Author's notes: Written for a writing meme I have going on at my LJ. Ad exia asked for a fic with Rachel and Percy featuring the line "I need another hairbrush." This was the result. I haven't written much with Rachel, so this was kind of fun!
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Round-About Way
"I need another hairbrush."
Percy blinked, and glanced around his locker door. Rachel Elizabeth Dare was standing next to him, her arms crossed over her uniformed chest, and tapping one paint splattered white shoe impatiently on the scuffed linoleum of Goode High School's hallway. It figured she'd find him right away during the first day of school when he hadn't seen her since earlier in the summer.
"Your hair looks fine to me," he replied, taking note of the sleek ponytail she was sporting. There was not a hair out of place, unlike some frustrating girls who couldn't keep their wild curls under control for more than a minute he could mention but didn't even want to think about because she was still not talking to him. "And hello to you to."
He noticed Rachel blushed a bit, which surprised him, and he quickly glanced over his shoulder, in case someone else in the crush of students was looking at her or something.
"That's not what I meant. That brush I threw at that Titan, Lord – "
"Don't say his name!" Percy interrupted warningly. "You can't just go around saying names like that!"
Never mind that he had done the same thing when he'd found out about the Olympian world, but he had learned his lesson the hard way when talking about a rather vicious type of Greek scorpion had led to an infestation of them in his mother's apartment complex his first year back from Camp Half-Blood.
" – Kronos or whatever," Rachel continued blithely. She really liked bucking the rules of the immortals, didn't she? Again, not that Percy could talk, seeing as though he's very existence had come about as a result of breaking the rules of the immortals. "Anyway, that was one of my favorites, and I haven't gotten around to replacing it. Do you think there's any way I'll be able to get it back?"
Percy wished there was a mirror around so he could see the look on his face. He knew it had to be some weird mixture of horror, incredulity, and grim amusement, and if Rachel was at all repulsed by it, she didn't let it on.
"So I guess that's a definite 'no' then?" she said after a terribly uncomfortable beat of silence.
"Well, I could just risk life and limb by hopping on a plane, trekking up to Mount Tam to knock on the front door, and ask the most evil immortal being ever to please give back the hairbrush you threw in his face, but I'm not too keen on dying today. I think I'd rather just give you the money to buy a new one instead," he said, shutting his locker door. "Would that be okay?"
"How about we just grab a snack after school and you pay instead?"
He blinked again, uncomprehending. Wasn't this supposed to be about the hairbrush?
"Are you asking me out a date, Dare? Because that was a really round-about way to do it."
She shrugged. "You're a pretty round-about guy. If you consider rehashing terrifying battles with mythological beasts over a cup of coffee a date, then it's a date. See you after class on the school steps? Provided no empousai disguised as cheerleaders attack you before then, of course."
"Um, I guess," Percy replied, trying not to be worried by how eager she sounded for another monster attack. Or by what a certain daughter of Athena, who he was most certainly not thinking about, would do to him if she found out about this.
"Cool. I'll see you later, all right? I've got to head off to the art room to get a good spot so the teacher won't be able to see my ear buds," Rachel said, breezing past him. He turned to watch her go, and she waved at him over her shoulder. "Bye Percy!"
Percy hefted his backpack onto his shoulder, and watched her disappear around the corner, her ponytail bouncing slightly on her head.
"Mortal girls are so weird," he muttered to no one in particular, and headed off to class.