Guess what? I grew a heart and decided to update! So, life goes on and I hope you enjoy!

~GoGreen52

Chapter 5- Vanishing Act

-Thalia POV-

You want to know something really cool?

Yeah?

Well, for your information, my life sucks.

Here I am, stuck sitting next to some little brat in English. I mean, all this girl does is talk about how Percy Jackson was going to ask her out, and how he dumped Rachel for her. For her.

You see what I have to deal with every day? And when I say every day, I seriously mean every day. My guess is the teacher, Ms. Mason, is just trying to get Drew, the little brat, to take something from me, one of the best students in the class.

Instead, all Drew's doing is driving me crazy. I swear, the next time someone utters the name Percy Jackson, I'm going to rip their head off. And whoever tries to stop me will get their head ripped off too. That's just how it works; you mess with Thalia Grace, and you get your head ripped off.

And I'm pretty sure everyone in this school knows it, too.

Take the football players, for instance. They run like little girls every time they see me. It's quite hilarious actually- especially after what happened this morning… the next time I see them I have a feeling they're going to pee their freaking pants.

I can be a scary person when I want to be.

And right now I want to be.

Come on, she's doodling on her paper when we're supposed to be taking notes. The worst thing, though, is that she's doodling Mrs. Drew Jackson in big bubble letters. I just looked forward at the teacher and took a deep breath.

Come on Thalia! You just gotta take a few deep breaths, forget about the brat, and you're home free!

English is the only class that I haven't lost my cool and had to leave the classroom in. I for one think that having to leave the classroom and see guidance counselors and the principals is pretty elementary, and I think that they should find some other kind of punishment. I mean, I hit someone, and they start talking to me about maybe I need to reach out to someone or something. They treat me like I have problems.

I mean, do I sound like I have problems?

Just the idiots at this school that can't seem to leave me alone.

Turning my attention back the teacher, she droned on about how Shakespeare was a pure genius, which I can agree upon in some level, and she started to talk about Romeo and Juliette, one of the most well-known love stories of all time.

I wonder if she reads romance novels every night before she sleeps… that might explain the obsession with Romeo and Juliette. I swear this woman makes a reference to them in ever y sentence she speaks.

"Hey Thalia? Your brother hangs out with Percy." She spoke his name like she was speaking of a god. "Has your brother mentioned something about me and Percy…" Drew nodded her head forward, in a leading action.

Her and Percy… you know what? For some reason I think she would be perfect for Percy.

I looked at Drew, thinking of what would happen if Jason and I actually tried to talk civilly. Hah. Yeah right.

My brother and I? Well, we haven't spoken civilly since Percy, his best friend, disrespected Annabeth. Since then, we really haven't been talking… just shouting. A lot of shouting. I know for a fact that the bond Jason and I used to have probably won't show ever again.

I looked at Drew's sad excuse of a pout, thinking of what would happen if Jason and I actually tried to talk civilly. Hah. Yeah right.

Might as well have an ambulance on sight, too.

I started to tune my teacher in, and actually listened to what she was saying. She started to talk about how some literature started a revolution, how some small literature started something great- a resistance, a democracy…

She was lecturing us about the importance of literature again. I bet it was the kid in the front with the Justin Bieber hair that asked "Why is this so important, anyways?"

This is a total waste of my time, that's what it is.

Ms. Mason started to get back on the topic of Shakespeare again, but before she could re-start the lecture, something made my blood run cold.

"This school is now under a lock down, get to a secure room, students. This is not a drill! I repeat- this is not a drill!"

I watched as all the students in the room started to whisper loudly to their table partners, as Ms. Mason ran around the room frantically, locking the door, turning off the lights, and shutting the blinds. She got the help of some of the athletic students, excluding me, to barricade the door.

I looked at a couple that had this class together, Travis Stoll and Katie Gardner, who were holding each other, and looking at the door with wide eyes.

I'm pretty sure I was the calmest one in the room, right now.

And to be honest, I really don't know why. I just have this feeling that we won't be hurt, or even come close to being hurt. But something was nagging at me… but I couldn't place what it was.

"Everyone! Get under your desks!"

I snapped out of it, and got under the table that the school excuses as a double student desk. So of course, Drew was right next to me, shaking in fear. The good part of me wanted to comfort her, but the awesome part of me told me to make her struggle.

I just closed my eyes, ignoring all the whispers of students praying, telling each other that this was just some elaborate prank, or just telling themselves that it was all going to be okay.

This never has happened to Goode High before, surprisingly enough. Our school is usually so protected… whoever got through the security must have had a really good reason to come in here. Any normal bad guy wouldn't come here… the head of security, Ares, was a scary guy. He made me cower in fear.

I started to get a little more nervous about this whole thing. I mean, whoever decided to come into this school had to get past Ares, and whoever could get past him, obviously was even worse.

And I thought Ares was bad.

"We're gonna die!" Drew whispered loudly. I glared at her, silently telling her to shut up, but she opened her mouth again. "I won't get to marry Percy!"

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. 10, 9, 8, 7…. What am I doing? Just shut her up dammit!

I opened my eyes and slapped her, lightly for me, but it must've been pretty hard for her. She looked at me with wide eyes. "Will you just shut up already?" I asked, not bothering to whisper.

She continued to look at me with wide eyes, so to get a reaction, I rose my hand again- but this time she nodded really quickly and held her hands up in a surrender motion.

Good, she wasn't scared of the bad guy now… she was scared at me.

And silence. Finally.

Well, not really.

The lock down lasted for thirty more minutes, each minute going by, I started to get a little more worried than the last. I mean, what was happening that took so long? It couldn't have been good.

I just hope my friends are okay.

"Students, the busses are here, we are releasing you all early."

I smiled to myself, and our teacher walked out into the hallway to get the okay from someone from the office. There was something off, though. Something must've happened… it's not normal for us to be let out early.

It's never happened before.

Well, then again, our school has never experienced a real lock down before, so I guess they kind of go hand in hand.

We left the classroom, and I went to the picnic table that Piper, Juni, Annabeth and I always meet at after school. When I walked towards the front entrance, I saw more and more cops. There were some taking stories from the office workers, and I saw Ares sitting on a chair and getting checked out by an EMT.

At that sight, I headed to the picnic table a little faster than I was before.

I saw that Piper was there; and her eyes looked a bit red, which was probably from crying with the past situation. I have a feeling Piper and Juniper cried, but I know Annabeth is much too headstrong.

I'm pretty sure she's been through worse than this. You never know with Annabeth.

"Hey Piper! How are you?" I called, walking up to her. She looked really scared, and I knew that I'm probably the only one who was calm during that.

"Yeah… it was just so sudden, you know? And I just have this really bad feeling…" Piper explained, her eyebrows furrowing.

"I have a bad feeling, too. Did you read my mind or something?"

"No… or did you read mine? Oh, here comes Juniper." Piper pointed to Juniper, who was running over to us. Total ADHD moment… Once Juni got to us, she took us into a big hug. I immediately stiffened. I'm not one for the touchy feely stuff.

"Uhm… Juniper? Enough with the touchy feely stuff please."

She immediately let go, and looked at me sheepishly. Wiping some tears from her eyes, she said, "I'm so glad you guys are okay."

I smiled at her, an actual genuine smile. "I'm glad you're okay, too, Juniper."

She looked like she was about to hug me again, but before she could, I saw her brain work and she restrained herself.

"Have any of you seen Annabeth?" Piper asked.

Juniper looked at her funny. "So she wasn't with you? Where is she then?"

They both looked at me, and I just shrugged, and looked at the school entrance, where dozens of students were still filing out of the school. Annabeth could just be stuck in traffic, or something.

But I have a feeling that's really not the case.

"Guys? I'm really starting to get a bad feeling, here," Juniper said. Piper and I looked at her ridiculously, experiencing the same thing. Okay, something was seriously not right, here.

"Yeah, we hear you, Juniper. We were just talking about that when you came out of the school," Piper explained. "Do you think something happened to Annabeth?"

I looked at her with a grave look in my eyes. "I hope not."

"So you guys have that bad feeling too? Oh, this is just getting worse and worse," Juniper mumbled. She had a pout on her face, and I could see some tears in her eyes.

Piper and I shared a look before turning our heads to the school entrance, wordlessly hoping that Annabeth would come out, even though we knew that she probably wasn't really going to come out. I mean, what are the chances that we all had a really bad feeling at the same time, and that our best friend wasn't showing up after school… and during school hours, there was a lock down.

What are the chances of that? Obviously something had happened to Annabeth. She wouldn't just forget to show up after school, especially at a time like this. And no wonder why there were so many cops here.

There must've been a big problem.

The number of students leaving the school slowly dwindled down to none, and I turned to look at my two friends, who were still looking at the front entrance with wide eyes. She still hadn't come out.

I looked back at the door, then back to my friends. "You know what guys? Let's just go home, and come back here tomorrow, okay? If she's not here tomorrow, we could drop by the front office and see what's up. Don't worry so much."

They forced smiles, and nodded. We walked off in separate directions, heading home. I walked alone, knowing Jason had probably already left. We never walk home together anyways, and sometimes he'll go to a friend's house, or I will… so usually we don't cross each other until dinner.

Dinner is the time when I have to try to get my mother to eat. She's not much of a mother, out partying more than Jason or I do, and she never eats during the day, claiming she's too fat. But in reality, she's actually stick-thin.

I don't know what to do with her anymore, I mean, Jason's no help. He's too much of a mommy's boy, taking her side with everything. He says that she eats already, just on a different time schedule. And I seriously think he's in denial.

But of course whenever I try to tell him that, he decides to go off about something else.

It's endless fighting.

I don't remember the last time our family actually was a family. I don't remember the last time we sat down together to eat dinner- and had not gotten in a fight. I don't remember the last time my mother was actually a mother, and I don't remember my father at all.

He left after Jason and I were born.

But for some reason, my mother still thinks he's going to come back, and after the years go by, she's starting to lose hope. She's starting to just go into self-destruct mode.

That's what she's doing… and ever y meal she skips, every drug that she takes in… she's one step closer to death. But at least she doesn't know the truth.

I decided to do some digging a while back, when Jason and I were in Middle School, and had gotten along a little better. We found out that our father had passed away driving drunk, and had hit a tree. He was living in Washington at the time.

I know I have to be thankful that my mother doesn't know he's dead… because it gives her hope. Unfortunately lately with the steps she's been taking, I'm seeing the hope dwindle away.

And every step she takes, I try not to care, I try not to notice the smell of her breath, or the way her cheekbones stick out, or the dark spots under her eyes… I try not to notice it, because when I do, I feel like I'm losing everything.

Even though this is all kept inside.

I mean, Jason? Jason's in denial. He won't admit to himself that our mother is in self-destruct mode. He loves our mother, and she's always adored him. But I look too much like my father for her to be around me.

By the time I started to tune out those selfish thoughts, I was at my apartment complex. I hopped up the stairs to get to our home, and opened the door, shutting it carefully just so I wouldn't wake up my mother if she were sleeping.

When I turned around, I looked around the small apartment, and saw my mother lying on the couch, asleep. Walking over, I took the Vodka out of her hand and put a blanket over her.

She almost looks normal, now.

I capped the bottle and put it back in the cupboard before raiding the refrigerator. I took in the coolness of the air and used it as a relaxer before looking at the food, or the lack of food, that we had. Note- Get more food.

I sighed and closed it, settling for a few crackers from the little pantry by the fridge.
I walked to my room and sat on my bed, trying to process what had happened during school. Nothing better to remember things with than a few crackers, right?

Right.

I started to get that achy gut feeling, remembering how Annabeth hadn't met us up at the picnic table today. It's really not like Annabeth to do that, and not tell us ahead of time. I mean, that girl has her priorities straight.

I sighed, and turned myself so I was laying down. I took my IPod from the side table, cranked up some Green Day, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

oOoOoOoOoOoOo

The next day, I went to school like any other teenager on this earth. I was as nervous as hell, worried that Annabeth really wouldn't be there today, and that she actually did have something bad happen to her yesterday.

I normally don't get nervous, not like this. I have had my fair share of worries, but apart from my mother, this has to be the scariest moment of my life.

What if she's not at school today? What would I do?

To be honest, I don't really know what I would do.

When I got to the school, I immediately found Piper and Juniper waiting for me, right by the entrance to school. "Has she come here yet?" I asked, hoping for the best, even though the sad look on their faces told me everything I needed to know.

"No… I'm starting to get really scared, Thalia. This is really not like her. Not at all," Piper said, rubbing her face with her hand. "I'm starting to think something bad might've happened to her."

I nodded, and looked on ahead to the entrance. Through the glass doors, I could see students being directed one way, towards the gyms. Uh oh… this cannot be good. Not at all.

"Let's go inside, huh?" I asked my two weary friends. They nodded, and we walked inside together. Like I had seen before, there were teachers directing the students to the gyms, telling us that there was an emergency meeting that we all had to attend.

And whatever it was, I knew it couldn't have been good… and that it was somehow relating to Annabeth's vanishing act.

Piper, Juniper and I walked to the gyms and sat down in the already crowded bleachers together. I noticed some familiar faces, including my brother, and sighed with what could be relief. At least I know that I still have him around to haunt me for the rest of my days.

The Principals walked out to the middle of the gym in front of us, all of them wearing grave looks on their faces. Principal Zeus, one of the scariest guys I've ever met, probably had the gravest face of them all.

"Students," he said, and immediately the gym was in an abrupt silence. "Yesterday we had a tragic event at this school. There were two students in the lockdown yesterday that unfortunately, have gone missing. The evidence leads to a kidnapping, and we ask if any of you know of anything that had happened yesterday, we ask that you come forth immediately."

He took a rather deep breath, and let it out in a long fashion. "The students missing are Annabeth Chase, and Percy Jackson. I hope whoever knows anything about this case will come forward, and the rest will be taken with the police. "

I gulped, and kept on looking forward, ignoring the stares my way, probably meant for my friends who were sobbing uncontrollably at my side. There were more important matters at hand.

Annabeth had been kidnapped.

Well, hope you liked the twist in character! I think Thalia had to have that little background story to make it work a little better… and to make it more interesting.

~GoGreen52