"No Annabeth, we're not going to think about them. We're going to enjoy ourselves and that's that," Annabeth thought to herself. She waved to her friends as she walked past the café window. A small bell chimed as she entered the store and she sighed with relief as the air-conditioned room fought off the raging July heat. She strode purposefully as always towards the familiar booth as Hazel stood up.

"Happy birthday Annabeth!" she cried as she wrapped the blonde up in a hug, though it felt a little stiffer than usual. Their other friends all chorused the greeting and Annabeth couldn't help but smile.

"I'm getting soft," thought Annabeth as she returned the gesture, "a year ago I would never have even dreamed of hugging someone." The thought made her happy. She still had her tough exterior, and there wasn't anyone in her grade she couldn't judo flip, but she had to admit, letting Hazel into her life and innermost thoughts was one of the greatest decisions of her life. Besides, trying to say no to a Hazel and her big, golden eyes was like trying to say no to a puppy.

"At least she's not as bad as a baby seal," she mumbled.

"What?" Jason said with a quizzical smile.

Annabeth waved him away and tried to hide her blush, "Nothing Jase, thinking aloud apparently."

"ADHD sure is fun isn't it?" he said with a laugh.

"That's one way of putting it," she huffed. "Now, give me my free birthday milkshake Superman."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever Chase," he smiled fondly as he slid the drink he'd ordered whilst they waited for her to arrive across the table to her.

"So, what did you get for your birthday Annabeth?" asked Gwen.

Annabeth looked down at her lap and hesitated, "Um-"

"It doesn't matter what she got," said Jason with a glance in her direction, "what we got you is so much better. Especially mine."

"No way Grace. Your gift will be the first one in the trash when she sees mine," said Reyna, going along with Jason's change in subject. Annabeth was grateful for that. They all had strained relationships with their parents, which she believed was a major factor in why they had bonded together so easily.

"Open mine first," said Dakota, handing her a gift wrapped unevenly in red paper. His hand shook as he took it back and he reached for his glass of Kool-Aid to take a sip. Whilst he may have been the least close to her, she still worried about his reliance on the drink.

His gift was a simple box of chocolates, but Annabeth appreciated it nonetheless. Gwen's present was next – a tourist t-shirt from the Hoover Dam with a collection of facts about it displayed across the front and back. "I got it when I went there in April. It was a dam pain trying to find your size." Gwen looked to her friends around the table, hoping for a reaction to her joke.

Jason winced and patted her hand, "Gwen, we love you, but that was bad."

"Yeah puns definitely aren't your thing hun," said Hazel.

"Plus the delivery was a little off," continued Reyna.

"Maybe try a New Yorker accent, I feel like New Yorkers could make dam puns work," Dakota added.

"You know, I can see that," said Jason. The table all chorused their agreement except Gwen, who stared at them as if they'd all gone mad.

"Is no one going to question why he thinks a New Yorker could make dam puns but I can't?" she cried.

"No," said Annabeth, "it just makes perfect sense."

Dakota snorted and the façade was broken. The friends all laughed loudly, ignoring the dirty looks they received from three elderly ladies knitting on the other side of the room.

"My present next," said Reyna as she handed Annabeth a precisely wrapped gift, with all the stripes of the paper lined up perfectly. When Dakota noticed the wrapping, he groaned and pulled out a twenty dollar note and slapped it in Jason's outstretched hand.

"I bet Dakota that if you used lined paper, not a single line would be out of place by even a millimetre," he announced in reply to Reyna's raised eyebrow.

Gwen hit Dakota across the back of the head, "How dumb can you get?"

"Ow! No one can get all the lines perfect, that's just not possible!"

"It's Reyna! Anything's possible with her!"

"Can you just open the present please? They won't stop until you do," sighed Reyna.

Annabeth nodded and began meticulously pulling apart the wrapping paper to reveal a large book titled Architecture: Form, Space and Order.

"You're always taking that book out of the library, I thought maybe you'd like your own copy," Reyna stated simply. Annabeth stared at her in amazement. Whilst her passion for architecture mightn't be a secret, she knew her friends had no care for it and therefore assumed they took no notice.

Jason smirked, "It might be the most boring topic on Earth, but it matters to you, so we take notice."

"Thanks you guys," Annabeth said softly, looking from Reyna to Jason.

"Any time Chase," said Jason, whilst Reyna simply nodded.

Annabeth smiled before continuing, "So who's next?"

"Subtle Annabeth, subtle," Jason said grinned.

"Leave her alone Jason, there was obviously too much emotion going on here," said Dakoda.

Annabeth kicked him from under the table, "Shut up Dakoda. We had our moment, it was time to move on. There's nothing wrong with that." She made sure to add in a glare as she said this.

"O-of course, yes, quite right. Continue. Jason, it's your turn, right?" pleaded Dakoda.

"No way, Hazel you better go. I don't want you to be embarrassed by following up my gift," Jason replied, puffing his chest out as far as possible to make sure she knew he was joking.

Annabeth noticed Reyna smirking and she looked at her suspiciously. "She knows something," she thought to herself.

"Um, alright then," the Hazel mumbled, pulling out a wrapped cylinder. As Annabeth unwrapped it, she continued, "I'm sorry it's not much, I d-don't exactly have any money so I couldn't get much and I know that's not fair on you because the other's were able to buy you really great gifts but it's just not really possible with my mum and –" her ramblings were stopped by a hand placed on top of her own tightly wrung fingers. She followed the arm up to see Annabeth smiling calmly at her.

"Hey, it's okay Hazel. I'm sure whatever it is, I'll love it. The fact that you even got me something and that you're here with me is more than enough." She tried to ignore the pervasive thoughts reminding her of who hadn't gotten her anything and who wasn't there.

Hazel flushed, "Um, okay then. Still, I'm sorry."

"Hazel it's okay, you don't need to apologise, you've done nothing wrong." Annabeth made sure to word her sentence correctly. They'd all noticed Hazel's tendency to apologise a lot, as if she was scared of doing the wrong thing or disappointing someone all the time. It'd taken them a while, but they figured out that Hazel responded better if she was told there was no need to apologise and that she'd done nothing wrong, rather than simply telling her to stop being sorry or 'don't say sorry'. Annabeth wasn't really sure whether it was just a quirk of Hazel or if something was causing it, but she'd made sure to be careful when Reyna discussed it with them once she'd noticed it.

"Okay then, if you're sure…" the younger girl said, still displaying a distinct lack of confidence.

"Positive. Now let's see what we've got here." Annabeth pulled the last of the paper off to reveal a poster tube. She pulled one of the ends off and withdrew a piece of A3 paper rolled up. She leaned the tube against her chair and unrolled it to produce a drawing of the New York skyline. Annabeth was dumbfounded. Whilst she could pick out small imperfections thanks to years of studying it through her love of architecture, it was still a magnificent piece of artwork. The more she looked, the more she was amazed. Then, she noticed an obvious difference between this picture and the real thing. She turned to Hazel, "Did you draw this?"

The girl blushed deeply, "Um, yeah, kinda. Reyna helped me get the pictures of the skyline and your building and stuff. It's not really drawing, more like copying and –"

"Why did you add in my design?" she cut her off. Annabeth didn't mean for it to come out like it did, she was in shock, for in addition to the New York skyline was obviously one of her buildings she'd designed in her architecture sketchbook. Hazel had created her dream on the page with a few masterful strokes of a pencil.

Hazel looked panicked and she squeezed her hands tightly together, "I thought… I thought I could draw it into the skyline for you because you always say that one day you're going to have one of your buildings in New York and it's going to last 1000 years and so I thought maybe you'd like to see what that'd be like so you could have something to strive for… I'm sorry, it was stupid, I shouldn't have done it, I'll just get rid of –" Hazel reached for the picture, tears building in her eyes, but Annabeth stopped her with a hug. All the faces on the table matched the shock Annabeth felt; she never initiated hugs, but this was the only way she could express how she was feeling.

"I love it, thank you," she whispered into Hazel's ear, voice thick with emotion. She pulled away and stared at the picture again.

"Well, don't be selfish! Share with the class," said Gwen, and the blonde proudly turned the artwork for the others to see. They all gushed over the thoughtful gift and Hazel beamed with pride.

"Are you sure it's okay?" she asked Annabeth.

"It's more than I could have ever dreamed of," she replied enthusiastically, and the African-American breathed a sigh of relief, seemingly relaxing for the first time since Annabeth had arrived.

"Okay Jason, let's see this present that's going to blow all of ours out the water," Reyna said smugly.

Jason's face fell, "I didn't say everyone's!"

"Just Hazel's, wasn't it?" added Annabeth innocently.

"And I do believe Annabeth said hers was more than she could dream of. That's a tough thing to beat Jason," Gwen continued.

"Produce the goods Grace," Hazel said nervously. Gwen and Dakoda whooped loudly and Reyna and Annabeth both chuckled. Jason stared at Hazel with disbelief.

"Little Hazel is finally joining in with the banter! Annabeth why didn't you have your birthday earlier? This is the greatest day of my life!" howled Dakoda. "Little Hazel, shutting up Jason Grace, I never thought I'd see the day."

The whole table laughed at this, and Jason shook his head in disbelief. "I guess I deserved that, didn't I?" he said with a breathy laugh.

"Definitely," replied Annabeth and Reyna in sync.

"Well unfortunately I'm no Picasso, so you'll just have to make do with this." He handed a gift to Annabeth, which she promptly unwrapped to find another book and a small box. She looked at the book first, which was a guide to learning both Ancient and Modern Greek. "We know you've got a love for Greek architecture, so I figured you're going to want to go to Greece at some stage in your life to drool over the pretty buildings or whatever. This means you don't have to rely on English to get you through. Plus it has a download link to the audiobook, so you don't have to put up with your dyslexia if you don't want to."

Annabeth was once again amazed at the observation skills of her friends. She'd always been good at reading people, but she never thought she'd be this open to others. She wasn't sure whether to feel grateful or vulnerable. "Thank you Jason, that's perfect. Not quite Hazel's picture perfect, but pretty close," she said cheekily, trying to cover up some of the emotion she was feeling with a joke.

"No worries Annabeth," he replied, "now open the next one."

"I wonder what this could be," she said sarcastically.

"Wait, you know what your present is?" said Hazel.

"I don't know exactly, but I know it's a clay bead with some sort of intricate pattern carved into it."

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"It was something we've done since we were seven. Annabeth ran away from home and was missing for a few days. The police found her and brought her home, but I remember feeling so scared that I was going to lose my best friend and that she'd forget who I was," said Jason sombrely. "So I bought her a necklace with a clay bead saying best friends on it, so she knew that if she ever left again, she'd always have me as her best friend. Every year since then, I've added a new bead to it, with some sort of engraving to represent the last twelve months of our friendship."

"That's officially the most adorable story I've ever heard!" Hazel gushed, "How have I never seen this?"

"Octavian broke it once in fifth grade, and since then I've been too scared to wear it anywhere in case it broke again and I lost a bead," answered Annabeth. "So I hang it up on the head of my bed."

"Why is it that whenever something is ruined, Octavian is always involved," noted Gwen dryly.

"It truly is a mystery," Dakoda added sarcastically.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at their antics, before lifting the lid off the box to reveal the bead. The face Annabeth could see looked like grass with a rainbow running through it. She raised an eyebrow to Jason.

"Look I know you don't like it, but you have a soulmate now. This is to commemorate that," he said uncomfortably.

Annabeth couldn't hide her disappointment. "Thanks, Jason," she said dejectedly, "but why rainbow grass?"

"It's seaweed, since you called him Seaweed Brain. And rainbow for the different colours you dyed each other's hair."

"Him?"

"Them! Them, sorry," Jason yelled, eyes wide like a deer in headlights, Annabeth eyed him carefully. "Flip the bead over," he continued quickly.

She did as she was told. On the opposite side to the engraved side was a second symbol, this one a simple letter H in gold. Annabeth smiled, this was more like it. "A gold H for Hazel I assume? I can't help but notice it's the same colour as her eyes."

"What?" Hazel squeaked, blushing profusely. "Why am I on the bead?"

"You're the most important thing to happen to our group this year Hazel. And that's including Annabeth's soulmate. 'Cause let's face it, at least we still talk to you," he added this last note with a cheeky grin, and Annabeth just scowled at him. Whilst it was never officially stated, the group knew better than to mention Annabeth's soulmate. It had been months since they gave up trying to contact Annabeth, something she was very grateful for. Though she still woke up with coloured hair once every few weeks, and she can't be certain whether they like to change their hair colour or if it was done out of spite. She couldn't blame them either way.

"But…"

"No buts Hazel, Jason's right. I was expecting to see something about you on here."

"I think I'm gonna cry," sniffed Hazel.

"Great job Jason, you've upset Hazel. How dare you!" cried Gwen, hugging Hazel close and putting herself between Jason and the sniffling girl.

"I di-"

"I said how dare you!" Gwen cut him off. Jason just shook his head.

"I really love you guys, you know that right?" said Hazel.

"Oh geez, now you're gonna make me cry," laughed Gwen. "We love you too sweetie." The others nodded in agreement.

"I think this is my favourite bead so far Jason. It commemorates the good and the bad of this past year. Thank you," said Annabeth, a lot more sincerely than her first expression of gratitude. "But who did you get this made by? It looks different to the previous ones."

"Do you remember Leo Valdez?"

"Scrawny little elf boy? Lived in the orphanage didn't he?"

"That's the one. Well you know how I was pretty tight with him?" Annabeth nodded. "Well we kept in touch ever since he moved to Indianapolis. He has two mums now and a sister, lovely family apparently. And a workshop as well so he's in heaven. But that's beside the point. Anyway, I was talking to him about the bead thing, trying to brainstorm ideas and he designed it. Said he could make it with the help of his mum and mailed it to me afterwards."

"Wow… to think Valdez made that. I'm impressed," commented Reyna.

"He might be a total goof sometimes, but that boy was always smarter than all of us. Present company excluded of course," he added quickly, pointing to Annabeth. "Plus he was a wizard with his hands."

"You experience that Grace? Learned how good those hands were?" Dakota said with a sly smirk.

"Oh gosh," said Hazel, fanning her face as she flushed with embarrassment. "Dakota!"

"Hazel's going to get whiplash with all the emotions she's gone through today," joked Gwen.

"Maybe we should head off before it get's any worse?" said Annabeth.

"Oh gods," moaned Dakota. "I forgot we have to do whatever Annabeth says for the rest of the day. I don't know if I can last through another tour of architectural history of the city."

"Rules are rules Grace. She's the birthday girl, what she says goes," said Reyna.

"I knowwwwww. But we made that rule close to my birthday, it made perfect sense then."

"We have to make a stop before we begin the day," said Annabeth.

"Where to milady?" said Jason, standing and offering her a hand.

Annabeth brushed it off and stop up by herself. "Dork," she deadpanned. "I have a shop I need to visit first."

"Please Zeus, take mercy on me. Strike me where I stand," Dakota muttered. Gwen grabbed him by the ear.

"Come on you, shut up and put up with it," she said.

"Exactly. Now come on, you're on gift carrying duties for your whining," said Annabeth, before walking away.

The six friends exited the café, Annabeth striding purposefully in the lead. They walked the four blocks until they reached a small store they'd never been to before.

"Underglass Custom Picture Framing?" questioned Jason.

"You don't think I'm going to let anything happen to Hazel's picture do you? I'm hanging that on my wall so it needs to be protected and look pretty too. Come on, you're buying." Annabeth didn't like to abuse Jason's easy access to money like he did, but this was a special occasion.

"Annabeth, you don't have to do that. It's not that good," said Hazel.

"Of course I do. I want that picture to last forever. Besides, I'm not doing it, Jason is. Now come on! Time's a-wasting and I still have an architecture tour to take you guys on." With that, she entered the store without waiting for her friends.

"You know, something tells me she liked the gift Haze," said Dakota. The group all laughed, and Hazel wiped away a few tears.

"Yeah, I guess she did," she said.

#

"I guess this is your life now Percy," he said to the mirror, "just suck it up. Don't ruin Piper's day. You've got this." He let out a deep sigh before turning off the tap and walking back to the lounge room.

Piper lifted the blanket she was currently curled under without taking her eyes off the tv so he could slide underneath it with her. They were having a movie marathon day and Percy knew she was excited to be spending a whole day (and no doubt the night) at their house, something she'd sorely missed in previous summers. She slowly chewed her cookie, completely enraptured by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban despite how many times she'd watched the movie. Personally, Percy wasn't a super fan of the series, but watching her silently mouth the words subconsciously always made him feel happy, so he never argued too much when she suggested it. Besides, it was Piper's turn to pick the marathon theme anyway. He snuggled in close to her and stole the cookie she was raising to her mouth.

"Hey! That was mine!"

"And I thank you for your donation," he replied cheekily. Piper just rolled her eyes at him and grabbed another from the plate. "What do you think Jason would think about this Pipes?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, us cuddling under a blanket, having a movie date and all that jazz. Do you think he'd be jealous?"

"Maybe a little. I think he'd be more jealous of the fact that he doesn't have the chance to be here, you know? Like he wouldn't be jealous of you in the sense of 'he's making a move', more jealous of 'he gets a chance to spend time with her and I don't', you know what I mean? Jason's just a big baby."

"You ever tell him that?"

"Of course I do! Gotta make sure he knows who's boss, just like you," she said with a smile and a nudge of her shoulder.

"Excuse you, you're not the boss! Obviously I'm the main character here," he said indignantly.

"Hey, could you please get me a drink?"

"Sure thing, do you want another glass of juice or – hey! That doesn't count! You're just taking advantage of my manners!"

"What can I say, Mama Jackson raised a great slave."

"You're not a guest anymore Piper, you're family. That means I don't have to get anything for you so ner!"

Piper watched him for a few seconds, "You're still gonna get it, aren't you?" she said with a laugh.

"It's just so rude if you don't!" Percy whined as he plodded to the kitchen to fill her glass. He grabbed a bag of Doritos whilst he was there and threw them across the kitchen bench to Piper, hitting her in the shoulder.

She yelped before realising what was going on, "Oh, thanks babe."

"No worries sweetheart!" he yelled back and then he started sobbing. Piper looked up in shock before sprinting to her best friend's side and hugging him tightly.

"Hey hey hey, what's wrong Perce?" she asked.

"Nothing, nothing's wrong. These are happy tears," he muttered angrily.

"That doesn't sound happy," she said worriedly, bending down to look him in the eyes. "Should I get Sally?"

"No! No, it's okay. Look, everything's fine. I'm not crying at all now, see?" He was right, as quickly as he had started, he'd stopped his crying.

"What? Percy, what's wrong?"

"Piper, it's nothing, I'm fine. I promise."

"Percy, that was not someone who's fine."

"I'm fine Piper!" he yelled, and Piper flinched back in surprise. Percy felt awful, he never yelled at his friends, especially not Piper.

"Kids, is everything okay out there?" called Sally worriedly from her room.

Percy quickly responded before Piper could, "Everything's fine Mum, just a joke that went a little too far! Go back to your studying!"

"You be nice to my daughter Percy, don't make me come out there!"

Piper and Percy both smiled at this despite themselves.

"Yes Mum!" he yelled back, before looking seriously at Piper. "It's my soulmate," he said quietly.

"What about them? Are you still hurting about how things ended, or is this something else?"

"It's something else. I mean yeah I'm still hurting, but that doesn't have anything to do with this. Well it does, but it doesn't. Does that make sense?"

"Since I have no idea what you're talking about, no," she said with a small laugh. "Come on," she grabbed his hand and pulled him back to the couch, "talk to me Perce."

They snuggled under the blanket again and Percy pushed himself tightly into her side. She held his hand and lightly rubbed her thumb against his to comfort him.

"I sometimes feel things from my soulmate. Usually it's a feeling or an emotion or something, but not always. I might feel the brush of a shoulder or a hand running through my hair. That's always the strongest, anything to do with hair. But anyway, before, obviously my something made my soulmate so happy they wanted to cry."

"Oh my gods Percy, I'm so sorry," Piper whispered quietly.

"I wouldn't care if they were just a regular soulmate, you know? But it's so frustrating when I just want to punch Grover in the face for five seconds when he hasn't done anything, just because of some stupid person who doesn't even want to talk to me!"

"Is that why you were so happy when Dodds set that pop quiz?"

"Exactly, do you know how embarrassing it is to cheer for that?"

"Dude, I was embarrassed to know you."

Percy smiled a little and huffed some air to make a small laugh.

"Why don't we put on Finding Nemo?" Piper continued.

"What? No Piper. It's your turn to pick the movies. It's okay, I'm okay."

"Well I pick Finding Nemo," she said with a challenging glint in her eyes.

Percy rolled his own, "Thank you, but that's not necessary Piper. I'm seriously okay. This is your movie day, we'll watch your stupid movies.

"I'm going to ignore that you said that because you're obviously an emotional wreck right now."

"Oh shut up dork. I'm going to explain what happened to Mum."

"She knows?"

"Yeah."

"What about Grover?"

"Not yet, it's a bit hard when all he wants to talk about is camp and Juniper."

"Ugh I know! How did he get so lucky to actually meet his soulmate when before he's fourteen! That's like a 1 in a million chance! I'm so jealous."

"You're jealous?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry Percy, I didn't even think."

Percy laughed, "It's fine Piper. You can say stuff like that. I know my situation sucks, but you don't have to change for me alright?"

"But –"

"Alright?"

"Alright Perce."

"Thank you. Now you keep my spot warm, I'll be back in a minute."

"No promises."

"Love you too!" He padded his way to his mother's room, lightly rapping his knuckles on her door.

"Come in," she said sweetly.

"Hey Mum," Percy said quietly.

Sally looked up from the textbook she was reading for her online writing classes she'd just started, "So Piper knows?"

"Yeah, she does."

Sally placed her book down and patted her bed next to her, "Come here baby." He sat down and she put her arms around him, where he huddled into his mother's warm embrace. "Would you like my laptop?"

"Not if you need it for your homework."

"This is a little more important than homework. Besides, I'll just write down what readings I need to do, then I can get started on that bathroom of ours. It's well overdue for a clean."

"Are you sure? I don't want you to not get your homework done."

"Why is homework so important when I do it, but when I tell you to get yours done you'll find every excuse under the sun to avoid it? Hmmmmm," she looked at him pointedly.

"Obviously because it's yours and you're the most important thing in my life."

"Yeah alright, very smooth there Casanova. Just take the laptop and get back out to Piper. Your friend is over and you're hiding in your mother's room. Do you know how wrong that is?"

Percy rolled his eyes and gave her a peck on the cheek, "Thanks Mum."

"Any time sweetie, now scram! Mama's got to read about the definition of a short story here."

Percy jumped down from the bed and grabbed her computer, walking towards the door. "You could always get me my own laptop, then I wouldn't need to steal yours," he said innocently.

"You could also start cleaning your room more often," she said, peering at him over her glasses.

"You know, one laptop is fine. No need to spend unnecessary amounts of money," he replied as if this was the single greatest idea he'd ever come up with.

"That's what I thought," Percy heard her mutter as he shut her door. He made his way back to the couch, once again making himself comfortable under the covers with Piper. She looked across at him.

"What do you have that out for? Percy we're meant to be having a movie day together!" she whined.

"I know, and I promise I'll give you my full attention in a minute, but there's something that I need to do first."

"Oh?" she asked.

Percy launched the web browser and clicked on a bookmark, launching a now familiar webpage.

"Soul Mates?" asked Piper, looking over his shoulder.

"Yeah, it's a great website. It has a few features. Some people come here looking for their soulmate, some need advice and others just need to vent. There are forums for people to post cute stuff or sad stories or anything like that."

"Oh that's cool! Why isn't that advertised to us at school, that would be amazing for so many people to find their soulmate."

"Piper, you know searching isn't allowed," Percy muttered.

"I mean, it's not not allowed, it's just frowned upon," she pointed out.

"I mean… I guess… still, I think that's the main reason. Plus there are people who have taken advantage of kids looking for soulmates. There's a whole article about it they make you read before you sign up."

"That's awful! Why are you – 'I did my waiting! Twelve years of it! In Azkaban!' – sorry, that quote never gets old. But why are you on there?"

"You really need to work on your accents there Piper. But I was looking for a place to just… let all my feelings go about my soulmate. And so I ended up here. I posted my story and I got some replies on it which weren't very helpful."

"Why didn't you come to me?"

"It was right around the time your dad started that new movie, so you weren't exactly in the greatest state of mind. Plus I was hoping to maybe get in touch with someone who… understood, I guess, what it feels like. To be rejected by your soulmate, you know?"

"I guess, but still. You can always come to me Percy, you know that right? You don't have to shut me out again."

Percy gazed softly at the girl next to him. He could see the underlying fear in her posture, the way she fidgeted with her hands and licked her lips. He could hear, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, how she was legitimately scared.

"Don't worry Piper, I'm not gonna shut you out again, you're stuck with me from now on, no matter what." He watched her shoulders slump slightly in relief.

"Good. If I only had Grover I'd never have any fun! Don't do that Piper, be the better person Piper, fire hurts people Piper. Bah, can you imagine that? I might actually do my homework if I was stuck alone with him forever."

Percy decided not to mention what he noticed and let her joke away the intensity of the conversation. "Anyway, this guy messaged me about it privately and we just started chatting." He clicked on his messages and opened up the chat log with the user Beckendorf9. He began typing out what had happened that day.

"Does this," Piper took a few seconds to work out what was written on the screen with her dyslexia, "Beckendorf?" she peered at Percy for confirmation that she'd go it right and he nodded. "Only talk to you about soulmate stuff?"

"Nah we've become pretty good friends outside of that. He lives in San Francisco and loves basketball too so we talk about it a lot. Apparently his soulmate can be pretty full on sometimes so he comes to me to talk about that too. Turns out I'm the first person he's tried to help who actually asked him about himself. He's pretty cool to chat to."

"Awwww, Percy has a crush," cooed Piper.

"You know, that's what Beck's soulmate said to him about me. Maybe you two are related?"

"Yeah okay, you caught me, I'm secretly sisters with your crushes soulmate."

"Stranger things have happened," Percy said cryptically.

"Oh whatever, just write your stupid love letter."

Percy just rolled his eyes and finished typing the message. He didn't think Beckendorf would be on, he'd be working at the workshop by now. He'd have to check back later to see if he replied after work. He closed the laptop and took it back to his mother's room, before poking his head into the bathroom to tell her he was done with it.

"Thanks for that Mum."

"Are you done with the laptop?" Sally asked.

"Yeah, Beck's at work so he won't reply for a while."

"Could you bring it into here for me, this cleaning business is boring without some good music to listen to."

"Sure thing." He ran back to grab the laptop and booted it up once more and leaving it sitting next to the hand basin for his mum to use when she was ready. As he sat back down on the couch, his best friend mouthing the words to the last scene of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and his mother singing a duet with Led Zepplin, he decided that today might actually be a good day.

#

So I have to apologise for the fact that this a lot of words but doesn't really achieve much except be a fluffy filler chapter, but it was pretty fun to write, especially the little inside jokes from the fandom. The next chapter will start to drive the plot a little more hopefully, this was just here to set up a few things that are to come. I've got to give a huge shout out to all the reviewers, especially to procrastinatingmuchroomfangirl for the fun little quote from my story and Maddie Chapman because I think "I've been hit… repeatedly… with a telephone pole" is the single greatest compliment I've ever received about my writing XD. The next chapter is planned but with 7 assignments due in 3 weeks for uni it probably won't be for a month sorry :/