The Follower

Chapter 4

TAJAH'S POV

      I stood outside the entrance of the school, waiting for Chris so we could walk home. I would normally walk with my friend Asa, but he wasn't here today, so Chris said I could walk with him. We do live in the same neighborhood, so that makes it easier. "What is taking so long," I mumbled to myself. Chris was taking forever to get outside - he needed to move his lazy butt so I could walk home. I popped my head inside the school doors and saw him taking his sweet time to walk down the hall. Finally.

      "Finally, I can go home. What took so long?" I asked once Chris got his butt outside. I was not really happy to be walking with him. I mean, he was my friend, but I would rather not spend long periods of time alone with him because he is a chatterbox and it can get annoying.

"Ms. Clemens wanted to talk to me about my grades," he replied making a face. "Ugh I hate Ms. Clemens. She's so annoying and just...ugh," I said, disgusted.

"Let's go, my mom will be mad if I'm home late,"Chris urged. We started down the school's front steps, but I stopped abruptly, making Chris bump into me from behind. "Why did you stop?" He asked. I pointed at Annabeth and Ms. Scott getting into Annabeth's car.

"Isn't that kinda weird?" I brought up skeptically.

"...Yeah...,"he agreed.

"We should follow them,"The idea sounded crazy, even to me. I am a pretty nosey person.

"What? No! Are you crazy?" He exclaimed. "Even if I agreed to this, we couldn't follow them very far because, if you hadn't already noticed, cars are faster than people."

"Then we'll follow them as far as we can," I said stubbornly.

"Why?"

"Don't you see? This could have to do with that big secret that we swore to figure out. Then Ms. Scott was talking to Annabeth in class in Greek. Plus, traffic is terrible today," I reasoned. Chris's thought for a second.

"Well, if you don't go, I'm still going, and then you'll have to face my mother's wrath for coming home without me," I said.

"Deal, let's go."

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      When we saw them turn onto the freeway, we lost all hope, but decided to keep going, hoping that the terrible traffic would continue. Luckily, it did. We walked along the freeway and over the bridge, following Annabeths car, all the way to Berkely. We made sure to follow closely, but not so close as to let them see us. In a few hours, we ended up under the Caldecott tunnel, where the cars started speeding up.

"No, no, no, no, no..." I muttered, breaking into a jog with Chris following my lead. "We're never going to reach them now," I said, giving up. I crouched to the ground, holding my head in my hands. We were both really tired.

I stayed like that for a minute until Chris tapped me on the shoulder.

"Tajah...they stopped,"he said with heavy breaths. I didn't move from my position.

"What do you mean they stopped?" I said back.

"I mean they pulled over to the side of the road,"he answers. I felt a brief tingling feeling in my stomach that meant I was nervous.

"Chris...do you think they saw us?" I asked apprehensively.

"I don't know, but...Oh my God!" He yelled quietly.

"What happened,"I said, springing to my feet. There were two people in full Roman armor pointing spears at Annabeth and Ms. Scott.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing or am I just hallucinating. Please tell me I'm hallucinating." Chris said.

"I wish. Are you seeing two heavily armored guards pointing spears at our friend?" I asked sarcastically.

"...Yup," he replied casually.

     We watched the exchange carefully. Annabeth and Ms. Scott put their hands up and the guards spoke to each other. They seemed to be standing in front of a large arched doorway, but it was hard to see from this angle. Annabeth waved her arms around in a 'no no no no no' gesture. The guards seemed puzzled, so Ms. Scott started ranting, maybe giving an explanation or something. After a few minutes, the guards let them in. I turned to Chris, dumbfounded.

"I don't know about you, but I think this is adding up to one big secret."