For information on the Australian Bushfires of 2019-2020 and to take action, please visit https://www.wwf.org.au/what-we-do/bushfires. The World Wildlife Fund for Nature is dedicated to the preservation of wildlife and the reduction of human impact on the environment.

Inspired by Community S2E3: "The Psychology of Letting Go"

Hazel POV

Hazel never realized just how much she wanted girlfriends until coming to New Rome Community College.

For that matter, she never realized how great having friends could be!

Sure, she has her brother, Nico, and she adores him. He gives her rides on his Vespa scooter, teaches her how to swear in Italian, and even wore the first masks she ever made, and that's saying a lot because those masks were itchy and tugged on your earlobes in the worst way.

But there are some things she can't talk about with Nico. Sure, they do talk about boys sometimes, but Hazel means stuff that no boys would want to talk about, stuff you need girls for.

That's why Annabeth and Piper are so great! They can commiserate with her period cramps without getting grossed out, and they explain all of the Cards Against Humanity cards she doesn't understand with no judgment.

So she's going to come clean to them about her crush on Frank. They both have more experience with boys than her, and would probably be great wing women!

It's a fantastic day to tell them about it because they're the first ones at the study table in the library.

"Hey, girls!" says Hazel.

Piper waves. "Hazel, what do you think about our poster? Should we put an adorable koala bear on it-"

"Or actual facts that'll tell people what's going on in Australia and who's responsible?" Annabeth finishes.

Okay, so no boy talk this morning. No matter. Hazel loves arts and crafts.

"What are you trying to do?" she asks.

"We're raising awareness and collecting donations to support wildlife affected by the wildfires in Australia," Annabeth explains.

"And that starts with a catchy poster!" Piper says.

"Hmm..." Both ideas are great. The picture of the koala would certainly catch Hazel's attention, but she's also a very visual learner, so seeing the facts written out, despite her dyslexia, might be helpful.

"Is there a way you could do both?" Hazel asks. "Like, have the koala bear because it's cute and eye-catching, but make it sort of transparent so you can put facts on it."

Annabeth and Piper look at each other, eyes narrowed.

"I hate it when she's rational," says Annabeth.

"At least we're agreeing on something," Piper says. She Googles 'KOALA IMAGES' and starts scrolling.

Oh, they're so cute! Then again, are there any animals that aren't cute? Honestly, even snakes are cute to some degree, and rats just remind Hazel of Ratatouille.

"Hey, maybe we could all help!" Hazel suggests. "Frank might be able to make koala balloon animals. People love balloon animals, right?"

"Sorry, Hazel," says Annabeth. "We're not trying to reward people for contributing to climate change."

"Annabeth!" Piper scolds.

"It's okay," says Hazel. "That makes sense. Can I help though?"

Piper shrugs. "To be honest, I'm pretty sure we've got it handled. This poster was the hardest part."

"But you're more than welcome to come to the lawn with us later, and we'll be sure to let you know if we need help," Annabeth says.

Gee, isn't that great?

But Hazel isn't one to turn down an invite. "Okay! I'll see you then!"

Just because they don't want her help now doesn't mean they won't need it later!

✎✎✎

Hazel should have fought harder to get the girls to let Frank make his balloon animals. The more she thinks about it, the more she realizes that inviting Frank to help out might not be entirely self-interested. Getting to talk to him would just be a bonus. Besides, how much talking would they get to do if he'd be too busy making balloon wallabies?

Annabeth comes back to the table where they set up the poster and the info pamphlets.

She was right; they do need her.

They need her to sit at this damn table and pass out pamphlets to passersby.

"Don't even worry about talking to people!" Piper had told her.

"Yeah, tell them they can find us," added Annabeth.

Hazel learned a lot about the wildfires in Australia when she spoke to Frank about it over a tofu sub. He knows so much about animals, and the zoo he worked at over the summer has all sorts of online resources for people to use to advocate for wildlife.

Piper and Annabeth wouldn't want to hear about that though, so Hazel just cracks open her economics textbook and gets ahead on the readings for next week. Pro-tip: always stay a week ahead of the class readings.

"Helpless animals are suffering," Piper says to a group of football players. "Don't you want to help?" she pouts.

Pro-tip: if you're advocating for a cause, make sure you actually know about the issue. Piper's really lucky those guys are meatheads.

"Listen here," Annabeth says to some of Jason's Ultimate Frisbee teammates. "It's your fault that biodiversity in Australia is crippling due to these damn fires, so now it's your responsibility to do something about it!"

Pro-tip: If you're asking someone for money, it's best not to yell at them.

But this clearly isn't Hazel's area of expertise. Who is she to correct the experts?

Well, she is a business major, and she just learned all about nonprofits and fundraising strategies.

"Open up," says Piper.

Hazel opens the money box and Piper dumps out the contents of her can, not even bothering to sort the coins or the bills for that matter.

"Looks like you're doing pretty well," notes Hazel.

"Don't let Annabeth hear you say that," Piper says. "She's not doing as well."

Annabeth comes over to the table and sets a pile of coins in the box. "Thanks, Hazel," she says.

"You're welcome. Did you want some help?"

She just grunts and stuffs her hands in her baggy jeans in reply.

"See what I mean?" Piper asks. "She's just jealous of me. Here, get in."

Before Hazel can suggest inviting Annabeth, Piper takes a selfie of the two of them. She looks perfect, as always, effortlessly perched upon the folding table in her 'SAVE AUSTRALIA' t-shirt and plaid miniskirt. No wonder people want to donate; Piper looks cute.

"That's going on my story!" Piper says. "We're going to get so many donations!"

"Can I help now?" Hazel asks. Can she at least have a t-shirt?

✎✎✎

Annabeth turns around to talk to Frank before mythology starts the next day. "Hey, you like animals, right?"

"Uh, yeah," says Frank. "I considered majoring in-"

"Yeah, that's cool. Anyway, I'm collecting donations to support wildlife harmed by the fires in Australia. You see, it's a result of climate change, which humans are mainly responsible for-"

"Oh!" says Frank. "I know what you mean, and don't worry. I already donated to Piper."

Oh no. Bad move, Frank.

Hazel braces for impact.

"Piper, huh?" Annabeth says through gritted teeth.

"Yeah... shoot, are you guys competing? I didn't mean to take sides..." Frank continues to ramble as he digs through his wallet for another dollar.

"No, you're fine Frank," says Annabeth.

For some reason, Hazel gathers that it is not fine with Annabeth.

Percy drops a dollar on Annabeth's desk. "Save the kangaroos for me. Okay, Wise Girl?"

Annabeth groans and tosses the dollar back at Percy's chest. "I don't want your money."

"Why not?" he asks. He seems hurt.

She rolls her eyes. "Do I have to spell it out for you?"

Hazel would like Annabeth to spell it out. This doesn't make any sense.

Annabeth rolls her eyes. "You're only giving me this because you think I'm hot and you want to get in my pants."

"That's not-"

"I'm trying to earn donations by educating people on why it is their environmental responsibility to donate. Some people think they can just traipse around in a miniskirt and a push-up bra and make money by shamelessly flirting with anybody that'll listen." Annabeth sits back and crosses her arms in a huff.

That makes some more sense to Hazel, but money is money, and one of the first things they teach you in marketing 101 is that whether you like it or not, sex sells.

"Okay," says Percy. "I can see you're upset-"

Leo snorts. "Wow, aren't you some kind of empath?"

Jason and Piper take their seats whispering and giggling into each other's ears.

"Ah, gee, Pipes..." Jason scratches his collarbone, soothing some sort of a bruise. He sticks a handful of cash in Piper's sparkly green collection jar.

"Thank you very much," she says in reply. Piper crosses her long tan legs and then uncrosses them. Then, she crosses them again.

"Are you for real?" Annabeth asks.

"Uh, yeah. How much did you make this morning?"

"I'd rather earn donations the right way, thank you very much."

"Good morning, everyone!" Mr. Brunner greets the class. "Oh, is this the drive for Australia you emailed me about, Annabeth?" He scribbles into a leatherbound checkbook and tears out a check, placing it in Annabeth's plain jar.

Annabeth deserves that. Hazel learned in her business classes that fine print and hard facts are less eye-catching and can't bring in the kind of money that flashy ads can, but it always pays off to have done your research. People like Mr. Brunner, for example, would only donate to a student who knew their cause backward, forward, and inside out!

Piper leans forward and mumbles in Annabeth's ear. "Don't forget to thank your Daddy," she sneers.

And that's how Piper broke her nose.

Well, she probably didn't break her nose; that's just one of those embellishments they tell Hazel to use on her business projects. Isn't that lying? Hazel thinks so.

But Piper was bleeding when she left class.

Hazel hopes she's okay. The only reason why she doesn't go after her is that she doesn't want to look like she's taking sides. She likes Annabeth and Piper, and she loves being friends with both of them, preferably at the same time.

She had no idea that girls can be so mean though.

✎✎✎

She should just drop the poster off outside by Annabeth and Piper's picnic table, but Hazel can't bring herself to abandon them like that. They'd probably tear each other apart without someone to intervene!

And besides, Hazel made a commitment to help her friends, and she can't back out now. There would be nobody else to watch the money if Hazel leaves now.

"Thanks again for doing this, Hazel," says Piper. That's another thing that's kind of pissing Hazel off. Whenever one of them gets her alone, they totally kiss her ass.

Yeah, Hazel can swear if she wants, especially when her friends are trying to get her to take sides in a petty argument.

She's nice though, and she should keep being nice. "You're welcome."

Piper ties a knot in the front of her shirt. "Ya like?" she asks.

"It's kind of chilly, don't you think?"

"Eh." Piper shrugs. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

That's not a strategy Hazel would go with, but she would never say so for fear of pissing off Piper. Besides, it's not the worst strategy. Morally questionable, sure, but not ineffective.

Piper puts a couple of extra stickers on her jar and freshens up her mascara.

"Hey, Butch!" she calls. "Want to donate to help poor innocent animals in Australia?"

"I already donated to uh—shit, I forgot her name—that hot blonde you're working with. Good luck though!" he shouts back.

"Hot blonde?" Piper asks. "Last I checked, I was working with a pretty blonde."

"Is there a difference?" Hazel asks.

"Yes."

Hazel decides not to ask why that difference matters. Instead, she tries to turn Piper's attention away from Annabeth. Plus, she's genuinely curious. "Am... Am I hot or pretty? Or something else?"

Piper shushes her. "There she is! Oh, I'm gonna... I'm gonna..."

"Hey, there cuties," Annabeth says to a group of guys. She giggles. She giggles. "I don't know if you've heard or not, but there are these awful fires in Australia that are just killing adorable little animals like koalas..."

"Oh, wow, that's terrible!" Jake Mason says to Annabeth's breasts, which are dangerously close to slipping out of her t-shirt. She cut the neck out of her shirt, so now it just says 'AUSTRALIA.'

"You're gonna what?" Hazel asks Piper. She regrets asking it as soon as the words fall from her mouth.

"Well, I kind of want to make out with her, but I can't decide if I want to do that before or after kicking her cute little ass..." Piper trails off. That's probably a good thing. Hazel doesn't want to hear more of that... fantasy?

Annabeth twirls a stray curl. "I know, right? Listen, my good friend and I are collecting money to save them, and we could use all the support we can get."

"You betcha, babe." Jake scribbles something—probably his number—on a bill, and urges his friends to pass up their money as well. Before his hand can reach her jar, Annabeth snags the money and stows it away down her shirt.

She does a pivot, her curly ponytail bouncing and her hips swaying as she sashays over to Piper and Hazel.

"Oh, great, you're here!" Hazel says. "Listen, I have this great idea-"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Piper demands.

Annabeth shrugs. "I don't know what you mean. Oh! Hello, Pollux! Is it true what they say about twins?" She saunters over to the frat boy and somehow turns the subject to 'adorable baby koala bears.'

"Well, anyway," Hazel starts again. "I got good at this brownie recipe over the summer, and I was thinking I could make some for the-"

"Screw this." Piper unties her makeshift crop top and messes up her hair. "Yo! Miranda! You wanna talk about climate change and nothing else?"

Hazel can't look, but she has to. She's afraid she might be a witness to... something. God knows what, but when this boiling pot overflows, it's going to be awful.

Miranda laughs sheepishly after Piper screams at her about wombats. "Uh, sure?" She drops the spare change from her cargo shorts into Piper's bucket.

And Pollux gives money to Annabeth once she promises to let him follow her on Instagram. It's like her friends traded personalities! It's terrible!

"Wassup, Percy?" Piper says. "God, you suck so much. You know that? You're a terrible human being, so you should give me money for animals in Australia that you are single-handedly responsible for killing."

Oh, that was really mean.

"Hey, Piper, do you have something you wanna talk about?" Percy asks. Good God, the guy just wants to eat his lunch!

Annabeth laughs like a mad woman. "Oh, Percy, don't listen to her! I think you're so sweet just like a cute little dingo! Oh, but the dingos are being threatened by fires, and that just makes me sad." She ruffles her hand through Percy's messy raven hair and pouts.

"Annabeth, this is kind of weird... I thought that-"

She gets on her tiptoes and whispers something in Percy's ear. He turns red. "Oh, uh, I thought that was just a—I mean—you don't have to-"

"Screw the patriarchy!" Piper yells.

Percy lurches backward. "Is this some kind of prank?" He looks at Hazel, his eyes full of fear.

Hazel just shrugs helplessly. "I guess I'll get started on those brownies."

✎✎✎

Is it too much to hope that everything will just fix itself once the final stretch of the donor drive is over?

There's only one day left, but it's the biggest one. Annabeth and Piper got a prime spot on the quad to set up their poster and raise money, and if they're not working together, they're working against each other.

Plus, it rained last night. It was great while it was happening; rain just puts Hazel to sleep, but now it's all muddy, and she made the dumb decision to wear her white Adidas sneakers. Now, she'll be walking like a giraffe trying not to ruin her nice shoes.

Baby steps, she thinks as she walks through the grass. It's even harder getting from Point A to Point B when you're carrying a massive tray of brownies. She didn't do any homework yesterday. It took hours to bake them and then individually wrap them to comply with New Rome's COVID policy.

Hazel even printed out some pictures and facts to seal the plastic wrap with. That took a very long time, but she was happy to ask Frank for some facts about Australian wildlife.

Baby steps. Easy does it!

"Oh my gosh! Hazel!" Piper shouts. She shuffles over, heels sinking into the muddy ground.

"Yay! You're here!" Annabeth zooms past Piper, having the advantage of wearing a beat-up pair of Converse sneakers. "And you made brownies! Oh, wow, what a surprise!"

People used to talk to Hazel like this all the time in high school. There's a difference between people who are nice because they like her and people who are nice because they're using her. It used to be that people thought she was rich just because she rode horses for fun. Now, it's that her friends are feuding and they desperately want her as an ally.

She's actually kind of flattered even though she shouldn't be. It's selfish. They're using her.

But they value her!

"I can take the brownies over to the table!" Piper says.

Hazel could use some help. "Thanks." She passes the tray off.

"Don't worry; I've got this," says Annabeth. "Wouldn't want you to chip a nail or something."

"No, I'm doing this," says Piper.

"Hand it over, Beauty Queen!" Annabeth reaches for the tray.

Hazel gasps. "Guys! Be careful!"

It's a full-on tug-of-war for Hazel's brownies.

"Please! Stop it!"

"C'mon, Hazel, you really want her taking these?"

"Hazel, listen to me. Who's getting more donations? You can trust me."

"I-"

Annabeth interrupts. "You only make money because you've been acting like such a-"

"Say it! Like you haven't been any better!" Piper retorts.

"Stop fighting!"

Hazel isn't sure who loses footing first. It could have been Piper's heels sinking into the muddy ground, or maybe Annabeth letting go of the brownies in exasperation.

Either way, it isn't pretty.

"Hey, look!" shouts Sherman Yang. "It's a sexy girl fight!"

'Sexy' might not be Hazel's first choice of words, but yeah. It's a shameless stereotypical girl fight.

Annabeth mashes brownies against Piper's face. Piper's yanking on Annabeth's hair.

This is a nightmare.

"Che due coglioni?" Nico di Angelo asks, appearing out of thin air. "Aren't those your friends?"

Hazel nods gravely.

"And didn't you spend like four hours on those brownies?"

"It was more like six."

A crowd gathers to observe the spectacle in front of them. It's crazy. Nobody's landed a punch, but it's the greatest thing since... Well, since Nico took on Coach Hedge in billiards.

Piper's gotten on top somehow, and she's holding something by Annabeth's face.

"Eat it!" she shouts. "Tell me I'm right or get ready to become Spider-Girl!"

"I'd be Spider-Woman!" Annabeth corrects. Her face is caked in mud and she's struggling to escape Piper's grasp.

Frank and the others rush to the scene.

"Wait, Annabeth has really bad arachnophobia!" Percy says. "We have to do something!"

"Aw, do we have to?" Leo asks.

Annabeth screeches and flips Piper over. As they roll around on the ground, Hazel can hear the commentary around her.

"Who're you pulling for?"

"My money's on the hot blonde."

"No way! Piper's in one of my classes. If there was betting, I'd bet on her."

All this talk of money gets Hazel inspired.

"Should we split them up?" Frank asks.

Jason answers, "I can take Piper. Frank, you grab Anna-"

"No!" Hazel shouts. "I mean, not yet." She carefully walks over to the table, apologizing for blocking peoples' views of the fight, and trying not to trip over Piper and Annabeth.

Great! There's a Sharpie on the table.

On Annabeth's donation jar, Hazel writes 'ANNABETH (BLONDE)' and on Piper's jar, 'PIPER (BAREFOOT).'

Then, she hands a jar to each of the Stoll brothers. "Please," she says. "It's for a good cause. I don't really have time to explain."

"We can help!" says Travis.

"Wait, swap jars with me," Connor says. "My money's on Annabeth."

They raise almost five hundred dollars in about twenty minutes, and Annabeth doesn't even have to eat a spider.

Finally, Jason and Percy peel Piper and Annabeth apart, which involves Percy taking off his shirt because 'he doesn't want to get it muddy.' Sure, Percy.

Annabeth's kicking and screaming in Percy's arms, and Piper's trying to bite Jason. They're absolutely feral.

Percy smirks. "These girls need to cool off. You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"No," says Frank. "That's taking it too far."

"FOR THE KOALAS!" Leo shouts.

"FOR THE KOALAS!" the crowd echoes.

"Wait!" Hazel says. "It'll cost you five dollars each!"

✎✎✎

So maybe monetizing misogyny wasn't the right thing to do, but when it all comes down to it, the girls raised a ton of money for the wildlife in Australia. Hazel's sure that Annabeth will give a lecture about how seven hundred dollars isn't really that big of a dent on the large scale, but for three broke college girls, they did pretty well.

Hazel left the money and some clean towels by the side of the pool and got the hell out of there before Annabeth and Piper could go after her. Ever since she's been laying low.

Sure, she's the one that had that great idea to take bets and charge admission into the pool. Annabeth and Piper have every right to be mad at her, but she did make a ton of money, and the people that won the betting pool donated their money back once Hazel explained their cause. At least, that's what Travis and Connor told her.

So yeah. Hazel isn't really sure what's about to go down during study group today.

"Oh!" Hazel braces herself for a nasty brush burn, but her fall is intercepted just in time.

This could be it; this could be-

"Hi, Jason," she says. "Thanks."

"Wow, no need to sound so disappointed," Jason jokes.

"Sorry, I just thought..." She was hoping he'd be Frank. That's it. She really needs to get that secret out, but can she really tell Jason of all people about it? He's great, but they don't really have that kind of friendship.

"You okay?" Percy fills Hazel's pencil pouch with the colored pencils she dropped and sticks them in her backpack, taking care to close the zippers.

"Yeah," she says. Wait a second. "I could ask the same of you."

"Oh, yeah!" Percy reaches for his reddened cheek.

Jason pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Oh, he got a new pair! They're really nice. Hazel also notices a red mark on his face identical to Percy's. "We just spoke to Annabeth and Piper," he explains.

That actually explains a lot.

"No study group today," Percy says. "They had some, uh, words..."

Hazel shrugs. "Guess that's what you get for manhandling them in front of everyone."

Jason rolls his eyes. "Yeah, like letting them fight each other would have been better."

He's right.

"Actually, they were more upset about the pool thing," says Percy. "And Annabeth's right. We might have been a little excessive."

"Since when do you stick up for Annabeth?" Hazel asks.

"Since... since we... around the time of the paintball game, I guess?" he says, although it comes out more like a question. Percy then clears his throat. "Well, I'm going to get some extra laps in at the pool since I've got nothing else to do."

"You do that," says Jason. "Oh, Hazel, the others wanted to talk to you."

This is it. Hazel braces herself for a can of whoop-ass. She sort of wishes they could just study mythology and pretend nothing ever happened, but that would make things worse in the long run.

"Hey," Hazel says shyly.

"Sit down," says Piper.

Hazel sits down across from Annabeth and Piper. It's like she's about to get scolded or something.

"We got you something," Annabeth says stiffly.

Piper passes a green bag across the table.

"Oh, thank you?"

"You can open it," says Piper.

Hazel reaches into the bag, complimenting Piper and Annabeth's wrapping as she pulls out... a t-shirt.

She holds the shirt out in front of her. In big bold lettering, it reads 'SAVE AUSTRALIA' and there's a koala bear on the back.

"Wow, you guys didn't have to do this," Hazel says.

"We owe you an apology," says Piper.

"Yeah, we were jerks to each other and we put you in the middle of it. That wasn't cool," Annabeth says.

Hazel sets the shirt on the table. "It's okay. I should probably apologize for-"

"No, you didn't do anything wrong," says Annabeth. "I was so caught up in earning donations my way-"

"And I was jealous of Annabeth. I want to be cool and sexy too, dammit!" Piper bangs her fist against the table.

"Um, thanks?" says Annabeth. "I mean, we were so caught up in each other, we totally ignored you."

"We're sorry for not including you," Piper adds.

At last, Hazel says, "It's alright. We raised money for Australia, so that's good."

"One more thing," says Annabeth. "I burnt the apology brownies we were going to make you."

Hazel did kind of want brownies.

"If it makes you feel better, they came out of a box, so they wouldn't have been all that great anyway," says Piper.

Hazel gasps. "You guys tried to make boxed brownies? No, that's dumb. I still have the stuff in my dorm room; let's go make brownies together."

Annabeth and Piper shrug and stand up.

"Lead the way, Levesque," says Annabeth.

"Okay! Oh, and while we're baking, I've got something really important I wanted to ask you about!"

"If this is about your crush on Frank, we know," says Piper.

"Shh! Not here!"