Spies-in-Training: A Royal Problem | Percabeth AU

Chapter 3: Leaving

Annabeth's POV
We all woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning. Normally, all students were supposed to wake up at 8 o'clock, so this early in the morning, we could easily leave the campus without any students noticing and asking questions about it.

Yesterday the principal had told us to get ready and look presentable for going to the castle. We were supposed to get ready, then grab our suitcases and go wait for him at the school gates. We were supposed to be there by 7 o'clock. He was going to give us some last-minute instructions and then send us on our way.

I quickly got dressed in a gray knee-length dress. It was a simple dress, with no extra designs on it. I wore some simple silver sandals to go with the dress and did up my hair. I had one braid on each side of my head that I twisted behind my head and secured in a clip. The rest of my hair was let down in its natural curls. Lastly, I put on a silver bracelet with an owl charm and my silver owl earrings. I also decided to put on some makeup, just this once. So I applied a very light coat of makeup so that I looked good, but the makeup was barely noticeable. (Please excuse my horrible description, because I'm not really an expert at fashion. Far from it, in fact)

Why all this extra fashion, you ask? Well, I normally don't dress up like this, but today was an exception, because I was going to the castle today.

I knocked on our connecting door. "Come in!" Piper called.

I poked my head in. Piper was wearing a light blue knee-length dress with silver sandals. She had on some simple jewelry and had her hair up in a cute bun. As I watched, she applied the finishing touches to her makeup, which was light and simple like mine.

"How do I look?" She asked me anxiously once she was done.

"You look great, Piper," I assured her. "How do I look?"

"You look amazing! Fit to be a princess!" She proclaimed.

"All right, all right, don't go overboard with the compliments," I laughed.

Piper laughed. "Seriously though, you look awesome," she said.

"Thanks," I smiled, then looked at the time. "We better hurry, Pipes! It's 6:45 now and we have to be at the gates by 7!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming, and don't call me Pipes!" She called as I rushed into my room to grab my suitcase.

"Hurry up, Pipes!" I called back to her.

Piper pouted, but followed me anyway as I left our room. We made our way quickly and silently outside to the gates, where most of our friends, and Eric, were already waiting. Only Thalia and Frank hadn't arrived yet.

"Finally!" Leo exclaimed upon our arrival. "I was beginning to think we would have to leave without you!"

"Don't be so dramatic, Leo," Piper scoffed. "We're five minutes early!"

Leo rolled his eyes, and they started bickering. Luckily, they stopped when the principal arrived a few moments later, holding two small boxes.

"I see you are all here on time," he said.

That's strange, I thought. Thalia and Frank aren't even here yet.

"Now before I send you off, I must fill in the rest of the details about your mission." At this point, he had lowered his voice to a whisper. "Now, the only people in the castle who know about all of this are the King and Queen. No one else knows who you really are or what your job really is. Now this brings us to the matter of your cover story.

"Your cover story is this: Annabeth is the Queen's good friend's daughter. Jason, Piper and the Stolls are her siblings and Leo is her adopted brother. Hazel is her cousin, who will be staying with her. Her parents are gone on a vacation out of state together with Hazel's parents and Annabeth's parents have requested the King and Queen to take care of the children while they are gone. The King and Queen kindly accepted this request, and you will be staying with them until your parents come back. And Eric will be posing as a newly recruited guard."