FicWad

Dani looked very uncomfortable in front of the group, with everyone watching her. Odie had an urge to go and give her a hug. He chose to hold back instead of make a fool of himself.

"Er..." Dani said, searching for the English in her brain again. "H-hi... I'm, uh, Dani, and... ya." The side of her mouth twitched, as though she was thinking about running the other way.

Jay walked up slowly and held out his hand kindly. He had a way of making people feel more at home.

"Hey there, I'm Jay. I hope your not this talkative all the time." Dani's mouth twitched and her face softened. "Welcome to the group."

She instantly turned hard as stone.

Jay backed up as she seemed to grow by three inches. "Woah..." he whispered.

"Just because I've been inducted by a Godess doesn't mean I'm permanently part of your 'group' or 'gang' or whatever you want to call it. If this had been my choice, I wouldn't ever hang around with a bunch of, of, socially elite wannabe's like you." She seemed mad. Like not normal mad, like blowing a gasket mad.

"Okay, I'm sorry, that's not what I ment, I only ment, uh... uh... I only ment to welcome you into our uh..." he was scared of her. Odie was shocked, he had a feeling Archie was making this situation better and better just by being there after what happened at lunch.

Dani softened her look and smiled a little. "Sorry, I didn't mean anything. It's just, where I come from, people are always trying to change everyone to fit the mold, and I always fought that. I thought it might be the same here."

Odie looked sideways at Archie. He grinned slightly. Odie felt a pang of jelousy.

Mr Ares showed up just in time, to stop anymore arguements.

****************

The class was one of sparring. They hand to fight each other with wooden staffs. Elimination fighting.

Since there were eight now everyone had a partner. Theresa and Atlanta. Dani and Jay. Herry and Archie. And Odie and Neil.

Second round was Theresa and Dani, Archie and Neil

Finally it came down to Dani and Archie.

"You know the drill." Ares growled and stepped back on the the stairs leading down into the main gym.

Dani and Archie were both stone faced as they bowed and took their staffs in both hands.

Ares blew his whistle and their staffs clashed to form an 'x' shape. They stood pushing each other back. until they were practically chest to chest. Suddenly Dani jumped back and brought her staff down hard on Archie's. Hers broke on contact.

"Staff!" she yelled.

Theresa threw one to her, but she was a second too late. As Dani caught hers, Archies came down and broke over her back.

Dani's whole body lurched downward, and fell to the floor. She didn't move.

Ares ran forward and blew his whistle loud. "Archie get over there!" he pointed to the far wall, and followed him there. Ares was really mad, he reemed Archie out good.

Odie looked at Dani on the floor. He could have sworn he saw her vertibrae realigning. She slowly got up on all fours and shook her head slowly. She got up, on one knee, then to her feet cracking her neck on the way.

The other six ran towards her, all looking concerned.

Ares came down and broke up the ring of people surrounding Dani. He took her by the upper arm and looked her over.

He grunted. "Odie, take Dani to Chiron, just to make sure she's alright."

"But sir, I'm fi..."

"No matter, I want to be sure. I think all this is hogwash." He turned shaking his head. "ARCHIE! HIT THE SHOWERS AND GET OUTTA HERE, I WANT YOU TO STAY AT THE DORMATORY AND USE THAT PEA-SIZED BRAIN O' YOURS TO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST DID WRONG."

Odie was unsure of what to do. Put his hand around her waist? Pull her hand over his shoulder? What?

She finished this by putting her arm over his shoulders. He could feel she was shaking, though he couldn't feel much else, his skin was numb.

He took her hand and tried to support her a little, she seemed like she was going to fall over at any moment.

They walked in silence. Then Dani finally spoke up.

"Thanks," she whispered.

"Hm?" Odie said, feeling very stupid afterwards.

"I said thanks... for helping me, I mean."

"Oh, no problem."

"So, uh, what did you want to talk about earlier?" Dani looked up up at him and his mind went blank.

"Oh, I can't remember."

"Okay, then. I have time now, so if you remember..."

"Do you want to go out sometime?" Odie blurted out. He froze in his tracks. You stupid idiot! I have never said a worse thing to anyone. Crap!

Dani looked a little stunned too. "Wow... uh, that was... unexpected..."

"Forget it, pretend I said nothing, in fact jsut ignor me like everyone else seems to..."

Dani looked confused now.

"I was gonna say 'why not?' but if you want me to pretend you didn't say anything..."

"NO!" Odie knew he was screwing this up worse, and worse, and pretty soon he was gonna hit rock bottom.

"Ahhhhh! Stop it!" Dani said causing Odie to cringe a bit. "You're confusing me!" She turned to face him and took hold of his shoulders. "I said 'yes'. What are you going to say?"

What would Archie say? "Tomorrow, at seven? Uh movie?"

"Sounds great." Dani stepped back. "Wanna skip this whole Chiron thing and just get back to the dorm?"

"But Ares said..." Dani did a back flip.

"I'm fine see? I don't think Ares would mind much, uh," she suddenly flushed, "God I'm dumb..." She whispered.

"What is it?" Odie asked.

"I just agreed to go out with you," she said, and Odie's heart sank. "And I can't even remember your name."

Odie felt relieved. "Odie."

"Odie, got it. I like your name Odie."

Odie smiled and ran to keep up with the free spirit that was his date for Friday night.