The cadets piled in, ready to spar the afternoon away until they could go to Kora’s. Cheiron was there, waiting for them.
“We are going to go through every maneuver we know today—twice.”
“But it’ll take all night!” some cadet moaned.
“Then we’ll stay here all night. Alright, split into groups of six and begin.”
The cadets mumbled among themselves as they split up. In one group, Hercules muttered to his friends, “Don’t you think Cheiron is acting funny?”
The rest of the group shrugged. “He’s probably just teaching us a lesson or something,” Jason reasoned.
“Yeah, there’s no way he’d keep us here all night. He’s not Fiddle Face,” Iolaus mused.
Hercules remained worried—he had noticed a weird glint in Cheiron’s eyes. No one else had. The demigod knew something was up.
“Again! We’ll stay here till you get it right!”
“We’re too tired!” a random cadet moaned.
“In war, the enemy doesn’t care! Again!” Cheiron shouted.
“See?” Herc muttered to Iolaus.
“He’ll let us out for dinner. Just you wait.”
But dinnertime came and went. All of the cadets, even the demi- and full-gods, were worn out by this point. Alayia leaned against Hercules, trying to not fall asleep. Hercules was trying refrain from pacing, in fear of waking up Alayia.
“It doesn’t make sense!” Hercules suddenly exclaimed, causing Alayia to jump. “Something’s wrong!”
“I still think he’s trying to teach us a lesson,” Jason muttered.
“What lesson,” Alayia moaned. “That sparring for eight hours on an empty stomach causes us to faint?”
Jason shrugged. “Maybe.”
“I agree with Herc,” Iolaus said. “Something is up. He always gives us dinner.”
“Maybe we should investigate,” Casche, who was there the entire time just quiet, suggested.
“Cheiron’s right there. How could we investigate?” Herc scoffed.
She shrugged. “I dunno. Distract him and Iolaus and I can slip into his office.”
Jason arched his eyebrows. “You two? Alone?”
Casche rolled her eyes. “Just to investigate.”
“Well, how would we distract him?” Herc asked.
“Go ask him to explain that one really hard drill,” Iolaus suggested.
Herc bit his lip. “I dunno…”
“Oh,” Casche playfully hit Hercules. “For a demigod, you sure can be a wuss.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll distract him… But maybe Alayia’ll soften him up.” He grabbed her arm and dragged her over to Cheiron. Iolaus and Casche snuck off once Cheiron was distracted.
“How come you insisted on coming with me? I’m the reformed thief.”
“Oh, who would you rather come? Kora?” She laughed. “Oh, Kora! Kora! My lovey-dovey baby! I boo-hoo-hoo for you. I should be your tootsie-wootsie, but you say toodley-doo.”
“Shut up,” Iolaus moaned.
She laughed and kept on. “Our life’d be ducky-wucky, so goody-good are we. Come here, my lovey-dovey baby, and coochie-coo with me.”
“Are you done yet?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You find anything yet?” He shook his head. “Well, keep looking! There must be something here!”
“There’s nothing here! Just the normal—“
The “ahem” behind them stopped Iolaus mid-sentence.
“What are you two doing in my office?” They both gulped. “Detention for the rest of the month!”
“What?” Casche exclaimed.
“I can’t! I have to work or I can’t pay tuition!”
Cheiron shrugged. “So be it.” He went back to the other cadets.
“Great! Look what you did!” Iolaus yelled at Casche.
“Me! You went along with it!”
Iolaus rolled his eyes, and then went to rejoin their group.
Casche
Posted on Apr 5, 2006, 5:54 PM from IP address 64.12.116.135
