Hey, so I should probably be working on my Nico at Hogwarts fic, but this came to mind, so yeah. I dunno how it came up. One second I was talking to my friend about pirates, the next I'm ignoring her completely and writing this. Yeah. Oh and by the way. This an au without gods or demigods and everything. So they're just normal teenagers. Yeah, I think that's all.

So I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus because I'm not Rick Riordan.

Reyna didn't usually go to McDonald's, but she agreed to go with Nico because he liked their food for whatever reason. She personally found the greasy fast food revolting and a waste of money. Yet, she still agreed to take Nico to McDonald's since he could drive. She was simply confused as to how Nico could stand to eat their food.

Reyna didn't know. She didn't really care either. All she really wanted was to leave because the smell of the eatery was making her nauseous. There wasn't a guarantee that Nico wouldn't notice her leaving since she was his ride back to his house. At the same time, he seemed rather preoccupied by his extremely large order that he claimed was for his entire family. So he might not notice her running off.

Still, it'd be rude to leave him with so much food to carry. Besides, Reyna wasn't one to run away because of a smell. Instead, she silently excused herself to the restroom because maybe it'd smell less like greasy junk food in there.

Of course, Reyna hadn't planned on finding a girl halfway in the air vent. She looked pretty frustrated about it until she noticed Reyna standing in the doorway.

"Oh, hey. Could you…?" Her voice trailed off as if she was expecting Reyna to figure out what she wanted help with. Did Reyna even want to know why she was in the air vent or how she got in there in the first place? "You know…"

"I'm afraid you'll have to clarify."

"I'm stuck."

"So I noticed."

"Can I have some help getting out?"

"Should I call the fire department?"

"No! You just need to tug on my arms a bit, that's all! I'm just a little stuck." Her hair was extremely disheveled, her nose a bit swollen, and there was an unmistakable look of irritation in her weird, color-changing eyes. It seemed like a bad idea for Reyna to try pulling the girl out of the vent, but she might as well. "Well, are you gonna help me or just stand there?! I've got things to do and places to be!"

"How'd you even get up there?"

"It was a dare." The answer came so quickly, as if she had been practicing what she'd be saying. "Should I give you a detailed biography on my life while you stand there? Or are you going to do something?"

Reyna heaved a sigh and walked over to where the girl was hanging out the vent and began pulling on her arms. This wasn't a sound plan at all. If the girl fell, then she'd fall on Reyna. Nico was probably done ordering food and waiting for Reyna by now. It would have been so much easier had they used the drive-thru like she had suggested. But no, they had to walk into the McDonald's to get the food.

"Ow!"

"I'm not the one that got you stuck up there, so be thankful I'm helping you."

"That doesn't nullify the fact that it still hurts!"

"Who uses the word nullify in casual conversation?"

"Is helping people out of air vents a casual thing for you?" This girl was rather quick with her remarks. Reyna wasn't sure if she liked that or not. "'Coz getting stuck in them isn't a normal thing for me. Just in case you were going to ask that."

It took longer than the ideal amount of time to get this girl out of the vent. Ideal time. As if Reyna spent her time getting strangers out of air vents on a regular basis. Still, there was no doubt that Nico was waiting for her.

This really sucked.

"Hey, um… thanks."

"It's fine," Reyna said emotionlessly. She needed to leave now.

"I'm Piper McLean." McLean sounded familiar, but Reyna couldn't place where she had heard the name before. Not that it really mattered.

"Reyna Ramirez-Arellano."

"That's a mouthful."

"Nice to meet you too." And with that, Reyna left the girls' restroom to find Nico sitting at a table with a French fry hanging out of his mouth while he texted someone. Then, she managed to get him to leave before the Piper McLean girl got out of the restroom. She shook her head when he asked what happened, not wanting to talk about the encounter with the girl.

Just her luck though that Piper had somehow found her way to Reyna's house before Reyna even got there.

"Hey."

"What are you doing here, McLean?" Not only had the girl found out where Reyna lived, she was sitting in the driveway like an idiot. Then again, this was the girl who had somehow gotten stuck in a McDonald's air vent. Instead of answering with words like a normal person, the girl stuck out a bouquet of orange roses and smiled.

"To thank you properly, duh." Now, she was sounding rather confident. Perhaps it was because she wasn't in a vent anymore. But Piper sounded less and less like she knew what she was doing as she continued talking. "So… I was stuck in there for a while to prove I could break into a McDonald's, and you saw what happened. Stupid dare. And so thanks because it sucked being stuck in there 'coz it was really cramped and all. So do you wanna go on a date with me? And thanks for getting me out of there. Like, I'd been in there for hours, I think. Yeah, so here you go."

"What?"

"And so thanks because it sucked being stuck in there 'coz it was really cramped and all. So do you wanna go on a date with me? And thanks for getting me out of there. Like, I'd been in there for hours, I think. Yeah, so here you go." Did the girl really just repeat half of the entire spiel she had gone on? How could she remember what she had said? It didn't seem like she was breathing.

"You're welcome."

"Well, here are these flowers. Have a nice day. Later. See ya around maybe." Piper shoved the roses into Reyna's hands and began running off. There was a card with a phone number written on it, so Reyna pulled out her phone and dialed it quickly.

"Hello?"

"Yes, is this Piper McLean? Because I don't think you gave me a day or time for this date."