Hi!

Guess who's back from a holiday (haha, not really. I've been working my butt off cos school).

This one's extra long as an apology for my followers. I am SO SORRY m(_ _)m.

Enjoy~

SakuraBaka31

"Are you sure you're feeling better?" I asked Nico. "I mean, you couldn't even stand up yesterday."

"Yes, Percy, I'm fine." Nico rolled his eyes, then smiled a little at me. "Besides, I wanna see you fly."

The quidditch tryouts were today and I was going to give it a shot, at least. The only difference between what I've done and what I'm going to do is that one was on a pegasus who called me 'Boss' and had a donut craving and the other is a broom.

"Yeah!" Will agreed, "Annabeth's always bragging about how good you were on Blackjack, but I've never seen you do it…"

"Uhh, excuse me, are you saying I can't fly?"

"Ohhh, no." Annabeth sighed, massaging her brow, "Here he goes again."

"Look, I've been flying since the age of thirteen, I tell you. You, sir" I jabbed a finger at Will's chest (who was taller than me, so that made for a better effect), "haven't even lifted your feet off of the ground yet."

"Alright, alright," Will replied, raising his hands sarcastically, "At this rate, we'll never see you fly. Look, Coach Dunstan is waiting over there"

I turned around to see a bulky coach talking sternly to a group of students.

"OK, wish me luck!" I said.

"You shouldn't need any!" Will called after me.

I jogged towards the field, leaving the other three, who were all doubled over laughing, to walk themselves over to the stands.

Coach Dunstan glowered at me.

"Jackson, you're late." he growled, colourless eyes sparking in anger.

"Only by five minutes, sir." I replied. Lucky I didn't just say "So what?"

"Well, then, get in line!" he practically yelled. Percy quickly walked over to the other students where they were standing in a straight line.

"Students, and potential future Quidditch stars! Today is the day you take your first flight and it better be good. If you can't get on your broom, out. If you can't get off the ground and stay there, out. If you can't dodge that Bludger or catch that Snitch…" he paused, waiting for the students, who were obviously scared, including me.

"Out." we all muttered.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU." Coach Dunstan bellowed like a bull.

"OUT!" came a shout from the ten of us.

"That's the spirit." he sneered, looking an awful lot like Ares. He then turned westwards, towards a shed, and yelled "Accio Brooms!"

Nine brooms zoomed out of the shed and towards us. With lightning reflexes, he caught each one of them and threw them to us, calling us by last name.

"Kim! Greene! Harthorn! Taylor! Forrest! Sato! Tiriaq! Lambert! Jackson!"

I caught mine last, and gripped it, feeling the smooth lacquered wood under my glove. Coach Dunstan looked down at us (probably thinking Perfect punching bags, these lot.).

"Time to fly, baby birds."

Soon, eight of us were in the air (Greene couldn't get off the ground. "OUT!"). Coach Dunstan was in the air, on a broomstick slightly bigger than ours. After a few moments of silence just gawking at the space between the ground and the broom, the eight of us jumped when the coach shouted again.

"We'll never get to play a game if you just sit there staring at your brooms!" Coach Dunstan yelled. "Push off from the ground!"

I followed the coach and so did the others, flying up into the air. We soon started moving forwards, flying towards the goals. Under the coach's instruction we sped up and after a while, we were flying at the speed of lightning. I hope Zeus didn't hear me brag about this.

"Turn!" I could hear Coach Dunstan's gruff voice pierce the air. Looking back, I heard him yell "You too, Jackson!"

I quickly looked forward and saw the goalpost racing towards me. Jerking the broomstick up, I flew towards the clouds, looping and coming down towards the field again. Smiling, I began a lap around it, high-fiving Annabeth, Will and Nico, who were all whooping and cheering their lungs out, as I passed them. Riding a broomstick was just like riding a pegasus, not because it was easy, but because I felt free. I felt free from the bullies, the teachers frowning at me and the monsters after me. They were down there, and I was up here. Suckers! I found myself whooping as loud as the guys on the stands and anyone that looked me in the eye would have seen the crazy gleam in them.

Coach Dunstan called names and assigned roles to the Thunderbird players.

"Sato, Chaser, Harthorn, Chaser, Kim, Beater, Taylor, Chaser, Lambert, Beater, Tiriaq, Chaser."

Jamie Forrest, a short boy about my age with brownish blonde hair and brown eyes looked up fearlessly at Coach Dunstan. I liked this kid already. The coach glared at the two of us.

"Jackson, you didn't follow my instructions. I told you to come back into line."

What was he talking about? I didn't hear anything. He must have noticed my confused look when he said,

"Obviously, you were too focused on your flying…" Coach Dunstan stalled, glancing at Jamie.

"Forrest, you're a sub. Jackson," his face broke into a half-smile, "You're our new Seeker."

He turned to everyone with a determined expression.

"Quidditch training starts at 5:00, Thursday afternoon! I expect everyone to be there on the dot."