A lot of this was pulled from me helping my friend move out of her dorm. I thought I would publish this when I moved into mine in September, but the day after I made the outline, Aryan Simhadri was announced as our Grover. And today they start filming. He will do amazing. I can't wait for the chaos.

Story #38: Percy, Grover, and Frank Try to Lug a Couch Across New Rome

Today's the day. Moving Day.

It wasn't hard for Percy and Annabeth to bring their stuff to New Rome since Hermes shipped it for them at "no cost." But he dropped their stuff in front of them when they arrived instead of at their places. They hope to the gods that the cost was he wasn't doing a direct delivery but they can never be too sure with the gods.

"I'll make sure our security deposits were received," Percy tells Annabeth. "You start moving in."

"Gotcha," Annabeth says, picking up a box. Hazel takes another one for her to help out.

"I'll just wait here," Grover says, sitting on Percy's couch in the middle of New Rome. He kicks his hooves up as he lies back to nap.

Percy walks into the housing office and sees Reyna sitting behind the desk. Her dogs sit at her feet, now standing and staring at him when he approaches the desk.

"Before you say anything," Reyna says, leaning forwards on the counter, "we got Annabeth's deposit but not yours."

"Here."

Percy reaches in his pockets (pants and sweater) and grabs everything he can. Miscellaneous items jangle onto the counter and Reyna's face sours as she pulls her hands back. Percy laughs nervously as he flicks out the lint and takes out all the gum wrappers and bus transfers. He counts out a combination of gold drachmas, New Rome denarii, arcade tokens, US dollars, random euros, and some Canadian dollars he bummed from Frank.

When Percy lowers, Reyna peers her head over and isn't impressed.

"They call this a toonie," Percy says, holding up one of the Canadian coins.

"I know," Reyna says, counting the mix of currency on the table. "This still isn't enough."

"Come on, I was a praetor. I should get some kind of discount for my service."

Reyna scoffs. "For a day."

"You wanted me to stick around for longer. And since when do you run this booth?"

"I felt like it today," she grins, "so, pay up."

"I could've sworn I sent my deposit it via Iris message."

Reyna's dogs immediately stand and snark at him. Percy steps back as they drool through their gritted growls. Reyna lowers her hands and her dogs stop, still glaring at him with their jewelled eyes and still ready to attack.

"Fine, I'll pay it later," Percy states.

The second her dogs start barking, Percy runs out the door. He skids back to Grover napping on the couch. His friend snores as Percy plops on the cushion next to him and Grover nods awake before dozing off again.

"Hey," Percy says, nudging Grover's goat leg. "Get up we gotta move."

"I didn't come here to carry a couch across New Rome."

"Then why are you here?"

"I'm here for moral support."

"Your morals need more support than mine."

Grover opens his eyes just to narrow them at Percy. "Meaning?"

"You eat cans."

He rolls his eyes. "And you eat that blue chemical stuff like blue 42 that they put in the stuff they store in the cans."

"So you're eating it indirectly."

Grover mutters under his breath. Percy grins as he catches the curses. They meet eyes and laugh before standing up and waking to opposite ends of the couch. They put all of Percy's boxes and bags on the couch itself since it'd be easier to carry it all in one go (and because nobody wants to make the extra trip).

"Frank!" Percy screeches at the top of his lungs.

A few minutes later and lots of calls from people roaming New Rome, Frank approaches Percy and Grover on the couch. His shadow blankets them.

"Did you pay your deposit already?" Frank asks.

"They refuse Canadian currency," Percy responds. "The disrespect."

Percy jumps at the sound of Reyna's dogs barking, shocked but not surprised they were still listening to him and could hear this far. He leaps over the couch's arm on one end and Frank takes the over. They pick up both ends of the couch and run before Reyna's dogs could chase after them. Grover holds on for dear life while surfing the couch, grabbing Percy's items to make sure nothing falls over. A duffel bag rolls off and Grover leans forwards to catch it but misses. Percy turns around to reach it, letting go of the couch with one hand. Frank didn't get the memo of Percy slightly slowing so he sped, accidentally making Percy lose his balance.

He stumbles forwards. Percy lets go of the couch. It dives over his head and he crouches to avoid collision with his head. Frank loses his grip and punts the couch ahead, nearly tripping over Percy who's crouched on the pavement. They look at each other before watching the couch skid away from them.

"At least it's going in the right direction," Frank says.

"Man, I wish that was me," Percy points at Grover on his makeshift rollercoaster ride.

Grover screeches as the couch rolls across the grass. Percy's stuff flies behind him which he and Frank had to catch as they chase the couch. Percy grabs the arm closest to him and uses his heels as brakes to try and stop the couch. Frank does the same except grabbing onto Percy's waist. They yelp as the couch comes to a sudden stop once it hits the pavement, tracks of their shoes ruining the perfectly manicured New Rome lawns.

"Reyna's gonna be pissed," Frank says.

"What, she's in charge of lawn maintenance too?" Percy jokes although the answer is probably yes.

"That was horrifying," Grover mumbles, stumbling off the couch. He looks like he's aged a decade on that short ride.

They park the couch in front of Percy's place and, thankfully (although he should've probably shown more concern), the door was open. He looks into the empty apartment suite, smiling contently. Frank and Grover talk the boxes off the couch and they slowly move them inside. Then, the three of them look outside at the couch. The wide couch and narrow doorway.

"Any plans?" Percy asks.

"You two could maybe try to carry it in on an angle."

Percy glances at him. "Us two?" He gestures to himself and Frank.

"Absolutely."

Frank and Percy don't argue. Frank tilts the couch upwards and Percy holds it until he realizes that it's too tall to bring in vertically and still too wide to bring in horizontally. They try taking off the cushions and every angle possible but they can't figure it out. Lugging a couch across New Rome demands too many real-life skills that they spent too much time secluded from.

"We could remove the door," Frank suggests, "but Reyna's probably going to throw a fit if we even touch the hinges. She's probably in charge of housing and development too."

"What about a window?" Grover suggests until realizing that the windows are too small and, knowing them, they'll break one and face Reyna's wrath.

So they leave the couch on Percy's lawn, thinking that it could just be an outdoor seat until they could manage to bring it inside.

"Who needs a couch anyways?" Frank asks.

"Dog beds are very comfortable," Grover states.

Frank and Percy don't comment but they don't disagree. They've seen some pretty nice dog beds around. Cerberus had a bed nicer than any house they've ever lived in.

Instead, they walk down the block to Annabeth's place to help her move in and the door is open. They peer inside and see Annabeth and Hazel chilling in the small kitchen having unpacked everything. It's a miracle to think that they arrived at the same time except that Annabeth and Hazel already unpacked her place. Meanwhile, Percy, Frank, and Grover just put the bags and boxes inside and left the couch out front. Percy couldn't even put down his deposit.

"If you're not busy…" Percy mutters. "We need help bringing a couch inside."