Rick Riordan The Titan’ s Curse- 03
Chiron ' s brown beard was shaggier for the winter. His curly hair had grown a little longer. He wasn ' t posing as a teacher this year, so I guess he could afford to be casual. He wore a fuzzy sweater with a hoofprint design on it, and he had a blanket on his lap that almost hid his wheelchair completely. He smiled when he saw us. " Percy! Thalia! Ah, and this must be—" " Nico di Angelo," I said. " He and his sister are half-bloods." Chiron breathed a sigh of relief. " You succeeded, then." " Well …" His smile melted. " What ' s wrong? And where is Annabeth?" " Oh, dear," Mr. D said in a bored voice, " Not another one lost." I ' d been trying not to pay attention to Mr. D, but he was kind of hard to ignore in his neon orange leopard-skin warm-up suit and his purple running shoes.( Like Mr. D had ever run a day in his immortal life.) A golden laurel wreath was tilted sideways on his curly black hair, which must ' ve meant he ' d won the last hand of cards. " What do you mean?" Thalia asked. " Who else is lost?" Just then, Grover trotted into the room, grinning like crazy. He had a black eye and red lines on his face that looked like a slap mark. " The Hunters are all moved in!" Chiron frowned. " The Hunters, eh? I see we have much to talk about." He glanced at Nico.
" Grover, perhaps you should take our young friend to the den and show him our orientation film." " But … Oh, right. Yes, sir." " Orientation film?" Nico asked. " Is it G or PG? ' Cause Bianca is kinda strict—" " It ' s PG-13," Grover said. " Cool!" Nico happily followed him out of the room. " Now," Chiron said to Thalia and me, " perhaps you two should sit down and tell us the whole story."
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When we were done, Chiron turned to Mr. D. " We should launch a search for Annabeth immediately." " I ' ll go," Thalia and I said at the same time. Mr. D sniffed. " Certainly not!" Thalia and I both started complaining, but Mr. D held up his hand. He had that purplish angry fire in his eyes that usually meant something bad and godly was going to happen if we didn ' t shut up.
" From what you have told me," Mr. D said, " we have broken even on this escapade. We have, ah, regrettably lost Annie Bell—"
" Annabeth," I snapped. She ' d gone to camp since she was seven, and still Mr. D pretended not to know her name.
" Yes, yes," he said. " And you procured a small annoying boy to replace her. So I see no point risking further half-bloods on a ridiculous rescue. The possibility is very great that this Annie girl is dead."
I wanted to strangle Mr. D. It wasn ' t fair Zeus had sent him here to dry out as camp director for a hundred years. It was meant to be a punishment for Mr. D ' s bad behavior on Olympus, but it ended up being a punishment for all of us.
" Annabeth may be alive," Chiron said, but I could tell he was having trouble sounding upbeat. He ' d practically raised Annabeth all those years she was a year-round camper, before she ' d given living with her dad and stepmom a second try. " She ' s very bright. If … if our enemies have her, she will try to play for time. She may even pretend to cooperate." " That ' s right," Thalia said. " Luke would want her alive." " In which case " said Mr. D, " I ' m afraid she will have to be smart enough to escape on her own." I got up from the table. " Percy." Chiron ' s tone was full of warning. In the back of my mind, I knew Mr. D was not somebody to mess with. Even if you were an impulsive ADHD kid like me, he wouldn ' t give you any slack. But I was so angry I didn ' t care.
" You ' re glad to lose another camper," I said. " You ' d like it if we all disappeared!"