Annabeth's POV

"Annabeth, what is that?" Piper gave a pointed look at my neck. I pulled up the color of my leather jacket—I knew what she was looking at. Before, Percy had given me a hickey... again.

"What's what?" I asked.

"That," she pointed. "On your neck, you just covered it." She squinted at me skeptically.

"There's nothing... I don't know what you're talking about." I played it off.

"Nope, there was something there," Jason added, shooting me a smirk. I glared at him. He always had to nag me in some way.

"No... I agree with Piper and Jason on this one, Annie," Leo added.

"Don't call me 'Annie.'" I glared at him, making him shrink back a bit.

"Fine, but there's still something—"

"Fine!" I said, slamming down my water bottle. "It's a hickey. From Percy. Is that what you wanted to here?" I asked. Percy turned bright red next to me, and I felt a bit bad about embarrassing him, but there had been plenty of times when I caught Piper with a love bite.

Leo started laughing. Jason and Piper snickered. Calypso rolled her eyes and Reyna sat quietly, continuing to eat her lunch. Nico turned the slightest shade of red, and Will did the same as Reyna. Hazel turned the deepest shade of red I had ever seen, as did Frank.

"But, the thing is, you didn't have that this morning when you came in..." Piper raised an eyebrow at me.

"Okay, fuck you—" I started.

"You mean, Percy fucked you in the janitors' closet? What did I tell you guys!?" Leo turned and exclaimed at Piper and Jason. Piper handed him a $20 bill.

"You bet on us!?" I looked at them angrily.

"What the fuck, guys!" Percy added.

"Just leave them alone, you three," Hazel defended. "What they do is their business."

"Thank you," I smiled at Hazel. She winked.

"At least tell us you were safe—"

"All right! That's it, we're leaving!" I went to stand up but Percy pulled me back into my seat.

"In the end, we're really the ones who come out on top, because we still managed to do it in school," he mumbled to me, making me laugh and chuckling himself.

"What was that?" Jason asked.

"Shut it, Grace." I snarled.

"Frank, Hazel, Reyna, Will," Percy started. "You are all officially my favorite friends," He announced.

"We're just teasing," Jason said.

"Wait, what about Nico?" Hazel asked. "He didn't do anything, Percy."

"It's fine. I don't want to be Percy's favorite." Nico looked up from his lunch. A few of the group laughed, including myself.

"You should really be more... friendly, you know?" Will nudged Nico.

"But you told me to be myself." Nico pointed out.

"Exactly."

"I can't do both," Nico protested, earning the laughs of the group. Will rolled his eyes.

"And there's the bell," Reyna reminded us as the bell rang throughout the cafeteria.

I packed up the small amount of things I had and threw out my garbage. "Alright, what class do I have now?" I wondered aloud.

"You have English with Leo and I," Hazel said.

"Thanks," I smiled. "Alright, let's go get this over with."

"I'll see you later," Percy grabbed my hands.

"Or maybe at 1:15," I mumbled in Percy's ear. He pulled away and smiled, chuckling. "Bye," I said before starting to walk away. I joined Leo and Hazel on their way to English.

><•><

"I wonder how long this whole thing takes," I wondered as I pulled my jeans back on.

"I think it depends," he said.

"On what?"

"How we feel." He shrugged. "What we want to do, you know."

"I guess you're right." I pulled my shirt back on. Soon we were all dressed and ready to go back. "We ready? Is my hair too much of a mess?"

"Nope. Just as frizzy and amazing as usual." Percy smiled. "How about mine?" He joked.

"It looks horrid. Just the whole style. I think a Mohawk would be better. You know, shave the sides like this," I ran my hands through Percy's hair, teasing him and making him laugh. I actually loved Percy's hair. I liked how it was messy, but it still, no matter what happened, could not look bad.

"Alright, come on." He opened the closet door. I stepped out into the halls. The halls were normally empty when we went back—everyone was in class. But things seemed eerily desolate and quiet. I pushed the feeling away, convincing myself it was nothing. Percy and I held hands on the way back to our classes. We went to mine first.

Walking up to the door, I noticed the shade was down, which was unusual. I looked around to find it was the same with all the other doors. I gave Percy a confusing look. "What's up?" I asked.

He tried to peer past the shade over the window—it didn't work. He knocked, but there was no answer. Clearly the lights were off. We went to another classroom, finding it to be the same as I stood behind Percy.

Suddenly, he froze. The hall was so quiet I heard him swallow. He turned to me and mouthed two words:

lock down.

My heart sank.

I had heard about lock downs. It was when there was an intruder in the building, so all the classes went into lock down.

I swallowed. I immediately knew I needed to stop making any noise. It's not a drill? I mouthed.

Percy shook his head. I nodded and shook my head composing myself. Percy put a finger to his lips and grabbed my hand. I tried to get the sinking feeling out of my stomach. I couldn't. Percy went to turn a corner, but stopped immediately and turned around.

He grabbed me and we silently ran to the nearest girls' bathroom. We went inside and I tried to regulate my breathing. Clearly, there was someone around that corner. Someone who probably had a gun. Someone who could kill us. I took a deep breath. I remembered in a lock down drill at my old school, that if you were in the bathroom, you had to sit and block the door with your feet.

I sat on the floor and put my feet against the door, gesturing for Percy to do the same. He followed in suit. I tried to stay as quiet and still as possible, keeping my legs straight. I seemed fairly calm and composed on the outside. In reality, I was shitting my pants. I was terrified.

We waited in silence, especially when we heard the intruder's footsteps pass. The scariest thing was what he was saying. He was muttering things to himself, like, "This will solve it," and "I'm gonna fix it," I had no idea what he was talking about, but part of me didn't want to know. Percy grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. This helped a small bit with my anxiety, but I was still tingling with fear.

"It's okay," Percy whispered, a bit louder than he intended.

Suddenly, the footsteps returned and stopped. Every hair on my body stood on end. My arms  were riddled with goosebumps. I looked at Percy, who looked just as terrified as I did. Tears stung my eyes, and I had to remind myself to breath.

Slow and quiet, Annabeth, I reminded myself. In and out, in and out.

The door budged. I kept my legs stiff, feeling that I was so scared, I wouldn't have been able to move if I tried. Percy kept his legs straight and squeezed my hand as if to say, it's okay, I'll get us out of this.

"Hey!" The intruder yelled. "Who's in here!" He bellowed. "Come out! I won't hurt you!"

Yeah right, jackass, I thought.

"Just—" he pushed on the door. Percy and I were straining to keep it closed. "Just let me in!" He grunted with effort. The door began to come open, just in the slightest. But that was all he needed to get a gun through the door and shoot one of us. Adrenaline kicked in, and I pushed the door closed with all my might, suppressing a grunt of effort.

"Fine!" He shouted, than his foot falls retreated down the hall. I exhaled. A tear rolled down my cheek. Percy looked at me and squeezed my hand gratefully. He gently brushed the tear from my face.

It's okay, he mouthed. We'll be okay.

I nodded. It was all I could manage. I was still shaking from the adrenaline and absolute terror coursing through me. I tried to remind myself that everything is okay, that the police would be here soon, and that we'd be safe. There was a feeling that that was true, inside me. But I still couldn't shake a different one. It felt like a big, black cloud was looming behind me.

And that cloud wouldn't go away.

•••

Authors note

A lil cliffie for ya.

You're welcome.

Anyways, sorry I haven't updated-I've been super busy and just haven't got around to it. But I promise I'll have another one out soon. Thanks for all the reads!! (15k you crazy bitches lol) hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, comment, etc. thanks and love you guys!!
-bella💕