When We Were 'Us'

Sword Class-Percy POV

"Hey Lou, have you seen Annabeth?"

"Nope, sorry Percy."

I frowned. No one had seen Annabeth since this morning. She hadn't been to any of her activities, but according to Malcolm she wasn't at the cabin either.

"Has anyone seen Annabeth?" I asked the kids sparring in the arena.

"Nope!"

"Not since this morning!" 

"Sorry, man."

I sighed. "Thanks guys. I'll keep looking."

"Hold up, Percy, can you help me for a little bit?" The swords instructor, a boy named Daniel who had brown hair and the mischievous glint in his chocolate colored eyes that came from having Hermes as a parent, asked with a hint of panic to his voice.

I glanced at the kids he was teaching, a group of boys and girls who had only recently showed up and were more interested in goofing off than helping out.

"Sure, why not?" I shrugged. "What do you need me to do?"

"Can you work with Justin and Jamie while I get the others to pay attention and get some work done?" He pointed to two kids who were looking irritably at their classmates. They seemed to be taking this class seriously.

I nodded. "Justin, Jamie, come over here."

"Do we actually get to work now?" Justin asked, flicking his hair out of his eyes. He looked about 10, with light blond hair and striking green eyes. If I had to guess, I'd say he was a son of Demeter, which made him a rather interesting choice for this class. Not that I was going to question it.

"Yeah. Dan is going to get the others to cooperate while I train the two of you. Sound good?"

"Fantastic." Jamie replied, shrugging her braid off her shoulder and dropping into a ready stance that for an 11 year old girl with only a few days training, wasn't too bad. She looked like a daughter of Nike, but I couldn't be sure. There was no distinctive physical feature to the children of the goddess of victory.

"You've got that down pretty well." I told her. "But there's a few adjustments you could make."

"Okay, what are they?" She stood straight.

I had the two of them stand on either side of me and dropped into the typical stance. "Start like this. As you learn to fight better, your stance will change to fit your style."

"What do you mean?" Jamie asked.

"Well, this is my stance." I showed her how I stood when I fought. "Now look at Dan's." 

Daniel's stance was different than mine in the fact that he held himself like he would usually be fighting with a shield. I usually just used Riptide when it came to a fight.

"Why are they different?" Justin asked. "Is he doing something different?"

"Dan tends to fight with a shield. I personally find them a hindrance so I choose to ignore them."

The two compared mine and Daniel's stances again. 

"Which do you think we would be better at?" Justin asked me.

"Can't tell you that until I've seen you fight. How about you face off and I'll moderate for a little bit. I'll correct you where it's needed and give you tips for real battles."

They nodded and squared off. I laid Riptide between them, it's tip resting in the dirt.

"I want a mostly clean fight, no maiming or worse, a few little cuts are to be expected. Try to stay in this area so we don't get in anyone else's way." I laid down the rules. Neither kid looked up at me as they nodded simultaneously.

"Alright. Three, two, one." I flicked Riptide up like it was a curtain between them and they both lunged.

Watching the fight, I had could tell it would be a long journey for them to become masters. Justin's blocks were weak and Jamie refused to use backslashes, attacking only Justin's left flank.

"Jamie, go for the other side as well." I told her. "Justin, don't tense up the way you do when you block. It should only be your arm that tenses, not your entire body."

They did adjust, but it was still pretty evident they were beginners.

"Alright, let's talk strategy and fighting style." I said, separating the two.

Justin flicked his hair out of his face again and I pointed at him. "We can start with that. You want your vision unobstructed. You might not like this, but I think you'll have to cut the hair, bud."

Just as I thought, he didn't look happy, but he sighed. "Alright, I will."

"Jamie, you were constantly attacking Justin's left side. You have to vary it otherwise you'll be predictable and your opponent will easily find a way to exploit you."

"Okay." She nodded slowly. "I'll work on it."

"As for your style, I think you'd be better off with a shield, Justin, and once you get over that little favoring one side problem, Jamie, you'll be fine without one."

The two nodded and I glanced over at Daniel. He made eye contact with me from the center of a mass of squirming kids. It seemed that a few of the newbies had gotten into a different kind of fight.

'Help me!' He mouthed in my direction.

"Alright, you two. Keep working on it while I go sort that out." I gestured in the direction of their class, then marched over to Daniel and put my fingers in my lips, letting out a piercing whistle.

"That is enough!"

[A/N teacher Percy! Hope you guys enjoyed your weekend, mine was full of choreography for the school musical (we're doing My Fair Lady). It's the first time I've had a full weekend for a musical that was just choreography, at my old school we would work on it throughout the practices instead of all at once...but it was okay. I'm just glad I didn't have that much homework]