Leo

"I cannot believe all of this food!" Leo exclaimed as he, Annabeth, Hazel, Frank, and Calypso walked into the cafeteria for Thanksgiving dinner.

The tables were laden down with so much food. There was the usual Thanksgiving stuff along with some waffles and pancakes, a vegetarian option, and a lot of other options. It was more food than Leo had ever seen in his entire life.

"Oh my gosh," Hazel said.

"This is heaven!" Frank said with a huge smile.

"C.B.S.T.T. always has the best holidays for those who stay home for them," Annabeth said.

"Yeah. Chiron always makes sure it feels like we have a home here," Calypso said. Her tone was wistful and Leo wondered why.

They all walked to the table and sat down. Nico, Will, Reyna, Charlie, were at the table with them and there was another table with some more people over there. Nico and Will were giving each other the side-eye, Reyna was reading a book that Ms. Lupa had loaned her and Charlie was tracing something in a puddle of water that he had spilled earlier.

"When do we start eating?" Leo asked.

Reyna didn't even look up from her book when she said, "Most of us just wait for Chiron but you can eat now. Just don't hog any of the food. We all want pie."

Leo looked disappointed as he had been placing half of a pumpkin pie on his plate. He took a quarter of the pie and put it back on the pie pan. Reyna nodded and turned the page of her book. He started looking around the table at everyone's conversations.

"What are you reading?" Annabeth asked.

"Emma," Reyna said, showing her the cover of the book. "Another Austen novel that Ms. Lupa loaned me. All of her heroines are so awesome."

"I remember particularly enjoying that one," Annabeth said. "Emma is a perfectly imperfect and flawed character."

"I'm not usually into the classics," Reyna said, putting her bookmark in so she could turn to look at Annabeth, "But Austen, Alcott, and Bronte are the exceptions."

"The feminist classics. Amazing selection," Annabeth said.

Leo turned his attention to Nico and Will who were whispering like fourth-grade girls into each other's ears. He didn't really understand their friendship *cough* *cough* yeah right. Friendship. *cough* *cough* but apparently it worked.

Chiron and Ms. Lupa walked into the cafeteria and Chiron smiled. "Now, all of you start eating. I'm so grateful to have you here with us for Thanksgiving. It is a joy to teach you all and to be with you this day. Since it is a holiday, curfew has been removed entirely. But I suggest going to sleep. Of course, no teenager cares when an adult says go to sleep but I will try." Chiron and Ms. Lupa sat at the staff table with the school cat Dionysus on the ground next to them eating fish and turkey.

More of the teachers started pouring in the cafeteria and everyone started to eat. The food was delicious and it was clear Chiron had pulled all the stops. Leo had to restrain himself from grabbing more pie. Or, more accurately, Reyna restrained him from grabbing more pie.

"Don't even try it, Valdez," Reyna growled, grabbing his wrist. "I want pie."

"Hey hey! Sorry. No need for violence," Leo said with a grin, getting his wrist out of her hand."

"I'd be fine if you hit him, Reyna," Calypso said nonchalantly.

"Not fair, Callie. Not fair," Leo muttered. "By the way, the buckle on your boots are broken. Do you want me to fix them?"

Calypso looked a little surprised and looked at her boots. "Oh. Yeah, that would be great. Thank you, Leo."

"No problem, Sunshine," Leo said.

A week before Christmas vacation, Leo, Travis, Connor, and Silena were sitting on the couch, flying Festus and his girlfriend Gloria. Their names in Latin meant Happy and Joyful. They were a match made in heaven.

"Silena, did you bring the mistletoe?" Travis asked.

She took some sprigs out of her purse. "Of course. I always buy some at Christmas and hang it up around the school."

Connor started to attach two of the sprigs of mistletoe to Festus and Gloria. Silena and Leo took the controllers and started flying them.

"Alright, our first target?" Leo asked.

"Let's do something easy first," Silena said. "Jason and Piper are standing over there. I'll send in Gloria."

"I'll fly Festus over to Sadie and Walt," Leo said.

It didn't take much coaxing to get the couples to kiss and Piper and Jason walked over to join in the mistletoe fun. Forcing two people to kiss was considered prime entertainment in C.B.S.T.T.

"Clarisse and Chris!" Piper yelled. Leo flew Festus over to them and after Clarisse threatened to kill him, Chris pulled her to him and kissed her passionately before Clarisse could make good on her threat.

"Emma and James!" Conner said. Gloria was deployed to complete her mission. After much blushing, the two kissed quickly and parted ways looking extremely embarrassed and happy.

The matchmaking continued. They did Travis a solid and when he walked over to Katie, Festus followed stealthily. And while Katie tried to get away, she eventually gave in and kissed Travis, muttering about how it was only because it was Christmas.

"Look, look, look!" Jason said. Annabeth and Percy had walked into the room with a book about Greek Mythology between them. They sat down on a couch discussing some of the stories they were reading.

"Good eye, Jason," Piper said. "Silena, please, please, please, send Gloria on over! I'll be indebted to you for life if you do it."

"Say no more," Silena said and flew Gloria over to hover over Annabeth and Percy, the sprig of mistletoe swinging.

"Hey, Percy and Annabeth!" Leo yelled. "Look up!"

They did and the common room collectively looked at them. Everyone could see the red that crept up both of their cheeks.

"Valdez!" Anneth yelled.

"It's Christmas!" Leo yelled.

"I'm Atheist!" she yelled back.

"Too bad! Now kiss Jackson or have bad luck for seven years!" Piper yelled.

"That only happens if you break a mirror," Percy argued.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and then, having to rise from her seat a little, kissed Percy on the cheek, took the book they were reading, and walked away in the direction of the library.