Chapter reference: 32
Annabeth — Compete
Annabeth (7) - Travis (7) - Connor (6)
2001, Pre The Lightning Thief
Annabeth thinks she was seven when it first started. Around the end of May, it has to be around May, when all the counselors were preparing for the summer. Deep cleaning the cabins, fixing all the holes and hazards, dumping lumpy mattresses, tossing the worn and torn bedsheets, buying cheap new bedsheets, fundraising to buy the cheap new bedsheets, then fundraising for sleeping bags because there's never enough beds in Luke's cabin.
The counselors didn't have a lot of time out of the necessities. ("You mean, Luke didn't have a lot of time," Connor snickers to his brother off to the side).
Which is how she supposes started this tradition. Apparently she, Travis, and Connor are too 'small and fragile' to help with any of the preparation. Which is so stupid. Annabeth can do it all and do it better than any one of the older campers. But they're forbidden from helping and this is how Annabeth found herself with Travis and Connor wandering around camp, unsupervised, with nothing to do.
It starts small. With ping-pong first. She won of course (even with it being 2 vs 1). Then it moved to the climbing wall and who could get to the top the fastest.
She still won (nevermind the fact that Travis fell ¾ of the way up and couldn't catch up to them).
Then they move on to darts. Annabeth won that too. Just 1 bullseye more than Connor. Barely won, but she's not going to admit that.
Connor fumes, but it lasts only for a minute as he removes the darts from the board. "Swordsmanship next. Whoever disarms the other first wins. Best 2 out of three."
"Sure," Annabeth agrees.
Now that, she didn't win. It was close but she didn't win. Not unanimously at least. Travis wasn't into it so he doesn't count. She waits as patiently as she could with crossed arms for Connor to stop high-fiving Travis and celebrating like they won the lottery.
"Fencing," she states. "First one to 15 points wins."
She wins that. No problem. ("I don't get it," Connor whines to Travis, "Fencing is practically like sword fighting. How is she better at it?")
She smiles smugly as Connor pouts and Travis tries to cheer his brother up.
"Egyptian War," Connor says with a smirk that's downright evil. "You know the rules right?"
It goes on like that.
Who could sprint the fastest. Who could jump the farthest. Who could canoe the quickest across the lake. Who could fight better, with a dagger, with a spear, with a polearm, with a sword, with a sword and shield, with a sword and sword. And most importantly, judo. She loses… maybe 49% of the time against Connor when it comes to weaponry proficiency. But hand-to-hand combat, she has him beat 100% of the time.
Travis is always there too, watching and cheering for the both of them if he isn't distracted with getting snacks or brainstorming for pranks. Sometimes he participates, but he never gets into it like Connor does. No matter how much Annabeth goads Travis, Travis only gives it 50% of his all, half-heartedly trying and then quickly giving up to do something else like breaking into the camp store.
It's frustrating.
Travis loses most of the time when he does participate. But there's one thing he always wins on, even though he puts in zero effort. And it's running. All the kinds, sprints, long runs, hill repeats, tempo runs. He keeps up with her, even if she gives it her all, even if he trips over a branch, even if he stumbles over a pebble, even if he slows down to wave at Lee or Luke or Beckendorf or whoever is passing by them, even if he makes a detour to get a drink, Travis always manages to catch up to her. He even talks while running and at the end of the race, when she's gasping with exhaustion, Travis dares to offer her a bottle of water, his breathing steady and relaxed. She accepts it of course. No way she's moving while her legs feel like jelly. Connor tells her to give up, collapsed on his back beside her, laughing through his panting.
"Travis doesn't get tired," he says.
Which is physically impossible so she is going to ignore what Connor said.
On and on. For years and years. Winning some, losing some.
Thinking back… all their competition were… friendly. Just three friends having a friendly if a little heated competition every other day or so. Because really, what were they supposed to do? Being yearrounders left them with a lot of freetime.
Then when Luke… when Percy was poisoned, when she left that year to spend it with her father and his family, when a war was looming over them all. It can't be friendly anymore. And they get that too.
They never verbally agree on it outloud, but they drop the ping-pongs, the canoeing, the wall climbing from their competition and just make it all archery, swordplay, all the weapons in the armory and judo. Lots of judo. Connor may best her in some she used to win at ("You can't have Michael be your tutor. That's cheating. You have to improve by yourself," Annabeth argues as Connor smiles smugly and shrugs), but he never best her at judo and Annabeth intends to keep it that way.
Oh and running. She still keeps that up with Travis and Connor.
But rather than the morning and evening run, it became the middle-of-the-night runs.
They don't say it, but Annabeth knows it has to do with the nightmares. The new time doesn't bother her. Avoiding the harpies is just another skill she can hone. And who knows. Travis still talks during his runs. Maybe he'll get caught and Annabeth can finally win for once. A shitty win, but a win nonetheless and after years and years and years of always losing in this one event, she needs a mood boost, a taste of victory that will push her to actually win for real.
"Do you think that will really work?" Connor huffs just a few steps behind her as she sprints in the dark along the barrier. Travis cocks his head to the side in confusion (also in pace with the both of them, but not huffing, not gasping like she is, not a bit exerted at all and gods is that annoying even after all these years)
Connor laughs, "He's not going to stop if we don't stop and there's no way I'm getting in trouble alone. If you're gonna keep running even if the harpies see us, then I'll do the same and Travis will too."
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