Missing

Come In With The Rain

Bonjour my darlings.

How is everybody this fine evening?

That's just peachy.

:)

Disclaimer: No, I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I also do not own Heroes of Olympus. I also do not own any of Taylor Swift's songs. Got it? Great. On with the story.

…...

Annabeth POV

As we arrived back at camp and got out of the van, dinner had just started. Luckily we had finished all of the candy so we just threw out the bag and then went to join the lines of our respective cabins.

As I lead my cabin to the dining pavilion, I caught Chiron's eyes. They seemed to have a look in them similar to Sally's, but the pain wasn't as strong. Don't get me wrong, there was a very evident pain in his eyes, but the pain of a mother losing her only child always come out much worse than a teacher losing one of his favourite students.

Chiron gave me a look that said, "Did you find anything? Anything at all?"

I shook my head sadly and then dropped his gaze because it wouldn't be much longer until a wave of my own sadness would overwhelm me.

I turned back to face the dining pavilion and then felt a comforting hand on my shoulder. I turned slightly to find Malcolm looking at me with a sympathetic look on his face.

"It's alright Annie. It's Percy we're talking about. He'll come back. He always does."

I smiled. I was so lucky to have great friends/half-siblings.

"Thanks."

He rubbed my back and then took his hand back. As we sat down at the Athena table, Chiron got up to say the evening's announcements.

"Good evening campers!" You could tell from his voice that he was forcing the enthusiasm because he knew it wouldn't come out by itself.

"Hi Chiron." Came the usual, droned reply.

"Let's start dinner off with some claiming shall we?"

We waited patiently for the floating symbols to appear above the new camper's heads.

Tracy Miller, Demeter.*

Jack Nolan, Apollo.*

Billy Sheridan, Hermes.*

After the three new campers had been claimed, Chiron continued with the usual announcements. Then he did something I wasn't ready for in the least.

"…and lastly, I would like Annabeth to tell you about some recent unfortunate news. Annabeth, would you please?"

For a second I was dumbstruck, staring at Chiron questioningly. I gave him a look that said, "Why?" and then got up and walked to the podium.

"Hey guys." I waved.

"Hi Annabeth." Came the response in the same voice tone they had given Chiron.

I let out a small, half-hearted laugh before continuing. "So, um, as most of you know, a couple days ago, Percy went missing."

There was a small collective gasp from the campers – I guess it was delayed shock or something – but the newbies who didn't know Percy gave me questioning looks and looked around at the others to see their reactions. I saw some of the older campers explaining to them who he was and what had happened for which I was thankful because I really didn't think I could repeat that story again.