Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO series or any of it's characters. I only own the new ones that were introduced in this story and I own the plot.

Being a senior was entirely different to anything she had experienced before. She knew this school inside and out, she waved at teachers like old friends and just generally...felt like an adult. Which considering the fact that had very rarely been treated like one and the few times before were not a good thing, was strange. But nothing could overpower the sense of awkward radiating off of Jason that clogged her nose until it wrinkled and made salt sting the corners of her eyes, knowing that she had done that. It was the best decision though, breaking up with him. Right?

"Jay, how was your summer?" If it was any other guy, he might have noticed the boobs being thrust into his face by a girl who claimed she only had interest in him as a friend. "I heard that you had to say goodbye to some of your cousins, I know people going off to college is hard."

Jason gave the poor girl a tired smile that wasn't meant to be condescending. "My summer was great, I got a lot of work done in preparation for this year." He turned a corner that was opposite to where Piper was going and led him up the stairs. He wanted to be as far away as possible and that was fine. Really, it was fine if he said "nothing would change" and he couldn't handle being around her now. It didn't bother her that he didn't pull away when Lily leaned into his shoulder like before...because he didn't have the instinct to set those boundaries anymore.

There was a knock on the wall above her head and Piper half expected to see Percy looking at her in concern, but it was Will who was waiting patiently to walk her to class. "You know you made the right choice." Did she?

"SAVE ME FROM THIS HELL AND I SHALL GIVE UPON YOU A BLESSING!" Dark curly hair sprawled over the edge of the bench, knees pointing to the sky as Hazel dramatically recounted her lines that were nothing like she was rehearsing. "Cure the whores who lie in wait for a man who has lost his head and must go not based on the tip of his nose, but the tip of his…" She squeaked as she was shoved off by Reyna who was not having it. Shadows curled around her before she could hit the ground, transporting her next to Piper. "Hey!"

"You were going to get us in trouble." A shrug. "Anyway if you keep saying them like that you'll repeat it on stage without thinking and our first performance is in front of children!" The two girls had been forced into an Acting class to get rid of their practical art credit requirement.

A large body flopped onto the top of the table and made a noise exactly matching that of a weasel's distress call. Frank was exhausted to say the least. "My back is already killing me, why did I agree to take some paperwork over the next week?"

"Because you're a good person and therefore your life sucks. See, Reyna has nothing to do." The look Hazel and Frank shared made her stomach churn, wondering what it would take to get her ex to do that. The blonde refused to even acknowledge her most of the time and watching those two act all platonic and friendly made her sad. But it wasn't really their fault, now was it? "Oh come on darling, you know I love you."

There was only a raised eyebrow in response before they all burst into laughter, getting up to bring their trays to the counter so the lunch ladies wouldn't have to.

They all basically collapsed as soon as they got home, exhausted by the amount of mortals in the room after being free all summer. "I wonder what everyone is doing at college do you think Annabeth has grounded Percy yet?"

"Nah, he can't get into that much trouble right off the bat. Give a week and I'll believe it." They all started laughing and for a moment it felt like old times.

Percy's POV

Making friends was actually kind of easy after they had an accidental dance in the lounge on their floor. He was trying to listen to music...and apparently his headphones weren't in? No one told him? Anyway, a really good song started playing that was really catchy because it was one of his recordings of Piper and no one can not dance when she's singing. She just had this way of reaching out of nowhere and making everyone lose their self consciousness about being in public. He was just kind of dancing in his seat before realizing so was everyone else. He took out his headphones and realized he was blasting the song and now Annabeth had a great picture of him with the darkest blush she had ever seen, on her phone. He went to turn it off but this girl across the room glared at him so he left it, grinning as he stood up and offered a hand to her. It was basically the most ridiculous, uncoordinated flash mob ever. "My name's Alexa, if you make any Siri jokes I will ruin your freshman year."

"Um...I don't know what you're talking about but okay?" He had heard one of the younger campers complain about the name she was given but he didn't really get the joke. "I'm Percy," was all it took for them to find themselves in his dorm room with a few of Alexa's other friends who wanted to meet the boy with the great tunes.

"I need a practice dummy!" Alexa declared as she hung her head off the edge of his bed, feet climbing the wall. Her hair seemed to change color as it caught sunlight, the purple turning lighter and bringing out some blues. "I am not redying mine, I like the way it is right now so one of you losers needs to deal with being a victim!" Her eyes finally fell on the only one who she was positive she could coerce into it, flipping over and walking over all while looking like a Cheshire cat. "Percy, can I dye your hair? I'll even make it blue…"

"I can't…" He froze. Ever since he was little, his mother had warned him that people would take dyed hair as even more confirmation that he was a troublemaker and since he moved from school to school, they wouldn't have enough time to get to know him before they did anything. It wasn't that she didn't support the idea, it was just she was worried for his safety and in some schools it would get his head shaved. But now, he could say yes and nobody would be able to yell at him or force him to change it. In college, everyone had weird hair or piercings or a bit of punk in their look. Why couldn't he? "Make it dark blue with lighter tips and we have a deal. You know like ambre, not like a stark contrast." While the rest of his friends looked on in dawning horror, he plopped himself down on a towel she had laid out and beamed.

Alexa's partner Oak was one of his roommates, they had made some snappy comment about her not ruining the rug but resigned themself to watching from Alexa's old spot. "You know, I'm surprised that you haven't dyed your hair before. You seem like the type of person who would literally wear a blue bodysuit if you could."

"Maybe for pride." Percy closed his eyes as he enjoyed the feeling of his new hairdresser's hands massaging the color in, working it all the way down to the roots . "Well I had to look presentable, I was one of the oldest kids at camp and everyone already assumed I was going to charm them out of their life savings when they saw me, why give them another reason?"

There was a snort from the closet, as that was Faith's favorite spot in the room. Percy found it hilarious as she was usually only the straight person in the room. "Percy, you would charm someone out of their life savings. How else would you get into this school?" They all laughed, passing over his flinch. "I don't mean you're stupid or anything, it's just that college is hella expensive and I know for a fact you didn't get that much scholarships because they're more for out of state students."

"My dad helped pay." Even though he could almost hear the excited hum of questions rising in the air, it was all too easy to let it fade into background noise. "My stepdad made the funniest face and said, 'So I'll only have to sell my soul once!'" Percy grinned as there were a few scoffs and he felt a smack on his shoulder with the end of a towel. Alexa hated when anyone moved too much or made her laugh while she was working, she had just randomly walked into his room complaining about it because she figured he would call her on her bullshit. She wasn't wrong. "Oi, I know we joked about me turning colors, but I'd like to keep the dye to my hair!"

Annabeth's POV

It was not exactly the most surprising thing that she could not find her boyfriend, especially on a Thursday. He had a lecture in the morning then a short math class, so he tended to just drop himself into bed or crash wherever he found himself. After checking all of his hiding spots, she tiptoed over to his room to see if his bunk mates knew where he was. "Oak, Richard...have you seen Perc…?" She froze as she pushed open the door to reveal the horror that lay within.

His roommates were curled up on the bunk bed like Scooby and Shaggy after seeing an old man in a dragon costume, faces worthy of a museum. They were afraid of Annabeth in the sense that they knew she could kick their asses but they were more concerned for Percy's safety most of the time. Three kids she didn't know were sprawled over the floor laughing with their tongues hanging out of their mouths and she felt a twinge of sadness as she remembered Cerberus. Alexa was beaming at her while looking like she found Smurf village and murdered them all with a belly flop, then ran into the dorm and tried to wipe off all the blood with a bajillion towels then threw them around the room. And in the middle of it all - swinging his legs while he sat on a bar stool - was her Percy, a Cheshire smile cutting through the flops of blue being blow dried by his murderous friend. "Annabeth look at what we did! I'm an adult!"

All she could do was raise her eyebrows in question, wondering how she ever fell in love with such a seaweed brain.