American Royalty

Part 15: School is torture

Kit limped into her room with Rocky following behind her. She still couldn't believe that Apollo had left them a dog. As she entered the room she noticed a pair of crutches on the bed with a note in Apollo's handwriting.
'I mean it Kit. Stay of it.'
Kit chuckled and moved the crutches of the bed. She used them to support herself and take the weight of her leg. Rocky looked up at her tail wagging. "What are you looking at?" Kit said in a teasing tone. Rocky just nuzzled her foot and then ran out the room into the common area. Kit sighed then hopped out into the common room following Rocky.

"Back on crutches I see." Valerie said as Kit hopped out the room.
"Oh shut up Val." Kit said plopping herself next to Valerie.
Rocky came over licking their knees.
"What'd you want boy?" Kit said in an upbeat sing songy tune.
Rocky just nudged her again.
"I think he needs a walk."
"Yeah you're probably right."
The pair got up and Valerie grabbed the lead and harness. Rocky sat by the door tail wagging ready to go. The pair made their way down the corridors and out the large front doors out to the grassy area by the lake. Valerie took Rocky off his lead and let him run around. The pair laughed in amusement as the exited dog ran round them in circles.
"You know at least we know for a fact that you can still kick ass even though you're of crutches." Valerie said.
Kit laughed remembering the funny moment. It had been after the twins had woken up after coming back and they'd finally been let out the infirmary. Kit had to be in crutches because of her leg and for some reason ambrosia and nectar weren't working as fast as they should've. The nine were all standing on the deck watching the sun set over the Greek landscape. They were all just happy to be back together and for the most part in one piece. They were all joking around when a large gryphon swept down at Pipers head. Kit, who was standing next, to her spotted it before anyone else and managed to kick it out the air and away from the ship with her good leg before it could reach Piper. The demigods all stood in silence for a moment and then burst into laughter once more. Piper have Kit a massive hug while trying to avoid her wounds. "Thank you." She whispered in her ear.
"What are friends for." Kit said as Piper let go and they started laughing along with the others.

"Yeah you're right. That was pretty epic." Kit said with a small chuckle as Rocky came bouncing back over to them.
They took their time walking back up to the school, just enjoying each other's company.
The thought of having to go to school the next day was weighing on their shoulders.

Valerie twisted in her sheets. A cold sweat covered her body. She was standing on the Argo 2 during one of the night shifts while on their way to Greece. Suddenly a boulder crashed into the mast throwing the ship off balance. Valerie was flung over the side only just managing to hold onto the railing. Jason pulled her back on board. "You good?"
Valerie stared with wide eyes before nodding slowly. Her side ached from where she'd hit the side of the ship.
"Hey Val look at me." Valerie looked up at her brother. "It's ok."
She nodded, "Yeah, come on."
The twins made their way to the others. As they got there another large boulder sailed overhead. This was getting out of hand. Suddenly something slammed into the hull and Valerie was flung into the air away from the ship.
She was so disoriented that she couldn't fly.
She was falling and spinning out of control.

"Hey Val it's ok." A voice echoed through her nightmare

Valerie's eyes shot open, her hand going to her chest trying to steady her breathing. Her eyes darted around the room taking everything in and nothing all at the same time. Suddenly she felt something warm and reassuring lying on top of her. She registered that it was Rocky. Everything was slowing down now and she felt much calmer. She only now realized that Will was standing next to her and Thalia was sitting on her bed. It had been her voice that had managed to pull her from her nightmare. 

"You ok Val?" Will asked setting down a block of ambrosia next to her bed.

"Yeah, old nightmare." She said rubbing her forehead and sitting up properly. 

Rocky, seeing that she was awake and ok licked her face jumped off the bed, and ran out the door, probably to make sure everyone else was okay too.

"You know, sometimes it's really obvious that these people are so disconnected from the real world" Thalia muttered as she Valerie and Kit walked along the halls. So many people were staring, probably because they had never seen crutches before.

"I have a feeling that they usually just heal it with magic and if it doesn't heal they just wait until it does," Valerie said as she led the way down the hall to their defense against the dark arts lesson.

"Well, I guess they've never been to hell before," Kit said moving a little quicker.

Valerie and Thalia shared a look that said one thing plain and clear. Something was up.

They walked into the classroom with the rest of their classmates.

"MMhhmm" 

The three demigods sighed and turned around to face the toad.

"May I ask Miss Jackson why on earth are you walking with metal?"

It didn't sound like a question, more like she was mocking Kit. The whole class was dead silent watching as the exchange went on. "First things first it's Princess, second thing these are crutches, and last thing it's none of your business."  Kit said moving to carry on walking to her desk. 

"Why on earth would you need to use...crutches?" Umbridge said stopping the demigods in their tracks

"Let me see, I don't know, maybe it's because I can't walk." Kit snapped

"And why not." 

Kit had had enough she turned to the door and hopped out. Percy ran out after her, Valerie and Thalia glared at Umbridge.  "You know when someone doesn't answer you it's usually because there's a reason." Thalia snapped walking out of the class. 

"Kit wait up," Percy called as he finally caught up to her sister. 

"Perce not now," Kit said as she opened the door to the secret passage that led straight to their common room. 

The twins slowly made their way to the common room where Rocky jumped up from where he was lying on the floor sensing something was up. Thalia ran in from the passage they had just come through and closed the door. Kit sat down on the couch and put her face in her palms, Rocky lying by her feet. 

"Kit we all know Umbridge is an ass." Thailia said plopping down on the couch next to her
"Thalia you dont get it. Every time someone asks I..." Her voice broke "How do you explain to someone that you cant walk because youve been t..to.. and..." Kits voice gave out. 

"Hey Kit, we aren't there anymore. You dont need to explain to anyone." Percy said in a relaxed voice

"Youre right. Hey pass me that bar of choclate." Kit said sitting up. Percy grabbed the bar of chocolate off the shelf and the three watched finding nemo. Kit and Percy spent the whole time laughing at what the fish were actually saying, which was really irritating for Thalia who was just trying to watch the movie.

"Oh my word, would you two stop." Thalia finally snapped after half an hour of listening to the twins laugh at nothing. This of course made them laugh even harder which resulted in Thalia getting even more frustrated. By the time Valerie made it out of defense against the dark arts Percy and Kit were absolutely dying of laughter and Thalia could do nothing about it. Valerie found this quite amusing and couldn't help but laugh as well. They spent the rest of the day actually going to classes and they finally made it to dinner. 

The demigods all lay around the common area joking and messing about. It had been an awful long day full of all sorts of mischief and problems but they found that school was becoming more tolerable. Sure there were still aspects that they hated but it wasn't as bad as it had been in the beginning. But one thing was certain, no matter where in the world you went to school, it was always torture.