Inspired by Community S2E21: "Paradigms of Human Memory."

Hazel POV

"We are so going to ace our mythology final!" Hazel says. Her friends have been moaning and groaning about spending their entire day working on a diorama, and Hazel can't say she isn't sick and tired of gluing snakes on Medusa's head, but it's her job to maintain a semi-positive atmosphere.

Sometimes, Hazel's favorite—and only—half-brother, Nico tells her that she doesn't have to be so happy all the time, and she knows she doesn't even though the pressure to be happy is sky-high. It's just... sometimes, she feels like these people have priorities higher than their friendships, and not acceptable priorities like grades and family emergencies. Nope, Hazel's thinking of how Percy and Annabeth are always bickering, how Jason and Piper haven't made eye contact since April, or how Frank and Leo suddenly are co-hosting a morning show despite hating each other for the past two years.

The fake sun falls off the diorama and onto the floor. "We are so not going to ace our mythology final if I can't get this damn ball of Model Magic to hold!" Annabeth whines.

Percy reaches out like he wants to touch her, and then hesitates because apparently, a friendly pat on the back breaks some sort of boundary between them. "Hey, maybe we should take a break. We've been at this since like eight am."

"I don't know about you guys," says Jason, "but this might be the earliest I've woken up for anything ever."

"Anybody down for a coffee break?" Piper asks.

Frank shuffles his feet. "I'm out of dining dollars, but don't let that stop you." Pro-tip: Spend your dining dollars on whatever you want, but make sure you budget them wisely. Having extra money to spend on snacks and coffee is great, but not if you run out at midterms or have too much leftover during finals week. You'd think extra dining dollars at the end of the semester is a good thing, until—poof! Your money disappears.

"I'm out too," says Leo.

"Same here," says Percy. "I blew my last twenty on a gift card for Mother's Day."

"Oh, shit," says Frank. "I forgot about Mother's Day. My grandmother—ugh."

This part of the year makes Hazel feel good about not having a mom anymore. Finals week is always right before Mother's Day weekend. Most people finish their last final on Friday and then BAM—they're scrambling to buy a gift for their mothers. Hazel, for once, gets a lucky break. She can focus on studying for her finals, and not shopping for tacky cards and candies that nobody wants.

"Oh my god!" Frank shouts.

"What is it?" Piper asks.

"It's... It's Annie's Boobs!"

"Excuse me?" Annabeth fumes.

But sure enough, a bulldog with cankles and a slobbery grin squeezes his way out of the vent and into the study room, stopping only a moment to drop a pen at Percy's feet. Then, he makes a getaway back into the vent.

"Oh no, you don't!" Leo shouts. He dives penguin-style into the vents, completely vanishing.

It's probably the most athletic thing Hazel's ever seen Leo do besides sprint to the front of the pulled pork line in the dining hall. She can't blame him for that though since there's nothing else worth sprinting for. On the other hand, she does question his judgment when his beat-up work boots disappear inside the air vent.

Hazel starts to fan herself with her mythology notebook. Everyone else must be just as shocked as she is at Leo's sudden behavior. Then, again, he's always doing weird things. Then again, his boldness has gotten him in trouble before. Then again, this is a study group—not a daycare. Then again, friends help friends, so any minute one of the guys is going to reach into the vent and pull Leo out by the ankles.

Everyone's frozen.

"Leo's still stuck in the vents," Hazel declares.

Piper jumps. "Shit. Frank?"

"Why me?" Frank groans. He reluctantly reaches into the vent and calls, "Leo?" Frank shoves one long arm down the vent and makes a face as he tugs. Once Leo is unstuck, the two guys collapse on the rug.

Hazel wants to stop and ask Leo and Frank if they're okay, but as usual, the group moves on before she can get a word in.

"What do ya know?" Percy asks. He holds up a thin pen with a cartoon clownfish on it. "It's my pen!"

Jason folds his arms. "Well, looks like the rest of you were wrong. Somebody did take Percy's pen all those weeks ago."

"Annie's Boobs is just a dog," says Piper. "You need to drop this pen thing."

"What do you mean?" Jason asks.

"Well..." Piper taps her index finger against her chin. "Oh, I know! Remember when Percy dropped his new pen on the floor the other week and Travis offered to pick it up for him?"

Frank tries to hold back a laugh, but a singular "ha!" comes out. "You tried to punch his lights out!"

"But he was stealing Percy's pen!" Jason retorts.

"No, he wasn't!" Piper shouts back.

Hazel rolls her eyes. Ever since the pen incident from midterms week, Jason's been psycho about writing utensils, school supplies, snacks, and basically any material goods you can keep in a book bag. She wishes that Percy had never lost his pen and that she'd been able to cheer on Piper and Annabeth in the cornhole tournament as they'd planned. Instead, she got what Leo calls a 'bottle episode' where everybody accuses each other of doing something stupid and instead of solving the conflict, they learned a valuable lesson. What was that valuable lesson? Hazel's still figuring that out.

"God, this year sucked, high-key," Frank says.

"You're right," says Jason.

"Why do you guys say that?" Hazel asks. She had a pretty good year. She perfected her brownie recipe, got on the TikTok creator fund, and even made the Dean's List, not that that's much of an achievement.

Frank sticks his hands in his pockets. "Hazel, you know I love your optimism, but really think about all the things that happened this year."

Hazel thinks about all the things that happened this year, but can't figure out what negativity Frank's implying. She had a great year, and she thought everyone else did too. Even when they spend hours on end crafting dioramas for their Greek and Roman mythology class, Hazel had a blast. She'll never forget the time Frank picked up their tiny Horatius after eating and accidentally got Cheeto dust all over the model; they had to start all over, but the look on Frank's face was adorable!

Jason starts to tally memories on his fingers. "Percy lost his pen and we all got into that huge fight over it, Mr. Brunner almost lost his job, Annabeth and Piper set the feminist movement back a couple of decades..."

"My scalp still hurts from you pulling my hair," Piper says to Annabeth.

Hazel can't take this negativity. "Yeah, but that's just a few bad things! In the end, we raised tons of money for Australian wildlife!"

"I got COVID at the start of the year! I couldn't taste for weeks!" Jason exclaims. Apparently, Jason did not have as good of a year as Hazel.

"Hey man," Percy says. "None of that, okay? Hazel's right. You've gotta think of some happy memories."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but listen to Seaweed Brain," Annabeth says, not looking up from her phone. Is she playing Candy Crush?

Leo, still on the floor with no intent of getting up, presses his fingers to his chin. "Annabeth and Percy are having sex."

Jason spits out his Gatorade.

Hazel fans herself with her binder. It's suddenly really hot in here. "I'm sure this is a misunderstanding, Leo-"

"When I was fixing stuff around Annabeth's apartment, I saw him in the bathroom. I just chose not to mention it," Leo says.

Piper spits out her pink drink all over the study table. "Holy shit!"

Percy scratches the back of his neck.

"The water in his apartment stopped working," Annabeth says. "I was just letting him use my shower. That's all."

Leo presses her further. "So who did you sleep with then? Because when I went through your trash I saw a-"

"Leo, you can't just look through people's garbage! That's private!" Piper shouts.

Leo furrows his eyebrows. "But she threw it away."

"For a reason!" Piper says, slamming her fist against her head.

It's getting really hot in here... or is Hazel just imagining things?

"Wait," says Jason. "Percy lives in the same apartment complex with like, a bunch of dudes that go to New Rome. Why didn't you go to one of their apartments?"

Percy runs a shaky hand through his hair. "It was... out in the whole apartment complex?"

"No way!" says Leo. "Jake would have asked to use my shower if that were the case."

"Maybe I was... mistaken?"

"Mistaken enough to go to Annabeth, the girl you've been trying to hook up with since the beginning of freshman year?" Piper asks. "I don't buy it."

"We didn't do anything!" Annabeth asks. "He just came over and watched a movie and that was it."

Leo clicks his tongue. "Mmhmm, so do you wear boxers with catfish puns on them on a regular basis?"

Percy and Annabeth scramble to come up with some kind of cover, even though they've been exposed at this point. Everyone knows. There's no going back now.

Hazel fans herself, but not because the idea of two people having sex makes her uncomfortable. It's not something Hazel would choose to do herself with someone she isn't openly dating, but who is she to judge? No, she's fanning herself because that's just what she does when she's overwhelmed. Got it? Sex doesn't make her feel overwhelmed. Her two good friends Annabeth and Percy having a secret affair does raise the temperature in the study room, and not just because they make an attractive pair.

While everyone freaks out about Percy in Annabeth's apartment, Leo says, "You guys didn't know this? I thought it was just common knowledge..."

"No, Leo!" Jason yells. "We didn't want to know this-"

"I kind of did," Piper says. "Now I know that I've been abiding by the 'no touching members of the study group' rule for absolutely nothing! Thanks a lot, guys." She sits down on the bookshelf and takes a loud sip from her Starbucks drink.

But Leo's not done telling all. Like a supercomputer, he starts listing moments throughout the year when Annabeth and Percy were suspiciously absent, and everything's starting to add up.

There were continuous references to 'Sherman's hot tub party' throughout the year, whatever that was, yet neither Annabeth nor Percy cared to fill the rest of the group in on what may or may not have happened there. Hazel always felt kind of left out whenever they mentioned it because even though fraternity parties aren't her thing, it's always nice to be invited.

There was the service trip to the children's museum where everyone had been working on painting giant wooden bee cutouts, and Annabeth and Percy mysteriously disappeared to get more paint even though it was provided by the children's museum. Hazel had spilled a tub of paint all over her favorite jumper, but kept her positive attitude because her friends Annabeth and Percy were on their way with more! "Any minute now," she'd said, until 'any minute now' turned into 'oh my god, did they get into an accident in the Michael's parking lot or something?'

Piper crosses her arms. "You mean Jason and I haven't been able to tell anyone about one kiss we had and Annabeth and Percy can just... just do that?"

"That doesn't seem fair," says Frank. "I mean... I'm a neutral party. I'm a neutral party." He continues to repeat the mantra to himself while squishing a piece of Model Magic clay between his fingers.

Hazel kind of wants to turn her attention to Piper and Jason since they're the ones who proposed the 'no dating' agreement in the first place. At this rate, asking Frank out would have been nothing compared to what everyone else is doing.

But as usual, Hazel does not get to share her voice on the subject.

"When did this start with you guys?" Piper asks Percy.

Percy fires back. "When did you and Jason kiss?"

"It was during the paintball game," Leo says, a bored look on his face.

Piper tosses her plastic Starbucks cup in the trash can. "Jason and I didn't—oh my god, that's not what you meant."

Annabeth facepalms. "We just got caught up in the moment..."

Percy, more nonchalant and confident, seems more than happy to fill everyone in. "So we did it in the study bubble!"

Eyes widen. Jaws drop beneath their masks. Jason's burrito from the bottom of his bookbag falls to the floor, Diablo sauce squirting onto the nubby New Rome carpet.

Choruses of panicked questions fly through the room faster than Hazel can process.

"What?"

"Where?"

"Like, after we all got eliminated?"

"The whole way?"

And one last comment that frightens Hazel the most comes from Frank: "Oh my god, that's the study bubble I use every day after my psych class!"

Hazel grimaces because that's disgusting.

"I mean, I'm glad you got that sexual tension out," says Piper, "but that's absolutely disgusting."  Wow, that's exactly what Hazel would have said had she gotten a chance to speak... well, except for the sexual tension part. She doesn't have much to say about the act itself, just that it shouldn't be done on a table that students use every day.

"Hold on!" Jason says. "Every time we needed to run for supplies or snacks for our mythology projects and you guys volunteered... was that... was that what I think?"

Annabeth throws her hands up in surrender because—let's face it—she's been caught doing more than just flirting with the guy she complained about for two years.

Percy stays quiet and clicks his pen.

So that answers that.

"That's kind of selfish, guys," says Leo, who doesn't usually weigh in on stuff like that.

Finally, Hazel gets a turn to ask, "Why do you think that?" Hey, she facilitated a group session at a summer camp one time that got super emotional; she's great at asking open-ended questions.

"I mean, I have to go home and unwind after a long day, and I've always sort of felt like it was a fair trade, you know? I might not get to my routine, but at least I'm being productive," Leo says.

"Yeah, I've been late to work because of Annabeth and Percy... being late," Frank adds.

"I was all for this until I realized it was cutting into study time," says Piper.

Since it's the only way to participate in this conversation, Hazel takes her facilitating strategy one obvious step further. "How does that make you guys feel?"

"Frustrated."

"Betrayed? I think?"

"Sad."

"Horny- ow!" Percy winces when Annabeth elbows him. "Sorry."

"So Percy and Annabeth are the reason why this year has sucked so much?" Frank whispers.

Annabeth rolls her eyes. "C'mon, really? Don't be so dramatic."

"No, he's right," says Leo. Somehow, he got his video camera synced with his computer in record time.

"What's all this?" Piper asks.

"My documentary practice from throughout the year. Let me just scan the tapes for some juicy memories!" The computer's fan whirs as Leo clicks buttons way faster than the poor machine can handle. Then again, what would Hazel know? She isn't the best with technology.

"Bingo," Leo says. He hits play on a video from earlier this year.

There's the time they were forced to star in Dean D's unlicensed Diet Coke commercial. Hazel remembers that; her tummy still hurts when she thinks of how much soda she drank, and Jason's Coke breath was disgusting. She moved her dentist appointment up to the week after that because her teeth sure needed a good cleaning then.

But the more she thinks of it, the more she realizes that Annabeth and Percy bailed on that little side project.

"I'm going to make a run to the store to get some more Diet Coke," Annabeth says on the screen.

The camera pans over to Percy, who scrambles to catch up to her. "I'll drive," he says.

Leo cuts the tape and looks up at everyone with narrowed eyes. "But wait—there's more," he deadpans before clicking on a file labeled ghosttown3.mov.

Hazel doesn't like to think about the ghost town incident. That place was creepy, even for a frequent haunted house attendee such as herself.

Leo hits play on the supposedly mindless and humorous video he took for his documentary. Hazel's seen this one before; it shows Frank and Jason pushing one of those old-timey handcars across a railroad track. The funny part is when Frank accidentally pushes too hard, which sends Jason into the dust. Right when everyone's ready to laugh at Jason complaining about his dirty chaps, Leo pauses the video and points out a vehicle in the background.

"Percy's Jeep," Piper gasps.

Percy rubs his temples. "You were all there. It was hotter than hell and I spilled my water bottle for those poor horses to drink."

Annabeth is quick to agree. "You guys wouldn't be able to handle the guilt if Percy passed out from heat exhaustion, so we went to get him some food."

"And the closest place was Red Robin?" Piper accuses. "Annabeth, you know how much I love their fries; you could have at least gotten me takeout!"

"But you were panning for gold... or something," Annabeth says.

"It was fake," Hazel says. "Just fools' gold."

"So? Fun adventure while it lasted," Annabeth says.

"Have you ever been in a car with Piper at the wheel?" Jason asks. "It was an adventure, but it was not fun."

Hazel's tummy hurts thinking about that adventure too. Somebody seriously needs to get Piper to the nearest DMV because she drives like a maniac. Hazel doesn't have a driver's license either, but at least she's humble enough to catch rides with Nico.

Ugh. Hazel unzips a pouch in her backpack to find... Ah! There it is! Peppermint always helps to settle her stomach. She pours a mint into Frank's palm as well because of this weird psychology trick she read online. If you give a cute boy candy every time you see him, he'll always be excited to see you.

"Thanks," he mutters as he chews on the Ice Breakers mint.

Leo hits play on another video.

"Oh! I remember that trip," Hazel says. How could she forget Dave and Buster's? Frank hit a jackpot in skeeball and won her the giant bulldog Squishmallow she'd had her eye on all night. His name is Brock and he plays football.

And of course, Hazel had too many pretzel dogs, and now the memory makes her tummy hurt. Time for another mint!

"Wait," Percy says. "I don't understand what's so bad about this one."

Leo looks up from the computer, an exasperated look in his eyes. "Seriously? You guys bailed early—probably to go have sex—and left us to ride home with Piper. Again!"

"Is my driving that bad?"

"Yes!" The group shouts in unison.

Piper throws her arm up in defense. "But this is about Annabeth and Percy, not me!"

"Hey, hey!" Percy shouts over the commotion. "We're not like, solely responsible for this!"

"None of us are innocent here!" Annabeth shouts. "You idiots named a dog after my breasts!"

Percy chimes in. "Normally, I'd roll my eyes and say she needs to let this one go, but she has a point. Not cool."

"Normally, I'd roll my eyes because his opinion is worth the equivalent of a bowl of dog water, but-"

"I'd say get a room already," Piper says, "but I think you've got that one covered."

"Okay, so not everyone's entirely innocent," Hazel says. Sure, she's a little frustrated by Annabeth and Percy's lack of honesty, and the group's willingness to just objectify Annabeth, but some things are better left buried. "Can we call it even?"

"No!" says Frank. "What have I done?"

Leo laughs. "What have you not done?" Robotic as ever, he hits play on a seemingly random video. But that's the thing about Leo—nothing he ever does is random.

Footage of the biology classroom starts to play. At first, Hazel is nervous that this is going to be about that prank she tried to pull freshman year, and then she sees Annabeth and Frank helping a guy from the hockey team with a project.

"Okay," Annabeth says on the screen. "Where's your specimen, Grover?"

The hockey player on crutches opens a cabinet. The three late-night lab inhabitants crinkle their noses at the smell of the preservatives.

"Holy shit," Annabeth complains.

"Some of these are still alive!" Grover yells. "You guys have to help me!"

Hazel respects an animal-rights enthusiast. She really does.

But these are lab animals that the school paid money for, and Hazel also respects that whole thou shall not steal law.

Back on the fuzzy screen, Frank and Grover look at each other and then back into the specimen cages.

"Screw it," says Frank. Without finding a key, he pries locks off cages and frees the animals, including rodents, frogs, and even a rabbit.

Leo pauses the tape.

"I don't see how that's so bad," Frank says with his arms crossed.

"You're an enabler!" Annabeth yells. "You never speak up for yourself, but you're happy to free a bunch of lab animals!"

"That's why this friendship works! You speak up for me, and we don't talk about the Chinese finger trap incident!"

Jason rubs his temples. "You're the reason why I found mouse shit in my macaroni and cheese? Are you kidding me?"

Percy gasps. "That's why all the parents in the Facebook group are complaining about rats in the dining hall!"

Hazel raises an eyebrow. "Uh, Percy, how did you get in the parent group?"

"I'm not in the group. My alias, Peter Johnson, is. He's a pharmacist and a good Christian."

"I don't know if I want to know the answer to this, but are there still rats in the dining hall?" Piper asks.

Nobody answers that question, probably because nobody knows the answer. Instead, Leo just points out that nothing about this conversation changes the fact that it's Frank's fault there were—and quite possibly still are—rodents in the dining hall. Once again, Hazel's tummy hurts just thinking about eating after rats.

"How about another one?" Leo asks, clicking on another video with his wireless mouse.

The video is only five seconds long, but it says enough about Jason and the static electricity incident.

"Do you know how long it takes to get the frizz out of my hair every morning?" Annabeth asks.

"I knew I should have gotten braids done," says Hazel. "My hairdresser can put pink in them. Pink!" The only way this memory makes Hazel's stomach hurt is through anger.

"Oh!" Piper says. "That's why I started calling Jason Sparky. Very clever of me."

Piper is starting to get annoying on her little bookshelf perch.

Leo seems to have gotten the memo, thank god, because he targets Piper with the next video.

The footage of Nico and Will sitting on the throw blanket from Piper's bed is kind of grainy, but it's clear that their night watching cheap movies on the quad has date potential. At least, it did have romantic potential until Piper, wearing nothing but a hospital gown, comes crashing on their date, begging for her throw blanket.

"I was cold, clearly!" Piper objects from the bookshelf.

Leo says, "You lent them your blanket!"

"Only because I was loopy from whatever painkillers I was taking!" Piper reaches over Leo's arm to grab the mouse. Nobody touches Leo's mouse but Leo, even Hazel knows that.

But it's everyone for themselves now, and breaking Leo's boundaries is suddenly acceptable. Hazel isn't going to risk losing a finger to whatever he keeps in that toolbelt, though, thank you very much.

"Bingo!" Piper presses play and turns the volume up on a video taken in the mythology classroom of Leo playing with a fire engine red lighter right next to Frank and his loose-leaf mythology textbook. Hazel remembers this day. This is the time she learned what Frank means when he says he has a nervous tummy.

This is also the day Hazel learned that the fire safety mechanisms in the history department don't work.

On the computer screen, Frank gasps and smacks his textbook with his backpack while Leo covers his ears, anticipating a fire alarm. The table beneath them catches fire as well, flames snaking their way toward the floor.

Back in the real world, Leo hits pause on the video. "It was a good thing. We exposed the dean for poor fire safety practices."

"But my textbook cost a lot of money," Frank says. "I paid for a hard copy and everything."

Hazel doesn't have the heart to tell him that she found a free PDF of the textbook online and printed it out back in the fall. All she had to do was take a hole puncher to the paper and then buy a binder for it. She even treated herself to some cute stickers to decorate with! She won't let her friends bring her down. This was a good year!

So she says so. "But this was a good year!"

But nobody ever listens to Hazel, so now she has to stand on a wobbly chair, pull her mask below her chin, and yell over the others. "Can someone at the very least name one good thing that happened this year?" she asks. Open-ended questions. That's the way to go.

Jason starts. "I guess that time we drove Leo around to all the CVS stores in the area to get COVID shots was pretty funny."

"Until he got sick after," says Piper. 

"But he was so funny! And he's probably invincible now anyway!"

"No, he's not! Do you even remember how delirious he was? He thought I was J.K. Rowling!"

Scratch that. This was a bad idea. Hazel's ready to abort this strategy, but the group has other ideas.

"That time we took over the drama department's musical was fun," says Percy. "I'm not much of a singer or an actor, but I think I made a pretty good Agwe."

"Yeah, but Hazel was the only black girl," says Piper. "It's offensive to do Once on This Island with only one black actress, isn't it?"

Hazel agrees. Something about being a last-minute cast as a lead role she didn't earn is entirely unsettling. Also, some of the accents people were doing were downright offensive.

"I'm Latino," says Percy, helpful as ever.

"Okay, yes, Jason is our token straight white person, but the show isn't supposed to be... you know..." Annabeth says.

"Wait a second," Jason says, once again impressing Hazel with his ability to conclude. "Did I miss the episode—I mean, day—when Annabeth came out?"

"I never—ugh." Annabeth drags her fingers through her scalp.

Frank claps his hands together, desperately trying to draw the group away from this topic. "I thought it was fun when we took the wine-tasting course with Dean D. I'm pretty sure it was my highest grade all semester."

"Oh sure, and the midterm was guessing different flavors of Kool-Aid since only half the class could drink legally," says Jason.

"I'm pretty sure that Dakota guy is addicted now," Annabeth adds.

"Hey, hey!" says Frank. "Just to the red flavor!"

Piper unwraps a stick of gum and says, "I still can't believe Annabeth and Percy are-"

"Don't even act like you haven't been eyeing her up too," says Percy.

Oh. Oh. Hazel never really considered that more than one person could be into Annabeth. She's not that much of a catch, is she?

Hazel watches as Annabeth goes through a few stages of surprise, noting that her arched blonde eyebrows are real, not makeup and that even caught off-guard, her eyes don't lose any intimidation.

But Hazel's just the straight girl. She wouldn't be able to pass judgment either way.

At least Piper can. "Oh, I'm sorry everyone in this group is just so attractive!" Then she looks at Hazel. "Don't worry, I would never sexualize you, Hazel."

"Thanks?"

Piper keeps going. "Not that you aren't really pretty, though—you are! It's just... I don't know... I see you like a—help me out, guys?"

"Little sister?" Percy supplies.

"Mentee?" adds Annabeth.

"Small bean?" Jason asks.

The group continues to murmur amongst themselves all of the reasons why they can just... what's the word Annabeth uses? Oh, right! They're all trying to come up with excuses why it's okay to infantilize Hazel, even though she's the same age as the rest of them! She's a sophomore in college too!

"I mean, she's the cute one, right?"

"Can everyone just shut the hell up?!?" Hazel doesn't know or care who dropped that last evaluation because boy, this whole group is about to get it.

"Oh my god, did she just swear?"

"Hazel, I don't think I've ever heard you swear before..."

Hazel balls her fists. "I do too swear! None of you have ever paid me enough attention to notice! The nuns at my middle school used to wash my mouth out with soap all the time!"

Jason starts to speak again. "Hazel, I had no idea-"

"Why do you guys insist on treating me like a little kid? You know I'm just shorter than all of you, right? Actually, I'm pretty sure I'm taller than Leo! What is it with society and treating nice short girls like they're dumb or something?" Hazel stuffs her colored pencils into her backpack, ready to go.

"Hazel, wait," says Percy.

"We should have listened to you," Piper says.

"Forget about it," Hazel spits. "I can't take any more of you guys today." It's mean, but it's what she needs to do to take care of herself.

"What about the project?" Annabeth asks.

Frank finally speaks up. "I'll finish the diorama. You guys go ahead and work on the presentation part."

"Are you sure?" Jason asks.

"Yeah." It doesn't seem like Frank is sure.

Annabeth passes out color-coded notecards to the group and then leaves, but not before swiping the keys to Percy's Jeep.

Percy thanks Frank and then follows her out the door.

Jason tries to do the same as Percy, but smacks his head on the doorframe and mumbles something ending with, "Ultimate Frisbee practice."

"I can help," Hazel offers.

"No," Frank says. "I should have stuck up for you. You deserve better than what you've been getting all year."

"Maybe," says Hazel, "but I like having friends too much. Besides, I had a great year."

Frank smiles. "That's good."

"Can I ask you a weird question though?"

"Should I be worried?"

"Maybe."

Frank steps away from the diorama and picks some Gorilla Glue off his finger. "Okay. Go for it."

"Do you remember the Halloween party?"

"Yeah, of course, I do."

"Cool, so what happened?" Hazel asks.

Frank taps his finger against his chin. "Well, I got there, and you told me you liked my costume—you were the only one who knew I was Hawkeye," he says. Is Hazel imagining the blush on his face? Probably. It's hard to tell with the mask.

He recounts his story until he gets to the BINGO game. "Dean D was dressed in drag, and then I lost to Clarisse, but I probably could have won with four corners... and then..."

Hazel doesn't know why, but she's had an icky feeling in her stomach ever since the party. She's asked Annabeth and Piper what they remember, but all she's gotten from them are "Gah, Seaweed Brain..." and "Dean D in drag." Despite that, Hazel has this feeling that Dean D in drag isn't the weirdest thing that happened that night. She has to get to the bottom of this. "And then what?" she prompts Frank.

"I don't remember," he realizes. "How come I don't remember?"

"I don't know," Hazel admits, "but I have a feeling we're not the only ones dealing with memory loss from that night."

Clang!

"Did somebody say, 'memory loss?'" Leo army crawls his way out of the vent. When did he go back in?

"Oh, hey Leo," Frank says. His shoulders drop and his expression becomes even harder to read. Hazel wants to blame that on the mask too, but she can't help but wonder if that has something to do with Leo.

Hazel decides to ignore Frank's possible discomfort for now. "We were just talking about the Halloween party," she explains.

"Ah!" Leo says, an imaginary lightbulb appearing over his curly head. "I was thinking, Frank, our next episode of Frank and Leo in the Morning would be an expose on the real events of the Halloween party."

"Okay, but what happened?" Frank asks.

Leo climbs to his feet and wipes some Vaseline onto his pants. "Lucky for you two, I took a peek at the tapes and learned quite a lot. It looks like everyone got sick and played 'zombie apocalypse.'"

"That's... really interesting," Frank says.

"It sure is. You know what's less interesting to me and more interesting to you?" Leo asks.

This feels like a trap, but Hazel takes the bait anyway. "What?"

Leo snaps his fingers and grabs his backpack, ready to head out. "You two kissed. Not like, major making out or anything, but still..."

"What?" Frank asks.

When Hazel finally comes to her senses, she calls, "Leo, come back!"

But she's too late. Leo's already reminiscing about his time in the vents with Annie's Boobs.