AN: and... *drumroll* CHAPTER 3!
Please, let me know ANYTHING I can do to improve the story or my writing - I'd really appreciate it. Well, you probably do not want to hear me babble on, so just one more thing before I own you with my maybe-awesome chapter:
if you know any good PJO stories, PM please. I love them almost as much as my hopefully-soon-to-existent reviewers ;)
Emily woke up to the annoying sound of her alarm. She hit the snooze, but it was too late – she was awake. She groggily got ready, and walked out of the big house. Her twin brother came running up to her.
"Hey, Emily." Noah said with a half-smile. Noah wasn't much of a morning person, but Emily was. They each took after one of their parents. Noah was very much like Percy with a lean build, dark black hair, and sea green eyes. Emily looked more like her mother with blonde hair, stormy grey eyes, and an attitude.
Emily sighed. "'Morning Noah."
She went to the mess hall and sat at the Athena table. She admired her mother as an architect and wanted to become one herself. She got along with the children of Athena pretty well, but they had their differences. For one, Emily had some minor control over the water that sparked some of that ancient Athena-Poseidon rivalry (the marriage of her parents helped tone down the rivalry, but not kill it).
After breakfast, Emily headed to her first activity. Since she and her brother were legacies, they lived with each other in the big house and had their own schedules. The only other legacy here was Hazel – a ten year old girl who was named after a deceased friend of Jason and Piper.
Her day was going just fine, until she got to sword fighting class. Her dad was covering for Jason (who was on vacation), so he was the teacher. She was an excellent sword fighter and did not hide it. She was in one of the highest classes, and most of the kids in it were a few years older than her. But when she got there, she saw someone she did not want to have in her class – Alec. The kid was annoying and his powers were freaky.
Naturally, when Percy started pairing us up he of course had to pair Emily with Alec. Emily glared her hardest at her father when he did this, but he ignored me. After everyone split up and walked off.
"I want a new partner!" Emily demanded, trying not to sound whiney.
"Honey, trust me. You two are the some of the best in this class, no question." Percy said with enough finality she knew she wouldn't change his mind. Anger boiled in her, but she was powerless. "Now go, he's waiting for you."
Emily took out her sword and Alec took out his.
"You're going to wish you used your shield, boy." She snarled. She struck at him, but she hit his shield as he drew it off his back. In one fluid motion, she found her feet swept out from under her. She got back up, and attacked again. Her blade was parried by his shield again and she jumped back to avoid a slash from him. She thrusted, but he deflected it the edge of his shield as he stepped closer. Before she could back up, Alec kicked her feet out from under her with his feet.
He held out his shield hand for her, but she knocked it away when she pushed his shield away with the flat of her blade. He chuckled and took off his shield, setting it down behind him.
"What do you think you're doing?" Emily spat as she got up.
"I don't know about you, but I wasn't learning much from that. I think I'll try my chances without my shield." Alec said nonchalantly. Emily still thought he was taunting her, and that only stoked the inferno that was her anger.
She struck at his head, but he deflected and ungracefully countered. He was just as almost fast as she was, but her form was better. However, he could read more of her movements better than she would ever admit. Also, he took every opportunity to cut at her whether it was after sidestepping, rolling, parrying, or deflecting – it didn't matter. Whenever he realized he would miss, he always focused on sidestepping or deflecting before his swing was through.
After 10 minutes of fierce fighting, they were both sweaty. Percy called for a water break as Alec dodged a swing aimed at his head. Emily was pretty sure it would hit him, but she concluded that Percy's call must've messed her up.
"If I wasn't distracted, I would've gotten you there." Emily proclaimed confidently with her chin raised.
Alec just chuckled. "Was the sun in your eyes, too?"
Emily narrowed her eyes and just scoffed. Emily took a drink before she got an idea. She doused water over her head and she felt a little stronger as well as a little less tired. Not the same as Noah or her father's reaction, but similar. Her father rolled his eyes at her, but she just grinned innocently.
They resumed and Emily pressed. She strikes were faster and harder, not to mention that she could see what he was going to do before she did. She was sure she had him, but he held on. He would deflect several parries before she snuck a cut past his defenses. However, he would always roll away. Most of the time, he rolled backwards and they would resume the rhythm. Other times, he would bend his knees like he was going to roll backwards but slide a foot back as he did so. Then he would roll either way (it didn't matter which foot he pulled back, he changed it up) and strike at her side as her attack went over his head. She would back up as he sprung out of his roll at her. Over time, she would turn the tables again.
It wasn't long before he was covered in dirt, and she took that as a sign that she was winning. Percy called 5 minutes left as she struck overhead at him and he did the weirdest thing. He brought the flat of his blade horizontally over his head and rested his left palm on the thickest part of the blade to block her blow. When their blades made contact he tipped his point down so that her blade slid to his left. He grabbed her sword hand with his left hand and pulled. She was yanked off her feet and found his blade in a deadly arc that would end at her neck. She closed her eyes as she lay on the ground until she felt the warm metal touch her neck.
She opened her eyes and found herself staring at a sweaty, dirt-covered boy with a small grin on his face and a blade at her neck. Her wrist was still gripped by his, but his grip wasn't very strong since he was pretty skinny.
"That was really good, you're pretty amazing." He said and cringed on the inside. His voice was creepy, almost…evil. The worst part was he wasn't even trying.
"Way to compliment yourself." Emily said and Alec just rolled his eyes.
"Sorry I was impressed by your skill. I will never commit such a crime again." Alec said as he placed a hand over his heart dramatically. Emily just narrowed her eyes and got up.
"I bet I can beat you before class is over." Emily dared him.
"Oh, yeah?" Alec said through a grin. "I know I can."
Emily was bubbling with anger so she stood ready and he did too. She smirked and kicked up dirt into his face. Percy scowled as he watched them, but she was so angry didn't care. He closed his eyes in panic as Emily thrusted at him. She was grinning in triumph as she was jabbing when she noticed his face was in concentration. He was backed up when the dirt flew in his eyes and as a result bought himself a second or two. However, she saw her blade slow down, and no matter how hard she pushed it, it barely sped up as if she was in a pool. He barely ducked under her strike with his still eyes closed and swiped her feet from under her. Unfortunately, when she fell she did so in real time and it hurt. She tried to stand up before he opened his eyes, but once he stood up again she was slowed down.
He squinted through his dirt covered eyes and smirked. She wanted to slap that triumphant grin off of his face. Although, she was a little scared of him after he did that.
"You're a jerk, you know that? You don't fight with your eyes closed!" She yelled in his face.
"It took all of my concentration to do that, sorry if it offended you. After such a glorious attack, I wasn't able to focus very well." He said, not even sounding bothered when he stressed glorious – as if she had more reason to dislike the move than he did. Her father chuckled at that last comment. Anger bubbled again in her and made her even angrier. Whether she was angry at him for treating her move like it was not offensive or her father for chuckling at that last part, she didn't know.
She wanted to run Alec through, but with his power and his now dirt-free eyes she doubted that it would end well for her.
She continued her day, and was very angry the rest of it. However, she got madder and madder for the rest of the week. Finally, she reached her peak. He was sitting in the courtyard that sat in the center of the ring formed by the cabins. He was tossing a tennis ball and closing his eyes into that concentrated face. The tennis ball would freeze in the air either just before or after it reached the apex of its trajectory. She smirked evilly and creeped up behind him reaching her hand out to where she thinks the ball would be; he tossed the ball up in the air and just before it froze she caught it silently. She was turning around to walk away when he sighed.
"Do you really have nothing better to do?" Alec said turning around as she calmly but quickly put the ball in her back pocket. She cocked her hip to her left and put her right hand on her hip to disguise the movement.
"What do you mean?" She asked suspiciously.
"You took my ball."
I resisted the urge to make a very rude comment here – I figured that he would probably tell my parents for revenge. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Yeah, I guessed I should've known you couldn't come up with a plan to grab it like that." He said while smiling apologetically. "Sorry for accusing you."
"I could too!"
He got up and walked until he was inches from her. His cold, steely voice started to unsettle her as he put his mouth to her left ear. He whispered in her ear. "Prove it."
"I could put my hand next to your h-head before you throw it and c-catch it on its way up." Emily whispered shakily. He was starting to creep her out.
"But you'd have nowhere to put it."
"I'd put it in my back pocket, out of your view." Emily answered shakily but with no hesitation and somehow still full of pride. She realized what she said and her hand went to her mouth. As she was about to pull it away, his eyes closed. She didn't realize what was happening until she saw him reach for her back pocket and with surgical position removed the tennis ball like he was playing operator. She found she couldn't move her hand or mouth at all, and her eyes were glued to his eyelids. He stepped back and opened his eyes with the ball in his hand.
He smirked. "That was fun. I knew where it was the whole time. The whole hip thing was way too obvious." He said, before turning on his heels and calmly walking away while tossing the ball.
Emily was furious. He put her through all of that for fun?! She wanted to walk up and smack that creepy, knowing grin off his face. There was capture the flag that night, and there was no way she wouldn't beat the living daylights out of him.
Emily was getting ready for capture the flag with her brother. Her parents, rather wisely, said that they must always be on the same team. Their parents knew that if they went against each other it would be "they cheated" and "they hit me too hard" for days.
Noah turned to Emily with a questioning glance. "Are you alright?"
"Yes!" She snapped.
Noah raised his hands in defeat. "Sorry, I just didn't remember you scowling non-stop when you were happy. You're putting the Ares kids to shame."
Emily rolled her eyes. "It's that no good, son …"
After a while of swearing Noah coughed, earning a glare of his own. "Are you ever going to say his name?"
"Alec. That wretched little harpy drives me insane."
"Really? He seems pretty mellow to me." Noah said, completely bewildered.
"He's creepy as all get out. He puts the children of Hades to shame."
"Ouch."
"and he loves messing with me! He even admitted me. Today in sword fighting he beat me with his eyes closed and apologized for it!"
"Was the apology sarcastic?"
"No…" Emily muttered grudgingly.
"Then maybe you're just overreacting and when you push him that is his form of pushing back."
"Can it, sea worm."
Noah chuckled. They both assigned to border patrol. Emily and Noah stood side by side. Noah was in full armor, with his trident and weighted net. Emily was also in full armor, but she had just a sword – which was plenty for her.
When the game started, she was itching to release her fury. A couple of kids from the Hermes cabin – Alec wasn't among them, much to Emily's disappointment – came running to the creek where she and her brother were standing guard.
2 had swords and one had a shield with a spear. Emily looked at Noah and he understood what she was thinking. Emily feigned moving left, and then moves right. In doing so, she tricked the center guy (the one with the spear) to stab at her. Noah caught the tip with his weighted net and struck him on the head with his trident. Emily went around her brother and blocked the sword from the right guy. She disarmed him and scared him off as her brother was just scaring off the other kid (who he had disarmed with his trident).
"You're good with that trident." Emily said.
"Yeah, I get that a lot. I guess I'm supposed to say you're quite dangerous with that sword, your sisterness." Noah joked with a quite goofy grin. Emily rolled her eyes but smiled. Most of the time they got along and worked well together, but they had their fights like every other sibling.
Emily was scanning the river when her eyes bugged in surprise.
"Hey dirt face!" She yelled at the running figure which had a sword in its hand and a red hair plume – the color of the other team.
It turned around and she could make out the golden eyes. She never saw them up close because she'd always look anywhere but his eyes. Emily always assumed that if she looked into his eyes they'd be scarier than the rest of his features – which were terrifying, although she'd never admit it scared her so badly.
She could barely make out a tongue sticking out of the helmet before the figure continued running off. The nerve, Emily thought, I will make him pay for that!
She grabbed Noah by the arm and dragged him with her as she chased after him. Noah seemed to know who they were chasing after as he didn't even complain.
She was so intent on finding him that she didn't see it coming. Out of nowhere a wall of bronze came out of her peripheral vision. It didn't hit her very hard, but hard enough to send her sprawling. She watched her brother's net was deflected with his shield (he used the bottom half of the shield to hit the top half of the net so it couldn't do collateral damage). Noah stabbed but Alec deflected it away from himself with his shield and hit him in the head with the flat of his blade.
Emily got up to charge him but he knew she was coming. His heel flicked up and dirt went into her eyes. Alec tripped her with his sword and ran off.
Emily got up and rubbed the dirt out of his eyes. Noah helped her up and they chased after him.
"He's good; maybe too good for us. I'm not sure we can take him."
"What are you talking about? He's overconfident; he just had the element of surprise, that's all!" Emily exclaimed.
They ran to the small clearing where their flag was kept. They came just in time to see Alec holding it with his sword hand, since his sword sheathed, surrounded by 4 groaning guards laying on the ground.
He looked at them and grinned. Emily struck at him but he used the flag like a spear and deflected the blow before jabbing her in her cuirass. She stumbled back from the unexpected force of the blow. Alec deflected a jab from Noah's trident with his shield, then spun as he knocked Noah's net out of the air with his shield while he used the flag to swipe at Noah's feet. Noah was already mid-strike with his trident when the attack came so he couldn't react in time to avoid it.
Emily rushed Alec while he had his back turned to her, still crouching. As soon as she started to swing he launched backwards at her. He hit her square in the chest essentially dodging the blow. She stumbled backwards and ran into a tree which caused her to fall down. As Noah was getting up she saw Alec lightly kick him over again before running off.
Noah got up and groaned. Then he flashed Emily a grin. Emily was thoroughly confused.
"Guess we got to fight for our spot at the top of the food chain, huh?" Noah said. Emily had made a remark last year about them being at the top of the food chain since they were some of the best fighters.
"Not with some no good jerk like him. C'mon. We've got to get him." Emily growled and offered her hand.
Noah rolled his eyes as he took her hand. They rushed together through the woods searching for Alec. They found him fighting with a son of Ares who was holding his own using a shield and spear. They went to join the fight when Alec saw them and she smiled at the fear on his face.
The three started pressing but Alec only seemed to draw strength from this. He fought like a demon, blocking one strike, dodging another to parry the third. Emily was grudgingly impressed. Then 2 more kids from Ares showed up from behind him. She could see the panic on his face. What followed was unforeseen by all of them.
Alec's face distorted into pure determination and cold, calculating fury. It was a look Emily never wanted to see again. She felt like she was trapped in a pool as she tried to strike at him. Alec parried a thrust of a spear and clubbed him in the head before spinning under a slow motion cut. He tripped the guy and in one fluid motion brought the blade up to deflect another kid's blade in the midst of a slow motion swing. He disarmed the kid and kicked him in the chest. Alec barely dodged an overhead slash, but he smashed the kid with his shield. Noah's net would've caught his sword hand except that Alec had more than enough time to dodge it. He spun around the net and rammed Emily through her slash at him. She fell back in slow motion, and saw Noah's thrust of his trident get deflected by Alec's shield as he spun away from her. Using the momentum of the swing he used the flat of the blade to launch Noah to the side.
The only remaining kid tried to run but Alec picked up a sword and threw it at him. It flew in slow motion, but it was still faster than the kid. The hilt hit him square in the back of the head and he sprawled on the forest floor. Alec climbed a tree to his right and things returned to normal. He slid down the tree and ran. All five of us chased him.
When he was 10 yards from the stream, it all of a sudden burst towards him. He was thrown backwards from the force of the blast and hit a tree. He got up, and we encircled him. However, he was beginning to get tired and Noah's little water trick didn't help Alec any. He did his voodoo magic thing and they were all stuck in slow motion again. However, Emily's group was able to move slightly faster than before. Alec managed to parry our strikes with the sword and flag, but never landed any of his own since the strikes weren't that slowed down.
Finally, this must've distracted him because Alec missed a thrust of the flag on his own and Emily brought the blade down on his head with all her force. Everything turned back to normal as her blade hit his head, but blood spurted out of his mouth and onto her helmet (some even got on her face). He crumpled like a ragdoll and Emily smiled victoriously.
Chiron came over and looked him over. He carried him away on his back as Noah glared at Emily. Emily threw her hands up in surrender.
"What?" Emily said.
Noah rolled his eyes and walked away without a word. Emily rage was still coursing through her veins. She calmed herself down, and went to the big house to go to sleep.
As she crawled into bed, she thought about the game. More like, she thought about Alec. She kept going over in her head the times she would get mad at him; searching for a reason. She found none.
It wasn't his fault that he was in that class – and he was a year older than her, so he had more of a right to be there than she did. It wasn't his fault that he never took her bait or got hurt by her insults and jeers; it was his fault whenever he would make a joke at her expense, but Emily's reactions counter-acted that fact. Finally, it most definitely wasn't his fault that he was good with a sword and had super freaky abilities.
That doesn't mean Emily wants to be all buddy-buddy with him; but she came to the conclusion she should lay off him. Maybe even apologize, she thought, I have been rather harsh on him. Emily couldn't decide; and it was eating her up. It was long into the night before she made her decision.
AN: I got nothing to say... except for review please!
Did you guys catch my disclaimer? That's why the author's note sounds as forced as my writing. XD