The Society of Spies (PJO/HOO)

Chapter 20: Keys

The others exchanged glances. The next thing they did surprises me. They burst into laughter.

"You? Spies? Right," Travis said in between laughter.

"We're telling the truth," Jason said. "If you don't believe us then fine, we'll try to find Annabeth, Piper, Hazel, Leo and Nico."

The laughter died down. "Well if you're really are spies," Chris said. "Do you have fancy gadgets?"

"Yeah but that's not important right now," I said. "We need to find Annabeth, Piper, Hazel, Leo and Nico before it's too late."

I fingered the gift Annabeth gave me. The necklace is the only thing I've got from her. Frank looked at what I'm fingering.

"Cool necklace," Frank said. "You know, Hazel gave me one too. See?" He showed me a key necklace similar to mine. The difference is that it is carved 'Everything's connected with one another'.

"Piper gave me that as well," Jason said showing a key necklace with a different sentences carved to it. It said 'Take the risk or lose the chance'. "You got it from Annabeth?" I nodded.

Katie's eyes widen when she saw our key necklaces. "Keys," she said. We all looked at her, confused. "Annabeth said something about them. She knew I was hiding, she said 'Keys! The keys to success is wisdom' or something like that. Is it possible what she meant was those keys?"

I looked at what Annabeth gave to me. I examine it. Looks like a regular key, but we don't have any other lead. "Worth a shot," I said. "Let's go to Annabeth's house. She's the only one who have a family member that isn't kidnapped right now. And we can break the news to her step-mom."

The bell rang. I forgot! We're at lunch now, we need to find them quickly. "Let's ask the principal, maybe he'll allowed us to get out of school today?"

The principal did let us out of school today. We mentioned that we're all caught in this flu, which is contagious. The principal agreed at once with no further questioning. The principal didn't want other students, teachers and himself to get the contagious flu, since they're lots of students who caught it already.

 We drove to Annabeth's house using three cars, Jason's, Frank's and mine. When we got there, Jason, Frank, Calypso, Katie, and I went up to the door. I knock and a women opened it. Annabeth's step mom.

"Hello there, do you need anything?" she asked.

"Yes Miss," Calypso said politely. "Your daughter, Annabeth Chase, isn't at school, we're her friends and we wanted to check on her."

A a little sadness appeared at Helen's eyes. "She's sick right now," she said. Obvious lie. "It's contagious, please go."

She was about to close the door when I said. "Hold on! I have the key," I said. I know I sounded ridiculous, but it caught Helen's attention. I showed her the key Annabeth gave me.

"Can I see that?" she asked. I nodded and showed it to her. Her eyes widen. "So you know what really happened?"

"We have an idea of what did happened," Katie said.

"Come in and go to Annabeth's room," Helen said. "At her desk, you'll find the thing you'll need. After that, can you tell me what happened to Annabeth?"

"Yes Miss Chase," Calypso said. "We'll tell you soon after."

We went to Annabeth's room. I opened the door and checked her desk. A big black box was on the desk. I tried to open it, but it didn't work. There's a lock on it.

"Guys! Come in, look! I found this box!" I said to Jason, Frank, Calypso and Katie who's still standing at the door. They came in and I showed them the box I found.