As Annabeth walked into the gym, she felt the unease in the air. A frown came to her face as she walked towards the locker room. Octavian was pretty much cornered by Frank and Hazel, and they both seemed to be asking him the same question. Octavian held both of his hands up in what looked like an annoyed gesture.
"But, what happened?" Hazel questioned as Annabeth stepped into hearing range. Octavian shot Annabeth a desperate look, but all she could do was shrug. She had no clue what was going on. "Octavian."
"For the last time, I don't know," Octavian said. He shook his head and lowered his hands. "It's like I said the last twenty times. Reyna sent me a text that she wouldn't be here today."
"Reyna has never missed a day though," Frank began.
"Not willingly," Hazel added. "I remember when she was sick, and Lupa forced her to go home. There has to be a reason that she's missing today."
"And, I don't know the reason. If you'll excuse me, I have a job I need to do," Octavian said. He slipped past Hazel and walked towards the door. Frank frowned and exchanged looks with Hazel. There was a frown on her face as well.
"Octavian. Wait. What are we supposed to do?" Frank questioned. Octavian sighed and looked back at them. "Lupa's not here, and Reyna isn't either. Who is supposed to train us?"
"You three are trained fighters. I think you can last one day by yourself," Octavian answered. He turned and hurried towards the offices. Annabeth frowned and stopped by Frank. She looked at them.
"Morning Annabeth," Frank greeted.
"Good morning," Annabeth said. She looked in between the two fighters. Frank was watching her with a small but nervous grin. Hazel had turned her gaze to the side and looked like she was lost in thought. "Reyna's not here?"
"No. Octavian just told us, but it isn't like Reyna to miss a day. Do you think she's mad about what happened yesterday?" Frank asked. Annabeth frowned. Piper did mention that Frank and Reyna disagreed about who Frank's next opponent should be.
Piper also told Annabeth that Reyna ordered Octavian to go against Frank's wishes and make a fight between Ethan Nakumra and Frank, instead of Michael Kahale and Frank. While Piper didn't know if Octavian had done it, she warned Annabeth to not get in the middle of it.
But, Annabeth did want to get into the middle of it. Sure, she was the new girl, but she had watched plenty of fighters and had seen glimpses of Frank's fighting skill. The only way for Frank to get better was to fight those who were more skilled than him. It didn't matter if Frank was ready or not. If he wanted to fight a certain person, he should be able to.
Annabeth saw it plenty of times in the Delian League. There were promising fighters who were cast to the side and not given the fights they wanted because their manager didn't try hard enough or because they just weren't popular enough. Annabeth was lucky to have Piper. She wasn't quite sure if she would have ever received a title opportunity without her.
It just angered Annabeth to see someone young and hungry be turned away like that. She wasn't sure where to go from here though. Would she be out of line to just walk up to Octavian and tell him to give Frank his fight? Should she warn Frank? If she did, that could backfire on Piper. Could Annabeth go right to Lupa when she came back, or would the damage be done by then?
There was also the option of talking to Reyna about it, but that was the last thing Annabeth wanted to do. She didn't think Reyna would take too kindly to being told that she was wrong. For now, Annabeth would wait and see what happened, but she would keep a close eye on the situation.
"If she was mad at you, she would just take it out on you in sparring," Hazel answered. Her eyes narrowed, and she grabbed both of their arms. "Come on!"
They didn't even have the chance to try and comply with Hazel's orders. She just dragged both of them towards the cafeteria. Upon stepping inside, they saw Nico was cleaning up the fridge. There was a small frown on his face, and he had earbuds in.
Annabeth knew that Nico did plenty of odd jobs around the gym that ranged from helping them train to being the custodian. She wasn't sure if he enjoyed the different amount of jobs, but he never complained. Hazel walked right towards Nico and pulled his earbuds out.
"What happened to Reyna?" Hazel questioned. Nico slowly looked at them. There was a mixture of emotions on his face, including annoyance and anger. There was also worry. Nico stood and grabbed his earbuds from Hazel. He placed one back into his ear.
"I don't know," Nico said. Hazel glared at him and crossed her arms.
"This isn't the time to be secretive, Nico. We're just worried about Reyna," Hazel said. "This isn't the time for you to respect her wish to be secretive."
"I don't know," Nico repeated. He looked at Hazel and grabbed her hands. "The last time I saw Reyna was at the gym yesterday. She said that she had plans last night, and when I woke up, she wasn't there. I didn't have a text or a call from her. I don't know where she is."
"Sorry," Hazel said after a few moments. Nico nodded and let go of her arms. Hazel stepped away. "Do you have any idea where she went?"
"On a date?" Annabeth suggested. Nico smirked like he found something amusing.
"Reyna would never miss a day at the gym for something like that," Nico said. "She isn't that kind of person."
"I wasn't implying that," Annabeth began. Nico nodded and shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. A small frown came to Annabeth's face. She was sure that Reyna would chew her out for even implying that Reyna would miss a day of work to hang out with her date from the night before.
"Reyna tells me if she has a date. All she said was that she had plans," Nico said. He put his other earbud back in his ear. "That means it's personal and probably has something to do with her family."
Nico turned his back to them and went back to the fridge. Annabeth knew they weren't going to get any more answers out of him, and the ones they did get weren't too helpful. Frank walked towards a table and sat down. A frown was on his face.
"How are we supposed to train then? What should we do?" Frank asked. Hazel shrugged and sat next to him. Annabeth looked at the two. She had seen how Lupa seemed to have a hand in their training, and she planned out everything they did. Reyna was able to train independently and train others. Hazel and Frank were still too new to have that ability.
"Well, I have an idea," Annabeth said. Hazel and Frank looked at her. "Percy is off today, and Piper is here. I can show you how we trained at my gym."
"I'll go easy on you," Hazel promised. Percy shot her a grin and got into a fighting stance. Annabeth smirked and studied the two fighters in front of her. For the past hour, Annabeth had been sparring with Hazel. The girl was deadly with her strikes, so much that Annabeth paused a few times to catch her breath after a particularly painful blow.
It also didn't help that the girl was so damn fast. If Annabeth blinked at the wrong time, she would be on her back. There were weaknesses to Hazel though. She sometimes wasted energy on strikes that had no hope of hitting, and she left head open too often.
Annabeth preferred to fight with both hands near her face, so when she threw a punch, her other arm could protect her from headshots. That did leave her more open to body shots at times, so she had masted how to quickly move to protect her body. Someone with the speed of Hazel could put her on the mat if she wasn't careful.
Annabeth glanced to the side. Piper and Frank were sparring together. It was mostly Piper allowing Frank to practice his grapples on her. There was a couple of fighters that were around Piper's height, and Frank would need to get used to fighting those shorter than him. The shorter ones managed to be the most slippery.
A yelp caused Annabeth to look back at Percy and Hazel. A small smile came to her face as she saw Percy had Hazel pinned to the ground. There was a surprised look on her face like she wasn't sure what had just happened. Percy stood and held his hand out.
"Want to go easy again?" Percy teased. Hazel narrowed her eyes in concentration and took Percy's hand. As she was pulled to her feet, she quickly backed away and studied Percy. There was no more humor in her face. Just pure focus.
Annabeth smiled. Percy would never be able to jump into the ring with the top fighters in the world and win, but there would always be those who underestimated Percy when they sparred. Plenty of fights as a kid taught Percy how to end a fight quickly. Annabeth had taken some of those lessons from him.
"I'm ready," Hazel said. Her voice was full of concentration. Hazel threw a punch that Percy dodged. He slipped around, Hazel and she quickly turned to meet him. Percy threw a punch that Hazel blocked, but at the same time, he kicked her right in the leg. Hazel's knee buckled, and Percy backed away.
Hazel took a moment to get her footing back. Percy spoke, "Is your knee okay?"
"It is," Hazel promised. She paced back and forth, but it wasn't out of irritation. It was simply to test her knee and assure Percy it was fine. They all knew that Hazel had lost that round. In a real fight, her opponent would have continued the attack on her knee or just slammed their knee into her jaw.
Annabeth noticed that Hazel seemed to be the calmest out of all of them. Frank became angry with himself as he struggled to grasp a new concept. Reyna seemed to be angered when she messed up the basics or things that she should have been a master at. Even Annabeth had her off days. Hazel was different though.
It didn't matter how badly someone beat her in sparring or if she struggled to grasp a new concept. Hazel maintained her calm composure and just kept doing her best. Annabeth respected that about the girl. Her gaze moved over to the other two. Piper and Frank seemed to be taking a break and were talking quietly. Annabeth made her way over to them.
"It's just the fact that he only has one eye," Frank said. Annabeth leaned on the ring next to Frank and studied him. He stared down at his water and seemed to be distracted. "How can I fight someone who only has one eye?"
"Do you think that makes him weak?" Annabeth questioned. Frank jumped in surprise and looked at her.
"It's not that I think he is weak. I just think it gives me an unfair advantage," Frank answered. "He is blind on one side."
"But, he still has a winning record," Annabeth said. "I think you should be able to fight whoever you want, but you should also never underestimate your opponent. Ethan's greatest weakness is also his greatest strength. He will never let you get into his blind spot, and most of those he has fought rely on that to be their strategy. When it fails, they do not know what to do, and Ethan uses that to his advantage."
"I want to fight Michael Kahale though," Frank muttered. He sighed. "Reyna doesn't think I'm good enough."
"I think Reyna is underestimating your ability," Annabeth began.
"You should talk to Octavian about this again. Maybe even ask Lupa when she gets back," Piper added. Frank nodded and stood.
"Thank you," Frank said. Piper and Annabeth nodded. "Is it cool if I spar with Percy next?"
"Of course," Annabeth said. Frank rolled out of the ring and hurried towards Hazel and Percy. A small sigh left Annabeth as she looked at Piper. "Hey."
"Hey," Piper said. She laid back in the ring. "Being thrown around by Frank is better than listening to Octavian's opera music."
"Opera music?" Annabeth asked. Piper looked at her and nodded.
"When he makes a call to an official or another manager, he puts on his earbuds and hypes himself up using opera music. It's just so loud," Piper explained. Annabeth laughed. "Thank you for this opportunity, Annabeth."
"I told you that I wasn't going to leave you behind. You don't regret this, do you?" Annabeth questioned.
"Not at all," Piper answered. "I'm enjoying it. It was extremely overwhelming at first, but I'm starting to get the hang of everything. Octavian showed me how he talks to the other managers and officials when creating a fight. I just have to wait for your next fight or Hazel's to try it out for myself."
Annabeth nodded. She knew her own fight was probably a few more months away, which didn't sit well with her. Some champions only fought when they had to, and that wasn't the mark of a greater fighter. To Annabeth, a great fighter fought whenever they could to prove how strong they were.
This waiting around was necessary, but it also bothered her. She knew that the Olympic League expected Annabeth and Gwen to fight. Two champions would enter, and only one would leave with a title. When that didn't happen, there was no backup plan, and it wasn't like Annabeth already had a challenger waiting.
The Olympic League would have to reconfigure their standings for the new fighters. It was possible that Annabeth could just request a fight with someone who had the best record, but she wasn't particularly looking forward to fighting any of the five women with the best records, especially considering one of those women was Reyna.
Annabeth would just wait and see. She would talk to Lupa about having a sparring match with the others that was closer to an actual match. Otherwise, she would have to find other ways to keep her skills sharp.
"You'll do great," Annabeth said. She pushed herself away from the ring and watched Hazel moved towards them. Hazel sat against the ring and sighed tiredly. "You okay?"
"Percy is a lot tougher than I thought," Hazel admitted. "He would make a great fighter. Why did he never try fighting?"
"It was just never in the cards," Annabeth answered after a few moments. Hazel seemed to understand there was more to it, but instead of prying, she just nodded.
"Can I ask you something else?" Hazel questioned. Annabeth nodded. "Did you two ever date?"
"We did," Annabeth answered. "Back in high school. Everyone thought we would make a great couple, and we did at first. There just came a point when we realized that the feelings we had for each other were more like a sibling relationship than a romantic one."
Annabeth wasn't quite sure when it happened. There was just one day when she told Percy that she loved him like a brother but nothing more. Percy had been disappointed at first, and things became awkward. There was even a rough patch of a year when they didn't talk at all. Then, they realized they were being dumb and talked out their feelings.
Now, Annabeth wasn't really looking forward to dating anyone. No one had caught her eye, and she had been so focused on school that she didn't bother with dating apps or traditional dating. Now, she had a career and opportunity with the Wolves to focus on.
"He is pretty cute," Hazel commented.
"Jason is cuter," Piper said. Annabeth gave her a look, and Piper returned it.
"Jason is cuter," Percy agreed. Annabeth jumped and looked at him. "But, I'm hotter. Also, I broke Frank's nose."
"It was an accident," Frank said. Hazel grabbed a towel and rushed towards Frank's nose. She gently placed it to his nose, but Annabeth could already see how much blood had fallen. "It's not that bad."
"You're bleeding," Hazel said. "Now keep this to your nose. We're going to take you to Will."
Hazel led Frank out of the gym. Percy looked down at the ground and couldn't keep the guilt off of his face. Annabeth spoke, "It's okay, Percy. Mistakes happen."
"But the first time I train with you guys, and I break Frank's nose," Percy said.
"It was just a mistake, Percy. I'm sure the others have made the same mistake or done worse," Piper said. Percy didn't respond. Annabeth looked down. This was one of the reasons that Percy could never become a professional fighter. He didn't like to hurt people.
Most professional fighters didn't try to hurt their opponent, excluding those like Clarisse. They did try to take their opponent out of commission temporarily, and there was no guilt about it. Injuries did happen during fights though, and Annabeth knew that Percy would quit fighting if he ever accidentally hurt someone. It would be even worse if he ended their career.
"Let's go check on Frank, and you'll see that's he fine. Then, you can take us all out to eat to make up for it," Piper said.
"You just want to spend my money," Percy commented.
"It's my favorite past time," Piper said with a wicked grin. Percy smiled and seemed to relax. Annabeth gently rubbed his shoulder and then started to walk. Her friends followed behind her. Annabeth smiled. Things were going well. She just hoped everything stayed how it was.