To say that Hunter was having an off day was an understatement. He woke up on the literal wrong side of the bed and ended up stepping on a box full of arrowheads that his archery enthusiast bunkmate left on the ground. After a string of curse words, the removal of a mattress from a top bunk, a very heated argument, the rude awakening of the rest of the cabin, and some Apollo magic, Hunter was ready to start the day. Unfortunately that was just enough time to make him miss breakfast and fail cabin inspection and being punished with dishes the next morning. After that he was sent straight to Ancient Greek with someone from the Athena Cabin. He already knew everything and was caught picking the bark off of some poor wood nymph who pelted him with acorns all the way to the strawberry patch where he ruined his favorite pair of shorts with a few overly ripe berries.
It wasn't until fighting practice that his day started to look even a little bit up. He made his way to the arena, sword and shield in hand, and found several dummies set up. Chiron stood in the middle along with a kid from Ares named Caleb, Jake, a fellow child of Hermes, Kyle, a son of Demeter, and Brooke, a child of Aphrodite. She was so pretty. It seemed that everyone else agreed, considering the looks they were giving her. Hunter took his spot at the end of the row next to Brooke and immediately his palms started sweating. At the time, he thought nothing of it, but it became more of a problem as the lesson continued.
"Surrounding the arena are dummies. When I say go, the 5 of you will attack the dummies. The person who destroys the most will get the rest of the lesson off and early lunch. Sound good?" Chiron said with a smile. Hunter thought about the prospect of getting an easy day after the morning he had. He stretched a little bit and swung his sword once. He knew that he was going to have to get his game face on if he wanted to beat Caleb. Jake was kind of a screw up and Kyle was about as good with his plants as Hunter was good with a bow. Brooke was...well, Brooke was really pretty, but the way that she was holding her sword like a dirty pair of gym socks was pretty telling as to how well she was going to do. "Go!" Hunter shook himself out of his head a second and took off toward the closest dummy. He slashed off the arm and then bashed it with his shield, knocking it to the ground. He shot off to the next dummy and found Kyle heading to the same one. Hunter quickly slid his shield at him, just as a vine hooked his leg. Kyle slipped on the shield and Hunter stood back up, demolishing the dummy with two quick strikes. He grabbed his shield and hurdled Kyle as he got up and headed to the next dummy. Hunter moved quickly. A lot faster than he usually moved.
The dummies fell fairly quickly and Kyle and Jake had given up. Brooke was long gone, chatting up some guy who had stumbled into the arena. Hunter knew it was just him and Caleb left and unfortunately one dummy left. He didn't know what the score was, but he had high hopes. He got to the last dummy just as Caleb did. However, Caleb was about 6 inches taller and had about 100 pounds on him. He used the butt of his spear and slugged him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Hunter quickly grabbed his shield and whipped it like a frisbee, smacking Caleb in the side of the head. Caleb wobbled for a second and that was just enough time for Hunter to throw a desperate sword strike at the dummy, finally destroying it.
"That's the last one!" Chiron said, clapping his hands together. "By my count, our winner is Hunter Reed! Congratulations, Mr. Reed. Head to the mess hall and get a bite to eat. You look quite tired." Hunter nodded and sheathed his sword on his back and picked up his shield to find it broken into three pieces. He dropped it and then headed off toward the mess hall.
The rest of the day was pretty calm, thankfully. He got some food, practiced a little bit in the arena, managed to get out of wrestling, a decision he made after Jake told him that Caleb was looking for him. Next he had wood-chopping. He was thankful for that. It was basically an hour and a half of sitting in the woods, as long as you could escape the group supervisor for the day. Being a child of Hermes and with the supervisor being a child of Hypnos, it wasn't much of a task for Hunter to slip out and find a place to hang out in the woods for a little while.
After he made his way out of the woods, he took a nap during his free time and got dinner after that. Considering how his day started, it wasn't a pleasant change just doing nothing. He was ignored more or less by most people, except for those who he had managed to piss off in his years at camp. It made him miss his aunt's house and his 8 cousins. They might have treated him like garbage, but he had someone to talk to at least.
"Hey, did you hear about the trials today?" Jake said, taking a spot at the Hermes table across from Hunter. Hunter blinked a second and took a sip of orange juice then shrugged. "Apparently, Chiron brought in some big heavy-hitting monsters. We'll be fighting something big today, that's for sure." Hunter finished off his glass of orange juice and cleared his throat.
"Do you know what it is?" Hunter asked, poking at his food again. Jake thought for a second and then shook his head.
"Not specifically, but knowing that it's something big is better than knowing nothing at all, right?" Hunter opened his mouth to speak, but over Jake's shoulder he saw a head of long wavy golden hair walk past, followed by Brooke and her pixie cut of red hair and Danny, casually checking out any guy who walked by. It was an odd train of people, but Hunter couldn't help, but stare. He found Brooke fairly attractive, but she had this weird habit of acting like she was seeing someone for the first time in years when it hadn't even been a day. Arabella on the other hand was possible the most beautiful creature that had ever lived on this planet. He hadn't seen Aphrodite, but he assumed, she looked a lot like Arabella. "Hello, Hunter? Earth to Hunter?" Hunter shook himself and looked back at Jake.
"I guess, you're right. It helps me mentally prepare. Not that I do much of that anyway." He said, running a hand through his hair. Jake just stared at him then laughed.
"WAAAAAY out of your league, Hunter." Jake said with a laugh. "Even if you had a league, you would be so far out of her league, your league is a dot from her league."
"Yeah, I get it. I understand." Hunter said quietly.
"If leagues were planets, hers would be the sun-"
"The sun's not a planet."
"Fine. Yours would be Pluto-"
"Pluto's not a planet." Jake let out a heavy sigh.
"Yours would be like...Mercury." He waited for a response. "And hers would be like...like uh..."
"Alpha Centauri?"
"Yeah."
"That's not a planet."
"I hate you." Jake said before standing up and taking his dishes with him. Hunter laughed a little and finished his fries, then stood up, grabbing his dishes. He shot a glance at the Aphrodite table and then left the mess hall. He walked to the arena, drawing his sword and glancing around in the hopes of finding a good shield. With a small yawn, he walked into the arena to find several hellhounds scrambling about, knocking campers to the ground. Hunter had a bad feeling about this. With a deep breath, he was about to attack when he heard growling behind him. He turned around just in time to be tackled by a hellhound.
The rest of the trial was a blur of attacking and being attacked, but eventually he was walking out, using his sword to stable himself. A child of Apollo handed him a small flask of nectar. He took a swig and stuck the flask into his pocket. Hunter sheathed his sword and stretched a little as the nectar coursed through his body. He shivered a little and looked toward the middle of camp to see the campfire singalong about to start. He usually didn't find it very enjoyable, but today he had a good feeling. He slipped his hands in his pockets and walked through the group that was already forming. He was taking his time and just kind of enjoying the atmosphere when he bumped into something. He stumbled and turned as he was falling to see Caleb tripping him. Hunter landed with a thud and looked up to see the Aphrodite cabin laughing at him. Hunter cleared his throat and quickly stood, dusted off his clothes, then took off out of the campfire. Never had he felt so embarrassed.