Characters may be OOC in this chapter, especially near the end. Sorry.
ICECREAMROCKS don't dis me- Thanks. I'm glad you like it.
Scarlett Silphia- I'm glad you liked it. ^^ As for Bianca, I have to think about it a bit, but at least she'll be alive for a while.
hermes child awesomness- Thanks.
AjSummer- I'm glad you kept reading! You're actually pretty close about the sponsors, but no, it's not the gods. Thanks for your review!
I was surprised by who came to visit me.
The two new students came right before dinner.
"You only have ten minutes, especially since the cafeteria was destroyed," Panacea said.
"Okay, thank you," the girl said.
Panacea smiled and closed the door.
"So," the girl said. "What got you in here?"
"I can't say," I said. "Who are you anyway?"
"I'm Bianca di Angelo," she said. "And this is my little brother Nico."
Nico waved cheerfully.
"I'm Percy Jackson," I said. I moved, but winced.
"We know," Bianca said. "But what's up with this school?"
"What do you mean?"
Bianca crossed her arms. "You know what I mean."
"You mean they're going to give us a strange mutation?" Nico said. "Like in the video games when you have superpowers? Oh, are they going to make us into an army for the government? Ooh—"
"Nico, shut up!" Bianca said. "The way I see it, they're not working with the government whatsoever! And this is not one of your stupid video or card games!"
Nico withered under her outburst.
"Sorry," Bianca sighed. "I don't even know why we're here, and then I see that dog—"
"You saw it?" I asked, ignoring the pain as I sat up. "How?"
"I had to go use the restroom, and decided to figure out the rules for myself," Nico piped up. "We went by the cafeteria and it was blocked with that yellow caution tape you know? So I climbed over it, and I saw that dog. It was kind of like Clifford, except it was a big black dog, not a big red dog."
"And you almost got us in trouble!" Bianca hissed.
"Hey, we're criminals. What are they going to do if we break some rules? Make us extra bad criminals?" Nico shrugged.
I laughed. "Okay, fine. Don't tell anyone about what you saw there. I'm not sure what they're doing at this school, but be careful, okay? Try not to get in trouble, besides your way of thinking."
"Hey, you two. It's dinner time. Your dinner's going to be served in your rooms, okay?" Panacea said. "As for you, Perseus, you'll be having salad."
I groaned.
I munched on some chips that Annabeth had snuck in for me.
"I didn't find much information," she had said. "I only found out that he used to work for Olympus. But he later worked for a smaller corporation called the Labyrinth under Minos. Then he just disappeared."
"And now he's here," I concluded.
"But I'm not sure what he did there," Annabeth said. "I'm going to do some more research tomorrow. I'll visit you again."
She left before I could say anything else.
Panacea came in and I stuffed my chips under my pillow. "Yes?"
"Here," she said, and gave me a glass filled with something that looked like apple juice. I raised an eyebrow. "Try it. We're not sure if it'll work, but try."
I took a sip and immediately spit it out. "Gross, what is this?!"
"I guess that's a fail then," Panacea said.
"Were you trying to experiment on me?"
"Well, the drink was an experiment," Panacea admitted. "But it wasn't harmful. I'll let Quintus know."
"Who's Quintus?" I asked.
"No one important," she dismissed. She changed my bandages. "This is going to take a while to heal. You'd better not go to classes tomorrow."
"Alright then," I sighed. "Bye, Panacea."
"Good night, Percy," she smiled. She turned the lights off and closed the door.
The next day went by until lunch with me trying to persuade Panacea to let me out. Of course, it went unsuccessfully.
"No! You're still hurt!" she said and pushed me back down.
"It doesn't hurt that much! It can't be that bad."
"Oh, yes it can," she said. "I'll let you out after classes end!"
I groaned and slumped in the bed.
"Percy! Are you okay?" Rachel asked when she came in.
"Huh? Oh, yeah," I said.
"Annabeth told me," she said. "She seemed really worried about you."
I scoffed. "Didn't seem like it."
She smiled. "She's a puzzle to figure out, isn't she? I want to see her when we're out of this school. I feel like there's more to her."
I nodded. "Me too. How did you get into helping her?"
"Everyone knows that I have this strange… predicament that sometimes let me predict the future, let's just say," she said. "Of course, I can't predict what's going to happen exactly, but I can predict little bits. It's hard to explain. I told Annabeth one of my predictions, and she wanted me to help her."
"What did you tell her?" I questioned.
"I told her that a student will come that will trigger a series of events," she said. "It was strange that time because we didn't have a new student in years."
"But isn't this a high school? How would you know?" I said.
"Yeah, but Annabeth has been here since she was in middle school, I'm not sure what grade," she said. "They made a special exception for her."
"Oh," I said. "Do you know anything else about the school?"
Rachel opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Panacea. "Rachel? Lunch is over. You'd better go to class."
"Yes, Ms. Panacea," she said politely.
She waited until Panacea left. "I'll give you a hint. Check the library."
She smiled and left.
"Panacea?" I called. "Can I leave now?"
"No," she said. "But I'll let one of your friends come visit during their homeroom time. Fair enough?"
"Yes."
"Good. Now be quiet," she said jokingly.
"Can I have something to entertain myself please?" I asked.
"A book?" she offered.
"Never mind."
She laughed while I slumped in bed.
"Percy, you're alive!" Grover yelled.
"Hey, man," I grinned. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
"I was so worried!" he wailed. "I didn't want to be at fault for someone's death again."
"But you wouldn't be responsible for my death," I said.
"I know," he said, wiping tears. "But you remind me so much… of her."
"Oh," I said dumbly.
"Her name was Thalia," he said.
"What?"
"That girl who died. Her name was Thalia," Grover sniffed. "Thalia Grace, but she didn't use a last name unless she had to."
"I'm guessing she didn't have the best relationship with her family?" I guessed.
He nodded. "She ran away. She met Luke, and they met Annabeth a bit later. They lived out on the streets for a few years, and I joined them. I just lost my last family, Uncle Ferdinand, so I thought, what the heck?"
"Go on," I urged.
"And three years ago," he continued, "we ran into some cannibals and some really deadly dogs. They started chasing us, but we were tired. We were tired of being on the run. Thalia told us to run while she dealt with them. I shouldn't have listened to her, Percy! I shouldn't have."
Grover was crying now. I patted his back.
"And then Othrys caught up to us and sent us here," Grover said. "I didn't see what happened to Thalia, but I saw Othrys take her away on a stretcher. I felt so bad! I didn't talk to Annabeth or Luke after that."
"Grover, it's fine," I said. "It's not your fault."
He wiped his tears. "If you say so, Perce."
Panacea came in. "Sorry for interrupting. Percy, let me check to see if you're all right now."
She started poking my stomach and back.
"Okay, you should be all right now," she said. "You two can go to homeroom. Bye!"
She ushered us out and we walked to homeroom. Grover handed me my backpack.
"We can write letters home today," Grover said.
"Really?" I said. Then I remembered that Grover didn't have one. "Oh, sorry."
"It's nothing," he mumbled. "I've gotten used to it."
"You should talk to Annabeth you know," I said. "She's not going to get mad."
"I know, Percy," he sighed miserably. "I just can't get myself to do it. But I want to. I really miss her."
"Everyone, dismissed!" Chiron said. "Unless you want to finish writing your letters."
I stayed, along with a few others.
I looked down at my letter.
Dear Mom,
This school is really weird. I mean, some students don't even come back from detention! I saw it happening. This weird guy named Daedalus gave this girl a shot and she started going crazy. It was weird. And then this weird black dog started chasing us. I got hurt a bit, but I'm all right now. No worries.
You remember Annabeth, right? I told you about her in my other letter. She beat me up, but she's trying to figure out what's going on in this school. She's a puzzle to figure out, as Rachel says. But I think we're getting along somewhat. I still don't know everything that she found out, but Rachel gave me a little hint. I wish you could meet Annabeth. I think you'd like her.
Otherwise, I'm fine. Or as fine as you can be when you're in a school for criminals. How are you doing? Is Gabe treating you okay? I really miss you, and your blue chocolate chip cookies. I hope I can see you and go home soon. Without Smelly Gabe, of course.
Did my dad reply to you yet? He sounds nice, from what you've told me, but I kind of resent him for leaving us with Gabe. But I'm willing to try getting along with him if it means getting away from Gabe. Love you. Hope to see you soon.
Love,
Percy
I probably had a gajillion spelling mistakes in there, but that's what I thought I wrote. Maybe the "Love, Percy" part was a bit cheesy, but who cares.
I put my letter in my envelope and wrote the address. I handed it to Chiron.
"Thank you," he said. "Now please go to the library and wait for me please for your detention."
"Yes, sir," I said.
I headed up the stairs and saw Annabeth at the library.
"Hey," I said. "You ditched today, didn't you?"
"You need a new uniform," she said, not looking up from her book.
I looked down. My uniform was torn from that dog yesterday, but I put a jacket on top of it.
"I, unlike you, changed into my regular clothes instead of that stupid uniform," she said.
"Oh, shut up."
"Thank you for waiting," Chiron said, and Annabeth quickly slipped the book back in its place.
"What are we doing?" Annabeth asked. Of course, she wasn't there during homeroom, so she wouldn't know.
"Serving detention," Chiron said. "I thought that you'd prefer having it with me rather than the standard detention. You two will be researching on the corporation Othrys."
"What are we going to do with that information, sir?" Annabeth asked.
"Just research. Write down your notes and show it to me in an hour," Chiron said.
Annabeth grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil on the librarian's desk and started looking for books.
"I don't know why he's making us do this," she muttered to herself. "Is he trying to hint us at something?"
"I dunno," I said and grabbed a book called Othrys: A New World. "What's Othrys anyway?"
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You've never heard of them?"
I shook my head.
"Well, their rival corporation is called Olympus," she said. "Othrys invests in things that can change things drastically, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the worse. They basically want to create a new world. It seems silly, but they seem interested in making all those sci-fi things come true."
"And did they actually create them?" I asked.
Annabeth took my book and nodded. "Some of them." She started reading and jotting down notes.
"What about Olympus then?" I asked. "I only heard of it."
"At least you heard of it," she snorted. She closed the book and grabbed another. "Olympus is more focused on improving things that are present in our world. It's more well-known than Othrys, but they're the two strongest corporations in the world. In my opinion, Olympus seems more helpful."
"How would you know?"
"Because I met some of the people who work there," she said. "Before my stepmom came, my dad took me to visit Olympus. I don't know how he managed to get himself to do it, but I talked to some of the Olympians, as they call them."
"Huh," I said. "Let's just finish this quickly."
She nodded and skimmed through multiple books. I tried to help, but Annabeth did mostly everything.
"Chiron, we're done," she said and showed him her notes.
"Good. Well done," he said. "Keep it for future reference. And Annabeth, you have another letter," Chiron said.
Annabeth gave him a puzzled look, and he left. She looked at the envelope and ripped in into pieces by the trashcan.
"What the heck does that mean?" she muttered.
"The letter?"
"What future reference?" she sighed. "I'm going to go do some more research on Daedalus," she said. "You don't have to help if you don't want to."
"Wait, Annabeth," I said. "You didn't edit the report, and its due in a few days."
She frowned. "Oh, right. Do you have it with you?"
"Uh, yeah," I said. I dug through my backpack that Grover brought me and gave her the report.
"Thanks," she said. "Come to the library tomorrow."
I nodded and quickly waited for her to leave. Once she left, I looked at the huge library and sighed. Time to get searching.
