I was awoken to someone shaking me but I didn't want to wake up yet. Yesterday was a stressful day for me and I think I deserve a bit of a sleep in. This person just wasn't planning on giving up. "Get up." The male voice commanded. I grunted in response; I knew exactly who it was. "Meet me in the arena in 10 minutes, I have to teach you how to use a sword for capture the flag tomorrow."
My eyes shot open when they told me I only had 10 minutes to get ready - an unimpressed Luke standing next to my bed. "You got that newbie?" He asked, only earning a slight nod since it was quite early in the morning and I had only heard the word 'arena'. Luke turned and walked out of the door - I'm guessing he was going to the arena - and I sat up to start getting ready.
After putting on a pair of shorts and my Camp Half Blood t-shirt, i tied my hair up in a messy bun. I wanted to look like I at least tried to look semi-decent so I put in some eyeliner and mascara. I shoved on a pair of converse as they were the only shoes that I actually brought with me. I checked myself over to see if I looked okay as I walked out of the cabin - the overly worn down porch almost breaking in the process. I swear that porch is going to break on someone some day. I just hope it isn't me.
Only remembering vaguely where the arena is, I began walking off in the direction I thought it was in. I walked for about 15 minutes, wondering why I hadn't came across the arena yet. 'Well that's just great' I thought to myself once I had realised that I had ended up on the complete opposite side of the camp. Nobody was around either so it must have been pretty early. Why did he have to wake me up this early? Sighing, I turned back around and began walking again; this time, I was sure I was walking the right way. The arena finally came into my sight and I let out a sigh of relief.
"I thought I said be here in 10 minutes." Luke handed me a sword as I walked in.
"I got lost. It's my first day, you could at least cut me some slack." I replied, almost dropping the sword when I took it in my hand as I wasn't used to the weight. I got my grip with the sword just for it to be knocked out of my hand. I went to pick the sword up only for my legs to be taken out from underneath me; causing me to land on the floor of the arena with a thud. Not even five minutes into training and I'm already getting my ass kicked.
"You get distracted too easily." Luke said. "Your enemy will take that as an advantage and you could be dead within seconds." He added. I thought he was only training me for Capture The Flag tomorrow but obviously this isn't just for capture the flag.
"Then maybe if you stopped asking me questions I wouldn't get distracted." I replied, still a bit annoyed about the fact that he woke me up and nobody in camp is actually up yet.
"Concentrate. Now look at the way I'm standing." Luke said in a monotonous voice. He stood in the right stance and I copied him, clearly having no clue what I was doing. Luke swung his sword towards me, barely giving me enough time to react and block it.
Luke swung at me again, this time, faster. Again, I barely had time to block it. I guess living with a lot of children taught me one thing - the amount of fights that broke out in that home was unbelievable. I was never in any but there was the odd time where I would have to stop someone from accidentally hitting me if I was trying to stop the fight or just walking in the background.
Luke swung at me a few more times and I began to get a bit out of breath. He still hadn't managed to hit me with the sword, which is what I think he was actually trying to do. Why? I don't know. I wasn't concentrating on the reason. I was concentrating on blocking Luke's sword.
"Can we move onto offense? I don't think I need any more practice with defense." I said, a little bit out of breath. Okay, maybe very out of breath. I'm not the fittest person in the world. I looked over to Luke and he wasn't even panting. He was just stood there looking at his sword as he cleaned it with his shirt.
"Offense is on Wednesday. You'll only need to know defense for capture the flag." He replied, his monotonous voice as annoying as ever. He was about to say something else but Connor and Travis strode through the arena door and walked over to him. A look of confusion spread over Luke's face. "Aren't you supposed to be teaching the cabin how to use a spear?" He asked, a little bit un-amused as well as confused.
"Chiron sent us to get you. Frizzy over there isn't the new greenie any more." I smiled a bit when I heard that there was another new person. Yes, I was still new and I still knew nothing about this place apart from the fact that everyone here was a demigod and the food was good. But they called me 'frizzy'. I mean, I know I've been training, but my hair couldn't have gotten frizzy that quickly. "Chiron also wants you to help to set up capture the flag for tomorrow."
"So... do I have to see the demigod now or set up for capture the flag now?" Luke asked, a bit confused, which I can't really blame him for, I was getting a bit confused too.
"You don't have to meet the demigod at all, but you probably will end up meeting them at some point anyways. We just thought that Taylor would like to meet them." Travis replied, sending me a friendly smile when he mentioned me.
Guessing that we weren't going to be training any more, I walked over to the sword to put my sword back. Around me, there were other campers that were training too. So I watched them for a few minutes to see if there was anything that I could pick up on. You could tell that the majority of them had been here for at least a few months as their sword skills were practically the same as Johnny Depp's in The Pirates of the Caribbean. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but they could at least make it as an extra.
"So, Tay Tay, want to meet that newbie?" Connor asked as him and his brother walked over to me. Luke had left and gone to set up for capture the flag and I didn't exactly want to be left by myself just so I could get lost again.
"No but do you know where Maddie is?" I knew that they probably wouldn't but it was worth a shot.
"No, but if you want we can help you look for her." Travis replied. I didn't really mind spending however long it took us to find Maddie with the Stoll brothers. It was better than spending the rest of the day with a cocky guy who couldn't care less about me.
