Author's Notes

I'm so sorry that took so long. I've been very busy, so it's hard for me to keep writing the chapter. Enjoy the chapter.

I do not own the right to Percy Jackson and the Olympians' characters

Chapter 11

Percy was walking around the cafeteria looking for Jason or Piper or both, but it seemed that they vanished. After some seconds of walking around he spotted a very uncomfortable looking Piper, sitting on a table with some girls with glasses, braces, one of them was wearing a T-shirt with a muscular guy stamped on it. The green-eyed boy knew that this guy was from one of those Twilight movies. What was his name again? Jerome? Jason? Jonas?. He tried to recall it, meanwhile, Piper spotted him and was trying to get his attention, once he looked at her, he saw in her eyes begging, 'save me please'. Percy got the message, it didn't look like she was having much fun on that table.

"Hey Piper, do you know where Jason is? We gotta talk about that... umm, thing". He tried to look convincing while not exactly sure what to say, that was all Piper needed to come out speaking.

"YES! The thing, how could I forget that! Sorry guys, but I've gotta go". Best-actress-EVER. All the girls on the table looked at the native girl with some disappointment, they wanted to talk to their idol a little bit more. The conversation Piper had with them was the mixture of completely weird and boring cliché, it would look rude if she said that she'd rather be in the garbage bin she was the day before. "Let's go Perce, we got to find Jason". Percy looked at the girl awkwardly because of the nickname, she quickly stood up.

"What thing are you talking about?". One of the girls said.

"Oh some... stuff! Don't worry, we can talk later". Piper was lying, she now walked to Percy's side.

"Maybe we could help out!". Lacy exclaimed.

"NO! no...". The girl with multi-colored eyes frantically answered, trying to look as friendly as possible and not give them the hint that she didn't want their company, her eyes were definetly green from all that lying.

"Why not?". The girl with braces asked.

"It's complicated". Piper tried to be vague. "But I can tell you, maybe, later on...". She grabbed Percy's arm and started to walk away on a fast pace. "Well bye". She quickly said not giving the chance for those girls to say anything that would make that conversation painfully longer than it already was. Piper walked and walked dragging Percy to any place that was far from there, they stopped at the main hall next to the cafeteria entrance, below the stair that led to the second floor.

"Geez, you can let go of my arm now". Percy said noticing that the native girl was hiding behind it and looking around as if she was being chased by the police.

"Are they still nearby?". She asked.

"No, we are far from them". The boy spoke, Piper gave a sigh of relief in response. "Were they that bad?". Percy asked curious about what could make that conversation so unpleasant, that it made the girl react like that.

"Ugh!". She answered, painfully regretting the moment she decided to go join lacy's 'cool friends'. "Let's just agree to never mention that to anyone". Those people were like a more unpopular and (how should I put it?) more 'passionate' version of Drew's group, they still talked about what was the latest fashion and they talked a lot about Justin Bieber, painfully so, they even talked about Percy being one of their dreamboys. For the sake of confort, she decided to leave that subject out. The boy chuckled at the girl's request, that made him remember the spider on Annabeth's room the day before, it was funny.

"Sure". He said, assuring Piper he would keep the secret.

"Sorry about that... So, did you guys find anything?". She asked curious about their next move.

"According to Annabeth, we'll need a twenty-eight feet ladder". He said recalling what the girl told him.

"Now, where would we find that?". Piper thought out loud.

Some minutes earlier, not so far from there

After Jason ate a sandwich alone, he wanted to hang out with Piper, but the girl was still on the other table, so he decided to go to the second floor and see if there was anything worth analyzing that could help get his friends inside Chiron's office. Once he got there he spotted three boys talking to each other, one of them had brown eyes and dark hair similar to Percy's, he had his arm crossed as if he was angry at the world. Another boy had brown curly hair that hanged around his blue eyes, his mouth shaped into a mischievous grin once he saw Jason approaching. The other was black and had short hair that matched the color of his skin, he was quite muscly for his age and was taller then all the boys around him, it would be easy to assume that he was with Clarisse's bullies, but Jason knew he wasn't. Yeah, the blond boy knew those three all too well. Michael Yew, Charles Beckendorf and the Stoll brothers usually hanged around together. Jason wasn't close to them as he was with Piper or Leo, but they were cool. They were the kind of friends you'd chat with a little bit or tell some jokes, like distant cousins.

"Hey". Jason greeted, as he approached them.

"Sup Jase?". Beckendorf answered, the blond boy noticed that someone was missing from the group. Travis. His mind said, remembering the mess the kid got into.

"Hey Connor... I'm, umm, sorry, about your brother". Jason spoke kind of awkwardly, he didn't do anything wrong, but Annabeth did, sorta. She made things worse for one of the school's best pranksters, by calling one of the school's security guards. The girl didn't know that Clarisse had the protection of the school's staff, and since she was walking around with Jason's group, he felt it was his responsability for at least apologizing to his brother. Those words seemed to only make the scowl on the black-haired boy's face grow stronger.

"Dude what are talking about?". The twin playfully said, Connor wasn't too big on violence or keeping hard feelings, only pranking and picking locks. "Travis is fine, he's just butthurt that he got caught by Clarisse and the school, that's all".

"Soooo? No hard feelings?". Jason asked.

"Nah dude". Connor replied.

"Just tell the blondie to be careful around Clarisse and the rest of her friends". Beckendorf added, he knew that those people didn't care who they hurt.

"Yeah, we kind of told her that already... anyway, why was Clarisse so pissed with Travis?".

"It was kind of a bet, he tried to steal her smartphone and some other stuff from her friends". The black boy said scrathing the back of his head.

"Smartphone? Where did she find the money to get a smartphone?". Jason was a little confused, since when did Clarisse start having money? As far as he knew, her mother could just barely pay the morgage. Yeah, Clarisse's mother was her only family, he remembered that her father was a soldier that died on an ambush on the Middle East. Hence, her particular hatred for basically everything.

"Dunno". Connor answered. "It's weird huh?".

"Yeah". Jason would definetly keep that in mind, that was something he needed to tell the others, what if someone else was involved with this?.

"Someone needs to teach her bitchass a lesson". Michael, who had been quiet that whole conversation finally said, Beckendorf just sighed at his comment.

"Are you planning to fight her again Yew?". The muscular boy asked, Michael just grunted in response. Although he had the size and strengh, Charles disliked violence, using it as the very last resort. There was probably no one else on school that hated that bully more than the dark-haired boy. He tried several times to beat her, but he always lost.

"I mean, am I wrong? Someone's gotta stop her".

"Don't worry we're kinda investigating her and stuff". Jason said, trying to calm the boy down.

"Investigating? You mean like you're a Nancy Drew or something?". Travis joked, the other boys chuckled.

"Ha ha, very funny". He replied unamused. Two muscular guys could be seen coming towards the group from the end of the corridor, one of them had a bald head and a rainbow tattoed on his left shoulder, the expression on his face made him look like he was going to kill someone. Behind him was an Asian boy, his face showed some regret, Jason tried to figure out what could it be. Frank Zhang was always an odd one, although he was tall and strong he has always been soft, so it made no sense for him to be walking around with those thugs.

"Looking good today Butch, why don't you give us that smile everyone loves?". Travis teased him. The bald boy took part of the joke, cracking a smile that was as beautiful as Freddy Krueger's face. Travis was the only one who chuckled.

"Hey Frank". Beckendorf spoke with a serious tone, Frank glanced at the boy in response. The look on his face was saying 'what have I got myself into?'.

"What are you two up to?". Michael bluntly asked.

"None of your business Yew". Butch rudely answered.

"And who do you thin-". He was interrupted by the noise of a thunder. It started raining, and quite a bit by the sound of it.

"Frank, let's go". Butch spoke, the Asian boy quickly followed his pace. Beckendorf, Michael and Travis started chatting again but Jason just stood there. He watched as the two boys left the main building, he tried to think of a reason why they would go out in the rain.

Meanwhile

You kidding me?!. Annabeth mentally complained as the raindrops started to soak her. She quickly picked up her notepad and started hurrying towards the entrance of the school. She wanted to get inside before the rain soaked her and freeze her to death. Astoria wasn't the coldest place at that time of the year, but the cool wind mixed with the water could definetly make someone suffer a little bit.

"You sure she's out here?". Annabeth stopped, that voice was familiar.

"It's what Clarisse said". Another voice answered. It's them!. The girl recognized that those voices belonged to two of the boys who walked around with Clarisse. What Piper said earlier now started to play louder than a hurricane, 'Clarisse is out for you'. Annabeth was scared at first, were they really after her? She decided that it was best to not stick around and see what they were going to do. She quickly hid around a corner of the building, she would have to stay there until they went away, since there was a chain link gate that didn't let her go further than that. She tried to stay as silent as possible, a difficult thing to do, she was getting soaked from the rain and the wind onlly made things worse, she started shaking due to the cold.

"I don't see anything Butch, isn't it better if we just waited for another day? It's freezing out here". Spoke the Asian boy, Butch let out a sigh.

"You're such a wuss Zhang". They were getting closer to her hiding spot, but there was nowhere else to go, she was trapped between a wall and the bullies. I just have to stay quiet. She told herself mentally, suddenly her throat started burning. Dammit, you just have the body with the most perfect timing, don't you Annabeth?. The girl cursed. From here on out I'm never leaving without my painkillers. Annabeth didn't know what was worse, the cold or the pain on the throat, she would just have to endure both.

"Why is Clarisse so obsessed with that girl anyway?". Frank asked while looking in a bush.

"It was that girl again that asked her, now can you just stop fucking complaining?". The bald boy replied, Frank shyly kept his mouth shut. Butch was getting closer and closer to where Annabeth was, she could hear his footsteps approaching her. The girl was getting goosebumps not just from the cold. She could hear him breathing, he only needed to cock his head around the corner and she would be screwed. And then... the bald boy sighed in defeat.

"You know what? Fuck her, we're leaving". Butch said, Frank nodded his head silently and obediently followed him away from there.

Jesus Christ. The girl thought relieved, her legs were shaking a lot, from the cold or the fear of being found by the bullies or both. They got weaker and she found herself sitting with her back against the wall, she crossed her arms to heat herself a little bit. Because a girl asked her?. She played that sentence on her head. Someone had asked Clarisse and her bullies to teach Annabeth a lesson, she then remembered what one of the bullies told the muscly girl when she first met them, 'Zhang is right, you remember what she said if we beat someone on the first day?'. Was someone else involved with those bullies?. Definetly, I wonder who could it be. The girl tried to think of anyone else that walked around with Clarisse or was maybe friends with her, but it was no use, she couldn't think of anybody. The mute girl waited a couple moments to make sure the two boys weren't around anymore so she could get out of there and go back into the building.

Meanwhile inside classroom 8

Percy, Jason and Piper were gathered on the corner of the room that had its door closed, they weren't alone some kids already had started showing up there. After the raven-haired boy told Jason about the ladder they would need to break into Chiron's office, he started staring out the window, wondering where Annabeth was now.

"A 28 feet ladder huh? I think there could be one on Leo's shop, I guess I could ask him when I get there". The blue-eyed spoke.

"Yeah, you do that". Piper said agreeing with his plan, she then noticed Percy's apparent absence in their conversation. "Hey Percy, are you okay?".

"It's almost class time, she was supposed to be here already". Percy mumbled, worried about the blond girl who had not shown up yet, he looked towards the other two who were with him. "Hey Jason, have you seen Annabeth around?". He asked.

"No, I thought she was with you". The blond answered.

"She was, but she told me to go ahead explaining our plan to you, while she stayed behind and made sure if there wasn't anything else we missed". Percy paused a little bit, he turned his look to the window again. "And now it's raining, so she shouldn't still be out there right? And then you said bulky girl was after her". He looked at Piper asking for an explanation to why was Clarisse after the girl he wanted to protect. Was he the one to blame, since he provoked that bully when they first met?. I really hope not.

"What do you mean?". Piper tried to play dumb and make him confused.

"Yeah, you said that Clarisse was out for her". The green-eyed insisted.

"I think it's better if we just tell him what he wants to know". Jason spoke. "Annabeth saw Clarisse beating a guy called Travis, she tried to snitch her to one of the security guards a couple days ago, Clarisse caught her, the guards went easy on her and you know the rest".

"So that's why we started doing this". Percy said as if he just cracked a puzzle.

"Yeah, kinda". The blond boy replied while giving a look to Piper, his eyes asking 'right?'. The girl looked away, as if she didn't admit that she started this just to bring the two New Yorkers together.

"We have to go then before they find her!". He said worried, now he knew that the threat of her getting heart was real.

"I wouldn't worry too much, I've seen people who did worse and got away with it". The blue-eyed tried to calm him down.

"I don't know, I still think it's best to not take any chances".

"I'm with him". Piper spoke, now she was actually concerned about her friend who hasn't shown up yet.

"Okay, then I'm coming with you". Jason said getting up.

"Let's do-". Percy was interrupted by the sound of the door opening, it was Annabeth.