The Mark of Athena

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

                      A few days have gone by since the giant sea monster incident and things have been calm since. Which was quite odd for us demigod's. Annabeth was in the plan room making up strategies for when we get to Ancient Greece. She was so into all the plans that she only ever comes down to eat and ask Leo questions about the ship the Argo II. Leo has been really busy keeping the Argo II under control because there has been alot of strange winds causing the ship to change course slightly. Annabeth believes it has something to do with the wind gods that are under the Titans control. Hazel has been so worried about Nico Di Angelo, her lost brother, who happens to be a son of Hades. She says she keeps getting visions about him but they only come in flashes. Frank has been hanging out in the fighting arena, working on his fighting ability. He said he didn't want to become out of practice from all this peace. 

                    Jason and his girlfriend Piper have been hanging out together alot. It practically made Leo nautious when they started kissing in the living room. He ended up leaving soon after with the excuse that he had to go to the bathroom. To tell you the truth, I was sort of jealous of Jason right now. He gets to hang out with his girlfriend when mine was to busy to even talk to me. She stays up pretty late working on drawings and maps. Last time I tried to wait for her, I ended up falling asleep sitting up. She would come to bed eventually but when I wake up she would be back in the plan room, working her brain tired.

                       Piper decided to go and chear up Hazel so that left Jason and I to hang out. We were practicing our sword fighting. Annabeth had told Jason that morning that it would help keep our strength up considering we were the best sword fighters on the ship. Jason and I were pretty evenly matched, neither one of us hitting the other. Jason slashed at my blind side but I still intercepted it with the flat of my sword. I thrust the sword at his undefended legs and feinted to the side with a sword cut to the arm. Jason jumped back, barely missing the sword point. It went like that for over a half an hour. Slash, upward stroke, backhand, and dodge. Eventually, Annabeth came into the room and stood there watching for the next few minutes of it. I decided to finish the fight so I could talk to Annabeth. I quickly used the first move that was taught to me by Luke Castellan, son of hermes. I slide the point of my sword across his and thrust downward with my weight and caused his sword to clatter to the ground. 

"Yes! I win again, Grace." I bragged.

"Oh, come on. That was luck." He said, picking up sword from off the ground.

I snorted," What about the other three times that I beat you?"

"Touche, cousin." He replied, eyes glinting with respect.

I touched the tip of  Anuklusmos, Riptide, and it shrunk down to its original pen shape. After putting the pen in my pocket, I ran up to Annabeth and gave her a big hug which she gladly returned. I pulled back after giving her a quick kiss on the lips.

"Hey, hows the planning going?" I asked, smiling.

Her eyes lit up," Great, I've got loads of idea on how to beat some of the monsters that we might meet."

"That's great, Wisegirl!" I told her.

"I know!" she says," Hey have you seen Leo lately? I need to talk to him."

"Leo?" I asked in disbelief. She came down here all this way to ask where Leo is.

"Yes, Leo. Are you becoming deaf?" She said sarcastically.

"I think Leo is in the armory working on some sort of project." I sighed, ignoring her sarcasm.

"Thanks, I'll see ya later, Seaweedbrain." She replied, smirking.

"You too, wisegirl." I teased.

She left.

"Oooh, you got it bad." Jason said, laughing.

I turned around," What do you mean?"

"Well, last time Piper did that, it was because I had done something wrong." Jason explained.

"What did I do wrong?' I asked, confused.

"Whatever it was, you better fix it." He said.

                        I took Jason's advise to heart. I decided to go to Piper for advise since she is the best person to go to about love advise. And Jason told me it was a good idea to. Piper was in her room painting her nails when I knocked and entered. Pink nail polish. Gross. 

"Hey Percy, is there something you needed." She asked, curious.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you knew what was wrong with Annabeth." I asked.

"What do you mean?" She asked with false innocence.

"Well," I said, narrowing my eyes suspiciously," Annabeth seemed strange lately and she is ignoring me. Which is odd."

"She's busy with her planning. You know her, daughter of the wisdom goddess. Always has to be learning." She explained.

"Your lying." I stated.

"What? No I'm not." She averted her eyes.

"Yeah, you are. I can tell when your lying." I accused.

"Percy, I think you should go. Now. Shoo, shoo!" She said, all but grabbing me by the ear and throwing me out.

She slammed the door in my face when I turned back to ask her something. I was confused. Piper doesn't usually act like that unless she's hiding something. And I'm going to get to the bottom of this funny business.

                         Next, I decided to go confront Hazel. Maybe she could tell me what was going on with Annabeth. When I entered here room, Hazel happened to be reading a book about Ancient Greece. She and Annabeth could get along really well. She looked up.

"Oh, hey Percy!" She said smiling.

Hazel and I came to a great friendship while on the quest. She was like my little sister in all but blood. And Frank was like my little brother.

"Hey, Hazel. I was wondering if you knew what was wrong with Annabeth ." I asked curiously.

"Theres nothing wrong with Annabeth." She answered with false innocence.

"Yes, there is. She's acting strange Hazel." I told her.

"Percy, she is fine. She's just been caught up in her studies. You know how she is." She explained.

"That's what Piper said. But I don't believe you guys." I said truthfully.

"Come on, Percy. Annabeth is your girlfriend," She reasoned," If there was anything wrong, she would tell you."

"You think?" I asked.

"Of course, I don't need to be Aphrodite to know that she loves you to pieces. And that if there was a problem she would tell you. And you would be first to know." She said, her eyes sincere.

I sighed," Ok, thanks Hazel."

                  I turned away and walked out the door. I kept walking unsure of where I was going. I knew something was up with Annabeth. No matter what the others said. There is something she isn't telling me and I'm going to get to the bottom of this. I came to a stop at a door. A big metal door. Now I realized where I had been going. The one person that could tell me what was going on with Annabeth. The person who all this weird behavior pointed to. The plack on the door said: Leo's cave.