Sorry if this chapter isn't that good. There's more of planning/talking more than action. It's kind of more of a filler chapter.

And just saying, my updates might become a bit slower when I start school in like two weeks. So... yeah. Just thought you guys should know.

hermes child awesomness- Thanks for always reviewing! ^^

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Guest- Haha. I think I'll try to write as much as I can during the two weeks of vacation I have left. :)

Hope you enjoy!

I went back up to my dorm after dinner outside, and opened my mailbox by habit. Right, she just sent me a reply, I thought, and was about to close it, but there was a letter. I frowned as I took it out.

The envelope had my mom's name on it, and it was addressed to me, but something seemed odd about it. It reeked, for one, as if someone sprayed Smelly Gabe perfume all over it. The stamp was placed messily in the corner, unlike my mom's—she likes to do it neat. There was something else, but I couldn't place my finger on what it was.

I'm probably just being overly-sensitive, I thought and opened the letter.

Hey punk. Don't even think about contacting your stupid mother. She's a coward.

He called her a bunch of names that I can't and won't repeat.

Seriously. Running away? You're like her too punk. You're too much of a coward to do anything. You think that I can't touch you? You're wrong, punk. In fact, it's better that's she's gone. Does she really think that I can't find her? I have a wife and a stepson that are both stupid. Except maybe you got some more stupidity from your father.

Cue some more name-calling about the father that I don't even know.

I'm going to make sure you never get out of that school, dead or alive. Just try to sneak out and fine your mom. See what'll happen if you don't believe me. You belong there with a bunch of criminals.

He didn't even sign the letter, as if that was supposed to hide who he was.

I scoffed and threw the letter on the desk. But what he wrote did bother me. My mom ran away? Not that I blamed her. Gabe was awful.

But where did she go? Did she run to my dad's?

I flopped down on the bed, and landed on the spring.

"Ow!" I said and immediately jumped back up. Even after more than a month here, I still forgot about that.

I growled and carefully avoided the spring, but saw something sticking out of the mattress. I tried to feel it with my hand. It definitely wasn't a stray spring.

I went over to my desk and grabbed a pair of scissors and cut through. The thing that I felt was a dagger. No wonder it hurt.

But what was a dagger doing in my mattress? Was it someone's idea of a cruel joke?

My mind instantly wandered over to the Stolls, but I didn't think they could get a dagger past the staff.

I didn't think much about it and threw it on the floor as I fell asleep.

"Yo, Perce! Wake up!" Grover said banging on my door.

"I'm coming. I'm coming," I said and climbed out of bed. I stepped on the dagger. "Ow!"

"Uh, you all right?" Grover asked coming in. "You know what? We're late. Come on."

"I'm still in my pajamas," I said.

"Then you should've woke up earlier," he said looking around my room.

I covered the dagger so he wouldn't see. He looked at my table then shrugged.

"Hurry," Grover said.

I pretended to be busy with some things and snuck the dagger out with me. I had a feeling that I would need it.

"Oh, Rachel's going to be so mad," Grover said as we ran through the halls.

"What's the worst she can do?" I said.

He pulled me along to the other building. The others were already there.

"Tut, tut," Rachel said. "Late as usual."

"And in your pajamas," Bianca added.

My face heated up. "Shut up. And we're going tomorrow anyway."

Zoë rolled her eyes. "Boys."

Rachel knocked on Chiron's door three times. "Chiron, it's me, Rachel. With the others."

"Shouldn't he be sleeping right now? I mean, it's past eleven," I yawned.

Rachel rolled her eyes as the door opened.

"Hello. Nice to see you all," Chiron said smoothly.

"You're still awake?" I said.

"Why, yes, of course," he said. "I'm the vice principal after all. I care about my students."

"Right," Rachel said. "He's going to get you some weapons."

"Weapons?" Grover said. "Like as in guns and those things that can harm?"

"Yes, Grover. I believe those are called weapons," Chiron said. "Come in."

I kept my hand on the dagger. Would he be mad that I already had a weapon? Would I get expelled? Actually, that's sounding pretty nice right now.

Chiron unlocked a closet that I never knew existed until now. Inside were a bunch of weapons, ranging from spears to swords.

"Take your pick," Chiron said. "I don't recommend guns. They cause quite a lot of noise."

We let the girls go first. Bianca and Zoë picked out similar looking bows and quivers.

"I, um… I'm not comfortable with weapons," Grover admitted.

"That's perfectly fine," he said, which surprised me. "Percy, why don't you pick out something in the meantime? I'm going to get Grover some tips on healing."

Grover seemed pretty happy about that.

I looked at all the weapons hanging on the wall. I tried holding some of them, but they didn't feel right. Maybe it was just because I never used any besides for guns (which Chiron didn't recommend).

"This is why I said to come at eleven," Rachel said.

"Sorry," I mumbled, hanging up another sword.

"Is something the matter?" Chiron asked.

"None of the weapons seem to fit Percy," Rachel said.

"Ah, I see," he said. "Percy, come with me."

He wheeled away out of earshot from the others.

He studied me and nodded. "You look just like your father."

"Yeah, my mom tells me that a lot," I said. "Wait, you know my dad?"

"Why yes. He gave this to me and told me to keep it until the time was right."

Wow. That wasn't cheesy at all.

"Here," he handed me a cheap ballpoint pen. Probably cost thirty cents.

"This is a pen," I said. "I don't think my dad would make you hold onto a pen for who-knows-how-long."

Chiron chuckled. "Just uncap it when you need to find. It should prove to be useful."

He went back to the others.

"Can we go back to bed now?" Bianca asked.

"Not quite," Chiron said. He checked the clock which said 11:58. "You're going now."

"What?" I said.

"Can we get some coffee first?" Grover asked.

"We think it'd be best if you leave now," Rachel said. "The security won't be roaming until maybe four or five. So you'd better get started now."

"Can we get coffee though?" Grover repeated.

"I do not like to agree with boys, but I agree with this one," Zoë said.

"Yes, coffee. Actually, no. Soda." I said.

Chiron sighed and gave us his keys. "Go look in Mr. D's refrigerator. Now alcoholic drinks. The other keys might help. Now be on your way."

"Thank you," Bianca said.

"Well, good luck," Rachel said.

We left for the other building and went to the main office.

"Ew, smells like wine," I said.

"What's wrong with wine?" Bianca asked.

She looked in Mr. D's mini-fridge and gave us some chilled coffee from Starbucks. She took a bottle of water for herself and handed me a Coke.

"Not a coffee type?" I asked as I downed the whole can.

"Speak for yourself," she said.

"I'm ready," Grover said.

"Let's get going," I said. "Where do we start?"

Bianca thought for a minute. "Percy, when you went to the third floor, were there more staircases leading up?"

"There's a third floor?" Grover asked.

I mentally face palmed. I forgot that I didn't explain this to him. I gave him a brief crash course on what was going on. "I know it's a lot to take in, but it's true."

"Okay," he said. "Strange mutated animals, blood tests, detention… Yeah. Okay. Do go on with the plan."

"I don't think there was another staircase. But then again, I was a bit busy trying to see what was going on," I said.

"And from what thou have explained," Zoë said, "even if there was a fourth floor, the stairway can be hidden. So maybe it's not in plain sight."

I nodded. "Right. But the other building may have more floors too."

"But how will we find it if it's hidden?" Grover asked.

"Well, the third floor for this building was hidden behind those cardboard boxes they use to separate the boy and girl dorms," I said. "I guess they wouldn't have a wall of cardboard boxes for no reason."

"Then let's start at the other building," Zoë suggested. "This… Luke should be cutting off the power lines so there won't be any classes, so students won't be there."

"Plus, everyone will probably waking up pretty late, so we're pretty safe," Bianca added. "The building will be practically empty. Perfect for snooping around."

I caught on to what they were saying. "And most of the security people will be here since most of the students don't even want to go there."

They nodded, and we left back to the other building.

"What if we get caught?" Grover asked nervously.

"Then we say that we're doing an errand for Chiron," I said.

"With weapons?"

"Ah. Good point."

"We can always knock them unconscious," Zoë said. "Like what Annabeth did to thee."

I rolled my eyes. "I didn't need to be reminded of that."

We went up to the second floor. Grover looked out the window.

"I'm pretty sure this isn't the highest we can go," he said. "There has to be another floor. And if you look at it from outside, there's a bunch of windows, and I'm pretty sure they're not there for decoration."

"Rachel said that there's probably three or four floors," I said.

"But that can be wrong," Bianca said. "From what I've seen, the first two floors here are a bit bigger than most other buildings. Maybe if all the floor sizes were equal, then maybe it would be three or four floors. But the top floors can be a bit smaller."

"Why the heck would they design it like that?" I asked.

She shrugged. "This whole school is weird."

"Thou can also see a bit of the two buildings peeking out through the walls," Zoë added.

"So how do the hidden staircases look like?" Grover asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe they have like a fake wall or something."

Grover started feeling around the walls, and Zoë went to check the classrooms.

"I'm going to go check out the music room," Bianca said.

I went downstairs and started looking around for the stairs. I kicked the walls and checked all the classrooms, and even moved a trashcan, but didn't find anything.

"You should be glad there aren't any teachers or anyone here," Grover yelled from above.

I sighed and leaned against the wall next to the stairs. I felt the wall move back slightly and I fell.

I screamed and cursed and everyone came rushing down.

"Language, Percy!" Bianca said.

"Of course you would care about language," I rolled my eyes. "Ew, what the heck is this? It stinks." My hair was covered in it. Luckily I didn't fall face-first.

Grover sniffed it. "Looks like you found the poop hole."

"Gross," I said.

"Very," Bianca agreed. Zoë nodded along with her.

"But where did it come from?" I questioned.

"From above," Grover said. "I'm going to hope that no poop it going to fall down while I go see it that's true."

He grabbed the edge of the wall and poked his head through.

"There's a chute where the poop falls," he said coming back down. "It's pretty big."

"So how will we find the stairs?" I asked.

"Well, they probably put it some distance away from this place, because who wants to smell poop while going up the stairs?" Zoë said.

"Let's check upstairs," Bianca said. "We didn't check the art room."

"And Percy… There's a big sink and some extra clothes in the art room. You might want to wash up your hair and change your shirt," Grover whispered.

"Right," I said.

I quickly did as told and found a fresh green shirt.

"Hey, look what I found," Grover said.

He motioned us to a wall that was peeling. He punched it, and it wobbled.

"So?" I said.

"There's nothing in the back," he said. "You can feel it."

Zoë punched it, and it fell back. "Looks like he's right. Well, we found the staircase. What are we waiting for?"

"Right," I muttered. "Let's get a move on."