The Lost Sword of Olympus

Chapter 4: The competition

It was the day of the first day of the tournament; hand to hand fighting. Emma went down to her kitchen to make her coffee before getting ready. She started getting ready, putting on some normal gym clothes. Black leggins, and a grey sleeveless workout shirt. And putting her long hair up in a ponytail. The competition would start in the next 30 minutes. So Emma decided to go to the Training room, which is where the competition would take place. It was a big stone room with a big mat in the middle. She stretched for a few minutes until she saw Will come in to stretch too, he just was wearing black sweatpants and a white T-shirt, which you could vaguely see his muscles beneath. Luckily, her friends were right behind him so she wouldn't have to deal with his snarky comments for long.
"Alright!" Agnes yelled to get everyone's attention,
"Ms Darhk, Mr Gray, Take your places." and so they did.
"Start!" she yelled. And they did. Emma started with a high kick to his face but unfortunately he dodged with his hand. They threw a couple punches at each other. Tried to trip the other a couple of times. Will got a successful punch to her stomach that caused her to fall back a little.
"Oh, did that hurt?" He said in a baby mock tone, that caused the blood in her veins to boil. She did a flying neck scissor choke on him, then put him in an armlock. She heard him groan in pain and hit the mat 3 times in defeat, which amused Emma. Headmistress Agnes went to stand next to Emma lifted her right arm and announced,
"Ms. Darhk is the winner of the first round!". Emma had a wicked grin on her face, while mostly everyone cheered. Will glared at her sourly.
-------
"Oh my God!!! Did you see the look on his face?" Asked Emma to her friends,
"It was priceless." Her brother said, and their friends all agreed.
"I can't wait for you to win the next rounds."
"Well, well, well," they heard an annoying squeaky little voice behind them.
Oh, For the love of all that is holy!
They turned around to face Becky Hall. She was by far one of the most annoying people aside from Will, and was also completely obsessed with him.
"You winning today was pure luck, Will is way better than you and stronger. There is no way you'll win, as I hear you couldn't even protect your own mother." Said Becky, when she said that thing about her mother, Emma was prepared to lounge herself at the girl and choke the life out of her, but before she could do that she heard a deep voice behind her.
"Hey! What did you say about her mother?" Will asked, clearly angry at the girl. Becky stuttered a little when she started to talk,
"Well I said-" but the guy standing next to her interrupted,
"I heard what you said, and don't say it again, I'm the only person who gets to talk to her like that. Understood? " Will said sternly. While Emma simply gawked at him.
"Sorry." Becky said in a small voice and hurried off with her dumb minion friends behind her.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" asked Will rudely .
"What? oh, sorry. Thanks for that, I guess." said Emma suspiciously and reluctantly.
"Whatever." he said and walked off. Noah stayed a few seconds longer, without knowing what to do. He walked off trading a few looks with Jason. Then said "bye" to Clara, which Emma thought was weird.
"What was that all about?" asked Clara a little stunned,
"Nothing!" Both Emma and her brother responded at the same time. But before anyone could say anything about it, Emma changed the subject.
"Why did Noah say "bye" like that to you?" asked Emma slightly grinning. Clara blushed and stuttered a little, before saying a barely audible
"I don't know", before walking off with her cheeks a deep shade of red. The day went by and no one said anything about what had happened with Will defending Emma from Becky, mostly because people were probably too scared to.
-------
It was the next day, and it was time for the second round; sword fighting. But it
didn't go the way Emma had thought it would. Pretty much the exact opposite. Emma used her 2 twinning hand swords, which had a shiny metal blade, with a dark iron handle and a few medieval designs on it. Will used his long sword that had the same blade as Emma and a stone handle.
In the beginning it was a normal sword spar. They swinged their swords left and right, dodging the blades with their bodies. It was normal until Will said something that caused Emma to lose focus.
They had their swords trapped within each other with their faces inches from the other. And he said
"You're actually pretty good, Ace." When he said "Ace" her mind, involuntarily, flooded with all the memories in which he had called her that. It was the nickname he used for her. Will probably used that nickname more than her given name. As she lost focus, he used it to his advantage to toss her weapons aside, trip her, and hold his sword to her throat, as he said "too bad I'm better" with a smug grin.
-------
"Ughhh Jason! I hate him! I hate him! I can't stand it." Emma said furiously, with
her brother simply looking at her. They were in his cabin's kitchen which looked very similar to hers.
"Well, what can you do?" Asked Jason returacly, while shrugging.
"You'll have to deal with him until you graduate," said Jason simply.
"Okay, but YOU weren't his best friend. YOU don't have to deal with him never
acknowledging your past, then suddenly he defends you, or calls you a nickname that made YOU lose a round in the competition. And lucky, YOU graduate next year, I have to deal with him for the next 2 years." said Emma, raising her voice with each word in fury.
"Tomorrow will be a better day, and you'll beat him, so that will make you feel better." Her brother said as she turned to leave.
It was the last round of the competition and the day to figure out who will win. Emma, Will, and the whole school were at the racing track. Emma was doing her stretches and getting her mind in the game. The last thing she needs is for Will to psych her out. The headmistress raised a gun to the air and fired it as she yelled "GO!!" on the speakerphone. And they did. Will started off in front, but that was part of her plan. Emma was keeping a steady pace a few steps behind him. When they were reaching the finish line, Emma sped up and passed Will. She could still see his shocked expression in the side of her eye. She smiled a little and won the race. As she crossed the finish line she heard the crowd roar, and Will cursed.
"And the winner of this year's tournament is Ms Emma Darhk! Congratulations!" announced the headmistress happily. Jason and her friends came running towards her yelling congratulations. Her brother picked her up and spinned. Emma was so happy she couldn't stop laughing as her friends hugged.
-------
After all the celebrations, Emma went home to take a shower and relax in her
victory. After her shower, she put on her pajamas, which was a ragged oversized shirt with black tight shorts underneath. She was just about to settle into bed to watch a movie, when she heard the doorbell ring. Oh come on! She went down stairs and opened the door to come face to face with him.
"What do you want?" Emma asked harshly. Will walked in uninvited and handed out 2 tickets.
"Agnes said that I have to give you the reward for winning, so here are your 2 tickets to anywhere in the world. She said that you can use them in the summer vacation." said Will in a monotone voice.
"Thanks." said Emma while she took the tickets out of his hand.
"Can you wipe that smug grin off your face, it's annoying" said an annoyed Will.
"No can do hon, I beat you fair and square, and I am overjoyed seeing you walk around knowing that I won, a rival and a girl." said Emma happily and scornfully.
"You always have to win at everything! Even when we were kids everything was about you!" Will half shouted.
"I cannot believe what a sore loser you are! Why are you like this? What's your
problem?" She shouted back.
"You're my problem! And I have every good reason for being like this." He shouted, his face inches from hers, so close she could smell his cologne, which was a little distracting.
"Like what?" Emma shouted,
"None of your business!" And they both started shouting at each other. It went on
for a good 10 minutes.
"I HATE YOU!" They both shouted at the same time. The two started to stare at
each other not knowing what to do next. She couldn't look away from his piercing eyes on hers. Still mesmerizing her with his intense eyes, She felt his soft, warm lips on her and his hands cupping her face. Against her better judgement, she let herself melt into him and kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his waist. It was sweet at first but it suddenly became a little bit frenzic. His hands slid down to her waist pulling her closer (if even possible) as her hands went up to his neck. For what it seemed like hours later they pulled away, speechless. Until Emma broke the silence.
"Get out." Emma said quietly, pointing to the door. He left without saying a word. Emma slammed the door, and leaned against the door before sliding down, letting out all the tears she had been trying to hold back.