Percy POV
Thalia, Nico, Katie, and the Stolls all together in one place. This year would definitely be an interesting one.
"Please tell me one of you have second period Calculus." I said as we walked to our lockers. Papers shuffled as people looked at their schedules.
"I don't."
"Not me,"
"Sorry,"
"Great, so I'm still stuck with Calypso and Victoria that hour." I groaned. Annabeth patted my shoulder sympathetically.
"There's always…"
"No weapons," She pouted.
Calculus that day was (to use a word Annabeth had taught me earlier) excruciating. Calypso sat in the desk next to mine and the entire time she kept trying to pass me notes asking about that morning. I read the first one, just to make sure the mortals hadn't seen anything too terrifying like Nico suddenly stepping out of the shadows or Thalia shooting people with arrows. Apparently it looked like Nico had just snuck up on me, and Thalia had stuck me up on a branch, which was good. Then she kept pushing little folded pieces of paper at me, which I crumpled up and threw back at her. But the thing about Calypso: she's persistent.
"Stop it!" I hissed. She just passed me another note. I gave in, and read it.
What could you possibly see in Annabeth? I mean her tan's obviously fake, her hair's too bright to be real, and she's so… controlling.
Lets see… she's half-goddess, of course she's gorgeous, but that's not even why I like her! I mean sure it helps that she always smells like lemons and her hair shines like a new drachma in the sun. Annabeth's strong, and she's brave. She makes me laugh, she has my back (literally) in fights. She's not controlling, she's just a natural born leader. It's a good thing she's around, otherwise I would have been killed my first quest.
Calypso wasn't worth explaining all this to, so I just crumpled the note and threw it at her like I did the others.
I was definitely looking forward to gym that day. Calypso had been irritating me all day and I needed to let off some steam.
Annabeth met me outside the gym wearing our uniform of black shorts and a t-shirt.
"I heard gym today is pretty entertaining." She said with a smirk, like she knew something I didn't. Of course she always looked like this so I didn't suspect anything.
"Why?" She shrugged.
"I guess we'll find out…" She drawled and opened the door.
The first thing I noticed was a rack of steel swords on the opposite wall of the room.
"Sword-fighting?" I asked, and turned to Annabeth who had a big grin on her face, "We're doing sword-fighting in gym today?" She nodded.
"Yep, and that's not even the best part." Her smile kind of reminded me of the Cheshire cat; sneaky, yet happy.
"What ho, Perce! Think fast!" Battle reflexes mode: on. I spun just in time to catch the hilt of one of the cheap swords on the rack. The person who tossed it, you ask?
"Beckendorf*!" He was standing proudly with an arm around Silena Beauregard*.
"Hiya Percy!" She said brightly, "I see you two are still together," She said, nodding towards Annabeth, "Good! If that ever changes, my mom will kill you both." Aphrodite was a big "Percabeth" supporter. The other, more ditzy, Aphrodite girls had come up with that name for us and it had, sadly, stuck. Beckendorf reached out and shook my hand while Silena kissed my cheek.
"You guys transferred too?" I asked. Beckendorf nodded.
"Yup, senior year!" I was still a sophomore; Nico was a freshman (though he was young enough to still be in middle school. The wonders of the Mist…)
"This is going to be so great! It'll be just like camp, except in school! And hopefully not as many monsters." Silena said.
"One can only hope," Annabeth said wistfully. I nodded in agreement.
"Come hither, children!" Coach Xeno yelled. He was swim coach too, "We're doing something fun today!" Kids eyed the swords with fear, like the dull metal could actually hurt.
"Those swords were terribly forged," Beckendorf grumbled, "They couldn't slice through a carrot."
"That's probably the point," Silena said, "Slicing kids to pieces is frowned upon in mortal society." I laughed.
"Tell that to Annabeth," I said, she stuck her tongue out at me.
"Grab yourselves a sword, children! No killing!" Coach yelled and kids rushed to the rack to pick the "best" of them all. Beck had already thrown one at me, so I was good. The other three demigods walked leisurely to the swords.
"You ready to spar, Perce?" Trinity asked with light in her eyes. Trin would never hurt a fly, but swordplay was fun to all pacifists.
"You know it!"
Once everyone had a sword in their hand, Xeno called for two volunteers. Annabeth and I were best in the class, so naturally he picked us.
"Chase! Jackson! Get up here!" He barked in a very cliché coach voice, "Now, face each other." We did, "Have either of you ever sparred before?" He asked.
"Once or twice," Annabeth answered with a wink towards Beckendorf and Silena. They were smirking.
"You know the basics?" He asked. We nodded.
"Basically," Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"Care to demonstrate?" Finally! I thought he'd never ask.
"With pleasure," Annabeth said and lunged forward. If I didn't know Annabeth so well, and had guessed she would try to cheat like this, I would have become an instant shish kebab a la Percy. Luckily, I was able to block her strike at the last second.
"Cheater," I accused her. She shrugged.
"Can't blame me for trying." She said and twisted our blades free. For a while we went back and forth, easily blocking each other. When things started getting dull, I tried something other than blocking. When her blade thrust forward, instead of blocking it, I sidestepped while at the same time using my foot to kick her blade up. It slipped from her hands up into the air where I caught it.
"A-ha!" I said, holding the two blades toward her, "Surrender?"
"Not a chance, Fish-Face!" She said and jumped up. Using the blades as a lever she kicked up, flipping over me, landing behind me. Before I could turn she kicked her foot up on one of the blades, making my grip on it loosen. It was in her hand, the point pressed to a spot between my shoulder blades. She wasn't stupid enough to show where my real Achilles spot was in front of a bunch of witnesses, even if they were mortals. The incident in English yesterday had been a lot more discreet.
"Where'd you learn that?!" I asked.
"I've had five more years of practice than you have, remember?" She let the blade drop. Bad move. In an instant I had my blade pressed underneath her chin.
"Never turn your back on an enemy, Annabeth." She grimaced. Her gloating had made her forget the most important rule of combat.
Sadly, I did the same thing. She still had her weapon. Gods, it was the island of the Sirens all over again! She jumped back and we hit blades. I was pretty strong, but so was she. Instead of wasting a few minutes trying to overpower her, I used the disarming technique Luke Castellan had taught me waaay back when he wasn't the evil Lord Kronos/dead. Her blade clattered to the floor.
"Yeah Percy!" Beckendorf whooped. I stooped down and retrieved Annabeth's sword.
"You were saying?" She rolled her eyes.
"One of these days, Percy, one of these days…"
"One or two times, right!" Coach said, "You two are some of the best swordsmen I've ever seen." He turned to face the rest of the class, "Partner up and start practicing." Beckendorf and I decided to go at it while Silena took on Annabeth. Surprise, surprise, Annabeth won. But not by much, Silena was pretty vicious for a daughter of the goddess of love.
Calypso and Victoria were in this class, but they skipped every other day. Today was one of those classes where they showed up halfway through with some excuse about homework.
"Beckendorf, Jackson, get 'em up to speed." Coach ordered. Annabeth grimaced, but said nothing as she continued fighting with Trinity.
As we walked, I warned Beckendorf about the two of them.
"Think of them as Drew's… minus the charmspeak." He nodded, completely prepared. Drew had made a move on him once but Silena had shut her up.
"We're spearing today? How exciting!" Victoria said stupidly as I handed her a sword.
"It's called sparring," I said. I was smarter than Victoria. So this is how Annabeth feels all the time…
"Riiiight, I knew that!" She said brightly. At that point Calypso decided to butt in.
"So how do we spar?" She put emphasis on the word, like it would impress me.
"Beckendorf, by the way." He introduced himself gruffly. They didn't even turn. Now that doesn't make sense, Beckendorf is a senior, and a lot of the girls at camp find him cute. We both have girlfriends that could kick these girls' butts, but apparently that didn't mean a thing to Calypso or Victoria. So why would they bother me instead? Girls are confusing.
"You hold the sword, and you try to get your opponent to drop theirs." I said.
"Percy could you show us?" Calypso asked in a voice she probably thought sounded sweet. It reminded me of Medusa in a way.
Without a word Beckendorf and I faced each other and gave them a quick, basic demonstration where neither of us were really trying.
"Wow Percy you're amazing!" She gushed. Obviously she had never lifted a finger in her life. Beckendorf was smiling. I was so gonna get it later…
"Uh thanks," I mumbled, "Anyways, you guys just do that and you're good." I said and dragged Beckendorf away.
"Nice job, Perce." He said appreciatively, "You're lucky you're in here with me and not the Stolls."
"Or Clarisse." I shuddered. I'd never live it down if she'd seen them!
"I can't believe Annabeth hasn't killed them yet." Beckendorf said.
"She's pretty close." I said, "If you ever catch her heading towards the girls locker room with a mortal weapon… on second thought, don't get in her way. We don't need extra fatalities." He grinned.
"Same goes for Silena. She looks like an angel, but she's got the bite of an empousa."
At the end of the hour we had barely broken a sweat while the rest of the class was panting harder than Mrs. O'Leary after shadow traveling to China (don't ask).
"Hit the showers, maggots." Coach Xeno tried to sound tough, but he really wasn't all that bad, "See you in practice, Jackson." I nodded towards him as I backed out of the gym.
"Where did that come from?!" Trinity exclaimed as we exited the gym.
"I guess I just picked it up somewhere." I said calmly.
"Picked it up? Are you kidding?" She said, "You guys could spear the entire class in a minute!" True, but still.
"I don't know about that…" She didn't let up.
"This is weird Percy, first you speak fluent Greek, then you can swordfight, plus all these new kids show up who you just happen to know from this weird camp that nobody knows the name of…"
"All a coincidence. I have to change, see you at lunch!" I called over my shoulder and raced to the boys locker room.