Beginning Notes

Love how I suddenly got inspiration to write again just after I said I'll be taking a break lol. But yeah, my test week is over and I hope to be able to keep up with my homework so I can update this as often as possible :)

Anyways! This one is for alltheglowingeyes who suggested I write a backstory on what happened with Reyna, Will and Nico during the preparations for Percy's bday party. So yeah, if you've forgotten what happened, you can go back to chapter 21, or just dive into the chaos. You should be fine either way lol. Now, enough talking, let's get into it! Characters belong to Rick Riordan, hope you enjoy.

Will

'Okay, so, I got Sally to give me the recipes for some of Percy's favourite snacks. Will, Reyna, Nico, you guys can take care of that, right?'

That's where it had all started: Annabeth had decided to organise a surprise party for Percy's birthday that day, and Will had gotten assigned the task of preparing the snacks together with Reyna and Nico. After everyone else knew what they had to do, the three of them made their way to the Big House and got out the recipes.

'Okay, so we have 5 recipes here and Annabeth said we can make all of them if we have the time, but three of them should be enough,' Reyna explained.

Will nodded. 'Mmm, so which ones do we definitively want to make?'

'Well, Percy will probably kill us if we don't make any blue cookies, so I say we do those at the least,' Nico said while looking through the recipes for the one on Sally's famous blue cookies.

'Good idea, any else?' Will asked.

'Hmm, let's see... We have the seven-layer dip, blue apple muffins, pastries with blue filling, blue cake- oh, I've had this a few years ago! Anyway, those four recipes and the one for blue cookies.'

'Alright,' Reyna said, 'I say we do the cake too, because it isn't a birthday without cake, right?'

The two boys agreed and she then continued:

'And the seven layer dip sounds great, but to be honest it also sounds quite complex and I'm not that good at cooking.'

Will hummed, thinking about which of the last two options would be better.

'How about we do the muffins too then, and the pastries if there's time left,' he suggested.

Nico and Reyna looked at each other and slowly nodded.

'Seems like plan!'

While Nico got the ingredients ready and Reyna got the supplies, Will started reading the recipes. The cake would take the longest in the oven, so he told the others to start with that one.

They followed the recipe step by step, and everything went pretty smoothly. Before they knew it, the cake was in the oven and they were already busy working on the muffins.

Will and Reyna had decided to peel and dice the apples while Nico made the batter, and Will thought they made a pretty good team if you'd ask him.

'Oi! Hands of the apples, we need them for the muffins!' Reyna scolded when Nico's hands reached over to grab a piece of apple for the probably millionth time.

Will laughed and rolled his eyes. 'Oh, it's just one piece, Reyna, don't worry about it too much,' he said as he continued cutting up the last apple.

'Oh no, don't you go simping for your boyfriend, he's been stealing pieces this whole time, so much that he'll have basically eaten a whole apple by now!'

Nico simply shrugged. 'Apple a day keeps the doctor away.'

'Hey!'

As the two of them started arguing over whether or not Nico should be eating fruit just to keep Will away from him, Will could see Reyna roll her eyes and add the apples to the batter.

'Be grateful I'm eating some fruit, Solace!'

'But you're only doing it because you don't want me around,' Will said, pouting.

'Well would you rather I not eat any fruit then?'

'I never said that!'

'But you're implying it.'

'Because I like being around you, so stop eating apples. Have some strawberries or something.'

'But what if I like apples?'

'ENOUGH YOU TWO!' Reyna exclaimed. 'I swear, how can you two argue over apples for so damn long?'

Will immediately pointed at his boyfriend. 'He started it.'

Nico just stuck his tongue out at Will and Reyna rolled her eyes again.

'I don't really feel like third wheeling so help me with these muffins instead, yeah?'

'Yes mother,' Nico said flatly, making Will snort.

The muffins were ready to go and the cake was almost done, so they quickly made some blue chocolate frosting to go on the cake while it baked for the last few minutes. Reyna jokingly smeared some melted chocolate on Will's cheek, but swiftly added the rest to the frosting mix before Will could get revenge on her. Nico laughed at him, and Will then decided to leave the chocolate on his face out of pure pettiness.

'You know, we're actually not doing that bad,' Will said after they'd taken the cake out to cool and put the muffins in the oven. He actually felt kind of proud of them for not messing up anything yet.

'Yeah, we should open a bakery together now,' Reyna joked.

Nico hummed. 'I'm willing to bed my left kidney that you just jinxed us, Will,' he said while they got everything for the cookies ready.

Will shook his head. How could they mess up now? The cookies were the easiest to make out of all the five recipes they'd gotten. 'Don't be so negative Death Boy, we're gonna nail these cookies!'

'Whatever you say.'

Reyna nudged her shoulder against Nico's. 'Will's right, these cookies will be done in a few minutes too, don't worry.'

The younger boy rolled his eyes, but Will could see a hint of a smile on his lips.

'Now,' Reyna said as she finished weighing the flour, 'put the flour back in the left cabinet, will you?'

She held the bag of flour out to Nico and looked at the recipe to read the next step. Suddenly everything seemed to go in slow-motion as Will watched the disaster unfold;

Nico was about to take the bag of flour from her, but Reyna had let go of it already. The bag slipped through Nico's hands and landed on the floor with a big crash, sending flour everywhere as it exploded.

'What the-' Reyna said turning around. 'Nico, I thought you had it!'

'Well I didn't!' he protested, now covered in flour from hear to toe as most of it had landed on him.

Will couldn't help but laugh at the scene.

'Hey! Stop laughing, you brat! You're the one who jinxed us!' Nico yelled angrily at him, but even then Will couldn't hold in his laugh.

He only stopped when the son of Hades walked over to him and hugged him, covering him in flour too. Nico then shook his head, sending flour flying everywhere again.

'Gah! What was that for?'

'For laughing at me.'

'Sorry, but it was just too funny!' Will said, trying to defend himself even though he knew Nico wouldn't appreciate that answer.

'Reyna! This is your fault!' he whined, as he tried getting the flour off himself.

'Not it's not!'

'Well, it's not my fault!'

Shrugging, Reyna replied: 'Then it's Will's fault.'

'I- I didn't even do anything,' Will stuttered, confused at the sudden accusation.

'You jinxed us,' Nico said, 'I told you.'

Reyna nodded but Will rolled his eyes. 'Whatever, let's just finish these cookies,' he said.

And so they did.

After that they frosted the cake since it had cooled down, and then as if perfectly timed, the oven beeped, signaling that the muffins were ready. Reyna carefully took them out, and Will then put the tray of cookies in the oven. But before he closed the oven, he quickly took one of the cookies.

'Hey, Reyna,' he said after closing the oven and turning the timer on.

'Hm?' she hummed.

When she turned around to look at him Will reached over and smeared the cookie dough he'd stolen from the tray into her hair.

'You still get that one back from the chocolate,' he said, smiling.

'Oh, you smooth little bitch, I'd forgotten all about that,' she answered.

'Anyways, do you think we still have time to make the pastries?' Will asked, swiftly changing the subject before the praetor could kill him.

Nico snorted, and Will guessed he might have not been so swift after all, but he ignored the other boy.

'Well, what time is it?' Reyna asked.

Will checked his watch. 'Three fifteen.'

It was silent for a moment but then Reyna said that since they still needed to clean up it was probably better to just leave it with the cake, muffins and the cookies.

Nico nodded and glared at the bag of flour that was still lying exploded on the floor.

Then remembering what had happened, Will agreed and the three of them started cleaning up. When they were done, the cookies had already been taken out of the oven and had finished cooling down. Reyna iced the cake while Will and Nico placed the other snacks on some big plates so they'd be able to carry them all at once.

'All done,' she said about two minutes later, and the tree of them made their way to the Athena cabin where they'd agreed to meet up again.

Once inside, the first thing Leo said was:

'Holy Hera, what happened to you guys?'

Will looked over at the other two and internally laughed at the sight; Nico was still covered in flour from head till toe and Reyna had blue cookie dough stuck in her hair. He knew that he didn't look any better himself with that chocolate on his face.

'Long story,' Reyna answered while trying to untangle the dough from her hair.

'But we have the snacks, and we're still alive so it's fine,' Will said, smiling.

They hadn't burned anything down, they'd had a lot of fun, and they even managed to make enough snacks along the way. And in Will's eyes that was a massive success.

End Notes

Ah, don't we all love some chaotic bakers? I certainly do haha. Anyways, let me know what you guys thought! Leave some prompts in the reviews too if you have any, and I hope you have a splendid day. See you in the next chapter! Byeee :)