PERCY JACKSON

This may surprise you, but as my cousin and my girlfriend's roommate began to shout at each other, I was very confused.

"Why did you - "

"Guys," I butted in

"Where have you - "

"Hey, guys - " I tried again.

"What did - "

I frowned. "Um, guys?"

"When - "

"Guys!" I finally exclaimed. Everyone, including Annabeth, looked at me. "Thank you," I breathed out. "Now, can someone explain what's going on?"

At the same time, Jason and Reyna said, "Well, it started wh - "

"One of you," I clarified loudly, causing my girlfriend to laugh.

Jason took the role. "I know Reyna from back in New York, during the short period of time I lived there before going to camp. We met at a restaurant and kept bumping into each other around the city, so we exchanged numbers and began hanging out. Then, I went off to Camp Half-Blood, and we kind of lost touch. We reunited after the session ended though, and got really close. We talked every day up until the last day of my junior year when my step-mom and dad announced we were packing up and moving to California. Within twenty-four hours, we were moved into my new house and my life was totally changed. It hurt too much to talk to old friends I would never be able to see again, so I haven't reached out to Reyna since."

I nodded slowly, the story adding up in my head. Reyna and Jason had been close friends separated over the summer. What a bummer.

Ha, that rhymed.

Annabeth spoke up. "Well, isn't it great that you two can reconnect now that you're both living here?"

"Yeah, what's up with that, Reyna?" Jason said. "You moved too?"

The brunette nodded. "I go to OAAA with Annabeth and Percy. I didn't know where you moved to California, though, so I had no idea to look for you. You live in San Francisco?"

My cousin pointed vaguely north. "Yeah, down that way about ten minutes."

I clasped my hands together. "That's great for you guys, then," I said, "right?"

Jason nodded and after a moment, Reyna joined in apprehensively.

With that, my cousin laid on the gas and the car took off. Within fifteen minutes, we pulled into the driveway of what looked to be a mansion.

I whistled. "Wow, Jase, you sure you're not dating Piper?" I asked.

Annabeth slapped my arm. "Perseus," she hissed.

"Hey," I defended, rubbing my sore arm, "I'm just saying someone should marry her into the family. This place is like, double the size of Jason's house."

Reyna rolled her chocolate brown eyes. "Fair point, Jackson, but crude execution."

My cousin, whose cheeks were about three shades redder than usual, cleared his throat. "Come on," he announced, "let's head inside."

We all climbed out of his car and walked up the smooth driveway and up to the front porch. Jason knocked on the door while the rest of us admired the beauty of the building. It was three stories tall and in a victorian style with a tall roof, dozens of rectangular windows that had rounded tops, and pillars supporting the balconies and decorative ledges.

Wow, Annabeth must be rubbing off on me.

The large wooden door swung open revealing the familiar face of Piper, Jason's good friend.

"Hey, guys," she greeted happily. "Nice to see you again. Want to come in?"

We accepted her offer and followed her inside. We passed a massive kitchen with, like, eighty cupboards before arriving in a living room.

"My other friends haven't shown up yet so we're just going to hang out here until they arrive if that's alright," Piper told us, sitting down.

"That's fine," I brushed off.

Jason smirked. "Even with Percy's tardiness, we still got here first. Shocking."

I shoved his arm. "Ha," I deadpanned.

"Oh," Annabeth spoke up as we all took a seat, "by the way, this is my roommate Reyna."

Said roommate gave a half smile and a wave. "Hey, thanks for letting me come along."

"No worries," the hostess assured. "I'm Piper McLean, by the way."

My girlfriend's eyes widened. "Mclean? No wonder your house is so incredible - your dad is Tristan Mclean!"

Piper chuckled, her cheeks flushing as she brushed her chestnut hair out of her face. "Uh, yeah, he is. I don't really love talking about him though."

"Oh, okay. I'm sorry," Annabeth apologized.

"It's alright," the famous brunette said.

With that, a rhythmic knock sounded from the front door. "Beauty Queen, we've arrived!"

Piper rolled her eyes and stood from her spot on the couch. She made her way over to the door and opened it up, revealing a trio of strangers. "You're late," the house resident teased sarcastically.

The group consisted of two boys and one girl. One boy, the shorter one, had curly brown hair, mischievous brown eyes that indicated he was always up to no good, a sharp nose and jaw, and a pair of pointy ears. He was dressed in a white tee-shirt with black stains and worn blue jeans. The other boy was much taller, even taller than me, and Asian, with a short crop of obsidian hair and dark eyes. He looked seriously intimidating, although his attire of a grey zip-up sweatshirt and loose jeans contradicted that.

The girl, after another look, wasn't as much of a stranger as I had thought. She had dark skin, long, curly brown hair, and golden eyes. Her attire was a simple white sweater with black jeans, as opposed to her normal blue collared dress under a white apron. Her kind smile gave her away instantly - it was Hazel, a waitress from Hestia's Hearth.

The shorter, elfish boy spoke up. "In our defense, Pipes, we're not late - you're just early."

His taller companion, the scary one, flicked the back of his head. "You make zero sense, Leo."

"Boys," Hazel chided.

"Sorry," they mumbled in unison.

Piper laughed. "Guys, this is Hazel, Leo, and Frank," she introduced, pointing at the short brunet before the tall bulky guy, "and this is Jason - obviously - Percy, Annabeth, and Reyna."

"Wait," Hazel interjected, "Annabeth? Percy?"

"Hazel!" my girlfriend greeted.

I smiled at our waitress friend. "Hey."

"Well, it's nice that you know each other already," Piper stated. "Do we want to head down to the basement and find something to do?"

We unanimously agreed, so all seven of us followed her downstairs, which led to a hallway that split off in two directions. The right side looked to be a laundry room, but we veered to the left side. 

If Annabeth and I thought the lounge at OAAA was cool, we were completely flabbergasted by the McLeans' basement. There was a 50-inch flatscreen television mounted in front of a massive cream sectional, a pool table, an air hockey table, and a ping pong table. The room was bigger than my whole apartment back in New York.

"Wow," I finally said.

Piper laughed. "Yeah, it's pretty cool, huh?" She strode over to the couch and plopped down, the rest of us following suit. "We should play a game to get to know each other."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Yes, let's play truth or dare like we're a bunch of six-year-old girls."

"Good idea, Bad Boy Supreme. You can go first. Truth or dare?"

"I can't believe this," he muttered. "Dare, I suppose."

The party hostess clasped her hands together dramatically. "I. Dare. You. To do thirty push-ups."

"Pipes," he whined.

The brunette cackled at her friend, and I knew there must have been some sort of backstory to this seemingly simple dare.

As Leo got down on the floor to act out his dare, I asked, "Why waste your chance to embarrass him by giving him a bunch of push-ups?"

"I'm not wasting anything," she assured. "Back in freshman year gym class, Leo really wanted to impress this girl he liked - what was her name? Kandy? Kadence? Khione! It was Khione - so he challenged the strongest guy in the class to a push-up contest. Our scrawny little friend didn't even make it to thirty."

The aforementioned scrawny little friend jumped up and flung his arms around in celebration. "Well take that, Brock, 'cause I just beat my personal record!"

We all laughed before settling down so that Leo could choose someone to go next. "Hazel," he decided, "truth or dare."

Frank crossed his arms next to the petite girl, who said, "Truth."

The elfish boy stroked his nonexistent beard. "What's the most illegal thing you've ever done?" he finally queried.

Hazel frowned. "I'm not sure," she admitted.

"Have you ever sped while driving?" Piper prompted.

"Had alcohol or smoked?" Reyna asked.

"Stolen someone's tips?" Annabeth questioned.

The young teen shook her head. "No, that's terrible!"

Frank smiled down at his companion. "I think the answer to the truth is that she's done absolutely nothing illegal," he said.

Leo groaned. "Fine," he complied, "but someday she'll crack."

With that, Hazel chose her next victim. "Percy."

"Oh boy," I griped. "I choose truth."

"Perfect," the girl chirped, "because I already have something in mind."

Annabeth laughed beside me. "What have you gotten yourself into, Seaweed Brain?"

I rolled my eyes and draped my arm across my girlfriend's shoulder. "What do you got, Haze?"

"Why do you like blue food so much?"

I blanched. I mean, sure, I liked these people, but did I really want to dampen the mood with such a rotten story?

If I wanted to gain some new friends, I was going to have to start trusting them.

"A few years ago, when I was about eleven or twelve years old, my mom married this guy. He was a real winner - a 5 foot 5, balding, pudgy, smelly alcoholic. All he did was drink, smoke, and gamble, as well as yell at my mom. She just took every insult, though, because we needed money to survive." I paused. "The only time she ever fought back was when I asked for blue food at my birthday party and Gabe said blue food didn't exist. She made everything blue that could be blue, and has done so ever since, even though she divorced him around the time I met Annabeth."

Hazel smiled at me warmly. "That's really sweet, Percy."

I looked down, kind of embarrassed. "Yeah, I guess so. I'm really close to my mom, so eating blue food makes me remember how grateful I am for her."

Leo snickered. "So you're a Momma's Boy?"

Frank scowled at him. "Can it, Valdez."

The scrawny guy raised his hands in surrender. "Hey, I was just kidding," he admitted. "You know  how close I was to my mom."

I cleared my throat, not wanting to delve into any more depressing stories. "Jason!" I called. "Truth or dare?"

He narrowed his eyes at me playfully. "Dare," he said nonchalantly.

"I dare you to let Piper dress you up in her clothes," I told him.

"I - " he spluttered, his face turning red.

Piper laughed and stood up, offering the blond her hand. "Come on, Jasey Poo, let's give you a makeover."

My cousin begrudgingly took her hand and was aggressively dragged out of the room and up the stairs, presumably to her bedroom.

I chuckled at the pleading look on his face. "Have fun up there, lovebirds!" I called

"But not too much fun!" Leo added with a wink.

We all laughed, even Hazel - albeit with a flustered blush on her cheeks. I couldn't wait to see what else the night had in store because, so far, I was having a blast.

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well, are you just gonna sit there and read this? *scoffs* come on now, go rush to the comments. shower me in compliments and blessings. not only did I update ~again~ I also gave you a leo-hazel-frank-jason-piper filled chapter. I know, no need to thank me. just your life indebted in service to me is plenty.

END SCENE. thank you, that was my addition to be apollo in the percy jackson disney+ series ;) HAHAHAHA imagine?? that would be hilarious

seriously tho, hope you liked this chapter!! there's plenty more of the seven and reyna coming your way, i pinky promise.

also, shout out to Hazeloverfangirl for assisting with some truths and dares for that fun lil scene, thank youuu:D 

have an amazing day everybody <3