I receive the text from Jason around one. "Can Nico and I hide out at your place? Aunt Demeter is insane."
He was having a family reunion, and I didn't envy him. Jason's family was a bit... Complicated. His uncle and my Dad were brothers, but his da and mine shared no relation at all, though his stepmother was my- you know what? I'm not even going to try to wrap my head around that mess. To put it simply, Nico was my cousin as well as Jason's. He was a little... Different. Not bad-different, just... Different. He was a mix of goth and little kid- he had a thing for Happy Meals but wanted the world to burn. That sort of thing.
They showed up around 2:30. We hung around in the rec room, catching up. It didn't take long for the conversation to turn to the girl upstairs.
"So, Perce, I didn't get a chance to ask you the other day: Who is Annabeth and what is she doing here?"
So I tell them everything: my hatred of her arrival, the awkward beginning, staring at concrete, every single moment up until today. Jason and Nico just listen, nodding occasionally. When I finish, they offer their comments.
"So you like her?"
My neck burns. "Um, yeah. It's not like I hate her..."
Jase rolls his eyes. They're similar to Thalia's, giving off a sort of 'don't try that shit with me' look. "You know what I mean. Do you love her?"
That's a question I should be asking myself. Do I love Annabeth? There's certainly attraction, definitely friendship. But love? "I don't know."
"You'd better figure it out, then. You're going to marry the girl."
"I don't-"
"You don't want to what? Marry her? Did you ever think that she might not want to marry you, either?" There's a moment of silence; it's a choking, uncomfortable silence, and I don't like it.
Apparently Jason doesn't either, because he changes the topic. "You said you wrote a new song?"
"Yeah, I did. Here." I hand him my notebook, and he reads over it, occasionally humming.
"This is good. A little tweaking and it'll be great. Much better than the crap you and Leo wrote together." We all shudder at the memory. Leo, though a decent singer, can't write songs worth crap. One particular one was about the 'flame of his heart'. It was so corny and pathetic that we trashed it the second it was written down. The melody was good, but the words just went to shit. And there were four notes near the end that just... Amazing.
Parts of 'Flame of My Heart' went into the composition of 'Wise Girl'.
"You should play it, see what it sounds like. But instead of C-F-A, right here," Nico points to the third measure. "Try C-F-B. It should sound better."
And that's how we ended up with a new songwriter. Nico turns out to be pretty good, especially when you factor in his age.
It's about then that Annabeth comes in.
After we've been invite to make masks and she leaves, it's only a matter or seconds before Nico offers his opinion. "Seriously, Percy? A girl that looks like that shows up, and the only thing you'll look at is the CONCRETE?!"

Annabeth
Dinner is uneventful. Afterwords, Percy, Sienna, Jason, Nico, and I head down the the rec room to make masks.
It's a fun affair, though granted a bit messy. In the end, we've got some very nice-looking half-masks.
I painted mine silver and glued a black ribbon around the edge. Glittery swirls loop around the eyeholes. A single gray feather is attached to the top.
Nico's looks like death personified- a black mask, a painted red 'tear' dripping from the eye, and spikes jutting out of the forehead. It's a bit scary, but he seems to like it.
Percy actually tried to make his look like something. It's Caribbean green and he's taken the time to paint colorful fish on the face of it. It suits him very well, and makes his eyes pop.
Silenna's is white with elegant swirls of black around the eyes to look like eyeliner. Pink feathers line the entire top of it. It's pretty, but also slightly creepy. It's vaguely reminiscent of a human face, but the colors are too bright, unnatural.
Jason's is probably the neatest; he's the only one that isn't covered in paint or sparkles. It's painted like a stormy sky, shades of blue and gray.
We're all, with the exception of Jason, a mess. That might shave been from the mask we all made for Thalia.
It's... Tacky, to say the best. We weren't going to make her one, but we had extra materials put and decided to use them up.
Swirls of olive green and red paint cover the thing, along with a splatter of neon pink across the nose. Percy decided that it needed heaps of glitter, and Nico gave it a mustache of feathers. Thalia would hate it.

After Nico and Jason go home and Silenna has to get back to work, it's just me and Percy cleaning up. He puts on some music, and we make small talk with the sounds of Forever the Sickest Kids in the background.
"I had fun today," he says, tossing a was of paper towels into the black garbage bag. "I've never made masks before."
"You haven't done a lot of things." The song changes, to my absolute most favoritest song ever. I begin humming along as I scrub at glue on the table.
"Why don't you sing it?" Percy asks. He's stopped working and watches me. I blush. "If it's stage fright, I'm the only one here. I won't judge."
I've never sung in front of anyone before, not seriously. I have my goofy screaming up that I do with Thalia, but no one's ever heard my voice.
"I don't sing." I say with a hard tone. "Case closed."
"Are you scared, Annabeth Chase?"
I scoff. "Absolutely not." He's ridiculous. Insufferable. Annoying.
"Ah, but here comes the chorus! Sing with me!" My name is Annabeth Chase. And I do not back down from a challenge.
"I'm giving up, giving up, yeah. Giving up now. Giving up now. Giving up, giving up, yeah. Giving up now."
Percy and I sound pretty good together. We take that song and make it our own. And by the time it's over, we've finished cleaning the table. Another song turns it into a dance party.
"When did your heart to missing? I treat you like a princess, but your life is just one big mess. When did your heart to missing, when did your heart to missing?"
As it turns out, Percy can't dance, either. He might be worse than Thal and I, simply because he doesn't move. He doesn't have any sort of flow. So cleaning up turns into dance lessons.
"Just a second." Percy fiddles with the iPod, and the tragic amazingness that is Lana del Rey fills the room. "Sing to me, Wise Girl?"
I do. And we dance.
Don't make me sad, don't make me cry
Sometimes life is not enough and the road gets tough
I don't know why
Keep making me laugh, let's go get high.
After that, we dance though at least a dozen other songs. After a while, we've moved closer. I can smell him; the scent of salt and fresh air.
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go.
"Annabeth," he murmurs into my ear. I lean my chin in his shoulder. "What are you doing tomorrow?"
"Nothing," I whisper in reply. Only know you've been high when you're feeling low. Only hate the road when you're missing home. Only know you love her when you let her go.
"Let's go somewhere." Only need the light when it's burning low. Only miss the sun when it starts to snow.
Maybe it's the music. Maybe it's the dancing. Maybe it's the fleeing of his fingers against my back. Maybe it's something else. But I say 'yes'.

The songs are 'Nothing Left to Say' by Imagine Dragons, When did Your Heart Go Missing by Rooney, Born to Die by Lana del Rey, and Let her Go by Passenger.