I remembered today...


Chapter 5: Frank… Hazel..


Annabeth got lost on her way to the bathroom the next day. She was still fuming over the salt. An entire block of it taller than her had been waiting at Half-Blood house that night. They ate salty pizza for dinner, and had salty waffles for breakfast. All the girls were making up plans for saltwater scrubs and salt baths while the boys just competed to see who could eat the most amount of salt without dying. Jaime was still in the ER from that.

She figured the Genie thought himself funny. Salt used to be a form of currency way before Rome was ever a thing. So technically she had still won cash money prizes but in the form of extremely outdated currency.

She missed the bathroom entirely because Clarisse, her housemate, was chasing another kid around trying to stab him with six pencils taped together into a makeshift spear.

("DIE PIG!")

Annabeth decided against getting involved and found herself opening the broom closet instead. A simple mistake but one made at an odd time apparently. Inside the dark broom closet were two sets of eyes staring back up at her. It took a while for Annabeth's own vision to adjust to the lack of light.

"Oh... Frank. Hazel." Annabeth greeted sheepishly. "I was just…"

Hazel scowled and crossed her arms. "C'mon Frank."

She stormed out with Frank in tow. The poor asian boy looked so sheepish and embarrassed Annabeth was ready to go home and drown herself in salt. Briskly, she found the bathroom and only released a breath of relief when the stall door was secured.

Why do I live in such a bizarre world?

Now up until this point, Annabeth had been extremely cautious. She carried hand sanitizer to avoid washing her hands, she'd always walked on the sidewalk to avoid lawn sprinklers, and had an extra raincoat and umbrella in her locker. But now she was preoccupied. She had forgotten one simple fact in life thanks to Hazel and Frank's closet squatting.

And that fact is; when you poop, as one does, there is a possibility of a splash back. A cold lick of water will pounce back at you from the toilet bowl. And as it so happens, that is exactly what happened to her as she sat there on the loo. She didn't think anything of it at first. Anyone can experience this toilet water splash at any time. It's normal.

Until it wasn't normal. Her entire body erupted into tingles. She felt itchy all over and a burning sensation went up and down her legs before she remembered the genie's curse. She just had enough time to sufficiently curse out the genie when her legs seared together and a poof of smoke wisped off her brand new tail.

"! #$%#!" she hissed. "%#*% !"

It would be something you could read, if this story wasn't rated K.

"I'm sick of this," she said to no one in particular.

Tails have a dreadful habit of being longer than legs, so hers was stuffed out underneath the base of the stall door. A glittery light silver as if she were some sort of anchovy. Long and graceful, with a flat thin tail fin. Her pants had completely disappeared and there was an ache in her lungs as if breathing was too difficult. Still she couldn't stop the fire of curiosity that drove her. Tentatively, she reached out and pressed against the silver scales on her hips. Trailing her fingers down where her thighs used to be and flexing various new muscles in wonder. Entranced by how she could feel every flick of her fins.

"Annabeth!" a voice followed the crash of the bathroom door being burst open. "Annabeth! You won't believe it!"

She couldn't get her tail to move the way she wanted it to. It was so different compared to having two independent legs. Sort of felt like her entire lower half had been turned into a stiff tongue. Thankfully just before Piper saw anything, Annabeth lifted her tail with her arms and thunked it against the door to the stall. Kind of like a thick trunk of fish meat.

"Annabeth!"

"What?"

"No, not you!" Piper hissed. "I'm trying to talk to my best friend! Annabeth! Are you in here Annabeth?"

"Piper!" Annabeth yelled back while rolling out a pad of toilet paper and viciously rubbing down the back of her tail. "It's me you idiot!"

"Ma'am, whoever the hell you are, stop trying to butt in on my conversation!"

"But Piper!"

"Annabeth! I know you're in here!" Piper started thunking the doors of the stalls open. One after the other, creeping closer and closer to where Annabeth was curled in. For some reason it made her throat vibrate with panic, and she scrubbed faster. Trying to leach out any moisture that was keeping her in this form. Finally. Finally there was a flush of energy that bolted down her torso and into her fins. They dissipated, leaving behind her two beautiful legs. Pants and all.

"Annabeth! There you are!" Piper squealed in delight, standing right in front of Annabeth's stall. "This totally rude woman kept trying to prank me into thinking she was you. You heard it right?"

Annabeth blinked.

She knew Piper learned with images, and was better with faces than with names, but that was honestly pathetic. And a little worrying.

"Yeah…" she laughed instead. "Rude."

"Anyways. Jason bought us VIP tickets to see the Roadkill Runners for our first date!" Piper said excitedly. "We're going tomorrow night!"

"Weren't they sold out?" Annabeth asked while flushing the toilet.

"They were! I don't know how he pulled it off!" Piper was leaning against her stall door. Sighing with relief, Annabeth composed herself before unlocking the stall door and stepping out into the long bathroom. Glancing at the sinks only momentarily and examining her legs in the mirror to be sure there were no scales that had somehow been left behind.

She slung an arm over Piper's shoulder.

"So tell me about how he got those tickets?"

"Ew. You didn't wash your hands!"

"I uhh… hand sanitizer?"


Piper's got some issues.