The Mark of Athena,Heroes of Olympus, Book 3

Annabeth XXI


Annabeth opened her eyes. She was laying in her bed, leading her to believe that the night before hadn't been entirely real. Maybe Percy hadn't pushed her out of the way of the monster and she passed out. Annabeth pulled out her journal and flipped to the last entry she made. The bottom of the page was covered in black ink.

It was real. It was all real. Luke was back. Her laptop was wiped. She was an emotional wreck. Luke was back.

Annabeth threw her knife at the wall. It landed exactly in a seam between the wooden boards. She humped and threw the stupid journal as well. She looked at her clock. Three o' clock in the morning. She glanced at the date. July first. Annabeth sighed and began laying down again, but she bolted up again. July first! Annabeth landed back down on her pillow.

July first, she thought. I'm seventeen.

Then she drifted off to sleep again, after retrieving her journal.

She left the knife alone.

Let them wonder.

This time, sunlight woke her up. She grinned, getting dressed. She wondered if anyone would notice. She didn't really celebrate her birthday, except inside her head when she congratulated herself for living another year. But Percy knew her birthday was July 1st. Luke knew. Piper might know, but she didn't remember if she told her or not.

"Um... Annabeth?" Piper said, waking up. "Why is there a knife in the wall?"

"I woke up at three o' clock." Then Annabeth walked out, chuckling inwardly at Piper's confused expression.

Percy, Leo, Jason, Hazel, and... he-who-shall-not-be-named were already up. Percy smiled at her, but his eyes said, Are you alright?

Annabeth smiled back at him, hoping he'd realize that was the answer to his question. Annabeth sat down in the seat next to him, which, luckily, was the farthest seat from Luke.

"Hey, Annabeth. Want some breakfast?" asked Leo.

"Sure."

Percy grinned at Annabeth and whispered, "Happy Birthday."

"Thanks," she whispered back. Percy was obviously overjoyed to see that she was herself again, and he did nothing to hide it.

In a few minutes, Leo had Annabeth's omelet done and she began to eat.

"What kind of answer is, 'I woke up at three o' clock?'" Piper asked, walking into the room.

"What happened?" Percy laughed.

"Well, when I woke up this morning, Annabeth's knife was kind of embedded into the wall."

"Aww, come on, Annabeth!" Leo protested, walking to Annabeth and Piper's room. After a moment, Leo said, "Piper, I need your help!" Annabeth and Percy cracked up as Luke raised an eyebrow at them.

"Leo, you are a total wimp," Piper muttered, walking back into the room with Annabeth's knife in her hand.

"She had it buried up to the hilt!"

"Leo, it's humanly impossible to throw a knife across a room and have it buried up to the hilt in the wall unless you're, like, Chuck Norris," Jason laughed.

"Well, Chuck Norris wouldn't have been able to get that knife out!" Leo retorted.

"Then I'm not Chuck Norris," Piper said, handing Annabeth her knife.

"I'm sorry, who's Chuck Norris?" Hazel asked. Leo fake gasped.

"You don't know who Chuck Norris is?" Leo shook his head. "Annabeth, I need your iPad!"

"No! No way!" Annabeth protested. "Chuck Norris is a professional wrestler that people make all sorts of jokes about."

"Oh. Leo, that's all you had to tell me. You didn't have to go all-" Hazel imitated Leo's gasp.

Everyone cracked up except for Leo.

'

"Hmm. Can we focus on the quest now?"

"Did I just hear you say focus?" Annabeth gasped. "No! Who are you and what have you done with Leo?" Percy, who had never really recovered from that last laughing fit dissolved into laughter again.

"Am I just not getting this because I haven't even been here twenty-four hours?" Luke said.

"Yeah."

"Yes."

"Oh, yeah."

"No." Leo scowled. "You're not getting it because it wasn't funny." Leo looked like a two year old, which caused Annabeth to crack up again.

Frank appeared in the doorway. "How come I miss everything fun just because I'm tired?"

Percy shrugged.

"Okay, okay, let's stop fooling around. We do need to figure out a plan. Like, who's looking for the doors of death-" Piper began.

"And Nico," interjected Hazel. Percy scoffed. Annabeth gave him a weird look.

"When I first got to Camp Jupiter, he pretended he didn't know me."

"Ah. Stupid Nico." Percy nodded in agreement with Annabeth.

"Well, we should only have maybe two people looking at a time, because we don't want to attract to many monsters," said Annabeth.

"Good idea. Who's going first?" asked Piper. "I'll go."

"Me, too." Piper grinned at Annabeth.

"When should we go?" she asked.

"Finish breakfast, then we'll go."

PAGE BREAK

"'Kay, Annabeth, let's go. Got your knife?" Piper said.

"Yeah. See you!" Annabeth waved.

"Good luck," muttered Leo.

"Thanks!"

"Okay, so, first of all, I have no ideas for this." Piper shrugged. "Should we, you know, look for Nico? He was last in Rome."

"Yeah..."

"But how are we going to find him? Rome is huge!" Piper exclaimed. Annabeth grinned, pulling out her iPad.

"Oh, Piper. There's an app for that."
Percy XXII


Percy watched Annabeth disappear through the open door.

This should be good. The two most level-headed demigods on the boat were now... somewhere. Percy didn't know where they were going. All he knew was that something was bound to go wrong. Everyone was silent.

"This is awkward," Leo finally said. Percy sighed.

"Leo?" Jason said.

"Mmm-hmm?"

"Shut up."

Just then, it started to rain. Today was not starting off well.

Rrriiinngg! Rrriiinngg!

Leo walked over to the phone.

"Supreme Commander of the Argo II speaking. Oh, hi, Annabeth! Oh, yeah, we're doing just fine! Uh, yeah, I knew that was sarcasm. How about you? What's up? Octavian? That was fast. Wait, was that sarcasm that time? No? Okay. I knew that. Because I felt like asking. So, do you, like, need help? Oh, okay. Oh, that was sarcasm that time, wasn't it? Okay... where are you? Isn't there a GPS or something on your iPad or something? Oh, hi Piper! Yeah, I'm good. Would you people stop with the sarcasm? Percy! It's for you!"

"You really let him answer the phone?" Annabeth asked.

"He was up before we could do anything about it." Annabeth laughed.

"Octavian found us."

"Wow, Leo's right. That was fast. So where are you?"

"Uh... somewhere in the woods... near the boat. Octavian's kind of chasing us."

"Think he knows we know about him?"

"Probably, he wouldn't chase us if he didn't. Shh! Someone's coming! I have to go. Just get here as soon as possible!" Annabeth hung up. Percy sighed.

"Who wants to come with me?" Percy asked. Luke and Leo raised their hands. "Anyone else? How about you, Frank?" Frank shook his head. "Fine, come on. But if either of you act like idiots, Piper and Annabeth aren't the only things you're going to be looking for.

"What else?"

"Your front teeth."