A/N Ok, this one is very bad, very short, and very dull. I'm leaving on vacation for two weeks and lately my writing time has been kind of minimal. I'll make it up to you in the next chapter!
Annabeth POV
"Ok, everyone ready?" I whispered, "Does everyone know the plan?"
"Yeah, kidnap Sloan, Mist him, then pretend it never happened." Leo grinned evilly.
"Exactly, now GO!" Percy, Hayden, and Frank ran into the boys locker room where Sloan was last to come out. Some yelling, muffled yelling, and crashing later, they came out dragging Sloan with tape over his mouth.
"Mmmflmfmfmll!" He yelled.
"Yeah, yeah, save it for the precinct." Leo said. You could tell he was loving the whole cop persona.
The guys dragged Sloan into Jason's truck and closed the door. It was a little difficult driving to our apartment without anyone becoming suspicious of the body in the back. It was even more difficult getting him in the elevator! There was an old man already in there when we dragged Sloan in.
"It's a prank," I lied. He nodded suspiciously, and got out at the next stop.
"Let's get this over with. I don't really feel like getting arrested for kidnapping." Frank muttered. We pulled Sloan into the apartment, and shut the door. Piper plopped him into a chair and removed the tape.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" He yelled.
"Cleaning up your mess!" Rachel responded.
"You told our secret!"
"Which you shouldn't even know in the first place!" Everyone started yelling all at once.
"HEY!" I shouted. The room fell silent. I gestured to Percy to speak.
"You told Coach our secret out of jealousy you idiot!" He snapped, "Now they have a private investigator on our tail!" Sloan glared at him.
"You think I was gonna let you get away with cheating, Jackson? Just because your daddy's a god or whatever doesn't mean you can do that!" His face was turning dangerously red from the strain of thinking too much.
"That's right, he can't." I slapped Percy's shoulder, "But that's not the problem. The problem is that we can't get exposed! Who knows what would happen to the Western Civilization?"
"The wha?" Sloan asked stupidly.
"None of your business!" Leo said quickly.
"Can we just perform the Mist already and get this over with?" Hazel asked.
"No, we have to yell at him first!" Leo said.
"We already have yelled at him!" Piper yelled.
"Oh for goodness sakes!" Frank picked up a frying pan from the counter and whacked Sloan on the head with it, "There, done!" Rachel cocked her head.
"Is he dead?" Jason bent down to feel his pulse.
"Nah, he's just knocked out." He said.
"Well then let's get him out of here. We can tell him that he passed out or something, and we volunteered to take him home." I said, lifting one of his arms.
"I'll use a little Mist, just to be safe." Piper said, lifting the other. Percy and Jason grabbed the other two limbs, and we hauled off the idiot.
"Hey Calypso," I called down the hall to where she sat, filing her nails.
"What?" She asked through a mouthful of bubblegum.
"We need to talk." Opened the door to an empty classroom. She groaned, but followed Rachel, Piper, Hazel, and me inside. It was lunch, so we hoped nobody would notice we were gone.
"What's this about? I kinda have things to do." Calypso whined. I pulled a chair out for her, and gestured for her to sit down.
"We have a problem." I said simply.
"Heck yeah we do!" Rachel growled. Calypso raised an eyebrow.
"Is this about that Sloan thing again?" She asked in a bored tone.
"Gee, I wonder." Piper rolled her eyes, "Yes it's about that!"
"You told our secret," I cut in, "the thing I specifically told you not to do!" I slammed my fist down on the teacher's desk.
"Take a chill pill! It was a one time thing!" Calypso defended herself, "And for the record, I wasn't really listening to you. You'd just told me that Greek gods existed! I was sort of shocked." I resisted the urge to tear my own hair out.
"I swear if celestial bronze actually worked on you…" I muttered. My eyes closed, and I took a deep breath.
"We'll cut to the point," Rachel said, "You can't tell. Ever."
"If people found out about us, we'd be shipped off and dissected…" Piper paused. It was best not to tell Calypso all the secrets about Camp Half-Blood and the Empire State Building.
"The Western Civilization would fall apart, let's leave it at that." I said. Calypso huffed.
"Fine, my lips are sealed." She pulled an imaginary zipper across her lips and locked them.
"Good, because if we find out that you told another person…" I didn't bother finishing my threat. Piper, Hazel, and Rachel filed out. As I was about to follow them, Calypso spoke.
"Annabeth, wait here with me for a moment." Rachel raised an eyebrow curiously. I shrugged and sent them to the lunchroom. I turned around. Calypso leaned against one of the desks, examining her nails.
"You know, sweetie, I figured out why Percy never wanted me." I crossed my arms.
"And that would be?" Calypso's eyes flashed up to me.
"The secret, duh." She said, "That huge part of his life was something that made the two of you closer. Now that I'm in on the secret, there's nothing keeping Percy and I apart." I stepped up so that we were nose to nose.
"You seem to be forgetting about someone." I said coldly. Calypso smiled at me and cocked her head.
"Oh, threatened?" I shook my head.
"Never." Calypso shook her head.
"You should be, honey. Percy is mine. At least, he will be." I laughed disbelievingly.
"You go ahead and try, Barbie. If there's one thing in this world I'm sure of, it's that Percy would never leave me." Calypso grinned. It reminded me of that evil grin the Grinch has.
"He's a guy, Annie. They're very basic creatures, easily manipulated." She hissed.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're an empousa." Calypso just smirked at me.
"I'm no monster, but I'm more dangerous to you than anything you've ever fought." Oh please.
"I highly doubt that." I said with narrowed eyes. She opened her mouth again as the door opened behind me. Instantly her face brightened.
"What's going on?" Percy asked slowly. I stepped back so that I was out of Calypso's perfume bubble.
"Just some friendly conversation." I said flatly, "Let's go to lunch." I grabbed his hand and tugged him out of the room.
"Bye Percy!" Calypso called after us flirtatiously. I rolled my eyes.
"Ok, you want to tell what that was about?" Percy asked as we walked into the cafeteria.
"Just Calypso being cocky," I said simply, taking his hand, "Let's just go to lunch."
"Hello, hello my lovelies!" I groaned internally as "Ms. Dove" came in as a sub for our science teacher. All the boys in the room sighed happily and stared… including my boyfriend. The only thing that kept me from ripping his arm off, was the fact that he'd once told me Aphrodite looked like me to him. It was sweet, and also a bit creepy.
"I am very excited to be here today! This day is going to be a fun one!" Aphrodite clapped her hands and squealed like a schoolgirl. In the front row, Calypso paid no attention, as usual.
Aphrodite walked up to the board in her five inch heels and started drawing.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this week in class we are doing a social project!" She announced excitedly.
"Um, Ms. Dove?" I raised my hand, "We are actually studying…" She shushed me with her hand.
"Well, I suppose you'll get this week to take a break, hm?" There was this mischievous glint in her eyes that I really didn't trust.
"So what is the project?" Calypso asked. I guess the fact that I didn't like Ms. Dove made Calypso absolutely adore her.
"The project, sweet cakes, is what I like to call a social study." Aphrodite wrote the two words on the board in perfectly neat handwriting, "I will pair all of you up with someone of the opposite gender. For the rest of the week you will conduct a series of experiments on said partner." She explained. The class groaned when she said that she would be picking the partners.
"Now, then: partners!" She sang. In her irritatingly perfect handwriting, Aphrodite then wrote down all the partners on the board. I got paired up with one of the guys from Percy's swim team, Jared. He looked over and smiled kindly at me. He was Percy's friend, so I wasn't too worried about him. What I was worried about was the fact that Percy and Calypso got paired. She looked over and cast him a flirtatious wink that made me want to strangle her. From the look Aphrodite was giving me, I can easily assume that she did that on purpose.
What was her endgame? Did she really want Percy and Calypso to end up together? Was she just trying to push my buttons? What was the point?! Ugh, I hate gods.
"For today, all we are going to do is quiz your partners. Fill out this worksheet, and turn it in to me at the end of the day." Aphrodite skipped down the aisles to hand out the paper. It was pretty basic: what's your favorite book? Do you have any siblings? And so on, and so on.
Honestly, I did try to focus. It was hard not to keep glancing over at Percy and Calypso every few minutes. I was lucky Jared wasn't one of the more stupid guys on Percy's swim team, and understood why I was so distracted.
"Eyes on your own partner, Annabeth." Aphrodite reprimanded. I grit my teeth to keep myself silent. This was going to be a long, long week…
