The Untold Story of Annabeth Chase

PART 3- Chapter 32

Two months after Ethan's disappearance, the summer session began and campers funneled back into the camp again.
This process had lost its excitement for me. Now I just liked sitting back and watching everyone squeal and jump and greet their friends. Silena Beauregard ran past me, giggling and linking arms with two of her friends from Aphrodite. Isaac got off a bus and greeted his buddies nonchalantly. Even Luke had a few people from the Hermes cabin to say hello to.

I had no close friends to reunite with, so I stood awkwardly to the side, watching half-bloods run past, their arms linked and huge smiles on their faces. I waved at Astrid, and she waved back, almost smiling.

The cabin parties that night were up to their usual standards. The children of Athena, hard partiers that we were, played more trivia games. Astrid had brought back a new version of Trivial Pursuit from Canada, and we spent the night answering questions we had never heard before. Isaac still won, but he looked mad, like he was upset that we had matured past his game. He had probably spent all year memorizing the answers on those cards, and now he had nothing to do with the information.

We were having a pretty good time geeking out in Cabin 6, but the other cabins were very loud and pretty distracting. Hermes, as always, was the loudest, but Ares and Apollo were up there too. Ares seemed to be having some sort of amateur wrestling tournament, and the Apollo cabin were singing those cheesy camp songs we all loved so much. The twin sons of Dionysus seemed to be having a pretty good time by themselves in their cabin as well. So far no answers as to where they got the wine, but we figured they must have had the same freaky power as their father. Maybe he had even hooked them up.

The next morning was equally fun. Chiron was politely turning a blind eye to any table switching, so long as we didn't actually sit down. Many people were discreetly hovering by other tables, chatting with their friends and laughing. The Dionysus boys were clearly hungover, but Mr. D actually seemed proud rather than angry. I was sure that if anyone else at camp had showed up to breakfast like that, Mr. D and Chiron would lock them in the basement for the rest of the summer.

The way our schedules worked out, we were back to having lots of sword practice with the Hermes cabin. My sword fighting hadn't improved a ton since last summer, but I still managed to take down many of the Hermes campers and several of my own cabinmates.

Luke and I also started doing sparring practice during our free time, to help me improve and help Luke practice against knife fighters. I had offered him the Celestial bronze knife back multiple times, but to my relief he had shaken his head and insisted that it was mine now.

June of 2003 also marked the arrival of two more Aphrodite campers. Drew Tanaka and Mitchell Holt both arrived within two weeks of each other, and were claimed on the same day in front of the whole camp. It was definitely a shock when, at the campfire one night, Mitchell and Drew both received their full-body makeover in the middle of our favourite song. Drew hadn't seemed thrilled about sharing the spotlight, but she was smart and played nice in front of everyone, hugging her new brother with a forced smile. There was no way to be sure what she was like behind the closed doors of Cabin 10, though.

Drew was Asian, with pretty dark brown eyes and glossy dark hair. She was about a year younger than me, but I wasn't sure of her exact age, and I didn't want to get close enough to ask. She was beautiful, but she definitely knew it, and pretty soon rumours began to spread about what really went on in the Aphrodite cabin after Drew moved in.

Mitchell was eleven, like me, with messy blond hair and clear blue eyes. He was exactly the way I pictured a stereotypical child of Aphrodite to look like, and he bore a creepy resemblance to his half-sister, Silena.

I talked to him sometimes, and he was actually really nice. Turned out we had quite a few things in common, and he wasn't as shallow as Drew or some of his other siblings. Whenever Luke was in one of his moods or Grover was having a mental breakdown and hiding in the woods, I found myself turning to Mitchell.

I talked to him a lot.

So much so, in fact, that Isaac and Aaron and some of the other camp bullies started teasing me, asking about my new boyfriend. I ignored them and shrugged it off, but they refused to quit it.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was worried about Luke hearing the rumors, but I refused to admit to myself that I was even thinking about it.

One sunny morning a few weeks into June, Luke and Chiron were both missing from breakfast. I asked around and one of his brothers told me Chiron had wanted to speak to Luke in the Big House, so I hung back at the pavilion to see what was going on.

It seemed to take forever, but eventually I saw him emerge from the Big House with Chiron right behind him. I waved him over, and he approached, seeming shaken up.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He took a long time to answer. 'Nothing's wrong," he said slowly. "Chiron just offered me a quest."

I stared at him in shock for a minute. "Wait, really?" He nodded. "Luke, that's awesome!" He nodded again, and I threw my arms around his neck. I was getting tall enough that I could do that now.

He was still pretty fazed, but he eventually hugged back. "What's your quest?" I asked him, grinning expectantly. I was a little bit jealous, but I was mostly really happy for him. He had always tried to tell me that he didn't want a quest, but I knew he had been itching for a chance to prove himself for a long time.

"I don't know," he answered. "I'm supposed to go see the Oracle now."
"Wait, like right now?" Another nod. "Well what are you waiting for? Don't you want to find out your quest?"
"Yeah," Luke sighed dramatically.
"What is it?" I asked.

"It's just... I'm not getting an original."

Original. I vaguely remembered hearing the term before. Luke was getting a repeat of some quest from Ancient Greek times. "Well, that's not that bad."

Luke shrugged. "Guess not."
"Okay, stop it," I huffed. "You just got a quest, Luke. Stop moping and go find out what it is. It doesn't matter that it's been done before. You'll do it again, even better than the old heroes."

Luke seemed surprised by my outburst, but I guess a good scolding was just what he needed, because he nodded more forcefully this time and headed for the Big House.