Chapter 3: Apparently, I'm right for once.
As soon as I was out of the changing rooms I broke into a run. It was lunch, and everyone was looking at me like I was some psychopath. If only they'd seen me fight. When I reached mine and Nico's regular spot he knew that something was up. So in a rush I told him, his eyes practically bulging out of his head by the time I was done.
"There's only one thing for it." He said with a hint of pride, as if he figured the whole thing out by himself. "We need to get to Clarion Ladies' Academy."
Together we bolted out the gates to Annabeth's school. Maybe she'd be able to make a guess at what this thing was. Within 20 minutes, we were stood looking up at Tribeca All-Girls Preparatory School, only a few minutes walk from Meriwether College Prep. The school I went to, for only one year, while I was 13. Being so close to the place brought back memories, it was where I first met Tyson, and it was the place that Annabeth had saved us from cannibal Canadians. Nico and I looked at each other warily; I'd never been inside the building. Outside. But never, in. We stayed close as we waded through a sea of girls. It was lunch there too. I had my eyes on a building that looked kind of like a student centre. It was low, with orange bricks like the rest of the school. With Nico on my heels I strode into the building. Yep, student centre. I thought. The walls were a bland grey; the fake pine desk was covered in papers. Two or three chunky computers buzzed in the corners of the office area.
A large woman, with icy blue eyes smiled kindly at me.
"Can I help you dearies?" her voice was honest and carefree. I glanced back at Nico, who nodded slightly.
"Can you help me find a student? It's very important." My voice firm and angry. I obviously hadn't calmed down after my audience with Ares. The lady straightened up in her heavily cushioned chair.
"Of course, may I ask who and for what reason?" Shoot. I shouted harshly in my head. Nico saved me.
"We're looking for Annabeth Chase, she's our cousin. Something has happened within our family and she needs to be pulled out of school immediately." He gave the most innocent look that he could. "Could you please tell us where she may be?" The lady hit a few keys on the keyboard in front of her and sighed.
"She has 3D drawing next period after lunch. That is in the design area. Though she spends the majority of her lunches in the library, I think that you would have more chance finding her there. She hasn't missed a single lesson this year." The woman beamed proudly. Obviously this school kept a very close eye on the whereabouts of their students. Slightly creepy. I noticed that Nico had a look on his face like he was thinking the exact same as I was.
"Umm, thank you, thank you very much." I said. Eager to get out of the room with the fat lady. I pulled Nico out of the building behind me. He didn't need much convincing though.
We found the Library easily enough. On the way there, I had noticed security cameras everywhere; they seemed to follow us as we heading towards the other buildings. The walls inside were piled floor to ceiling with books. How Annabeth could even breathe with all these musty old pages surrounding her was surprising. But then my Annabeth was one to stick to something she loved. Even if it was going to get her killed someday.
We found her in a corner of the large room sat at a table covered in old books. Swiftly, we walked to where she could see us and I coughed loudly. She didn't look up. She must've been listening to music, or she'd just chosen to ignore us. We walked up to her table where she was sat, behind a curtain of blond hair, streaked with grey, the same colour as her eyes. She was hunched over some strange book. I coughed again. Obviously annoyed that we'd interrupted her reading. She glared coldly at us for about two milliseconds. Then realised who we were. And jumped up giving Nico an awkward one armed hug and then gave me a kiss on the cheek as she laced her hand through mine. It would've been heavenly if not for the reason that we were there.
"Seaweed brain." She squeaked with excitement of this surprised visit. "What are you guys doing here? You're supposed to be picking me up after school remember?" It was a rhetorical question. I guessed that she was trying to be playful and romantic. But I wasn't in the mood. Seeing Annabeth had washed away all of my anger. Yet I was still worried about the quest we were undoubtedly going to have to take. Noticing that I hadn't said anything since we'd actually got there, she stared intently into my eyes for a few milliseconds. "What's wrong? What's happened?" Her beautiful eyes darted across my body and then Nico's to see if we were hurt. Satisfied that we weren't, she gestured for us to sit down with a relieved sigh.
I quickly told her about my conversation with Ares, explaining that we had to go find Rachel Elizabeth Dare, our oracle, to receive a quest. Without any hesitation, Annabeth declared that she was going. I wouldn't have been happy any other way, knowing that she wasn't with me. But after the war with the Titans, where she'd been stabbed, I was extremely cautious about her safety. Yet her eyes shone with anticipation, and I simply couldn't say no. I looked at my girlfriend, then at my cousin, who was twiddling his thumbs trying to ignore mine and Annabeth's loved up expressions no doubt.
"We need to get to camp." He muttered under his breath. Even though he had his own cabin, his own table, and he was accepted at camp just as his father was accepted as an Olympian council member at each day of the year. He still disliked the place. I couldn't see why. He spent most of the year in the Underworld, then shadow travelling to go to school with me. Annabeth, Grover, Tyson and I were pretty much the only people he trusted. This meant we were the only people he talked to.
We left the library after helping Annabeth put all of her books back in the correct places. The witch surveying us as we did so, tutted every time Nico and I put a book in the wrong place. It was typical really. She wouldn't help, yet at the same time she couldn't help pointing it out every time we got it incorrect. The whole situation reminded me of a monster we had met on our travels in the labyrinth last year. A sphinx, it had made Annabeth do a trivial quiz, and Annabeth would've passed with flying colours, if she hadn't thrown a fit. Anyway, we finished putting away all of the books and we left in a hurry. We had decided while we were putting the books away that we'd better stop off at my place to tell mum and Paul, I guessed that he'd be annoyed that I had left school early without consent, but when I'd told him why he'd be fine. I hope. He may have been in on the whole 'demi-god' thing, but that didn't mean he wasn't annoyed when I left school early to embark on some quest.
Before we left, Annabeth took us both up to her room so that she could get some belongings. She always had her knife, her invisibility cap and a golden drachma with her. But things like mortal money, directions to camp, and Daedalus' laptop she kept locked away in her room. She pulled us inside the room. It was sea blue, my favourite colour. It made me smile. I doubted that it was Annabeth's choice, but the coincidence was quite amusing. I laid down on the bed that had to be my girlfriend's. On the bedside table was a photo of the pair of us after last year's camp. Nico sat at the desk on her roommate's side. Coated in dark colours and shadows. It looked as if he was enjoying himself in misery land. Annabeth looked at us both and sighed, obviously our comfort annoyed her. Her mind was working over time I knew. It's just how she is. She pulled a yellow duffel bag from underneath her bed and started packing clothes, toiletries, other essentials. She passed a worried glance over to her desk with the laptop on it. She'd gotten it when Daedalus passed away a few years ago, he'd given her all of his ideas, it was her most prized possession. A pained expression crossed over her face and was quickly wiped away.
"Take it with you." I said. She was going to need it. "You'll only regret it if you left it here." She knew I was right, for once. Reluctantly, she shoved it into a case and put it with the rest of her things. After half an hour, we were ready. We got on the subway and headed to my apartment. We'd agreed to spend the night there.
At my place, everything was fine. Mom made blue food, Nico killed zombies on my games console in the lounge while Annabeth and I chatted about what our next move was.
Later that evening, Nico and I set up camp on the living room floor while Annabeth dumped her stuff on my bedroom floor. We kissed in the hallway and went to bed. My daze helped me drift into a sleep filled with nightmares about the times that my sword might fail me, again…
In the morning we took a cab to camp. It cost a lot. But Chiron, the camp director, sorted our fees.
We were sat at the pinochle table on the veranda of the big house, camp's headquarters as some would say. Drinking diet cokes supplied by Mr D, Dionysus, god of Wine, whatever you want to call him. He wasn't as cruel to me as he used to be, considering I'd kept his only remaining son out of the final battle of during the war with the titans after his brother had died the year before. Mr D sat reading his wine connoisseurs magazine while Chiron Annabeth and I talked about what we had to do. Nico had gone down to the arena to train. I absentmindedly wondered where Grover was. I hoped that he hadn't turned into a fatty like the other lords of the wild. I scanned the line of trees searching for him or Juniper, his dryad girlfriend. Annabeth brought me back into the conversation.
"Percy." She snapped her fingers in my face, gesturing to Chiron. "Tell him exactly what Ares said." Her scowl fading into an encouraging smile.
So I recounted the events of the day before. Starting at where I'd met Nico before school. And finishing where we had got in the cab this morning. Every so often Chiron would press for more details. But the more I tried to remember, the less I could. Like the anger I had been feeling had wiped my memory clean. When I finished my story Chiron swished his tail nervously.
I suppose I should explain, Chiron is a centaur. He's also a son of Kronos, king of the titans. But that's not something that he goes around telling people. He skittered about anxiously, trying to decide what we should do.
"Go, take Mrs O'Leary to Clarion Ladies Academy and return with Rachel. I express my concerns that she should not reveal the prophecy some place where I can not assist if something were to happen to her." Chiron had a soft spot for Little Miss Dare, a clear sighted mortal I had met while on a quest to save Lady Artemis and Annabeth. She'd become the Oracle at the end of the Titan war, when Hades' children had finally been accepted and the curse on the old oracle had been lifted. I could see why Chiron was worried though, it would be Rachel's second prophecy. The first hadn't been a disaster, but I agreed, a cautious approach was the best.
I told Annabeth to go and iris message our parents from the fountain in my cabin. It was the second that had been in there, the first, I had sliced in two when Nico's dead sister, Bianca, was sending me messages to help protect him. Dad had sent another, with an unlimited supply of drachmas, so that I could call whoever I wanted however many times I wanted.
I gave her a long hug and a quick kiss on the lips. And I headed to the sword fighting arena where Nico and Mrs O'Leary hopefully were. As I entered through the gates, I saw Nico stood with his back to me, with his arms folded, staring down the hellhound. My walk turned to a run and soon I could here what the boy was saying to the tank size mastiff.
"Mrs O'Leary, I know I may look like a dummy, but I can assure you that I am not." He wasn't angry though. I could hear the humour in his voice. I saw that he was coated in saliva. And soon enough. I was too. Mrs'Oleary bounded over playfully when she saw me. Licking my body head to toe as I protested wriggled and squirmed, trying to get away from her slobbery mouth.
After a few minutes, her excitement ebbed and I threw a large celestial bronze shield as a Frisbee for herto catch. After a few minutes of fetch I gave her a scratch behind the ear as I told her and Nico that I'd be taking Mrs O'Leary to Clarion Ladies Academy to get Rachel. Nico led us into a dark part of the forest near Zeus' Fist. The shadows of the trees stretching across the clearing. He gave me a leg up onto Mrs O'Leary's back and told her where we were going. And within seconds, we were racing through the shadows and landed halfway across the country.
A/N: Sorry this is a bit late, I'm in way over my head with coursework atm. :/