Date: November 15

   Frank was a bit down that no one had asked him to the Ladies Pay All winter formal. All of his guy friends had already been asked. Mrs. Dodds had given Percy a pop quiz two days ago and the only question had been: do you want to go to the winter formal with Annabeth Chase? Katie had pranked Travis into agreeing to go with her. Silena had asked Beckendorf to go with her at the assembly by having her fellow cheerleaders unfurl a banner asking the question. Juniper had given Grover flowers. Reyna had asked Michael to go with her in the middle of a sword fight; she had won both bouts. Piper had given Jason donuts. 

    Frank thought Calypso had been the most inventive. She had sewn a handkerchief with the words "Calypso likes bad boys" on it and "accidentally" dropped it on the floor in Leo's presence. When he returned it to her, he had said yes with a wide grin on his face.

      The only girls in Frank's friend group who had not asked anyone out were Rachel and Hazel. Rachel had scoffed at the idea of asking a guy to the winter formal and Hazel refused to say anything on the topic. Indeed, whenever the topic was brought up, she would fan herself and blush madly. 

    There was only ten minutes left of history class when Mr. Chiron told his class that he had a history video to show them. 

   "What's it about?" Percy asked.

   "It's a video about Putin made by some of my own students," Mr. Chiron said.

    He turned on the projector and the video began to play. Hazel and Calypso were dancing and Frank wondered how that had anything to do with a second-world dictator. Frank began to blush as he listened to the lyrics. Hazel had made a video about him, Frank realized, not Putin. 

    When the video ended, Hazel looked at Frank. She was blushing madly and Frank thought she had never looked cuter.

   "Do you want to go to the winter formal with me?" she asked. "Because I only want to go with someone like Frank Zhang."

    "And I only want to go with someone like Hazel Levesque," Frank said.

     "Ahhh," Piper and Silena said.

     "Finally!" Percy said, jumping up and down.

    Nico cleared his throat and said, "I knew you could do this Hazel. Now, I would like to announce that Will Solace is going to the winter formal with me, so you'll have to pay for us too. After all, it is Ladies Pay All."

    "I am?" Will asked, "I mean, wow, I am!"

    Hazel threw back her head and laughed.

    "I guess you'll pay me back later by making me shrimp gumbo," she said.

    "We've got a deal," Nico said and the two siblings shook on it.

   The bell rang. Frank got up, but despite his heavy backpack. he felt lighter than he had in weeks. He wasn't going to the winter formal with a girl like Hazel Levesque; he was going with the one and only Hazel Levesque.