Annabeth
I shot upwards in my bed, eyes wide open and any means of sleep long gone. I was panting heavily with sweat glistening on my palms. I felt my forehead and found it burning intensely, threatening to scald my hand. I couldn't recall much of my dream and my head began to ache when I tried to remember so my attempts quickly ceased.
I tried to calm myself and steady my breathing, looking around in the place I had begun to call home over the past week. My bedroom was pretty small but that was fine, I didn't want a big apartment. Despite it being small and full with furnishings, it still felt empty and I can't quite explain why. The walls were light cream coloured and had a tall bookshelf against the one opposite my bed, brimming with a collection of my favourite novels. At the end of the room, below a window was a small desk and chair next to which, a pile of scrapped designs lay forgotten.
I dragged my legs over the side of the bed and onto the floor. I sat there gazing into the shadows, my breathing much steadier, attempting to recollect different fragments of the dream. Then my right foot nudged something sharp that wasn't supposed to be on my floor. I looked down to see an upside down picture frame. I must have knocked it off my bedside table in my sleep. I picked it up and turned it over to find a picture of Percy, Thalia, Grover and me in central park, just after the war with Kronos. I smiled at the memory and although it wasn't taken at the happiest point in our lives, it was comforting to know that we were all still friends.
I put the picture back on my bedside table and slowly traipsed out my room in my pyjamas to get some breakfast, the few remnants of the dream that remained were quickly fading from my memory.
The kitchen was nice enough I guess, if you liked all plain white counters full of clutter. My mom once said to me, 'If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then, is an empty desk a sign of?' I guess I've not bothered cleaning up after myself as much after that. There was a small dining table in the middle of the square kitchen which was connected to my living room which was basically an abundance of seats and other furniture, I didn't have a T.V though.
I made myself a bowl of cereal and fruit and sat down on the dining table, looking through my school schedule for today. Looks as though I had art and then mechanics first thing; followed by maths, English and Spanish.
After finishing breakfast I went for a shower and got changed into a white t-shirt and grey jumper with blue jeans and black converse. Then, feeling much more refreshed and less drowsy, I mapped out my plans for the day in my head whilst getting ready. I was going to have to talk to Jesse today seeing as we sat next to each other in mechanics and although that wasn't bad, I don't think I could look at him the same after what happened yesterday.
Actually I should probably tell Chiron that they're living alone, now that I think about it. It's not safe for untrained demigods to be alone, even with there being much less monsters about. I took a drachma from my bedroom and grabbed some dry ice out of the freezer. After filling my kettle and heating the water I tossed the iced into a bowl and the hot water shortly after it. Fog instantly surged out of the bowl and onto the counter.
I tossed a drachma into the bowl and it landed with a satisfying plop.
"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering…" The depths of the bowl shone golden for a second before fading. "Show me Chiron at camp half-blood please."
A rainbow began to glimmer in the bowl and I leant over it, trying to making out the blurry image, perhaps this wasn't the best way to iris message someone...
The image began to clear and I saw the pinochle table at which sat Chiron and our camp director, Mr D (or Dionysus if you want to be technical). Mr D sighed and laid down his cards in his usual losing fashion.
"Well I don't know how you do it Chiron but you've beaten me again," He took a swig of is diet coke. "You must have some cards up your sleeve I'm sure."
"With all due respect, I wouldn't expect the need to cheat to beat you Mr D." Chiron responded.
"I suppose," Dionysus huffed, then he turned his head and looked in my direction with a bored expression. "Looks like you have a call." Chiron turned his wheelchair to face where Mr D was looking and his face lit up when he saw me.
"Ah, Annabeth good to see you again dear. How are things at school?"
"They're great, thanks for asking." I replied. The old centaur looked much better for wear now that the war was over.
"That's good, however I assume that's not the reason you called this early." He sated, knowingly.
"Yeah, it's not. Do you remember the potential demigods that Nico told you about?" He nodded, his face radiating calm and understanding. "Well Percy and I found out yesterday that they're living alone in an apartment together."
Chiron stopped and thought for a moment, his brow creasing as had done so many times over the years. "And there were three of them?"
"Yeah, a seventeen year old guy, a girl who I think is about ten and another guy who I haven't seen but Nico has."
"How sure can we be that they are indeed demigods?" Chiron asked.
"Well the girl has grey eyes like mine, and she seemed more intelligent than any other ten year old that I've seen, and the older guy seems a lot tougher than a mortal should be. That's about all we can go on right now."
"I see…" Chiron pondered on this and then turned back to me after he had finished thinking. "I sent a satyr to check on the situation this morning and he should be arriving at you're school at some point today if he isn't side-tracked."
"Yeah, Nico told us you would. So, if they do turn out to be demigods…"
"Then we will have to bring them back to school as soon as possible." He stated with nod. "Oh, and Annabeth?"
"Yeah?" I asked.
"School starts soon I believe, best not be late."
I looked up at the clock in the kitchen and gasped when I saw I had ten minutes to get to school.
"See you Chiron!" I said hurriedly, I grabbed my bags and ran for the door.
It was lucky that I live a bit too far away from Percy to walk to school with otherwise I would have made us both late. I could picture him standing patiently at the door for me, in no rush what so ever.
I walked- actually no- I stumbled through the school doors panting heavily. I looked up at the clock, Hades! I was five minutes late, even after sprinting through Manhattan at breakneck speeds. With my breathing back to fairly normal standards I passed the doors and through the main corridor. Just when I thought I was safe, a nasally voice caught me off-guard.
"Well Miss Chase, I didn't expect to see you off all people late this morning." I looked to my right and behind the desk of the student reception was a tall stick of a woman with very defined and bony features.
"Sorry Mrs Johnson, I'll try not to do it again." I apologised.
She looked at me over the top of her hooked nose. "That you should, if you're late two more times this term, then you'll be serving detention."
"Won't happen again Mrs Johnson." I turned away as she began writing my name down on the late student list. I mean honestly, a daughter of Athena serving detention?
I gave a weary sigh when I remembered I had art first which was all the way on the other side of the school. Oh well, it was better than having to trek across Tartarus. I shuddered at the thought; that place still gives me nightmares. I stopped myself before I thought about it too much, couldn't let myself well up in public now, could I?
I made my through the deserted corridors to get to my first lesson and when I finally arrived my teacher's mouth was so wide open, you could probably have put a watermelon in there. Oh and guess what we had to draw? Yep, watermelons. I could already tell this was going to be a long lesson.
After the lesson was over I handed in my piece and the teacher gave his usual 'it's so great to have talented young artists, best in the class et cetera, et cetera.' I hurried out the class after he had finished before he could lecture me anymore.
Looks like I've got mechanics next, great, I don't know what to say to Jesse right now or if I should say anything at all. Should I tell him I know about him and the others not having parents? Maybe not… I don't want to get Trey in trouble for telling us something he shouldn't have.
As my thoughts continued to rumble on I didn't take much notice that I had already walked the length of the school to get to my class and sat down in my desk without so much of a second thought. By the time had realised where I was, our teacher, Mr Pacheco had already started the lesson and everyone was sat down. Everyone except Jesse.
Oh no, they couldn't have been attacked could they? There was no telling what could've happened… I mean three demigods living by themselves, every hellhound and empousa in the state would've been able to track them down. What were we thinking? Leaving them alone like that, we should've tried to take them to camp while we had the chance.
Whilst I was wallowing in doubt, there came a knock at the door. I looked up to see a tall figure covering the doorway with ash brown hair swept calmly across his head and brown eyes looking down apologetically. It felt like the sky had been taken off my shoulders again.
"Sorry I'm late Sir." He said in his usual husky voice.
"That's okay Jesse, any reason why you're late?"
"Not really no." He huffed although not sounding entirely convincing.
"Alright then. Take your seat and we'll continue the lesson."
He strode over to his seat next to mine, "Hey." He said quietly with a smile.
"Hey, how come you're so late?" I whispered as he sat down.
He looked at me with intense brown eyes, his light blue 'edub for president' t-shirt standing out against them. "Me and Rebecca went to the hospital a couple of days ago and I think she must have caught something because she was feeling a bit ill this morning."
"And you stayed behind to look after her?"
"Yeah." I've got to admit that was pretty cute, but did that mean she was at home by herself now?
"Did she take the day off?" I asked.
"Nah she went to school, I told her I would stay at home with her but she wasn't having any of it. She wouldn't miss a day off school if it killed her, won't let me either."
I smiled at this, even if I couldn't be completely positive that she was a demigod, she certainly sounded like a daughter of Athena to me.
"Okay class," Mr Pacheco started. "Today we will be starting our course of kinematics, we've already been doing some work related to it and hopefully it'll give you a more diverse understanding of the lessons ahead. Now, can anyone give me a definition of kinematics?"
No-one seemed to want to participate so I stuck my hand in the air. "Yes Annabeth?"
"It's the use of Newton's laws and other formulae to describe motion in a variety of points and objects."
"Very well done, can you tell me when it is used?"
"Umm, probably astrophysics, biomechanics and some forms of mechanical engineering."
"Correct again." Mr Pacheco said and began rambling on about what we would be covering. I stopped listening when I noticed a piece of paper in front of me that wasn't there before.
I looked down to see a small piece of paper that had been folded lengthways so it would stand, just like a name plaque on a desk would. I picked it up and turned it round to see Einstein written on it. I looked across at Jesse who looked like he hadn't moved in a century and didn't even flinch one bit under my stare. I could only smile to myself, looks like we were going to get along well with these guys.
The lessons after mechanics went really slowly although I had a really nice lunch alone with Percy where we could just enjoy each other's company. Percy met me outside of Spanish and walked with me out of school when we were met with a very strange character.
'Look, Annabeth if you'd just try a blue cookie I'm sure you'd love it." Percy was saying.
"I'm sure I would Percy, but it's a weird-" I was cut off by a voice to our left as we reached the bottom of the stone steps.
"Are you guys Percy and Annabeth?" The voice was a little hoarse, as if the owner had been travelling without rest for too long.
We turned to see an odd looking guy who looked in his early twenties, he had a scruffy bit of hair on his chin and caramel eyes. He was wearing a baseball cap and walked with a strange crook in his legs.
"Yeah, who're who?" Asked Percy a little too impolitely.
"Benton Dewlight at your service." He said proudly with a beam across his face. "Chiron sent me to check out our little situation here."
"Wow, you got here fast." I said, surprised he had turned up so quickly.
He made a bleating sound which got us a few stares from others. "I'm the fastest satyr this side of the river, that's one reason why Chiron sent me. He told me to pose as a teaching assistant for a few days to see what's what."
"Oh right. Will we be seeing you often then?" I asked.
"Trust me," he smiled a bright white smile. "You won't even know I'm here."
Wow. I have been so terrible this past month. If I could apologise to you guys as much as I would like, I would. However I don't think I could do it in words... thanks for waiting and stuff though, hope you enjoyed. It was difficult writing this, guess I should've gone with a Rebecca chapter after all, oh well.
Dear reviewers: 'hermes child awesomeness' Haha thanks, gotta love the Swedes. 'HannahBanana16' Thank you! It's nice to be open to all languages and people, I don't think I've seen you before so welcome :) 'Jimsdale' Glad you enjoyed and thanks for that, I'll try and avoid any Sue-ishness. Don't hold me to it though. 'Me' Wow, I'm glad you're enjoying this so much! It's nice to see people appreciate what you do. Not saying any of you other guys aren't so thank you to everyone.
This is becoming like a little therapy session for me now :P
Anyways thanks for reading everyone,
Have a beautiful day.
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