Celestial - a Percy Jackson fanfic [BOOK ONE]

Chapter six

The next few days, Percy and I had started a routine together, since we were both new. We began the day learning Ancient Greek from Annabeth, where I realized that reading Greek was just about as easy as reading English. After that, we would spend the rest of the day doing different activities, trying to find something we were good at.

I have always been athletic, but I had always pegged it on genes. Now that I thought back on it, my parents - or now my adoptive parents, I suppose - were not exactly super athletic. My dad was short and stout and my mom was skinny and small. Now I can really tell that it's genetic, knowing that one of my parents is a god or goddess.

Chiron taught us archery, and Percy and I both found that we were not great at it. Percy was actually awful at it, in fact. I had no idea how Chiron didn't get angry when Percy landed an arrow straight into his tail.

Foot racing, now that was another deal. I couldn't beat the wood nymphs, but I'd always been a good runner. I could tell Percy absolutely hated running. He would pant and rest his knees after about every hundred yards.

When it came to swimming, though, Percy was pretty good at it. I, on the other hand, was not. Sure, I could tread water and keep my head above the water, but I was just not a good swimmer. Percy would have me by several yards at the end of every race, while I could barely keep myself afloat.

The senior campers and counselors were all watching us, trying to figure out who our parents were, but Percy and I just couldn't seem to find the things we were great at. Luke told us that maybe we were Hermes kids, kind of a jack-of-all-trades, but I grimaced at that. I certainly did not want to be a child of Hermes and have to keep sleeping on the floor like that.

Despite this, I liked camp. It was always so beautiful. I got used to eating with cabin eleven, scraping part of my meals into the fire, but never being able to say the name of my parent. And it was beginning to get frustrating, to say the least. What if my parent never told me who they were, and I ended up staying in cabin eleven for the rest of my life?

Finally, Luke brought cabin eleven into the big arena to give us our first sword fighting lesson. We learned the basics, stabbing and slashing some straw-stuffed dummies in Grecian armor. I actually really liked sword fighting, and was somehow pretty good at it for a beginner. My reflexes were good and I somehow knew how to balance a sword. I pegged it on my baseball history.

I was partners with a girl who was around my size, while Percy was partners with Luke. And he was getting beat up. I, on the other hand, somehow kept up with the good thrusts and parries and shield blocks. Sure, my partner got some good ones on me, but at the same time, I was a beginner. And I was awfully proud of myself.

Luke eventually called a break and I saw that Percy was battered and soaked in sweat. I chuckled at him as he poured water over his head, still panting.

"Doing okay?" I grinned at him.

He looked over at me, his eyes popping wide when he saw that I wasn't soaked in sweat like he was. "Is this not exhausting for you?"

"My partner isn't the teacher," I pointed out with a shrug.

Luke came up next to me. "Hey, maybe I could give Percy a little break and use you for a demo to show the others. Are you okay with that?"

I laughed. "Just don't embarrass me too bad, please."

"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke yelled. "I'm going to give you all a little demo."

Cabin eleven gathered around, suppressing stupid grins. They wanted to see me get embarrassed. Luke explained how he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist an enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that they had no choice but to drop the weapon.