Miss Quinn

23 ~ Annabeth

Emma woke up the next morning to Will's face directly above her. Will smiled and told her to get out of bed.

"Where are we going?" Emma asked.

"Sword fighting with the Athena kids." Will said.

Emma hurried to the bathroom to brush her hair and teeth and change into a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt.

When she got out, Sadie was the only one still there. She smiled and lead Emma to the arena for practice. Will met them in front of the arena.

"Emma, you don't have a sword." Will said as if he'd only just realized it. "I guess Apollo kids don't really fight with swords, but I'll take you to get one."

Sadie entered the arena and Will and Emma went to the weapons shed. Will picked up countless swords and held them up to her, but then put them back and chose a different one.

"Will, how about that one?" Emma asked, pointing to one in the corner of the shed that he hadn't picked up yet. Will glanced at the sword, shook his head and continued studying swords. Emma made her way to the sword in the corner and picked it up. The sheath was made of brown leather that was peeling off in some places. When she unsheathed the sword, it shone with a faint bronze glow. The sword felt perfectly balanced to Emma, but she showed it to Will anyway.

"It is balanced well, but are you sure you want this one?" Will asked.

"Well --" Emma began, but she was cut off by spotting a lone dagger near her. She picked it up and examined it, the sheath was definitely in better shape than the sword's sheath was. The blade cast the same bronze glow around the room when she unsheathed it.

"Can I have this one?" Emma asked.

"A dagger?" Will asked.

"It would be easier to carry around," Emma said, then remembering that Apollo had told her that her wand would transform into a dagger while in the US, she added, "Plus I have another dagger, and this one is about the same as my other one. I could manage twin daggers and a bow."

"If you really want to," Will said, "then you can."

Emma grinned and left the weapons shed, dagger in hand.

After hurrying back to the cabin to get her other "dagger", Emma finally entered the arena. Will paired her up with an Athena girl about her age.

"I'm Annabeth," the girl said.

"I'm Emma."

"You have two daggers?" Annabeth asked. Emma nodded.

"Okay then, let's get fighting." Annabeth grinned and lunged foreword with her dagger outstretched.

Emma -- hardly knowing what she was doing -- blocked the blow and counterattacked. Her blade crashed into Annabeth's and she swung it around. Then with her other dagger, Emma lunged foreword to stab Annabeth through the stomach. She stopped right before the blade touched Annabeth's shirt and her hands fell to her sides.

"I think I won." Emma said.

"Not quite yet," Annabeth said and swung her dagger. Then they were fighting again, her and Annabeth. Each strike made a loud ringing sound in the otherwise quiet arena. Emma didn't even stop to wonder why it was so quiet, she just kept fighting with Annabeth.

Soon Emma had knocked the blade out of Annabeth's hand and had pinned her to the ground.

Emma grabbed Annabeth's dagger and held it in her hand with her own dagger.

Emma could hear clapping and she looked up, all the Apollo and Athena campers were applauding them. Emma realized that's why it had been so quiet, the others were watching them. Emma stood and moved all three daggers to her left hand, offering her right hand to help Annabeth up. Annabeth nodded a thanks and Emma handed Annabeth her dagger.

The two girls glanced at each other and smiled, then were surrounded by the other campers.

"Emma, that was amazing, how'd you do that?" Will asked.

"I dunno, I just did." Emma replied.

Sadie laughed, "It's times like these that your British accent shows more."

The other Apollo campers offered Emma congratulations and then the crowd dispersed.

Annabeth and Emma sat with their backs against the wall and watched the others fight.

"That was exciting," Annabeth said.

"Yeah, it was," Emma agreed.

"You're the girl that Apollo brought personally to camp, aren't you?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah, since I live in England, Apollo showed up at my house and told me about this world, the camp, him, the other gods, and brought me here." Emma said.

"That would be fun, getting a personal escort to camp." Annabeth looked sad, like her arrival to camp wasn't as good as Emma's was. Which it probably wasn't.

"It wasn't that exciting, it was like getting a ride from a relative you barely know." Emma said.

"Why don't you live in America?" Annabeth asked.

"That's a strange question, Annabeth, it's like me asking you why you don't live in England." Emma said.

"Well, the gods live here, and I don't believe Apollo would go all the way to England just to meet your mom and have a child." Annabeth said. It wasn't meant to sound rude, but Emma heard the jealousy in Annabeth's voice. Or was it annoyance?

"My mum came here, to New York, she was visiting a friend. Apollo met her and I guess they did the thing and then my mum went back to England." Emma said.

"Did your mom know about Apollo?" Annabeth asked.

"Oh yeah, she always told me he was a powerful man, she knew about him." Emma said.

"My dad didn't," Annabeth said, "When the first monster came, he freaked and I left." Annabeth said.

"You just left? With no where to go?" Emma asked.

"Well Thalia and Luke found me. They told me who I was -- a demigod -- and we spent a while together, running around. Then a satyr came and brought us to camp, but Thalia --" Annabeth choked back tears, "-- Thalia sacrificed herself, she died."

"She died?" Emma asked.

"Well, Zeus took pity on her and turned her into a pine tree. The pine tree formed a barrier around the camp to keep monsters out." Annabeth said.

"How old were you?" Emma asked, "When it happened."

"Seven," Annabeth said, showing Emma her camp necklace with five beads strung on it.

Emma didn't say anything, Annabeth didn't either. They sat in silence and watched the others.