Percy
We all spent the rest of the day laughing over that.
Finally, it was time for outdoor skills. Thankfully, I had that class with Jason, but unfortunately, I had that class with Clarisse also. I could practically hear Nemesis in my head laughing. You get Jason? Ha! I'll put Clarisse in there too!
We walked outdoors to the schools back parking lot. The teacher introduced herself as Mrs. Key. She had a weather face and wore hiking pants and a 5k shirt. She told us she had lived in Africa for 10 years, and trained in Australia once for the Boston marathon, which she'd ran last year, she'd placed 5, and then went on to describe other races that qualified her for this job, and some other achievements that I zoned out of.
Finally, we started walking out into the woods behind the school, into a nature trail.
"We're going to learn all sorts of useful things," Mrs. Key said, "how to build huts and shelters, fish with sticks and stones, make traps, start fires, test water, and much more."
"Is there a fire over there?" Somebody asked, pointing at a billowing cloud of smoke from somewhere off in front of the school.
"Was a fire," Mrs. Key corrected. "A burning fire has grey or black smoke. A fire that isn't burning anymore and is just smoking is white smoke."
Huh. Interesting.
Finally, Mrs. Key gave us our assignment. We'd start building our shelters out of whatever we found in the woods, and she'd give us instructions. We split up into groups of 3, and were assigned an allotted space for our shelter that nobody could mess with, but the rest of the area was free game.
Jason and Clarisse and I trudged through the woods. The leaves crunches under our feet, and the birds chirped happily in the tree limbs. I was just glad the day was almost over.
"Just like old times at Camp Half-Blood, right Clarisse?" I said, breaking the silence.
"Can it fish brain, or I'll pummel you." She said shortly.
"Yep. Old times."
"We need some sticks or something," Jason said. He looked completely uncomfortable out here in the woods. He was constantly falling of walking through spider webs or running into limbs.
"You're not used to the woods, huh snowflake?" Clarisse smirked. "Well, Jackson and I know about the woods from capture the flag. You piddly Romans don't play in the woods, might get some dirt on your armor."
"Ah, shut it Clarisse," Jason said rolling his eyes.
"Is that rope?" I asked, pointing to a bundle of rope tied together and hung on a low tree limb. We both approached it cautiously.
"Can we take it?" Clarisse asked.
"I see you've found our first hidden prize," said a voice from behind us. I turned to see Mrs. Key. How had she followed us so silently in the woods? The floor was blanketed in the loudest leaves I'd ever seen- well, heard. "Like I said, everything in the woods is fair game." She continued, "I'm surprised you were the group that found something first."
I wasn't sure if I should be offended by that or not. "How'd you follow us so quietly?"
Mrs. Key laughed a little. "It takes practice and skill, but you can learn it too. It's easy."
Jason and I exchanged glances. Clarisse put her hand on her belt where her dagger was hidden. It's a rare occurrence for her not to take her new electric spear (which can morph into a can of pepper spray) everywhere, but she'd settle for a dagger today. My hand drifted to my pocket.
"I wanna learn," I said.
"That'll come with time. Well, I'm going to go check on the other groups. Best of luck!" She said before walking off. When she turned and got out of earshot, I furrowed my brow and looked at Jason.
"Huh." He said.
We began walking back up to our allotted place, picking up sticks and other useful things on the way.
When we got back we started building our hut and talking.
"Hey Perce, did you know there's a swim team?" Jason asked. "You should do it."
I hadn't thought about that. "When's it start?"
"A few weeks," he replied. "I'm trying out for the basketball team today."
"That sounds awesome Jace," I laughed. "Slam dunk on 'em."
Finally, the bell rang. "You have 2 weeks to finish your shelters!" Yelled Mrs. Key as we all funneled out of the woods.
As I got back in the building, I headed for the locker I'd been assigned this morning. Fortunately, all of us had been assigned lockers in one big clump of unused ones, so ours were all right there together.
I walked towards Annabeth as she spun her lock and opened her locker door and picked up a textbook from the shelf. I approached her silently, and then put my arms around her from behind. "Hey wise girl," I said. She was startled at first, but then leaned into me. She turned to face me, my arm still around her waist. "How was your first day, huh brains?" I teased.
"Got the full mortal experience," Annabeth laughed. "Sort of."
I leaned in and gave her a quick kiss, mainly because I couldn't resist it, and then pulled away and went to the left of her to grab my stuff out of my locker. I began to spin the lock, entering my combination, which was 30, 31, 75, 12 (haha, very funny Poseidon) but was interrupted.
"Hey Percy," said a feminine voice I recognized. I turned to see Veronica.
"Oh joy," I muttered, and then managed a smile. "Sup Veronica."
"How ya doinnnn," Veronica smiled. "I see you got Annabitch here, heard she was a real freak. Answering all the questions in class and getting 100s? I'd hate for her to get caught cheating."
"Liar..." Annabeth said under her breath.
"What was that?" Veronica snapped.
"Oh, I was just thinking how good that top looks on you is all," Annabeth said with gritted teeth. "I'm sure many boys have seen you take your tops off."
Veronica looked immediately offended.
"Dang Annabeth," I laughed. "I didn't know you were that good at comebacks."
"She roasts hotter than me," Leo said, coming up behind me, followed by Jason, Hazel, Frank, Clarisse, and Piper. "Uh, Perce... I wanted to tell you, I got a message from our big horse buddy back at camp, and he said Reyna is coming soon."
My jaw dropped. "Reyna?"
"Reyna?" Veronica snapped. "Who's that?"
"All I can say is, if you don't run from Annabeth, you better run from Reyna," Clarisse shrugged.
Leo clicked his tongue. "Nah. Annabeth's scarier." Everybody looked at him. "What?"
"Freaks." Veronica said before sashaying off.
"You look good today too, thanks your highness!" Leo called after her.
