Percy

I opened the box to gasps from the group surrounding me. Inside the crate were stacks of swords; just enough for the whole group. Clarisse, you are a genius.

"Cool, so guys grab a sword." I said to my group.

They hesitantly took one each and turned to me quizzically. Why you may ask? I didn't have a sword. I took out riptide from my pocket and uncapped it so that it turned into a sword. I don't know what they saw; probably me pulling a sword out of my pocket; but they sure were amazed.

"Right, let's get this game started. Okay, so I'll do a demonstration first, alright?" I told them and then shouted across the room, "Yo, Annie! Can you help me with the demonstration?"

"Sure," she shouted back at me. After letting Clarisse handle her group, she ran to me with her dagger. We stood facing each other with our weapons ready and my group surrounding us.

"Ready? Wise Girl?" I asked her.

She grinned at me and replied, "I'm fine. Are you ready to get you're butt whipped?"

"Oh, you're on!" I said with a smile before we both lunched ourselves at each other. Our blades clashed; dagger on sword. I ducked as Annabeth swung her knife to where my head had been a second before. I got back up and struck. Our blades locked with each other before she twisted hers, causing Riptide to fall and slide across the floor.

"Looks like I win, Perce." Annabeth said, twirling her knife in one hand with her other hand on her hip.

"Yeah it looks like you- Annie! Look, over there! Is that Frank?" I shouted pointing out the window, trying to distract Annabeth and surprisingly, it worked. Annabeth turned, her blonde hair flying across her shoulders, and looked out the window. In that split second I had, I retrieved my sword and ran back to Annabeth. One of my hands gripped her wrist that was clutching her dagger while I pushed my sword up against her throat, taking care not to injure her even a little.

"Annabeth, Annabeth, Annabeth." I whispered into her ear. "I thought you were a daughter of Athena."

"Yeah, I think I am." She replied, with a smirk on her face.

By now, the whole class was watching us, even Clarrise. And Thalia was even cheering on us. The heart breaking problem was though, she was cheering for Annabeth. Boo hoo hoo. Oh well.

Annabeth's free hand flew to my hand and yanked the sword away from her then twisted her other arm - The one I was holding on to - and freed it from mine. She turned around and faced me with her knife pointing at my neck and my sword; yes, you heard me right; MY sword at the back of my head.

"You loose Percy, again." She said smirking as the whole class burst into applause.

"Alright, Alright." Clarisse shouted over the cheering with a smile lingering on her lips. "Show time's over! And Kelp Head, you took up all my lesson!" She added as the bell rung, signalling the end of the class.

Everyone moved towards the door but Clarisse stopped them. "Hold up! You've got home work." She said which earned her some good groans and moans. "Write an essay about Ares, the Greek war god and hand it back to me by next Friday. DISMISSED!" She shouted, grinning at Annabeth, Thalia and I before striding off to her staff room.

***

"That was wicked!" Ron was telling us. Annabeth, Thalia, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Harry and I were spred out on the grass beside the lake. We all had a free period together so we decided to spend the time out doors to finish up the DADA home work Clarisse had assigned us.

"Where'd you learn that from and do you know Proffesor La Rue personally?" Ginny asked us with fascination.

"Yeah, Clarisse goes to the camp we go to and the sword fighting? We do fencing and archery at our camp. Well we do other things too." I answered her. "Rock climbing, canoeing and you know, typical summer camp stuff."

"Cool." Ron said in admiration.

"Yeah it is, but Ron, you need to concentrate on your work." Hermione said sternly.

"Yes m'am." Ron said. It was silent for a while then Ron asked, "Who the bloody hell is Ares?"

He looked expectantly at Hermione who looked just as confused as Ron was. "I know that he's a greek god but apart from that, I actually have no idea." She replied.

"Ares is the war god." Annabeth said. Thalia and I exchanged glances that read, 'Uh oh.' She was on a roll. "His symbol is the wild boar and his Roman counter part is called Mars. He's one of the 12 Olympians and son to Zeus and Hera. His half brother was Hercules, a well known greek hero and-"

"Whoa, Beth! Slow down." I said, making a time out guest urge with my hands.

"How do you know all that?" Hermione asked, amazed and a little bit flushed. "You can hardly find a single book in the library with Greek history!"

"Well, I'm really fascinated in greek mythology so yeah.." Annabeth trailed off with a shrug.

"Who's you favourite god or goddess then?" Ginny asked Annabeth as Ron hurried to copy down everything Annabeth had said about Ares.

"I like Athena the best but I guess Poseidon's okay too." Annabeth said, shooting a small smile at me which I returned gladly.

"I like Zeus and Artemis." Thalia said.

"And I like, Poseidon. The awesomest god in the history of gods." I said.

"Awesomest is not a proper word, Kelp Head." Annabeth told me.

"Yes it is." I argued back. "When I was texting Jason, I wrote Awesomest and it didn't get underlined in red which means it's real."

"And since when have you started texting Jason?" Annabeth asked.

"Since Leo gave us the m-free phones." I said.

"Speaking of Leo and Jason, we still have to read their letters." Thalia said interrupting me and Annabeth.

She took out the letters from her pocket and took one from the top most pile.

"Read it out aloud." Ron said, momentarily stopping writing.

Hermione slapped his arm and told us, "You don't have to. If it's personal then-"

"No I think it's fine." Thalia said, cutting her off.

Thalia opened the letter and started reading it aloud. One glimpse at it and I could tell by the slanting, neat greek writing that the letter was from Piper.

"Hey guys!
How're you all? The rest of the seven and I are missing you terribly. How is you magic school studies coming along? All good? Camp's fine except for the fact that we all miss our three great heroes. But apart from the usual happening, nothing's wrong.
Mr D turned Travis and Corner into two identical pink dolphins temporarily for doing a stupid dare on him, Dakota visited from camp Jupiter and went on a sugar high, Leo was being Leo again and set half the woods on fire while singing his very own version of Girl on Fire, but we managed to get rid of the fire before any nymphs got hurt. But hey, on the bright side, at least there's no Clarisse to dump new kids' heads down the toilets. We have no idea where she is though, she just disappeared telling us that she was going on a quest. Anyways, I hope you're okay. Write and tell us how we're doing as soon as possible.
I have to go now. Hope I'll manage to sneak into the Big House to send you this letter. I haven't got an owl. I hope Chiron won't find out that we know you're going there because you weren't supposed to tell us.
Well, bye!
Lots of love, Piper.
P.S. How ironic is that huh? Lots of love from me? Anyways, c ya!"

Thalia put the letter back in its envelope and put it away.

"That was one weird letter. Dolphins, nymphs, the seven?" Ron said.

"Yeah well, Piper is just really obsessed with this book and likes to refer to them all the time. It's not really true. Like when she said, before the nymphs got hurt, she probably referred to this bunch of girls that likes to live in the woods at our camp, on top of the trees and stuff. They're practically obsessed with nature and stuff." Annabeth said creatively. Unless you knew the truth, you would never have been able to tell that she was lying.

We read all the other letters which were from Hazel, Frank, Nico, Jason, My mum and Paul (telling Thalia to make sure that Annabeth and I behave well - this caused Annabeth and I to blush furiously, Thalia to smirk at us and the rest of friend to look at us with confused expressions etched onto their faces), Travis and Connor (giving us advise for some tricks and asking me for help), Katie (with some gardening tips), Grover (remindin us that 'A tin can a day keeps the monsters away.') and some other friends from camp.

I picked up the last letter from the pile and opened it. But on the blank parchment there weren't any words, it was video. Immediately, I knew who it was from: Leo. He'd sent me something like this during the Giant War.

"Guys, it's from Leo. Gather around so that we can watch it." I told them.

"Watch it?" Hermione asked incredulously. "It's a letter for heavens sake!"

"It's from Leo and he's a marvellous inventor so it's a video on paper." I replied. They all gathered around me as the video started to play.

"Hi Guys!" Leo said from the video. He was sitting near the canoe lake with the rest of the seven beside him, all waving madly at the screen. They all echoed their 'Hi's and 'Hey's and started talking about how camp was. It then struck to me how much I actually missed those guys. I missed Leo and his corny jokes, Piper's charm speak ordering Jason to slap himself, Frankie bear and the good times we had riding on Frank the Dragon, Hazel trying to use FaceBook for the first time in her life in the m-free (monster-free) phone Leo made us, Jason and his superman act, Nico and his gloomy dark ways. I missed the camp itself. The canoe lake; the camp fires; the sing-alongs; the Truth or Dare games; the fire sprouting, lava walls; basically, the whole place.
I was homesick. I wanted to go back there. As much fun as it was here, it still didn't feel like home...

"Yeah, so then Leo ran off into the woods after eating tons of sugar and started dancing around singing 'Boy on Fire' which is his own version for 'Girl on Fire.' " Hazel was saying.

"Yeah, listen: THIS BOY IS ON FIRE!" Leo started singing, badly may I add? Even worse than me. Then, his hair burst on fire. Hermione screamed, Ron fell over on his back in surprise, Ginny gasped and Harry just sat there, his eyes transfixed on the screen.

"Uh, Leo? You're hair's on fire." Jason said, tapping his friend on the shoulder. Leo stopped singing and patted his hair out. The flames went out just as Piper was saying goodbye and the screen went blank as we were left staring at a blank piece of parchment.

"Guys, that was just a camera trick our friends carried out. They're really good at those." Annabeth said with conviction and finality.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny didn't seem to believe it but I said, "Alright, who want to have a swim in the lake?"

"Are you crazy mate? It's freezing in there and besides where are your trunks?" Ron asked.

"My trunks are up in my dormitory but who needs them?" I asked before diving fully clothed, straight into the water. I let myself get wet so that it wouldn't look suspicious when I submerge again. I lingered around for a few seconds under water, breathing in the cool water. Yep, you heard me. I can breathe under water.

I was just about to submerge again when a giant face of a squid appeared in front of me.

My eyes widened in shock.

Hello, Lord. It said in my head.

Hi ummm.. I thought back, trailing off as I was unsure of his name.

Mr Squid. The giant squid provided.

Hi Mr Squid. Look, I'd love to talk to you but my friends are waiting for me and they probably think I'm drowning so, see you later. I told him apologetically. After many promises to visit him later pay head popped out of the water.

"Holy Zeus!" I said, shaking my wet hair. "There was a giant Squid down there."

"You saw it?! How big was it?" Ron asked excitedly.

"Huge." I replied. "His name's Mr.Squid."

"Mr. squi- What in Merlin's Beard?!" Ron exclaimed.

"I named it." I said simply. "Annie, wanna come down? I'll show you."

"Alright." Annabeth said, before slipping into the water fully clothed. My friend, excluding Thalia, gaped at us as if we were crazy to go swimming in a freezing cold lake fully clothed.

As soon as Annabeth sank neck deep into the water, she started shivering and her teeth chattered, "Gosh, it's- it's re-really c-c-cold in he-here.

I slid my hand into hers and she stopped shivering. "Ah, that's better." She said and we sank beneath the water. As soon as we were underwater and out of sight from our friends, I encased us in a little bubble.

"Where is he then, Percy?" Annabeth asked me.

"Somewhere around here..." I said. I called to Mr Squid telepathically and his great big squid like body rose I front of us.

Hello again, my lord. And hello pretty lady. Mr Squid said.

I laughed and said, "Annabeth, he said hello and he called you a pretty lady."

"Oh, uh hi...Mr Squid." Annabeth said blushing faintly.

Hello, what's your name madam? Mr Squid asked.

"Annabeth, he's asking what your name is." I translated for her.

"Oh, I'm Annabeth." Annabeth said.

Hmm...Annabeth Jackson? Are you his wife?

"Mr Squid!" I said, blushing furiously.

What? What? My Lord, you are cute together. He said before swimming away.

I couldn't believe that a Giant Squid called us cute!

"Percy, what did he say?" Annabeth asked me curiously.

"Uh, nothing." I told her, still blushing madly. "C'mon let's go back up. The others'll be suspicious."

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A/N

Huh, in like Mr Squid.

Percy: gods! That was soooo embarrassing...

Me: Hey, he was merely speaking the truth.

Annabeth: What are you talking about? What did Mr Squid say?

Percy: Nothing...

Me: he said-

Percy: he said NOTHING!

Me: oh, come on. You'll have to do it someday....right?

Percy: Well um, *is very uneasy*

Me: Perseus jackson! Admit it! There will be a time where you will have to get down on one knee and-

Percy: SHUT UP, WHOEVER YOU ARE!!!!!

Annabeth: *narrows eyes suspiciously*

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.bye my little minions.