2:20 pm, Monday, January 18, 2011

The students learning Ancient-History from Mrs Thomas were doing a group project.

The goal was to write a myth with your partner, one that would realistically fit into the Greek Mythosphere. It was their final project and would account for a good portion of their grade in this unit.

The unit had actually finished before they went on their winter break, but the project couldn't be started until after. So they had to set aside learning about the Egyptians for a week or two so they could focus on the project.

Piper McLean was partnered with Percy Jackson and they both seemed heavily opinionated on what they should write. The rest of the class could only pick up bits and pieces of their whispered conversation, but they were clearly very arguing over every detail of the story.

"No, we are not making the main character a child of Poseidon!"

"Why not?"

Piper gave him a searing look.

"We are not naming them Piper."

"Well, you're no fun."

"Says you!"

The whispered argument continued until a phone ringing cut through the classroom.

All heads turned to where Piper was fishing her phone out of her bag. Seeing the caller ID, her face scrunched up in confusion, before she shrugged and answered the phone.

"Hey Mellie!" she said brightly. Percy, who had been furiously scribbling on their paper, glanced up, also confused.

They all saw when Piper's face went from bright with elation, to turning slack with horror, to tears starting to stream down her face. Her hand was over her mouth and she looked half sick, half heartbroken.

"What? Mellie, please be joking. Oh, dear gods, no." Piper said, her voice a barely audible whisper.

The phone slipped from her hand, clattering onto the desk. That seemed to shake out the classroom out of its silence and people started to whisper in confusion, as an equally confused Percy brought the phone to his ear.

"Hey Mellie, this is Percy, what's going on?" He said, hands nervously drumming against his desk.

Mrs Thomas was frozen in confusion at the front of the classroom.

Percys had been emotionless ever since the incident last Monday. The only emotions people had seen put him was anger and frustration, but the emotion on his face was one they had never seen, even before the incident.

He looked horrified.

It was the most human emotion they had ever seen him have, and that made a sour feeling in the pits of their stomachs. Something was wrong.

The classroom was so silent by this point that if they listened carefully, they could barely make out the words on the other side of the line, "-media will likely know within the hour. You guys have to get out of school, before that happens, and then over to camp, and then Piper has to get out of the state as soon as possible."

What was going on?

What had happened that they had to not only leave school, but Piper had to leave the state? And why was the media involved?

Percy let loose a string of curses.

Piper burst into tears only seconds later. Percy hastily hung up the phone, saying they would be at camp (What camp, the class wondered) as soon as possible, and then he discarded the phone on the desk.

He glanced at Piper, still sobbing, and out the window. He fished his phone out of his pocket and made his own call. His words were rushed and he spoke in another language, but ended the call in English.

"Thanks, Chiron. We'll be there soon."

Then he made another call, and still spoke in the foreign language. But the other person was revealed when he spoke in English, "Annabeth can you bring Jase to? Pipes prob needs him….Love you." He hung up, and packed his bag, throwing everything in.

Only two minutes later, Jason Grace burst into the room. Percy seemed to look for Annabeth, opening his mouth to ask and Jason answers his question before he could even ask it, "Annabeth ran to the front office, to tell them whats going on."

He then turned to his girlfriend and he hugged her tight, pulling away a few seconds later, wiping her tears away with his thumb.

Percy at the same time looked panicked. His eyes were wild, darting around the room, and lingering on every shadow. He was tapping his foot rapidly, his bronze pen twirling around his fingers as the classroom waited in silence to see what would happen next.

A call came, this time for Mrs Thomas. Everyone watched as her face grew as horrified as Percy and Pipers had before she glanced up at her student. Swallowing, she nodded to Percy, a truce for the day. They could go.

Annabeth Chase burst in a few seconds later, holding two motorcycle helmets. She tossed a set of keys to Jason, and then the helmets, "You two can take my bike. Perce, can I-"

"Yeah," he said, "Let's go." He threw his bag over his shoulder, fished out his keys from his pocket, and shook his head, maybe trying to clear his head.

Jason helped Piper up, and the group of four rushed out of the school.

They heard the unmistakable sound of their motorcycles tearing out of the school, and a few seconds later there was a ding on one of the remaining student's phones.

"Jesus Christ." The student whispered as they stared at the phone.

The class crowded around, and all silently read the headline.

TRISTAN MCLEAN ATTACKED BY STALKER - IN CRITICAL CARE

Oh, so you thought I was gonna put some fluff after the last chapter? HA! Think again!