Daughter Of Light- Book 1: PJO

Chapter 5: I Have Terrible School Spirit

A bunch of kids were heading for the gym, and soon I was just one of three hundred fourteen-year-olds all crammed into the bleachers. Percy sat nervously beside me. His knee bounced and I fiddled with my marker.

"No paper?" He finally muttered.

"No, left my backpack at home."

"Don't you- isn't that ..?" He indicated to the backpack on my back.

"Nah, it's the quiver. Miles explained that the mist makes it look like a backpack, apparently if I want, I can use the quiver like a backpack, but I didn't plan ahead and thought I wouldn't need anything."

"Okay one, that's cool. Magic arrows. If I concentrate hard enough now I can see it." He threw his hand into my lap. "just draw on my hand."

"Thanks Percy, very big brother of you." I teased.

He rolled his bright green eyes. "Uh, your older."

"By a few months."

While I doodled on his hand with marker, the marching band played an out-of-tune fight song that sounded like somebody hitting a bag of cats with a metal baseball bat.

"I seriously need ear plugs my ears are going to start bleeding!" I whined.

"Its bad, but not that bad!"

"Daughter of Apollo, remember?" I winced again, "its seriously causing my brain to bleed!"

Older kids, probably student council members, stood up front modeling the Goode school uniform and looking all, Hey, we're cool. Teachers milled around, smiling and shaking hands with students. The walls of the gym were plastered with big purple and-white banners that said WELCOME FUTURE FRESHMEN, GOODE IS GOOD, WE'RE ALL FAMILY, and a bunch of other happy slogans that pretty much made me want to throw up.

"This orientation is terrible." Percy groaned.

"Always is!" I plastered a real fake smile. "come on Percy sing with me; We're all in this together! Once we know that we are,
We're all stars and we see that we're all in this together!"

Percy elbowed me hard in the ribs making me yelp and then laughed at his horrified look.

"Oh come on wild cat!" I teased somemore. "Where's your school spirit. I bet purple looks real good on you!"

"Shut up." He rolled his eyes.

The marching band stopped playing. And I sighed in relief, I was seriously getting a headache. A guy in a pinstripe suit came to the microphone and started talking, but the sound echoed around the gym so I had no idea what he was saying. He might've been gargling, the frequency of the microphone was making my head pound.

Someone grabbed Percy's shoulder," What are you doing here?"

It was her: the redheaded nightmare who demanded answers I didn't have.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," Percy said.

Her jaw dropped like she couldn't believe he had the nerve to know her name. I looked back and forth between the two.

"And you're Percy somebody. I didn't get your full name last December when you tried to kill me. Also, who's this, Nora Blofis?" She indicated with her head to me, like she couldn't be bothered to ask me.

"Look, I wasn't- I didn't- What are you doing here?" He stammered.

"Same as you, I guess. Orientation."

"You live in New York?"

"What, you thought I lived at the Hoover Dam?" She rolled her eyes, "so this...your girlfriend?"