8:35 am, Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Percy Jackson sighed as he sat down in the first class of his senior year which was, unfortunately, Ancient History.

Piper was in his class again this year, leaving Jason and Annabeth to the other class. She was sulking in the seat next to him as she blew a strand of hair away from her face.

"Another year, with Thomas eh?"

Percy scowled, "Yup. Let's hope she's better this year."

She wasn't.

If anything, she had become even more strict, giving one of the student's detention for wearing a shirt she deemed inappropriate. The friends left the room groaning, meeting up with Jason and Annabeth as they made their way to PE.

Jason and Percy went into the locker room, throwing their gym bags unto the bench. Percy tugged off his shirt before leaning over his bag looking for his shirt.

A low whistle caught his attention.

Percy turned to see Damien Mills looking at his side.

"What?" Percy asked.

"Where'd you get those bruises?" He said, referring to the somewhat faded black and blue spots on his lower ribs.

"Oh," Percy laughed awkwardly, "I fell off a climbing wall like four weeks ago. Broke like two or three ribs."

Jason sighed, "You broke seven ribs."

"No I didn't!"

"Yes, you did!"

"We are not having this argument." Jason shook his head, and Percy pulled his shirt on.

Damien glanced at him, "Seven ribs dude? Are you sure you should be doing PE?"

"Yeah I'm fine," Percy said, waving off the concern, "I'll be taking it lightly, and they practically healed by this point."

"With the amount you've been doing shit," Jason grumbled, "Those ribs aren't going to heal any time soon."

"I heard that."

"That was the point. You should really listen to Will sometimes you know. At this rate, you and Nico are going to break like twenty bones, and have to be tied down to an infirmary bed so you heal."

Percy scowled. "I'm not that bad."

"No, you are certainly not as bad as Nico when it comes to your health and safety."

"Whose Nico?" Damien asked as the boys exited the locker room, heading over to their girlfriends.

"Our cousin," Jason said, "Who is the type of person who would get pneumonia, insist he's fine and then be utterly surprised when he collapses from the sickness, and try to break out of the infirmary."

Percy nodded. Damien laughed.

The coach told them to do some laps, and Percy and his friends pulled ahead of the pack to talk.

"Senior year, Perce," Annabeth said, a certain air of wistfulness about her, "Senior year."

Percy's lip quirked up "Yeah. Senior year. And to think I wasn't supposed to make it past sixteen." He gave a dark and bitter chuckle as a dark look passed over there face.

At that point, Jason and Piper had drawn even with them. "Do you two ever stop flirting?" Piper teased.

"Yes, yes we do McLean," Annabeth snapped with a friendly roll of her eyes, "You and Jason though..."

Jason laughed, and the group finished their laps and sat on the bench as the rest of the class filed after them.

"I will never fail to understand," Damien said between breaths, "How you are all so fast."

"We run faster and for longer distances at camp," Annabeth said.

"What even is this camp?" Sydney asked as she screwed the lid of her water bottle back on.

Annabeth sighed, her brow furrowing as she thought. "I guess you could almost call it a loose form of rehab. We've got runaways, thieves, orphans, the lot. It's a family almost."

Their mortal friends exchanged glances, "What did you guys do? I mean we all know Percy here likes to explode things," the group laughed as Percy scowled, "but what about the rest of you guys."

Annabeth's lip came up, "When In was seven I came into the company of Jason's sister, who had run away, along with another guy named," she swallowed, "Luke. Thalia's dad is one of the founders I guess of this place so we headed there."

That seemed good enough explanation for them, so Piper spoke, "A guy from the camp was at my last school and that's how me and Jason, and our friend Leo."

Jason tucked his hands into his pockets, "I'm also affiliated with a sister camp of sorts. It's much more hardcore though, and I've been there forever."

The mortals looked somewhat confused, but they knew that was the only info they were going to get and the water break was over, so they turned to their teacher.

PE passed in a blur, and soon enough it was lunchtime.

They gathered at a table and after a few minutes where the hungry teens just dug into their food, Kate asked a question, "What do you even do at that camp?"

"A lot," Percy said, swallowing his food and leaning back, "We've got horseback riding," Piper snickered, "Chariot racing," Annabeth rolled her eyes and muttered something about reestablishment and stupid, "Running, fake weights, martial arts."

"It's the stuff that keeps us active and shit," Percy clarified as he saw the looks he was getting.

"This sounds very interesting," Cameron commented, "What else."

"Let's see," Percy said. "Capture the flag, Archery, the forger, even sword fighting. It's- It's honestly great." Percys face softened and he seemed to be reminiscing.

"Sword fighting, eh?" Sydney said. "Are you guys any good."

"I'm okay," Piper said, "Jasons pretty good, but these two?" Piper pointed to Percy and Annabeth, "Woooooo. Their forces to be reckoned with."

"Do you have any videos?" Damien asked curiously.

Piper shook her head.

Damien seemed disappointed but shrugged.

3:40 pm, Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Sydney and Damien were leaned against one of the rock walls outside the school, waiting for their parents to arrive. Cameron had gotten picked up some two minutes before, Kate following right after. Percy, Annabeth, Jason and Piper had torn out of the parking lot ages ago.

Damien sighed, "That camp they were talking about..."

"Yeah?"

"Seems pretty suspicious right?"

"I don't Damien," Sydney sighed, "I mean I agree with you, but that place seems important to them. And you heard what they said, it helps trouble kids get better, and be better. So no matter what activities they do there, it's gotta be a good place."

"I know, I know," He said as he stuffed his hands into his pockets, "It just seems weird. Like archery, capture the flag, hell even horseback riding, that's not uncommon. But sword fighting? That's wack."

Sydney made a sound of agreement, but at that moment, her car pulled up. She hugged Damien as she left and told him, "Don't concern yourself with this Damien. This place seems good for them, and..." she paused, "I think they need it."

Damien mulled over her words, even after he had been picked up.

This camp did seem good, it did seem like it had done good things for all of them. So what if he didn't agree with what they did? It wasn't his place to judge. Sighing, Damien tucked his troubled thoughts away and thought of his next song.

-

You lucky ducks get two chapters in one day because I'm fucking pissed off right now because I, an aroace lesbian, am getting a new classmate.

He's homophobic.

And in my advisory.

:)