Annabeth's POV
"What!" I screamed, my eyes popping open. Someone had been shaking me roughly, trying to wake me up. My eyes focused and I saw Hailey looming above me. "Oh…hi."
"Hey! Get up, sleepy head!" she grinned, "the plan started! Earlier, we went to go see if the note was gone from the river, and it is!"
I blinked. "Wow, he already got the first clue. I wonder if he was up all night," I said, "And we…?" I sat up, and Hailey stepped out of the way. One of my half-sisters, one of my friends from the Hermes cabin, Juniper, and – surprisingly – Thalia were standing next to my bed, smiling. Well, except for Thalia, who looked bored. "Thalia!" I grinned, "You're here!"
"Yeah, Wise Girl, I'm here," she half-smiled, "But not all that happy about it. And neither is Artemis. But… I'm here for you, I guess." I smiled, got out of my bed, and gave her a hug.
"Thanks, Thalia," I grinned. "Okay, so, why did y'all have to come wake me up?"
"Well, we set up the next part of the plan, though I doubt he'll get that far today," Hailey answered, "and we have plans today!"
"Plans…?" I asked, yawning, "Like, just the project or what?"
"Nope, we have all week at school and here to do that! Withough Percy being here to force us to work faster… So, today, we're going dress shopping!" she squealed excitedly. Thalia sighed.
"Okay," I smiled. "So I should probably get dressed…"
"Okay, we'll all go over to my bunk while we wait," my half-sister, Zoe, smiled, and they all walked off. I yawned again before finding a v-neck shirt and jean shorts. I pulled them on and went to find the others. Hailey glanced at my hair.
"Um, can I fix that?" she asked with a smile. I laughed and nodded. She pulled a brush out of her bag and my hair was soon straight and much better. Not that I cared too much. We left the cabin and I pulled out my phone – which we could have now that everything was supposedly 'over' – and texted Kayla to meet us at the mall. We left our cabin and ran straight into…Percy.
"Hi, Percy!" the daughter of Hermes – Nicole – squealed. She was my good friend, and she had a crush on Percy but refused to admit because she didn't want anything to be awkward since he was my boyfriend. I didn't really care that she liked him though, as long as she didn't try to steal him – which she would never do.
Percy raised an eyebrow, looking at me. "Hey, um…what are you guys doing?" I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was suspicious. It wasn't every day that I hung out with a group of girls, especially with a daughter of Aphrodite.
"Hey," I said, "um…we have to go…somewhere."
"…Um. Okay. Where?" he asked.
I bit my lip and looked at the others for help. "You'll see," Hailey said. I turned to glare at her. Not very good at keeping secrets, I thought.
"Are you gonna be gone all day? Grover made me leave yesterday and…" his sentence stopped and he looked at me pleadingly. I bit my lip again.
"I won't be gone all day. I promise," I tried to smile and gave him a hug. All of the others started to walk again to leave Camp Half-Blood. I looked after them. "Sorry," I said, kissing him on the cheek, and I left to run after them.
When I caught up, we were leaving the Camp borders and heading towards a red Porsche. My eyes almost popped out of my head. 'A porsche? Really? Dang.' It was definately unnecessary… but still amazing. We were all grinning until we realized it was a two-seater. That was helpful. Everyone wanted to ride in the Porsche, but only one other person besides Hailey would get to. And that somebody wouldn't be me. I had to drive whoever else needed a ride.
Hailey let Nicole ride with her, so I took Zoe, Juniper, and Thalia to my car. I pulled back the front seat so that Zoe and Juniper could climb into the back, and Thalia took the passenger seat.
"Um, do y'all know the way there?" I asked. I didn't go to the mall very often. Everyone shrugged, so I decided to follow Hailey, who knew the route to the mall like the back of her hand. I was kind of worried about dress-shopping. I'd never gone before, and I never wore dresses. I wasn't sure of what to expect.
Percy's POV
I sat on the sand, staring out at the churning ocean. I was making it churn; I was thoughtful, mad, and sad. I was mad that Annabeth was avoiding me and would be gone today. I was sad for pretty much the same reason, and I was trying to think of what the message in the second clue; the second prophecy.
I was hoping that coming to the ocean might help me to calm down, but instead, the water reflected my emotions…as always. So there was nothing comforting about a churning ocean.
'Why is Annabeth avoiding me?' I kept wondering. It was driving me crazy. It was the weirdest she'd ever acted around me, and I did't like not knowing what was going on. And what about the prophecy? As always, I had no ideas. I guess I really was a Seaweed Brain. I sighed and leaned back, digging my palms into the warm sand. The wind tugged at my hair, and I breathed in, trying to calm down. The water rose and fell calmly for a second, only to go back to churning. I couldn't help it.
I reached into the pocket inmy swim trunks and pulled out the note. It was written in marker, still by Annabeth. I traced the handwriting with my finger and sighed again.
Annabeth's POV
I gulped. We were in the mall at Dillard's, looking at all the pretty, expensive dresses and laughing at the ugly ones. Thalia was in a bad mood, but we tried to make her cooperate. Zoe and I were kind of nervous too, since we weren't used to malls or especially dress shopping. Kayla had finally arrived in her Honda Civic. She was okay with dress shopping and so was Juniper, but not as excited as Nicole or Hailey. Juniper jumped out of a dressing room in a pretty strapless pale green dress.
"Do you like it?" she squealed, spinnging around, "I think it's perfect."
"Yeah! It's really pretty" I grinned. The others nodded in agreement, absorbed in looking for their own dress. Juniper went back into her dressing room to change so that she could buy the dress. I turned and looked doubtfully at yet another rack.
Hailey soon popped out of a dressing room. It was her third to try on already, and she looked stunning in all three. This time she was in a strapless red dress.
"What do you think?" sh asked.
"It's beautiful," we all said together. Except for Thalia.
She looked down at it. "I like it, but I need to look at more," she smiled and ran back to her dressing room. I sighed. I didn't see anything that I liked. I jumped when someone tapped me on my shoulder. I turned around to see Thalia, half-smiling, holding out a black dress to me. It was strapless, black, and cute, so I decided tot ry it on. I smiled and walked into a dressing room.