Chapter something or other. I've forgotten which one.

I woke up to screaming. Not me. I rolled over and looked down at Acacia. She was screaming and thrashing in her sleep. No one was trying to help her. I remembered she didn't sleep in gloves, so nobody would want to touch her. I jumped down and kneeled by the bed.

"Acacia, wake up, wake up!" I screamed in her ear. I started slapping her. "Acacia, please, wake up!" She sat straight up and her eyes flew open.

"Lottie, oh gods!" she turned and burst into tears. She threw her arms around me and continued sobbing.

"Ssh..… It's okay. Do you wanna talk about it?" She shook her head no. After awhile she had subsided.

"It was when…. He…. Died." She simply explained. I nodded.

"Let's go, I want some breakkie." She looked at me funny.

"Breakkie?"

"Breakfast."

"Ohhhh…" I grabbed out some clothes and headed to the bathrooms. I picked high-waisted nautical-looking red shorts, a blue and white nautical-looking shirt, a navy military-inspired vest, my (very)old Doc Martens, and of course, my gloves. Acacia had already changed by the time I got dressed.

"Oh wait, my meds!" I ran back and found my travel bag.

"What meds?" Acacia asked.

"For ADHD and dyslexia."

"Don't take those! It numbs your battlefield reflexes! Here." She held out her hand. I reluctantly gave her the two pill bottles and she walked to the bathroom. I heard the toilet flush as she flushed them into the pipe system. I didn't question her. We walked out the door and to the mess hall. I soon realized it wasn't a hall at all. More of a pavilion. We sat at the crowded Hermes table. Strange little girls brought us food. I asked Acacia who they were.

"Tree nymphs. They actually are trees. That's just they're human form."

"Oh." I was brought a bowl of Lucky Charms and some orange juice. There was a jug of milk farther down the table. I reached over some people and managed to snag it. After chowing down on my cereal, I started talking to this kid with messy curly brown hair and this sarcastic smile. He said his name was Travis.

"How old are you? I'm fifteen." He sounded like he thought he was superior.

"Fourteen." Why does everyone ask that?! I noticed another kid next to him. He had the same hair and features.

"Wow." Travis said.

"Who are you?" I asked the other kid.

"Conner, Travis' brother." He replied

"Um, okay." I went back to nonchalantly sipping my juice. Everyone started to get up and walking out of the pavilion. I followed and "accidentally" kicked Travis. He turned around and angrily demanded to know why I had kicked him.

"You's odd-fish I en't kicked you once!" he looked at me funny. He didn't seem to have understood me.

"What?"

"Never mind." I started to realize that I talk kinda funny about two years ago when the teacher wrote me up for slang use. I didn't know it was slang, that's just how I talked. And it wasn't even rude. I started teaching myself to talk "properly". It still slips out sometimes.

We had walked kinda far and now we were in some arena. I soon realized there were people with swords. I hate to admit it, but I love swinging around swords, but people tend to get hurt. This place seems to encourage that so I was happy.

"Do you think you would fight with a knife or a sword?" Acacia asked me. We took a detour to a cabin that Acacia opened. It turned out to be an armory. "See, I fight with a long sword, as in its extra long." She explained. I walked around the room and picked up a few daggers.

"Can you have more than one weapon?"

"Sure….?" She said suspiciously. I found an arm sheath for one, a hip sheath for another and there were two that just had a cover, so I tucked them into my Doc Martens. One in each shoe. I turned to her and smiled.

"Oh gods……" she moaned jokingly. I noticed a large shield with a sun on it that was pierced by three lightning bolts. I thought it was kinda cool, so I took it with me. I pressed the center accidentally and it shrank to a ring that if you looked closely, it had the same design.

"Woah…." I hit the ring and it grew into a shield.

"Yeah my sword and shield do the same." Acacia said. She tapped a bracelet on one arm and another bracelet on the other arm. One grew into a very long sword and the other into a round shield. It had a design of a sun stabbed by three lightning bolts upside down. Exactly like mine, but inverted.

"Weird."

"Yeah." We walked back to the arena.

"Will you practice with me? I don't think I'll be good and I don't wanna get pummeled." I asked.

"Sure. I'll try not to hurt you."

"Ditto." I pulled the hip knife and held it protectively in front of my chest, and tapped the ring. It expanded out and I held that out defensively.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Acacia screamed as she flew towards me and slashed downward. I barely jumped out of the way before her. She turned and swung the sword towards my ribs. I raised my shield to block it and turned the other way to get her in the back before she could react. I pushed her to the ground and put my knee on her back to keep her down with my knife inches from her neck.

"Wow." I whispered. I heard murmurs of surprise from the surrounding crowd. I helped Acacia up and we shook hands.

Flames make good nachos and I like nachos........