Apparently, what they did first was administration. It was up to the Activity Director to approve the kids' schedules week by week and to divvy up the responsibility of leading the exercises, so, naturally, that responsibility fell squarely on Alexa's shoulders. She might've flubbed it had it not been for Bucky. Unlike her, the satyr actually knew the people at camp and which campers were capable of teaching. Sure, he acted a bit like he had a stick wedged somewhere unpleasant, but he had her back in this.
So it was that Alexa found herself walking by the lake, watching a few nymphs training the Apollo campers' stamina with a prolonged chase. Bucky trotted next to her, clipboard in hand.
"You have Cabin 4 and 7 for your Intro to Weaponry class in about an hour, a half hour break, then your Intermediate Monster Fighting class with Cabin 5 and 6 until lunch." Bucky announced. Alexa bobbed her head in acknowledgement.
"Any more attacks?" she asked, fearing the answer.
"The monsters in the woods are getting a bit restless, and someone spotted a lion of monstrous proportions stalking around the western border, but there hasn't been another encroachment across the boundaries yet." Bucky rattled off. Alexa tried not to flinch at that 'yet' at the end. She knew the truth behind the statement, but it still didn't feel particularly good to think about after the hydra incident…speaking of.
"How's the infirmary looking after all the excitement?" Alexa asked.
"Mostly empty. We were lucky, no one was bit, and it was mostly just broken bones. The worst of it was Alan Johnson. Three broken ribs, left arm broken in six places, fractured sternum, he'll be in a cast for a few months." Bucky rattled off.
"Jeez…took a head full force?" Alexa asked.
"Put his shield between himself and his squad, took three heads at once." Bucky corrected. Alexa frowned in thought.
"Make sure he's well taken care of and…is there a fund for a gift of some sort? That sort of bravery needs a reward." Alexa mused as they headed back towards camp.
"We don't have a fund for it…but what did you have in mind?" Bucky asked, his pencil poised over his clipboard.
"100-dollar gift card? I don't really know enough about him to say where though." Alexa admitted. The sad fact was that most of her generation were gone in one way or another. The only campers she really knew well were Percy, Annabeth, and a few of her own siblings in Cabin 9.
"Hmm…100-dollar gift card to Bloomingdale's." Bucky muttered as he wrote. It took Alexa a second to place the name.
"Aphrodite?" She asked.
"Yup." Bucky answered.
"Better make it 250, those kids can have expensive tastes and I want him to get something nice." Bucky found himself nodding in agreement as Alexa spoke, scratching out one number and writing in the other.
"Anything I should know before my class?" Alexa found herself asking. Bucky grinned, an uncharacteristic look that immediately set off alarm bells.
"Hold onto your hat!"
It turns out, trying to teach half a dozen kids with ADHD how to use sharp implements of death and dismemberment is incredibly difficult. The kids from Apollo's Cabin kept getting distracted by birds or celebratory songs and Demeter's kids were mostly preoccupied with the tree problem. The first half hour of class was a disaster, despite the best teacher's aide on the planet literally herding her charges back into a cohesive ball. Finally, an idea to keep the kids engaged popped into her mind and it seemed to be going well.
"Good job, Judy!" Alexa cheered, hurrying forward. "How'd it feel?"
"I think the sword's a little too front heavy for me…" The ten-year-old complained, lightly testing the Celestial Bronze blade with one hand. Alexa nodded her head and grabbed another almost identical sword from the weapons rack. It was honestly hard for someone with Alexa's level of strength to tell the minute difference in weight between one sword and the other, but with a little effort she found one in the same size range with more of the weight back towards the hilt. She passed the weapon to Judy and stepped back out of range.
"Okay, everybody ready? Same area, around chest height!" Alexa said. The rest of the class grinned and nodded, each holding a water balloon at the ready. The ground was soaked with the remains of their brethren, bits of rubber floating in the shallow puddle. The exercise was a simple one, meant for calibration; the students were finding a weapon that they'd be comfortable swinging around for the lessons ahead. Judy was the last person in class to go through this process and she seemed abnormally picky about the whole thing. This was the sixth sword she had picked up.
"Okay everyone, on three. One! Two! Three!" The water balloons flew. As per usual the Apollo campers were most accurate, heading straight for Judy's chest while her siblings' flew towards her waist and chin, and as per usual the Demeter campers proved to be slightly more skilled with a blade than the children of the sun god. The sword seemed to sing as Judy twisted, slashing through the balloons at chest height, then redirecting the momentum down to take out the balloon headed for her hip. The two that went too high flew over her head with a wet slosh, droplets of water landing on the ten-year-old's face, highlighting the brilliant smile.
"It's perfect!" She squealed. Alexa smiled in return. She let out a short whistle and Luna hurried forward with a leather scabbard for the sword. Judy gave Luna's head a pet.
"Good doggie!" Judy giggled, putting the sword into the scabbard.
"Okay class, I think that about wraps things up for the day." Alexa said, checking her watch. They still had 2 minutes until the end of class, but she didn't mind calling things a little early at this point.
"Remember, keep your weapons on hand at all times, and we'll start practicing with them starting tomorrow!" Alexa said with a smile. She kept that smile all the way up until the kids left. With a sigh the tension of speaking in front of people finally left her, leaving her nerves frazzled and leaving her body feeling as if she had just run a marathon.
"Why is this scarier than fighting a giant?" She muttered to herself.
"Aroof!" She looked down to find Luna had cleaned up all the water balloons, chewing on the leftover rubber bits like a piece of gum. She smiled and patted Luna's head.
"Good girl. While we're ahead of schedule, let's get going to the next one before Bucky catches up!" Luna responded to Alexa's grin with another bark and the pair took off for the building where the next class would take place. Given her experience in the outside world, she and the other counselors and teachers had thought it'd be better for her to teach the more practical lessons. She hadn't wanted to step on anyone's toes and had offered to teach a pottery class or something like that, but the others wore her down until she had no other choice. Her two classes of the day were Beginner's Sword Fighting, and Intermediate Monster Fighting.
Alexa arrived in the small amphitheater her next class used as a classroom to find Bucky waiting for her. She cursed silently; damn satyr outthought her.
"So? How'd things go?" he asked smugly, as if he knew exactly what she had been trying to do.
"I always forget demigods all have ADHD until I have to deal with it." Alexa sighed, "We got there in the end, everyone has a weapon they're comfortable using and we're starting proper instruction tomorrow."
Bucky nodded his approval, busying himself by moving around some teacher's aids.
"So, I'm teaching teens this time…anything I need to know about the class?" Bucky didn't smirk at the question this time. His expression turned deadly serious as he considered how to answer.
"With Clarisse on her quest, you may want to watch Courtney." Bucky's warning earned him a thoughtful frown from the temporary activities director. She remembered Courtney from last year's boot camp, but from her recollection she just kinda fell into the role of one of Clarisse's tagalongs.
"Does she try to throw her weight around without Clarisse or something?" Alexa asked.
"Have you met anyone from that Cabin?" Bucky shot back. "Clarisse earned her spot by being the toughest and the strongest, when she's not here Courtney steps into her role and she feels like she has to prove it everyday."
Alexa's frown deepened. Had it been like that in her day? Maybe. Jazz might not be the most aggressive person ever, but she could fight better than most, and planting some punk's face in the dirt was well within her wheelhouse. After Jazz had left, that Cabin had ceased to hold anything for her, so she hadn't paid the power struggles much attention before she threw herself into the real world.
The two, the satyr and the demigod, set up the class in silence as the minutes ticked by. Finally, Bucky couldn't seem to keep quiet anymore.
"Do you have a plan for this one? Younger kids are easy…this'll be something else." Alexa considered for a long silent moment.
"Attempt things the nice way, try to let reputation and respect keep the peace…but if there're too many disruptions, I intend to beat them at their own game." Alexa finally said, with a small smirk. Bucky sighed.
"Just don't put them in the infirmary. We can't lose too many."
"No promises," Alexa shrugged.
"Wrong!" Alexa barked, stabbing her sword forward. Nicole yelped and took a half step back, blocking the telegraphed shot at her shins with the shaft of her spear.
"Sorry Nikki but you're getting my lesson confused with movies. Sirens are actually part bird up close, not fish." The teacher explained, backing off and lightly twirling her blade. The entire class stood around Alexa in a wide circle, weapons drawn. The class had been normal for all of 5 seconds, after which point it became obvious she'd have to make the lesson more engaging. Thus, the circle.
"Now, after his encounter with the sirens, Odysseus gained the wisdom needed to pass by Scylla and Charybdis with the fewest casualties. Would anyone like to guess what he saw?"
"He saw a way to punch Charybdis' teeth in and get past!" Courtney, as per usual, had spoken up without being called on. This had been the tenth time by her count and just like the other nine Courtney had been dead wrong. It probably didn't help that every guess she made was some variation of 'Hit it really hard'.
Once again Alexa chose to correct this; She spun on her heel and brought the flat of her blade around with her left hand. Just as expected, Courtney raised her shield to block her. Alexa's hand snaked through the girl's guard and she jammed a thumb into a pressure point at Courtney's wrist. The sword in Courtney's hand had barely come up before a quick burst of pain caused her grip on it to slacken. Alexa quickly removed the hilt from Courtney's grasp and brought both blades up to Courtney's throat, crossed like a set of scissors.
Courtney glared at her for several heartbeats before casting her eyes downwards. Alexa let the borrowed blade drop to the floor between Courtney's feet, stepping back.
"Courtney, take it from me, strength alone isn't always enough." Alexa said with an exasperated sigh. "Sometimes you need to outthink your opponent, or defeat them with skill, or even rely on outside help. Power has its place, but it's just one tool at your disposal."
"Sounds to me like something a weakling would say! Strategy is just something for people who aren't strong enough to win!" Courtney said with a bark of laughter. All the kids from Cabin 6, took one step forward, half of them opening their mouths to unleash a tongue lashing on Courtney, but one glance from Alexa sent them back. Smart kids, they recognized the glint in her eyes.
"I see." Alexa said evenly "You must be pretty strong if you think like that."
All the Ares kids laughed at that.
"Of course, I am! Have you seen me?" Courtney laughed, flexing her biceps.
"Would you like to put that to the test?" Alexa asked in the same even tone. The class went quiet, the Ares half staring with mostly confusion, the Athena half staring with a mix of anticipation and apprehension.
"What do you mean?" Asked Courtney. Instead of answering, Alexa dismissed her sword and walked to the teacher's desk. She raised her hand up, elbow pressed down on the table.
"I'll make you a deal. No tricks, no strategy, just pure strength. If you can beat me, you and your whole Cabin obviously don't need me. You can just treat my class as a free period. But if you lose you come to class, you listen, and you think about what I'm trying to tell you. Deal?" Alexa expected Courtney to at least consider the deal, but her own pride and the eager hoots and cries of her siblings kept doubt from even entering her mind.
"Deal!" Courtney cried, grabbing a chair and taking a seat across from Alexa. The two grasped hands and one of the Athena campers stepped forward as an impromptu referee.
"Start on three…one, two, three!" He declared. Alexa was immediately surprised by Courtney's strength. It seemed her boasting wasn't entirely bluster; she was very strong for her age. But that wasn't the same thing as being able to beat someone with Mountain Blood in a contest of pure strength.
Alexa's hand only moved an inch towards her side of the table when Courtney's progress suddenly halted. The look of shock on Courtney's face was plain to see.
"Wah…?" Courtney gasped before Alexa cut in.
"What's the matter?" Alexa asked. "I thought you were strong enough to handle anything I threw at you."
The small jab caused Courtney's face to flush. She redoubled her efforts, but Alexa's hand didn't even move this time. She stared across the table at the struggling demigod placidly.
"Never assume just because you're strong that that is all you'll ever need." Alexa said firmly. "Strength has its place, but strength alone can only keep you alive for so long. Strategy, instinct, even humility can be the thing that saves you when your strength isn't enough."
It was like a magic trick; one moment Courtney was struggling to move Alexa's hand, the next the back of her hand hit the table with a resounding thud and a yelp of sudden pain. Alexa let go, watching the purplish bruise starting to form on the back of Courtney's hand. Alexa nodded her head.
"Remember that. Class dismissed."