"Ok, come to my house tomorrow at noon." Piper instructed. She had invited the other 6 demigods to her residence for a very special occasion.
" Oooh, do we get to meet your movie star dad?" Leo asked. Giggles escaped everyone's lips, even Piper's.
"That's funny, Fire Boy. No, he's starring in a movie called The Galaxy of Octopi: A New Era. Shooting starts tomorrow." Piper said. She swung her legs on the porch swing, making everyone gasp. After that died down, everyone became very silent. Of course, Annabeth wanted to break it.
"I can't wait to program a robot!" Annabeth shouted. Leo agreed, and a conversation erupted about Lego League practice.
"I can't wait to play a sport and be nice to other teams. Even horseback riding is competitive." Hazel said. Everyone silently agreed, but laughed at her instead. Hazel blushed.
"Guys, guys, GUYS!" Percy interrupted the laughter. "This isn't funny or good core values. All of our godly parents must be ashamed right now." Of course, everyone thought of this as a joke, except for Hazel. Jason especially took it the wrong way. He stood up, mocking his father, Zeus.
"That Jason boy... If he was just good at core values, maybe he would be a better Roman." Jason mimicked, his voice deep and menacing.
"Whatever." Piper said. "My house. Tomorrow."
The seven demigods filed into Piper's house and sat on a big, leathery couch. It reminded them all of the biggest and baddest monsters of all, the Furies. Then, Annabeth and Hazel giggled about a wet spot on Frank's army green cargo pants.
"It's water. WATER!" He pleaded.
"Hush up!" Piper yelled, with no effect on Frank or the girls. Conversation continued as usual.
"SHUT UUUUUUUUPPPPP!" Piper shouted, sneaking in some charmspeak. The one time when being a daughter of Aphrodite pays off. Everyone stopped talking and immediately turned towards Piper. "Thanks. I'll invite Jason up here to speak about some of our goals for Worlds!" Piper plopped down on an empty spot on the Fury couch. Jason stood up an walked in front of a giant television.
"As everyone knows, we won the New York State Competition!" Jason exclaimed. Yells, whoops, and hollers followed. He nervously ran his hand through his blonde hair. "Great job! Yes. We should start preparing for Worlds. Let's split into groups."
Hazel shot her hand straight in the air, and Jason called on her. "Can I create a core values challenge?" She asked. The other 6 said yes in unison, because no one else wanted to do it. Next, Piper was chosen to work on the project, and Annabeth would work with Leo on Festus, their robot made of Legos. That left Frank, Percy, and Jason.
"I can be-" They said at the same time, but was interrupted by Annabeth.
"No, you are not being chaperones. Work on the project with Piper." She demanded, glaring daggers at the three boys. Hazel decided to speak up.
"All right, Half-Blood Hurricanes! Let's work." She said. Annabeth and Leo excitedly speed-walked to Piper's attic, which had been converted to a practice room. Frank morphed into a fierce tiger, allowing Jason and Percy to ride him into the kitchen. Piper followed, dragging her feet across the floor. Hazel stayed on the couch, her mind at work.
"No, the robot can and will NOT breathe fire, Leo!" Annabeth yelled. Festus the robot sat in base, ready for anything.
"Fine. Instead, let's tackle this obstacle mission. Literally." Leo said. He smirked, a mischievious glint in his eyes.
"Ok." Annabeth replied, focusing her eyes on the programming system. After lots of building, failing, programming, failing, testing, and failing, Festus had the looks and programs to let him climb over Lego rivers and such. Both demigods sighed in relief as Festus reached the red zone; the destination.
Meanwhile, Jason decide to turn on Piper's stereo and play such APPROPIATE songs!
I'm sexy and I know it. The stereo blared. Frank started to dance wildly, like the wild animal he currently was; a bear. Percy was tapping his foot, and Jason sang along to the song, his voice cracking along the way. On the other hand, Piper was sitting at the computer, eyes glued to the screen, and typing away. She was researching hurricanes. Suddenly, a timer went off.
"Someone please turn that off!" Piper shouted over the music. Percy turned the volume knob down on the stereo.
"WHAT? WHAT DID YOU SAY? I CAN'T HEAR A THING!" He yelled, clutching his ears.
"Where is it?" Frank questioned as he morphed back into human form.
"Oh dang... I forgot!" Piper yelped.
The seven teens met in Piper's living room once again, sitting on the Fury couch. Distant beeping was heard somewhere in the distance.
"It's driving me NUTS! I'm OCD about this kind of stuff." Percy shouted.
"QUIET, PERCY!" Leo yelled.
"Ok, calm down. I'd like each group to talk about what they have accomplished." Piper demanded. Annabeth explained how Festus rampaged over the obstacles successfully. Everyone cheered.
"Alright then!" Piper cheered. "Jason, Frank, and Percy, please tell us about what you researched."
"Uh..." Said Frank.
"Er..." Percy struggled.
"We don't... know." Jason stammered. The other four demigods looked around the room, pretending that these voices were in the wind.
"Well then." Piper said. "I discovered that viewers on Youtube love seeing boys dancing to inappropiate songs!" Piper confronted. "26,987 hits in an hour..." The boys were too ashamed to reply.
"I did do some work, using Hazel's problem and Leo's solution. The problem: The gods are making too many natural disasters. Our solution: A commercial to influence mortals to be nicer to the gods, so the result will be less storms. I found that some mortals who believe in the gods are complaining about this, too." Piper explained.
"How are we going to win Worlds with THAT? Our old project was fine." Hazel asked.
"I have a trick up my sleeve. I can charmspeak the judges!" Piper exclaimed. The rest of the demigods murmure compliments like "Good job!", "Awesome!", etc.
"Isn't that cheating?" Jason questioned.
Sigh.