A/N: Hey there guys! Sorry about the last update coming so late, but this sort of makes up for it, right? I just want to warn that this chapter has a poorly written sexist man in it. I thought it would work, but it didn't. I wasn't sure how to fix it, so I just sort of left it. enjoy chapter 9!
The next day in English, Annabeth and Jess chatted animatedly until the bell rang for class to begin.
"Okay, everybody get into pairs and discuss what you did for homework," Ms. Bell instructed.
Annabeth and Jess paired up, but they didn't discuss much because they had done the homework together.
"So have you come up with a strategy for dealing with Daniela yet?" Jess asked once she was sure Ms. Bell wasn't listening.
"I don't think I really need one," Annabeth replied. "She's just some dumb girl. I've dealt with way worse than her, so she's no threat to me."
"Well, you must have some kind of plan," Jess prodded.
"Athena always has a plan," Annabeth said out of habit. Then, she panicked. Why would you say that? she questioned herself.
"Um, okay?" Jess replied, confused.
"It's for my Ancient Greek project," Annabeth quickly tried to somehow explain. "I have to prove that I'm a daughter of Athena, so I've just been trying to get into the right mindset."
Forgive me mother, Annabeth prayed.
"That makes sense. I almost thought you were going crazy there," Jess laughed.
Annabeth nervously laughed with her, and she cursed at herself for being so careless.
Luckily, throughout her next class, her calculus teacher just lectured, so she was able to calm herself down to a reasonable level.
Okay, Annabeth. It was just out of habit. You had a reasonable excuse. No one suspects anything, Annabeth said to herself as she walked from Calculus to the locker room.
"You okay, Annabeth? You look a little stressed," Kimberlee said as they all changed for class.
"Oh, I'm fine," Annabeth replied while shaking her head to clear her thoughts. "Just trying to think about what to do for my Ancient Greek project."
"Is it really stressing you out?" Gabby asked.
"No, I just like to do my best on projects, so I invest a lot of my thinking time on them," Annabeth explained. It wasn't really a lie. Just a truth explaining something else.
The other girls shared a look, but Annabeth shrugged them off.
After roll call, their gym teacher instructed them to pair up.
"Today we are going to learn the basics of self-defense," she announced, "and while I do know a little bit, I am no professional. Luckily, the school hired a man from a studio nearby that specializes in teaching women how to protect themselves."
"This should be good," Annabeth said under her breath to Jess. "I can only imagine what this guy is going to 'teach' us."
The teacher called for a man named Bryan to come in, and when he did, Annabeth nearly laughed out loud. He was wearing a pink t-shirt that read: Women can defend themselves. It was obviously endorsing the self-defense studio, but it still looked dumb.
"Hello, ladies. I'm Bryan," he introduced himself. "I actually run the studio 'Defend Yourself' which, obviously, specializes in the teachings of self-defense. We like to focus more on women, though, because women are more often sexually assaulted, and generally don't know how to defend themselves.
Annabeth was disgusted. Yes, what this studio was doing was a good thing, but Bryan was talking down to these girls. You could tell by the tone in his voice. He wasn't delivering his message very well, and none of the girls looked too happy about it.
"I assume that none of you will hurt each other, so with your partner, decide who is going to be the attacker first and try to defend yourself," Bryan instructed.
Most of the girls laughed at his first comment, but Annabeth just rolled her eyes.
"I'll attack first," Annabeth said to Jess. "Close your eyes, so it'll seem like a dark alley."
Jess obliged, and Annabeth 'attacked' her by wrapping her arms around Jess tightly and not allowing her to move.
Jess couldn't get out of her grip when she could have easily just fallen to the ground to get out of her grip.
Bryan came over to the two of them to 'teach' the right thing to do.
"What's your name, hun?" Bryan asked Jess.
"Jess," she replied.
"Okay, Jess. You're friend here had you in a pretty tight hold. The best way to get out of it isn't to struggle. You need to just get your body to the ground. It will be harder for her to keep a hold of you," he explained.
At least he kind of knows what he's talking about.
Bryan instructed everyone to switch, and Jess 'attacked' Annabeth by grabbing her wrist.
Annabeth easily escaped by twisting her wrist to the right.
"Great job!" exclaimed Bryan. "What's your name?"
"Annabeth," she replied.
"Well, Annabeth, you look like a quick learner. Today is going to be a breeze for you. Then, you'll be able to take this knowledge to the streets!" Bryan continued to say, very loudly.
He then displayed a few 'hand-maneuvers' as he called them for basic self-defense.
"I hope you ladies will keep this information in your mind. Being attacked in the streets can take you by surprise, but that doesn't mean you have to act like a girl about it. If any of you want ore training, I have information about my studio," Bryan said after their teacher announced that it was time to change.
"Annabeth," Bryan caught her attention, "I hope that you will consider training with me. You showed a lot of potential today, and I would hate for it to go to waste."
"I've already been trained. I don't need your misogynistic studio. I know you have the right ideas and goals, but you portray all women as weak. I do not like that at all, so even if I wasn't already trained, I would never go to your studio," Annabeth told him then turned and followed the other girls into the locker room.
"Way to go, Annabeth," Jess said while they all changed. "You told him."
"He was bothering me. Women can be strong, too. Every girl at my summer camp is ten times tougher than that Bryan guy. Heck, even Percy's a strong guy, but I could kick his butt any day," Annabeth ranted.
"Is that camp where you got your training?" Kimberlee asked.
"Yeah..." Annabeth replied while mentally slapping herself for revealing too much, again. You'd think a daughter of Athena would be better than this.
"Must be a pretty active summer camp. Is it for a sport or something?" Gabby asked.
"No, it's just a regular summer camp except most of the kids there have either ADHD, dyslexia, or both. They help us there. It's actually where I met Percy," Annabeth replied while mentally applauding herself for her lie.
"Aw, that's nice. You two get to spend entire summers together," Gabby said with a dreamy look on her face.
When was the last time Camp Half-Blood had an entire peaceful summer? Probably before Percy ever showed up. Even before then, people were always going on quests, so people were always worrying about one another's safety.
"What was it like the day you two met?" Kimberlee asked.
This was a story Annabeth had pre-filtered just in case they asked. It was no big deal answering.
"The first year Percy came to camp was very hectic. He got injured on his first day, and I helped out in the infirmary. The first thing I ever said to him was, 'You drool when you sleep.' I wanted to hate him, but I couldn't. We inevitably became best friends," Annabeth explained.
"And now you're dating," Gabby attempted to finish.
"Oh, no," Annabeth corrected, "We'll always be best friends before we are a couple. It's how we work, and it would probably freak all of our friends out if we acted all 'lovey-dovey' twenty-four/seven."
The girls laughed, and continued changing while talking about unimportant mortal things.
"There's a dance coming up soon," Jess said out of nowhere.
"I need a date," Gabby whined. "Why do we have to be nerdy losers?"
"Couldn't you just go with Lewis or Vincent as friends?" Annabeth asked.
"We've done that before. They just end up hanging out with each other. Plus, there's two of them and three of us," Gabby explained.
"Percy has three friends that are on the swim team. I could probably set you girls up with them," Annabeth suggested.
"Like they would want to go with us," Gabby replied with an eye roll.
"You never know! I'll talk to them," Annabeth promised.
Annabeth couldn't help but smile. This was one mortal experience she was really looking forward to. Plus, she'll get to hang out with her new friends and Percy. It was going to be great!
Yay longish chapter. Don't really have a question for today, so I guess tell me what your favorite part of this story has been so far. My favorite part has yet to come, but it's written. You'll see it in the next chapter.
Until next time!