"Hazel, you and me are dancing tomorrow!" Flynn announced when she sat down at the lunch table.

"What?" Hazel asked, looking up from her sketch.

"I'm teaching you a dance routine after school for the performance tomorrow. It's not complicated, promise."

"I don't dance... I just know something called Tik Tok." Hazel said, setting down her colored pencil.

"That is dancing, sweetie."

"Oh..."

"What are you drawing?"

"Our assignment in art class was to draw a picture of our family. It has to be finished before the end of sixth period." Hazel explained, picking up her yellow colored pencil.

"They all look different..."

"Family comes in all shapes and sizes."

"Who's who?"

"Well, I'm in the center," Hazel said, pointing to everyone in the picture. "Going left to right, it's Thalia, Reyna, Annabeth, Percy, Rachel, Lavinia, Frank, me, Nico, Will, Meg, Ap... Lester, Leo, Leo's girlfriend Calypso, Piper, and Jason."

"That's a lot of people." Flynn said, then look at the right side of the paper. "Wait... That's what Jason looks like?"

"Yeah."

"Why does he have a scar on his lip?"

"He tried to eat a stapler when he was two. Our friend group jokingly ships Jason with a stapler because of it. We also tend to ship him with a brick, but that's a long story."

"I can imagine."

"Hey guys!" Julie said happily. She looked over at Hazel's drawing, eyes widening. "Holy crap! You draw that?"

"Yeah."

"Jesus Christ... That's so cool! No wonder you got into the art program. What's it supposed to be?"

"Family portrait, but I didn't just want it to be me and Nico, so I drew the rest of our friends into it."

"I... I don't see any other dark skinned people in it besides you. Which one's your brother?"

Hazel pointed to Nico, the brown of his aviator jacket being the only thing not colored in yet. "That's Nico."

"He's so pale!"

"Gods don't really have DNA. I mean... Yeah, they have it, I wouldn't have gotten gold eyes anywhere else, but it doesn't really show up on DNA tests." Hazel explained. "We inherit some traits. Nico got Dad's pale skin. For some reason, Athena likes having all of her children have blonde hair and grey eyes, but we primarily take after our mortal parents."

"Hey guys!" Nick greeted, sitting down next to Julie. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Nothing important." Flynn said quickly.

"What are you drawing, Hazel?" Nick asked, trying to get a look at Hazel's sketchbook.

Hazel quickly put it away. "Not important."

Julie gave Hazel a confused look before turning her attention to Nick. "You excited for Friday?"

"You bet. Seeing you and the guys perform is always awesome. You guys gonna be performing anywhere else any time soon? I know you guys did a mini tour around LA this summer, but-"

"They're playing at a music festival in San Francisco in a couple weeks, and they might be playing at Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party during October." Flynn answered. "Besides that, they're playing wherever and whenever they can. Just keep stalking the Instagram page like you usually do."

"You gonna be hanging out with these people more often, Hazel?" Nick asked, an almost venomous edge to his voice that neither Julie or Flynn seemed to pick up on.

"Yes. I am." Hazel responded, keeping her sentences short. Even from across the table, she could feel something malicious coming from Nick. "Are you going to be hanging around them?"

"I support from the sidelines. I prefer to sit back and watch."

"You sure you don't want a piece of the action? They could always use help with the background."

"If I were to get into music like that, I'd prefer to have the spot light. No offense, Julie."

"None taken." Julie said nervously, looking between the two like Hazel and Nick were in the middle of a ping pong match.

"Why 'no offense, Julie'?"

"She's second fiddle to those hologram things. They're the stars of the show, not her. Again, no offense, Julie."

"None taken?" Julie repeated, this time sounding more like a question.

"You would think that the 'holograms' are the stars of the show, wouldn't you?" Hazel asked, staring Nick right in the eyes. His eyes seemed to flicker between brown and dark blue before settling on brown.

"They're what a lot of people come to see. They're really good at what they do, and the disappearing act is really cool." Nick reasoned out.

"Right..." Hazel said, eating the last of her chicken nuggets before grabbing her tray. "I'm gonna head to my art class early, Julie. See you guys after school."

"See ya?" Flynn said, confused about what had just went down.

As Hazel walked down the hallway, she felt a hand touch her shoulder. She turned and saw Nick, an angry expression on his face. "What was that just about?"

"Nothing." Hazel lied. "Nothing at all."

"I doubt that, highly." Nick said, then went on to explain how he didn't think he did anything to offend Hazel when he met her the day before and how confused he was.

"Caleb, if you're in there, slap yourself and walk away." Hazel muttered to herself. Nick instantly hit his face, abruptly turning around and walking back to the cafeteria. Hazel smiled triumphantly. "That's confirmation enough for me..."

By the time the school day ended, Hazel was itching to get to Julie's house. When they girls got out of Julie's dad's car, Julie nervously looked over at Hazel. "What happened at lunch today?"

"Nothing. Nick... He reminds me of this jerk I once knew, that's all."

"Nick's really nice, Hazel. You'll like him eventually." Flynn said, smiling happily. "Besides, Julie has a thing for him-"

"I don't have a thing for him anymore, Flynn." Julie said, rolling her eyes as she opened the studio door.

"What's going on?" Luke asked.

"Hazel was being weird with Nick today." Julie said, shrugging.

Willie looked up from his conversation with Alex and Jason, giving Hazel a concerned look. "Is that thing we were talking about yesterday confirmed?"

"I'm like, 80% sure." Hazel said, sighing heavily.

"80% sure of what?" Flynn asked.

"It's nothing... Right now. I can handle it right now."

"Handle what?" Jason asked.

"Remember when you tried to kill Percy?"

"Do we need to bring this person tomorrow so Piper can handle it?"

"I think I handled it pretty well, thank you. I want to be 100% sure before we act."

"What's going on?" Julie asked.

"Remember what Nick kept saying at lunch about you being second fiddle to the guys? Who's extremely invested in what the guys do?" Hazel asked.

Reggie seemed to figure out what Hazel was saying, tossing his head back in frustration. "You cannot be saying what I think you're saying!"

"All I'm saying is that when Nick and I shook hands yesterday, I felt an evil presence in him. I'm not saying it's Caleb, but he did slap himself and walk away when I told him too. I called him out by name when I said it, but... Maybe it was a coincidence. When it comes to the children of the death god, I'm not exactly the best at dealing with the death part. That's my brother's thing. I deal with the expensive things under the Earth. I also have dance parties during monthly dinner with Dad during the winter when Persephone's home." Hazel reasoned out. "I am going to ask my brother and maybe our friend Piper to confirm it more than I can."

"What can Piper do?" Alex asked.

"She's a charm speaker." Jason said simply.

"Ask Willie to explain it to you. I explained my makeshift plan last night."

Julie, Alex, Reggie, and Luke all slowly turned to Willie, who was laughing nervously. "Hazel invited me over to her house last night so she could ask me some questions about who might want to hurt you guys. You have a very lovely home, by the way. Forgot to mention that last night. The talking statue still concerns me though."

"First, thank you! Second, ignore Terminus. He's a big softy."

"Talking statue?" Luke asked. "Are y'all high at your home camp? Even I know that statues can't talk!"

"Long story." Hazel and Jason said at the same time.

"It's not that long of a story. You said that the statue is what, the god of borders?" Willie asked.

The four gave each other confused looks as Flynn looked over at Hazel. "What are you guys talking about? I'm the only one in here who can't see everyone, remember?"

"I'll tell you tomorrow. Let's just focus on the dance thing." Hazel said, sighing as she did set down her school bag. "I actually have to be on time to dinner tonight. Frank and I are prewarning everyone about you guys coming tomorrow."

"Why do they need to be prewarned?" Reggie asked, only to be met with Luke slapping him upside the head. "Luke!"

"The reason we're prewarning everyone is because the last time people saw Jason," Hazel explained, pointing to Jason as she did so. "He was in a casket."

"Might be good to prewarn people then..." Reggie said uneasily.

"Let's get started, then." Julie said, sitting down at her piano. "Top of the song, everyone!"