AN: By the way, this is set one week after chapter 5. Enjoy!

Colton POV

"Okay, this is ridiculous" I tell Charlie. "It's been 30 minutes. Where is she?'

Charlotte scowls at me. She has a hard look in her eyes. "I. Don't. Know."

Charlie and have been arguing for the past 30 minutes. The subject: Annabeth Chase. Class started 30 minutes ago, and she still hasn't shown up yet. 5 minutes would be understandable for most people, but 30 minutes? It's not like there's any New York traffic a dormie could get stuck in.

One would think her roommate of all people would know, but Charlie's not having any of it. All she's been doing for the past half hour is repeating 'I don't know' and 'She left before I did'. It's ridiculous!

"You're her roommate," I hiss. "How do you not know?"

Charlie rolls her eyes. "We're not joined at the hip, you know. How many more do I have to explain this to you? She left our dorm about 20 minutes before the bell, and I haven't seen her since. It's the truth."

I narrow my eyes. "Then how come I still don't believe you?"

Charlie glares at me. Before she can say anything else, Andrew clears his throat.

"Come on guys. Fighting is not going to change anything," He says sternly. The dude makes so many god awful puns, it's easy to forget that he can be serious when he wants to.

"It would be easier if someone would just stop interrogating me," Charlie says pointedly at me. The nerve of her!

"It would be easier if someone would just tell the truth," I say glaring at her. Charlie looks ready to bite my head off.

"Enough," Andrew snaps. Just then a shush comes from the front of the class. I turn to see Mrs. Ross frowning at Andrew. Sorry, Andrew mouths, looking a bit embarrassed.

Andrew focuses back on me and Charlie. He sighs in exasperation. "Look guys. Can't we just quietly work on our project? I'm sure Annabeth will show up before the end of class."

"Aren't you even the least bit curious on why Charlie won't say anything," I retort.

Andrew looks hesitantly at an offended looking Charlie. "We can't make assumptions about what Char knows or not." Wimp.

"Come on guys," Andrew continues. "It won't solve anything if you guys keep fighting like this. Let's just get back to work, Okay." Charlie and I don't say anything and just stare at each other. "Okay," Andrew repeats with a little more force in his tone.

Charlie and I both reluctantly nodded and got back to our work.

About 10 minutes later, the door opens to reveal none other than Annabeth Chase. She looks a bit out of breath and messier than usual. Her uniform shirt is partially untucked on one side and her ponytail is a lot messier than usual. Her regular tie is missing and her blazer looks a bit wrinkled. She walks towards Mrs. Ross's desk and hands her a Tardy Slip. Then she sits down at our table, ignoring the whispers of the other students.

There's a brief moment of silence at our table before Annabeth speaks up and asks, "What did I miss?"

Andrew ignores her question and asks with forced nonchalance, "So, where were you?" Even Andrew's curious why someone would be 40 minutes late.

For a nanosecond, Annabeth glances towards Charlie. I'd probably would've thought I imagined it, but Charlie's nervous shifting proves otherwise. She knows something that she's not sharing with me and Andrew. I knew it!

Annabeth shrugs. "It's kind of a long story. Best not to get into the details." Her withering look nips all attempts to debate.

"Sounds good to me," Charlie pipes in a bit too eagerly. With no other choice we get to work on our project.

Time Skip-

It's lunch time and we're sitting outside. Andrew, me, and Charlie are sitting in our usual spot, while Percy and Annabeth are sitting under a tree. Percy has one arm wrapped lazily over Annabeth and was drinking from a coke bottle. Annabeth is reading a book very attentively. How she reads that titan of a book so well and still has dyslexia- I'll never know. One of her hands is absentmindedly playing with Percy's hair.

We're sitting here quietly when Abbey, Kate, and Alexa show up.

"Hey, guys," Charlie calls. The three girls smile at her and sit by us with their lunches.

"Alexa," I ask. "Is the homework for French due today or tomorrow?"

She narrows her eyes at me. "What Homework?"

"You know, the one where we record ourselves giving a news report in French."

"I thought that was due next week," she says with a gobsmacked look on her face.

Kate turns to look at Percy. "Speaking of classes, why were you almost 40 minutes late to first period, Percy?"

Percy winces and swats at Annabeth. I swear I can hear him muttering something about hair.

Percy looks up. "Oh… I-uh overslept and missed the Subway." He gives an embarrassed to smile at her.

Hmm. I steal a glance at Annabeth. She's still looking at her book, but her expression seems to be guarded, maybe even a little annoyed.

Kate doesn't seem to notice. "Oh, well that does seem understandable. I mean, I guess there's nothing you can do about that one."

Percy jumps a bit harder. He turns his head and glares at Annabeth who is still gazing intently at her book. I could barely hear him say, "Would you stop pulling my hair?"

Annabeth looks up. "Sorry, did you say something," she deadpans. Percy sighs and takes a sip of his Coke.

Andrew and I share a look. It has been a week since Percy showed up, and Andrew has already shared with me about his concerns. See, Andrew despises all troublemakers, rulebreakers, and generally bad boys. ("Jokes and pranks are all in the name of good fun until someone decides to break the rules." Weirdo) Andrew's convinced Percy is at least one of them.

While I'd try to argue that he could just get into the normal kind of trouble most teens get into (Except Andrew, but I wouldn't say he's normal), I have to admit he sort of has a point. After all, only an idiot would believe Percy and Annabeth both arriving 40 late is pure coincidence. Just have to figure out why….

Charlie clears her throat. "Do any of you guys know what we're doing in Debate today," she asks.

Annabeth's head snaps up. "We have Debate today?"

"I thinks so, yeah"

Annabeth shakes her head. "It slipped my mind."

"Why," Andrew asks. "Aren't you usually on top of these things?"

Annabeth hesitates. "Today has been… an off day for me." She glances at Percy who grimaces.

Just then, the bell rings and we head off to P.E, me with not the slightest clue what was going on between the seemingly at odds couple.

(The ever so helpful) Time Skip-

"Okay Char, you be the judge," Andrews says. "Which is better: Marvel or DC"

"You guys are still talking about," Charlie asks incredulously.

"Yes" I affirm. "This is a matter of utmost important, and you know those aren't solved so quickly"

Our group is sitting in Dr. O'Tesson's classroom, the psychology teacher hosts our debate meetings. Right now it's me, Andrew, Charlie, and Nancy. Abbey and Thomas tutor today, Avery's sick, and I haven't seen Annabeth since study hall (nor Percy for that matter, but whatever. He's not on the team anyway.)

Nancy laughs. "Really, you're having a debate about comic books of all things?"

I scoff at her. "No… don't forget tv shows and movies."

Charlie sighs. "This is pointless"

"Anyway," Nancy interrupts. "Anyone seen Annabeth."

Andrew frowns. "No, and it's not like her to miss debate."

"Unless she got detention," Charlie mumbles.

"Yeah, right," Nancy says sarcastically. "What could she possibly do get that?"

"Being 40 minutes late to class."

"Wait, really?"

Andrew and I nod. "Just the same as Percy, too," I say.

Nancy whistles. "What could they both been doing to be that late?"

Charlotte POV

Hmm... What could they both been doing? We'll, I guess you could say Colton was right as was hiding something. But honestly, can you blame me? I have had a very trying morning.

( Harp Flashback music An: like the ones from the cartoon)

It was 7:30 a.m, dorms. I was putting on my shoes and Annabeth was in the bathroom. I could hear her talking, most likely on the phone. I knew she had one, but she said she had limited minutes and it was only for emergencies. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but I could make out bits and pieces of her conversation)

Annabeth: "Are you serious right now? Okay, okay, sorry. How did she even get out?" There was a considerable pause. Annabeth: "That's so. And no one else can help why?" Another pause. Annabeth: "You can stop laying on the flattery so thick Seaweed Brain." I heard an exasperated sigh. Annabeth: "Alright, where is she? No, I'm asking for a friend. Yes, I'm helping! Wouldn't be 'the most helpful and smartest girlfriend, ever' if I just left my poor, bereaved boyfriend to search for his dog all on his own. Hmm?" A small moment of quiet. Annabeth: " Oh, it means sad and depressed, Percy." Annabeth paused then laughed. Annabeth: "You do, Seaweed Brain! I'm not judging. I know how much you love Mrs. O'Leary. Anyway, where is she right now."There's a slight hesitation. Annabeth: "Less than five minutes away, huh? Alright, we've got 30 minutes till school. You better hope Nico gets here before then."

As the doorknob jingled, I frantically tied my laces and picked up a book so it didn't look like I was eavesdropping (not that I did it on purpose). The door opened and Annabeth walked out and grabbed her bag.

"Where are you going," I asked trying to sound casual.

Annabeth stopped and locked eyes with me. She must've read from my expression that I had overheard her conversation (no surprise. Nothing escapes that girl) and came to a conclusion about me.

"Charlotte. If I asked you to keep a secret. Would you," Annabeth asked me.

I thought for a moment. "Within reason, I guess." I narrowed my eyes. "Would this have something to do with Percy's dog?"

"Yes," she affirmed. "I'm going to help him get her back." She said it so calmly like she didn't realize one teensy-insy-little thing.

"And how are you going to convince the dorm monitors to leave?"

"Easy," She said nonchalantly while walking to grab her backpack from the bed. "I'm not. I'll just sneak out."

For a moment I thought I heard her wrong, because there was no way I heard her right. "You're what?"

"Sneaking out." She said it like she was heading to the kitchen to grab a snack. Annabeth began rummaging around in her drawers looking for something. She must've found it, but from where I was still sitting, I couldn't see what it was she grabbed. A hat, maybe?

How on earth did that girl think she could sneak out of the Dorms? There were security cameras and hall monitors in every hallway. Any tree outside our windows were purposely planted like ten feet away from our windows, too far for any normal human to jump. And even if she made it, five feet ahead would be even more security cameras. Our school was more guarded than Alcatraz!

"If anyone asks I simply left the room about 20 minutes before the bell, and you haven't seen me since," she said walking towards the window. She then began calmly unlocking it.

"Wait," I cried. "You can't be serious! The closest branch is too far!"

My protests seemed to fall on deaf ears as Annabeth positioned herself to jump. "Not for me," she said. She jumped.

I stifled a scream. I ran to the window to see her professionally balancing herself on one limb. She looked up and smiled at me before racing down the tree.

AN: Sorry about ending it like this I ran out of ideas on how to continue this chapter, and felt guilty for not posting in so long. But if I can get the ball rolling for the next chapter, be prepared!

-Frazel2