Chapter 7

Hazel,

The hall was absolutely huge, but there weren't actually too many girls. Cammie had said they had 15-20 pupils in a grade, which roughly meant there should be like 120 students, give or take a few… There were tables around the room, with just enough chairs. A long Canteen like area took up one side of the room, the smell coming from the kitchen was insanely amazing and made my stomach rumble. At the opposite side of the hall stood a long wooden table with 20 (ish) chairs, a podium stood to the side of it.

The table Cammie took us to had already got a couple of girls sitting at it. And they aren't kidding when they say girls of all shapes and sizes; I mean these are the smartest girls in the US. I think, I hope I read the letter correctly, because I swear Bex is now speaking with an English accent.

"We usually sit here," she points towards the table Cammie has just taken a seat at. "With the others in our grade."

We went to join Cammie at the table, it was quite awkward sitting with these new people, and quite honestly I didn't really feel like talking. Calypso and Piper, however, were chatting away to these new people. Annabeth was yet again studying her surroundings and talking gibberish about how the walls were curved at 2 degrees, but clearly had something behind them… or something like that.

I was just staring at the door waiting for Frank. And the other boys as well, but mainly Frank.

Beginning to get worried I shook Annabeth out of her trance, "Where do you think they are?" I asked timidly.

"Not sure, probably lost…" she replied, returning to her dazed state.

Just as she finished this, the doors swung open and the boys miraculously ran across the hall to sit with us. It was ridiculous timing because as soon as they had sat down in some random chair and looked roughly presentable the teachers started their procession through the middle of the hall towards the table near the podium. Leading them was Headmistress Morgan, whom we had met earlier. They were a funny bunch; they all looked different ,but shared a secret that made them feel very similar. And to be honest, they were all quite old, except for the fit man walking just behind Mrs Morgan, he looked younger than he probably was and Mrs Morgan, herself looked amazing for someone who ran a school and had a teenage daughter.

Most of the students were smiling at them, but no one was talking except for a faint whisper about someone's face… They approached the podium and the teachers began to take their seats. All except for Mrs Morgan, she stood at the podium and began to speak.

"Welcome to the beginning of another wonderful year at Gallagher academy!" everyone clapped, someone cheered, but abruptly stopped when they got weird looks from her fellow classmates.

"I welcome all the new students and wish that you are to love this school as your home like the many around you do. This year to inform you we accepted a few male students." A collective gasp ran quietly through the crowd. "If you have any questions I'm sure any of the teachers would be pleased to answer them."

I peered over to Frank who had found himself sitting in-between two girls who didn't look like they wanted a boy sitting with them. I held back a laugh when he caught my eye; he looked lost between these girls who wanted nothing to do with him. I gave him a reassuring nod before turning back to Mrs Morgan.

"Women of the Gallagher Academy, who comes here?" her voice echoed around the hall.

Everyone then called back in response, "We are the sisters of Gillian."

Who's Gillian?

"Why do you come?" Was this a small game they liked to play, tease the new kids with questions they don't know the answer to? But even the small seventh graders were shouting the answers…

"To learn her skills. Honor her sword. And keep her secrets." What sword, are we still talking about Gillian?

"To what end do you work?"

"To cause justice and light."

"How long will you strive?"

"For all the days of our lives."

The whole school cheered at the end.

Chiron must have said something about this because Piper and Annabeth joined in the whole way through; I just looked as clueless as the others. But then again, Annabeth had been researching this school for a while and Piper I had no idea…

"Thank you." Mrs Morgan spoke to silence the room. "Always remember to follow our motto, but please let me remind you not to touch the sword it still has electric sensors on it. Unless you want frizzy hair and small tremors for the next few days I suggest not touching it." I swear she looked towards the boys as if she was only really warning them. And then all I could think of was Jason tricking people by touching and making it more exaggerated than it needed to be.

Jason,

The food was divine, almost as good as Camp Jupiter. But what can I say when you have auras bringing you everything, hardly anything can beat that. I was slightly worried when I wasn't allowed to sacrifice some food for the Gods, but I'm sure my father wouldn't mind. Old habits die-hard…

Percy looked a little disappointed when there wasn't any blue food, he told Annabeth he was going to complain, but she started to object, saying that 'they had only just arrived' and 'it wasn't necessary' and 'he had to get used to a different world, even if that meant no blue food'. Percy looked miffed.

People started to file out as soon as they finished their meals. Zach stood up and said he would meet us back at our wing of the school. Probably a test, see if the new kids can get back to their room without getting lost.

He pecked Cammie on the cheek to say goodbye and walked off.

We waited another five minutes before everyone decided to leave. Mostly everyone else had left and had started milling around the school, I wasn't sure if school started later today or tomorrow but everyone was wearing their uniform…

"Um, we all really need to unpack…"Annabeth told Cammie, and we really did need to unpack, when the school started there wouldn't be any time. I know that we had the weekends off, but considering some of us had awful dyslexia it wouldn't be done quickly.

Agreeing to see each other later we began our expedition back to the room.

"I swear it's this way, Leo." Frank, obviously frustrated, called back to Leo, who had walked down a small hallway that I hadn't seen before. "We went past that colourful tapestry over there." He pointed to the huge tapestry that hung down covering a wall.

Leo yelled back in response, "Only you would look at a 'colourful' tapestry." Clearly annoyed, he stormed round the corner from his little corridor with little flickers of fire in his hair. And then turning to Percy, "Don't you even bloody think of it!" It took Percy a second to remember earlier when he had soaked Leo because he started to burn up. You could see the realization on his face; he took a step back with his hands up surrendering…

I was just getting sick of getting lost, "Didn't anyone notice the way Zach took us?" I said out of frustration, "I mean come on, we've been wondering around for half an hour. What if classes do start today and we are already late? What if there's been a drill, but we are so lost in this place that we can't hear it? What if…"

Percy cut me off, "You always think something will go wrong don't you. I don't think the classes would start today, I have a feeling we would have either been told or we would see a change in the school, I mean no one seemed to be rushing anywhere earlier, did they?" Percy looked around, he was probably right, but I hated to admit it. "Also, if there was a drill we would probably freaking hear it, this is a flaming Spy school for crying out loud! Any drill would probably be heard from a mile off." Ok, so maybe I was freaking out a little bit…

"Well then Captain Barnacles, where are we supposed to go now?" Leo asked, "I hope you know 'cos I sure don't!"

"Maybe it's this way…" Percy pointed towards a corridor, I hadn't noticed before; I went to take a closer look. "Isn't that the old staff bathroom? Huh? Did we not pass that earlier? Aren't we staying in an old teacher's lounge?"

"Damn, I hate it when you're right!" Leo marched down the corridor, all of us following him. And sure enough our room was just at the end of the short hallway.

Hiya!

Thank you for reading my new chapter, it took a while I know. I hope you like it, but I'm struggling for ideas, I really want to move the story on but I'm not sure how, and I don't want to miss out anything important... Also, I'm not sure if the lessons would start right after the welcome back meal or the next day, if anyone knows I would be hugely grateful.

I've just come back from Spanish exchange, living a week without my computer! I got extremely frightened when I heard about the Barcelona to Germany plane crash. Whilst in Spain I was listening to the radio and all I picked up was a plane crash and Barcelona, I completely freaked because a load of my friends were going to Barcelona on the same day! Loads of exams coming up as well, and I'm finding it hard to keep up! I usually go for a jog at least three times a week, but the revision has piled up and I haven't been able to go for a run at all in the last three weeks!

I hope this was a good read!

Thanks,