A/N: Hey, guys! Thanks for reviewing! I finally know where this story is going, so chapters should be coming on a regular basis from now on. I got the inspiration during chorus class today and just had to get it down on paper… or rather computer, actually. This is my longest chapter yet, I think! Enough of my awesome yet meaningless chatter… Enjoy :D
After we went back inside the dorm, Grover immediately trotted over to his bed. His hooves, although disguised in sneakers, made clip-clopping noises. We looked at each other wide-eyed and then glanced at the closed bathroom door where Percy was taking a shower. I brought my hand up to my neck and drew it quickly across my neck in the universal sign for, 'Do that again and you die'.
After that little fiasco, Grover relaxed on his bed and started reading some magazines. I walked over to the little beanbag in the corner of the room and pulled out my iTouch. I had sneaked it along; I knew there were going to be boring moments. I was so happy I brought it at this point; the boys had absolutely nothing interestingly intelligent to read.
I turned on my iPod and stuffed my ear buds quickly in my ears, eager to fill my head with Justin Timberlake's amazingly awesome voice. I turned on 'Sexyback' and started rocking out.
At one point during my little dance session, I caught Grover staring at me in open-mouthed shock. I stuck my tongue out at him, but took out my ear buds and collapsed on Grover's bed.
"I just happen to love dancing. You got a problem with that?" I asked Grover in a mock-indignant voice. He didn't know I was joking.
"Um, no! Uh, it's fine. You're a really, uh… interesting dancer…" He was practically purple in the face by now with embarrassment. I have no idea how he gets that embarrassed, but he definitely pulls it off.
"Relax, Grove. I'm joking. I know I can't dance. Now, I want to go to Chiron's room and discuss some things with him, like Percy's weird behavior. He is just too blasé about the whole situation… It's not natural."
Grover nodded. "I know what you mean. The first time you showed me your invisibility hat, I didn't get over it for about four days, and I actually am a creature of Greek mythology!"
"Not that it's mythology," I said, shooting him an amused look. He burned red again.
"Yeah, yeah. Shut up, Annabeth."
"No need to get touchy," I giggled. "Now, what is taking Percy so long? Make him get out of the shower."
Miraculously enough, as soon as I said those words, Percy walked out of the bathroom in a dark green shirt that complemented his eyes perfectly and dark jeans. Amazing… He was rubbing his hair with a towel. When he finished, he threw the towel in the corner. I stared at it for a second and then addressed him.
"Hey, Percy," I started. He turned his deep gaze to my face. I took a quick breath. "Grover and I are going to go to Chi-," Grover cut me off.
"Mr. Brunner. I need to see him about the exam today," he finished awkwardly, with many pauses in between his words. Percy looked confused for a few seconds.
"Grove, why would you go see him about the exam? We took it already, remember?" Percy looked vaguely worried for Grover's mental health.
I rolled my eyes. "Grover's just being stupid, Percy. I'm Greek, and I know a lot about Ancient Greek and Roman history. Grover wanted to introduce me to your history teacher so we could discuss it in depth," I said in a smooth voice. It's a little known fact, but even though Athena deals with battle and wisdom, she is also a great diplomat.
Percy looked convinced at my explanation. "Okay," He said unconcernedly. "I'll hang here and study or something." He deadpanned it for a few seconds, and then burst out laughing. "Yeah, that won't happen. Anyway, later, guys." He walked back into the bathroom.
Grover and I looked at each other in slight confusion for a second, and then walked out the door. I turned to Grover and took a breath.
"Grover, I want to talk to Chiron alone. Is that ok?" He nodded. "Thanks. How do I get to his office?" After receiving directions from Grover, I waved good-bye to him and started walking down the hall.
While on my way, I thought about what a great song Sexyback was. I sang the lyrics in my head, and contemplated on how good his other songs were, too, like Summer Love.
As I turned a corner, I was jolted out of my thoughts by a very unpleasant, albeit faint odor. An odor of monster, throughout the school! I couldn't believe I hadn't picked up on it earlier.
I rushed the rest of the way to Chiron's office, but on the way there, the smell was getting progressively stronger. As I passed one particular door, the stench coming from it was so overpowering I almost fell down.
I decided to have a little look-see around the room. I went inside, getting out my dagger (which I had also wisely brought along) and prepared to fight the monster. I was surprised to find that the room was empty, though.
I whirled around in a 360 in the middle of the room, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the abandoned room, except the disgusting stench. There were annoying math posters on the walls that had stupid plus and minus signs on them. Totally unnecessary. I did, however, spy something on the desk. Something that shot little sparks of fire at regular intervals, yet never seemed to catch fire or set fire to anything.
I made my way over to the strange note, and realized it was addressed to one of the Furies, from the Underworld.
I held the note in my hand, gazing at it in pure shock, then quickly threw it down on the desk and ran from the room.
I ran to Chiron's room and knocked impatiently, trying to catch my breath. After about 2 minutes of waiting, I couldn't take it any longer and burst into the room. I gasped at the sight that met my eyes.
The room was in disarray. The desk was overturned and loose sheets of paper littered the floor. Chiron's chair was lying on its side, and the ceiling had a dent in it. Plaster fell from the spot with dent, and the walls were covered in scuffmarks. It was clear that a struggle had taken place in the room.
I took a few steps into the room and gasped even louder than before at the sight of the desk. There was a huge bloodstain on the top of the desk and then another on the floor underneath the ceiling dent.
There was also a scary thought that penetrated my mind.
Chiron was not in the room.
I stood in the doorway, frozen in shock for about 10 seconds, and then bolted from the room. I sprinted all the way back to the dorm room and pounded on the door.
"Let me in!" I called frantically. After a few moments of my incessant knocking, the door flew open, Grover looking alarmed.
"Annabeth!" he exclaimed, looking confused and scared at the look on my face. "What happened?" Percy walked to the door and stared at me.
"Chiron's room," I gasped, still out of breath, "completely trashed! No sign of Chiron anywhere. Bloodstains on the floor, and his desk. And did I mention that there are Kindly Ones here? At least one. I saw the room. It looked like it was a math office. Had a note addressed to A Fury. Kept spewing flames. We gotta get out of here." I wheezed the story out, still not having caught my breath yet.
Grover looked stricken. "A Kindly one? In the school?" He paled.
"Yeah. I'm really surprised that you, Percy, and Chiron all managed to miss the smell. It was nauseating."
Grover looked faint, and Percy just stared at us with calculating looks. He looked really, really hot like that, but I forced that thought out of my mind and tried to concentrate on getting my breath back.
"Anyway," I went on, " we should get to camp. I doubt he's there now, but it's worth a shot. We have to tell Mr. D anyway and the other campers."
Grover seemed to snap out of a reverie. "Yeah. Let's go right now."
Percy spoke for the first time since I returned. "We can't leave yet," he said calmly. "We still have exams…"
I sighed exasperatedly. "Screw your exams. You want to die or not?"
He grinned. "I was hoping you'd say that."
What? "You were hoping I'd give you an ultimatum where death was an option?"
He rolled his eyes. "No. I was hoping I would get to miss my last exams."
Grover laughed. "Yeah, I agree. Okay, packing." He turned to me. "What should we pack?"
I looked around the room disdainfully. "Nothing. You wouldn't need any of this stuff at camp." I glanced at Percy. "Do you have any things that are valuable to you?"
He shrugged. "Nope. Not at all. Although… if we are going somewhere, I guess I can take this pen that Mr. Brunner gave me. I've never used it, but it feels right to take along with me now."
Okay… that was weird. But then again, who was I to judge? I clapped my hands together once.
"Let's go, then. Grover, you got any drachmas?" he searched in his pockets, then turned around and went through the bottom drawer in his dresser. He pulled out about 5 golden drachmas.
"It'll do," I said. "Let's hit the road."
As we walked out of the classroom, Percy looked increasingly lost.
"Hey, guys," he began hesitantly. "I know that it might seem like a bad time, but who is this Chiron person? And what is everything about? Like you having an invisibility cap, and Grover having random gold coins? I want to know everything. My mom won't be happy when she finds out I'm ditching school and not taking my exams."
Grover and I shared a look. It was time to tell Percy…
A/N: Didja like it? Didja hate it? Tell me in a review! And just so you all know, I am currently going through a phase where I love Justin Timberlake, so Annabeth loving him could be significant later on in the story, or not. Depends on me.
Anyway, this story is an alternate universe, like you all know. SO, I am not really doing a complete version of TLT in Annabeth's point of view. It is not like the Lightning Thief in any, except for a few small, aspects.
Thanks for reading! Review and you get jelly beans!
