Gone With The Tides - (Percy Jackson/Avengers Story) [boyxboy]

Chapter 13

I can only smile as I watch her walk away. There wasn't a better best friend out there than her. "See ya, Wise girl."

I turn back to my dad as she sits down with Piper and they share a brief kiss.

"How are you?" I ask returning my gaze to my dad.

"Pretty good. Things have been pretty calm. Especially since you left. Just sayin'."

"Wow. Very funny. The two of you. Is this a military base or a comedy club?"

"We're actually changing out the name to Aristophanes's Comedy Club," he jokes, raising his hands like he can see the new name hovering just between his outstretched fingers. I half expect the cantina to break out into four-part harmony.

"You're weird."

My dad laughs and bumps my shoulder with his playfully. As we gradually move up in the lunch line, I take short glances around the room, taking in new faces and old. But mostly a lot of new.

"You guys get a new shipment of Greenies or something?" I ask nudging my dad.

He looks up in surprise and then sees me looking at him. He smiles playfully, "Oh yeah. 'Tis the season." He then tilts his head thoughtfully before adding, "Though now you mention it," he says looking around, "I guess we did get a lot more this semester."

I just hum in response.

Lunch on the weekends is always either pink mush or brown mush. The brown mush days were better than the pink mush days because we weren't sure what exactly the pink mush was and we were pretty sure the brown mush was some sort of ground beef. Others thought it was better off not knowing.

Today ended up being a brown mush day. Oh, joy.

The lunch people unceremoniously plop some mush onto the trays and put them up for us to take.

"You'd think the lunch would be better here for a non-public school. This stuff is shit," I hear a student mutter from behind us in line. Snickers follow like a chorus of hyenas. My dad turns to me and winks playfully before spinning towards the cadet who had spoken.

"What did you just say, private?" My dad all but yells in the kid's face. I smirk internally because I know that my dad thinks the exact same thing as the kid had said; he just wanted to rough up the noobs a bit.

I watch in glee as the kid gulps hard and stutters out, "N-Nothing, Sir." The poor private lowers his eyes, practically melting to the ground.

"That's Colonel, to you, Greeny," my dad barks.

"Y-Yes, Colonel," the kid squeaks out.

"If you don't want the food, private, I suggest you don't eat it. These people are feeding you, and they really don't have to. In fact, if I were them, I'd let your ungrateful ass starve. Am I understood?"

"Y-Yes, Colonel," the kid mutters.

My dad looks like he might mess with the kid a little more before he seems to let up a bit.

"Get outta here, Private!" My dad barks. The boy and his friends who laughed all but sprinted out of the cafeteria.

The entire mess hall breaks out into laughter including my dad and I. My dad pats me on the back and we take out food and walk over to an empty table.

I'm still chuckling a little when we sit. "That was cruel, dad."

He sends me a sly smile, "He's one of Annabeth's kids. She told me to rough 'em up a bit before she really started work on them."