Average Dodgeball, Maybe

"Today, we're going to play some dodgeball!" I announced.

"What?" Percy asked.

"Annabeth, how are we going to play dodgeball?" Leo wondered.

"Well, I might've asked a school–more like tricked them into thinking we're their students, but that doesn't matter–all that matters is that we have a school gym and dodgeballs!" I rubbed my hands together with excitement.

"So we're going to play a mortal game?" Frank asked.

"Uh, what's dodgeball?" Hazel asked quietly.

"A tag game with balls that you throw at each other," I explained.

Some of the boys snickered and I glared at them.

"Suppose we do have a gym and dodgeballs to use, happen if any of the students came in and got in the middle of it?" Reyna asked.

"We can stop, hopefully. We'll have a variety of campers to play with. It's kinda like Capture the Flag or War Games," I answered.

"Why are we playing a mortal game?" A random camper asked from the crowd. "Can't we use different types of toys to play?"

"No. I want us to feel like a mortal again, no worry in the world, so no tricks or special toys," I told the camper.

"Do you agree with this, Chiron?" Another camper asked.

"Actually, I do. Annabeth and I talked it over and found a school that is nearby," Chiron calmly said.

A lot of the crowd gasped or muttered.

"To be assured, we're just playing this for fun, not for competition!" I assured.

"Uh, Annabeth, don't you know it's in your guys' nature to be competitive?" Chiron whispered to me.

I nodded as if saying, Right! "Nevermind, ignore my last statement! We'll do it by cabins, and then one who wins doesn't get chores for a month and extra desserts!"

The campers cheered in union and Chiron and I left the stage. I hurried to meet up with my friends.

"How did you convince Chiron to let us play dodgeball at a school?" Percy asked.

"Well, I told him that we were getting a little bored with everything and wanted to try something new and he agreed right away," I smiled.

"Gods Annabeth, you're brilliant!" Percy kissed me.

I blushed with embarrassment.

"When are we going to this school?" Jason asked.

"This evening. After dinner," I replied.

"So we can hang out today or do we have camp activities?" Percy asked.

"I think we don't have anything today," I guessed.

"Great! Guys, let's go to the amphitheater," Percy said, dragging me along with our friends following.

Percy led us to the amphitheater and summoned his sword and started to hack at a straw dummy.

"Nah. Dude, you should practice with someone real. Enhance your skills," Jason walked up to Percy and put his hand on Percy's shoulder. "Practice with me."

"Um," Percy looked at me and I shrugged. Percy transformed his sword back to his pen, "Aright, you want to practice? Let's practice."

Jason grabbed a sword and readied it while Percy transformed his pen into his sword.

"Wait!" A girl's voice said behind us. I turned around and saw Piper. Jason nearly sliced Percy in half when he turned around to face Piper.

"Piper?" Jason dropped his sword and walked over to Piper and hugged her. "Where have you been?"

"Stuck at home, but I was helping my dad," Piper pulled away and smiled. "What is going on here?"

"Average practice," Percy smirked.

Piper nodded and came over to me, "So what are we doing today?"

"Well, I had convinced Chiron to let us play dodgeball at a mortal school," I started. "And we're doing it today."

"Today, today? Like today? Are you serious?" Piper said in surprise.

"Yes, today," I confirmed.

Piper looked like she was going to explode in either excitement or anger. She turned her attention back to Jason, "So why are you two practicing if we're doing dodgeball today?"

"Just to burn time, we don't get to play until after dinner," Jason explained. "If you were here, you would've heard the speech."

Piper punched his arm, "I was busy."

"So?" Jason joked.

The bell rang, signaling for dinner, finally.

"Let's go!" I cheered as I raced to the dining pavilion.

My cabin was one of the first ones there, it was the Hermes cabin that beat my cabin. After my cabin came: Ares, then Aphrodite, Apollo, Deinonychus, Poseidon, Zeus, and so on.

I burned part of my meal in the fire and prayed to mom for good luck for dodgeball, even though I don't think I'll need it. On my team, I have Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Apollo, Hades, Pluto, Mars, and my Cabin (I don't care if Mars and Pluto isn't a cabin, I'm only saying Cabins, not the Cohorts, too many gods to remember from each Cohort).

After everyone finished their meals, Chiron stomped his hooves to get everyone's attention, "Campers! We'll be departing for a game of dodgeball in 15 minutes! Get ready! And remember, no magic items or weapons!"

Some campers groaned and got up.

"And I'll be checking for magic items and weapons before we depart!" Chiron added and everyone groaned.

I hurried to meet up with my friends before we were going to depart, "Hey guys!"

"So, are we all on the same team?" Frank asked.

"Yes. Our team members are Pluto, Ares, Mars, Poseidon, Apollo, Hades, Zeus, and my cabin," I explained.

"Sweet–wait, what about Aphrodite?" Jason asked.

Piper looked like it just donged on her, "Annabeth, what about my cabin?"

"Oh...uh," I forgot to add Aphrodite. Piper is stuck with Deinonychus, Hermes, and all the others. "I'm so sorry, Piper. I-I didn't realize that I forgot to add the Aphrodite's Cabin."

"It's fine, I'll just beat your ass," Piper crossed her arms.

Yeah, she can think that I have a plan, Athena always has a plan, "Okay, well good luck then."

"Happen if we beat your ass, Piper?" Leo asked.

Piper's face turned red with anger, "Maybe you won't, Valdez."

"Alright, you two, no fighting," Percy stood in the middle of them.

"Why don't we just go and get ready," I said gently.

"Yeh, let's not fight until dodgeball," Jason helped me out.

"Fine," Piper grumbled.

We walked back to the cabins and we hung out in the middle watching everyone walk around us. We chatted or just watched the clouds until we heard clip-clops on the ground.

"Chiron?" I guessed.

"Heroes, change of plans," Chiron said. "We're doing dodgeball early, get ready."

"How long?" Leo asked.

"15 minutes," Chiron replied and hurried off to warn the other campers.

"Okay, let's go to the hill and wait," I suggested.

We hiked up the hill and waited. There were Camp Jupiter's black SUVs and our camp's vans. We had almost everyone waiting, it was one of the largest groups of demi-gods I've seen since the Battle of the Titans a few years ago.

"Ready, campers?" Chiron asked once he gathered everyone.

A roar of cheers echoed through the valley.

"Alright! Load up!" Chiron cheered and headed towards the vehicles.

We drove for an hour to get to the school. Some Hermes kids were playing tricks on one another while we waited. Argus and the Harpies were driving, Harpies are chicken women and they can be mean, but they're great for New York traffic.

We finally made it to the school. The school is a red brick building and was two stories tall. It had some lights on in some rooms, but otherwise, it was pretty empty looking. We all filed out of the vehicles and gathered in front of the school.

"Campers! I'll be splitting you guys into teams, no switching, no trade-offs," Chiron announced and started to gather my team. After he was done calling off my team, he started to call the other team. Chiron made some adjustments to the teams, Reyna is now on my team and some other Romans, while on the other team, Piper glared at me.

I stuck my tongue at Piper and she crossed her arms. I laughed quietly and Percy suddenly wrapped one of his arms around my waist and pulled me close.

"I saw you sticking out your tongue at Piper," Percy joked.

"Shut up, Jackson," I playfully shoved him.

"Alright, campers, single-file lines into the school! No horseplay until we get there!" Chiron announced.

"So you get to horseplay when we reach the gym?" A random camper asked, most likely a Hermes camper.

"No, but you–" Chiron stopped himself. "No, no horseplay."

Some campers snickered as we lined up, surprisingly, the campers actually lined up properly and walked down the halls with very few issues. I think some of the campers were nervous about being in a real school. Not a lot of us have been in a school, and if we have been, a lot of the teachers would already guess we were trouble.

We finally reached the gym and we filed inside. We gathered into our teams on the opposite sides of the gym. My team took the backside of the gym and the opponents took the other side. The dodgeballs were already set up in the middle and the bleachers were folded up so there was more room and less chance for the balls to get stashed up there by accident.

Chiron came in his wheelchair form and announced, "Ready, set, play!"

Percy quickly grabbed 2 balls and threw them at a Roman camper, the Roman camper threw his ball to the ground and sat with Chiron. I grabbed a ball and tossed it at Piper, she dodged and grabbed her own ball to toss at me, but I figured her antics, I rolled out of the way.

The game kept going, some of the opponents got out and some of my teammates did as well. Soon there was just me, Percy, Jason, Reyna, and Hazel left on my team, and then Piper, Marcus, Josh, and Oliva on the other side.

"You're going down, Annabeth!" Piper cried as she grabbed a ball.

"Yeah, okay," I grabbed myself a ball and I saw out of the corner of my eye that Percy and Hazel did the same.

Percy quickly chucked his ball at Josh and he was too slow and ended up out. Hazel attempted to do the same, but her ball only rolled to Marcus' feet, he grabbed her ball and chucked it at her, she yelped and dodged it.

Jason caught the ball mid-air from Marcus and Marcus stomped his foot and stormed off.

It was now 2 versus 5. I knew we were going to win until Olivia did something unexpected she grabbed two balls and threw them. One hit Hazel and then Reyna caught the other.

Olivia seemed satisfied that she got out Hazel, but annoyed that Reyna caught the ball.

There was only Piper on the other side and then me, Percy, Reyna, and Jason left.

"You're still going down, Chase!" Piper grabbed two balls and chucked them.

One ball flew past my shoulder and the other nearly hit Reyna.

"McLean, you better watch it," Reyna warned.

Piper shrugged and picked up another ball. I noticed that Percy stood by my side. Piper smiled and aimed her ball, Percy looked like he was relaxed. Piper threw the ball at me, but as soon as I thought it hit my face, Percy caught the ball.

"Jackson?!" Piper screeched.

"Should've known better, Piper," Percy tossed the ball in the air and caught it again. "You know that I promised not to leave her again."

"Ugh!" Piper huffed and stormed off and started to mutter in ancient Greek, probably something not nice about Percy and me. I did catch her saying, "Percy is like stupid Ken, always by Barbie's side." I couldn't help but smile at that comment.

"Team–er, what's your team?" Chiron asked.

We looked at each other, we all had the same idea, "Team Tide."

Chiron shrugged, "Team Tide wins!"