Percy Jackson meets the Avengers [VERY SLOW UPDATES]

Chapter 19 (Unedited)

Annabeth's POV

The rest of the week had gone by smoothly, with very little contact between us and the avengers. The day of the track meet arrived, and my leg felt fine, just a slight tightness. Coach Hallard still seemed shocked that I was taking part, but whilst warming up I could sense his worry subside slightly, as I demonstrated a thorough stretching routine, before gently running a couple of laps on the track, Percy right next to me, mirroring my actions.

"Coach is looking at me as if I'm going to break at any moment, which would be funny, but he's paying too much attention. I think I might have to fake a slight limp by the end of today." I muttered to Percy, stopping as we caught up with Louisa. Seeing that she had headphones in and was humming along to music Percy risked a quiet sentence back. "I would say go all out and collapse but I think he might smell something fishy with that."

I let out a chuckle at that, angling my run back to where the rest of our school's athletes sat. Louisa joined us a few minutes later and we sat sipping water and sunbathing for another fifteen minutes before the organisers began to call people up for races. Louisa and Percy both were called up for the first races, leaving me to work on some revision cards for my history class. Being outside was relaxing, so much so that I nearly missed my five minute warm up call, and had to quickly shove all my stationary back into my bag, and jog up to the waiting area. For some reason only Louisa was in the warm up area, Percy nowhere to be seen.

"He got called up by mistake, he still has a while, so he went to go and find some vending machines," Louisa said in answer to my confused expression. "Apparently he didn't bring enough with him so he's gone in search of cookies." The two of us thought back to the mountain of sweets we'd both seen Percy shove into his backpack earlier and doubled over in laughter.

"If he eats any more snacks he'll explode," I laughed. We both were meant to be competing in the female 200 metre sprint next, and Percy in the male 200 metre sprint. It seemed as if Louisa had completed the 100 metre sprint race already, and had decided to just wait here for the next one. After a few more minutes of chat whilst we stretched out, and lightly jogged on the spot, our race was called.

Louisa and I exchanged a friendly good luck at the start line, ignoring the odd looks from the other competitors. We had both been placed in the first heat, and I would love for Louisa to do well, even if it meant that I didn't. Sometimes other people got so competitive they forgot their friendships, but that had never been a problem for me. I was just here for a good time, and as an extra-curricular to put on college applications.

Was I competitive? Absolutely. Would I sabotage others to win? Never.

At the sound of the whistle I crouched into my starting position, zoning out the other runners. As soon as the starting gun sounded I was up, sprinting towards the finish line. Out of my peripheral vision I could just about see that Louisa was holding her own just behind me. We were at the front of the pack, and despite the other competitors efforts we crossed the finish line in first and second place. Immediately I slowed to a stop and leaned over to place my hands on my knees. Having my head down low allowed a temporary rush of colour to my face, which should fool those around me into thinking that the race had tired me out. In reality the speed had been fast, but not my maximum. Plus I preferred a longer distance race anyway, monsters tended to chase you for a little more than 200 metres - at least the determined ones would. 

After giving my name to a woman at the finish line Louisa and I headed back to the rest of our school. We were in the perfect position to watch the other races, and happy to see our classmates winning and placing in a lot of events. Louisa and I chatted for about fifteen minutes about a book we'd both read recently before we heard the announcer set off the boys 200 metre race. Standing up we both were able to spot Percy at the front of the pack, holding what appeared to be a packet of cookies in his right hand.