This chapter is in tribute to the last week of waiting for the release of The Son of Neptune.

It's for my disbelief that the book will finally be out.
It's a little something you can read before we are all too busy devouring the new book to care for FF .net

x

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson; Rick Riordan does.


Ah. It was time for another wonderful P.E. class. I don't really hate P.E. It's a really nice class actually. No thinking required, and a time to burn off energy in my system gathered from long periods of sitting in classrooms.

What sucked about P.E. class was mostly who was in it. Josh, the class bully, and his "gang" or "homies" (as he put it) was in my class, which, considering my luck, wasn't too surprising. They took it as their personal job and duty to make each class a miserable one for me. Honestly, I really wanted to beat them up slightly – just so I could get my message clear to them: Leave me alone. Or else.

Unfortunately, Chiron was strictly against harming mortals unnecessarily if they weren't a threat. Though, I'd have to say the case of Josh was debatable. It's not that he was a threat; it was more in the sense that he could possibly annoy me to death. Then where would we be?

"Hey Jackson! You ready for another terrible class? I'm going to send you to the nurse's office if we do a full-contact activity today," Josh yelled in my ear. I'd like to see him try.

"Ow! Josh, get your mouth away from my ear! You're going to make me deaf along with everyone else," I replied.

"Oh … well … uh … huh." Josh was scratching his head, unable to come up with something to insult me with from my statement.

Josh wasn't one of the brightest people in the world. In fact, I'd go as far as saying he's one of the dimmest. Heck, I've seen monsters with bigger brains than him. I guess that's mean of me to say, but the truth is pretty harsh sometimes.

"Okay, class! Gather around! I'm only saying this once! Today, we're doing a special activity. You're going to be sword fighting," Coach Mickelson announced.

There was an excited murmur spreading through the whole class. Probably thoughts on the potentially-harming equipment we were going to use. I wasn't particularly excited. Sword fighting was practically my life.

I was mostly curious about how Coach Mickelson was going to teach it. Coach Mickelson was nice and all, but he didn't seem the type to know. He didn't have the body for it. That isn't to say he's unfit, but sword fighting does require a lot of stamina and well, the coach didn't look like he could handle it.

"Now, the swords we are using are authentic swords -" I raised an eyebrow slightly at that "- modified to be particularly blunt at the ends. Still, that does not mean these won't hurt or that you can go around poking your friend's eye out."

Everyone laughed at that. Some kids grinned crazily, as if Coach Mickelson just gave them an intriguing idea. As for Josh, he eyed me with an expression that said I was first on his list to have my eyes stabbed out.

Jeez, life is harsh when even some of your classmates want to cause you bodily harm. One would think that demigods only had to worry about monsters.

Coach Mickelson droned on about the dangers of a sword, and the conscientious care we had to give to the sword as it was not a toy.

"Today, we're going to have a very skilled guest in the art of sword fighting teach us." Coach Mickelson indicated to a lanky, familiar-looking guy who was about 19 or 20 entering the room. The figure was dragging a bulging bag with him.

"He would like to be called Master Marcus, and I need you boys to give him your utmost respect. This is also my first time, so I'd actually like to learn something. On a side note, he could easily severely injure you should you annoy him to death like you do to me every class."

Some people started looking a bit nervous at the last part. Well, except Josh, who thought he could challenge and win anyone.

Master Marcus approached us with a fairly laid-back smile. It was then I realized who he was. He had chestnut brown hair and fresh-grass-green eyes.

He was Cameo Marcus, a son of Demeter.

I remember winning him in sword fighting when I sparred with the Demeter cabin in the arena despite all the grass he grew out of the ground in an attempt to entangle me. Gods, now that was a mess. I was crazily slicing the grass up and in the end of our mock battle, we were both surrounded and covered in grass.

Then, of course, everyone that saw us gave us questioning stares – probably wondering if we were making grass angels.

I started wondering why he was here and what was up with the whole "Master Marcus" thing. Everyone at camp just called him Cameo.

"Okay, kids, that's right, I would like you guys to call me Master Marcus." At this, I noticed his smile turned into a small smirk. "And if you don't … you will face consequences I see fit."

He unsheathed his word, spun it in his hand and proceeded to demonstrate some elaborate, fancy moves (all of which I knew), spinning and leaping across the front of the gym. It looked like he was fighting invisible enemies. You could hear the air being slashed by the sword. He ended up behind the coach with his sword at the coach's throat. The coach's eyes bulged out of their sockets.

He put his sword back in the sheath and smiled good-naturedly. "No hard feelings, coach? I just wanted to show the kids some of the easier sword fighting techniques put together."

"…Easier techniques?… um … yeah, no hard feelings …" the coach stuttered out. He cleared his throat, and said to the class, "Yes, um, no horseplay. You must all listen to what Master Marcus has to say and follow his instructions."

All the boys in my class had faces of worship and fright. Cameo had an amused smile, but everyone was too worried about their own health to notice.

I smirked a bit, too. So Cameo was playing the whole "mysterious and lethal, but friendly guy" reputation. It seemed he was also aiming to give off this feeling that he was from another century. He would definitely seem weird to those who didn't know him.

Cameo, in actual life, was a relaxed guy. Someone you could easily hang out with. He also loved doing drama, a trait that didn't fit a son of Demeter, but might explain why he was acting like so today.

"I will be teaching you the basics, like how to hold your sword, your footwork and the different types of moves one can use on the enemy. Grab a sword and find a partner."

He paused.

"Remember; don't hurt anyone in this exercise. I'd like to see what kind of skills you have so far before I start teaching. Spar with your partner while I come around assessing you."

Everyone looked excited and pushed around, trying to get a good sword out of the bag.

Coach Mickelson looked absolutely horrified that the class was starting off without any real instructions.

And Master Marcus looked calm and obvious to the nervous glances Coach Mickelson was darting at him from time to time.

Cameo finally noticed the coach and said, "Why, Coach Mickelson, what are you doing over there, standing like a log? Go get yourself your own sword and we'll be on our merry way."

"But … um … Master Marcus … shouldn't the kids get a proper sense of how the sword is used before swinging it haphazardly at each other?"

"Nonsense! The first step in good sword fighting is experimentation. Everyone is born with a nature that knows exactly what to do with swords, but they must first find this lost inner instinct. Once found, pupils only need teachers for the much finer points," Cameo replied, waving off the coach.

The thing is, Cameo was forgetting that it only applied to demigods. Only demigods had this innate sense of how to use various weapons. The typical, American, teenage boy? Not so much.

I hoped that Cameo really did know what he was doing.

I went over the bag, not caring which sword I got because I knew none of them would fit me. Only Riptide did.

Once I got my sword, I was about to ask Matt if he wanted to be my partner when Josh came up to me, grabbed my collar, and yelled in my ear (again), "You're going to be my partner. And I'm going to skewer you with this sword! Won't that be fun?"

Master Marcus came over and separated Josh's hand from my collar saying, "Now, now, kids. Nobody's shish-kabobbing anybody today." He looked at Josh, and then at me, to make sure we got the point.

When he turned towards me, though, his grassy eyes widened visibly.

"Percy?"

"Hey Cameo." I smiled.

"I didn't expect to see you here."

"I'm surprised to see you here too."

"Percy, my man. How you doing? I never knew you went to this school," Cameo said, giving me a light punch and turning back to the real Cameo I knew from camp.

"I'm fine. But what're you doing here, teaching teens how to sword fight?"

"Well, firstly, it's a high-salary part-time job 'cause apparently not too many people know how swords work. Secondly, I thought it'd be cool if I could convince people to call me Master Marcus. It just sounds more … awesome. People at camp wouldn't call me that even when I asked politely. I've tried."

I was about to reply when Josh squinted his eyes and said, "Hey … wait a moment … you two know each other? How is that possible? How could Jackson here know someone as skilled as you?"

Cameo gave a knowing look. "Oh, I think Jackson here is plenty skilled himself."

"Jackson? Skilled? As if!" Josh snorted.

"Well Jackson, I think you should step up to this challenge. You know, show him what you've got," Cameo said. Then he leaned in and whispered so that only I could hear. "We both know how good you really are, so don't scare this big-headed moron too much, okay?"

I nodded, grinning. Cameo patted me on the shoulder and left, trying to spot anyone with the tiniest bit of experience and stopping those who were becoming danger hazards.

"Josh, you sure you want to do this?" I asked, giving him the chance to back out.

"Yeah, of course! You scared, Percy?" he mocked.

"No, but I'm scared for you."

He charged forward, swinging the sword madly in front of him, doing exactly what Coach Mickelson had instructed not to do. I easily step-sided and stopped him from slashing in the air with my own sword. I turned my sword, disarming him.

I didn't have to do the full disarming manoeuver because Josh wasn't even gripping his sword properly in the first place.

Somehow, in all of this, Josh tripped on his own feet and fell on the floor. I was impressed; his face found the floor without my help.

The whole thing lasted probably 5 seconds.

"I win." I turned around, walking to find another partner.

I thought Josh would be scared and leave me alone. Humiliated, he only got angrier, unfortunately.

He tried to lunge at my back right after he retrieved his sword. If it weren't for my demigod senses, I might've actually had to go to the nurse's office (not taking in account for my invincibility). I spun around and blocked his sword. In one fluid motion, I twisted the arm holding the sword behind his back, forcing him to drop the sword. I released his arm and caught the sword before it touched the ground. Now I had two swords.

I pointed both of them at his neck, and said, "Look, I beat you twice, so leave me alone, okay?" I dropped his sword and turned again to walk away.

It was really weird because it seemed the whole class had stopped what they were doing and had seen the two duels (if you could call them that) Josh and I had. Everyone seemed in awe.

"Good job, Percy. I see you haven't lost your touch. Now everyone, back to work!" Cameo said.

In the end, Josh looked like a shaken leaf and didn't challenge me anymore even when Master Marcus taught the whole class new moves to try out on each other. Who knew a little sword fighting skill could fend off bullies so well? Much more effective than - I quote my counselor - "talking it out".


First off, I'm very sorry I took so long. It wasn't writer's block - I knew vaguely what I was going to write. The words just didn't come to me. Secondly, this piece of writing became something totally unexpected. I'm not too sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I can only hope you guys like it. Or at least, I hope it's better than the second chapter. I don't know why, but I just really don't like that second part I wrote. Did you like Cameo Marcus? Just curious. Lastly, thanks for reading. This is the end, unless I decide to rewrite the 2nd chapter or post an epilogue.

Please review ...

Signing off, Storage-Jar*