Chapter 1 #2
“No, they will need these skills, even if they don’t choose to fight in this war. They will need team building and strategy skills in the human world.” Jayden plants a hand on my hip and squeezes.
“In all honesty, though,” Raven says. “We may say they don’t have to fight when the time comes but they might not have a choice. If we are attacked here on campus and they aren’t trained, they could die or end up hurting someone else.”
“Yeah, that’s true. We don’t know what’s to come or what sneaky shit they will pull to get one over on us.” I nod.
Decided, I knock on Chiron’s door and wait for his response before entering. Bethany is sitting in the chair in front of the desk. Her glare burns into me. Thad leans against the wall, his expression bored as we file into the office.
“Come to yell at me some more?” Bethany snarls.
“I honestly forgot you were in here.” I shrug.
“Whatever.”
I turn to Chiron, completely ignoring the idiot in the room. “Things are getting out of hand. We need to do something about the bullying. I was informed that it was worse when we went to save the world. Again.”
“I didn’t know it was still happening until Thad came in with this one.” Chiron points at Bethany.
“How do you plan to stop it?” She rolls her eyes.
I bend down in front of her, encroaching on her personal space.
“By making sure that everyone at this academy is so tired and sore from training all day and half the night that they can’t bully each other.
You all want to be assholes? Well, you just earned your way into boot camp for military school. ”
“You can’t,” Bethany shrieks. “You said we wouldn’t have to fight if we didn’t want to.”
“The odds are you will have to fight whether you want to or not and being untrained during the final battle will only get you killed. If they attack the academy by surprise, they won’t care that you don’t want to fight. They will cut you down.”
“And what do you mean she can’t?” Raven crosses her arms. “We took over this academy and work with the headmaster Beth put in charge. We can do whatever we want so don’t test me.”
“You’re all power hungry,” Bethany grumbles.
I laugh. I can’t help it. “Power hungry? You can’t be serious.
I wish I didn’t have the power that I do.
That I could sit back and let someone else go on all these missions to save the world.
Sadly, life isn’t fair and this is my fate.
Now, because you guys are all a bunch of dicks with too much time on your hands, you’re going to military school. ”
I turn to Chiron. “You think this will work?”
“I think it’s a good start, but if we are going to completely rid our academy of the animosity, we will need to do more.” Chiron taps his chin, his expression thoughtful.
“Sara suggested team building exercises,” I say.
“You want us to work in teams with them?” Bethany sneers.
“Quiet, or I’ll have Thad take you to the dungeon,” I snap.
“You can’t send me to the dungeon,” she gasps.
“I can if I’m making you work there as a punishment.” Chiron crosses his arms over his chest. “Your siblings are working on a cure for mind control. Maybe that’s a good punishment for what you’ve done.”
“What about Sara? She started it when she kicked me.”
Raven shakes her head. “Just how stupid are you? You got into the middle of a sparring match to flirt with a guy you think of as a traitor and got taken out by a sweeping kick you stepped in front of. Yeah, Sara started it.”
“You young demigods have no discipline,” Chiron says. “Yes, you have an excellent idea, Beth. Let’s call the students and announce the new rules.”
“Excellent.” I smirk over at Bethany.
They want to be assholes, they are going to be too tired to even hurl an insult once we start basic training.
Chiron magically sends out a notice to meet in the courtyard for a mandatory meeting in five minutes and we hurry to the courtyard so we can get there before anyone else. It’s not long before confused students show up, whispering to each other, wondering what this meeting is all about.
We stand on the pedestal as we have so many times before and wait until the hush falls over the crowd. “It’s come to my attention that you all have too much time on your hands.”
Whispers sound again. I hold up my hand hushing the crowd. This is going to take all day if they don’t stop this nonsense.
“You also decided somehow that when we are off saving the world and you that the rules no longer apply. I’m here to make sure you know that is not the case.
From now on, all students will be in training from sunup to sundown.
This is mandatory now. If you have time and energy to bully someone, then you aren’t working hard enough. ”
“You said we don’t have to fight if we don’t want to,” a shrill voice calls from a cluster of Aphrodite students.
“Ideally, you won’t have to, but the queen and her people play dirty and if they attack the academy, they won’t care that you don’t want to be a part of this. The monsters will take you out if you’re left untrained.” I scan the crowd, making sure they all understand the warning.
Whispers and quiet murmurs rise up around me again and this time I allow it to go on for a few minutes before quieting them again.
“In addition to training, there will be team building exercises and maybe some games where you will have to work together as a team to make it to your end goal.”
Some students glance to their siblings in excitement, probably picking their teams in their minds already, but I divest them of that notion almost immediately.
“Those teams will be picked by us and there will be no switching. If you can’t work together in wartime, we will all die. This is nonnegotiable.”
“Why are you picking our teams and not us?” a Hermes kid asks.
“Because if we let you pick your teams, it defeats the whole purpose of the exercise,” I say, exasperated.
“What is the purpose?” a girl asks.
“To get you to stop bullying each other and learn to work as a unit.”
The courtyard explodes with angry yelling as several people try to step forward. Maybe I miscalculated this slightly because the demigods of the academy have death in their glares and they are all pointed at me.