I finished a midterm for one of my classes so I figured to publish something. Besides, it's the last banked chapter I have that isn't saved for a certain date.

This was one of my very first ideas for this story so I'm finally excited to write it. It's a cute chapter.

For reference, this happens before TLT.

Story #24: Desperation Calls For a Chase-Stoll Team-Up

"Alright, who took it?"

The moment Annabeth burst from her cabin and screamed it for everyone to hear, the campers on site stopped whatever they were doing. Those sparring stopped mid-fight, weapons fall to the ground. Those walking across the field and chatting stopped mid-sentence. The Demeter and Dionysus campers were harvesting fruits in their shared gardens and dropped their crops and hid behind their plants, growing the vines taller to hide.

Everyone else dispersed. An angry Annabeth was an Annabeth nobody wanted to be around, not even the Ares kids. They made that mistake once and regretted it when Annabeth gave them the lowest ranking in dorm inspections, even lower than Hephaestus's cabin and theirs looked like the aftermath of a factory explosion, and so the Ares kids had to shower last … after they played Capture the Flag in the rain and everyone was covered in mud.

Now everyone knows better.

"Someone has my invisibility cap!" Annabeth screams as she charges out to the centre of the green.

She stands near the campfire and scans the cabins. Campers scurry inside or even take a chance and run into the forest. Even the nearby nymphs and harpies vanished into thin air. Annabeth knows that doesn't mean they're guilty but it sure doesn't look innocent.

Annabeth holds her dagger in her hand, spinning it between her palms. She noticed her cap was gone this morning and she tore her cabin apart while her siblings were still asleep. Every square inch of her cabin, even under the floorboards, inside every book, and behind their maps and blueprints on the wall were searching but her invisibility cap was nowhere in sight.

"Annabeth, Annabeth…"

Dagger out, Annabeth turns around and holds her blade out towards Connor's neck which didn't faze him. One time, he placed a tarantula in her bunk. It was a supposedly "harmless" prank but she nearly killed him for it.

"Give back my cap," Annabeth snarls.

"Who said I had it?" Connor asks with a sly grin on his face. He even puts his hands up as if he's surrendering. "If I did, wouldn't I be wearing it so I could hide right in your face because I'd be invisible?"

Annabeth lowers her dagger, putting it back in its sheath. She eyes Connor who lowers his hands but keeps the stupid grin. He does have a point that whoever stole her cap would likely be wearing it to spite her. Sometimes, the best ideas come from the most unlikely sources.

"I'm shanking them," Annabeth states.

"While I fully support revenge, now isn't the time," Connor responds. "Your cap is missing. We must focus on that before the shanking."

Annabeth nods for a moment before eyeing him. "Kinda suspicious coming from you."

"Maybe you lost it on your quest."

Annabeth has never wanted to shank Connor more because he said that to spite her when she's already angered. "I haven't gone on one yet!"

Connor laughs. "Right, right, maybe your special someone took it."

Now he's asking to be shanked. He wasn't the first person to tease her about needing to wait for a special someone to show up before she goes on her first quest. She thought Chiron was joking, she honestly did, and she was mad when he was serious. Everyone prodded her, badgered her about how it's possibly Chiron's excuse for keeping her camp-bound, especially since some younger demigods got to go. Only Aphrodite's cabin was intrigued by the idea of a special someone, singing romantic playground rhymes that haunted Annabeth whenever she thought about the quest she would go on one day.

"You're asking to get beaten up," Annabeth says, crossing her arms.

"I didn't ask anything," Connor responds.

"Exactly. Why are you helping?"

"So that you're in my debt. Duh."

She should've seen that coming from any Hermes kid, especially Connor Stoll. "Typical. Fine."

Connor holds out his hand as if this was a business transaction. Annabeth concedes, sighing as she shakes his hand. She regrets it the moment he tightens his grip just for jokes and she almost breaks his hand.

"Oh good, I stole it," Connor states.

Annabeth pauses. " … what?"

"I said I stole your invisibility cap."

"And I said what?"

"Yeah, it's under my pillow. And now that I helped you find your cap, you're in my debt."

Annabeth grips her dagger in its sheath, wishing it was still Connor's hand in her grasp so she could break it and throw him across Camp. "Connor?"

"Yes?" That stupid sly grin returns, curling at the corners.

"Run."

Fast forward a couple of years, Connor, and you're obeying an Annabeth order because she sent it from Tartarus.