Book Cult (New and Improved)

Piper XV

Absentmindedly Leo handed Travis a card as he forced himself to keep his eyes on his deck.

He knew Connor was looking over his shoulder, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Are they still...? Leo glanced up and looked to his right.

Percy and Thalia were whispering to each other as they openly stared at him.

Yep. he thought with a resigned sigh. What about...?

He looked behind him.

Annabeth was still standing there a couple feet away, muttering to herself. When their eyes met, the son of Hephaestus resisted the urge to shudder. Like the last time he checked, she didn't even bother to pretend she wasn't staring. Her stormy grey eyes  continued staring him down intensely.

Uh-huh. Leo quickly turned away. Still doing... whatever the Hades that is.

He had a feeling that Annabeth wanted to talk more about Jason's past (why else would she be looking at him?) But what about the other two? Why were they acting like they were doing some kind of stake out? Did they think he was going to try to sneak away and burn the books again? Or was it something different?

"Leo," Travis said impatiently, interrupting his thoughts. "Could you take this game more seriously?"

"Yeah, you're making cheating too easy." Connor complained, falling back on the bench.

"Sorry."

"Are you okay? You've been really quiet." Travis shoved the other Stoll away when he attempted to look at his cards.

"It's nothing," he dismissed. "I was just day dreaming. Do you have any threes?"

The brothers exchanged looks but didn't press the subject.

"Go fish." Travis lied.

Leo took a card from the deck.

The trio were on their fifth round of 'Go Fish' (Travis: 2, Connor: 3, and Leo: 0 -big shock), when Annabeth tapped his shoulder.

"We need to talk." she said. Annabeth spoke clearly and confidently as if she had a whole plan figured out and he was going to follow it step by step. "Alone."

"Trying to make Percy jealous?" Connor teased, he shrank back after seeing the look on her face. 

"Let's go." she told Leo. He barely had time to put his cards face down on the table (not that it would've stopped them from cheating) before he followed her.

As soon as he started walking away from the bench, nearly everyone's heads snapped up to see where he was going. They relaxed when they saw he was following Annabeth.

Geez! You try to burn a pile of books and run away once, now everyone thinks they need to watch your every step. Leo rolled his eyes.

They walked into the hallway for a bit before Annabeth pulled him into a random room.

Inside, the room was designed like a Victorian style room.

"Ancient Greek Gods with a Victorian style living room? Weird. Whose idea was this?" Leo said, looking around the room, taking in the interior designing.

Annabeth didn't look as surprised.

"The gods have moved from civilization to civilization for centuries." she reminded him. "They must've picked up some of the culture when they were in Europe."

There was a flicker of anxiousness in her face, before she schooled her features and grabbed her necklace. She took a deep breath and let it out.