Annabeth's POV

We contacted Percy about it and learned that his mother would be driving him all the way up to where Grover wanted us to meet him. Jasmine had contacted Will to meet us there since he didn't live too far from the location. She could not wait to see him again, even if they were in constant contact with each other via text message.

It would've only taken us a couple hours flying on Toothless to get to Bar Harbor, Maine, while by car from New York it was roughly eight hours. We didn't want to do much without waiting for Percy, so we decided to fly to New York and join him along with the car ride since his mother insisted on driving him there. Grover could wait a little longer.

Percy was grateful for it but probably quickly regretted it. Sleet and snow pounded the highway. We hadn't seen Percy in months, but between the blizzard and the thought of what we were about to do, we were too nervous to talk much. Except for his mother, Sally. She told us many things about him that he was probably very embarrassed by. I could see his face turning red in the passenger side mirror on the outside of the car. I could relate. Except that it wasn't my mother or even father who shared embarrassing things about me. It was my generally annoying best friend Jasmine who was hard to get back at because there were very few things she was embarrassed about herself.

By the time we finally got to Westover Hall, it was getting dark.

Thalia wiped the fog off the car window and peered outside. "Oh, yeah. This'll be fun."

Westover Hall looked like an evil knight's castle. It was all black stone, with towers and slit windows and a big set of wooden double doors. It stood on a snowy cliff overlooking this big frosty forest on one side and the gray churning ocean on the other.

"Are you sure you don't want me to wait?" Sally asked.

"No, thanks, Mom," Percy said. "I don't know how long it will take. We'll be okay."

"But how will you get back? I'm worried, Percy."

Percy's face burned red.

"It's okay, Ms. Jackson." I smiled reassuringly. "We'll keep him out of trouble."

"We'll certainly try our best," Jasmine said, Toothless nodding in agreement on her lap.

Sally seemed to relax a little. This was the first time I had ever met her, but it seems Percy spoke great things about me and Jasmine to trust us with her son's life. I assumed he's told her how we often keep him from getting killed. He's right, too.

"All right, dears," she said. "Do you have everything you need?"

"Yes, Ms. Jackson," Thalia said. "Thanks for the ride."

"Extra sweaters? You have my cell phone number?"

"Mom—" Percy started.

"Your ambrosia and nectar, Percy? And a golden drachma in case you need to contact camp?"

"Mom, seriously! We'll be fine. Come on, guys."

She looked a little hurt, and I'm sure Percy didn't mean anything harsh about it, but he seemed ready to be out of that car. If his mother told us one more story about Percy as a child, he was probably going to burrow into the snow and freeze himself to death.

We followed him outside. The wind blew straight through my coat like ice daggers.

Once Percy's mother's car was out of sight, Thalia said, "Your mom is so cool, Percy."

"She's pretty okay," he admitted. "What about you? You ever get in touch with your mom?"

Jasmine and I tensed up. This was a very touchy subject.

Thalia was great at giving evil looks, what with the punk clothes she always wears—the ripped-up army jacket, black leather pants and chain jewelry, the black eyeliner and those intense blue eyes. But the look she gave Percy now was a perfect evil "ten." "If that was any of your business, Percy—"

"Well, it looks like I decided to show up at the right time," a boy's voice said.

We turned and found Will standing ten paces away from us with a bow and a quiver of arrows across his back, noting a blue car pulling away and followed down the same road Percy's mother had taken, the only road to and from the school. It was most likely Will's mother, having just dropped him off. I wonder how long they had been waiting here in this cold.

Jasmine smiled widely and gave him a hug, plus a kiss. "I'm so happy to see you!"

Will smiled back. "I am too. And you guys as well."

We all waved hi to him. Toothless did one better and jumped on his head.

"We'd better get inside," I said. "Grover will be waiting."

Thalia looked at the castle and shivered. "You're right. I wonder what he found here that made him send the distress call."

Percy stared up at the dark towers of Westover Hall. "Nothing good," he guessed.


The oak doors groaned open, and the six of us stepped into the entry hall in a swirl of snow.

"Whoa," Percy said.

The place was huge. The walls were lined with battle flags and weapon displays: antique rifles, battle axes, and a bunch of other stuff. Westover may have been a military school and all, but the decorations seemed like overkill. Literally.

I could already sense something wrong in this place. Something dangerous. Percy's hand went to his pocket, where he kept his lethal ballpoint pen, Riptide. Toothless growled from Jasmine's shoulder. Will gripped his bow tightly. Thalia was rubbing her silver bracelet, her favorite magic item. I knew we were thinking the same thing. A fight was coming.

I started to say, "I wonder where—"

The doors slammed shut behind us.

"Oo-kay," Percy mumbled. "Guess we'll stay awhile."

"Yep," Jasmine agreed.

I could hear music echoing from the other end of the hall. It sounded like dance music.

We stashed our overnight bags behind a pillar and started down the hall. We hadn't gone very far when I heard footsteps on the stone floor, and a man and woman marched out of the shadows to intercept us.

They both had short gray hair and black military-style uniforms with red trim. The woman had a wispy mustache, and the guy was clean-shaven, which seemed kind of backward to me. They both walked stiffly, like they had broomsticks taped to their spines.

"Well?" the woman demanded. "What are you doing here?"

"Um . . ." I realized I hadn't planned for this, which was unlike me. I usually always had a plan for everything. I'd been so focused on getting to Grover and finding out what was wrong, I hadn't considered that someone might question five kids sneaking into the school at night. We hadn't talked at all in the car about how we would get inside. Percy said, "Ma'am, we're just—"

"Ha!" the man snapped, which made me jump. "Visitors are not allowed at the dance! You shall be eee-jected!"

He had an accent—French, maybe. He pronounced his J like in Jacques. He was tall, with a hawkish face. His nostrils flared when he spoke, which made it really hard not to stare up his nose, and his eyes were two different colors—one brown, one blue—like an alley cat's.

I figured he was about to throw us out into the snow, but then Thalia stepped forward and did some magic.

She snapped her fingers. The sound was sharp and loud. I felt a gust of wind ripple out from her hand, across the room. It washed all over us, making the banners rustle on the walls.

"Oh, but we're not visitors, sir," Thalia said. "We go to school here. You remember: I'm Thalia. And this is Annabeth, Jasmine, Percy, and Will. We're in the eighth grade."

The male teacher narrowed his two-colored eyes. I held my breath. Thalia had gotten better at using the Mist, but she was still practicing. The man seemed to be hesitating.

He looked at his colleague. "Ms. Gottschalk, do you know these students?"

Despite the danger we were in, I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. Jasmine could not control her facial expression. A teacher named Got Chalk? He had to be kidding.

The woman blinked, like someone had just woken her up from a trance. "I . . . yes. I believe I do, sir." She frowned at us. "Annabeth. Jasmine. Thalia. Percy. Will. What are you doing away from the gymnasium?"

Before we could answer, I heard more footsteps, and Grover ran up, breathless. "You made it! You—"

He stopped short when he saw the teachers. "Oh, Ms. Gottschalk. Dr. Thorn! I, uh—"

"What is it, Mr. Underwood?" said the man. His tone made it clear that he detested Grover. "What do you mean, they made it? These students live here."

Grover swallowed. "Yes, sir. Of course, Dr. Thorn. I just meant, I'm so glad they made . . . the punch for the dance! The punch is great. And they made it!"

Dr. Thorn glared at us. I decided one of his eyes had to be fake. But which one? The brown one? The blue one? He looked like he wanted to pitch us off the castle's highest tower, but then Ms. Gottschalk said dreamily, "Yes, the punch is excellent. Now run along, all of you. You are not to leave the gymnasium again!"

We didn't wait to be told twice. We left with a lot of "Yes, ma'ams" and "Yes, sirs" and a couple of salutes, just because it seemed like the thing to do.

Grover hustled us down the hall in the direction of the music. He hurried us to a door that had GYM written on the glass. Even with my dyslexia, I could read that much.

"That was close!" Grover said. "Thank the gods you got here!"

Jasmine, Thalia, and I both hugged Grover. Percy gave him a big high-five. Will gave him a slight nod.

It was good to see him after so many months. He'd gotten a little taller and had sprouted a few more whiskers, but otherwise he looked like he always did when he passed for human—a red cap on his curly brown hair to hide his goat horns, baggy jeans and sneakers with fake feet to hide his furry legs and hooves. He was wearing a black T-shirt that took me a few seconds to read. It said WESTOVER HALL: GRUNT. I wasn't sure whether that was, like, Grover's rank or maybe just the school motto.

"So what's the emergency?" Percy asked.

Grover took a deep breath. "I found two."

"Two half-bloods?" Thalia asked, amazed. "Here?"

Grover nodded.

Finding one half-blood was rare enough. This year, Chiron had put the satyrs on emergency overtime and sent them all over the country, scouting schools from fourth grade through high school for possible recruits. These were desperate times. We were losing campers. We needed all the new fighters we could find. The problem was, there weren't that many demigods out there.

"A brother and a sister," he said. "They're ten and twelve. I don't know their parentage, but they're strong. We're running out of time, though. I need help."

"Monsters?"

"One." Grover looked nervous. "He suspects. I don't think he's positive yet, but this is the last day of term. I'm sure he won't let them leave campus without finding out. It may be our last chance! Every time I try to get close to them, he's always there, blocking me. I don't know what to do!"

Grover looked at Thalia desperately. He used to look to Percy for answers, and by glancing at Percy through the corner of my eye I could see he noticed that too, but Thalia had seniority. Not just because her dad was Zeus. Thalia had more experience than any of us with fending off monsters in the real world.

"Right," she said. "These half-bloods are at the dance?"

Grover nodded.

"Then let's dance," Thalia said. "Who's the monster?"

"Oh," Grover said, and looked around nervously. "You just met him. The vice principal, Dr. Thorn."


The weird thing about military schools: the kids go absolutely nuts when there's a special event and they get to be out of uniform. I guess it's because everything is so strict the rest of the time, they feel like they've got to overcompensate or something.

There were black and red balloons all over the gym floor, and guys were kicking them in each other's faces, or trying to strangle each other with the crepe-paper streamers taped to the walls. Girls moved around in football huddles, the way they always do, wearing lots of makeup and spaghetti-strap tops and brightly colored pants and shoes that looked like torture devices. Every once in a while they'd surround some poor guy like a pack of piranhas, shrieking and giggling, and when they finally moved on, the guy would have ribbons in his hair and a bunch of lipstick graffiti all over his face.

"There they are." Grover nodded toward a couple of younger kids arguing in the bleachers. "Bianca and Nico di Angelo."

The girl wore a floppy green cap, like she was trying to hide her face. The boy was obviously her little brother. They both had dark silky hair and olive skin, and they used their hands a lot as they talked. The boy was shuffling some kind of trading cards. His sister seemed to be scolding him about something. She kept looking around like she sensed something was wrong.

"Wait," Jasmine said. "Bianca and Nico?"

"Have you heard of them?" Will asked.

"I—I've met them before."

Toothless nodded in agreement.

"When? Where?" I asked.

"I—I'm not sure. But I know I've seen them before. I don't think I realized they were demigods, though."

"Do they . . . I mean, have you told them?" I asked Grover.

He shook his head. "You know how it is. That could put them in more danger. Once they realize who they are, their scent becomes stronger."

He looked at Percy, and he nodded. I'd never really understood what half-bloods "smell" like to monsters and satyrs, but I knew that your scent could get you killed. And the more powerful a demigod you became, the more you smelled like a monster's lunch.

"So let's grab them and get out of here," Percy said.

He started forward, but Thalia put her hand on his shoulder. The vice principal, Dr. Thorn, had slipped out of a doorway near the bleachers and was standing near the di Angelo siblings. He nodded coldly in our direction. His blue eye seemed to glow.

Judging from his expression, I guess Thorn hadn't been fooled by Thalia's trick with the Mist after all. He suspected who we were. He was just waiting to see why we were here.

"Don't look at the kids," Thalia ordered. "We have to wait for a chance to get them. We need to pretend we're not interested in them. Throw him off the scent."

"How?" Percy asked.

"We're four powerful half-bloods. Our presence should confuse him. Mingle. Act natural. Do some dancing. But keep an eye on those kids."

"Dancing?" I asked.

Thalia nodded. She cocked her ear to the music and made a face. "Ugh. Who chose the Jesse McCartney?"

"What's wrong with Jesse McCartney?" Jasmine demanded. "This is a good song."

Grover looked hurt. "I chose it."

"Oh my gods, Grover. That is so lame. Can't you play, like Green Day or something?"

"Green who?"

"Green Day's lame," Jasmine muttered.

"Never mind," Thalia said. "Let's dance."

"But I can't dance!" Grover protested.

"You can if I'm leading. Come on, goat boy."

Grover yelped as Thalia grabbed his hand and led him onto the dance floor.

Jasmine and I smiled.

"What?" Percy asked, noticing.

"Nothing," I replied. "It's just cool to have Thalia back."

"For the most part, anyway," Jasmine agreed.

Will bowed down in front of Jasmine and presented his hand to her. "May I have this dance?"

Jasmine smiled. "Why yes, you may."

She clasped his hand and he led her onto the dance floor, but not before glancing at me through the corner of her eyes and nodding towards Percy with a smirk.

I pulled off my ski cap, and my long blond hair tumbled down my shoulders.

"So . . ." Percy started, trying to think of something to say. "Um, design any good buildings lately?"

My eyes widened. "Oh my gods, Percy. Our school added a 3-D design as an elective, which I got to take, and there's this cool new computer program . . ."

I went on to explain how I'd designed this huge monument that I wanted to build at Ground Zero in Manhattan. I talked about structural supports and facades and stuff. I wasn't sure if he was actually listening to me. Even less, understood anything I was saying, especially with Jasmine smirking at him from behind me, but they knew how passionate I was about architecture and how I wanted to be an architect when I grew up.

"Yeah, uh, cool," Percy said. "So you're taking that program the rest of the year, huh?"

My face turned dark. "Well, maybe, if I don't—"

"Hey!" Thalia called to us. She was slow dancing with Grover, who was tripping all over himself, kicking Thalia in the shins, and looking like he wanted to die. Jasmine couldn't help but shake her head at him from a short distance away while Will was trying to maintain a straight face.

"Dance, you guys!" Thalia ordered. "You look stupid just standing there."

Percy looked nervously at me, then at the groups of girls who were roaming the gym.

"Well?" I asked.

"Um, who should I ask?"

I punched him in the gut. "Me, Seaweed Brain."

"Oh. Oh, right."

Jasmine banged her head and shook it against Will's chest as they were slow dancing, with Toothless needing to jump onto Will's head, and she glanced at me, mouthing, "I'm sorry." She made a comment to Will, who returned it with his own, and they both laughed and disappeared into the crowd.

So Percy and I went onto the dance floor, and he looked over to see how Thalia and Grover were doing things. He put one hand on my hip, and I clasped his other hand.

"I'm not going to bite," I told him. "Honestly, Percy. Don't you guys have dances at your school?"

He didn't answer. We shuffled around for a few minutes. I had to admit, Percy's nervousness about dancing with me and how close our bodies were to each other made him look kind of cute and making my heart pump fast, despite how sweaty his hands were and him continuously stepping on my toes.

"What were you saying earlier?" he asked. "Are you having trouble at school or something?"

I pursed my lips. "It's not that. It's my dad."

"Uh-oh." He knew I had a rocky relationship with my father. "I thought it was getting better with you two. Is it your stepmom again?"

I sighed. "He decided to move. He took this stupid new job researching for a World War I book. In San Francisco."

"So he wants you to move out there with him?" Percy asked.

"To the other side of the country," I said miserably. "And half-bloods can't live in San Francisco. He should know that."

"What? Why not?"

I rolled my eyes. Even he should know this by now. "You know. It's right there."

"Oh," Percy said. "So . . . you'll go back to living with Jasmine or what?"

"It's more serious than that, Percy. I . . . I probably should tell you something."

I froze. "They're gone."

"What?"

He followed my gaze. The bleachers. The two half-blood kids, Bianca and Nico, were no longer there. The door next to the bleachers was wide open. Dr. Thorn was nowhere in sight.

"We have to get the others!" I looked around frantically. "Oh, where'd they dance off to? Come on!"

I ran through the crowd. I ended up running right in between Thalia and Grover and interrupted their continued awkward dancing (I'm positive Grover was thrilled), and I spotted Jasmine, Will, and Toothless getting some punch at the table ahead of me.

"Guys!" I yelled, breathless. "Bianca and Nico are gone! And so is Dr. Thorn."

They looked around us, noticing the door next to the bleachers was open as well.

"Where's Percy?" Jasmine asked.

I raised an eyebrow.

I turned a full circle but I couldn't spot him anywhere. "I could've sworn he was right behind me."

"Perhaps he followed them instead," Will said.

"Which is stupid," Thalia said. "He should've waited for us."

"And give Thorn more time to get away with them and cause more harm?" Jasmine said. "I think he made the right call."

"Whatever. Let's go save his sorry butt."


Happy (late) Easter, everyone!

Now we're back to long chapters! This was one of my favorite scenes between Percy and Annabeth. I loved adding the part with Jasmine and Will laughing at them. I wanted to make it more humorous. But after reading this again, can anyone remind me what exactly it was that Annabeth wanted to tell Percy? I honestly cannot remember. Was it maybe something about the Hunters of Artemis? Or one of those things we never found the answer to?

Please review, and please check out my Discord server! at discord . gg / bMFV9g6 (no spaces). Make sure you let me know who you are!