School is starting tomorrow for me, it's a good thing, and bad thing. Good: I finally get to see all my friends again cause I couldn't over the summer holidays. Bad: I won't get to update as often :(
Normally I would PM you privately to answer your questions or reviews, but these are some questions that other people may want to ask as well so I figured I would just put it here.
kelseyPJHP1997: What is a year 12 formal? Americans have senior proms and the homecoming dance
I'm sorry for confusing you, but I'm not American and from where I live, the school systems work like this: PreK-(Kindergarden), Junior school-(Primary/Elementary school-years 1-6), highschool-(years 7-10), college-(years 11-12) and university (or college for you) which comes after college. At the end of year 12, you have year 12 formal which is a dance and where you get your year 12 certificate that will certify you've finished year 12 to go to university, and then there's year 12 graduation. If you can explain to me about the senior proms and the homecoming dance and how schools work in America, I would gladly change the story in order to make it work for you.
MissJilyLimes: Great story! Do u think u could do a Dana POV?
Me: Yes, I would certainly do that in later chapters but for now, I won't because that would reveal all of Dana's secrets and that would take all the suspicions and red herrings away.
On with the story! (And please note, I couldn't really think of anything more to write after Dana's sleepover so I just skipped it to the actiony kind of bit. Hope you enjoy!)
7. Afterschool ambush
5 weeks later
Percy[1p]
So far, if you didn't count Trent's flirting with Annabeth and Kathy and Katie's flirting towards Jason and I, school had been going…better than my old schools. I had only caused 3 havocs within 5 weeks, my personal best; probably Annabeth being here settles me down a little. And with the girls only living across the hall from us, we would meet up almost every after school to go out for a cup of coffee or a game of laser tag. It was Friday today and Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Dana, Troy, Marcus and I all had P.E.
"Listen up cupcakes, we've already done field events and swimming in the first semester, so from now 'till the middle of next term, we'll be doing something special." he began.
Annabeth and Piper rushed in shortly afterwards, looking out of breath and worn out. "Ah ladies, have you finally decided to join us?" teased the coach.
Annabeth glared at him, fists clenched.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we were held up in the change rooms because the…the soap dispenser exploded and we had to clean it up." she began and clicked her fingers, I knew this move, she was manipulating the mist. I frowned at her and she shot me a look that clearly said: 'I'll tell you later.'
"Hmph, fine, but next time, you'll kiss 2 hours of your time afterschool goodbye because you'll be getting a week of afterschool detention."
Annabeth sat down next to me and sighed.
"What happened?" I asked.
"A hellhound and an empoursa, she was just this girl in my architecture class." she replied and I nodded.
"Quiet! Anyways, as I said before I was rudely interrupted-" began the coach as he glared at Piper and Annabeth, "-that we'll be doing something different, from now 'till week 6 of term 4, we'll be doing…sword fighting!"
The four of us looked at each other with large grins on our faces while the class buzzed with excitement.
"Sword fighting? Awesome!" said Dana with a grin.
"Alright, we'll be having a sword fighting teacher with us. Please give a warm welcome to…Blake Dawson!" he said.
Wait what? Blake Dawson? I've heard that name before…
"Hello, I'm Blake, and I'll be teaching you sword fighting for…as long as the coach says." began a teenager who had just entered the gym that had dark-brown hair and a grin that showed that he was always up to no good.
"Percy? Annabeth? Piper? Jason? Since when do you guys come to Goode?" asked the 17-year-old son of Hermes that was one of the early half-bloods that were discovered before the gods had made their promise.
"You know them?" asked none other than the idiot, Trent.
"Why, yes! The four of them are one of the best sword fighters at our camp, well Annabeth and Piper uses knives while Jason can use a spear." said Blake with a shrug.
Then Blake got us to grab a wooden sword from the box, except for us half-bloods because he said we could use our own weapons, but he sent us separately since if we all went all together, it would seem a little suspicious.
"Okay, can I please have a demonstration? Percy? Annabeth?" he asked, looking at our direction.
We smiled in response before walking up to the front of the class. Annabeth had her knife while I held my Riptide. I heard a yawn from the class and a few sniggers. I rolled my eyes, probably just some of Trent's friends. Annabeth just stood there, waiting for me to strike but I stood there just as well. Finally, my ADHD got the better of me and I lunged forward. Annabeth chuckled as she easily dodged my swipe and began to jab, causing me to go on defence. I felt the class behind me stiffen at our duel while Blake chuckled.
'Just like camp…'he muttered to himself.
I was determined to win as I caught Annabeth's knife in mid-air with my sword and an arm wrestle of a sword and knife began. I twisted the Riptide in an attempt to flick Annabeth's knife away, but she knew this move; she twisted the other way and slammed her knife into my sword. The force was so strong that it knocked it a few metres away. She aimed her knife at my neck while placing her strong grip on my shoulders.
"Dead." she announced.
The whole gym was silent except for Blake who was clapping. Soon after, Dana, Marcus and began to clap and cheer as well.
"Well done, Annabeth. Now, who would like to give it a go?" he asked.
But before anyone could say anything, the coach, who had been watching from a corner stepped forward.
"I'll choose. Dana, get your ass over here." he said.
He must be wanting to please Mr. Charles by getting the girl who punched his daughter to fight a professionally trained monster slayer. Dana paled slightly but did not seem to bother to object. She walked towards Annabeth with her wooden sword in her right-hand. Dana lunged first and swiped blindly at Annabeth's head in which she easily dodged. Annabeth swung at Dana's sword, hoping to disarm it, it was a fast move, but somehow, Dana managed to deflect it. But after 5 minutes of dodging, ducking and swiping, Annabeth had already disarmed Dana and had her knife pointed to Dana's neck. But just before Annabeth could announce her 'dead', Dana suddenly raised her right-hand quickly and grabbed Annabeth's sword arm by the wrist, she twisted it, and Annabeth dropped her knife in surprise – straight into Dana's left hand. Dana continued to twist Annabeth's right arm until it was in a painful arm lock with her knife pointed at her neck. Nobody clapped or cheered. Both Blake and I were too stunned, the rest of the class stared at them with wide eyes while the coach huffed in annoyance. After around half a minute of silence, Dana dropped Annabeth's knife and let go of her arm.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry about that, I just got a little defensive." she began.
But Annabeth stood with a smile on her face.
"Sorry? No, you don't have to be sorry, that was awesome!"
Dana grinned while they shook hands. Finally, Blake snapped out of it and started clapping.
"Good job Dana, but you could work on aiming your swings better." Dana nodded in response as Annabeth went back to her seat, which was right next to mine.
"So…the great Wise girl was finally beaten?" I teased.
She punched my shoulder – hard.
"I was going easy. And I wanted to see what she would do next. I think she's a half-blood, but she has both parents though." I shrugged.
"Could be, I've suspected that ever since I first came to Goode and met her, but I'm confused with the parents part, maybe she's a quarter blood?" I wondered.
Annabeth shrugged as Blake began to demonstrate basic defence movements that I'd learned since my first day at Camp half-blood.
Afterschool
No one
"Where should we head to now?" asked Piper.
Annabeth, Percy and Jason walked next to her through the halls of the now deserted school.
"We should head to the mall and get smoothies." suggested Percy.
"Nah, too far to walk, and we already did that two days ago." said Annabeth.
"Well, we should—"
"Wait!" came a voice from down the hall.
The four of them turned their heads and found Dana running towards them, looking out of breath.
"Hey, I don't have detention today so do you mind if I join you guys?" she asked. Piper shook her head.
"Not at all, we were just deciding where we should go now." said Annabeth.
"Oh! I know this place that's only a couple of blocks from our apartments, it's a brand new coffee shop that just opened yesterday." she suggested.
The four of them nodded in agreement as they walked out of the school building; little did they know that there was two people following closely behind them.
"I love the smell of coffee beans." commented Percy as the intoxicating smell of coffee enveloped the 4 half-bloods and Dana when Percy pulled open the door.
"Hi! What can I get for you today?" asked the girl behind the counter who was smiling seductively and sweetly at Jason and Percy.
Annabeth and Piper both glared daggers at her while Dana spoke first.
"Hi, I'll have a milk chocolate frappe please." she said and the girl typed the order down on the computer.
"I'll have a medium flat white." stated Annabeth, rather coldly.
The girl, who was oblivious towards Piper and Annabeth's glares looked up and Percy and smiled yet again.
"I'll have an ice chocolate thanks." he said with a small smile, also oblivious that the girl was trying to get his attention as he wrapped his arm around Annabeth's waist. The girl glared at Annabeth in which she returned one with a smirk.
"A regular sized ice coffee please." said Jason.
"I'll have the same." said Piper, and after shooting the girl one last glare, Annabeth and Piper proceeded to sit down with Percy, Jason and Dana at a booth.
The five of them talked for a long time, from topics such as 'how boring school is' to 'what you normally do on Christmas'.
"I would be at home with mum and Paul, eating blue cookies." said Percy as he took a sip from his drink.
"I would probably be dragged outside by my half-brothers and have a snow-ball fight." chuckled Annabeth.
"I would be at camp and most likely be pelted with snowballs by Clarisse." said Jason.
"And I would be there to watch him." smirked Piper as the four of them laughed. "What about you Dana?" they asked.
Dana didn't meet their eyes and muttered something under her breath.
"Um… I would probably just be at home watching funny movies or something." she said in a rather quiet voice.
Annabeth seemed puzzled by this but didn't comment and just nodded.
"Wow, it's nearly 6, I better get home before mum gets worried." said Percy and we all nodded in agreement.
As they walked outside, Annabeth couldn't help but feel as if they were being watched, suddenly, from the corner of her eye, someone, or something moved in the that they'd just walk pas. She stopped at her tracks and turned to face the alley. Percy, Jason, Piper and Dana stopped as well and Dana frowned.
"What is it, Wise girl?" asked Percy.
"Um…I thought I saw…never mind, it's probably just a—" but a growl suddenly caused all of them to grab their weapons.
Percy took out the Riptide, Piper had her knife as a pocket mirror (it was enchanted by Hephaestus when they began at Goode high so there wouldn't be any suspicions). Jason took out the gladius in its coin form while Annabeth took out her knife that was disguised as a ruler.
"Um…guys…what…why have…" began Dana with a frown.
"Okay Dana, we have to tell you something, the things you'll see in the next 10 minutes will probably be very weird and impossible, but I need you to stay behind me, understand?" said Percy.
Dana frowned but nodded slightly. But before anyone could even move, 2 dracaena suddenly appeared in front of the 5. They both had scaly and smelly green skin with celestial bronze chest plate. They held two spears that were at least 2 metres long with very sharp tips. The four demi-gods drew their weapons and Dana's eyes widened as she took a step back from the deadly weapons.
"Ah! I wassss justttt assssking for a sssssnack." hissed one of the dracaena woman as its sister snarled at them.
"Good offer, but I'd prefer the one where I slice your heads off." said Percy, acting like he was thinking.
The two dracaenas snarled but didn't charge, instead, the shadows that surrounded the 4 half-bloods and Dana thickened as 4 hellhounds the size of Mrs. O' Leary, maybe even bigger walked out of the shadows. Percy gripped his sword tightly as the hellhounds lunged at the half-bloods, leaving Dana to face the two snake women.
Dana
Dana was frozen in shock and terror. Her four friends were holding medieval-like weapons and were fighting those massive dogs or hounds as it tried to bite them. She looked at the snake women in front of her. These monsters shouldn't be alive, they were all myths. Was this a dream? A Dream… thought Dana. A wave of sadness washed over her as she recalled a certain event that happened earlier in her life that she'd thought it was a dream. But now it was otherwise. She pinched herself – hard on her arm but nothing worked. The two monsters were advancing her quickly and she had to think of something – something fast. The first one jabbed but Dana saw it coming somehow. Her years of martial arts training kicked in as she sidestepped from the spear and turned her back towards her opponent. Dana grabbed the spear with her hands and yanked it straight out of the first one's hands, sending her sprawling into the nearby dumpsters.
"Puny half-blood!" snarled the second one as it hissed in anger and jabbed as well. But Dana used the spear in her hands and it collided with the second dracaena's spear. Dana used all her force and pushed the spear out of the way, she aimed straight at the snake woman's face and jabbed. It immediately exploded in yellow powder which Dana thought was strange. Ugly number one was already getting back up so Dana thought of her last option, she was never good at throwing or aiming things, but she threw the spear like a javelin anyway, and it pierced straight through the dracaena's heart. Dana sighed in exhaustion as she looked around her. Piper had just stabbed the last of the hellhounds and Dana looked at them in shock and terror.
"W-what were those things? And why did one of them call me a half-blood?" she asked.
Percy sighed as he used a pen cap and tapped his sword. Dana watched in bewilderment as it shrunk back into a normal 3 dollar ballpoint pen you could easily buy in your local supermarkets.
"Dana, have you ever heard of Greek gods?"
Percy[1p]
Dana was taking it surprisingly well. Instead of saying: 'Oh c'mon, this has to be some sort of joke' or 'Haha, very funny, can I wake up now?" like from the other half-bloods we discover, she was curious and asked some questions. Suddenly, I felt a presence of another other than the 5 of us.
"Perseus Jackson." said a voice behind me.
I froze and slowly turned around. There, standing at the opening of the alley, blocking our exit, was Katie Charles. But she looked different. She had one donkey leg and one bronze leg, the colour had drained out of her face and two vampire-like teeth were sticking out of her blood-red lips.
"What is that?" asked Dana in a horrid tone.
"That is an empoursa, it stalks males as its prey and tricks them into kissing her, then she bites them." said Annabeth.
"And you remember that explosion in the band room a couple of years back?" I asked Dana, while I unleashed the Riptide once again.
I stole a quick glance at her and she nodded.
"Well it was because of them." I said, gesturing to Katie who snarled at Dana.
"Oh Katie! There you are-wait WHAT THE HELL?" shrieked Kathy as she backed away from the empoursa who hissed at Kathy.
"Are you one too?" asked Annabeth in a deadly tone.
Kathy shot her a confused look.
"What are you talking about? Oh Percy! Save me! Save me from this…this monster that took my sister away." She whined like a little kid.
I rolled my eyes, knowing full well that this probably was her sister. Then something hit me, I remembered that Kathy never had a sister before the beginning of year 12, so the existence of Katie Charles must've just been a mist effect. Katie lunged at me at a surprising speed and I only managed to dodge at the last second. She hissed and was ready to claw me, when she exploded in yellow dust. A very angry Annabeth stood over her with a knife in hand.
"I love you." I said.
"I know." she smirked and I kissed her.
It was cut short when Kathy huffed and said: "Can someone please tell me what's going on?"
I sighed as Annabeth glared at her.
"Did you see her colourless face and donkey leg?" she asked.
Kathy scoffed.
"How could you not see it?" she said as it if were the most obvious thing in the world. Gods, she was so annoying.
"Do you have both parents?" I asked.
Annabeth looked thoughtful and glanced at Dana but Dana didn't meet her eyes. "No, my mum left me when I was a kid, I don't remember her much." said Kathy. Dana didn't say anything but if a dracaena said she was a half-blood, I guess there's no harm in bringing her to camp.
"Everything will be explained at camp, I'll give my mum and Chiron a quick IM and then we'll go." I said.
A/N If you would spare 5-10 minutes of your time, would you please check out my other story? It's called A Bad Reunion and it's about how Percy forgets Annabeth and didn't drink the gorgon blood, it's a three-shot by the way. Thanks for reading! :)