Annabeth's Quest
Chapter 1—My School Gets Basilisk'd
Look, I didn't plan for this to happen…but because of me, my new school is burned to a crisp. Yep, the Hugh Downey School for Gifted Students is now burnt as one of my dad's pieces of toast.
How did this happen? Well…that's quite a story.
You see, my dad and step-mom decided to send me to this school for gifted students. Now, in this situation, 'gifted' means crazy and/or stupid. I'm not crazy and I'm definitely not stupid. I'm just…different.
Actually, I'm a half-blood.
My name is Annabeth Chase. I'm 15 years old and the daughter of Frederick Chase and Athena, the goddess wisdom, crafts and warfare.
Well, on the one of the last days of school, I was sitting in biology. Even though I was good at biology (well, I'm good at every subject. Daughter of Athena, remember?), I was falling asleep. But the girl next to me, started to poke me.
"Hello? Is anyone there? Are you sleeping?" I immediately woke up. It was Candace Krate, who spoke with a lisp. Sometimes it annoyed me to a point that I was ready to kill her, and trust me, I knew how.
"What is it, Candace?" I ask grumpily.
"So, I was wondering," she spat, "if I could borrow you calculator?". I groaned and gave it up.
"Why do you need a calculator for biology, anyway?" I said, getting suspicious. Candace grinned. She stuck her tongue out at me and pulled it back, really quickly, like a snake. "OK, whatever…" Candace gave a short laugh.
"Oh, you silly little girl…" Candace chuckled. I raised an eyebrow.
"Candace, what are you…?"
"Candace, Annabeth! Pay attention!" Our biology teacher, Mr. Swann, tapped our desk with his ruler. "Now, as you can see, the anatomy of this snake proves that this certain type of snake was…" he droned on into something about his digestive system. Like most half bloods, I have ADHD. That just means we have very good battle reflexes. It's not because we see to little, it's because we see a lot. Most half bloods are also dyslexic too, because our brains are hardwired for Ancient Greek.
"That's wrong." I suddenly heard Candace say next to me. Mr. Swann raised an eyebrow.
"Excuse me?"
"I said, that's wrong." Candace said getting up. "You arrogant mortal, you think you know about everything there is to us snakes, but you are a fool."
"Candace, what are you—?" Candace grinned.
"Behold, daughter of Athena, my true form!"
That's when I knew something was wrong. Most mortals didn't know that I was a half blood.
Candace's body started to elongate. Her teeth became pointier, and her face began to flatten out. And on top of it all, her legs had disappeared. She had turned into a giant snake.
"A basilisk!" I gasped. George Hoboken looked confused.
"Like in Harry Potter?"
See what I mean by 'gifted'?
As Candace started to torch the science lab with her fire-breath, I rummaged through my backpack. Suddenly, I wish I had something more then my magical Yankee's cap my mom had given me for my birthday. I soon found a celestial bronze dagger, but I knew it wouldn't be enough to kill the basilisk.
"Hey! Lizard-breath!" I yelled. Candace turned and I charged. I stabbed my dagger through her skin and she roared in pain. She used her tail to slam me against the wall and I landed with a painful THUD!
"Now, you shall soon die hero!" Candace hissed. She drew back ready to strike, when suddenly, from out of her neck, grew a sword blade. Candace roared in fury and started to crumple on the floor.
"And that was for trying to eat my friend." A familiar voice said. I looked up to see a boy with black hair and eyes the color of the sea. He was holding a celestial bronze sword that was covered in snake blood.
"Percy!" I called, happy to see my friend. Percy grinned and bounded toward me. He helped me up and pulled me into a warm hug. He looked exactly the same as when I last saw him. But his eyes were a little less green. It was probably because we weren't near the sea. Percy was a son of Poseidon, the sea god, so whenever he was near water, he could usually control the water and tell you your sea bearings. It's really cool.
"Annabeth! I've been so worried, you haven't been answering my phone calls or my Iris-messages, what's going on?"
"Phone calls? Irish-messages? I haven't gotten any sort of communication since camp!" I said. "I thought…I thought you forgot about me or something! Oh course, if that happened, I would have taken the first flight to Manhattan and slapped some sense into you."
"Annabeth, I could never forget about you. I talked to Chiron, and he said there was something wrong with all the Mist and communication."
"How can something be wrong with the Mist?" I asked. It seemed impossible that someone could manipulate the Mist this much. You see the Mist is what keeps the mortals from seeing all the mythological fighting stuff around them.
"I have no idea, but what I really want to know is…what happened here?" Percy said, gesturing around the wreckage of the school. Mr. Swann and the rest of the class had retreated, along with everyone else in the school. I could hear police sirens coming just around the corner.
"Uh…I'll tell you on the way, the police are coming." I said, grabbing Percy's hand. "Come on!"
We ran from the wreckage and down the street. We ran down to the older part of San Francisco when we stopped. I pulled out a golden drachma from my purse.
"Annabeth, what are you doing?" Percy asked me.
"Just getting some cab fare." Percy blanched out.
"We're not using the Grey Sisters cab again?" he asked weakly. I quickly shook my head.
"Oh no…we're actually using the subway." I said. "The Hermes Underground, serves all from Olympus to the Underworld. Come on!" I pulled Percy over on the walking path. "We need to find an intersection." I said.
"Why an intersection?" Percy asked. I rolled my eyes.
"Because, Seaweed Brain, Hermes is the god of travelers. An intersection is where travelers meet. So an intersection is where you call the subway." I pulled the golden drachma from my pocket and cleared my throat.
"Hermes, god of travelers, I call upon your chariot to help us travel to Camp Half-blood." I said. All of a sudden, a golden subway train raged toward us. I pulled Percy back so we wouldn't get it. As the subway slowed, the doors opened and an attendant smiled at us from the inside of the train.
"Hello! Welcome to the Hermes Underground. My name is Lexus, where is your destination?" he asked.
"Uh…we need to get to Camp Half-Blood on Long Island." I said. This nymph was kind of freaking me out, but we needed to get to camp, and they could help us.
"Camp Half-Blood will be our 6th stop, please wait in one of the seats until we reach out destination." The attendant said. Percy and I took a seat in the very back of the train. The other passengers in the train included a centaur, a satyr and another tree nymph. "The next stop is the garden of the Hesperides and after is the Fields of Punishment. If either of those destinations are your stop, please be ready to exit the train." Lexus said over the loudspeaker. Percy turned to me.
"So, what did happen at your school?" he asked me. I took a deep breath and told him about the Basilisk.
"A basilisk, like in Harry Potter?" Percy said, interrupting me. I scowled at him.
"Great, another genius. You know, J.K. Rowling didn't invent the basilisk. They've been slithering around the earth eons before Britain even came into existence!"
"Fine, whatever…so what happened next?" Percy said, waving the notion aside.
"So, she had just started to torch the school with her fire-breath when I stabbed her with my bronze dagger when you came along and, well, you know the rest." I said. I paused. "How is Grover and everyone." Percy bit his lip.
"Grover is still taking Pan's death pretty hard. He hasn't eaten any enchiladas for a month!" he said. "But Tyson is helping him get over it. They've become really good friends now."
"And Chiron?" Percy paused. "And Chiron?" I pressed.
"Annabeth," Percy said, quietly. "Chiron is missing."