In the Arena

In The Arena
Fran sat on a bench as she watched her best friend de-arm an Apollo camper and hold his gladius to his neck. Tom smiled in victory and dropped his gladius, holding out a hand and the Apollo by shook it and gave him a half-hearted smile back. Fran adverted her gaze to the sky above her and smiled at the blue tones and colours of it.

She didn’t notice that Tom had taken a seat in front of her until he poked her with his foot. She jumped and turned her gaze, now glare to the boy sitting opposite her. He just gave her a goofy smile and removed his helmet, and shaking his head, ruffling his black hair by running a hand through it. She just gave him a pointed look and returned to looking at the sky above her, smiling when she felt the warmth fall upon her skin and her cheeks warmed to a faint pink.

“You know,” Tom said, breaking her concentration yet again, and then when she looked at him with confusion written across her face, he only chuckled and continued on, “I’m unbeaten today.” He boasted. Fran rolled her eyes and sat up, resting her elbows on her knees and resting her face in her palms.

“I think I could beat you,” she said, looking into his electric blue orbs, smiling. “You’ve just gone against easy opponents.”

“I hardly think the Mars cabin are what you call ‘easy opponents’ Cesca.” He replied quickly, smirking, thinking that he had won.

But Fran didn’t reply, she only stood up, shook out her legs and made her way over to the weapon and armour store. When she got there she stood there, looking at the different sized and types of armour. When a cough alerted her to someone’s presence beside her she whirled around only to find tom standing there, still smirking, “Your going up against me?” She nodded and he exclaimed, making her jump, “Great! I haven’t gone up against you in ages.”

She rolled her eyes, turned back around and looked at the armour once again. Missing out all of the uncomfortable Roman armour, she turned to the Greek one and picked up a size two. Strapping the front on with ease she looked over her shoulder and to Tom, “Help me put it on.” She said, turning her head back around and lifting up her hair as she tied it into a pony-tail.

“Done it Air-Head?” Fran asked, letting out a small laugh as she felt the armour being strapped onto her back a little too tightly. Once it was done she reached for a bead on her Camp necklace and tugged on it. From her palm a celestial bronze sword with a roughened leather grip grew from the small sword charm and the 3 foot blade, etched with light waves shimmering down the sword appeared.

Walking out onto the middle of the arena and swinging her sword around she looked at Tom who had moved to opposite her. Without warning Fran struck out, swinging her sword at his chest. He blocked it and pushed with his gladius which caused Fran to stumble but she regained her balance. Narrowing her eyes she swung her sword again at legs to which he just jumped over. But before it swung fully she brought it back and the sword made contact with Tom’s armour. But instead of falling over, like she expecting him to, he just grabbed a hold of the sword and pulled it towards him, bringing it behind his back and out of her grasp.

Fran was knocked into his chest and her cheek was pressed against the cool metal armour. She looked up and her cheeks flushed at the position that they were in, close together. Her cheeks flushed but Tom just stood there, oblivious to the situation they were in, he looked down in Fran’s eyes and smirked, “I win,”

Fran gritted her teeth and forced a smile back, but all the while twisting her left hand out of his grip and reached behind him and stretched out her fingers until she could feel the metal of her own sword, she curly her hand around it and at the same time got in her right hand Tom’s sword and all while looking up into Tom’s eyes she drew back the two swords quickly, stepped back and held her sword to his throat, and then his own behind her and out of his reach but still pointed in his direction.

“Oh, come on!” Tom moaned, looking at Fran’s  triumphant smirking face, “I was distracted!”

“Distracted?” She said, raising an eyebrow, “How in Hades were you distracted my best friend? Was it by a passing bird?” Fran teased as she let her own sword and his drop, away from his neck. Fran held out her right hand and gave him back his own sword, and touching the hilt of hers where it shrunk back into a bead and flew on to her Camp necklace.

She took off her armour as she walked over to the bench that she was sitting on earlier and dumped the armour there and looked to Tom behind her. “Ready to go?” She smiled, picking up a bag that she had discarded there when she first came to the Arena that morning.

“Yeah,” Tom said, while walking over to Fran and putting an arm around her shoulder casually and in a friendly way. Fran held onto the arm that Tom had slung around her shoulder as they walked out of the arena. They both heard a shout and Fran felt Tom’s arm drop from her shoulder and a slight sinking feeling ran through her. But when she saw Hallie dragging a Hunter past the gated entrance to the arena yelling, “YOUR GOING TO PAY FOR THAT!”

Fran just looked up to Tom who just laughed and said, “Did you just-”

“Yeah,” Fran said smiling, while continuing to walk away from the arena, tugging Tom along with her hand, “But that’s just Lia for you.”