THE FALSE KNIGHT | Percabeth AU

15: A Surprise Revealed

Annabeth's POV:

I twisted and turned in bed. I couldn't sleep for some reason, that definitely had nothing to do with a certain black haired boy. I finally decided that I would get out of bed and do something, since I couldn't sleep anyway. I quickly pulled up the sheets, brushed my teeth, and got changed into my daily clothes. My hair was growing out a bit already, but it had been a few weeks. I knew I did have to cut some off at some point.

I silently opened the door and closed it behind me, being careful not to wake Jason up, and with quiet feet, walked down the hallways. I decided that I might as well practice since the battle was today, and went outside to the shed. We were allowed to use our personal weapons for the battle, but I knew it was a good idea to be prepared using any weapon, so I walked to the tool shed and pulled out a broad sword. When I first got here, I would have probably dropped it in a second, but over time, I'd gotten more food and had trained to a higher extent, so I guess I got stronger.

I practiced using a sword until my arms slightly burned. I didn't want to use too much energy before the battle, so I just went for a walk on the palace grounds.

Then, I realized that the sun was starting to rise, so I headed inside to see some people coming out and heading to the breakfast hall. I followed them and sat down at my usual place, where Jason was already waiting with Frank and Leo.

"Hey Andrew, where were you?" Jason asked. "I just went outside 'cause I couldn't sleep," I replied, taking a bite of toast. Frank smiled reassuringly. "Yeah, I'm nervous too, but it's okay. We've trained a lot, so we're gonna do great." I nodded, not telling him the real reason I couldn't sleep.

Leo talked about a drone he was building or something like that during all of breakfast, and it was SO annoying, but he wasn't that bad. Then, it was time to go outside. I followed the groups of people heading out and lined up beside my group, Jason coming to stand next to me. We only knew each other after all, the rest of the group was nice but we weren't too close, only close enough to know our and each other's fighting skills and how we fight.

Suddenly, I realized there were more people out here than usual. "Wait a sec. Jason, why are the KING AND QUEEN here?!" I shrieked, realizing that two tall, superior-looking figures, were sitting on royal looking chairs, looking out at the initiates.

"I don't know," Jason answered. "I had no idea. I think they're judging us or something." I sighed. This was not going to go well.

Percy, in all his annoyingly good-looking glory, looked at us. "Listen up, everyone. We've been training for weeks. We know how we fight and we all have our own talents. We've learned how to use strategies," he looked at me when he said that, resulting in him getting a glare, "learn different skills, and more. We've got this." I rolled my eyes at him as I walked past him to grab my dagger. I was a lot better at close-range fighting than distanced. It was a lot easier to use strategy.

Caleb brought out his bow and arrow and stood on the right side of me, while Jason took out his gladius. We stood across the opposing team, which Leo and Frank were on. Frank also had some bow and arrows, while Leo had an interesting contraption he had probably built. On the piercing whistle, we went in action.

Our team quickly held off while I thought of a strategy. I snuck around whispering it into others' ears who were on our team. Percy stood at the sidelines, the princess next to him. Thankfully, he didn't have his arm around her like she seemed to want, but I was still pretty mad at him. Not that he knew I was a girl. Ugh! Annabeth, you came here to fight, not focus on seaweed-brained boys. Focus on the battle.