Charlesfield came after Christmas.

"I am NOT wearing that thing!"

"But why not?" Rachel whined. "I spent thirty bucks on it!"

"It's...it's...pink!"

"I thought you might want to look nice for the boys."

"What girl here wants to look nice for the Charlesfield boys?" Annabeth shot back.

"Well..."

"Good grief, you don't have a crush on one of them." Annabeth groaned.

"Who says good greif anymore?" Rachel asked.

"I do!"

"SHUT UP!" Thalia yelled. "We don't have time for this. You heard Z and Headmistress Cara. They're going to try and keep us apart. We need to tell Nico what we heard."

"Nothing else, Thalia?" Annabeth looked at her pointedly.

"Shut up, Annabeth. We need help from his friends, too."

"I never thought you'd get so into this." Rachel smiled.

Thalia hated to admit it, but she knew Rachel was right about needing help. They couldn't do it alone, and no one else in the school would believe them. And Nico...was someone they could trust.

"You were right, okay?" she grunted. "Now, can we please go? I just want to get this over with."

"But why?" one of the girls in the audience questioned. "We may hate them, but they aren't contagious or anything."

"It's strictly forbidden," Headmistress Cara said curtly. "It's so nothing can go wrong."

Severl disgusted mutters came from the girls.

Annabeth studied the Headmistress. Being a Brain, she could tell how one was feeling. But she didn't expect anything from the Headmistress. After all, this school had to be raised from the best.

"Everyone, please welcome the boys of Charlesfield!"

Half-hearted claps echoed around the room. Thalia was scowling as her eyes scanned over the crowd of boys that entered.

"I found Nico," Rachel said. She broke apart from the girls, slinking quietly through the crowd of girls.

Annabeth scanned the crowd of boys. Headmaster Z stood there, looking pointedly at the group of girls. Suddenly, his gaze shifted to Annabeth. His expression seemed to say, I know what you're up too.

Annabeth shuddered. Though she couldn't see her friend, she could tell that Rachel was almost there.

Come on, Rachel, come on...

Rachel quickly sped through the crowd. She didn't fool her fellow Sneaks, but they didn't try to stop her or anything.

Crud! I don't have a specific message for him! Rachel realized. She almost cried out in frustration, but she didn't dare. She just kept up her pace.

Reaching into her backpack/satchel, she ripped out a piece of paper, and grabbed a pen. Quickly, she scribbled, Meet Thalia, Annabeth and I at the library at 10:00. It's about Bianca. -Rachel

Rachel knew she was rushing things. The last time she saw Nico, there had been a bad fight between him and Thalia. Nico would be heasitent about coming.

Spotting him, she slipped the note into his backpack and scurried away...

...to someone grabbing the collar of her uniform shirt.

"Ow! What the heck?" she cried.

"Who are you?" an angry voice asked. Rachel twisted around and came face-to-face with a boy with dark, angry brown eyes. Or rather, eye.

"Why do you care?" Rachel shot back. She lashed out with her foot, kicking the boy in the shins. Grunting in pain, he let go.

Rachel went back to her friends, rubbing her neck. How had he been able to see her?

Thalia scowled in anger. "That's not right. He shouldn't have been so observan!"

"Thalia, it's not like we know what the Charlesfield boys do," Annabeth sighed. "We just have to trust that he won't rat us out."

Not likely.