Chapter 1:
Percy walked into the Athena cabin. No sign of her. The only person in the room was Malcom, sitting at a desk studying some sort of war map. Typical Athena kid. Just like Annabeth, Percy thought with a pang of sadness.
"Hey, uh, Malcom," Percy said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. "Have you seen Annabeth anywhere?"
Malcom shrugged, staying focused on the map. "Nope."
Great. Percy sighed and turned to leave.
"Wait," Malcom called out, spinning his chair around to face Percy. "Now that I think about it, she wasn't in the cabin this morning when we headed to breakfast." Malcom's cheeks turned red. "I, uh, thought she might have been with you, so I didn't report her missing."
If Percy wasn't so worried about Annabeth, he would have laughed at how tongue-tied Malcom sounded. Percy couldn't blame him, though. Annabeth often fell asleep at Percy's cabin, although Malcom was getting the very wrong idea about what that meant. I'll have to talk to him about that later, Percy thought. "Thanks, man." Percy sighed, turning to leave. On a last minute thought he called out, "If you see her, tell her I'm looking for her."
Right as Percy was about to shut the door, Malcom said, "Percy, don't stress about it, okay?" It's Annabeth. Wherever she is, I'm sure she is fine."
Percy forced himself to smile and nod. But as he left the Athena cabin, he knew it wasn't as simple as that. Something felt wrong. And Percy could only hope it had nothing to do with what had happened last night.