A/N: Still in the toy box! Only Harper came from my own imagination! Hopefully their shenanigans are entertaining ^_^ Enjoy!

Chapter 5

The next morning, Archie woke up with a smile. Spring break wasn't over, but he had a training session for most of the morning, which meant the perfect excuse to show up his friends.

So he had a quick breakfast and shower before he ran out the door to get in some warm up time at the school's training room. That was where his happy day ended.

No sooner had he entered the training room, his eyes spotted a blur of purple on the rings hanging from the ceiling. He'd never noticed the rings before, but that just made him frown more as the purple blur continued to twirl and flip as she swung on the rings.

Eventually she stopped, noticing Archie, and let herself slowly drop on to the mat below with a wince. "Hey," she said, picking up her crutches and a towel. "I didn't think anyone was going to wake up this early."

"It's nine o'clock," Archie said with a shrug, dropping his duffle.

"It's nine?" Harper repeated, wiping her face with the towel. "Really? Wow, I'm getting rusty. I used to be able to do two routines before class. Extra training?"

"Warming up," Archie said, sliding on wristbands. "Why are you up so early?"

"I have a skylight and the eastward bedroom," she said with a shrug. "Sleeping in isn't an option."

"Yeah, I have a work out set in my room," Archie said, now sitting on the ground to stretch. Which wasn't exactly true, but he didn't want her to know it wasn't.

"Hmm," was Harper's response as she took a sip from a nearby water bottle. "Well, how's about a race? Since you're warming up."

"Nah, there's no point in beating a girl on crutches," he said.

"Beating me?" Harper repeated, raising her eyebrows, then she let out a laugh. "I doubt you could."

"Oh yeah?" Archie said, getting to his feet.

"Yeah," she said, tossing her water bottle back into her duffle.

"Alright," he said and folded his arms. "A lap around the track."

"Gloves off?" Harper asked, at determined look on her face as she glanced at the track. "Or are we playing polite?"

Archie mulled the option over. "Gloves off."

Harper gave him a smirk. "You asked for it," she said and went to the starting line.

"Yeah, I'll remind you of that when I win," Archie said as he joined her.

"Shouldn't you be resting your knee?" asked a voice from the door.

Archie looked up to see Atlanta in the doorway with her own duffel and water bottle.

"Just a friendly little race," Harper said. "Say when we can go, Atlanta."

"Uh... Go?"

Instantly Archie was off at a run, easily taking the lead, but when he glanced over his shoulder he was surprised to see her not too far behind.

"Watch it," Harper said, pulling his arm.

"Hey! What—!" Archie's objection was cut short as a discus missed his nose by an inch.

"You said gloves off," she said again and overtook the lead.

Archie stared for a split second, but it was enough to see how well Harper could move on crutches even while dodging obstacles.

Putting on a burst of speed, he easily caught up to her, but Harper wasn't going down without a fight and was able to keep pace with him as they dodged hurtles and other flying objects. They were on the home stretch when Archie tripped.

Harper glanced back at him and gave him a quick smile. Archie glared at her and pulled out his Hephaestus whip. One of Harper's crutches snapped and she looked at him in surprise as he pushed to his feet. Atlanta shouted at him in distaste, but he was too busy building up his speed again. Instead of hopping along as he'd expected her to do, Harper moved just as quickly as when her crutches were intact.

"And the winner is..." Atlanta called out loudly as they both collapsed across the finish line. "Nobody!"

"What?" Archie yelped.

Harper just laughed as she laid back and tried to catch her breath. "She means," she panted, "it was a tie, you half-wit."

Archie narrowed his eyes at her, but soon found himself staring at the glass ceiling while he waited for his pulse to return to normal.

"What happened to you guys?" Jay's voice asked.

"Ares already force you through training?" Odie's laughed.

"Nah," Harper said with a laugh, propping herself up on her elbows. "We were racing."

"Yeah, until Archie—."

"Tripped," Harper said, quickly cutting off Atlanta. "And I broke a crutch. But it made things interesting. Right?"

Harper had turned to him, with a look that asked him to play along. Archie hesitated, wondering how this could work against him, but eventually he nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Real interesting."

"I'm sure it was," Ares voice rang out. Archie looked up, then back at Harper who glanced at him then at the gods who were entering the room. "Harper was one of the most impossible students I've ever had."

"You weren't her mentor for long, though," Artemis pointed out as she and Athena came in behind him.

"Alright, enough chit-chat," Ares said loudly, then pointed to Harper. "You to the pool. You—," he pointed at Atlanta and Odie "—are on ropes. You—," he pointed at Jay and Teresa "—are going on wall. You—," he pointed at Herry and Archie "—are making sure nothing gets near those two—," he pointed at Atlanta and Odie again "—while Neil—."

"Couldn't I go to the pool too?" Neil interrupted, though he was busily adoring himself in his hand-held mirror. "I look much better by the pool than after a work out."

Ares narrowed his eyes at him. "You get to play the hostage."

Neil looked up from his mirror in surprise, then smiled. "I'm good with that," he said, turning back to his mirror. "What do I get to do? Sit in a tree?"

He might not have been able to see it, but every on-looker inwardly groaned as Neil's chatter started to make Ares turn purple with frustration. Eventually Ares grabbed hold of Neil and pointed to the top of the rock wall where some miniature griffins that looked angry-or at least hungry. Between them was a bit of a crane system with a rope hanging from it so that something could dangle over the large rock wall.

"That," Ares said, "is where you're going."

Neil's eyes went wide. "Me?"

His teammates and Harper stared up at the rope. Then Harper gave a small laugh, patting Neil on the back. "Have fun with that," she said and turned to hoist her duffle bag onto her shoulder. "I know I wouldn't want to be in your shoes."

Neil gave an unenthusiastic laugh, still staring at the rope he'd apparently have to hang from as Harper gave a parting wave to the team and hobbled through a door that they'd never really paid attention to. After all, most of their swimming was in gym class during school.

"Alright," Ares voice called out loudly. "Let's get a move on. I have a military conflict at eleven."