Chapter 5

"we were born with nothing and we sure as hell have nothing now"
- things we lost in the fire, bastille

Piper stays behind in the bathroom to clean herself up.

It takes Annabeth exactly two seconds upon opening the door to consider joining her.

The girl standing on her doorstep is, to put it frankly, utterly terrifying. She has black hair, jeans that are made up of more safety pins and chains then actual fabric and a look in her intense black-rimmed eyes that makes Annabeth fear slightly for her safety. She looks a little like a washed out My Chemical Romance fan discovered punk, took her thick eyeliner pencil and never looked back. She's leaning against the doorway, snapping at her bubble gum like a peeved alligator, with a slightly annoyed look on her face.

"You took your time," she says irritably, straightening up. "I was beginning to wonder if you had died or something."

Annabeth blinks.

"Well, I'm here now." She breezes past her and steps inside, pulling a face at the mess. "You certainly don't look after this place well, do you?"

Annabeth snaps out of her stupor. "Hey– wait, no, hold on. Who are you?"

The girl ignores her, and instead fixes her steely gaze on Leo, who is hovering uncomfortably by the kitchen. "What are you doing here, punk?"

Leo looks even more scared than Annabeth feels. "I– I don't... "

"Hey!" Annabeth pushes past the girl and looks at her right in the eyes – and it takes her less than a second to regret it, because the girl's eyes are electric blue and Annabeth wants to cower under their intensity. "What do you think you're doing? Who even are you? Why are you in my house?"

And the girl just shoves her to the side. "You," she says to Leo. "Out."

"What?" Annabeth squawks indignantly. "You can't just kick him out! He's my guest!"

"And I don't care," the girl says, acknowledging her for the first time. "Out."

Leo needs no convincing. With a squeak of something that sounds along the lines of "okaybyethankyouforhavingmedon'tkillmeplease" he grabs his coat and makes a run for it.

Annabeth stares at her. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

The girl wipes her hands down her sides as if touching Leo had given her a disease. "You can thank me later. Right now, we need to talk." Pushing past Annabeth, she breezes down the corridor into the kitchen. "Do you have any coffee?"

Annabeth is momentarily frozen to the spot, before finding her tongue and marching after her. "Hey!" she says, grabbing the girl by the shoulder. "I asked you a question."

The girl looks at her like she's six years old. "And I chose not to answer it. Now, do you have any coffee?"

Annabeth gapes. "What– who even are you? Why are you in my house?"

"It doesn't matter who I am," the girl says. She's bustling around the kitchen as if she owns the place, opening cupboards and putting the kettle on. "We've got some important matters to discuss and before we do that I need some coffee."

"What do you mean it doesn't matter who I am? Of course it does! You just– walked into my house and kicked one of my friends out and I don't even know who you are, and you expect me to just– allow that?"

"Yes," the girl says. "Everyone else has."

Annabeth stares at her. "I'm sorry? No, this is ridiculous. Get out of my house."

"No."

"Yes!"

"No. Like I said, we've got–"

"–important matters to discuss, I know! Now, get out!"

"Listen, princess– "

"Do not call me Princess."

The girl ignores her. "I am here to help you not die. You will listen to me and not speak another word, are we understood?"

"What are you talking about? 'Help me not die'? What kind of crap is that?"

"It's not crap, you ungrateful brat. I'm saving your life here."

"You just marched in, forced my friend to leave and are now making coffee in my kitchen without my permission and I don't even know your name, and yet you call me the brat."

The girl is glaring at her so intensely that Annabeth is almost afraid she's going to melt. "You'd be smart to keep your trap shut, princess. I'm doing you a favour."

"Oh yeah, and what's that? Being rude and disrespectful?"

And then suddenly there's a combat boot aimed at her stomach and Annabeth barely has the time to breathe before it's been planted in her ribs and she's being knocked off her feet.

It takes a few dizzying seconds for her to realise that she's now lying on the ground with both her elbows cut open and her kidneys feeling like they had been booted out of alignment. She props herself up and stares in shock at the girl. "Did you just kick me?"

Oh, it's on. This chick doesn't know what she's messing with.

Annabeth pushes herself to her feet, ignoring the sudden lightning bolt of pain in her ribs as she stands and launches herself forwards. The girl is obviously not expecting it because she doesn't move, and Annabeth sends them both sprawling to the ground. Before the girl can move, Annabeth straddles her hips and pushes her arms down, locking her feet around the girl's thighs – until with a tremendous amount of strength the girl flips them over and pushes her elbow into Annabeth's nose and mouth. Annabeth tastes blood and she spits it in the girl's face.

The girl calls Annabeth something extremely rude and Annabeth spits at her again.

"Saving my life, huh?" Annabeth croaks out. "Good job."

Furiously, the girl aims her elbow again, except Annabeth is expecting it and manages to move her head just in time. She cranes her neck and bites the girl on the arm, the girl predictably shrieking and letting go, and Annabeth takes the chance to buck her hips and throw the girl off. She scrambles to her feet and grabs a square of kitchen towel and presses it to her bleeding nose, and then chokes out another clump of blood when the girl takes her wrist in her hand and bends it backwards behind her back, her already sore ribs pressed against the kitchen counter.

"If you break my arm I'll break your neck," Annabeth threatens thickly through a mouthful of blood. It's kind of disgusting.

"I'd like to see you try, Princess."

Annabeth slams her free elbow backwards into the girl's ribs and uses the opportunity to duck out the way blindly fumbling for anything she can find. Her fingers close around a cooking spoon lying out on one of the sides and she swings it around, catching the girl in the side.

The girl swears.

Annabeth sticks out her tongue. "Ha."

Her victory doesn't last long, because the girl's foot reaches out again at an unbelievable speed and crushes down on Annabeth's bare toes. Annabeth howls out a curse word and rams the cooking spoon in the direction of the girl's face – unfortunately, she doesn't get her in the eye or the nose, where she wanted to, but she manages to get her cheekbone and at the screech the girl lets out she knows that it's going to leave a bruise.

"Oh, that's it," the girl hisses, but before she can pounce there comes a shout.

"STOP!"

Annabeth turns to see Piper standing in the doorway looking absolutely horrified. She's not sure whether it's at her purpling foot, the blood on the ground or the fact that there's a complete and utter stranger in her house, but she still feels a sick sense of relief at it. Finally. If anyone can get a lunatic out the house it's Piper.

"Oh." The girl sniffs and wipes her nose on her sleeve – it comes away red and bloody and Annabeth has to swallow down the small feeling of triumph that bubbles in the pit of her stomach at the sight of it. "McLean. Should have known you'd be here."

What?

Annabeth stares at Piper, aghast. "You know her?" she demands.

"I guess," Piper says faintly. "Oh, you broke the microwave. I do hope you realise that was new."

Annabeth is still trying to wrap her head around everything. "You're a spy too?" she asks.

The girl laughs mirthlessly. "You shouldn't go throwing that word around so carelessly, Princess."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"What, before you beat me up?"

Piper snorts. Annabeth glares at her.

"I didn't know what to think! You just marched in."

"Yes, well I wasn't aware you were such a paranoid monster."

"I'm careful. There's a difference."

"Either way, you broke my microwave," Piper says. "You owe me."

"I'll buy you a new one."

"You better. That's your first job as an addition to Casa De Piper y Annabeth."

Annabeth's mouth suddenly goes sour. "What?"

"Oh!" Piper turns to her as if she had momentarily forgotten she was there. She's wearing a disgustingly optimistic look on her face and Annabeth doesn't trust her one bit. "Thalia is moving in with us!"

Annabeth blinks. "Why?"

"Don't sound so thrilled," the girl mumbles.

Annabeth glares at her. "What, you expect me to let out screams of joy at the thought of having the same punk high-school dropout who planted her foot in my lung living in my house?"

The girl rolls her eyes. "Shockingly, I'm not actually a high school dropout."

"Could've fooled me."

"Hasn't anyone told you to not judge a book by its cover?"

"Well, I tried to look inside but it kicked me to the ground, so."

Piper has a pathetic look on her face. "Look, you're already bonding," she says weakly.

"Why is she even here?" Annabeth demands.

The girl smirks. "Wouldn't you like to know, princess?"

Annabeth scowls at her. "I would, actually. And don't call me princess."

To Annabeth's utter annoyance, the girl simply throws back her head and laughs.

"Thalia's a friend," Piper says quickly. "She needed a place to stay."

"Piper."

"I swear!"

"Does she not know?" the girl asks, propping her feet up against the table.

Annabeth looks at Piper. "Know what?"

"Nothing," Piper squeaks. She's gone very, very red.

The girl looks confused. "Wait, but Chiron–"

"Chiron? What has Chiron got to do with this?" Annabeth asks.

"You know Chiron?" the girl says.

Annabeth is slightly insulted. "Of course I know Chiron. He's like my father."

"So you do know." The girl looks back to Piper. "But you said–"

"It doesn't matter," Piper squawks.

Annabeth feels something simmer in her stomach. "Piper, what's going on?"

"I don't see what the big deal is," the girl says. She's still talking to Piper. "She knows, what's the problem?"

"What do I know?" Annabeth demands.

The girl finally looks at her. "That you're in danger. That's not news to you, is not?"

"No. But what has that got to do with y–?" Suddenly, Annabeth feels like she's swallowed a cough drop whole. She stares at Piper, aghast. "Piper, no."

"This is why I didn't want you to know," Piper mumbles.

Annabeth whirls on the girl. "You're here to protect me?" she shouts. "Is that what Chiron sent you for? So you can bloody keep me safe? To make sure I don't die?"

Finally, finally, the girl begins to look a little awkward. "Um, yeah?"

Annabeth stays very still. She's afraid that if she dares move, if she breathes too heavily, she might very well erupt.

She's furious. No, not furious, she's seething. She's a live volcano and she wants to explode right now, wants to coat everything in lava and watch it crumple. How could Chiron do this to her? Yeah, she gets it. She's in danger. Sending her halfway across the country with a new identity should have been enough but no, because since she's obviously not a trained assassin who got taught the proper way to dissemble someone before she could even walk or anything she needed someone to follow her and keep her safe. And yeah, that hurt a little. The fact that Chiron didn't think she was capable of keeping herself safe was a little poisonous but she managed to keep calm about it, because it turned out that her protector was actually pretty cool and that she might have made a new best friend out of it. So yes. She gets it. But now, she finds out that oh, no, poor vulnerable little Annabeth is too gentle and delicate for just one protector, she needs two, one being a scary bully in thick eyeliner and safety-pinned jeans.

She feels betrayed. She feels betrayed and she thinks it might be worse then a bullet to the leg.

"Are you– okay?" the girl asks awkwardly. Annabeth glares at her half-heartedly. The stark kitchen lights must highlight the unnatural sheen to her eyes, before the girl's eyes widen dramatically and she says, "Oh, no, are you going to cry? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry–"

"I'm not going to cry," Annabeth says stiffly. She is.

She turns to Piper. "I'm going to bed now."

Piper glances at the clock on the wall. "But, it's only, like, four thirty."

"I'm going to bed now, Piper," Annabeth says in a harder voice.

"Oh. Oh." Piper looks at her with soft eyes. "I'll be up soon, okay?"

"Okay."

Annabeth leaves the kitchen. Her ribs ache and the pain in her foot is horrendous but she keeps walking on it because she wants something to distract her with. However, once she's out the door, she leans against the wall and listens in.

She's still numb. But it might help.

"I didn't realise it was a sore subject," the girl says uncomfortably.

"Too late now."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. I mean, it is. But like. Indirectly."

"Gee, thanks, Piper."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah. I do."

There's a small silence.

"I mean, I get it." That's Piper. "You must, too."

"She almost broke my cheekbone. Until I get a good night's rest I'm don't trust myself to have a non-biased opinion on her."

"You know what I mean. I don't know what happened to her, but it must be quite severe, because the amount of protection Chiron put on her insane."

"Shouldn't she be grateful?"

"Would you? She must feel so useless."

"I guess."

"Be a little more empathetic, Thalia. Come on."

"No, I know what you mean. I just– she's a little full of herself, isn't she?"

"Thalia!"

"She is, though. Look at her. She's got all this protection on her and she's not even the slightest bit grateful."

"Shut up, Thalia. She's a spy."

"Yeah, well, so am I."

"That's different."

"Oh yeah? How?"

"You don't really have a heart. Annabeth is pretty sensitive when it comes to these things, and for a good reason, too. I mean, think about it. She's been training since she came out the womb, practically – don't give me that look, I had a flip through her records– no stop, Chiron said I could – and Chiron's treating her like a little kid. How would you feel?"

"I would be pretty damn thankful, actually."

"Would you stop being so arrogant, Thalia?"

"Look, McLean. I'm not sure about you, but I'm not actually thrilled about being the babysitter of some pathetic crybaby, okay? Annabeth is not my friend, and neither are you. Annabeth is my mission and you are my colleague. That is all. I don't really care about her feelings. To me, she's a selfish brat, and you're just a girl I sat next to in Comms who cuts her own hair. Okay?"

"You don't have to be such an arsehole about it! I get that we're not friends but think about Annabeth."

"She does it enough for two people."

"Thalia!"

"What?"

There comes a small pause. "You really don't get it, do you?" Piper asks finally.

"Get what?"

"Protection isn't just about fighting off all the bad guys."

"That's actually kind of exactly what protection is."

"No, Thalia. Protection is about defending someone because you love someone."

"Don't give me any of this Disney crap, McLean. If you want to talk about playing nice with someone, talk to your little friend. She's the one who pushed a bloody cooking spoon into my eyeball."

"You kicked her first!"

"She was asking for it!"

Annabeth doesn't hear the rest of their conversation. She heads off to bed, curls up on the mattress and cries until she falls asleep.

The morning is kind of dismal.

Annabeth actually forgets about Thalia for a second. She isn't attending school at the moment so she doesn't have to be up as early as Piper and Annabeth. Annabeth sits at the table, mechanically eating a bowl of cereal, feeling a little down but not quite sure, when Thalia drags herself in, her eyeliner still perfect even at six in the morning, and slumps down in one of the chairs near Annabeth.

Grumpily, Annabeth huffs. Now she remembers.

"You're an awful spy, by the way," Thalia says.

Annabeth gives her a dead look. It's too early in the morning for this. "Gee, thanks."

"No, I didn't–" Thalia massages her temples and closes her eyes. "I mean– not like that. It's just– I saw you outside the kitchen yesterday. When Piper and I were talking."

"Oh." Annabeth stirs her cereal. Her cornflakes are soggy. She doesn't really care.

"You don't try very hard to keep yourself hidden, you know."

"Yes, well, not everyone's you, are they?"

"Play nice," Piper calls from the living room.

Annabeth rolls her eyes.

Thalia taps her spoon against her plate. It's not an even rhythm and Annabeth's eye twitches. "I–I'm sorry," she says finally. "About what I said."

Annabeth snorts. "You're only sorry you got caught."

"I mean, yeah, but also– I shouldn't have said those things."

"Yeah."

"I didn't mean it."

"Yes, you did. It's okay."

"It's not, really."

"No, it's not. But it will be. I don't care."

Thalia studies her. "Yes you do."

"Well, I'll stop caring soon."

"You're not a brat."

"It's okay."

"You're not."

"I am, a little."

"I mean, not any more than I am."

"You got that right."

Thalia huffs through her nose, a kind of snuffly teacher I'm-so-sick-of-everything huff that sounds a little like she's got a cold. "I'm trying to apologise. Don't make this harder for me."

"Sorry. Continue."

"That was it, actually."

"Wow."

"I don't apologise a lot, okay?"

"I figured as much."

"Don't make me regret this, Chase."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

They examine each other with smirks.

Thalia is the first to make a move. "So... are we cool?"

"Not really. We will be, though."

"Okay."

"Okay."

They're okay.

Well. Ish.

"Leo!" Annabeth calls. "Leo, wait up!"

Leo looks a little terrified, but to his credit he does slow down. Annabeth's not a fool, though. She sees the way his fingers tighten around his books.

"Hey, Lois," he says. "How– how are you?"

Annabeth cuts right to the chase. "I'm really sorry about yesterday, Leo."

"It's okay."

"It's not though, not really. She shouldn't have kicked you out like that. I'm so sorry. That was my other cousin" – Annabeth blindly thinks for a name – "uh, Agatha. She was meant to arrive next week. She recently dyed her hair black – it used to be blonde – so that's why I didn't recognize her. That was rude and I'm so sorry that you got treated like that."

Leo smiles a little. He's eased up. "It's okay. Was kind of funny, actually."

"You were almost peeing your pants. I doubt it."

"I wasn't."

"Yes, you were. It's okay. I won't tell anyone."

Leo rolls his eyes. "Oh gracious Lois, how will I ever repay you for protecting my masculinity like this?"

Annabeth tries for a winning smile. "By doing the rest of the Science project by yourself?"

Leo laughs. "Nice try."

"I'm going to the game on Friday," Annabeth announces.

Percy chokes on his sandwich.

Leo looks alarmed. "Wait, are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Of course not. But yesterday Hazel said that if I don't go Brandon will think that I'm playing hard to get, and that's not what we want at all."

"But if you do go he'll think you like him!" Percy protests.

"Which I don't, so you have nothing to worry about. Besides, I'll make sure to friendzone him."

Leo starts to laugh.

"What?"

"Lois, this isn't 2014."

Annabeth is slightly wounded. "What do you mean? I thought the friendzone was legit."

"It was. Like, three years ago."

Annabeth frowns. "Well, it's either that or I do end up dating Brandon and become so clingy he starts to despise me and eventually dumps me."

Percy lets out a strangled noise. "Friendzone. Please."

"You're kind of screwed," Leo says gravely. "Either way is unfortunate."

"The amount of faith you have in the friendzone is frankly a little insulting."

"That's because it's not going to work."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do. It'll only make Brandon try harder."

Annabeth huffs. "There has to be a point where it gets too hard."

"Not with Brandon."

Weakly, Percy raises his water bottle. "I still vote friendzone."

"Yes, well, that doesn't count. Until you remove yourself from up Lois's rear end you don't get an opinion on what she does with her love life."

Percy flames right up to his ears.

"That's a dumb reason," Annabeth says. "Percy, join me. Tell Leo the friendzone is a good idea."

"It's really not, though," Leo says. "You don't understand, Lois. Brandon likes a challenge. If you don't show up he'll think you're playing hard to get. If you do show up and friendzone him he'll do everything he can to get out of it – but then again, if you show up and cling to him until he gets sick of you you'll have to date him for a certain period of time, and I doubt that's very safe."

"Who knows what diseases he's carrying," Percy says. "That's why I vote friendzone."

Leo huffs. "You are useless."

Annabeth chews the inside of her mouth. "What if I say I'm already dating someone?"

"But you're not," Leo says.

"So? Brandon doesn't have to know. He may be a bit of a butt, but I doubt his lack of morals goes so far as to make him sabotage a relationship to get a girl. Especially when the girl is me. It all seems a bit unnecessary. Which is why I turn up to the game with someone in tow and say 'yo, I invited my boyfriend, that cool' and then Brandon can't do anything."

Thoughtfully, Leo chews on a chip. "That's– not a bad idea."

"Who would be your boyfriend?" Percy asks.

"Well." Annabeth puts on her best pleading face. "I was hoping maybe one of you?"

"Absolutely not," Leo says immediately.

Annabeth is slightly insulted. "Don't sound so eager, jeez."

"Oh, it's not you. It's just that I can never be sure if Brandon has recently been vaccinated against any nasty diseases and because I'd like to maintain my glamorous image I'd rather not catch something off him, you know?"

I mean.

Fair enough.

Annabeth turns to Percy. "Percy?"

He looks a little uncertain. "I– Lois, I don't..."

"Please?"

"You're doing so well, Percy," Leo tells him encouragingly. "Look, you can see the light ahead."

"Percy?"

Percy sighs. "Fine. I'll do it."

Leo rolls his eyes. "Jackson."

"Thank you so much," Annabeth says genuinely. Before she can help herself, she pushes herself up and presses a kiss against Percy's cheek, and then when she realises what she did goes as red as a tomato. "Great! So now I'm all Brandon-proof."

"Woo," Percy says weakly. He holds a hand against his cheek and then stares at it, like he can somehow see Annabeth's kiss lingering on his fingers.

"Marvellous," Leo says. "Now, if you lovebirds would stop third-wheeling me, we can get down to proper business. Percy, my man – have you done the Chemistry?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Excellent. I need to copy."

It's eleven pm, the room smells of nail polish and Annabeth is utterly ecstatic.

She has never felt more like a teenager. There's a Taylor Swift album on play, scented candles lining the windowsill and all the lights dimmed, torches and fairy lights precariously strung up on chairs and balanced next to them on the mattress. Piper is carefully painting Annabeth's right hand a dark blue and Annabeth is explaining to her what happened in school.

"Oh," she says. "I almost forgot. I'm going on a date on Friday."

Piper hums absently. "Who with?"

"He's called Brandon."

That catches her attention. She sits bolt upright, almost knocking the bottle of nail polish off the mattress. "What? What about Percy?"

"Oh, he's coming too."

Piper blinks. "I'm sorry?"

"It's complicated."

"Don't give me that. We're having a girly sleepover. No information remains secret."

"Well." Annabeth crosses her legs, ignoring Piper's indignant squawk as she almost tips over the three other open bottles of nail polish. "There's a boy called Brandon, right? And he's– well, he's actually a little shifty."

"As in 'I like sneaking into changing rooms and smelling girls' PE kits' shifty or 'I'm not to be trusted' shifty?"

"I'm not to be trusted. I don't know, there's just something off about him. Anyway, yesterday he asked me on a date."

Piper looks affronted. "And you didn't think to tell me?"

"It wasn't a big deal. Still isn't. So he asked me on a date, if I wanted to go to the football game with him. I really didn't want to because I don't like football and I don't like him but Hazel – she's the girl I was telling you about – told me that if I don't show up he'll think I'm playing hard to get."

"What a cow."

"I agree." Annabeth watches as Piper moves on to her thumbnail. "It was a catch 22, really. But then I found a loophole, which was if I already had a boyfriend. Thus, Percy is going to pretend to be my boyfriend so Brandon backs off."

Piper has a glint in her eye that Annabeth doesn't like. "Riiiiiiiight. I see."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing." Piper innocently picks up a purple nail polish. "I just find it quite the coincidence how it's Percy who ends up being your fake boyfriend."

Annabeth huffs. "I told you, I don't like Percy like that."

"You may be a spy, Chase, but you're an awful liar. You aren't fooling anyone."

"I don't, I swear."

"Sorry, can't hear you over the pounding of your heart."

Annabeth's eye twitches. She can think of exactly sixty-three ways she can kill Piper using just the things in this room. If Piper doesn't shut up she's going to experience all of them.

"Don't even thinking about plotting my demise either," Piper adds on. "It only further proves my point."

However, just as Annabeth is about to throw nail polish all over Piper's head, she hears footsteps outside the bedroom. A few moments later, the door creaks open.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

It's Thalia, in all of her bed-head glory.

Piper shrugs, like it's obvious. "Having a sleepover?"

"It's eleven-thirty. On a school night."

"So?"

"So?"

"Don't be such a worry-wart," Piper says, focusing her attention back on Annabeth's hand. She's using a beauty blender to give Annabeth's nails a coloured gradient from blue to purple, and considering how much nail polish she has gotten all over herself and the floor it doesn't look too bad. "Come join us."

Thalia sniffs haughtily. "No thank you. I've got much better things to do then sit around discussing b–" She pauses. "What is this?"

"Taylor Swift," Annabeth pipes up. "Red. You just missed 1989."

"We're going in reverse," Piper explains. "If you come back in about an hour we'll be fully submerged in country."

Thalia rolls her eyes. "This is only more reason for me to not stay."

"Please do," Piper implores. "I've got a whole collection of nail polish, and Annabeth bites her nails down to little stubs so she's barely made a dent in any of it. Look!" She throws the beauty blender at Annabeth, smearing violet across her nose and fumbles around in her box. "I even got black nail polish! There's sparkly, matte, shiny – this one is cracking nail polish, which looks super cool if you have something like green or purple underneath it – and this one has blue glitter pieces in it and this one is my favourite because it changes colour depending on your body temperature! But it changes shade of black, so you don't have to worry about your aesthetic being exploited by peppy cheerleader colours, you know?"

For a second, Thalia actually looks a little tempted. Then she shakes her head, tells them that if they dare stay up past three am she'll rip their guts out through their nostrils and walks out, slamming the door behind her.

"She's so extra," Piper says fondly. "Give it twenty-three seconds."

Piper experimentally dabs the beauty blender on Annabeth's fingernails. Taylor Swift wails out All Too Well behind them and the room smells like vanilla from the candles. On the walls, their shadows flicker.

The door flings open.

Annabeth stares at Piper in amazement. "Twenty-three seconds. That's incredible."

"Move up," Thalia says. Annabeth obediently shifts a little bit to the side and Thalia plops down on the mattress next to her. "You're painting my nails next, McLean. But can we please turn off this awful music?"

"Utterly not," Annabeth reprimands. "We haven't even got to Speak Now yet."

Thalia grumbles.

Annabeth thinks she can learn to love Thalia. Their legs are pressed together, Annabeth's blotchy from the fake tan she had to apply and Thalia's pale and glowing in the dark, and she smells of laundry detergent and sleep. She's wearing a ripped-up Led Zeppelin shirt that shows a lot of her collarbones and a soft pair of shorts, in mismatching reindeer socks that show lots of her long skinny legs. She isn't wearing makeup, and Annabeth almost does a double take when she realises – when her eyes aren't ringed in eyeliner akin to that of a My Chemical Romance fan currently in the process of sucking the life out of The Black Parade she actually looks quite pretty.

Huh.

Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

(Well.

When she's not waking the entire apartment block up at five in the morning with Radio Revolution turned up as high as it will go.)

hey friendos how are we all? I made this chapter extra-long (it's almost 6k holy cow) to make up for the awful one last time (you guys were so so wonderful about it but honestly Chapter 4 was utterly disgraceful. We don't talk about Chapter 4. It's the dark side of Fanfiction).

also im so very sorry for throwing all these new characters on you. That was the last one, I promise. From now on everything is just plot, Percabeth and #pipabeliabantz. No more characters to throw at you.

But SPEAKING OF how did you like Thalia? I'm more than a little pleased with the way she turned out. This has to be my favourite chapter so far, I think – and Thalia might have to be my favourite character to write. I don't know, I just find her really fun. I hope you like her (honestly though).

ALSO next chapter's going to be pretty cool. no spoilers or anything but 98% of it is Percabeth fluff. Like, so much Percabeth fluff you might just get a toothache. So buckle in amigos we're going on a ride.

Anywho, i hope you all enjoyed that! In standard Mia please tell me what you thought and I'll see you all soon! Byeeee xx