Chapter Two
The Journey
{Percy}
Sometimes being a son of Poseidon really has its downfalls.
Since I am a son of the Sea God that means I can't fly in air planes, which means I am resulted to sitting in a train for a total of two and a half days on a train. Because there is no direct route from New York to Las Vegas, I have to take a train from Penn Station to Washington DC for three and a half hours, then I have to take a train from Washington DC to Chicago for a eighteen hour train ride, before riding from Chicago to Las Angeles for a forty-three and a half hours. Eventually after all of those train rides I just have to ride a bus from Las Angeles to Las Vegas for six hours and then hop a cab for the Wilderness School. So as I was saying being a son of Poseidon really does have its disadvantages.
For the first bit of the train ride until we got to Washington DC, I napped. I was too exhausted not to. However, once we stopped at DC for the night I went and finally got the chance to do a little sightseeing. I mean, hey, why not take some advantage of the situation. I went to all of the important and famous DC landmarks and made sure to take plenty of pictures (Annabeth would kill me if I didn't). Then I crashed in a hotel for the rest of the night.
The following morning I bought some snacks from a vending machine and got back on the train. For most of the ride I studied the files that I was given. As it turns out Piper McLean is really the daughter of the famous actor Tristan McLean. Annabeth loves the movie King of Sparta. She dragged me to it about fifteen times. Piper is from, of course, Hollywood, California. She has decent grades in school but gets expelled a lot. She actually reminds me of me. What really got my attention though was the reason she was sent to the Wilderness School. This fifteen year old girl was sent there for stealing a car. If Travis and Connor met her they'd be bowing before her and calling her their "Queen".
Leo Valdez is a few months younger then Piper but is from Houston, Texas. His mom was a mechanic and died when he was eight years old. He has a big family of relatives but they all refused to take him. He has been in foster care for about eight years and has run away from almost every foster home he's had. It says that he has ADHD so he's not the best student (except for shop class). The court decided to send Leo to the Wilderness School after running away from his last foster family. It seems like Camp Half-Blood will be perfect for Leo. It can be a place he can call home.
After I finished reading everything (luckily Chiron wrote everything in Ancient Greek for me), I closed the folders and stuffed them back in my suitcase. I turned on the MP3 player that Beckendorf made me before he died and listened to random songs for the rest of the trip. It felt like a year had passed before we were pulling up to the station in Chicago. I have to find something to do. Being ADHD and riding a train for hours at a time with nothing to do but stare out the window is seriously bad for my health. Well, maybe not that far, but it is boring.
The train would be here in Chicago overnight again so the first thing I did was go to the mall. I went to a lot of the stores. I walked into Zoomies first and ended up buying a sweatshirt and a pair of sneakers. Then I went to Boards R Us and checked out all of the awesome skateboards, surfboards, snowboards, skies; basically anything that you can do that involve a board. After a while I went to the food court and got some lunch. Despite all of the distractions at this mall, I managed to keep an eye out.
Surprisingly, no monsters have attacked yet. They should be though. I'm an older, powerful demigod, son of the Big Three and no monsters have attacked yet. Did I mention I was alone, because there's that too? I definitely have a bad feeling about this, I mean the monsters have been quiet since the war but they shouldn't be this quiet. I shook my head and told myself I was crazy. I was halfway through my journey; hopefully, I can make it the rest of the way without problems. At least I hope so.
{Annabeth}
I open my eyes to find light streaming through the windows. I want to roll over and go back to sleep but I know I can't. I throw my sheets off of me and sleepily stumble into the bathroom. I quickly shower and get ready before waking up the rest of my cabin.
As we went to have breakfast I immediately knew something was wrong. Percy is not at his table. He's always at breakfast. If he's not here; therefor, something is very wrong. I turn around and make my way to Cabin Three. When I arrive I pound on the door and yell, "Percy! Are you in there?"
The only sound I hear is the sound of my breathing. I sigh and push the door open. I am shocked by the state of the cabin. As usual, candy wrappers littered the floor, Percy's bunk was unmade, and his bathroom door and windows were open, but everything personal to him is gone. All of the clothes that usually hug the floor have disappeared, the pictures that clutter the dressers and tables are gone, and his drawers are as empty as the diary I was given in the Eighth Grade. The only personal item that was still there is Percy's Minotaur horn.
I shake my head rapidly and run out of the cabin.
"Grover!" I yell to my friend. He turns and frowns when he sees me.
"What's wrong, Annabeth?" He asks immediately.
"Have you seen Percy at all today?" I ask frantically.
He raises a skeptical eyebrow. "No? Why?"
I mentally groan, as I say the next words, "Percy's gone."
"What do you mean he's 'gone'? Grover questions.
"Every personal item that belongs to him in Cabin Three is gone, along with all of his clothes," I tell him. "He wasn't at breakfast so I went to look for him when I saw his cabin. He's just gone and he didn't say anything to either of us." I don't want to believe it but I know it's true. Percy's gone. He left without a warning to anybody. He abandoned me of all people even when he promised that he wouldn't.
"Lets go to Chiron," Grover advices. "Maybe Percy just left super early and didn't want to wake you up to say goodbye or something?"
I shake my head. "Grover-" He doesn't listen to me but instead drags me to the Big House. I just let myself get dragged behind him.
When we arrive I am not surprised to find Chiron playing Pinochle with Mr. D. And from the looks of it, Chiron is winning. Again.
"Blasted . . ." Dionysus curses as Chiron wins another point.
"Chiron," Grover says as we stand next to him.
"Yes, young satyr?" Chiron asks, focusing on the game board.
"Have you seen Percy? He's missing. We can't find him anywhere," Grover tells him.
You could see Chiron literally tense up. And from the way he paled, I could only guess that he knew something. He definitely knew something.
"What's going on, Chiron?" I ask him, crossing my arms. "I know you know something."
"Yes, I know where Percy is." I open my mouth to begin asking questions but he interrupts me. "But no I cannot tell you. Percy is currently doing a top secret quest I guess you can say, for me. He had to leave last night and it was completely last minute. If you attempt to contact him it could endanger him and others. I am sorry but you will just have to wait until he contacts you himself."
"Why would you ask him to go? What is he doing? Is he okay? Have you heard from him at all? Why would you let him go alone?" I fire out question after question.
"Child," Chiron interrupts. "I am sorry but I cannot tell you more than what I already have. I will inform you on any news when I am presented with it. Now please go begin your lessons."
I resist the urge to roll my eyes and stomp down the steps with Grover right behind me. As we walk away I hear Dionysus say, "Personally, I am relieved to finally have that little brat gone; one less demigod for me to look after." I want to go up to Dionysus and slap him but I digress.
"I don t know about you," I say to Grover, "but I want to know where my boyfriend is and if he's okay. You do whatever, I'm going to find him. And I'm not going to let Chiron stop me."
With those last words to Grover, I turn and stalk towards my cabin. I have a lot of work to do.
A/N: Sorry, I haven't posted. I wanted to upload earlier but I've been so busy. I finished my last day of volunteering at our local retirement village and I'm definitely gonna miss some of the people there. School is beginning on the fifth and I'm so not happy about it. I'm going to be a junior though so at least I have only two years left until I graduate. I can't wait to take Psychology. It's always seemed really interesting to me and I really want to learn more. Let me know what you think of the chapter.