But, I asked Leo for some help and I heard that people who are aroace wore black rings on their middle finger or something-"

"It's perfect," Reyna told him, holding up her hand and looking at the black ring around her middle finger.

"Well, that's a relief," Jason sighed. "My turn now. Um, I'm going to go with Frank."

"Not me," Frank said.

Percy tossed a box over to Jason and the son of Zeus grinned. "Your gifts are awesome bro."

"Thanks bro."

Jason opened his box and he squealed as he held up a harness.

"What is that?" Piper laughed.

"Percy and I had this idea," Jason excitedly explained, "That I could fly and carry Percy through the air and he could do the same to me in the water. Our dads can't do anything because otherwise they'll hurt their kid!"

"It's truly genius," Percy nodded. "But right now it's my turn to guess and I'm guessing Grover!"

"I've already gone," Grover said.

"Oh," Percy laughed. "Well, that was my only guess so who was it?"

Nico gave a sigh and begrudgingly stood up and handed Percy his gift.

"Aw," Percy sighed. "I knew you loved me Nico!"

"Still not my type, Jackson," Nico huffed and settled back next to Will.

Percy sighed and opened his gift. Inside was a card that said:
I, Lord Zeus, gives Perseus Jackson one pass to not get struck down when he is being impertinent." 

"What did you get?" Thalia asked.

"It's a bad mouth Zeus for free card!" Percy exclaimed.

"You do it all the time anyway" Annabeth pointed out.

"Yeah, but now I have some assuredness."

"Okay I'm just going to get this over with," Nico interrupted. "My Secret Santa is Valdez so had it over."

"How are you not a daughter of Athena," Leo asked as he handed the gift to him.

"Well, unlike children of Athena, I'm not full of myself," Nico threw a glance at Annabeth.

"My fatal flaw is pride," Annabeth corrected. "And yours is grudges so it's not much better."

"I over came my fatal when Bianca told me to," Nico pointed out and started to open his gift. "For the most part."

He opened the squishy wrapped present and when he saw the squish mellow inside, he felt a feeling he had only felt for one other thing before in his life, Will Solace.

"Are you good Nico?" Will asked. "Your eyes are really wide.

"This is my new favorite thing ever," Nico whispered in amazement.

Leo laughed, "your welcome! Now, is Hazel my Secret Santa."

"No," Hazel replied.

"I am," Frank spoke up and handed a gift over to Leo.

"Thanks man!" Leo  grinned. He opened the gift a held up a bag that was full of. . . woodchips?

"Thanks Zhang," Leo said. "I love this. They taste really good on some toast-"

"They're magic," Frank told him with an eye roll. "If you sprinkle them on a tool, it will work on it's own."

"Wait, that's actually really helpful," Leo said in amazement.

"Okay, my turn," Frank ignored Leo's comment. "Is it you Hazel?"

"Yeah," Hazel said bashfully. She handed over a gift and Frank open it up to find enough arrows for two quivers full.

"Thank you," Frank told her sinserly.

"Your welcome," Hazel responded. "So I guess that means Will is mine."

Will smiled and gave her the last gift. The last gift of the whole game.

Hazel slowly opened it and held up a key chain.

"It's magical," Will told her. He didn't remember where he got it but somehow he knew what it was. "It can tell you where anyone is. Is just say the name and it was point you in the direction you need to go."

Hazel stared at her new accessory, "thank you."

Suddenly, the door swung open and Chiron trotted inside.

"Chiron!" greeted the demigods, satyr, and dryad. 

"What are you all doing in here?" he asked with a smile.

"We were playing Secret Santa," Percy told him.

Chiron's eyes went wide. "Secret Santa! Oh thank the gods you are all still here!"

"What do you mean?" Annabeth asked.

"We've had demigods play this game before," Chiron told them. "But the gods like to take advantage of them and get them to go on crazy quest."

The demigods and Grover all nodded and then gave each other crazed looks.

"I assumed as much now," Chiron sighed. "Please never do this again."

The group of kids nodded and Chiron walked out.

"Well, I guess we're aren't doing this next year," Leo said glumly.

"Hey, it's Christmas," Calypso pointed out. 

"Yeah, we can still hangout all day," Rachel pointed out.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Piper asked. "Snow ball fight!"

All the people in the room ran towards their coats and rushed out the door. 

It had been a long month full of quests and tasks and gods and magical things, and well, I guess you could say it was a very demigod Christmas.