My special Christmas chapter comes here! I hope you'll like it!

Meanwhile I wrote it, I listened to the song Extraordinary Merry Christmas (Glee Version, but the orginal is good too). Just so you know, if you want to listen too when you're reading :)

Chapter 16 – Christmas!

HAZEL

Hazel had never in her wildest dreams thought she ever would celebrate Christmas with a couple of demigods in July. And it was amazing.

Euphrosyne was right, it was a very happy holiday. Everybody laughed, joked and had really fun. Leo told them corny jokes, the food was delicious, and everyone laughed all the time.

"Okay, singing time!" Leo said and grinned big. He had a Santa hat stuck over the curly black hair, and he looked mischievous as always, but Hazel's heart ached when she looked at him. He reminded her of Sammy so much, he always joked around when it was Christmas times. "Beauty Queen, you're up first."

"Nononono." Piper protested. "Never."

"C'mon, Pipes, you have the best voice!"

"Charmspeak and singing is two very different things!" Piper said and crossed her arms. "I'm not going to sing."

Jason laughed.

"We'll do it together, then."

Piper raised an eyebrow.

"You can sing?"

"Nope. Come on!"

From nowhere, music started to play. Piper and Jason tried to sing, but choked and laughed so much that everybody started to throw food at them.

"Okay, who's next? No Christmas without singing, ya' know!" Leo said when Piper and Jason finally sat down again, both covered in eggnog and other kind of food.

"I can do it!" Coach Hedge said. "I know what to sing, I have made this new version of Jingle Bells named Jingle Bats-"

"That sounds amazing, coach, but no thank you." Nico interrupted. Hazel had never seen him so happy. Nico had always been very dark and moody, but now he smiled and laughed like he was a new person. It made Hazel's heart warm.

"We can do it, Hazel and I." Frank volunteered, which made everyone at the table burst out laughing.

"We can't sing, Frank!" She tried to say.

"Have you ever heard me sing?" Frank asked.

"Please don't sing." Jason said.

"If no one is going to sing, let's dance." Leo said and smashed his hands together. "Fun Christmas music, please."

Immediately, a catchy song started to play. Red spotlights flashed. Coach Hedge rose and started to dance, but it looked so horrifying that Hazel couldn't watch. Jason took Piper's hand and started to spinning around on the floor, both laughing.

"I can't dance." Nico moaned. "I'm gonna throw up if I move."

Hazel laughed.

"I don't know how to dance." Frank mumbled. "I'm going to sit here and eat some cake instead."

"Come on, Frank! Please?" Hazel asked him, but he shook his head.

"I'm too clumsy. I don't want to hurt any of you."

Hazel tried to make him dance with her, but he really didn't want to. He seemed kind of happy with eating cake.

"Well, Mr. Scary Animal Man, if you're not gonna dance with this beautiful lady, I'm going to take her to the dance floor myself. May I have this dance, Ms. Metal Detector?"

Leo was standing next to Hazel's chair, offering her a hand and grinning. Hazel's heart leaped.

Frank looked baffled.

"She don't need to-"

"Actually, yes." Hazel interrupted. She hoped no one of them saw how red her cheeks were.

She took Leo's hand and followed him out on the floor. Suddenly, the music switched to a slow, tranquil song. Jason and Piper started to hug and slowly move around on the floor. Hazel looked at Leo, who looked nervous. His eyes were glittering, and his mouth were smiling a little, that cute way Sammy did when he was nervous and tried to hide it.

He awkwardly held out his arms, and Hazel carefully rested her head to his chest. Everything around them fainted, and the only thing that mattered was how Leo was rocking her and the soft music. Hazel didn't even remember that Frank was there.

Leo was really warm. He smelled machine oil and maybe a little smoke, but Hazel started to like that smell. He stepped on her feet a few times, but it just made her smile into his shirt.

Suddenly the music changed to a much faster song. Leo let go of Hazel and backed away a little.

"Um, thanks for the dance." He said awkwardly and walked to the table and sat down. Frank looked at him with fierce eyes.

Hazel slowly stepped back to her chair and sat down. Her cheeks were still red. Frank pulled an arm around her and looked defensively at Leo, who was very interested in his food.

Coach Hedge sat down too and grinned.

"My dance moves is awesome, right?"

He gave all of the demigods a look like: If not, I'm gonna kill you with my baseball bat.

Nico hurried to say:

"Of course. They were… awesome."

Hazel was regarding Leo, who still didn't look up. His shoulders were tense.

"Are you okay?" Frank asked her.

"Uh, yeah. Of course." She tried to smile to him, but it pretty much failed.

"Oh gods!" Piper suddenly cried. "Look under the Christmas tree!"

A lot of Christmas gifts suddenly had appeared under the big tree.

Like small children, everybody ran to it and started to look for their gift. It was names on every box, and Hazel found her pretty fast. It was a green, tiny box with gold stripes.

Slowly she started to unwrap it. She opened the small box carefully and inside…

Hazel's fingers froze. Inside was a golden chain to hang around your neck. A little card was there too, with a message written on it:

You will lose the whistle if you keep it in your pocket all the time. This maybe will help.

She completely had forgotten about that whistle. Now, she could feel it growing warm and heavy in her pocket.

"What did you get?" Frank asked her. He had a new wristwatch wrapped around his wrist.

Hazel closed the box and tried to smile.

"Oh… Just a necklace. Nothing special."

Frank frowned.

"What kind of necklace?"

Hazel desperately tried to find something to say, but to her relief Coach Hedge yelled:

"That's right! Look what I got!"

He was wearing a red sweater with the words SANTA'S SATYR written over his chest in green. It looked absolutely terrible on him, but he grinned proudly.

"That Euphrosyne is a really good Christmas sponsor, huh?"

"What is this?!" Jason suddenly said.

He was staring in terror at a pair of small, white, fluffy toy-wings (those small children has when they are playing that they are fairies). Everyone burst out laughing.

"They fit you, Jason!" Piper said. "Try them on!"

Jason rolled his eyes and closed his box, looking angry.

"Oh, I like this." Nico said and showed everyone his new belt with skulls.

Piper got a pink hairbrush (which she hated), so she traded it with Jason's wings (it didn't make Jason very happy, though).

Leo was quiet. He kept staring into his box with sad eyes. Hazel wanted to ask him what was wrong, but she thought that he maybe didn't want attention.

"I'm just going to use the bathroom." She said and rose. She held the tiny green box in her hands as she stepped out of the mess hall.

As soon as the other couldn't see her anymore, Hazel opened her gift again and took out the whistle from her pocket. It was glowing warmly. Now she noticed that it had a little hole so you could hang it on the chain. She hung it on her neck, and put it under her shirt.

Suddenly Leo came out from the mess hall too, holding his box so hard that his knuckles were white. He collided with Hazel.

"Oh-I'm sorry." He said distantly.

"It's fine. Are you okay? You look kind of-"

"Look." Leo interrupted. He looked dazed, shocked and sad. "Just look."

He handed her the box, and what Hazel saw inside made her want to cry.

Christmashanger! ;)