Through Annabeth's Mind: Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief (Annabeth's POV)

2) I Eavesdrop On A Horse and a God

A piercing scream woke me up the next morning. It was Malcolm, one of my bunkmates. I had to blink several times to remove the fog from my eyes and saw him scramble out of bed and run towards the cabin door. He just stood there, his back against the door, breathing heavily, focused on his unmade bed.

"What's going on?" I croaked.

"S-spider" Malcolm stammered. Panic began to set in, and I started breathing heavily. Everyone jumped out of bed and got away, followed by more shouting and cursing as the spider moved its eight thin, crooked, and disgusting legs in a weird way that creeped me out. I panicked and froze, but luckily someone pulled my arm and dragged me towards the door. I couldn't take my eyes off the little evil creature. Someone must have opened the door to run away, probably to call one of the Apollo kids. They owed us since we usually help them with their ophidiophobia (they are afraid of snakes because of a curse) and also because they are practically always awake before us.

Keeping my eye on the spider, I noticed Lee Fletcher and Michael Yew arrive from the Apollo Cabin. Everyone was standing outside waiting expectantly in their pajamas for them to kill it. A few seconds later, they came out with a tissue in their hand and a suppressed grin, as if they were trying not to laugh. Even though we've done this more times than I can count, they learned not to make fun of our arachnophobia (the hard way). They couldn't contain themselves and started chuckling. I rolled my eyes.

We slowly entered our cabin, scanning the beds, walls, and ceiling, just in case the spider had decided to bring a sibling or two. It was usually a bad omen. When we finally decided that there were no more, I took a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and a pair of shorts while most of my siblings did the same because they knew they wouldn't get any more sleep. Then I headed for the showers.

                                                                 * * *

I was on my way to the infirmary, which was a room in the Big House, to check on Grover and the new kid, when I remembered that Mr. D had arrived last night from Olympus. Mr. D was called for an Olympian council a few days ago. The D stands for Dionysus (Yes, the one and only Dionysus). He was punished by Zeus (his father) for chasing a nymph that was out of boundaries, becoming the director of this camp and not being able to have alcohol for a whole century. He can't wait for his hundred years to get over, and to be honest, he's not the only one. I spotted Chiron and him on the porch, their heads bent in close, which meant they didn't want any of the campers listening. I put on my Yankees cap and carefully walked towards them. The cap was a gift from my mother, Athena (Yep, the wisdom-goddess-of-Ancient-Greece Athena). It has the power to make the wearer invisible. I've used it more times than I can count to prank the Stoll brothers (Yeah, I know, it's pretty cool). I walked closer till I could hear them. 

"- it would happen in the summer solstice." Mr. D said.

"And even Athena couldn't change his mind?" Chiron asked. "Or Artemis?"

"You know Athena has a rivalry against Poseidon, she doesn't trust him. He could be the one that stole it," Mr. D replied. "We cannot be sure, though. It's as if Chaos himself was up there."

I inched forward, and under me the wooden floor creaked. They froze, cautiously looking around trying to find the source of the noise, but they couldn't. Then went back to playing pinochle in silence. I waited a few seconds to see if they could give me any more information but warily made my way out of the porch. I needed answers and I didn't know who to ask. Maybe the boy knew something, it couldn't be a coincidence he just arrived.

But, I still had to take off my cap, so I turned a corner when I saw Grover walking out. He was back to his normal self, a satyr ( half-goat half-human).