Heroes of Olympus: The Aftermath of War

ANNABETH

*Rick Riordan owns all of the characters*

ANNABETH ALMOST SNORED DURING another tiring, totally boring, not ADHD-friendly, substitute class of Ms. Samantha Caldimorf's. The real history professor, Chris Zachary, had been immediately excused for having quite the [scandalous] cold. Her classmates were equally uninterested with said Caldimorf's inserted facts and such about World War 1, doodling in spiraled notebooks or speaking in expertly hushed tones to their seatmates. Honestly, she couldn't blame them for not trying. She didn't, either.

Annabeth woke up with her face flat on the desk, thanking Athena for not drooling like a kindergarten, and faced her rather annoying teacher with a smile. The professor raised her eyebrows at this, eyes twitching, as she asked the demigod a question of her own.

"Who," she said, eyeing her with disgust, "Was the most successful fighter pilot during the entire [WW1] war?"

Ha.

Ha.

Ha!

Not to brag, but the daughter of Athena knew exactly what to say. She saw her teacher's delighted face as she decided to act all nervous and afraid, hiding a smile, when her classmates, including Percy, had been looking at their direction. Caldimorf's eyes released an undeniably joyful gleam, thinking that the 'caught-asleep' student had no answer.

The thing was, though, reading and reading and rereading the history manual all over again had helped her cope up with the lesson and its overall background. In other words, she memorized it. Every little detail.

Thanks to Annabeth's inherited pictographic memory from her mom, who was the goddess of wisdom, by the way, she had no difficulty of thinking while in distress (except...maybe for that time with Arachne and when following the Mark of Athena). Percy obviously knew she'd handle this. He was literally smirking at the moment.

"Well?" Caldimorf asked, smiling widely. "Where's your answer, Ms. Chase?"

She counted down to three.

1...Annabeth saw the professor edging closer towards her desk, her eyes still twitching but otherwise glad, and her hands held tightly at the back. She inhaled. The daughter of Athena thought the teacher was still angry, and sleeping in class was definitely not an option.

2...She knew it wasn't right to doze off in a lesson as well, and vowed to say sorry after the long discussion. But Caldimorf was observing her now, possibly thinking of delicious detention as a given remedy. Her classmates and newly-made friends were eyeing her nervously too, but Percy nodded instead, giving her a thumbs-up before striking a glare at Caldimorf.

3...Now then, where was she?

"German fighter pilot, Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen," she answered slowly, as if she were explaining this to a newborn, "Otherwise known as the 'Red Baron', was the most successful fighter pilot in the entire duration of WW1. He shot down 80 planes, a great number more than any other WWI fighter pilot had possibly done. He died after being shot himself near Amiens," she rose, saying, "There. That is my answer."

"And---And how are you c-certain that this i-is... correct?" Caldimorf inquired, unsure, tapping her fingers in Annabeth's desk.

"Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing," she simply replied, looking straight into Caldimorf's eyes while quoting Bill Cosby.

"And I'm terribly sorry for sleeping in class, Ms. Caldimorf. I promise never doing that again," Annabeth inserted with a sigh, moving to retrieve her seat.

Just as the teacher was about to reply, the clock inside the room struck 12, and she met Percy's eyes almost immediately.

It was now noon.