I've been gone forever omg i'm so sorry

lAsT tImE:

Percy and Annabeth communicate via soulmate telepathy, and it's cute tbh..

tHiS tImE:

Rachel plays matchmaker to Piper and Frank. 

(ngl kind of burned out so don't judge if it's trashy today!!)

+language warning because of the lyrics in the heathers songs+

~~~~~~~

{Third POV, RACHEL CENTER FOCUS}

"So, what's it gonna be?

I wanna be with you

Wanna be with you

Tonigh-"

Piper groaned halfway through her note. "Dammit," she cursed under her breath, shoving her face in her hands.

Julia Feingold, who was currently draped dramatically over an armrest and sucking on a lollipop, moved the lollipop from her mouth and spoke up. "I thought it sounded good."

Piper rolled her eyes and whipped her head around to face Julia. "Sorry. I didn't like it."

Rachel sighed. Adjusting the yellow bow in her hair, as she often does when she was anxious during play rehearsal, she walked up to Piper and rubbed her shoulder. "You'll do amazing, Pipes."

Chiara Benvenuti nodded. "You got Veronica for a reason. I personally love your voice."

Rachel crossed her arms and looked down to her shiny black flats. This was one of their last dress rehearsals, and Piper couldn't seem to figure out how to hit the high note in Seventeen. Sure, she can hit it well, but she seems to keep pushing herself, and Rachel noticed that Jason and Leo were getting worried about her health.

Drew flipped her hair part from the left to the right. "Do you need a break? We need to rehearse Candy Store."

"I guess." Piper kicked at nothing on the floor, shuffled off of the front stage, and flopped on the couch next to Julia.

Because Mr. Apollo was a "progressive" and "popular sovereignty" teacher, he let just the main cast in for this practice. Piper, Jason, Chiara, Drew, Rachel, Will, Connor, and Julia. That's also why they weren't performing the high school script of Heathers. Instead, they were using the original and pretty risqué script, except instead of Blue, they were singing You're Welcome. Which...probably wasn't legal (illegal heathers anyone??).

Chiara scrolled through the laptop's playlist that was supplying their music and double-clicked on one of the earlier tracks. She adjusted her black plaid skirt, and rebuttoned her red blazer that was somehow too big and too small. After getting in her position, she fluffed out her hair and put her hands on her hips. "Play it when we're ready, Will."

Drew, in her green striped blazer, wandered over in the highest heels they could find. She smoothed out her black skirt and fidgeted with the emerald broach on her collar.

Rachel's thumb was slid in between her thin, yellow, checkered blazer and her leather belt. The belt was small and a shiny black with a cute little bow in the front. Long yellow socks trailed up to the tip of her kneecaps and were kinda itchy, if she was being honest, but she couldn't do much about it.

A pair of arms wrapped around from behind her and rested on her chest, hands crossing over to her shoulders. "You'll do great, babe."

She blushed at the awkward nickname and gave Connor a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks."

"'Ey, showmancers! Get a room after rehearsal, we're about to start!" Julia called out.

"Are we gonna have a problem?

You've got a bone to pick?"

That snapped Rachel out of it. Connor had backed away by now, and she fixed her stance, popping one of her hips out.

"But I'm feeling nice, here's some advice, listen up, biatch!"

Rachel followed the two others in the routine, stepping in front, behind, in front, and hands on her hips. Swaying her hips, she blushed slightly when she remembered that Connor was watching. But she moved forward, bless her soul, rolling her wrists near her head.

She couldn't stress enough how much she loved the choreography to this song. It wasn't oversexualized, but still made Rachel feel like she was attractive, and it made her feel like she was a Heather. That people bowed at her feet...that people were intimidated.

"Say goodbye to Shamoo!

That freak's,"

It was Rachel's line.

"Not your friend, I can tell in the end!"

The song continued, and Rachel found it almost natrual to pop into Heather McNamara's voice: high and a little annoying, but innocent and not at all threatening, despite what was actually coming out of her mouth.

The other cast members clapped at the ending. Julia took the sucker out of her mouth and cleared her throat. "Well, I'm going to say it forever: if Mr. Apollo isn't fired after this musical, it's proof Principal Ouranous doesn't give a shit about this school."

"Take five everyone!" Will announced.

"Why? It was just one song," Chiara inquired.

"I said take five!"

Piper wandered over to Rachel but kept her eyes trained on Jason. Her eyes carried heavy black bags, and her nails had been bitten off as far as she could without hurting herself. Rachel smirked. "I know you like Jason, but he has eyes."

"Oh my God," Piper choked, whacking Rachel harshly. She laughed in success, grabbing Piper's shoulder. 

"You should ask him out."

"Ask him out?" Piper said in disbelief. "Heck no. I don't have the balls for that."

"You don't have balls at all."

"My point exactly!"

 "Piper, he totally  likes you," Rachel insisted. "He's not very subtle, and neither are you."

Piper scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Please."

Rachel made sure Jason wasn't in the room. She noticed that he wasn't and cleared her throat. "Okay, guys, what are Piper and Jason? Relationship wise!"

"I thought you guys were dating before our first dress rehearsal," Julia commented, scrolling through her phone and chugging Mountain Dew.

"I heard all the rumors about that thing that happened at lunch," Chiara admitted. "But I'm still not sure what y'all are."

"Wait, wait, wait. You're not dating?" Drew asked while applying lip gloss. "I literally thought you guys were together. I'm not even messing with you."

Will cupped his hands around his mouth. "They like each other!" Connor winked and gave a thumbs up in their direction.

"I hate everything," Piper insisted, wandering cluelessly backstage.

"Ask him out while you're back there!" Rachel laughed.

...

She went to dinner with Frank after rehearsal.

It was a Friday night, and Rachel always went to Starbucks every Friday night to study, so why not spend some time with one of her best friends?

"So then Dakota passed the ball to Mark but then the Linebacker on the other team came in and was like BLAAAGH! " Frank made a crashing motion with his hands for effect. "And then the ball somehow got into the end zone. I'm not sure how. So yeah. That's how they jumped the game from 28 - 35 to 35 - 35. And then-"

Frank tended to ramble about his football games. Whenever they lost, he got a little more heated about it, but somehow still managed to be really kind. When he got a little too heated, he'd stop himself. But it was never extreme; somehow he managed to be an amazing sport.

Well, the good news was that their team had won that day. So his story was a little more exciting.

Rachel snorted at Frank's rambling, paying attention to him even though he didn't make much sense. He must've noticed, because he hesitated and flushed a cherry color. "Sorry," he muttered bashfully.

"It's fine," Rachel giggled. She shuffled her feet in her slides under the stool and tapped her nails against the Starbucks cup. "So. Did you manage to ask out Hazel?"

Frank turned even redder. "No," he admitted.

"I'm sure she'll say yes," Rachel winked at him. "You guys are practically made for each other."

"But what if she doesn't  say yes?" he wondered. "What if she isn't  made for me and you're wrong?"

Rachel sighed. "Here we go again," she muttered to herself helplessly.

"What if, here me out, she's in love with Percy?" he asked, quickly hitting his pointer finger against the table like he was placing Percy there. "What if she's hopelessly in love with him and she can't accept that he and Annabeth are totally  getting married and so she's so sad that she has  to say yes?"

She was so shocked that she had to force herself to laugh. "Are you kidding me?" Rachel asked. "Hazel Levesque? There is no way she's in love with Percy." She inconspicuously slid her hand into her pocket.

"How do you know? What if she's in love with Percy because he's strong and tall and attractive and not lame and not awkward and what if-"

Rachel's thumb glided across the glass, hoping this wouldn't go wrong. She tapped. "Wow Frank, it sounds like you're more in love with Percy than Hazel supposedly is."

"Shut up!" Frank argued. "It's not that! I just...I really like her, and-"

"Who?" Rachel smirked. It's gonna work.

"You know who!"

Or not.

She kept rolling with it, letting Frank rant. "What if she just doesn't want to go out with me because I'm super lame? I'm sorry, but I just don't see how Hazel could ever like me!"

"You like me?"

There it is.

Rachel pulled her phone out of her pocket and set it on the table where Frank could clearly see the phone I.D. - 🥰😘😇 Hazel 🥰😘😇. His eyes widened and he gaped at the phone.

"Well?" Rachel whispered encouragingly. Frank looked up to her, at first angrily, but Rachel gave him a stern look. She got the message across: you would've never done it yourself.

"Uh...yeah? Yes? I mean, no. I MEAN, I do, but, I - I, but only if that's okay with you, 'cause if it isn't, then I don't."

"No, I mean...I like you too."

"Wait, wait, wait, you what?"

Rachel held back a laugh. They were too cute.

"I'm serious, Frank. I mean, if you are."

"No, I'm completely serious."

"Oh! Well...so am I."

"Awesome! I mean, great. I mean, cool! I mean-"

"Do you wanna hang out this weekend?"

Rachel bit down on her fist - hard. Literally biting back a smile, she nodded at her head as if to say "say yes, idiot!"

"Uh, yeah! That'd be...awesome!" He shrugged and made a "what's happening?" face to Rachel.

"Okay! I'll...uh, text you about the details?"

"Sounds great!"

"Okay!"

"Okay!"

The two lovebirds laughed and hesitated. "I'll see you later?" Frank asked hesitantly.

"Definitely. Bye!"

"Bye, Hazel."

When Hazel hung up, Rachel and Frank both made some ineligible excited noises. Rachel grabbed his wrists as if to ground him and tell him "hey, that just happened! You're not crazy!"

"How did you know she'd say yes?"

"She told me she liked you!" Rachel laughed.

"And you didn't tell me?"

"I am a good friend," she interrupted him. "I'm not telling people her secrets."

"You're a great friend," Frank proclaimed excitedly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Rachel!"

She smiled as his excitement. "You're welcome, Frank."