So these three chapters that I'm posting today are all one story line and continue where the one before left off. Enjoy!
50. Tradition
Tradition in the demigod world states that all members of the Seven and their boyfriends and girlfriends, attend Thanksgiving at the Jackson apartment. Every year.
And tradition states that everything any member of this group eats must be blue.
The first time they do it is after the war and Leo and Reyna arrive with Jason and Piper. She's not sure what to expect because this is kind of an odd predicament if she thinks about it. She's with her boyfriend out in the modern world- armed with only one knife strapped to her belt, another hidden in her boot, a spray can of celestial bronze dust (Leo's invention), a watch made by Tyson the cyclops that transforms into a spear and absolutely no armor.
She's terrified and feels amazingly vulnerable.
But she's also excited and she chooses to ignore the oddness of today. (She's going with her fairly new boyfriend to hang out with his friends- all of them- for the first time in a non-leader, co-leader, warrior or demigod sort of way- at her old crush's apartment- a guy who had also tried to kill her when she was eleven- joined by another one of her old crush's and his girlfriend, who also happened to be her current boyfriend's best friend. Add to that the fact that Leo used to like Hazel and Hazel used to date Leo's great- grandfather or something then…. really, the only ones without awkwardness shadowing their relationship with others are Frank and Annabeth.)
Two out of eight. Not bad. Reyna knows that if their pictures were on a bulletin board different coloured strings would be linking them all together to show their complicated backgrounds.
"Nervous?" Piper hangs back to walk with Reyna while the guys chat ahead of them.
She glances at her warily. "Am I that obvious?"
Piper smiles and reaches out to squeeze her hand. It's taken a couple of weeks but finally, Reyna doesn't flinch away or wince at the contact. "Don't be," the daughter of Aphrodite says as they stop outside Percy's door. "We're with family."
Reyna's surprised when that sentence makes her feel like crying.
(She doesn't, of course. Not here, not now, not in front of everybody. But she's close, and Leo looks back and catches the expression on her face and raises an eyebrow at her in concern. Jason looks back too, and Leo's not the only one who knows her well, so now she has two boys looking at her like they're afraid because not just anything makes Reyna cry and something must be up.)
She smiles at them and shakes her head right before Annabeth opens the door, a strip of blue cookie dough resting at the base of her hairline and a huge smile on her face.
"Hey guys!" She greets, stepping aside. "Come on in. I'd take your coats but… my hands are full."
She's holding a white plastic mixing bowl that holds what looks like a mountain of dough and stirring it easily and Reyna blinks in surprise at how comfortable she is here in Percy's home. She fits in perfectly.
She shouldn't be surprised, she knows.
They hang up their coats and Hazel and Frank are already here setting the table- but Percy and his mom are strangely absent.
Until they walk out of what must be Percy's room and Reyna can see the resemblance right away. Percy looks more like his dad, but he is his mother's son.
"Hey guys!" Percy's face brightens instantly at the sight of them. "Glad you could make it!"