Chapter 1
It was final week, a week that Frank dreaded. It was a Saturday night and he was almost falling asleep at his study desk.
Maybe some coffee would do some good, he thought. Frank hoped that the coffee shop down the street would be open at these hours.
Frank was desperate enough to try. He grabbed his car keys and drove down the street.
A huge sign with curly letters announced the shop as 'Aphrodite's Coffee, Tea, and Treats.'
The sign on the coffee shop's door said that it would close in five minutes. Frank sighed in relief. He had five minutes.
Frank hurried into the coffee shop. It was deserted, save the girl tapping her fingers at the counter.
The girl smiled as Frank approached the counter. It was a wary smile; she had bags under her eyes and was minutes away from falling asleep, much like Frank.
She had choppy hair and blue-green-brown eyes. Her beauty was obvious, despite no makeup (at least not that Frank knew of). Her name tag proclaimed her as 'PIPER.'
"Um, hello. I'll get an espresso," Frank said.
"Coming right up," Piper replied and shuffled toward the coffeemaker.
Frank decided to sit down at one of the tables. The coffee shop had originally been a sweet shop, so it always smelled faintly of taffy and vanilla. Frank loved this smell dearly, but thought Piper would find his breathing the smell in deeply odd.
He sat down and decided to text Percy, his best friend, to see how he was holding up with finals.
Hey dude how's finals going
Akxkttbnjuddnkikbfdsjfs nope
I'm guessing not well
How do I remember it all
Somehow. Just ingrain it in your brain
I might have to skip swim practice in order to study.
Don't. You'll remember it trust me
Maybe annabeth will be willing to tutor me
You would distract her
True
Only a moment later, Piper called him. "Your espresso is ready."
Frank stumbled to the counter and snatched his espresso, which made his stomach rumble. He hadn't eaten in two hours.
As he walked toward the door that lead out of the coffee shop, a lone table caught his eye.
On the table sat a folder. The purple folder was decorated with stickers. And in the exact middle, written in Sharpie, was the name Hazel Levesque.
Frank's heart stopped.
Hazel Levesque. She was a sophomore, while Frank was a junior. Hazel was on his bus and in his study hall. Hazel was majorly pretty and nice from what Frank could tell.
At first, he'd refused to admit it. How could one like a girl he'd never talked to? But sure enough, he admired her from afar. She'd probably never like him- hell, she probably didn't even know his name!
This could be his chance. He could finally have a chance to talk to her. A reason to talk to her.
Frank strolled over to the table and picked up the folder. He examined it for a moment. It was cute- the stickers of puppies made him smile. Of course Hazel would have something cute adorning her stationery.
He grabbed the folder without hesitation. It was his chance.
He walked out of the coffee shop.
Shit.
What part of him thought this would be a good idea? Of course this was a bad idea.
Frank couldn't think of what to do next. So, of course, he texted Percy.
We have a situation.
What
So I was at a coffee shop and I saw a folder on the table with hazels name on it and it's hazels but there was no one in the coffee shop and I took it thinking it would be a great way to make conversation but it's a bad idea but she needs this folder what do I do help
Woah slow down bud.
What do I do help
Just give it to her on the bus. Doesn't she sit alone? That'll make it easier
You're right. I got this. I have three days and six bus rides in order to give it to her. I'll be fine
Yup. But trying to study with annabeth so bye
Bye
-
It was easier said than done. The next morning on the bus, Frank chickened out. She was listening to music on her iPod. How could he interrupt her? It would be rude, Frank decided.
That night, Frank was studying yet again. His books were splayed across his desk, with Hazel's folder placed on the right corner.
He was in the middle of studying and memorizing that mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell when a scream tore through his ears.
Frank flinched in surprise, his elbow knocking everything over on the right corner of his desk. Papers, books, folders, and notebooks went flying.
Frank jumped up and ran downstairs where his mother and grandmother were. The lights were off and the TV was on.
"What's wrong?" Frank exclaimed.
"It's fine, it's fine. We were just watching a movie, is all," Emily Zhang said, pointing to the TV.
"It was a damn jump scare, too," his grandmother grumbled.
Frank raised an eyebrow but returned upstairs. Usually he would join them in watching the movie (it was a Tuesday tradition in the Zhang household) but 1. He had to study and 2. He had a mess to clean up.
He stomped back into his room and looked at the floor. It was littered in papers and folders full of papers and notebooks and folders and... Frank sighed.
Frank picked up his folders and notebooks first, sorting them by subject. He figured this was easier, because when he started sorting out the papers, he put the papers on top of their coordinating subject.
He was halfway through the pile of papers spread across the floor when he came across something.
It was a piece of printer paper with a sketch of a dolphin on it. Frank knew it wasn't his. He looked at it until he remembered. It must've been Hazel's.
Frank loved the drawing. It was beautiful; it was probably one of the best he'd ever seen. He continued to look for more of Hazel's drawing through the pile. All of her drawings were of animals, which made him love her even more.
In all, there were fourteen drawings that belonged to Hazel with animals that ranged from elephants to tigers to birds to frogs to cats. Frank couldn't help but smile.
A new courage built up in him. He had to get these to Hazel and tell her how beautiful her drawings were. She had to get these back.
The alarm clocked blared in Frank's ears. It was not a beep but a song that had programmed in as a prank by Percy. Frank hadn't had the heart to change it; besides, 'I'm Walking On Sunshine' was a pretty good song to wake up to.
He hit snooze and the clock stopped its incessant singing. Before Frank closed his eyes, he saw the clock flash 7:00.
He sank back into the pillow and thought about Hazel and the bus ride and her drawings and school- and wait a minute, was it 7:00?
Frank threw the covers off of himself and sprinted toward his dresser, getting his school clothes on. He hopped on one foot trying to get his shoe on while simultaneously brushing his teeth, and then his hair.
Frank ran into the kitchen to grab an energy bar and sprinted out the door and to the bus stop.
He was only a moment too late. He sighed as he watched the bus pulling away from the bus stop and driving down the street. Frank almost considered running after it, but even he knew he was not that fast.
Defeated, Frank slumped and trudged back home. He went back inside the house to wake up his grandmother. He winced at the thought of her anger- "You careless boy!" she would say. He would have asked his mom, but she was not home.
"Psst, grandma. Grandma, can you drive me to school?"
"Why? Are you too afraid to take the bus?"-
"No, I missed the bus."
"You careless boy! I cannot believe you are dragging me into this." His grandmother shook her head, but nevertheless, got out of bed.
Both of them hopped into the tiny car and his grandmother started to drive in silence.
When they pulled up to the school, Frank got out. He could swear he heard his grandmother muttering, "Kids these days."
For what seemed like the hundredth time, Frank chickened out. He still had tomorrow. Only tomorrow! his brain screamed.
Instead, he took his notes and studied. Occasionally, Frank would steal glances at Hazel. She was focusing on deep concentration at something on a paper. Her forehead was wrinkled.
Oh, how could he ever work up the nerve to talk to her?
He was there, in Hazel's living room. She was there, her forehead wrinkled in concentration at the paper in front of her.
He opened his mouth to talk to her, but no words came out. Just a noise. A noise that sounded like a trumpet after it got run over.
Hazel laughed at him. Frank tried again and again, but only the trumpet noise came out.
"Oh, silly Frank! I could never love you. Don't even try to talk to me, because you sound ridiculous," Hazel said.
Frank lumbered closer to Hazel, but she just edged away.
Then, he went to the bathroom (and had a little trouble fitting through the door).
He looked in the mirror and what he saw terrified him. He made the nearest thing to a screech that his body could produce. His new body, at least.
Frank was an elephant.
Frank woke up, sweating gallons. What the heck had just happened? He looked at his clock. It was almost 1:30 am.
He couldn't go to sleep. He was only able to lay down and ponder what the dream meant.
Frank stumbled onto the bus the way a zombie would. Or someone who was deprived of sleep.
Frank was able to produce not one, but two solid reasons not to talk to Hazel. Number 1 was the dream he had had last night. Number 2 was that he was seriously tired.
He fell asleep on the bus ride to school.
Frank was always the first one on the bus. That was how it always was. He chose a seat in the middle and leaned against the window with his eyes closed.
He could hear students filing in on the bus, talking and shuffling. The words and shuffling and all the noise faded. It seemed like he was just about to fall asleep when-
Poke poke. "Hello? Um, Frank Zhang?" Frank opened one eye, then peeled the other one open.
And there she was. Hazel freakin' Levesque. The one and only.
"Y-yeah?" he stuttered.
"Mind if I sit here?" Hazel asked.
"Not at all. I mean, I don't mind."
Frank sat in silence for a second. Working up courage. Finding the words he would say to her.
He unzipped his backpack and produced a folder: a purple folder with animal stickers and the name Hazel Levesque written smack in the middle in Sharpie.
"Um, Hazel, I was actually at a coffee shop a couple of days ago and I sort of found this. And like, you weren't there, so, um, I thought I would bring to you. So here it is."
Hazel's eyes lit up. "I've been looking everywhere for this! Thank you!"
She took the folder from him and did the unthinkable. She kissed his cheek.
Frank liked to imagine that he was probably turning various shades of the sunset.
"I usually use this folders to keep my drawings in. They're- they're not that good," Hazel said.
Frank forced himself to not start screaming, "They're so good, it's better than Picasso!" Instead, he said, "May I be the judge of that?"
He didn't even have to act surprised at how good they were; he was blown away every time. How could one person draw so well and realistically?
"That's... That's one of the best I've seen in a long while."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
They say in silence for a while and Frank decided to turn around and stare at the window. He heard Hazel zipping and unzipping some compartments on her backpack, writing, and tearing something off a paper.
Come on, you gotta say something, Frank goaded himself.
"Um, how'd you get into drawing?" Frank finally asked.
Hazel's face lit up, but then it seemed to fizzle out. She stuttered for a second before putting on a seemingly forced smile.
"I learned online, mostly. Self-taught, you know? My first drawing was when I was around five or six for my dad and I have it to him when he visited..." She trailed off.
Shit, Frank thought. She looked like she might cry. What to do, what to do?
"I just spend most of my time studying and going to wrestling meets. Even though I'm not that good." Frank laughed bitterly.
"I've seen you wrestle before. You're really good," Hazel said with a smile.
"Really?" Frank's grin lit up his face.
"Yeah my old bo-friend. My old friend was on the team and I went to some of the matches. I can't believe you got a 16 within 2 minutes and won the match!" Hazel exclaimed.
Frank would have asked abut this old 'friend' -though Frank suspected it was much more than that- but Hazel didn't deem to want to talk about it.
The two continued to talk. About school, things they liked and didn't like, their friends (Frank was elated to find they had a lot of mutual friends).
Frank almost didn't notice when it came to Hazel's stop.
"Well, see you around," Hazel said. She flashed her signature smile and got off the bus.
Sinking. His heart was sinking. He thought about what she had said. 'See you around.' He knew he wouldn't see her until September.
Frank trudged off the bus at his stop, stomped up the stairs to his home, and flopped on the couch.
His grandmother came into the room. "Frank, get up, you lazy boy."
Frank slowly eased himself off the couch. "I'll go into my room, grandma," he said.
Once in his room, he unpacked the last compartment in his backpack, where all his study materials were. And he flopped onto his bed and texted Percy.
That night, Frank unpacked all the compartments on his backpack. He knew that he had pencils and erasers and other supplies scattered throughout all his compartments.
He was on the last one when he saw something: a small, folded up piece of paper. Frank almost had half a mind to assume it was a study sheet that he would burn in a bonfire.
Luckily for Frank, he decided to open it. Scrawled across in neat-ish handwriting was:
Hazel Levesque: 555-357-8968 and 13
Frank squealed I'm delight. Finally, finally, finally, something was going right for him.
He just had to text Percy about this...
Wow I'm really excited about publishing on this as I've been working on it for a while. I originally intended on this to be a one-shot but I do feel like I left things a little open-ended. Maybe I can write more chapters in how other demigod couples met at Aphrodite's Coffee Shop (ex. Percabeth, Solangelo, etc.). Or I could write more about how Frank and Hazel continue to talk and how the coffee shop has influenced their life so much. Or maybe both! However, I'll only do this if someone asks to or I really feel like it. This might be updated randomly then because I don't have any pre-written chapters. So if you'd like to see more chapters, comment and tell me please!
I feel like I'm rambling a lot. Anyways, until next time! CoriDreams-CoriWrites