"Where are they?" Leo muttered to himself, digging through an over-packed supply closet in the engine room. He brushed his hand against a mouse trap and yelped as it snapped shut on his thumb. Pulling the offending trap off his bruised digit, he sucked it while looking mournfully at the closet.
"Hey, Leo- What on earth?" Piper's eyebrows shot up. Leo removed the thumb from his mouth sheepishly.
"I'm looking for fireworks." He explained, burying his head in the closet once again.
"Okaaay…" Piper trailed off. "Why?"
"So we can celebrate the Fourth of July!" Leo said in a duh tone. Piper rolled her eyes.
"Silly me. And why did you pack fireworks, exactly?"
"Just in case," Leo said absentmindedly. "Aha! Here they are!" He shouted, pulling out three brightly wrapped packages of fireworks. "See ya, Pipes!" He exclaimed, running out the door. Piper shook her head and climbed the stairs to the upper decks.
"Why did I just see Leo run through here with a bunch of fireworks?" Jason asked, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. Piper sighed.
"Well, apparently we're celebrating the Fourth of July this year." She said. Frank frowned.
"I don't celebrate that holiday." He said. Hazel whacked him on the arm
"Hush. You'll celebrate it and you'll like it!" She said, a twinkle in her eye letting Frank and those present know that she was really kidding. Frank rolled his eyes and sighed good-naturedly.
"Y'know, this could be fun. . ." Hedge began to muse. "We could have hot dogs and punch and whack a piñata!" He said excitedly, pantomiming hitting something with his ever-present baseball bat. Jason plucked the bat out of the satyr's hands.
"Yeah, I'm gonna say no to the piñata," he said. "But, some good food wouldn't be all bad. I'm gonna go see what we've got." Jason trooped off to the kitchen and Frank and Hazel followed at his heels. Piper turned to go and came face-to-face with Nico di Angelo.
"Woah!" she shouted in shock, having almost body-slammed the son of Hades. "Sorry!" Nico shrugged.
"It's alright. What are you planning?" he asked quizzically, tilting his head to one side. Piper smiled.
"Oh, that? We're going to celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks. You should join us tomorrow!" Piper invited, knowing that if Nico had his way, he'd stay cooped up in his cabin all day. "Come on, it'll be fun." She said. Nico sighed, then relented.
"Fine, fine. Although I am Italian by birth, so technically-"
"You don't celebrate this holiday. Yeah, yeah." Piper said with a laugh, grabbing Nico's arm. "Come on, let's go help planning the food. The gods know that Hazel probably needs some help!"
"Are you sure this thing is safe?" Frank asked worriedly, holding a lit sparkler in his hand. Hazel giggled, holding up her own.
"Don't worry, I promise they're safe," she said before drawing a stick figure with the smoke of her sparkler. "This is fun!" She said. "C'mon, Nico, you do one too!"
Nico groaned and got up from his seated position on the floor. Staring up at the starry sky, he drew lines that connected the stars of The Huntress. Jason also attempted to draw something, but his sparkler fizzled out. Leo and Piper had to laugh at the childish look of dejection on their friend's face.
"Aww, poor Sparky!" Leo teased. Jason smirked sarcastically.
"Just for that, I get to light the first firework." Jason said, striking a match and lighting one ablaze. Piper helped herself to some more potato chips as the multicolored fireworks whizzed upward, showering the night with red, blue, green, silver and purple sparks. Leo had even specially engineered some orange and purple fireworks, specifically made for the Roman and Greek demigods, which he set off with pride. Jason, Frank and Nico talked and laughed as they lit more sparklers and Coach Hedge was chowing down on a Styrofoam cup. Piper leaned her elbows on the railing as the last of Leo's fireworks painted the sky red and blue.
"That was really something," Jason said, joining the daughter of Aphrodite at the railing. "You Greeks really like your bangs and booms, don't you?" Piper laughed.
"Something like that." Jason studied the sky, where the smoke from their explosives was beginning to clear, settling into the waves.
"Do you think Percy and Annabeth are okay?" he asked quietly, one eye on the others, who were unaware of their conversation. Piper fixed her eyes on Jason's face, more than a little surprised. Jason was usually the one to give reassurance, not ask for it.
"I don't know," Piper answered truthfully, resting a hand on his arm. "I want to believe they are, but…" she trailed off. Jason nodded in understanding before handing her a sparkler. She looked at him in confusion as he lit one of his own and tossed it into the sea below.
"For Percy." Piper lit her own and threw it in after Jason's.
"For Annabeth."
By some miracle the sparklers stayed lit, glowing and reflecting off of the inky ocean waves. Maybe it was a freak incident, but Piper thought that maybe, just maybe, Poseidon was allowing the sparklers to stay lit as a signal to the questers. Maybe Percy and Annabeth were alive and safe.
As the sparklers slipped over the horizon and Piper watched her friend joke and tease each other, she felt a strange feeling of relief settle in her gut. No matter what happened, no matter what the gods did to them, they had each other. They didn't need anything, or anyone else.
This was their independence day too.