Forty-five minutes later, Nico and Will exited the classroom, already exhausted.
"Why do they always insist on going through the class rules and syllabus?" Will groaned, running a hand through his hair. "We're old enough to know the rules…"
"Not that we'll necessarily follow them." Nico piped in with a smirk. "It was the same at Westover. I guess teachers just like boring us half to death."
"Half to death, coming from you?" Cesil asked with a laugh, popping up behind them, with a slightly less energetic Lou Ellen trailing him. Nico shrugged in response.
"Anything interesting with you guys?" Will asked the pair, earning himself a couple of annoyed groans. "I'll take that as a no."
"The teacher was…well…" Lou Ellen struggled to find a polite term.
"A bitch." Cesil offered, rolling his eyes. "She made a few comments about our dyslexia, and how our 'laziness' wouldn't fly in her class."
"What class was it?" Nico asked with a frown. One of his teachers from Westover had been like that.
"Art!" Cesil said with wide eyes, arms flailing about everywhere. "Like our dyslexia would make that difficult!"
"On the other hand, there's a possibility we'll be taking a field trip to a certain art museum, one with Greek and Roman galleries." Lou Ellen said with a smirk. "Maybe we can show off there." Nico and Will snorted in amusement, before waving their goodbyes and hurrying to their next class: boys' fitness.
A few minutes later, their coach started barking out orders and what was going to be happening for the group. He had them line up in alphabetical order for roll call, and then sent them all to the boys' locker room to change into the PE uniforms that they'd been told to bring during orientation.
Will and Nico changed in the bathroom stalls, not wanting to give anyone a reason to be uncomfortable around them, since they weren't hiding the fact that they were dating.
Will tried not to give Nico a hug when he saw how cute he was in the light gray shirt and black shorts he was wearing. Somehow, he managed to stop himself.
"Okay, we're going to be doing a few warm up laps!" the coach shouted once everyone was ready. "Let's go out to the field, at a jog! GO!"
Will and Nico were some of the first to make it out of the building and to the track. Nico was in pretty good shape, and children of Apollo were also talented in athletics, so they weren't even slightly out of breath like some of the others were.
"One mile-that's four laps around the track! You don't have a time limit, but I will be writing down how long it takes you for future reference…Line up!...GO!"
Will and Nico took off at a steady jog. A few of the smarter guys were doing the same thing, and those who had started off at a sprint were eventually left behind.
"How about we run the long sides of the track, and jog the ends?" Will suggested, speaking evenly.
"Sure." Nico replied, and the two sped up as they reached that second stretch, quickly gaining speed and leaving the mortals behind. They continued that pattern until they'd completed their four laps, and even ended up with the best scores, with the others finishing at least twenty seconds after they did.
"Not bad." The coach said, glancing towards the two boys who seemed to be polar opposites. They had known better than to start running immediately, and quickly devised a strategy that allowed them to finish first while not over-exerting themselves. "You two should try out for the track or cross-country teams."
"Maybe." Will said, leaning over and putting his hands on his knees as he caught his breath. Nico was stretching his legs, slightly sweaty and red from exertion, but fine otherwise. Most of the other boys, however, were sweating buckets, panting a bit, and a few of them had even collapsed.
"Just a suggestion." The coach said with a shrug, before he turned to the others. "Alright you lot, get back inside and get some water. Then it's time for push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups." Everyone but Will and Nico groaned, reluctant, while the two of them just shook their heads. Camp was way worse than this.
The coach split all of them up into pairs to do the push-ups and sit-ups, with one person doing the exercise for one minute and their partner counting and writing down their score. Afterwards, all of the boys lined up at the pull-up bar, and the coach counted that one himself.
Nico was first, and most of the other boys didn't expect him to do very well, even if he was a decent runner. However, they found themselves surprised when Nico managed thirty-two before his time was up.
Will just smirked; proud of his boyfriend and enjoying the small patch of skin he was blessed with every time Nico's shirt rode up.
By the time they had all done the test, no one had managed to beat Nico's score, including Will (though he did get the second best score). A few of the guys scowled in their direction, frustrated that the two 'scrawny' guys had managed to beat them so thoroughly, but when the couch snapped at them to go get showered and changed before the bell rang, they stopped.
At that point, Nico and Will split up for the first time that day, off to their different classes. Will was taking an introduction to theater class, and Nico was taking honors forensic science, though since the class had a pre-requisite of biology and he hadn't taken the class, he had asked Chiron to add that to his forged school transcripts.
He was just about to enter the room when he paused slightly, feeling eyes drilling holes into the back of his head. He groaned, hoping that there wasn't a monster at the school, before shrugging it off. He could deal with whatever it was later. He didn't want to be tardy on his first day of classes.
About thirty feet away, a girl stared at him with shining eyes, already dreaming of their wedding. All she had to do was get rid of the boyfriend, and she would have him all to herself.