Chapter 15

"something like make-believe / living in a movie scene / you know this is the way it's supposed to be"
- long way home, 5 seconds of summer

So, like. Prom is a thing.

Annabeth has never really given prom a thought before. It's not because she's against it; quite the contrary, she thinks it would be quite fun. But she just didn't know that it was real. She had always thought it was something that just appeared in books and movies, like all writers had a connection in their minds that allowed them to create an imaginary dance together and allow it to spread through YA novels like a disease instead of a sticky cliché.

But, you know. Apparently not.

"Hey."

Annabeth turns to look at the intruder. It's a cheerleader Annabeth is pretty sure she's seen practicing on the school field, wearing a blouse and a pair of heels so high Annabeth's own feet throb is sympathy. She already has a lot of respect for her. Anyone who can comfortably wear shoes like that without so much as a grimace could probably kill a bear.

Leo's spoon falls out of his mouth. He gapes at her.

The cheerleader passes out flyers across the table. For a cheerleader, she looks incredibly bored. Annabeth wonders where her pep went. "So, as you all know, prom is coming up," she says. "Silena is organising it this year–"

"What happened to Nancy?" Percy interrupts. "She normally does it, doesn't she?"

The cheerleader's lip curls. "Not that it's any business of yours," she snarks, "but Drew put her on the bottom row for the pyramid for the pep rally and she got so angry she quit the prom committee. Good riddance, anyway," she mutters under her breath.

Leo is still staring at her in amazement. Annabeth kicks him under the table and he blinks himself out of his stupor.

"Anyway," the cheerleader says. "The theme is Night At The Opera."

Annabeth blinks. "Your prom theme is Night At The Opera?"

The cheerleader gives her an unimpressed look. "I'm sorry, what was that, Watermann?"

Annabeth recoils. "Nothing. Just – creative idea, you know."

"That's what I thought." The cheerleader flicks her eyes over the flyer she's got on her clipboard. "Normal dress-code applies, but you're allowed to go strapless this year. Humping on the dance floor is not permitted and there'll be teacher supervision on the punch bowl. Any questions?"

"I have one," Leo says dreamily. "Will you go to prom with me?"

The cheerleader looks horrified. "No!" She gives them all a hasty nod and is quick to leave, moving impressively fast across the canteen despite the size of her shoes. Annabeth watches her moodily as she goes. She's got a great bottom.

"Do you even know her name?" Frank asks.

"She was hot."

Hazel scrunches up her nose. "Oh, Leo."

"She was! Did you see those legs? What a pair!"

"What's even the big deal?" Annabeth asks. She steals one of Percy's fries and dips it in her milkshake. "It's just prom."

They all turn to stare at her like she's gone crazy.

"Just prom?" Hazel repeats incredulously.

"My dear Lois," Leo says, patting her arm. Annabeth eyeballs his hand until he stops. "You underestimate the importance of prom. It's the night where everyone drinks too much punch, eats sugary biscuits and stands around in a crappy assembly hall with just some paper streamers blue-tacked to the walls."

"Shockingly, that doesn't sound massively appealing."

"It's fun," Hazel says earnestly. "You get to wear pretty dresses and dance to songs that were cool like, three years back. It's wonderful, Lois. You are coming, aren't you?"

"I mean, probably."

"Oh, that's good," she says. She picks up her flyer and hugs it to her chest. "It's going to be simply amazing, Lois, I promise you."

"What are you going to be wearing?" Frank asks her.

"I'm making myself a dress. I think it's going to be quite splendid."

Annabeth doesn't doubt it for a second. Sure, it's most probably going to be made out of curtains and velvet scraps but because it's Hazel it's going to work. Annabeth just knows it.

(There's also the fact that all of her clothes are made out of curtains and velvet scraps and if she can make that work then obviously it'll be no different as a prom dress.)

"What about you, Lois?" Frank asks.

Annabeth looks up. "Hm?"

"You know what you're going to wear?"

"I'm not sure yet. A dress?"

Leo snorts. "Real specific."

"Oh, shut your mouth. You haven't even got a date."

"Speak for yourself."

"I'm going with Percy."

It's out her mouth before she can stop it. She stares at Percy, scandalized. He looks equally terrified.

"Really?" Leo asks, impressed. "Slay, Perce."

Percy nods weakly. "Yeah."

Apologetically, Annabeth rasps her fingers over his kneecap under the table. Percy just squeezes her hand.

Well. Looks like she's got a date to prom.

Annabeth slams the door shut behind her and then face-plants on the sofa.

Thalia doesn't even flinch. Without looking up from her magazine, she says dryly, "Hello to you too."

"I've had the worst day."

"I don't really want to hear about it."

"Tough." Annabeth rolls over on the sofa so she's staring up at the ceiling. "Come pet me."

Thalia snorts. "No. You have Piper to do that."

"Piper isn't here and I'm sad. Come on, or I'll cry."

Groaning, Thalia closes her magazine and heavily flops down on the sofa next to Annabeth's head. "I hate you."

Annabeth wriggles up so her head is pillowed in Thalia's lap. She noses at Thalia's stomach and grudgingly Thalia brings her hand up to card through Annabeth's dark curls. Annabeth lets out a little contented mewl.

"So," Thalia says. "What's wrong?"

"It's prom season."

"I'm failing to see the problem."

"Shh, I'm getting there." Annabeth adjusts herself and stares at the ceiling. It's full of yellow stains. The previous owners were heavy smokers. Not that they particularly needed to, but they didn't cover their tracks well at all. Annabeth can practically retell their life story from the state of the carpets and the mould growing around the taps. "So, prom's like a big deal, right?"

"Right."

"Well, I think I accidentally forced Percy into being my date."

Thalia's hand momentarily stills in her hair. "Why is that a bad thing? I thought you liked him."

"I do, but what if he doesn't want to go with me?"

"We're not having this conversation again."

"No, it's not like that. Like, I know he likes me. Well. I hope, anyway. But that's beside the point. What if he wanted to go to prom by himself? I just ruined that. I literally told all our friends that we're going together, even though we weren't. Now he has to come with me. He can't back out. He's too nice. I've just ruined everything, Thalia!"

"Hey, calm down," Thalia says. Annabeth closes her eyes. "It's okay, pup."

"No, it's not. You don't understand the extent to what I've done!"

"Annabeth. Just shut up and listen to me for a second."

Annabeth closes her mouth.

"Good. So, because I know you won't listen to anything else, let's look at this scientifically."

"Excuse you–"

"Mouth. Shut."

"Sorry."

Absently, Thalia twirls one of Annabeth's curls. "You and Percy obviously get along well. More than well, actually, seeing as you've gone on like four dates already and all of them have gone spectacularly, if the face you make every time he drops you back here is anything to go by. You're comfortable around him. Comfortable enough to on-the-spot create a lie involving both him and the possibility that it might rope him into a prom date with you. And sure, you now for some reason feel awful about it. But you said whatever you said for a reason, and that reason is because when it first came out of your mouth you were confident with what you were saying. We're spies. We've been learnt to evaluate every single word that we say before we say it."

"But–"

"Shush, Annabeth. Anyway. And also because you're a spy you're going to take people's thoughts and feelings into consideration, better than anyone else in that room. You wouldn't have said what you did if you weren't 100% sure that Percy would be okay with it."

Annabeth sucks her bottom lip into her mouth. "I guess."

"Look, Beth, if you're so worried just ask him."

Annabeth sits bolt upright and stares at her. "Are you positively insane?"

"It's not a big deal! Just go, 'hey, about what I said the other day, are you okay with it or do you want to go by yourself'–"

"I can't do that!"

"Yes, you can."

Annabeth is just about to retort when her phone goes off. Thalia watches her expectantly as she stretches her upper body as far as it will go without having to physically get off the sofa to reach for her school bag.

"Who is it?" Thalia asks.

"Probably Piper. I swear, if she got herself stuck in another cupboard..." Annabeth doesn't finish her sentence, instead grunting as she hauls her bag across the floor towards her. She lifts it into her lap and fishes around for her phone, pulling it out.

It's not Piper. Not in the slightest.

Panicked, Annabeth's eyes shoot up to meet Thalia's. "It's Percy!" she shrieks.

Thalia gestures. "Answer it!"

"I can't! What if he wants to talk about today?"

"Then suck it up and listen to what he has to say!"

"Are you nuts?"

Thalia lunges.

She knocks them both clean off the sofa. Annabeth hits the ground, her shoulder blades clicking uncomfortably against the floorboards, and Thalia straddles her with her phone in hand. Annabeth reaches out to wrestle it out from between her fingers but Thalia pins her arms under her knees and presses answer. Annabeth shakes her head frantically, but Thalia ignores it and stabs the 'loudspeaker' button and holds it in front of Annabeth's face.

Annabeth wants to bite her fingers off.

"Lois!" Percy's voice is crackly with static and filled with relief. "For a second I thought you weren't going to pick up."

Annabeth tries not to let the pain show when she speaks. Thalia is heavy and she's pushing all her weight on Annabeth's forearms through her knees, which surprisingly isn't very comfortable. "Of course I was," she says. "Just had to find my phone."

Thalia holds her hand over her heart. Annabeth glares at her.

"Oh, thank heavens," Percy says, his voice lighthearted, but Annabeth hears the insecurity behind it. "Just checking to make sure you aren't sick of me yet."

"Never."

Thalia watches her expectantly. Annabeth swallows.

"Actually, Perce, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh?"

It's too casual. God knows what he's thinking. That wasn't the right thing to say.

Thalia stares at her in disbelief. Why did you say that?

"It's not anything bad," she hurries to say. "I, um." She takes a deep breath and stares up at the ceiling. "It's about prom, actually."

"You found another hotshot date?" His voice is teasing but she knows him too well.

Suck it up, Annabeth, she thinks. Suck. It. Up.

"No," she says honestly. "I just wanted to make sure I didn't, like, force you at lunch."

"Oh, that was nothing. I had to save you from Leo, didn't I?"

"Let's say that hypothetically, I was being serious."

"Hypothetically."

"Yes."

Thalia looks like she's lost all hope. She looks at the ceiling desperately, like a cry for help.

(Which, like. Rude.)

"Okay."

"How would you react?"

"How would I react if at lunchtime your sudden promposal was serious?"

"Hypothetically. And yes."

"Hm." Percy sounds like he's thinking. "I'd probably say 'yes'."

Thalia stares at her.

Annabeth lets out a laugh of relief. "Really?"

"We've gone on four dates, Lois. Of course I'd say yes. I'm sure you'll look beautiful."

And. She was not expecting that.

Thalia mimes vomiting. Annabeth just blinks, trying not to let her face burn as red as her shirt.

"Oh," she squeaks. "Um. Thank you."

She tries to disguise the fact that her voice has raised about six octaves with a cough. It doesn't work very well, because Percy laughs over the line and Annabeth kind of wants to hit him in the face but also kiss him, but at the end of the day it's all okay because she's now got a date to prom and it's like, a proper date this time and not a guilt-tripped lunchtime slip-up.

This is incredible. Annabeth feels like she can climb a mountain.

"Um, just for clarification," Percy pipes up nervously, "that wasn't really a hypothetical situation, was it?"

"No."

"So we are going to prom together?"

"Yes, Percy."

"Don't laugh at me! It's a perfectly valid question."

"I can't help it. You're adorable."

Thalia pulls a disgusted face and rolls off of her. Annabeth lets out a sigh now that her ribcage isn't being crushed and she sits up, rubbing her sore elbows. She should be in pain and she is, kind of, but it doesn't even really matter because she's going to prom with Percy.

Annabeth clicks the setting off of loudspeaker and presses her phone to her ear. Thalia rolls her eyes and skulks off to the kitchen.

"So," Percy says. "Prom."

"Yeah."

"Do you have any experience with prom?"

Annabeth hums. When she was fourteen she took a class on ballroom dancing back at the Society and she's pretty damn good at it, too, but she doesn't really think that counts. Besides, as she's discovered recently, high school is a whole other ball game and no amount of preparation could possibly even begin to prepare her for prom.

"Not really," she says. "There's dancing."

"I can't dance."

"I'll teach you."

Percy groans. "Oh, you can."

"It's just lots of stepping everywhere."

"You mean stepping on your feet."

"Oh, relax. You'll be fine."

"Yeah, you say that until you go home with bruised feet."

Annabeth rolls her eyes.

"What colour are you wearing?"

"You mean the dress?"

"Yeah."

"I'm not sure yet. Are we meant to coordinate?"

"In an ideal world, yes. However, I only own one tie and it's green."

"Why– why on earth is the only tie you have green?"

"I had to go to my aunt's wedding a while back. She likes green."

"Ah."

"I could Sharpie it black."

Annabeth snorts. "Yeah, no. What shade of green is it?"

"Um. It matches my eyes?"

Sea green.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Percy laughs. "I swear it's meant to be the other way around."

"You mean me wearing the tie?"

"No, me basing my tie off of your dress. Not you basing your dress off my tie."

"Well, we're a rather backwards pair, aren't we? I asked you out on our first date, and then I ask you to prom. I see an occurring theme here."

"Oh, shut up. I was going to ask you."

"Uh-huh."

"I was!"

Annabeth is just about to say something until she hears the front door open and sees Piper walk through. Quickly, she says, "Hey, Perce, I'm going to have to go, Tess just got home, but text me, okay? We'll keep in touch."

"Oh, cool. I'll see you soon, Lois."

"You too."

When Annabeth hangs up, Piper is watching her with eyes like a hawk. "You were talking to Percy," she says suspiciously.

"I was."

"Why?"

"Can't I talk to my friend?"

"Please, we all know he's not just your friend." Piper dramatically tosses her school bag to the side and curls up next to Annabeth, stretching her long legs out. "You've gone on like, twenty dates."

"Four."

"Same thing. Are you planning on making it official yet?"

"We're taking it slow."

"Yes, blah blah blah. If it takes you this long to decide whether you want him as a boyfriend I dread the thought of you deciding whether or not to get married."

Annabeth gives her a lazy look. "Ha ha."

"Anyway," Piper says. "What were you guys talking about?"

"That's none of your business."

"Annabeth's going to prom!" Thalia yells from the kitchen.

Annabeth throws her hands up in exasperation. "Are you serious?"

"Really?" Piper squeaks.

"Yeah."

"This is so cool! When is it?"

"May."

"That's so soon!"

"It's like two months away."

"So? You need to start preparing. Have you decided on a dress yet?"

"Piper. I found out prom was happening today."

"That means absolutely nothing. We need to find you a dress pronto." Piper pulls her laptop out of her schoolbag. It's an old thing that barely works with a hard drive from 2003 and it crashes constantly, but it's the one thing Piper took from the Society and she's adamant about keeping it. "Did Percy give you any specific colour?"

"Sea-green."

"Oh, you will look so good in sea-green."

Nervously, Annabeth watches as Piper loads up her Google page. "We're not ordering online, are we?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm checking to see if any of the local stores have any dresses that are worth looking at."

Thalia comes out from the kitchen, holding an apple in one hand. She leans against the doorframe. "I do hope you realise that we're kind of on a budget at the moment, Pipes."

"I'm not stupid. I'm looking at charity shops."

"The chance that you'll find something good there is below zero. Especially if you want a specific colour."

"It's worth a look." She types prom dresses into the search bar. "How is Percy, anyway?"

"He's good."

"How did he ask you out?"

"I was there," Thalia says proudly.

Piper stares at Annabeth, betrayed. "No," she gasps.

"I asked him over phone," Annabeth says. "That's the only reason Thalia was there."

"You asked him again? Gosh, Percy really isn't doing very well, is he?"

"He called her beautiful."

"Oh my God, Thalia, do you ever shut up?"

"Well, kudos to him," Piper says. She scrolls through a page of dresses. They're all lovely, and quite cheap, too, but none of them are green, and Annabeth really wants a green dress. Not only because she knows that she looks good in sea green. She doesn't want Percy to worry about buying a new tie, because she knows that he and Sally don't have much money. Besides, it'll be nice to match his eyes.

"Who's going with you?" Thalia asks. She drapes herself over the top of the sofa, resting her chin on Annabeth's head. "You know, aside from Percy."

"Actually, I was hoping one of you."

Piper stares at her. "Why?"

"Well, I figured you might enjoy it."

Thalia rolls her eyes. "Yeah, right."

Annabeth sighs. "I don't know. Prom is meant to be the best night of your life, right? And– I'm going to be Lois for the entire thing. I won't be able to enjoy myself because all I'll be worrying about is whether my blonde roots are showing through or if my nose is coming off, and I don't want that. Not for my prom. So I thought maybe with one of you I might be able to live a little as Annabeth. Just a little, you know, for obvious reasons. Lois is still going to be constant. But I want Annabeth to be there for the best night of my life too, you know?"

Piper nods. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."

"I'm sorry," Thalia says.

"S'not your fault."

Piper reaches out and takes her hand. "I'll go with you," she says. "No problem."

"Are you sure?"

"Well, you can't expect me to listen to a speech like that and say no, can you? Good gracious, Annabeth. I do have a soul."

Annabeth shoves at her.

"Also," Piper adds, "I need a new dress. And a boyfriend. Potentially."

"All the boys at my school are idiots," Annabeth says.

"Shame. I was looking forward to meeting my future husband. Still, though. It'll be fun. You'll have to introduce me to everyone, though, including Brandon. But do that subtly so I can just send him death glares across the room. If you introduce him in person I might skewer his hand."

"Yeah, don't do that."

"I'm not going dress shopping with you," Thalia says.

"Yes, you are," Piper tells her. "We need a third opinion."

"No you don't."

"Yes we do. No arguing. Now, Annabeth, which dress do you think will look best on me from these three?"

A/N Hey guys!

Sorry again that this is a filler chapter. Next chapter is prom so it's going to be full of percabeth juiciness (that sounds so weird i'll never say that again) so stay tuned for that woo.

Also, regarding the next update, i'm going to have to do my next update on sunday instead of saturday next week, i'm really sorry. I'm going to be out all weekend (and I mean like all weekend) and i won't have the chance to upload it, I'm really really sorry. Oh well! I hope this was enough until then? eh? kinda? maybe?

Thank you all sosososososoos much for your reviews. We got seventeen reviews last chapter, how nuts is that. You guys are literally the best readers I could have ever dreamed to hope for. Shoutout to my pals rachel and helena for being amazing and also for having no taste buds and liking pineapple on pizza (i swear i will fight you on this as long as i live) and also to Jessica'BlueBell'Potter-JPBBX and MusicalBookworm for being lovely lovely lovely and of course to everyone else (I would individually write you all out except i have no time im so sorry) (when we reaxh two hundred reviews wHICH IS NOT EVEN THAT FAR AWAY OMG i'll do another review-shoutout for everyone and this one is going to be ridiculous watch out)

Anyway! I really hope you enjoyed that! Please tell me what you thought and I'll see you on Sunday! Byeee xxxxx