"Well, then I'd say I'll try to figure out what's wrong and then we fix it." Percy and I went around the basement (he created a dry area that followed me everywhere) and looked around. I was the first to spot it: "Look Percy, this spot on the wall looks a bit wetter than the rest, maybe the water's coming from there." "Seems like it, I'll check that out." He placed his hands onto the wall and focused. "Okay, I'm sensing a lot of water behind this wall. At least half a cubic meter, seems like waterlogged gravel. And there's also something else, I think it's a pipe. Oh, I got it. There's a tree's root growing through the pipe. I'm no tree expert, but this must have been quite a while ago. The pipe broke and water leaked into the ground and unfortunately also into the walls. And now it's in the basement. Piper, you go tell everyone I found the leak" "Why me though?" "Because you can just talk your way out of being questioned. I'll try to free get access to the pipe from the surface, it's not too deep underground, so maybe I can get there. It'll take me a bit, so take your time Piper."

Percy

I walked out the door and around the school building, always testing if I could feel the water. Eventually, I found it. There wasn't any water visible on the surface, but I could feel it hiding right below it. I took a few steps back so I wouldn't be hit by any rocks, then focused on the water underground. I tried pulling it up, until the ground exploded with the force of a small geyser, shooting sand and gravel a few meters into the air. Maybe a bit overkill, but I wanted to make sure the water would actually take all the rocks with it since I didn't want to have to uncover the pipe manually.

Once the rocks were gone, I could actually see the leaking pipe, though leak might not be the right word. Completely shattered and gushing would have been more appropriate. That tree had done some serious damage. The hole quickly filled with water again. Luckily, the pressure was not high enough to make the water overflow. About a minute later, Piper arrived with some of the mortal workers. "Okay guys, I've found the leak and exposed it, from here on this is your job. And don't tell me you don't have the right replacements pipe ready." "We actually do have that diameter. And since this entire segment of the pipe is exposed, it shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

It took them one and a half hours.

"Why are adults always so incompetent? Just detach the old pipe and screw in a new one. Easy as that." I told Annabeth "Well, I doubt it's that simple, you also have to remove all the excess water and the new pipe needs to be fitted in and attached properly, but I'll agree that ninety minutes is way too much." "So, if you dry the basement now, it'll stay dry?" I asked one of the workers. "We'll also have to dry the surrounding soil just to be sure, but essentially yes, the pipe is now working properly again. We'll just have to get a new pump, and then we can dry everything up." The team packed up their stuff and went off. "Well, time to give this school a proper drying." Annabeth began working on a plan.

While she was doing that, I started getting most of the water out. I raised a column of water, about half a meter in diameter, and made it follow me up the stairs, through the door and to the same drain the pump would have emptied into if it weren't broken. For the next few minutes I kept pulling water from the basement and making it go into the drain. Eventually, the water stream thinned out and disappeared completely. "That should be almost everything. I could have done it faster, at least based on how powerful I am, but I didn't want to overwhelm the sewer system and risk having it break." By now, Annabeth had completed her plan

"Okay, here's what we're going to do. Piper and I make sure there's enough airflow to the basement. Percy pumps the water from out of the basement. There's probably also a lot of moisture in the walls, so Jason, make sure the air is properly circulating. Percy, you also have to keep the humidity in the air to a minimum." "Got it, let's get to work."

After about two more hours, we left the building, Percy carrying the last few hundred liters with him in the form of a water sphere. Just as we left the building, a truck drove onto the property. Out came the people we had just met. "We've got the pump, let's get to work" "I appreciate your dedication" I said. "But here's the thing: The school is already dry." "That can't be right. Getting a building fully dry takes over a month." "Over a month, that's gonna be a lot of paid work hours. How much would that cost?" Piper asked. "Oh, a lot. The school paid us in advance, we've got around twenty grand at our disposal." "Well, then how about you send in an expert to verify whether or not the building is completely dehumidified" "Completely? That place isn't even gonna be remotely dry. We were gone for two hours and the pump isn't working, if you managed to get the water level down even one step of the staircase, I'll be impressed." He went away to get the dehumidification-confirmation guy, who again told us that the building was "never ever dried up". He went into the building. Thirty minutes, which were filled with a lot of "What?", "How the hell?" And some far less PG13 expressions of surprise later, he emerged. "I don't know how you did it, but you just saved us two months of work." "I've heard you were already paid for the job" Piper said. "Twenty thousand dollars. That's a lot of money, considering you didn't really do anything. We, on the other hand, dried the whole entire school. That's a very difficult task which deserves some good payment." "So, you want us to just give you all of our money." From his tone, I could tell that he was genuinely considering it. "I'm feeling generous today. Half the money should be enough. If you give us 60%, we can try to fix your broken pump. I'm guessing that thing is worth more than 2000 dollars" "Uh, sure, that makes sense, 2k for a pump is a good price." "It's settled then. Annabeth, do you have something to write?" She did. Who would have thought? Piper wrote something onto the paper that looked a bit like a contract. "Okay, just sign here" This sentence carried so much charm speak that the worker, who apparently had some say in the financial decision making, signed it immediately. He then disappeared into his car and came back with a very mafia movie-esqe briefcase. "That's the 12 k. But I want the briefcase back. And if you can't fix the pump, I want the extra ten percent back" "You'll get everything. We'll meet on the first day of school."

Once everything was cleared up, Jason took Piper and flew back to camp with her. "I'll be back in a few minutes and get Annabeth and the pump" He said as he shot up into the atmosphere. "Well, guess we're alone now" I said. "I figure. I guess now we can…, you know…, talk about things" "You're doing this to annoy me, aren't you" "Doing what?" "Don't act like you don't know what I mean. I know you too well Annabeth. And you know exactly that the way you said 'now we can, you know…' that's the kind of tone you use when you're talking about sex." "You caught me. But did you really think I'd ever stop teasing you? Not in a relationship that started with 'you drool when you sleep' anyways why don't we follow my suggestion- my actual suggestion, not whatever your allo brain might have interpreted into the first half of it- and talk about stuff?" "Uh, stuff, sure. I actually forgot to ask, how did you handle the first day?" "It was harder than it should have been, considering you just went to school, but not as bad as it could have been. Piper helped me a lot. It probably helps that when you're in such a state, your willpower dwindles, making charm speak more effective" "And I'm assuming the correlation between attraction to the speaker and the effective of the charm speak had nothing to do with it?" "Me, attracted to anyone but you? And out of everyone, you're suggesting Piper? Never" "Well, even a deaf person could have heard that's not true. So, are you? Attracted to her, I mean." "Well, it depends on which type of attraction we're discussing. If we're talking about sensual attraction for example, which is just the desire for physical contact of a non sexual nature, like cuddling for example, probably yes. Sexual attraction would be a definite no; you're still the only one, for romantic attraction, maybe a little bit. Just a little. But don't worry, she's happy with Jason, I'm with you, and that's not going to change any time soon. Hopefully not any time at all."

In that moment, I saw Jason approaching in the sky to get Annabeth. "Well, it's time to say goodbye now. I hope I see you soon." "Well, at the latest in a few days when I prove you have a boyfriend." "Maybe that will convince those idiots who keep trying to set me up with other boys" "You're not the only one it's happening to. Some bullies also tried to set a girl up with me" "And what did the girl think of that?" "She's aromantic. And she's not even remotely as comfortable with it as you." "I'd give her some tips about getting over internalized aphobia, but she combination of being raised in a very queer friendly environment and hubris made it so I didn't really have that aphobia to begin with" "The only advice I could give her so far was to take that 'I am a bad person and deserve to be bullied' attitude, rip it up and toss it in the trash. Anyways, I'll miss you. Have fun in school" "I'll probably actually have fun. But I'll miss you two. Try not to drool too much at night, not everyone likes that as much as I do." I gave Annabeth a hug and we held each other for a while, just enjoying feeling each other's heart beating. "Do you plan on breaking the world record for the longest hug or can we leave now?" Jason asked. We waited for a few more seconds, then we let go of each other. Jason took Annabeth from me (in that moment, I understood what Annabeth had meant by logically knowing nothing bad was happening but not understanding it emotionally) and they shot of into the sky.

I called blackjack and we also took off, unfortunately not in the same direction as Jason and Annabeth. I arrived at the school about ten minutes later. It was now around 6:30. Just as I entered the school, I saw someone throw their trash right next to the trash can. "Hey, don't you want to pick that up?" I asked "How about no?" I looked at the tree growing above him. It was still wet from the rain. I made some droplets combine into one and landed it right in the guy's neck. "What was that?" "I'd say the tree also wants you to pick up the trash." "That's BS. I just happened to be right were this dro-" He was interrupted by a second raindrop also falling into his neck. He picked up the trash and put it into the trash can. "Good idea. Don't mess with trees, or they'll splash you" "Sure. Btw, dinner starts in ten minutes"

After dinner, I went back up to my dorm room and did the homework from that day. I just hoped that the teacher wouldn't collect it. Not because it was bad, but because everything was written in ancient Greek letters. I'd just have to read it out loud myself. When I finished it was already getting late and since my first day of school had been kind of draining (no pun intended), I quickly went to bed. Once I had accepted that Annabeth wasn't here with me, I fell asleep.

Annabeth

Jason took me and together we flew back to camp half blood. I tried to imagine how this would feel for Piper, with the added 'I'm doing this with my boyfriend'-enjoyability boost. Probably amazing. For me, it only felt good until we flew right through a rain cloud and were completely soaked. As soon as that happened, I began missing Percy again. At least my abandonment issues weren't acting up this time. Correction: it wasn't just a rain cloud. It was a thunderstorm. Luckily, being inside the cloud caused a lot of ions to hit us, meaning that our charge was equal to that of the cloud and we weren't at any danger of being struck by lightning. Well, at least it wouldn't be dangerous. Now, one might argue that Zeus wouldn't kill his own son and granddaughter, but I hardly believe that every lightning strike that occurs is caused or at least permitted by Zeus himself, so something that he doesn't want to destroy could still be struck. Eventually, Jason had the great idea of leaving the cloud. He began to land right outside the border. In the last moment, I told him to stop. Knowing that I was usually serious about these things, he immediately did so. "What is it?" "We're coming right from a charged cloud. If we touch the ground now, we'll be discharged, which would be like a point blank lightning strike. You'll survive that, but I won't" "What do you suggest we do instead of landing? I can't keep us up forever." "I'd say we fly just above the canoe lake and you create a lot of splashing water to discharge us"

We flew a few rounds over the lake until I deemed it safe, at which point we landed on the beach where Piper was already waiting. "Hey sparky, hi Annabeth. I just took the pump to bunker nine, they'll have it fixed in a few hou- what the Hades happened to your hair?" "What do you mean?" "It's completely messed up. Where you struck by lightning?" "You're actually not that far off. We flew through a storm cloud that was already charging up with lightning." "Anyways, this is unacceptable. We haven't seen a hairstyle this messed up since Thalia came back to life." "How would you know, you weren't here until two years after that happened" "Well, cabin ten has a system that allows you to objectively compare how messed up someone's look is and your hair is at least a six out of ten on the scale." "Oh, then I guess I'll do nothing about it and just let it settle back to how it belongs." "No no no my friend, you're coming with me" "Uh, no I won't" "I think you will" Oh, so you're using charm speak now. Well, that's not going to- "Fine, I'll do it" I heard myself say. "Why do I have to be so gay for you Piper?" "Just accept it"