Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Juno's Warning

Chapter Eight: A Surprise

Two Weeks Later:

I was bouncing my knee up and down impatiently, making the desk jiggle slightly. Sabrina, Julia, and everyone else were in similar situations, just counting the minutes until we were able to leave for home. But for some reason, Mr. Robertson thought he could actually teach us about quadratic functions now. We have forty eight and a half minutes left of our last period class, then we are given till six thirty to be completely packed and out of here. Because we are a boarding school, we have longer breaks, and we have a three week break. I knew everyone was excited to get out out this prison and have three weeks off.

But I was ready to get out of there for my own reasons. I needed to talk to Chiron and Percy about that closed off Olympus problem.

Ever since then, no one was able to get into Olympus, and nothing came out. Demigods were claimed, but no dream visits, no stop-by chats, nothing. Even Mr. D was recalled to the 600th floor, and Chiron wasn't even sure what was going on. But I had a feeling he wasn't telling us everything. There was a reason Olympus was unaccessible, and Chiron knew why.

But I can't say Olympus being isolated was an entirely bad thing: on the weekends, I had more time to hang out with people at camp, even Julia and Sabrina, and most of all, Percy.

Just last weekend, I had brought Percy to the library on Sixth Avenue for fun. Well, my definition of fun. Percy was very dramatic on how boring he thought it was. He was really funny, pretending he was sleeping and sometimes falling onto me when he fell asleep. I couldn't stop giggling, and we must've been reprehended by the staff hundreds of times. We then walked to Central Park where we played fetch with Mrs. O'Leary, who was a poodle. Who knew a hellhound the size of a bulldozer would appear to be a poodle through the Mist?

It was probably one of the best days of my life. I felt like a normal teenage girl spending a normal afternoon with her normal boyfriend.

A loud snap brought me back to reality. Julia had leaned onto her textbook and it fell off the desk and smacked the floor. Mr. Robertson turned around and spotted Julia hastily picking up her book. And, of course, he decided to prey on her. "Miss Romanov, do you know the general formula for a quadratic equation?"

Julia, who, like everyone else in the room, had no idea what the answer was. Luckily, she was a quick thinker, and stole a quick glance at the board and found it. "It's y=ax2+bx+c."

Mr. Robertson frowned, but nodded. "Very good. Now, when using the vertex form..."

The rest of the class went by like Kronos slowed down time. When the bell finally rang out the end of the period, all that was left of the students were streak marks. I was able to extract myself from the stream of girls and get to my room, where Julia was packing.

"Where's Sabrina? Not here yet?" I asked her, pulling my duffel bag from the closet and plopping it down in front of the dresser.

"I guess so. She was right beside me when I got on the elevator, but she probably got lost." Julia picked out a black ripped T-shirt and acid-wash jeans, then headed to the bathroom to change.

About twenty-four seconds later, Sabrina barreled through the door. She huffed indignantly and marched to the closet, which she had claimed as her space since the second she walked in the dorm.

I looked at her questioningly.

"I left my headband in Algebra. I had to go back. Elevator was jammed. Stairs were crowded." sabrina cursed under her breathe.

I laughed. "All that for a headband?"

She scowled. "It's a Dolce Cabana."

I raised an eyebrow. "You think I know what that is?"