The next morning I climbed out of bed and remembered that I was on cabin duty. I quickly made my bed and pulled on an orange camp shirt.
Malcolm, one of my cabinmates, saw me and snickered.
"So…how's you and Lover Boy?"
"Stuff it, Malcolm," I said loftily. Nothing could ruin my mood.
He just raised his eyebrows incredulously and went back to whatever he was doing.
I grabbed a clipboard from my bedside table and sheathed my knife on my belt. I hummed happily to myself as I left, ignoring the stares from my siblings.
I was practically skipping from cabin to cabin, checking off to see if they were clean. As I neared the Poseidon cabin, my heart was thundering in my chest. I calmed myself down and walked purposefully over to the shell-embedded cabin, stopping in front of the door.
Something didn't feel right.
From the inside of the cabin, there was a weird trumpeting noise mixed with sniffles. I pushed the door open. The cabin was a disaster.
Clothes were strewn across the floor, and Percy's Minotaur horn was lying forgotten on the ground next to a shattered fountain. One of the bed's mattresses was haphazardly leaning against the frame, pillows and sheets rumpled.
The trumpeting noise was coming from Tyson, who was crying his eye out, holding Percy's wristwatch/shield.
"T-Tyson?"
"Annabeth!" he sobbed, and flung himself on my shoulder, almost knocking me to the ground.
"What happened? Where's Percy?" I cried.
"Woke up! Percy gone! Cabin messy!" Tyson gulped, wiping his eye with is had.
"Percy? G-Gone?" I stammered.
"Gone!" Tyson howled.
What? Percy couldn't just be gone. We were going to leave for Winter Break in two days! He wouldn't just leave. I wouldn't believe it.
"No. Percy isn't gone. He couldn't be!"
"Gone!" Tyson nodded, nose running. "Can't smell him."
I ran out of the cabin, Tyson right behind me.
"Chiron!" I screamed, sprinting towards the Big House. Kids popped their heads out of the cabins, looking curious and horrified. Will Solace ran out of his cabin and tried to stop me.
"Whoa! Annabeth, what's the problem?"
"Get out of my way, Will."
I shoved him out of the way and slowed myself down to a stride. I was not going to cry in front of Mr. D.
I flung open the door to the Big House and walked into the parlor, accidentally interrupting Mr. D. and Chiron in the middle of a pinochle game.
Mr. D. glared at me.
"Annabeth, child, what is the matter?" Chiron asked, rising from his wheelchair. His tail was still in curlers, but I ignored it.
"Percy, he's gone. Tyson and I don't know where he is," I said, trying to clear my face of emotion.
"How dreadfully unfortunate," Mr. D. cut in before Chiron could say anything. "But, I was only thinking it was a matter of time before, ah, Pierre Johansen would go missing."
"Dionysus, kindly leave this matter to me," Chiron said.
Mr. D. glowered. "Where do you think you're going? We haven't finished our pinochle game!"
"I'm afraid it's going to have to wait," Chiron said kindly.
Mr. D. gave me a fiery purple glare, and then summoned a Diet Coke, grumbling to himself.
"Now, Annabeth, let's go find Grover. He has an empathy link with Percy, doesn't he? Perhaps he can find him."
Woo, CHAPITRE DEUX! I always get super excited to share chapters (um, hehe, even though this is my first story on FanFic).
I'm just ecstatic about this story, so I want to post the first couple chapters to get it out there.
Let me know what you think and review review review!
EDIT: Special thanks to sinclair12 and PercabethAndZebrasFTW for pointing out my mistake about Mr. D. I had completely forgotten (what kind of fan am I?) that he wouldn't be there. But...I'm to lazy to change it. So pretend he wasn't there!