Bobby and Matthew had grown up with one rule their entire life. Their dad’s soldiers and battlefields were not toys. Ever since their older half-sister Annabeth and her boyfriend Percy had shown up one day they were starting to question everything their parents had been keeping from them.

The boys knew that Annabeth wasn’t like them and neither was Percy. When they were little Annabeth had run away and they hadn’t heard from her until a few years ago. It was weird having an older sister again, but she usually brought Percy along with her which they loved. While it was nice that Annabeth liked to read them stories to sleep and helped them build giant Lego cities Percy would always let the boys watch whatever they wanted on TV and would drive them down to the beach during the summers. Eventually Annabeth had had enough of it.

“Percy you can’t do that!” Annabeth called up and crossed her arms accusingly at her boyfriend.

Percy sat positioned at the top of a tree with a foam sword and shield. He had climbed up with tree with grace and now Annabeth’s brothers were trying to mimic him. Percy didn’t see the problem.

“Come on Annabeth! Live a little!” he smiled and climbed up another branch.

“Percy my dad will kill me if something happens to them!” She motioned to Bobby who was crouched with Matthew climbing on his back so they could reach the lowest branch.

“You have stood up to the queen of—”

“Percy!” Annabeth cut him off making a zipping movement over her lips. Her brothers didn’t know that she and Percy were demigods. He mouthed the word sorry then sighed.

“Fine. I’ll come down.” Percy took the branches two at a time then jumped to the ground. Annabeth collected her brothers and took them inside for lunch.

She was trying to find something in the freezer to make when she heard the quick footsteps of a child frantically running down the stairs.

“Matthew? Bobby?” she called. She didn’t get a response. Annabeth closed the door to the freezer and left the kitchen to see what had happened. She was worried that something had found them and gotten into the house. Annabeth was rounding the corner to the living room when she heard something.

“Annabeth over here!” a small voice whispered. Bobby was hiding behind the couch with a bandana around his head and two large Nerf guns. Annabeth joined her half-brother behind the furniture confused.

“Bobby what’s going on?” she asked. He shushed her then handed her a gun and an extra bandana. She didn’t try to question him again and tied the red fabric around her head. It reminded her of Clarisse and the Ares cabin back at Camp Half Blood.

“We’re at war,” Bobby stated as he peered over the top of the couch.

“With who?” Annabeth joined him and inspected the area. She didn’t see anything, but you never knew with monsters.

“With Matthew and Percy,” Bobby looked at her with his big brown eyes that reminded her of her father. He also showed that same kind of intense calculating focus that she associated with herself. A weight came off Annabeth’s shoulders when she realized there was no threat of monsters. Bobby was right though, this meant war.

“Okay kid here’s the plan,” she began. Annabeth explained to Bobby that this was just like their dad’s battle field replicas and that they just had to use strategy to win. After explaining the signals for stop, run, quiet, and attack Annabeth ran to the other side of the room by the stairs and waited. After a few minutes she grew curious as to what had happened to Percy and Matthew. She saw Bobby stirring in his hiding spot and looking anxiously up at the stairs. She put finger up to lips and motioned for him to stay and she quietly worked her way up to the second level.

Ideally Annabeth would have wanted to pull out her Yankees cap and become invisible so that she could stay concealed until the last possible second, but she couldn’t do that with her brothers here. She crept past all the squeaky doors looking for the two enemies, but she didn’t see them anywhere. Eventually she found herself at her father’s study. When she had been little she loved to stare at the miniature soldiers and imagine what it was like to be at war. Now she did know what is was like, but she didn’t love it like she had used to. She did love winning though and she was sure she as going to today.

Annabeth was admiring the detail that had been put into the setup of the battle that was being portrayed when she heard a creek outside the room. She whipped around with her toy gun ready and shot. The suction cup from one of her foam bullets hit the boy in the middle of his forehead. His green eyes went wide with surprise. Percy smiled then let out a loud battle cry that was followed soon by the small shrieking that belonged to Matthew who was down the hall. Annabeth ran up to him and plucked the bullet off of his head and kissed his cheek as she ran back down the stairs to her teammate. Ammo was much more precious in the scenario.

“Go Bobby!” she shouted with a giggle as the opposing team shot at her. At the final step she turned back around and fired at the two boys. Matthew slid down the banister shooting at his brother.

“Matthew you’re going to break it!” Bobby cried and stopped shooting for a moment. Annabeth smiled because she was a stickler for the rules too.

“It’s okay Bobby! Get him!” she said as she ran to the kitchen. She remembered that she had made Percy set down his foam weaponry when he came inside. Annabeth found the shield and slid her arm through the straps. She hid the sword in a cabinet in hopes that Percy wouldn’t find it.

Matthew came into view and shot at her from around the corner. Annabeth held her shield to collect the ammo that stuck to it.

“Hey you’re cheating!” Matthew yelled as he began to shoot at her legs.

“I would never cheat!” Annabeth replied and collected her newly acquired bullets into her pockets.

Percy peeked out from around the wall and used the remains of his ammunition to shoot at Annabeth, but only one stuck to her. It had attached itself to her nose.

Percy ran up to her and took back his missile and kissed her nose like she had done to him earlier.

“Eww!” Matthew grumbled. Annabeth and Percy shared a look then smiled. Annabeth gave him her extra ammunition and he loaded it into his gun. Matthew realized what was happening and began to run back to get help from Bobby.

“Ready Seaweed Brain?”

“You bet Wise Girl.”