AN: Yes, this is about twelve hours early, but I am a bit bored right now. I'm currently recovering from having two of my wisdom teeth out (not fun), and a bit too out of it to write the next chapter of Strings of Fate. (Having said that, I've written 1.5 chapters since I had my wisdom teeth out, but I have no idea whether they even make any sense.)

In this chapter, we finally get to meet Frank's friends properly, I hope I did them justice!

'What was with the elephant ears earlier, Frank?'

At least, that's what it sounded like he'd said. Percy Jackson, a black-haired, green-eyed Junior, and Frank's football teammate, was talking through a large mouthful of blue popcorn. (Seriously, blue popcorn.)

'And why were you late for practice? You're pretty much never late for practice.'

Jason Grace, blond, blue-eyed, Sophomore, and also a football player, reached out and took an ordinary-sized handful of the blue popcorn.

'Elephant ears? I missed seeing Frank with elephant ears? Damn it, I knew I should have tried out for football!'

No-one pointed out that there was no way Leo Valdez would've made the team anyway, despite his insistence that they couldn't handle his super-hot skills. Frank and Jason's fellow Sophomore was skinny, scrawny and barely taller than Hazel. He was an awful lot like a Latino elf hyped up on sugar and caffeine at the same time.

The four friends were hanging out in Percy's garage. His mom, Sally, had very kindly invited the boys to stay for dinner and had provided them with (blue) snacks.

It was Friday. Jason, Percy and Frank had just had practice. They'd all decided that homework could wait, even for Juniors like Percy. (Or at least it could wait until Annabeth called Percy and declared that Seaweed Brain would do his homework or she would withdraw certain privileges. That tended to work.)

Frank sighed internally. If he didn't give them a satisfactory explanation, they would nag the truth out of him. He briefly considered lying, but he didn't really like doing that, particularly to his closest friends.

'I was helping Dakota and Gwen with a video for Hannibal the elephant, hence the elephant ears. And I was late to practice and still wearing them because...' His face reddened slightly. 'I was talking to my soulmate. I met her yesterday.'

There was silence for a moment as they digested the news.

(Frank was pretty sure they were all thinking seriously? Frank Zhang, the awkward, klutzy, half-teddy bear, half-wrestler, managed to meet his soulmate while still in high school? )

Then, Percy put his arm around his shoulders and handed him the bowl of popcorn.

'That's awesome, man! This calls for a celebration!'

Jason grinned and patted him on the back.

'That's great, Frank! If you need any advice, or just want to talk about it, I'm here for you. We all are.'

He shot a pointed look at the other two boys.

Leo looked crestfallen for a moment (just a moment, but they all caught it), before a look of joking disappointment mixed with an impish grin (only Leo could pull that off) appeared on his face.

'Aw man! I'm the hottest, baddest boy here, and you're all going to get laid before me!'

Percy and Jason rolled their eyes. Frank turned bright red and choked on his popcorn.

Jason thumped him hard on the back.

'Oh, come on, Frankie, stop being such a...'

Leo trailed off. It seemed that (for once) he could sense Frank's severe discomfort.

(Seriously, Leo thought, Frank had to be the most innocent teenage boy in existence.)

Jason, as usual, defused the moment.

'So, Frank, why don't you tell us about her?'

Frank, now significantly less flustered, smiled gratefully at the blond.

'Her name's Hazel Levesque. She's thirteen years old and in the 8th grade.'

He shot Leo a look that said he would not tolerate any more inappropriate comments about Hazel or his relations with her.

Leo saluted in response. (Wow. Protective. And a little scary. It seems little Frankie's finally growing up!)

Jason and Percy looked a little surprised.

Age differences between soulmates weren't unusual, per se, but Annabeth and Percy and Jason and Piper were more or less the same age. They were in the same years at school, anyway.

'She's also Nico di Angelo's little sister.'

All three boys looked very surprised.

Frank with Nico's little sister? Broody, loner, only-ever-wears-black Nico di Angelo's sister? (Nico seemed like an okay sort of guy, just...well, broody. And deliberately lonesome. And he wore a lot of black.)

Leo raised a hand.

'Anyone else getting a mental image of Frankie here with a scowling Goth-girl? Because I am, and it doesn't look right!'

Jason and Percy laughed.

Frank crossed his arms.

'She's not like him! I mean, not that there's anything wrong with Nico.. I don't think they're full siblings, I think he's her half-brother. She's got curly cinnamon hair and gold eyes and cocoa skin and a really pretty smile and a dimple on her chin and she's really beautiful and brave and nice...'

Leo put his hands over his ears.

'Your sappy in-love-ness is making my ears bleed!'

Percy looked down at the blue popcorn, as if he was debating whether he'd actually lost his appetite.

Jason noticed, and jogged him with his elbow.

'Hey, you were that bad, if not worse, when I asked you about Annabeth the first time.'

Percy raised an eyebrow.

'Like you can talk, Grace. The day you met Piper? I thought I was going to be sick!'

Leo seemed to have heard them, because he practically launched himself at Frank and clutched at his shirt.

'No, not you too, Frank! Don't go over to the dark side too! Noooo!'

That was the moment that Sally Blofis nee Jackson (yes, she was married to Frank's hockey coach and English teacher, and yes, that was kind of awkward) chose to walk in to fetch the boys for dinner.

Thank the gods that she was used to their antics.

'So, Frank my man, how was the date with your little lady? Where'd you take her? Did you...'

Leo stopped himself, remembering that look, and slung his arm around Frank's shoulders.

Frank groaned internally. It was far too early on a Monday to deal with Leo's antics.

But then he thought of his time with Hazel on Saturday (and their planned dinner and a movie on Friday) and he felt much better. He smiled.

'It was great! We went to the zoo-'

Leo facepalmed.

'You try so hard to raise them right...'

Jason shook his head.

'Seriously, the zoo? Can you get any less romantic than that, Zhang? I'm not sure who had worse first date plans, you or Percy!'

The boy in question looked extremely miffed.

'Hey! The aquarium is a perfectly valid place to go on a date! Annabeth never complained!'

Jason rolled his eyes.

'She was humouring you, Percy. Why she still puts up with you, I don't know.'

Annabeth walked up to the group.

'Is Seaweed Brain bothering you, Frank?'

'Hey, what about Jason and Leo? Why are you just blaming me, Wise Girl?'

Annabeth shot Percy a steely look.

Percy just grinned back at her.

Annabeth kept dissecting him with her eyes.

Percy kept grinning.

She couldn't hold back her smile any longer. Annabeth shook her head, eyes light with humour and affection.

'Why do I even love you?'

Percy smirked.

'Because I have an absolutely winning personality.'

'In your dreams.'

Leo, Jason and Frank watched the two walk away, still bickering/flirting.

None of them had witnessed their first meeting at the age of 12. But they'd heard the stories.

Safe to say, Percy and Annabeth hadn't been fall-in-mutual-love-at-first-sight soulmates.

(After all, there was a reason why their first date had only been last year.)

(Leo thought it'd make a great rom-com plot.)

(From hating one another to bickering friends to a bickering couple? Wasn't that what rom-coms were made of?)