Annabeth Chase and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Chapter 1- Percy Accidentally Vaporizes his Pre-Algebra Teacher

 I sat on a bench in the arena, watching Luke swing at the training dummies. He fought with such skill, that I was quickly impressed, even though I'd repeatedly seen him do this before. Don't get me wrong, I'm usually not easily impressed, but I couldn't help it. Luke was impressive. I stared at him for a while, before he finally turned to look at me. He seemed surprised to see me.

Hi there. I'm Annabeth Chase, demigod daughter of Athena. I have naturally curly honey-blond hair and stormy grey eyes. The guy I'm watching train is Luke, son of Hermes and my only close friend here for the past five years, besides Grover and Chiron. Speaking of those two, they still hadn't come back from that 'important mission' they were talking about. I wondered what they were up to...

"Oh, hey Annabeth!" Luke called, jolting me back to reality. His sandy blond hair had swept over his face when he turned, and his blue eyes were alight with a smile. "Didn't see you there." He smirked. "Did you come down here just to watch me practice?"

I was aware of my face heating, and I quietly prayed Luke wouldn't notice. "No, of course not! I was looking for you, but my intent was to practice with you. You just seemed really focused, and I didn't want to break your concentration."

"Sure." Luke rolled his eyes playfully. I silently willed myself not to blush again, but, of course, I didn't listen. Now, you might misinterpret the blushing and hoping Luke wouldn't notice, so I'll clarify. I didn't have a crush on him. He was seven years older than me after all. It was just that, even though I probably already had it, I really wanted Luke's approval. And some girl who just blushes a lot does not easily earn Luke's approval. I glared at him. "What? What'd I do?" His tone sounded way too innocent for him to actually be innocent. I glared at him again, and he met my gaze and glared back, though he seemed more amused than annoyed. We kept each other's eyes a moment longer, before Luke broke the stare and the silence and asked, "Well? Are we going to practice or not?"

"Umm, yes! Yes we are." I unsheathed my knife and stood.

Luke held up his sword, then hesitated. "Are you sure you don't want to use one of the practice swords?" he asked me. "I mean, sword against knife isn't really a fair fight."

"I always use a knife. Swords just don't really balance well for me. Also, if I were fighting a monster who just happened to have a sword, do you think I'd get a chance to go get a sword instead? This is how it would be in the real world"

Luke shrugged. It seemed my retort had convinced him. I couldn't help but feel triumphant. It wasn't easy to beat someone seven years older than you in an argument with only one retort. It also wasn't easy to beat someone seven years older than you at swordplay, and that was something I was much less sure I could do. I readied my knife and faced Luke. He raised his sword. "So..." he asked. "Just a regular sparring match?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much." I hesitated, then added, "Just please don't kill me."

Luke laughed in a kinda cold way that surprised me. "Don't worry. I won't." he grinned the same way he always did, and the odd moment passed over and was quickly forgotten.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Later that night, I sat on my bed in the Athena cabin, contemplating the earlier duel. To no one's surprise, I had ended up against the wall of the arena, with the point of Luke's sword at my throat. For the millionth time. I must have looked pretty upset about it because Malcolm, my half-brother and second-in-command as head counselor of the Athena cabin, came up to me.

"You okay?" he asked, looking genuinely concerned.

"I'm fine."

"You sure? You look down." He hesitated, then got a knowing look in his eyes. "DId Luke beat you at sword fighting again?"

I didn't answer.

"Well?" he finally asked after a long and awkward silence.

"Yes..."

He sighed and shook his head. "Annabeth, he's the best swordfighter this camp has had for the past 300 years. No one here can beat him, except maybe Chiron."

I sighed. "I know, I know. Still, it's exasperating. In the five years we've been here, I might have beaten him once."

Malcolm shrugged. "Well then, you're lucky. The rest of us have never beaten him, not even once."

I sighed. Malcolm was right. I probably should have been considering myself lucky. I thought again of Luke's cold laugh in the arena, and his promise not to kill me that had sounded almost fake.

And with that depressing thought, I rolled over and went to sleep.