Hi everyone! Here's the second chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. Reviews are appreciated. I'm interested to hear what you have to say.


Chapter 2

Annabeth

It was a typical day at Camp Half-Blood. Or, at least Chiron tried to make it seem like one. He trotted around with a forced smile on his face and reassured the unclaimed kids in Cabin 11, like he always did.

Everyone seemed to be convinced with Chiron's act except Annabeth. Despite being one of the younger kids at camp, she had a lot of seniority and intelligence. It was totally suspicious that he disappeared for the whole year and came back all tense and nervous.

After dinner, she made her way to the Athena cabin to grab her knife to practice knife-handling, which she always kept under her pillow. When she pulled the pillow away from her bed, it wasn't there.

"What?" she muttered to herself. She got down on her hands and knees and glanced underneath the bed frame. Nothing.

She stood up and analyzed the cabin. Where would she leave her knife? She patted down the covers for any lumps underneath. The knife wasn't there.

"You okay, Annabeth?" A voice asked from the entrance.

Annabeth turned to see her brother, Louis, walking in. He could have been easily mistaken for a tree, he was so tall.

She flinched at the thought of her brother being like a tree. It reminded her to much of Thalia.

"Um…no. My knife isn't where I left it. I can't find it. Do you have any idea where it is?"

Louis glanced around the cabin. "Are you sure?"

She nodded.

"Did you use it today?"

"No."

Louis studied her. His stormy gray eyes seemed to glow with wisdom.

"If I were you, I'd check Cabin 11. They might be up to their tricks again."

"Okay. Thanks."

Annabeth squeezed her way out of the crammed sleeping area at the back edge of the cabin and made her way to the entrance. When she reached the doorway, an idea popped in her head.

"Hey, Louis," she said with one of her innocent-little-girl smiles. "Do you know anything about the summer solstice?"

Louis stiffened. "What?"

"The summer solstice. Both Chiron and the satyrs have been acting weird. I keep hearing them mention it. Something's wrong in Olympus. Do you know what?"

Louis bit his lip in thought. "No," he said. "But don't go snooping around, looking for answers. You'll only get in trouble."

She waved the advice away. "Yeah, okay. See you later."

Annabeth walked through the commons towards Cabin 11. The commons was one of her favorite places at camp, decorated with marble statues of Greek gods and heroes, fountains and basketball hoops (which were always occupied by the Apollo kids- show-offs). In the center was a fire pit, which a mysterious girl a little younger than her always tended. They exchanged smiles as she passed by.

She stealthily climbed up the wooden stoop of Cabin 11- the most normal looking one of the twelve at camp, with its splintery wood and beaten up structure. She leaned against the doorway and met the eyes of everyone in the cabin. She someone mutter "Uh-oh."

She turned in the direction of the voice and stared. Travis Stoll and his brother, Connor, were sitting together on one of the many sleeping bags scattered across the floor. Both of them were looking away casually, refusing to meet her eyes.

Annabeth's arms crossed as she cleared her throat. "Connor, Travis, give me back my knife." She pronounced every word clearly, giving her tone a deadly edge.

The two brothers looked nervously at each other. Then Travis shimmied something out of the sleeping bag and stood up. He stepped carefully around his on-watching cabin-mates towards her and offered her back her knife.

She stared at it for a moment, then snatched it away. "Thank you." Turning on her heel, she walked away.

As she made her way through the cabins area, Annabeth found herself feeling a mixture of emotions- anger, pride and sorrow. How could the Stoll brothers think they could get away with stealing her knife? It was her prized possession, a momentum of the day she met her two best friends, Thalia and Luke, in that dark ally in California over five years ago. One of them was concealed in a pine tree, probably dead. The other was their brother. They probably didn't know that, but if they did, they wouldn't even think about doing it. But still, you don't go around snatching other people's weapons from their beds.

She was also pleased with herself. She managed to scare the Stoll brothers into giving her back the knife! Annabeth Chase, only twelve years old, scared two sons of Hermes, who were both a little older than her. That was a memory she would certainly treasure for a life-time.

But, just like every other visit to the Hermes cabin, made her feel guilty. She was one of the luckier kids at Camp Half-Blood. When she had arrived at camp with Luke, both of them had stayed her first week in the Big House. After seeing their best friend, who was like a sister to them, sacrifice herself to an army of monsters so they could get to safety, it kind of took both of them awhile to recover from it. When they couldn't stay there anymore, they both were sent to stay in Cabin 11- Luke as a regular, Annabeth as an unclaimed.

Annabeth only stayed there for five days before being claimed by Athena. She was only seven.

Most of the other kids there were in their teens and had been living there for years. They were never claimed. Usually, if you weren't claimed in your first few weeks at camp, you stayed unclaimed.

Annabeth's mind whirled with thoughts and sad memories so much that she got distracted and nearly walked in to Luke.

"Whoa, there kiddo," he said with a smile. He held his hand out to prevent collision.

"What? Oh, sorry," Annabeth replied in a daze.

"It's okay. Here, let's sit. We haven't talked in awhile."

They sat down on a marble bench by the fire pit. There was no sign of the mysterious girl.

Luke studied her for a minute. "You seem distracted," he said simply.

"When am I not?"

Luke chuckled to himself. His reaction was all wrong. Before his quest took a wrong turn, he would have let out a huge guffaw to a response like that. Now, he seemed so heavy-hearted.

It wasn't just his reactions that were different. A huge, jagged white scar slashed down the right side of his face. And his eyes, they weren't playful and friendly like they used to be. They were cold, dark and serious, and for some reason, they disturbed Annabeth more than they should've.

Annabeth must have been staring at him because Luke stared right back.

"What's up?"

"Nothing."

"Something is."

Annabeth hesitated. "Your brothers stole my knife."

"Which ones?"

"Travis and Connor."

Luke studied her. "That's not what's bothering you. What is it?"

"Luke, what's going to happen on the solstice? It's obvious that something's not right in Olympus. Chiron and the satyrs know and they aren't telling me anything. I want to help."

A flicker of panic flashed through Luke's eyes. He knew something.

"I know nothing," he said.

"That's a lie and you know it."

"Anyway," Luke said, ignoring Annabeth's last statement, "how have you been doing? Are you making it through today okay?"

She gave him a confused stare. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Luke's face fell. "Annabeth, it's been five years."

She continued to stare stupidly at him. "What?"

"I said, it's been five years since, well, you know."

His eyes settled on something in the distance. Annabeth followed his gaze.

He was staring at Half-Blood hill. More specifically, at Thalia's pine tree.

"What?"

Annabeth was grateful that Piper had pulled her out of that nightmare. When she woke up, she felt like she was going to cry.

Then she realized that the dream was totally false. Luke had been the one who had forgotten about their five year anniversary at camp, not her. And it wasn't exactly a day to celebrate. It marked five years since they lost Thalia, who was revived from her tree-form about a year later.

She also remembered distinctly that the very same evening, she and Chiron found an exhausted and distraught boy her age on the front porch of the Big House.

That boy turned out to be the hero of Olympus. He also turned out to be one of her closest and most trusted friend and then, her boyfriend.

As she trudged through the forest towards Rachel's cave, it came to her that it has been over six months since she'd seen Percy. For the past six months, she had been living in a thick fog of desperation. It was so strange living without knowing he was by her side. All thanks to Hera.

She stopped in front of the cave's entrance.

What now? She thought. Do I go in and wake her or shout her name?

Her response to her own thought was, Annabeth, you think too much.

She got that a lot from just about everyone.

She walked in. Being one of the few people who have been inside, she wasn't scared to go in. The outside may as well have a huge neon sign saying: Beware: The Oracle's Lair, with its black velvet curtain embroidered with snakes and torches, but the inside was a completely different story. It was a cool den where Rachel hung out in the evenings when she wasn't at the camp fire. The walls had a half-finished painting of the camp and old newspapers were spread across the stone floor to keep the paint from staining it. There was a black boom box at the back end of the cave, right next to the bed.

Annabeth made her way across the floor hopping around the paint cans towards Rachel's bed. She smiled as she passed the painting of the commons area. She easily found the two people that were meant to be her and Percy, walking towards the woods after dinner to play capture the flag, talking, laughing.

It may not be like that for a while, she reminded herself. We're sailing to Greece after going to the Roman Camp. Don't forget it.

She hovered over a lump in the bed, which obviously a sleeping Rachel. She shook it. "Rachel, wake up."

Rachel grunted in her sleep and turned over. Annabeth shook her more vigorously. "Hey, Rachel! It's time to get up."

Her friend moaned something about sleeping in and waved her away. She pulled the covers over her head.

Annabeth got an idea.

"Rachel, you're going to be late for class if you don't get up now!"

"What!"

Rachel was out of bed in a second. Annabeth bit her lip to hold in a laugh.

"Annabeth, what're you-? Wait." Rachel's eyes fell on the boom box's clock. "It's five thirty in the morning! Why are you-?"

"The Argo II's finished," she answered simply.

Rachel stared at her. "What?"

"The engine's fixed."

There was a long moment of silence. Then Rachel broke it. "How? I saw it last night and it looked like someone burned it on a barbecue. Leo said he needed at least another full day of working on it."

"It got fixed overnight."

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "By Leo?"

Annabeth gulped. She was on to her.

"No," she answered as vaguely and as casually as possible.

Her friend's eyes widened. "Annabeth, you didn't… did you…?" She didn't finish her sentence.

Annabeth looked away. Stupid! she scolded herself. You just as well as let the secret out!

"Did you fix it?" Rachel finally found her words.

She met her eyes. There was no use lying now. "Yeah," she said. "I did."

"By yourself? Overnight?"

"Yeah. I did." She forced a proud smile. Smart move, she told herself.

Rachel shook her head with disbelief. "You're incredible. I swear you can do anything."

She laughed. "Stop it! You're flattering me."

Rachel studied her. Her eyes flickered with happiness. "We're probably going to see Percy again today. You must be happy about that."

Annabeth nodded. "I can't wait."

"Are you nervous?"

She thought about that. "A little," she admitted. "But not about Percy. About the Romans. I mean, they just had a huge battle against one of the giants last night. They'll probably be vigilant for any other sign of attacks. And, we're flying there on a warship. That doesn't exactly put them in a relaxed mood. And, you know, Percy's one of us. They might get the wrong idea and…" She didn't finish the thought.

Rachel shrugged as if it were no big deal. "Then we'll give them a heads up. No biggie."

How come I can't think as simply as Rachel, she thought. I really should work on that.

A horn blared in the of the distance. That was the call for breakfast. Jason and Piper must have managed to wake Chiron up.

"Look, let me get changed. I'll meet you down at the dining pavilion."

"Sure. I'll see you there."

When Annabeth was out of the cave's sight, she shuddered with relief. Thank goodness nobody asked about how she was able to fix the engine. Then she would have been in a tight spot.

Nobody at camp knew of Annabeth's power. The last time she had used it, she had freaked her dad and stepmom out so much that they locked her in her room. The same night, she snuck out and ran away.

The night before, when Leo announced that the Argo II would not be able to set sail for at least another day, she was devastated. After everyone went to bed, she snuck out of her cabin and went to the construction site of the ship and summoned all of her energy into her head. Then she put her full attention on the ship.

With pure thought, she had fixed the engine.

No one can know, she told herself. Don't let anyone find out.