Warning: This chapter contains mentions of family and food.

Damn Reyna is a nerd I love her

Piper is such a babe Piper is the babe we all need a little more Piper in our lives

Aaaand I hate Leo a lot can you tell

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Reyna was nervously chewing the inside of her cheek as she guided her fingers across the ipad's keyboard, trying to figure out what to say. She had started writing some good twenty minutes ago, typing quickly, until Piper pointed out it sounded too formal, causing her to delete everything and start from scratch.

Since then she had tipped a number of greetings, but had deleted them right after.

"Jesus, Reyna, you're writing an email, not an essay." She felt her friend's hand shove her shoulder, causing her to fall on the bed.

She didn't try to get up, settling for grunting instead. It would be much, much easier if she really were writing an essay. All she knew about her new pen pal was her name, age and grade. What on earth was she going to make out of that?

"If you're not going to write anything, I'm going to instead." Piper assured, throwing a pillow at Reyna to get her point wrong. The girl threw it back before sitting up.

After a few seconds Piper had already logged on to her account, writing so fast she might as well be texting a friend.

"How do you do it?" Reyna sighed.

"Do what? Socialize?" They replied in a mocking tone.

"Because socializing is spending ten minutes in the girls' bathroom hiding from Leo Valdez." She pointed out, recalling thursday's incident.

Piper made a face. "That guy's seriously gross. I don't even understand why Jason hangs out with him so much."

"Maybe your boyfriend and Leo Valdez are secretly dating."

"Leo can take him, I don't want him."

Reyna chuckled. Jason's crush was obvious to absolutely everyone, but he seemed to be oblivious to the fact that it wasn't mutual. Piper made the most of it, though, not bothering to deny it whenever he offered her a candy bar or ice cream.

"No, but how do you do that?" Reyna pointed at her friends text. "You don't know anything about Thalia. Well, except for the fact that she's your boyfriend's sister."

"It's really not that hard." She replied. "Besides, I do know something about Thalia."

"Oh?"

"Jason told me." They admited. "I just happen to know that she smokes, she wears a ton of makeup and she likes surfing. Oh, and she's gay."

"And when exactly did he tell you this?" Reyna picked up the remote and switched the channel just as some crappy reality show was about to start.

"Remember that one time you got sick and I had no one to pair up with for the river assignment?"

"Oh, the geography one?" She didn't remember the assignment exactly, but she did remember vomiting all over her sister's hair.

"Well, he asked me if I wanted to pair up with him, and since I didn't know much about rivers, I said yes. He told me about Thalia when we were putting the powerpoint together."

"So you went on a date?" Reyna flipped between two channels, not being able to decide if she'd rather watch a docummentary about sharks or a reality show about ghosts.

She could almost hear Piper rolling her eyes. "It was very romantic and sexual. Are you jealous?"

"Obviously." She smirked. "I'm just not sure which one I'm jealous of. I don't know if I'd rather go on a date with Golden Boy or your Snorring Snot Moster self."

"Don't you just love friendship?" Piper stopped talking while she sent her email. "There. Done." She shoved the ipad onto Reyna's lap. "Your turn."

She took the device reluctantly, sighing as she logged off her friend's account.

"Stop sounding like you're about to die. It's just an email." Piper afirmed, slapping their friend on her shoulder.

And yet, five minutes later there she was, looking at the blank screen trying to get some sort of idea.

"Alright," Piper said, getting up. "I'm too hungry for this, I'm getting ice cream." She opened the door, but before heading out, addded "Just try to think of it like an assignment. A school project."

Piper was right, she realized. No matter who it was sitting behind the screen an ocean away or how Reyna felt about it, it was a school project. 30% was a big number.

My name is Reyna, she began.