"So you're Prissy's sister, huh?"

Beck looked up from the letter she was painstakingly writing in English. She hadn't made any contact with her mom in weeks and had finally decided to write. Unfortunately, that meant battling her dyslexia.

"Prissy?" She raised an eyebrow at the bulky brown-haired girl in front of her. "Oh, Percy. Yeah. And you are?"

The girl chuckled maliciously. "I'm Clarisse. You might have heard about me."

Beck had heard about Clarisse. She had been on a quest for quite a while and it seemed she had just gotten back.

"Oh yeah, Clarisse La Rue." She nodded. "You're the daughter of Ares that Percy talks about."

"What do ya say we take a walk." Clarisse leaned on the table menacingly.

"No thanks." Beck said to her. Percy had only given her one piece of advice about this girl.

Don't let her see any fear.

He'd explained that Clarisse tended to respect people a little bit more when they stood up to her. She was viewed as a bit of a bully by the other campers, but Percy had said she wasn't as bad as she seemed, if you could find the right angle to come at her.

"Let me rephrase that." Clarisse growled, leaning forward on the table until her face was a few inches from Beck's. "You're coming for a walk with me. Now."

"Why should I?" Beck asked. "I'd rather not have my head shoved in a toilet."

Clarisse glared at her. "I didn't ask what you wanted."

"Listen, Clary." Beck said, leaning back and crossing her arms. She saw the anger in the other girl's eyes and held back a smirk. "I'm a bit busy right now. How about we settle this later, in the arena?"

Annabeth had clued her in to that. "Clarisse never turns down a fight." She'd said. She's also told Beck to be extremely careful with the volatile daughter of Ares.

"4:00 sound good to you?" Beck continued, not letting the other girl retort.

"Only if you're ready to be pounded into the dirt." Clarisse snarled.

"I'll take my chances." Beck shrugged and went back to her parchment.

She heard the older girl growl again, then her footsteps stomped off.

"What was that all about?" Percy asked from behind her.

"I was simply avoiding getting my head shoved in a toilet, so not much." Beck faced her half brother.

"How'd you do that?"

"I challenged her to a sparring match."

He looked surprised.

"What?"

"Not exactly an improvement."

---------------------------------------

There weren't that many people in the arena, but as soon as Clarisse entered, everyone scattered.

Beck had stretched to make sure she wasn't going to pull anything, but she hadn't practiced. It would just make her slower.

People began to stream into the stands.

"How are you feeling?" Percy asked. Beck jumped slightly at his sudden appearance.

"Scared as Hades, but it's better than having my head shoved down a toilet."

Percy nodded. "Hey, if a fighter isn't scared, they're not human. As long as you keep your cool and take everything in stride, you're more than likely to gain a little bit of respect from Clarisse. Even if you lose."

"Right." Beck muttered. Her only goal in this was to keep Clarisse from wiping the floor with her.

"You sure you want to do this?" Percy asked her.

"It's a little late to back out now." Beck pointed out.

"You ready, Princess?" Clarisse boomed. A group of kids that Beck assumed were her siblings jeered from the stands.

"My name's Beck." She responded clearly, grabbing her bo staff from where it was leaning against the wall. "And I've been ready since you got here."

"Let's get started then." Clarisse grinned maliciously.

"Typical sparring match, Chiron's rules!" Percy barked, resting his sword between them like a flag. "No maiming or killing allowed! Minor cuts are to be expected, especially since La Rue has a spear, nothing more. 3, 2, 1, fight!"

Clarisse didn't even wait until he had Riptide fully in the air. She dodged around it and came at Beck from the left.

Their weapons clashed. Beck hadn't fought anyone with a spear before, and she was surprised as how easily the bulky girl wielded it. She stayed on the defensive, trying to find a pattern in Clarisse's attacks, or a chink. Anything that would give her a leg up.

It turned out that someone else seemed to be on her side. The cloudy sky opened and a light rain began to fall. Beck was surprised at that, since Percy had explained that the gods controlled whether or not the weather got into the camp.

The rain didn't exactly give her a huge advantage, it was too light for that, but Beck felt her energy jump a little bit. She still couldn't match Clarisse blow for blow, but she could hold her off better.

Once again, Beck's weak wrist was the tipping point. As she blocked an attack, Clarisse swept the butt of her spear up as if to hit her in the stomach. Beck stopped her with the closest object, her hand.

Her wrist jolted and Clarisse took the opportunity to knock her staff out of her other hand and place her spear blade at Beck's neck.

"You lose." Clarisse smirked.

"I was expecting that." Beck shrugged. "But hey, good spar." She held out her hand.

Clarisse stared at her for a moment, then slowly moved her spear and shook hands with her.

"You put up a good fight, kid. But it was a little sloppy."

"I have been teaching myself."

Clarisse raised an eyebrow. "That's how you get yourself killed. Find me during your next training session."

Beck looked at her. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. You're strong willed, I can tell. And a daughter of Poseidon is more likely to get attacked than some of the other kids here. You need to be trained properly."

Beck smiled. "Thank you, Clarisse."

"And never call me Clary again." Clarisse added. "I may be teaching you, but I don't like you."

"Right." Beck glanced at Percy, who chuckled and gave her a thumbs up. "See you then, Clarisse."

"Yeah, whatever Princess."