I don't really like this chapter because of the big time skip. I'm not good at writing natural time skips. Oh well. Sorry if it seems a bit rushed.

TheKookieKing11- Thanks. I'll go check those out. :)

no one (Guest)- Thanks. You'll have to wait and see. But no, they're not demigods.

ICECREAMROCKS don't dis me- That's how I felt when I read the Titan's Curse. .u. But don't worry. She should be back soon. ;)

A regular demigod- Thank you. I'll try reading those.

Enjoy~

"Here, try this," Panacea said a few hours later. She handed me a glass of the thing I spit out the other time.

"Is that the same thing that tasted awful?" I asked.

"It's been modified," she said. "I don't know how it tastes like, but Quintus tested it out and proved that it does have some healing qualities. Or you can pour it directly over a wound. That helps too."

"Who's Quintus?"

"Just drink."

She shoved the drink down my throat, and I almost gagged. It tasted of all the things I hated. Like the first time I tried cigarettes, and when I accidentally drank Gabe's beer as a kid. A mix of those and a few other things came down my throat.

"Swallow," she urged.

I did.

"Yuck!" I said.

Panacea poured some of it on the poisoned shoulder, and more pain came. Endure it, I told myself mentally.

Surprisingly the pain went away as quickly as it came. I made the mistake of flexing it, and it hurt like crazy.

"There," Panacea said and wrapped my shoulder in another bandage. "It should heal in a few hours or so. But I'm not letting you out."

"Can I have visitors then?" I said.

"Fine," she said. "If it gets you to shut up."

"Harsh."

She smiled. "Just kidding. You might want to brush your teeth. Your breath smells…"

"Yeah, sorry," I said, rubbing my neck. "That thing tasted like all the things I hated."

"Thanks for your input," she said. She rummaged around in her desk at the front and threw me a toothbrush and toothpaste. "Now go brush."

Things were boring until Grover came in.

"Looks like this'll be your second home," he observed.

"Yeah," I sighed.

"'You didn't see Annabeth, have you?" he asked. "I didn't see her all day!"

Guilt choked my throat. "No."

"Percy, seriously," Grover said. "I just started to mend things with her, and she just… disappeared!"

"Dr. Thorn took her," I said. "It was my fault."

Grover stared at me with his mouth open. "What? When?"

"Dawn," I said. "You didn't hear about it from the girls?"

He shook his head.

"Go ask," I said. "I'm going to try to find her. And I will."

"I'll help," he said. "But don't try anything until you can leave. I don't want you getting hurt anymore."

"Sure," I said, and he left.

I was let out the next day. I asked Rachel to see if Annabeth had our book report in her room, and I went over to the library to type it. It was torture, especially without Annabeth, but I did it. I spent the rest of the day looking for the book by J.A. with Bianca. No luck.

"We'll try tomorrow," Bianca said. "Can you come by Room 48? We can go together."

I nodded. "But why are you helping me? Not that I don't want you to."

She shrugged. "Looks like you can use an extra hand. And if I want to get Nico get out of here, I need all the information I can get."

She met my eyes, and I knew that she knew the fact that I was eavesdropping on them the other day. I blushed.

We didn't find anything for a month.

"This is hopeless!" I complained as we walked to the library.

"Don't say that," Bianca chided. "We'll find them."

I saw Rachel go into the art room. "I'll be right back."

"Hey!"

Rachel turned around. "Percy! Hey."

"Do you happen to know Annabeth's favorite book by J.A.?" I asked.

She grinned. "No luck with that, sir."

"Aw, come on!" I said. "Really. I want to get Annabeth back as soon as possible. Why can't I just go and find her?"

"You won't achieve anything in that part until you find all the notes," she said.

"Is that one of your predictions?"

"Yup," she said. "And you should be glad that Malcolm's letting you off the hook so that you only show up once a week!"

Oh, Malcolm. Malcolm was Annabeth's half-brother. He took over when Annabeth didn't come back. Rachel was friends with him so explained to him part of what I was doing and how it might help find Annabeth which was the only reason why he let me off like that.

"Right," I muttered. "Thanks, Rachel."

She gave me a small smile and went to her art class.

"No luck," I said.

"That would be too easy," Bianca agreed. "How about this: we look for famous books or authors. Annabeth might like classics."

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

"I'll take a look around," she said, and went over to the classics section.

"Excuse me?" I said. The librarian looked up. He was reading a book with a picture of a guy flying on a broom this time. I wasn't really into fantasy. "Are there any famous books by an author with the initials J.A.?"

"Pride and Prejudice," he said immediately.

"Okay. Thank you," I said. "Bianca!"

"It's the library. Sush!" someone said.

I ignored them.

"Did you find it?" she asked.

"Pride and Prejudice," I said. "I've heard of it, but I never read it."

"Of course!" she said.

"Who's it by?" I asked, feeling like an idiot.

"Jane Austen," she said. "There are several copies. Percy, help me check them."

Several was an understatement. This school must've loved that book because it filled three rows. Bianca made me check the upper rows since I was taller.

"Found it!" Bianca said fifteen minutes later fruitless searching.

"Let me see," I said.

She took out a small piece of paper.

Dear to whoever is reading this:

They say that they check letters and packages, but they don't. Well, they only check packages. My friend set up a camera in the room, so we saw. I don't think they really care for letters or they're just too lazy to check them. Maybe they think it's too personal, but I doubt they care about that. So you can just write anything and it'll go straight pass their noses. Just be careful about the packaging.

Please place this note in another copy of Pride and Prejudice. Every note after this will be placed in random books.

-Ath. C.

(Annabeth Chase)

"Of course this had to be one of the shorter ones," I sighed as I picked out a random copy.

"Hey, at least we found something," Bianca said. "And maybe she put the notes in some other books she enjoys."

"But how will we find out her favorite books?" I asked.

"I'll check her room today," she said. "It's open."

"Okay," I said. "You should go spend some time with Nico. I think he ditched Study Hall. I'm going to keep on looking."

"No you're not," she said. "We're both going to take a break. That means you too. And you're not sneaking back here in the night. You saw how well that worked out last time. Understand?"

"Yeah."

She smiled. "Great. Let's go."

I've grown to like Bianca during the last month I spent with her. But not in like that way. I liked her as a sibling. She was like a sister I could depend on. I couldn't say no to her.

"Hey, Nico," I said.

He was outside sitting under a tree in the corner.

"Hey," he said.

"Sorry for stealing your sister's time," I said, sitting next to him. Bianca went to his other side. "We were busy."

He raised an eyebrow, probably trying not to laugh.

"Oh, god. Not in that way," Bianca said slapping his arm.

Nico laughed. "I know. I'm just kidding. What were you two doing anyway?"

"A scavenger hunt thing," I lied. "Someone hid something in random books and we're trying to find them."

"How many are there?" he asked.

I shrugged. "We don't know."

"How many did you find?"

"Two."

"What are they about?"

"Random things."

"Who wrote them?"

"A student."

"Then—"

"Nico, don't overwhelm him with questions," Bianca said.

Nico grinned. "That's my specialty."

Bianca groaned.

"We'll fill you in on everything once we find all the notes," I promised. "Is it okay if I borrow Bianca until then?"

Nico shrugged.

"I'm human, not an object," Bianca interjected.

We laughed.

"Who knows, Bianca?" Nico said. "You might just be a human-like robot. That'd be cool. A robot for a sister."

She rolled her eyes. "Now I know that you've been watching way too many sci-fi movies."

"Or you could be a living doll," I said. "Like in the movies, the dolls are possessed and they move around."

Bianca rolled her eyes again. "And you've been watching too many horror movies."

We ended up laughing again.

"Hey, what's up?" Luke said. He climbed over the wall from the other side.

"How do you not get caught?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Practice, I guess. Plus I disable all the security cameras and hack into their system to make sure that they don't see me. That's why Annabeth had me help her."

"Nice," Nico grinned.

"I stole some movies," Luke said. "They don't have any here which is a pity. Does anyone want to have a movie night?"

"Yeah!" Nico said.

"Wait, is G or PG?" Bianca asked.

"PG-13," Luke answered.

"Then Nico can't go," Bianca said.

"Bianca!" Nico said.

"What about you Percy?" Luke asked.

I looked at Nico and I couldn't say yes with him like that. "Sorry Luke," I said. "But I have to get my sleep since I have that math test tomorrow, and you know I'm awful at it. Especially with Mrs. Dodds as my teacher."

Luke nodded. "Okay. See you around, Perce. You're always welcome to join if you change your mind."

He ran off. I frowned. He didn't seem all that affected about Annabeth disappearing. Then again, most of the teachers (except Mr. Blofis and Chiron) didn't really seem to care. But they work here so they probably know what's happening.

Grover on the other hand was hysterical. Rachel was sad too, but she tried to be positive and boost our moods.

"Hey, you three!" Rachel said. She had her sketchbook in her hands and her uniform was splattered with paint. "Here, look what I drew. And painted."

I showed us a page from her sketchbook that showed the three of us laughing under the tree.

"You were watching us, weren't you," Nico said.

Rachel nodded. "You guys looked so happy, so I chose to draw you guys."

It actually looked pretty good. Then again, Rachel was an amazing artist.

"It looks good," I said. "Are you going to frame it on your wall?"

She laughed. "I don't know. Maybe. Did you find the note though?"

I nodded. "Thanks to Bianca."

Rachel frowned as the wind whipped her hair. "You'd better find all the notes soon." She paused and her green eyes brightened for a moment. "Before things get severe."

"How long?" I asked.

"A week at most, I think," she said, and her eyes returned to normal. "They're serving dinner in our rooms today, so I guess I won't be seeing you. Bye!"

"You saw that, right?" Bianca said. "Her eyes?"

Nico nodded. "It was cool. I wish my eyes were like that."

I didn't listen to them. "A week. A week at most. I think I'm going to go back to my dorm. See you."

"Percy," Bianca said and grabbed my arm. "You're not going to sneak off into the library tonight. Okay?"

I nodded. "I won't. Promise."

"Good." She let go of my arm, and I walked back to my dorm.

The first thing I did was check my mailbox. I kept doing that for the past month because my mom still didn't reply yet. I wrote her a letter every week. It was strange how she didn't reply to any one of them. But today, there was an envelope. I grinned and looked at it.

I frowned. It was my mother's handwriting, but some of it got smudged. Someone tried scribbling over the school address, but looked like it got here anyway. The stain covered at least half the envelope. It looked familiar.

I opened it, and was shocked to find that part of the letter was torn off. The remaining was smudged badly, almost unreadable, and it looked like someone crumpled it up.

Dear Percy,

I'm sorry I didn't reply to you. Gabe kept interrupting, and I didn't have any time to write it at work. He doesn't like me writing to you and he's really sensitive about it which is why I took so long. I didn't read all your letters. But I read part of the one where you told me Annabeth was taken away. I didn't get to read all of it, so I don't know exactly what happened. If you're going to find her, be careful.

As for your dad, I got through his wife. She's a nice woman. She asked me how I knew his personal number, and told me that she'll tell him that I called. For some reason he didn't change his number even after more than ten years.

Gabe isn't getting any better. In fact, he's getting worse. He's drinking more often. Percy, I don't want to worry you anymore, but I know you'll ask. Yes, he is hitting me, but don't worry honey. I'm fine. I stay out of the apartment most of the time anyway because of all the jobs. Don't worry over me.

I'm worried that Daedalus is working at your school. I'm guessing you didn't find that much about him still. His work isn't known clearly, so no work has been done about him. His real name is Quintus, but everyone calls him Daedalus because of his genius mind. You know, he worked at Olympus then moved over to the smaller company almost no one knows about—the Labyrinth. But the Labyrinth—

The ripped letter ended there. I scowled. The letter had a disgustingly pungent smell. I took the risk and smelled it. It smelled like Gabe.

So he didn't like me sending letters and my mom replying. What's up with that? Does he hit my mom just because of that? My hand clenched into a fist. So that's why I didn't get any letters.

I wondered what struggle my mom had to go through to send me this. Maybe it was safer not to send letters to my mom.

I felt like all the hope I had was taken from me. Annabeth was taken to who-knows-where and my mom and I couldn't even exchange letters.

I sat hunched on the edge of the bed, staring until space, and stayed like that until next morning.