Warning: This chapter contains mentions of school, food, anxiety and swearing.

YES! I am actually back! Sorry that I haven't been updating or posting new stories but writer's block is the worst .

Also, if you've got any questions or want to know when this fic is updated, go to .com .

And this chapter isn't anything great, but I wanted to update really badly. Hopefully the next chapter will be better.

xxxxx

As Leo presented his paper on Percy Jackson, Reyna couldn't help but make mental notes on what he didn't mention and what he focused too much on. He, for example, put too much time on the fact that Percy loved eating, and barely even mentioned swimming, which, as Reyna understood, was what the boy did to occupy most of his time.

She knew it was probably rude to notice all these little things, but it was a way to deal with the stress. Even though she had taken her sweet time rehearsing her presentation, and she'd gone over the power point 3 times, making sure it was error free, there was still the anxious feeling inside of her telling her that she could screw up, causing her english grade to drop just before the school year ended, leaving her no time to get it back up again. Or something like that.

"Hey, check it out." Piper said, tapping her lightly on the shoulder to get her attention and pointing at the slide that was being projected on the whiteboard. "Is that a fucking pony?"

There was, indeed, a blue cartoon pony on the edge of the slide, right next to a small text box. "Do you think he intended to do that? Maybe it was a mistake." She whispered.

"I don't know, but I can't figure out what would be funnier." Her friend replied, holding back laughter. It was pretty funny, Reyna allowed, but all she could manage was a small chuckle that turned into a sigh. It was hard to laugh when she was so stressed.

Piper seemed to notice that, as they elbow her arm gently. "Dude, calm down. You got this. What're you afraid of?"

"Don't know." She admitted, taking the cap off of her USB pen and putting back on as a nervous habit. "Getting up there and forgetting everything I planned out, I suppose."

"Okay, so even if that did happen, you'd be fine. You know Annabeth as well as the back of your hand. And besides, look at these guys." She waved her hand at their classmates. "Summer's almost here, this is one of our last assignments, nobody could care less. You'll be fine."

Reyna drew a long breath and turned her attention back to Leo Valdez, who had just finished his presentation, and was awkwardly trying to figure out where to sit, seeing as his buddy, the Golden Boy, wasn't part of their english class. As he made his mind up and sat down on an empty chair by the windows, the teacher called out Reyna's name, indicating that she was the next one to present.

As she made her way to the computer and plugged her pen in, she sneaked a few glances at the people in front of her. Piper, supporting as always, kept their eyes on her with a grin on their face. Leo was putting his books away, despite class not being over for a good thirty minutes. She didn't know most kids in the class, but she did recognize Octavian, the person that had run up against Jason for head of the student council and was always starting noise at their meetings, which xe insisted to attend, who was on xer phone. Looking at it, most people were either on their phones, talking, or something of the sort.

Maybe her friend was right, and nobody really cared. Maybe, Reyna considered as she opened the powerpoint, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to do a damn good job and blow everybody's minds.

As she requested everybody''s attention, she could see her friend giving her the thumbs up from the corner of her eye. Ignoring them, she turned back to her powerpoint. The first slide showed a set of pictures of the Stars and Stripes, a map of America and an eagle, which she'd thought was a bit of a stretch, but Annabeth assured her that America itself was a bit of a stretch. Reyna smiled at the memory before starting her lecture on her friend's country, something that she could've done before meeting Annabeth, considering that it was made up of general knowledge everyone her age should know.

Her following slide displayed a picture of the Statue of Liberty, one of Times Square and another one of a hot dog stand. Nobody else had remembered to talk about New York so far, even though all of their pen pals lived there. She was content that she had thought of it , though. She added some things her friend had told her about to the obvious facts everybody knew about, like how hard it was to find a nice pizza place that didn't get shut down after a few months, or how hard it was to get a taxi, especially when you really needed to get home quickly.

Her final slide contained only pictures of Annabeth: Annabeth with her friends, Annabeth eating a piece of cake, Annabeth on her computer and, the most recent picture, Annabeth with a pretty french braid that her friend Drew had made. The blonde had revealed to Reyna that she didn't think the style suited her, but Reyna still thought it was the prettiest picture of her that she had. She found that talking about her friend was the hardest part of the paper; it had been hard enough picking out the most important things to point out, and it was even harder not to start ranting about silly things like Annabeth's favourite colour, her teaching skills or how she valued her friends.

When she finally ended her presentation, she sneaked a glance at the teacher, who was writing something down on her notebook before looking up, giving Reyna a smile and giving her permission to sit back down. Before she reached her desk, though, the bell rang.

As she made her way outside Piper followed her and handed her her backpack she had left at her desk. "See? You rocked."

She smirked. "I did, didn't I? You weren't so bad either."

Her friend scoffed. "I spent five minutes making that power point, and I made up my entire presentation as I went. All things considered, I was damn amazing." Reyna had to laugh at that. "And now it's done! We don't have to worry about the cursed pen pal project anymore."

"I wasn't really thinking about that." Reyna admitted. It was true, she supposed, and on one side, she wouldn't have to worry about deadlines and grades while talking to her friend, but on the other…

"Stop it." Piper ordered suddenly.

"Stop what? I wasn't doing anything." She replied as they went down the stairs that lead to the cafeteria.

"Yes you were. You were thinking. That was a thinking silence. What is it?"

Reyna sighed. Sometimes she really hated how Piper could read people. "I just- what if it gets awkward? Talking to Annabeth when we're not doing it for-"

"Honestly," Her friend interrupted, raising her hands dramatically. "you have got to be the most uptight person I have ever set my eyes on! Jesus christ, Reyna, do you like the girl?"

She was more or less used to her friend's casual frustration induced outbursts, but the question they asked took her by surprise, and she couldn't help the way her face heated up. "I- well yeah, sure, but-"

"Then how about you continue talking to her instead of fucking things up with your over thinking?" They sighed, pulling their hair away from their face and into a ponytail. "Look, I'm sorry, but sometimes you complicate things way too much, and it's hard to watch you do it."

"No, I get it." She assured, crossing her arms. "You're right. I just don't get how you can think things are so… simple."

"Things are simple. You like talking to her, she likes talking to you. The absence of some shitty ass paper isn't going to change that."

"Yeah, but how do you know that-"

"Reyna," Her friend pressed her hand against her mouth, shutting her up. "come on. Don't fight me on this one."

Reyna rolled her eyes in reply and shoved Piper's hand away. "We should get on the queue, or we won't be having lunch until two hours from now."

"Yeah, yeah. Wait. Is that Jason?" They asked pointing at a blond guy that was already in the queue.

"I think so- wait, no. We are not going to-" But Piper, stubborn as ever, had already grabbed her arm and was currently dragging her towards the person she hated the most.

"Watch me. I'm gonna make it so we'll be eating in no time." Reyna could do nothing but give in and follow her friend towards the most annoying guy she knew. God, this was going to be one hell of a lunch.