Crayon
"And on the Feast of Fortuna, the new praetor is selected," Reyna continued. She noticed a hand in the air. "Yes?"
"When's lunch?" the blue-eyed boy asked impatiently. He was shifting uncomfortably in his seat. This one was obviously ADD.
She forced a smile and said, "After my lecture."
The boy pouted and opened his mouth to say something but Reyna shot him a glare and he shut up right away. She sighed and looked around at the kindergarteners – or, as she liked to call them, devils.
Why had she let Jason talk her into this?
"Come on, Rey," he had said. "We really ought to visit the school in New Rome. We can teach the little demigods and legacies about what's it like to serve the legion."
Reyna shook her head stubbornly. "No. I'm terrible with children."
"Well, this will be a great time to improve your public speaking!" Jason insisted. "We have to visit at least one class. And this will show others that you're actually human and you don't hate children."
She stared at him. "Who says that?"
"Octavian started spreading rumors…"
Reyna growled as she dreamed about hitting Octavian in a very painful place. "Fine, I'll do it." Of course, she had no idea what she was getting into.
"Rey…" Jason whispered from next to her.
"What?" Reyna murmured back from the corner of her mouth. She forced another smile at the demons, ahem, children.
"You're scaring them."
She felt her anger spike. "I'm scaring them. I'm scaring them? You were the one who came up with this ridiculous idea of –" She suddenly paused and looked back at the children. They were all staring at her with fear evident on their faces. "Oh."
Jason put a hand on her shoulder. "Told you so," he muttered, infuriating Reyna. He turned back to the kids and smiled at them reassuringly. "Sorry about that. My co-praetor can be a little -,"
"Crazy?" offered a little girl with blonde pigtails sitting in the front row. She shrunk back when Reyna's gaze landed on her. "Sorry," the girl said quickly. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry –"
"It's alright," Reyna interrupted and tried to smile reassuringly like Jason. Judging from the looks on the kids' faces, it wasn't working.
"I think it would be better if I took over," her co-praetor said. He turned to the children. "Sorry about Rey-Rey. She's just a little cranky because Lupa declared that I was the best praetor ever and that I was awesomer than her."
Reyna fumed in her head. How dare he say such a thing? He was not the better praetor. And Rey-Rey? What in the name of Jupiter was he thinking? If he kept this up, she couldn't guarantee that he would be conscious to finish the visit with the dev – children.
The class of kindergartners nodded understandingly. One green-eyed girl raised his hand.
"Yes?" Jason asked.
"I heard that praetors sometimes end up together," the girl said while giggling. "Are you two dating?"
Reyna and Jason glanced at each other uncomfortably while the children started giggling and laughing.
She mouthed, This is all your fault. They're demons.
Jason mouthed back, Shut up.
He looked back towards the children and said with a cheerful smile. "Nope, Reyna and I aren't together but she secretly adores me."
The little kids all giggled and someone started singing "Reyna and Jason, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G."
They were all silenced with one glare from Reyna. Jason shot her a grateful look and started to speak but another boy raised his hand.
Don't call on him! Reyna thought. Who knows what he'll say?
"Yes?" Jason said, against her will.
"Can you tell us about your fight at Mount Othrys?" the eager boy asked. "I heard that Praetor Jason defeated Krios all by himself with his bare hands and he was all, "I'll destroy you!" and Krios was all, "I want Gaia!" The boy looked up at Jason with admiring eyes.
"Ooo, or can you show us?" a dark-haired girl said, jumping up and down eagerly. She took a crayon from the box next to her and said, "We can rea, reaaddact, I mean, reenact the battle using crayons as weapons!"
A chorus of "yeahs" came from all around the room. The children were bouncing their chairs with excitement.
Jason looked as if he was about to agree but Reyna shook her head stubbornly. "No way. Jason and I are already late for our duties. In fact, I'm leaving now." She turned away and started to walk to the door when something hit her head. Reyna whirled around and glanced at the floor.
A blue crayon.
She glared at the entire class. "Which one of you demons threw that crayon at me?" she growled.
The entire class pointed at a certain son of Jupiter who was smirking smugly.
So it wasn't a demon, it was the demon.
Reyna's eyes zoned in on her soon-to-be-dead fellow praetor as the little kids watched eagerly.
"Oh, it's on," she said as she picked up the crayon and threw it at Jason. Unfortunately, he ducked and it hit a little girl. The girl seemed to have a short temper because she yelled angrily and threw another crayon at a random person.
Soon, everyone was grabbing crayons and throwing them everywhere.
That day, Reyna and Jason emerged from the school looking like rainbows. Gwen was waiting for them. When she saw them, she started cracking up.
"What happened?" the centurion managed between fits of laughter.
"A crayon," Reyna muttered as she marched away.
A/N: Hm, I didn't know how it would turn out. I'm kind of pleased, I guess. Like I said, this was written for Payson-Nicky-forever's Alphabet Challenge.
-The next person is Daughter of the Earthshaker and her word is diaper. Yes, this is weird but I just had to change this little kid's diaper. So now, that's all I can think of. Sorry! But you're creative. You'll think of something. I know you will.
Here's the rules for the contest: (As copied from Payson-Nicky-Forever's story Aftermath.)
-We'll go through the alphabet choosing each other's words as we go. I just did 'A', so the first person to PM me or review saying they'd like to compete will get their 'B' word from me. Then when they post their story, they will give the 'C' word to the next person on the list.
-There will be a limited number of people to compete. I want to ensure that every author get to post at least three stories, so maybe 8? If you and another author want to work together in the contest, that's perfectly fine. Just make sure to let me know!
-All of the one-shots entered must be Jeyna. Jasper or Leyna may be included, but only as a drama-angst starter. Non of the stories can end with Jason picking Piper over Reyna, or Reyna (for whatever deluded reason, they've never met!) dating Leo.
-To join the contest, you must PM me before the next person posts 'B'. After that, the contest is no longer open.
-You must review every story in the contest if you are part of the contest. It's common courtesy, people.
-Stories must be one-shots over 500 words.
-You have 5 days from the day you get your word to post your story.
-Stories can be future, past, present, or AU as long as all characters used as kept in character.
-After we get to Z, I'll post a poll on my profile with all 26 stories on it. Everyone can vote for their favorite, and the author who wrote that story wins!