So, I felt like writing something funny and combaining PJ and basketball seemed like a good idea :D

Happy reading!

Piper

I straightened the hem of my Jersey. Gymnastics wasn't my favorite subject at school. Don't get me wrong - it's not that I was like OMG what if I break my nail? - No, never. It's just that there are loads of sports that I aren't too good at, and... well, it can be embarrassing.

Anyway, there I was, sitting on the bench in the girls' locker room, waiting for the others to be ready. By 'others', I mean Annabeth, Hazel and Reyna, who were the only girls in our group besides me. Hazel was having a bit desperate-looking fight with her frizzy brown hair that she just didn't seem to get tied with her hairband - there just seemed to be too much of it. Annabeth, who was sitting next to me, was leafing through a book that had small print and pictures of the outlines of a basketball field or something in it.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing at the book.

She raised her look at me, frowning. "Oh, it's the rules books for basketball." She stopped paging through and placed a finger on the current page with that frown on her face.

"Um, so we have basketball today, really?"

"Yeah... Wilson told me so last week." She said with divided attention. And yeah, Wilson was our P.E. teacher, if it wasn't obvious.

"OK." I said. So... well, she was Annabeth. If we had basketball at school, she decided to read the rules book for it (which she then must've done before, since this wasn't the first time we had basketball at school.) Then she could tell the teacher that he was wrong if there was even a tiny mistake in what he told us. She seemed to find that great fun. And I've seen weirder ways of having fun, so don't judge her.

Reyna stood up, tightening her high ponytail. She, as we all, was wearing dark green shorts and a green and white jersey with her surname and number on it - our school's official sports clothes. "You ready to go?" She pointed the question for all of us.

I stood up, too. "Yeah."

Annabeth put her book aside reluctantly, turning to look at Hazel's direction.

"Yeah, coming", Hazel muttered, grasping her water bottle from the bench.

I went to the door behing Reyna... and stumbled into her as she made a sudden stop.

"Reyna, what-...?" I fell silent as I saw what she was looking at. Or actually who she was looking at.

There was a tall and lithesome woman standing in the middle of the basketball court. Her hair was blond and she was wearing a silvery Greek tunic and matching sandals.

She definitely wasn't Mr. Wilson. And neither did she look like a substitute for him.

I didn't notice I had remained standing in the doorway, thinking something as practical as, what the Hades...? until Annabeth pushed me aside and faced the woman.

"I know you! You're-..."

"Victoria, the goddess of victory", Reyna interrupted her, bowing to the goddess.

"Nike", Annabeth said stubbornly. She hated being interrupted, especially by Reyna. "The goddess of victory."

Victoria/Nike rolled her eyes. "Right, Chase. This is my Greek form, so yeah, I'm Nike, the goddess of victory."

Annabeth sticked out her tongue at Reyna, then turned back at the goddess. "So, what is it?"

Nike frowned at her. "You're as exasperating as they told... I like it. True victors need some spunk."

"Was that a compliment?"

The goddess of victory grinned.

A door opened on our left and Leo tumbled to the court.

"Yeah, who's laughing now?" Somebody yelled from the boys' locker room.

"Was that really necessary?" Leo moaned as he stood up. Then he saw Nike. I can just say that I hoped I hadn't looked that stupid yet a moment ago. "What the...?"

Percy was the next one to enter the court. "Artemis!" He blurted.

Jason followed him from the doorway. "Dude, that's not Artemis", he pointed out for Percy.

"Guys, what's going on?" Dakota tottered out, splitting Kool Aid on his jersey.

Nike tilted her head, looking at the boys. "Okay. What if you all just came out from the locker room and joined us? Line up!" At the last command, she pointed her finger at the division line.

I found myself rushing to the line. It was like she'd used charmspeak, but I didn't think that was the reason. She was just... commanding. Very commanding.

In a few seconds, everyone was in an orderly row in front of Nike, though Octavian was still bowing deep and declaring what an honor it was to meet her. For me, it looked like Nike found it rather disgusting than respectful, which really wasn't a wonder.

"So", Nike continued. "You'll gonna learn loads about basketball in the following few weeks - that's my favorite sport, after all!"

You liked it? Guessed already what's gonna happen next? - Please leave a review and tell me!

And one more thing: What kind of personality Nike should have? I have my own ideas, but your's would be nice to know, too! :)

-Patroness of Athens