Annabeth's Mortal Friends

Chapter Twenty-One

Caleb Pierson's POV:

Seriously, aren't summer camps supposed to be a week long thing? Maybe two at the most, but Annabeth's been gone for a hell of a long time now!

I've texted her probably a million times, and I've even swung by her house on a few more occasions then I'd like to admit. Everytime I showed up, Mr. Chase gave me the same vague answer: "Annabeth's at camp, she'll be back soon, though." Even when he said it, he didn't sound sure of himself. Shouldn't he know when his daughter's coming home? He wouldn't give me any other excuse, so I've pretty much given up on getting information out of him. I'm getting pretty fed up with him not answering my questions. I'm just worried about Annabeth, you would think he'd see that as respectable, but instead he's barely giving me a second glance!

More importantly, though, I'm worried about Annabeth. It's been two months. Sure, she's always gone away over the summer, but I figured it was for family stuff too. Now that Percy's around, I figured it'd be a safe bet to check out the Chase's house, just to see if anything weird was going on. Clearly there was, because the entire Chase family was home except for Annabeth, and they all say she's "off at camp." How does one spend that much time at a summer camp?

I haven't seen her in practically forever, and it's freaking me out a bit. Not only because I'm suspicious of Percy, but I miss her too. Her smile, her laugh, her joking comments; I didn't realize how much livelier the friend group was when she was around, until she was gone.

Rolling over onto my other side, my eyes locked onto the picture on my nightstand. It was from freshman orientation; Andrew's mom was taking a picture of him and me. Sure, I love this picture because of Andrew and me, but we somehow managed to capture the entire friend group in one picture before we'd even met! Right behind Andrew's shoulder, you can see a slightly blurry portrait of Jordan, grabbing onto the hand of Emma and pulling her toward one of the club booths. A crowd of nervous, excited, and awkward freshman fill up the rest of the background, with Annabeth standing amongst them; of course, she's standing out, just as she always does. Not at all in a bad way, though.

Actually, I'm not quite sure in what way she's standing out. When I looked at this picture last year, Annabeth was the only thing I could see in it; nothing else was as gorgeous as she was standing there. Of course, she still looks gorgeous, but now when I look at it, the crowd is a little more noticeable to me. Annabeth doesn't have that perfect, angelic glow I usually saw around her; I couldn't have possibly gotten over her in just two months, could I? I went through so much over the last school year just to get her to look in my direction, but now it feels a little different.

I shake the thought out of my head, sitting up. I'm probably just imagining things; feelings that strong don't go away in a couple of months. Or do they? After Percy showed up, Annabeth and I slowly lost the connection that we had. At least, on her end. I tried to stay with her, but she pushed me away after Percy arrived. Now that they ran off to camp together, practically falling off the face of the Earth for an entire summer, maybe things really had changed.

That's a problem for another day. When I see Annabeth again, I'll decide whether or not I'm acting crazy. My gaze moves from the picture to the alarm clock sitting beside it. It reads 1:19. Crap, I have to be out of here by 1:30 to make it to the pizza place on time. Jordan will probably kill me if I'm late. I shake the thoughts of Annabeth out of my head, throwing on my jacket and jogging down the stairs.

I shoot a quick smile to my mom as I pull my keys off of the kitchen counter. As I turn, I catch her raising an eyebrow at me.

"And where are you off to?" She interrogated me.

I flinched, cursing to myself. It would've been way easier to just slip out the front door. "I'm just heading out to the pizza place down the street."

"Did you already practice your Greek today? You know we agreed on an hour and a half a day." She pressed, jabbing her pen in my direction.

"Yes, Mom." I sighed. "I'm all done."

"Good," she hummed approvingly, "we can't have you falling behind. Just because you're not in school doesn't mean you shouldn't be learning! You need to stay on top of everything."

"I know, Mom, I won't fall behind."

"You better not, you can't slack off for two months just because you're on summer break," she lectured.

I bit my tongue, nodding. Did she really think I was going to forget an entire language in one summer? "I'm not slacking, Mom, don't worry. Can I leave now?"

She frowned at me, probably not liking the bored tone in my voice. "Well who are you going with? Do I know them?"

"It's just Andrew, Emma, and Jordan. You've met them."

She wrinkled her nose in distaste at the last two. "Girls? Why are you hanging out with so many girls? You aren't dating either of them, are you?" She asked, accusation laced in her words.

I shake my head, laughing it off awkwardly. "Geez, Mom, I'm not dating them! Can I leave, please?"

She ignored my question. "I'm glad to hear that, you don't need to be distracted from your studies by some girl." She hesitated, looking me up and down before pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. "Alright, you can go."

I shot her a quick thank you before heading out the door even quicker. That was an awkward way to end the conversation; oh, she has no idea just how distracted from school a girl has made me.

I jog down the front steps of my porch, unlocking my car and slipping into the driver's seat. 1:31. I'll just drive a little fast, it's fine. I start up the car, backing out of the driveway and basically putting myself into auto-pilot. I've driven to this place a million times; I meet Annabeth, Andrew, and everyone for pizza here all the time. Besides, it's hard to focus on the road with so much on my mind lately.

Annabeth is obviously first on the list; I'm starting to worry about her making it home okay. She brings my mind to Percy, who I'm even more worried about, but for drastically different reasons. I'm not worried about what'll happen to him, I'm just worried about who he is as a person. Speaking of Percy; is he the only reason I might be getting over Annabeth? I can't think of anything else that would make me back down like this. That whole ancient Greek cult thing I found? If this past year hadn't been so crazy, I never would've even considered this theory, but the puzzle pieces fit a little too well.

This is too much; driving in silence is probably better for my sanity.

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I've officially finished my sophomore year!!! No more homework means I can hopefully get on a more frequent writing schedule now<3

5/29/20