Scars - A PJO/HOO Soulmates AU

45.

GO GO GO

Chapter 44 - Group Therapy Thingy #2

They all met up again in Hazel's apartment for their second group meeting.

But by the time they had started, not ten minutes in, the topic had changed to something completely different. Must be the ADHD.

"Hey Piper," Percy asked, when they all sat down, "Is your mom back from Vegas yet?"

"Nope," Piper said, leaning back in her seat, "And I am relishing the time that I have without her."

"She's terrible," Hazel said, scrunching up her nose.

Everyone agreed wholeheartedly. Her mom would be back, her plane must've been delayed or something.

Hazel cleared her throat, "Since we are obviously not going to talk about ourselves, I want to confess something."

"You and Frank are breaking up?" Leo asked, gasping, "Already?!"

"What?!" Hazel exclaimed, "No! I want to talk about the robbery of some precious jewels from my dad's company."

Annabeth nodded, while everyone else looked confused. "Do you guys not watch the news?" she asked in exasperation.

Percy shrugged, "I just don't find it all that interesting, I guess. What happened Hazel?"

Hazel took a deep breath, "So a while ago, this robber went to a warehouse that my dad owned and they stole a box full of diamonds, rubies, all those valuable gems. They haven't caught anyone yet..."

"Aww, you must feel bad," Calypso said, "Don't worry, it's not like you're responsible."

Hazel chuckled weakly, "About that..."

"No," Percy gasped, and Hazel shushed him.

"You can't tell anyone!" she panicked, "Especially not my dad."

"But why Hazel?" Frank asked, confused, "Why did you take it?"

"I didn't have a choice," Hazel said sadly, "This person keeps texting me, and they must be rich because I can't keep blocking all these numbers. They are blackmailing me."

"That's it," Jason declared, "You have to tell the authorities."

"No I can't" she said, "They threatened my family if I told anyone who had power over these sort of things."

The meet turned somber, and everyone thought about what was going on. For the longest time, they tried to ignore that something major was going on, but now they couldn't.

Something was happening. Though they weren't exactly sure what yet.

"Ahem," Annabeth coughed, "I guess I'll change the subject. Frank, you wanna update them on our findings?"

"Uh sure," Frank said awkwardly, "So Annabeth and I were researching a bit the other day, and we found some information."

He told them the story of the Global Child Services website and all the theories on it. And Annabeth told them about the weapon plans that were in the secret box.

"Wow, that's super real," Calypso said, "So why is a child organization making weapons?"

"That was our question exactly!" Annabeth said, "But look, I found something else."

She took out her laptop, and scrolled through it until she found what she was looking for. Turning the computer, she showed them all the screen.

"Uh Annabeth?" Leo asked, "Hate to break it to you, but those are prison photos..."