I turn to Chiron. “You think this will work?”
“I think it’s a good start, but if we are going to completely rid our academy of the animosity, we will need to do more.” Chiron taps his chin, his expression thoughtful.
“Sara suggested team building exercises,” I say.
“You want us to work in teams with them?” Bethany sneers.
“Quiet, or I’ll have Thad take you to the dungeon,” I snap.
“You can’t send me to the dungeon,” she gasps.
“I can if I’m making you work there as a punishment.” Chiron crosses his arms over his chest. “Your siblings are working on a cure for mind control. Maybe that’s a good punishment for what you’ve done.”
“What about Sara? She started it when she kicked me.”
Raven shakes her head. “Just how stupid are you? You got into the middle of a sparring match to flirt with a guy you thinkof as a traitor and got taken out by a sweeping kick you stepped in front of. Yeah, Sara started it.”
“You young demigods have no discipline,” Chiron says. “Yes, you have an excellent idea, Beth. Let’s call the students and announce the new rules.”
“Excellent.” I smirk over at Bethany.
They want to be assholes, they are going to be too tired to even hurl an insult once we start basic training.
Chiron magically sends out a notice to meet in the courtyard for a mandatory meeting in five minutes and we hurry to the courtyard so we can get there before anyone else. It’s not long before confused students show up, whispering to each other, wondering what this meeting is all about.
We stand on the pedestal as we have so many times before and wait until the hush falls over the crowd. “It’s come to my attention that you all have too much time on your hands.”
Whispers sound again. I hold up my hand hushing the crowd. This is going to take all day if they don’t stop this nonsense.
“You also decided somehow that when we are off saving the world and you that the rules no longer apply. I’m here to make sure you know that is not the case. From now on, all students will be in training from sunup to sundown. This is mandatory now. If you have time and energy to bully someone, then you aren’t working hard enough.”
“You said we don’t have to fight if we don’t want to,” a shrill voice calls from a cluster of Aphrodite students.
“Ideally, you won’t have to, but the queen and her people play dirty and if they attack the academy, they won’t care that you don’t want to be a part of this. The monsters will take you out if you’re left untrained.” I scan the crowd, making sure they all understand the warning.
Whispers and quiet murmurs rise up around me again and this time I allow it to go on for a few minutes before quieting them again.
“In addition to training, there will be team building exercises and maybe some games where you will have to work together as a team to make it to your end goal.”
Some students glance to their siblings in excitement, probably picking their teams in their minds already, but I divest them of that notion almost immediately.
“Those teams will be picked by us and there will be no switching. If you can’t work together in wartime, we will all die. This is nonnegotiable.”
“Why are you picking our teams and not us?” a Hermes kid asks.
“Because if we let you pick your teams, it defeats the whole purpose of the exercise,” I say, exasperated.
“What is the purpose?” a girl asks.
“To get you to stop bullying each other and learn to work as a unit.”
The courtyard explodes with angry yelling as several people try to step forward. Maybe I miscalculated this slightly because the demigods of the academy have death in their glares and they are all pointed at me.
