Tomorrow I leave. I can feel the butterflies swarming my stomach. My siblings being here just makes leaving that much harder. Mostly because I'm not sure if I'm coming back.

The monsters everyone keeps telling me about, I'm not sure if they're real. The descriptions I hear sound so much like make believe I can't wrap my head around them being real.

Annabeths been training me nonstop, every chance we get we're down there. I think I'm growing on her though, she doesn't always seem so mad around me.

Sitting up in my newly made bed, by the oh so kind Hephaestus kids, I catch a wiff of myself and make a disgusted face.

I start counting back to the last time I had had a shower, and I can't remember. Jumping up I begin a search for the bathroom.

Finding the room I begin the shower. The water soothes all the acing muscles I wasn't even aware I had. How did I go three days without a shower? Normally I can't even go a day.

Just washing my hair and soaping up got boring so I started singing my heart out. I jumped back from Adele to
Some black keys, through in some zz ward and monsters of men. Basically all the snippets from songs I like that I could remember.

When the hot water ran out I jumped out. My logic of course for using all the hot water, i hadn't showered in three days, and I think it would be best for everyone if I made absolutely sure the stank was gone.

But of course Nyssa didn't see this. She stood outside the door tapping her foot repeatedly holding a towel and a bottle of two in one shampoo.

"Don't tell me you used all the hot water." She said, very annoyed.

I stood there still. Not moving or making any attempt to speak. She huffed and pushed passed me.

"Your lucky I like you Elly!"

I glance at the clock and see that I'm supposed to meet Annabeth in fifteen. Shiiiit. My hair is not going to be dry in time. Throwing it back in a quick French braid I run out to the arena. In the time it took me to get dressed and braid my hair
I was late.

Just like Nyssa, Annabeth stood there, tapping her foot and a look of impatience.

"Elly! What the hell! I expect you to be here on time for at least our last training session."

"I'm only one minute late." I say to her, getting really annoyed with people getting annoyed with me.

"I expect you to be on time when we are training for a dangerous mission." Her face was starting to turn odd colours, but luckily before she could explode, Cooper ran up.

Cooper ran right to me and raised his arms above his head in a way that obviously said, "pick me up."

I picked him up and looked at Annabeth, I could tell she still wasn't happy with me but was gonna hold it in while Cooper was here.

"Let's just train Elly." Annabeth says giving me a pointed look.

"Yup. Okay Coop you can watch over there." I set him down and he runs over to the rock I had pointed at.

Annabeth and I train for a while not yet sparring just going over the moves she had shown me and a few new ones that might come in handy. She criticizes my ever move. It seems every stance I take is incorrect and ever swing I make doesn't have enough
force to it.

"No keep your left hand raised here, and your right positioned over your stomach. Other wise as you make the swing with your left you'll have no protection anywhere."

When sparring finally came I glanced over to Cooper and saw that Zoey and Ted where there too. Sean was still with Chiron probably working out the details of their stay. I glance back towards Annabeth and see she's already ready, I take a defensive stance
and raise my knives. As I expected she makes the first swing. Her knife comes hurtling towards my face and I block the blow with my right hand. My brain has no time to conjure up a plan of attack because she's already swinging again this time
with her left instead of her right. Neither of my hands where ready for a blow towards my stomach so I do the only thing I can think of, jump back. My jump wasn't quick enough and her knife nicks my stomach, a sharp sting starts to spread.

This time I have time, I swing my left arm to her belly while my foot kicks her feet out from under her. If I had thought it would be easier with her on the ground I was wrong, Annabeth is just as deadly on the ground as she is on her feet. She does almost
a turtle spin on her back and kicks my feet out as well. Before I can even think about getting up her knife is at my throat and she has won.

"Every time." I groan. Annabeth laughs and is about to reply before a scream of fury is heard.

We both turn to see Cooper running towards us at full speed.

"What is he doing?" Annabeth asks me. I shake my head and shrug my shoulders to show I have no idea. Cooper stops running about ten feet away from us, he's anger visible from where we were. He lifts one hand and points at Annabeth, suddenly she's being
lifted off of me by... Sunflowers? Her knife drops from her hand and the sunflowers wrap around her until all that is visible is her face.

"Don't hurt Elly!" Cooper yells. The most words I've ever heard him speak in front of someone he didn't really know.

Not a second later she was released, and Cooper ran towards me. I pulled him in for a hug which he gladly returned. Zoey ran up after too.

"Sorry Elly we were going to tell you about the magic flowers but we didn't want to mess with the quest."

"Wait what? You two knew?" Zoey nodded and lifted her hand making purple flowers plant themselves in the ground.

So uh yeah, I'm back!

Kind of

I'm not sure yet, I got in a writing mood today because I was bored so I decided to finish this one off real quick and post it just to give y'all and update.

The hill I train at for snowboarding just closed last Sunday so it's most likely you'll get a few updates from me.

For anyone who cares, in highschool provincials I got 10th in the province, so I am the tenth best female snowboarder out of all the high schools in my province! Go me! All of my other races I did very well, placing either very high or being the top female to compete overall.

Thank you for reading the new chapter, and not hating me for not updating for so long!

-avril