Ok, sorry it's been so long since I've updated. So thanks for all the feedback on the previous chapters. I'm going to try to update regularly throughout the week and that's a promise. Please do review and let me know if you guys liked it! So enjoy! :D~ Bolts and Trees
Piper and Jason had managed to move all of Piper's furniture out of her room and they were taping off things that needed to be taped off. Jason promised that he would stand on the ladder for her because she was terrified of heights and Leo said that he would be bringing the paint because he had a discount at the hardware store because he was such a frequent customer.
"What color did you decide on?" Jason asked.
"Ok, the walls are going to be a gold color and then there's going to be tons of henna inspired decals and accents in dark purple, turquoise, emerald green, and a ruby color." Piper said.
Jason looked around and nodded knowing that Piper knew what she was doing with her design. So he just went with her and then Leo and Calypso walked in carrying all the things they needed for Piper's room make over.
"There you go, every color we went and picked out the other day." Leo grinned, "So are we ready to get priming?"
Piper nodded, "Sure."
Piper walked around the Independence Day Festival with Thalia and Annabeth. They were looking at all of the things that were offered in the town and Thalia and Piper had both caved and bought their favorite raspberry jam, and Annabeth had already gotten herself a thing of honey.
"Nico says Percy's pouting again." Thalia said.
"Maybe we should head over there." Annabeth replied as she started towards the Ferris Wheel where they decided to meet up with the guys. Piper was happy that she had worn her favorite flowy white shirt and black skirt because it was hot even if the sun was going to set soon. She couldn't wait for the dance and the fireworks because they were definitely the best part of the whole Festival. Jason smiled when they walked over and Percy practically tackled Annabeth with a hug even though he had just seen her not even an hour before. They had separation anxiety.
"So I think we should take a ride on the Tunnel O' Love." Percy said pointing to the rather demonic looking ride with the cliche swans and creepy cherubs that fluttered their wings.
"It looks like we'd be taking a ride to sell our souls." Jason muttered.
"The Tunnel O' Love is romantic Jason, you just don't know anything about romantic." Percy pulled a face.
Jason pulled a face, "I'm sorry I don't watch the Notebook on loop."
Percy glared, "The Notebook is one of the greatest romantic movies of this century, you better take that back Grace."
"Girls you're both pretty, but we don't have time to argue about the Notebook and who's more romantic than the other." Thalia said before anything could go any further. Annabeth and Piper snickered at the faces Jason and Percy made.
Somehow they all ended up on the Tunnel O' Love and Jason was pretty accurate when he said it looked like a ride straight to Hell to sell your soul. It was supposed to be scary however Piper looked back and didn't see Thalia and Nico's boat anywhere. They must have skipped out on it.
After they got off the ride Percy looked around disappointedly, "I should have known Thalia and Nico would skip out."
"Why are you so upset by that?" Annabeth asked she still looked pretty shaky from the spiders on the ride.
"I wanted to see them act like a couple." Percy pouted.
Piper giggled, "Percy, they act like one all the time."
"False, I've never once seen them hug or kiss. I only ever see them talking to one another." Percy challenged.
"I see them act like a couple all the time." Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"No you don't!" Percy sounded scandalized.
Annabeth nodded, "They act like a couple all the time, you're too busy being a Seaweed Brain to notice."
Percy frowned, "Well we better find them before...oh my God they're doing something couple-y!"
"Shh Seaweed Brain, shut up!" Annabeth said before clapping her hand over Percy's mouth. Thalia and Nico were sharing an Elephant Ear covered in cherries and powdered sugar in the park. Nico was feeding it to her and Piper had to admit it looked romantic possibly only because Nico was Italian made things like that look romantic.
"We should give them some space." Piper smiled.
"I want to see them kiss!" Percy insisted. Annabeth rolled her eyes and dragged him off behind her towards the fry stand. Piper and Jason followed them and decided that they were hungry as well.
"So what are we going to do?" Annabeth asked.
"Well we could spy on my OTP." Percy suggested.
"What's an OTP?" Jason asked curiously.
Annabeth groaned, "Please don't get him started."
"An OTP my dear Grace, is a one true pairing, for instance Thalico is my OTP. A NOTP is something I do not ship and do not wish to become canon and for instance that would be something like Thaluke." Percy explained.
Jason nodded, "You ship my sister and Nico? What the hell is Thalico?"
"I want them to become canon. Thalico is their ship name." Percy nodded.
"What's a ship name?" Jason asked wanting to know how Percy knew all of this terminology.
"A ship name is the names of the people you wish to be canonically involved with one another and are mashed up; for instance you and Piper's ship name would be Jasiper. I want that to become canon as well.?" Percy explained. Jason noticed that Piper blushed and moved away slightly.
"They're already canon Seaweed Brain. I thought you shipped Frank and Hazel as your OTP." Annabeth shook her head.
"Since they're now canon they're only one of my ships." Percy explained.
"Whatever I'm done having this conversation and you're going to stay away from Thalico or whatever you call them." she muttered.
Percy wrapped his arms around Annabeth and kissed her cheek, "You know I think we should go on the Ferris Wheel."
"Hey guys." they all turned to find Luke walking over to them with a huge smile on his face and a bouquet of bright red carnations.
"What are you doing with flowers?" Percy asked.
"Oh, um these are supposed to be for Thalia. Do you know where I can find..."
"Luke?"
Percy frowned as Thalia walked over with Nico in tow. Luke turned and grinned at the young brunette, "Thals."
"I'm not letting him mess with my OTP." Percy muttered. Piper was giggling softly at Percy's determination to protect his OTP.
"What are you doing here?" Thalia asked.
"I came to see you." Luke smiled handing her the flowers.
Thalia took them and then looked back at Nico who looked like he wanted to deck Luke right then and there, "Thanks but I'm sorta' on a date right now."
"With who?" Luke asked he looked genuinely shocked that Thalia had actually moved on. Honestly it had shocked all of them considering that Luke ran off to another school and cheated on Thalia. No one thought Thalia would ever date again however they were wrong when Nico asked her to the fireworks last summer and they've been dating ever since...as much as Percy would love to say otherwise.
"Nico." Thalia said smiling at the frowning Italian.
Luke didn't say anything for a moment and he just looked at Nico who Piper had to admit was slightly intimidating. He was as tall as Luke, with dark eyes that were pretty scary, and he had a pretty good build for a guy in a band. Luke nodded, "Well it was nice talking to you."
"Same to you." Thalia smiled. Piper noted that she looked like she was going to cry.
"I'll see you around then." Luke nodded, "It was good to see you guys again."
They nodded and watched as Luke awkwardly walked away. Piper blinked and then saw Thalia run off, Nico following after her. She knew they were either going to fight or Nico was going to stay quiet and hold her like he usually did. The rest of the night was kind of heavy but they managed to have a good time once Thalia and Nico reappeared at the Ferris Wheel.
Jason walked Piper to her door and hugged her before biding her goodnight, "I'll see you tomorrow."
Piper nodded, "Of course."
"The fireworks are tomorrow." Jason smiled.
"Right, so is the dance." Piper smiled.
"Are you going to the dance?" Jason asked her curiously.
"Of course I am. It's one of the best things about the Festival." Piper grinned. That's when the porchlight illuminated the dark porch and Hedge stuck his head out.
"That's long enough cupcakes."
Piper rolled her eyes and hugged Jason once more, "I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight Jason."
"Night Piper." Jason smiled as she walked into the house. She was getting closer and closer to the old Piper that Jason was beginning to become hopeful. It made him happy to think that she was returning to the way she used to be.
The next morning Piper woke up and started to prepare things for the huge Fourth of July BBQ that she and her friends were going to have. She started on her famous Loaded Baked Potato Salad, Greek Pasta Salad, and a few other things. She made sure that she started the Jell-o in four different flavors. Then there was a knock on the door. She had a ton of fun at the dance and the fireworks that they always hold the night before the Fourth. So Piper agreed to hold a BBQ at her house and everyone was bringing something to contribute to the feast.
So when Piper heard the doorbell she was hoping to find Jason who she had a blast with at the dance, however when she answered the door she found and puffy eyed Thalia. Piper's heart broke seeing Thalia like that considering that Thalia was pretty good at masking emotions.
"Can I talk to you?" Thalia asked.
"Of course you can." Piper smiled and stepped aside so Thalia could walk in. She led Thalia to the living room and motioned for her to sit on the couch next to her.
"What's wrong?" Piper asked placing her hand on Thalia's shoulder.
"I think Nico and I broke up." Thalia sniffled.
Piper remembered her saying that today was their anniversary, "Tell me everything...or would you rather not talk about it?"
Thalia shook her head, "I'm trying to make sense of the whole thing myself. We started fighting about Luke and then he accused me of still having feelings for him and it turned into a yelling match. It was terrible and I can't even make odds or ends of it."
Piper hugged Thalia tightly, "Did either of you actually call it off?"
"That's what I'm confused about because he stormed out and told me not to call him or text him." Thalia shook her head, "I don't want it to be over Piper, I love him."
"I know Thalia, we're going to fix this. However you need to calm down a little bit." Piper said.
Thalia nodded, "Do you mind if I stick around here?"
Piper shook her head, "Of course not, do you want to help me in the kitchen?"
Thalia nodded and wiped away some of her tears, "Sure, what are we doing?"
"I need some help making some of the dips and what not." Piper smiled as she and Thalia walked into the kitchen.
Piper and Thalia set to work making dips and pouring chips into bowls and drinks into glasses. They got the deck set up and made sure that the pool was perfect and the decorations were ready. Thalia was surprisingly good in the kitchen.
"Who is supposed to grill the hot dogs and burgers?" Thalia asked.
"Leo said he would grill when he got here." Piper replied.
"So you and Jason huh?" Thalia asked.
Piper shook her head, "No, we're just friends."
"You guys look cute together." Thalia smiled, "You make him happy."
"He makes me happy, but we're not dating." Piper said.
"You guys should date." Thalia smiled as she straightened some of the pillows on the couch in one of the cabanas.
Piper just smiled and continued her work. She was used to people telling her that she and Jason needed to date but now that his sister was saying it, Piper didn't know how exactly to react. She heard the doorbell and went to go get it. Thalia stayed out and continued to straighten things and make sure everything was ready. She opened the door to find Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Calypso, and Nico.
"Um, everything's out on the deck. I think Thalia's started the grill." Piper said. She noticed conflicting emotions flash across Nico's face when he heard the name. However everyone headed out to the deck except for Jason who stayed and helped Piper get a few things out and then Frank, Hazel, Rachel, Grover, and Juniper got there.
"How long has Thalia been here?" Jason asked.
"About three or four hours." Piper replied, "She wanted to talk to me."
"I know, I told her to come here." Jason smiled.
Piper shoved Jason playfully, "She was a huge help in the kitchen."
"She usually is." Jason smiled.
The BBQ was kicked off and they were having tons of fun. It was something Piper loved to do, she loved entertaining and the past couple years she hasn't been able to because everyone voted that the BBQ should be held at Percy's. The fireworks were successful and they were having so much more fun than they used to, or maybe that's because Piper had started to change her attitude towards hanging out with her friends.
She and Jason were sitting out by the pond in the dual swings, she could see all of her friends having fun in the pool, "This is so much fun."
"We should do this more often." Jason smiled.
"I've missed entertaining." Piper said.
"You always throw the best parties." Jason grinned. He had noticed that the nose stud had finally come out and she had gone back to wearing no makeup. Before Jason could think about what he was doing he leaned forward and brushed his lips against Piper's.
Piper scooted closer to him wrapped her arms around his neck. Jason smiled into the kiss and soon it was time for the two of them to need air.
Piper looked at him and smiled, "Finally."
"Finally." Jason chuckled. Piper had waited for ages for him to kiss and she thought that they were going to the night they were dancing in the rain. She had wanted to kiss him so badly that it had been ridiculous. She pulled him in for another kiss and then they heard footsteps.
They looked out to find Thalia and Nico arguing. Piper decided that they were going to get the pair back together at the ball at the end of the next week and she got Jason on board with the idea. She was finding herself again and Jason would do anything to keep her on that track.