Inexperienced

The next morning I was woken by Percy dropping a helmet on my stomach.

I glared at him, and grumbled, 'Why did you wake me? It's far too early. And there is a reason the curtain was shut!' I exclaimed, pulling up the blankets. Percy laughed.

'It's capture-the-flag time.' He gestured at the helmet in my lap. It had a large blue plume on it.
'We're on the blue team with the Ares cabin, against the Athena cabin, which is pretty usual, as they are the gods of war.' I nodded. That made sense. But I still wasn't okay with Percy waking me up like this.

I lay down again, mumbling something like 'still tired', and closed my eyes.

The next thing I felt was a huge splash of water.

'PERCY!!!' I yelled, and I jumped out of bed, not caring that I only wore a tee and a pair of panties. I grabbed the helmet, which had fallen onto the floor, and smacked Percy up his head with it.

'That's the spirit!' He grinned broadly, not in the slightest bit concerned about the fact that I had probably killed a thousand of his brain cells. 'Besides, you love water. And look, you're dry already!' I looked down to see that he was right. Apparently that came with being the sea god's daughter too.

'That doesn't make it okay! Look, my bed's still wet, and my clothes too!' I yelled.
His smile lessened slightly now that he realized I was really mad (which I'm not very often).

'I can fix that,' he said, and he touched my blankets. Instantly the water vaporized. He did the same with my clothes.

'Thanks,' I mumbled, slightly awed, then I shoved him to the other side of the curtain.
He looked surprised, but I explained that I had to change my clothes.

When I retracted the curtain ten minutes later, he was already strapping on his armor.

'Um, I don't, have armor?' I said.

'There,' he said, nodding with his head towards the bunk bed opposite him while continuing to fix his straps.

On the bed, there was a set of armor, obviously shaped for a woman. I picked up the breastplate an glanced sideways at Percy. Couldn't be too hard, could it?

Hahahahahaha no. It was really hard. I couldn't reach the straps on my back, and there was no one to help me, because Percy had left, which was maybe a bit rude, but I guessed he went to see Annabeth.

Luckily, Aloisyus chose that moment to check on me. As soon as he walked in, I grabbed his arm.

'Please help me. I understand where the pieces have to go but I can't reach the straps.' Aloisyus smiled, and wordlessly began to pull on the straps, securing the armor in place.

'Thank you.' I sighed, my shoulders and arms sore from trying to do it myself.

'You'll get better at it,' He promised.

'I certainly hope so. It's kind of embarrassing to have someone do it for me.' I replied.

When he was done, I donned my helmet and walked outside, feeling awkward and awesome at the same time. It wasn't a lot of armor, only a breast- and backplate, shoulder pieces and a helmet, but I felt heavily protected. Then I realized I wasn't weaponed. At all.

'Um, do I get a sword or something?' Aloisyus chuckled.

'You haven't had a single lesson, but it's how it is. Let's go to the armory. Maybe they can spare you a bow and some arrows, too.'

As I fell into step beside him, I asked him, 'Isn't it a little dangerous? I mean, I've read about it, but I don't feel very safe right now knowing that we're going to use real swords and arrows.'
Aloisyus knocked on my back, which gave a hollow metallic sound.

'You're well protected. Besides, we use blunt swords and arrows meant only to stun. Sure, you might get a few scratches and bruises, but it's not dangerous.' He smiled at me kindly. 'It'll be fun!'

I really, really hoped so. I wasn't very good at, well, anything that involved exercise, but maybe this would prove an exception.

After I was all set up with a bow, a quiver full of arrows and a small sword, I heard the horn, signaling that we had to head to the forest.
I walked forward feeling like a Jedi, ready for battle. Just not really ready.

Notes