Whew! Second chapter in a day. Super fun to write. I had no idea how much fun of a character Annabeth could be :)

Piper stared over the valley, and it seemed like she was avoiding my gaze. I knew something was up. I just felt like I shouldn't question her about it. I decided to drop it.

"Come on," I finally said. "There's something else I need to check."

I started walking a bit farther around the hill, Piper in my wake. I finally stopped at Rachel's cave. Although the outside of the cave looked pretty creepy, the inside totally rocked. Apollo wanted her to have a foreboding look, complete with torches and old bones and swords.

Piper looked surprised. "What's in there?"

I poked my head in and took in the plush carpets and gaming system. No one in sight. I sighed and turned back.

"Nothing, right now. A friend's place. I've been expecting her for a few days, but so far, nothing."

Piper raised her eyebrows and glanced at the embroidered curtains. "Your friend lives in a cave?" she asked incredulously.

A smile cracked my face. "Actually, her family has a luxury condo in Queens, and she goes to a finishing school in Connecticut. But, when she's here at camp, yeah, she lives in the cave. She's our oracle, tells the future. I was hoping she could help me—"

"Find Percy," Piper guessed.

That small phrase hit me hard. I wasn't mad at Piper. I wasn't mad at anything, but I was just mad. And sad. I felt all my composure slip away and I sat down hard on a rock, putting my head in my hands, tears threatening to spill over.

Percy, where did you go? Why can't I find you? You found me…

A small tear traced my cheek, and I wiped it away, irritated.

I thought of when Percy came with Thalia and the rest of the demigods on the quest to save me from Atlas. I knew I had started liking Percy the moment I saw him first come to Camp Half-Blood, but seeing him climb that hill, his sword drawn, anger on his face, made my really start to like him. Soon into love.

Okay, you're just making yourself miserable. You will find him. You're not giving up.

Piper interrupted my thoughts.

"That's—a dragon," she stammered. "That's the actual Golden Fleece?"

I looked up and nodded. Piper looked at me, and my shoulders dropped. I rubbed my face with my hands. "Sorry. A little tired." A lot more than tired. Exhausted.

"You look ready to drop," Piper said. "How long have you been looking for your boyfriend?"

"Three days, six hours, and about twelve minutes." I wouldn't let myself forget how long he was gone. It was starting to turn into a challenge. How fast can I find him?

"And you've got not idea what happened to him?"

I shook my head sadly. "We were so excited because we both started winter break early. We met up at camp on Tuesday, figured we had three weeks together. It was going to be great. After the campfire, he—he kissed me good night, went back into his cabin, and in the morning he was gone. We searched the whole camp. We contacted his mom. We've tried to reach him every way we know how. Nothing. He just disappeared." My voice threatened to shake.

"How long were you guys together?"

"Since August," I said. "August eighteenth." His birthday.

"Almost exactly when I met Jason," Piper recalled. "But we've only been together a few weeks."

Crap. Now it was time to break the news. I was regretting this moment ever since I realized something about Jason.

"Piper…about that. Maybe you should sit down…" I felt horrible.

Piper looked scared and panicked. "Look, I know Jason thought—he thought he just appeared at our school today. But that's not true. I've known him for four months."

"Piper," I said sadly. "It's the Mist."

"Missed…what?"

I sighed. "M-i-s-t. It's a kind of veil sparating the mortal world from the magic world. Mortal minds—they can't process strange stuff like gods and monsters, so the Mist bends reality. It makes mortals see thing in a way they can understand—like, their eyes might just skip over this valley completely, or they might look at that dragon and see a pile of cables."

Piper swallowed hard. "N-no. You said yourself I'm not a regular mortal. I'm a demigod."

"Even demigods can be affected. I've seen it lots of times. Monsters infiltrate some place like a school, pass themselves off as human, and everyone thinks they remember that person. They believe he's always been around. The Mist can change memories, even create memories of things that never happened—"

Color in Piper's face drained. "But Jason's not a monster! He's a human guy, or demigod, or whatever you want to call him. My memories aren't fake. They're so real. The time we set Coach Hedge's pants on fire. The time Jason and I watched a meteor shower on the dorm roof and I finally got the stupid guy to kiss me…"

Piper kept talking, describing everything that happened between her and Jason. How nothing could be fake.

I just felt horrible. I dreaded breaking the news to her, but she had to know. I couldn't let her live a false reality.

I frowned. "Piper, your memories are a lot sharper than most. I'll admit that, and I don't know why that is. But if you know him so well—"

"I do!" she practically shouted.

"Then where is he from?"

She staggered. "He must have told me, but—"

"Did you notice his tattoo before today? Did he ever tell you anything about his parents, or his friends, or his last school?"

I-I don't know, but—"

"Piper," I said gently. "What's his last name?"

Her face went blank. Her eyes suddenly filled up with tears and she started to cry. She sat down next to me and just cried.

I felt like crying, too. I knew what it was like to lose a boyfriend.

"Hey," I said. "We'll figure it out. Jason's here now. Who knows? Maybe it'll work out with you guys for real."

Piper moaned and wiped her face with her hand. "You brought me up here so no one would see me blubbering, huh?"

I nodded. "I figured it would be hard for you. I know what it's like to lose a boyfriend."

"But I still can't believe…I know we had something. And now it's just gone, like he doesn't even recognize me. If he really did just show up today, then why? How'd he get there? Why can't he remember anything?"

I was thinking the exact same thing. "Good questions. Hopefully Chiron can figure that out. But for now, we need to get you settled. You ready to go back down?"

Piper turned away from me again and stared at the valley. I patted her on the back.

"Yeah. I'm ready."

I would totally love to update again today, but I have lots of homework left over from being gone on choir tour.

Meh, responsibility...

Anyways, I hope to update again in the next day or so!

Thank you, my readers. You are fantabulous!

Please and carrots leave a review for me. I don't want to annoyingly grovel, but I love getting them!

BYE.

PS. Yeah, I was totally groveling.