1,342Dudes I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long. It doesn't normally take me that long to post a new chapter trust me. I've just been super busy lately. Thanks for all your reviews on the last chapter! I got such a positive response to this story idea you guys are awesome! Well I'll let you get to it.
Disclaimer: Don't own
"Alright give me one more minute of jumping jacks without stopping then thirty reps on each leg of mountain climbers. Finish with twenty lunges then you can have another water break." Christina demands as Annabeth and the other figure skaters continue doing jumping jacks in the dry room of the ice rink.
Annabeth was right when she predicted that they would be conditioning for the whole practice instead of being on the rink. Their coach Christina was pushing them harder than she could have imagined and every one of the girls was exhausted, their breaths coming out in heavy ragged patterns as they tried to get through the rest of the jumps. The sounds of feet repeatedly hitting the floor and arms moving up and down quickly through the air only to snap back down to their sides filled the atmosphere.
"Rachel I said no stopping! You just made the one more minute of jumping jacks into two more minutes for your team."
Annabeth and the others turn to look at Rachel, venomous expressions plastered onto their faces. They continued to jump. During the next minute the time between each jumping jack was slower and less effort was put into it as the girls began to tire even more. After they had completed the two minutes Annabeth immediately moved on to mountain climbers. Her legs burned as she switched her legs back and forth for every repetition. She counted the reps as she did them, trying to go as fast as she could so she could get it over with and take her break.
She started the lunges next. Her face glistened with sweat as she lowered herself down to the ground onto her right leg. She had to hold back a yelp of pain when she felt the muscles in her leg screaming at her to stop. Each time she went down on either leg it got worse. When she was done her legs were on fire.
She was the first one to finish and walked exhaustedly over to where her water was. When the cold liquid touched her lips she sighed in pleasure. She grabbed a towel from her duffle bag and used it to wipe her face as the other girls finished up and joined her, looking just as tired as Annabeth and panting heavily as they tried to get the water down their throats.
"You all did this to yourselves. If you hadn't argued with the Tridents team then maybe we would all be out on the big rink practicing jumps but you did."
Annabeth doesn't dare to speak up and say that the hockey players were the ones who had originally started the insults. The last thing they needed was another round of leg workouts.
As Annabeth was making her way out of the dry room after practice she's stopped short by a hand grabbing her arm. She turns around to find her coach standing in front of her. Annabeth gives her a confused look, wondering why she was being held after practice. Had she done something wrong? Was her coach going to make her condition all over again? She wasn't sure if she would be able to feel her legs at all if she had to do that again. When all the other skaters are gone and it's just the two of them her coach speaks.
"After you get changed meet me back here." Her tone of voice holds a certain urgency in it and Annabeth can do nothing but nod in response before heading out of the locker room.
The thoughts of what her coach needed her for swam around in her head. As she's leaving the dry room she stops short when she's met with none other than Percy Jackson walking out of the weight room at the same time. She had successfully avoided him all day including in history, the class they had together by sitting as far away from him as she could but her luck had run out as she was now standing across from him. His blue shirt was soaked with sweat, his black hair sticking to his forehead and it's then that Annabeth realizes the hockey team must not have been on the ice today either but instead working out in the weight room as a punishment.
"Checking me out princess?" He asks amusedly when he sees her.
"You wish." She scoffs in response, pushing past him and continuing to make her way to the locker room. She couldn't afford to get into another argument with him, competitions were just around the corner and she needed all the time on the ice that she could get.
The sight of the figure skaters changing into fresh clothes that weren't sweaty fills her line of vision as she walks into the locker room. She walks briskly over to her locker. It wasn't really a locker but more of a wooden cubby. Each one of the skaters had one. There was a small cubby at the top followed by a larger space underneath with metal hooks for their jackets or duffle bags. There were no locks on them but that had never proved to be a problem before.
At the top of her locker in her cubby area sat her pristine white skates. She had always made sure to take very good care of her skates but no matter how hard she tried she still managed to go through about three pairs of skates a year because of how worn out they got. Her current pair was fairly new so they hadn't gotten too bad yet with the exception of the ends of the laces being a bit frayed and the bright white color from when they were brand new changing to a more duller shade that didn't stand out as much.
Her shirt sticks to her skin as she pulls it up and over her head. She grabs a spare shirt from her duffle and puts it on. Her skin still feels dirty but for right now she would have to deal with it until she got home and was able to get a shower. She doesn't bother changing her exercise shorts or her running shoes because putting on her jeans or sweatpants while being so sweaty was not something she wanted to do.
After she changes she starts her trek back towards the dry room, curious as to what her coach needed to talk to her about. A weird feeling forms in the pit of her stomach and she suddenly feels like she's about to walk into something awful.
She's surprised to see the hockey team's coach standing next to Christina when she enters the dry room for the second time that day. Their expressions are hard to read as they both stare at her with blank expressions.
"Hello again Annabeth. We'll tell you why you're here in a minute. We're just waiting for-"
Christina gets cut off when the click of the door opening sounds and a certain green-eyed hockey player enters the room. He pauses when he sees everyone in the room, his eyes moving quickly back and forth from the coaches to Annabeth.
Of course. Why wouldn't Percy be involved? Annabeth sarcastically thinks.
"What's she doing here?" Percy asks, looking towards Annabeth.
"What's he doing here?" Annabeth replies, glaring at Percy.
"We called you here to discuss something important." Christina says, gesturing for Percy to come closer and stand next to Annabeth. He does so reluctantly, suddenly getting the feeling that he wasn't going to like whatever he was about to hear.
"The smaller rink is now only going to be used for individual practice. Since both groups practice at the same time you're going to have to figure out a way to share the rink. You all need to get over your stupid feud and this is the only way we could think of to do it. When Christina and I think you've resolved all your issues only then will we open both rinks up for practice." Coach Hedge explains while standing in front of both Percy and Annabeth.
No one says anything for a few seconds. The silence is enough to make anyone shuffle uncomfortably. Annabeth's mouth forms and o shape as she tries to reply to the news but finds herself unable to.
They were supposed to share the rink? Was that seriously what they were telling them? Her mind wanders. The amount of problems that would result from them having to do that was never ending. Finally finding her voice, she puts her thoughts into words.
"But that's not fair! We've got competitions coming up we can't share the rink with them! It's bad enough we've got to alternate everyday." Annabeth argues after she's processed everything he had said.
"Coach the season's just starting! We need that big rink, it's the only one big enough to practice every single one of our plays on! We can't split it everyday with a bunch of ice ballerinas!" Percy says angrily, the seriousness of the situation taking a toll on him.
Annabeth crosses her arms across her chest.
"Figure skaters. Why is that so hard to get into your head! Is you're brain the size of a squirrel's? Oh wait, that would be an insult to squirrels!" Annabeth says menacingly, turning towards Percy and momentarily forgetting the conversation with the coaches.
"Well at least I'm not a snobby little privileged princess who gets just about everything she wants! I bet you never had to work for something in your life!" Percy snaps back, spinning around to face her with his hands clenching into fists.
"Excuse me? You don't know anything about me or my life so fuck off Jackson!"
"Ooh Princess has a trucker mouth. I better listen to her." He taunts, shooting her an angry glare. Annabeth's nostrils flare. She can feel her face become red with anger. Before she has a chance to argue she's interrupted.
"Alright that's ENOUGH!" Coach Hedge shouts, ending the argument between Percy and Annabeth.
"We know you've both got games and competitions coming up so I'd suggest solving your problems fast. This fight between the figure skaters and the hockey players seems to be centered around the two of you and it's been going on for too long. I'd expect more from you Annabeth. You're my most promising skater." Christina scolds, turning to Annabeth.
"And you have the potential to be a great hockey player in the future Percy. I haven't seen talent like yours in a while but I'm disappointed in you." Coach Hedge adds, looking straight at Percy.
Annabeth and Percy stay silent as their coaches stare down at them.
"All this starts tomorrow so I trust that you'll tell your respective teams now go home." Christina tells them strictly.
Feeling insanely guilty, Annabeth quietly exits the room with Percy right behind her. Before another argument can break out she adjusts the shoulder strap on her duffle bag and walks out of the rink, not looking behind her.
"Whoa wait… we have to do what?!" Piper shouts, staring up at her in disbelief while tightening the laces on her skates in the locker room.
It was Saturday morning and they were all getting their skates on for their weekend practice. Annabeth stood in front of the whole team. She had just finished explaining to them what Christina had told her yesterday and the response was a mix of angry and shocked expressions. The room was silent as everyone stopped tying their skates.
"We have to share the big rink with th-"
"Oh I heard you. I just didn't want to believe it was true." Piper says, cutting Annabeth off.
Annabeth sighs. "It's true. Believe me, no one's more angry about it than I am but coach won't open the other rink for anything other than individual practice until we supposedly 'make up' with the Tridents team." She explains, using air quotes for the last part.
"So we're just supposed to skate on half the rink? How is that going to be enough room for all of us to practice?" Calypso asks annoyed.
"Well one of us will always be on the small rink practicing. We can all alternate but…we'll have to share that with the hockey players too I'm sure."
A series of groans fills the locker room after she finishes.
"So now I've got nothing but the small rink and half of the big one because of something all of you did?" Rachel interrupts, gesturing to all the skaters except Rebecca and Ashley who were standing behind her like always.
"What are you talking about?" Annabeth asks, not having the energy to argue with her at this point.
"Well we're the only ones who don't have a problem with the hockey players. We haven't done anything wrong and now because of all of you we've got to suffer losing practice space." Rachel explains while her minions nod in agreement.
"Listen freckles if you wouldn't make disgusting googly eyes at Percy every time you see him maybe you and your little minions would see that-"
"Let it go Piper. She's not worth it." Annabeth says sharply, glaring at the fiery redhead.
Rachel glares back before turning around to walk out of the locker room with her friends in tow. When she's gone from the line of vision everyone turns back to Annabeth.
"Alright, lets go. We've got to be the mature ones about this. We want our rink back? We've got to work for it even if it means being nice to those jerks." Annabeth finishes, grabbing her white skates and beginning to loosen them so she get them on.
The others sigh in annoyance and continue to put on their skates. Annabeth almost cuts off all the circulation in her feet by pulling on the laces of her skates too hard as she thinks about what the next few practices will be like. Surely they won't be something she'll want to remember. Especially because of the fact that she'll have to be sharing the rink with none other than Percy Jackson.
"You've got to be kidding me." Leo says once he's processed everything Percy had just said.
"Dude how are we supposed to share the rink with them?" Another one of the hockey players asks as they all stand in front of Percy.
"Yeah the season's just starting!"
"And we don't have enough space to practice everything!"
There's a chorus of shouts and arguments as the news gets around to everyone on the team. Percy wanted to shout out a few things himself on what he thought about sharing the rink but he held back, knowing that since he was the captain he was supposed to show that he was in control of the situation.
"Guys I know this is the last thing we needed but if we really want our rink back we're gonna have to show coach that we can…tolerate the figure skaters. I'm just as mad about this as you are if not more. We have the small rink open but only for individual practice and we'll be alternating with the others on that too." Percy explains, his tone of voice cold and angry.
There's a grumble of agreement from the other players as they finish getting ready for practice, throwing their bags into their locker spaces and following Percy out of the locker room.
This practice should be interesting.
It's short but I wanted to make the next update their first day of practice sharing the rink. Hit that review button and tell me what you thought of this chapter! Also let me know what you'd like to see more of in this story or if you have any ideas for any chapters. I could always use the help.
REVIEW, REVIEW AND REVIEW!
-M