Annabeth's POV

"Guys, I just got some awesome news!" Percy said as he hung up his phone.

"Oh my god! Did Cupid finally call you up and force you to tell us that you were making out in the janitors' closet?" Leo asked. I slapped the back of his head as Percy and I both glared at him. "Ow!" He complained.

"Anyways," Percy gave Leo a final glare. "So I have a cousin. His name is Nico, and he's coming to Goode!" Percy explained.

"No offense, but why is that so exciting?" Frank asked.

"I don't know, I just think that you guys might like him." Percy shrugged.

"Alright, well when do we get to meet him?" Piper asked.

"He's coming in on Monday." Percy answered.

"So, anything that we should know?" I asked.

"Well, he's kinda... brooding." Percy decided.

"Emo?"

"Brooding." Percy corrected me. "Okay maybe a little emo, but that's not that important," he rushed out. "He's cool once you get to know him."

"Okay." Jason nodded.

"And he's gay." Percy finished.

"Awesome!" Reyna exclaimed.

"Why is that awesome?" Hazel asked with a bit of a laugh, giving Reyna a strange look.

"Oh, because I know this gay kid, who's single and could totally use a boyfriend." Reyna smiled.

"Nico isn't gonna like you playing matchmaker with him, just a heads up." Percy warned.

"Oh it'll be fine," Reyna waved him off.

"Fine. Don't come to me when he insults you, which he does a lot and they hurt sometimes." Percy seemed like he had been on the receiving end of those insults more than once.

I laughed. "Alright, well, I guess Monday will be interesting." I started. "Anyways, we should hang out again. How about this weekend, my place? I don't think anyone will be home, so we'll have the house to ourselves."

"Maybe we should all not go, giving those two love birds the house to them selves." Piper whispered not so quietly with a smirk.

I kicked her from under the table.

"Ow!" She looked at me.

"Stop with the jokes, you dickheads." I glared at them. They all became serious, probably because I scared them. Percy didn't say anything, for he was too busy turning bright red. "Are we on for this weekend or not?" I asked.

"I'm down, jokes aside." Jason said, giving some of the other a look. Jason was always the responsible one in the group, which was sometimes nice, like now.

"Thank you, Jason." I looked at the others.

"I'll go." Reyna said.

"Me too." Hazel added. Everyone else agreed as well.

"Awesome, then. Everyone, my house tonight at eight." I said just before the bell rang.

"I gotta get to class. See you later." I grabbed my bag and stood up, heading out of the cafeteria. I sighed as I headed down the hall to history.

I headed into the classroom and sat down.

Let's hope the rest of the day goes quickly.

><•><

"Hey, Jackson!" I called after Percy. I jogged up to him.

He turned to me, closing his locker. "'Sup, Chase." He smiled.

"Could you give me a ride? I realize that I can't skateboard through snow." I looked at him and chewed my lip.

"I would be happy to, considering the fact that you nearly died this morning." He grinned at me and raised his eyebrows.

"I didn't almost die." I insisted, rolling my eyes. "I only slipped a few times." I muttered and shrugged.

"Exactly. Which you could have slipped and fallen into the street and get run over by a car." He explained. "God forbid." He mumbled.

"Please," I waved him off, once again rolling my eyes. "I wouldn't have been hit by a car." We began walking through the parking lot to his car.

"Well, either way you almost died. And I'm the one that's supposed to be severely injured and close to death." He smirked at me.

I smiled and shook my head. I thought that it was good how Percy could make light of his situation, now that it was over. But even before it ended, he still would crack a joke every once and a while. I admired that.

"M'lady." Percy opened the car door for me. I glared at him. I pushed him away from the door playfully, chuckling.

"Woah!" Percy stumbled and fell back on his ass into a huge pile of snow.

I burst out laughing. "Good job, dumbass!" I teased between laughs.

Percy started laughing as well, shaking his head. He tried to get up, but he just slipped again.

I laughed even harder. "Need some help, there?" I raised an eyebrow and tried to smirk, but I ended up full-on smiling.

"That would be nice." He said.

I closed the car door and walked up to help him. I grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the snow. I pulled him a little too hard and he crashed into me. I managed to regain my balance, Percy grabbing my arms. I looked up into his eyes, and realized how close we were. His gorgeous green eyes were bright, and happy. His breath felt warm on my cheeks in the cold air, and smelled like mint. A warm fire sparked in my stomach and only grew, turning my cheeks pink. Percy blushed harder than I did.

"Hi." He whispered.

"Hi." I whispered back. I swallowed. "I should... we should... you kno—"

"Y-yeah. I'll, yeah..."

We separated and got in the car. I tried to act as normal as possible, but that didn't mean that things still weren't awkward. I couldn't lie; I fought every instinct that told me to kiss him. I wanted to, more than I'd like to admit, but I didn't. I couldn't. And I still didn't know why.

I pushed all my thoughts away, plugging my phone into the aux cord. I played my music as Percy pulled out of the parking lot.

Find me at a quarter to three
Cigarette in my hand
I'd be at every party
I wouldn't miss a chance

I started humming along to the song, scrolling through my phone, checking notifications.

"You wanna just hang out until everyone else gets here?" I asked as Percy pulled up in front of my house.

"If it's okay with you, sure." He shrugged.

"Cool." I got out of the car, grabbing my book bag from the back seat. "So, what should we do tonight?" I asked as we walked up to the front door. "I don't really feel like truth or dare again, considering how that went last time." I mumbled the last part, jamming my key into the lock.

"Why don't we play..." Percy thought for a second as I pushed the door open. "Never have I ever?"

"Okay, okay. Not bad. But we still need something else." I pulled off my snowy sneakers, throwing them on the floor. Percy placed his next to mine. We pulled off our coats, putting them on hooks behind the door.

We walked upstairs, I taking them two at a time as usual, and into my room. "We should play like, hide and seek, or something." I grabbed the hacky-sack off my desk and tossed it from one hand to the other.

Percy snorted. "Hide and seek? What are we, in first grade?" He laughed.

"No. But hide and seek is still fun, so you can suck my dick, okay?" I said defensively. I chucked the hacky-sack at him, hitting him in the stomach. He groaned and rolled onto the floor, being extremely over dramatic.

"Oh," he groaned. "I, I see the light..." he reached a hand to the ceiling, before having it flop to the floor.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to him. I took a comfortable seat on his stomach.

"Ugh," He groaned, raising his shoulders and legs. "You're killin' me, Wise Girl. Seriously, how much do you weigh?"

"Um, offensive, Asshole." I said. "Are you done?"

"Yes." He croaked.

I got up off of him and held out my hand. "Here, Seaweed Brain."

"Thanks," he grabbed my hand and I hauled him off the floor. This time, I didn't pull too hard, so thankfully, it wasn't awkward.

I sighed and flopped onto my bed. "So hide and seek?"

Percy laid next to me. "Why not?" I felt him shrug, our shoulders touching. I felt sparks fly through my arm. I tried not to pay it any attention. "Practice round?"

"Let's go." I stood up from the bed.

"You count." Percy got up as well.

"No you count,"

"Rock, paper, scissors." Percy held out his hand.

"Fine. Rock, paper, scissors, shoot." I chanted. "Ha, I win. Rock beats scissors." I gloated.

"Dammit," Percy sighed.

"Alright, whole house, no outdoors, obviously. Also, my dad's room is off limits as well as Bobby and Matthew's. If you can't find me in eight minutes, I win. Count to 50." I listed off the rules.

"50? Why not just make it a whole minute?" Percy asked.

"Why not just make school the whole year round? Because that's stupid, and I said not to. 50. Count in here." I turned and walked out of my room, closing the door behind me.

I walked down the stairs, knowing exactly where to hide. In the kitchen, there was one cabinet that we didn't fill yet, because we had nothing to put in it.

Well, now we do.

Me.

I was able to cram into the cabinet, it being one of the bigger ones in the kitchen. It was a bit of a struggle, but I was able to fit. Thank god that I was flexible, or else this wouldn't have worked. I had to basically fold myself in half, my knees being right in my face. But then, I had to slump down more, bending my knees a bit so my feet could fit. Once I was in, I closed the cabinet, and just in time as I heard Percy come down the stairs, yelling, "Ready or not, here I come!"

I exhaled, starting the timer on my phone.

I heard Percy walk all over the first floor, and right by the cupboard I was in multiple times. He started to talk to himself, and I had to keep myself from laughing.

Eventually, I heard him shout, "I give up! I can't find you, you win!" Just then the timer went off.

I shoved open the cabinet door. "HA!" I shouted, scaring the shit out of him. I started laughing so hard, I could barely breath.

"I hate you," Percy muttered, as he leaned on the counter, shaking his head and taking a deep breath.

"Yeah, yeah. But this," I gestured to my hiding spot. "Was good. You gotta give to me. Getting in here was not easy." I raised my eyebrows.

"Alright, I'll give you that."

"Could you also give me a hand?" I asked. "I, I don't think I can get out."

Percy sighed. "Come on." He grabbed my hand, going to pull me out.

"Ow! Nope, nope!" I said. "Not gonna work, stop."

"Then how are we gonna get you out!?" He held his hands up.

"My legs. You have to pull me out by my legs." I said.

"Oh dear lord," Percy sighed through his nose. "Alright." He grabbed my ankles, trying to pull them down.

"Hold on! Hold on! Ow!" I yelled, laughing. Percy started laughing too. Soon, we were both in hysterics. It became difficult to breath. It was a good five minutes before we were able to regain our bearings.

"Okay, okay," I started, out of breath. "Help me out now."

"Okay." Percy was still laughing. He was able to pull my ankles down and out of the cupboard, and then I scooted out and onto the floor. I exhaled.

"Wow, that was an effort." I said finally.

"Yeah, just a little bit." Percy joked.

"Thanks."

"No problem." Percy stood up, offering me a hand. I took it and he hauled me up.

"Well, looks like I won." I smirked.

"But did you really?" He teased.

"The rules state that I, in fact, did win. So, yes. I did." I said matter-of-factly

"Fine. But do I really have to count again?" He whined.

"I'll be nice. You can count to 45 this time." I said sarcastically.

"Oh my gosh, really? Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate it." Percy joked.

"You're welcome, yeah." I smiled. "No, I'm kidding. You can hide."

"Really?"

"No."

"Aw. Seriously?"

"No,"

"Awesome."

"Yeah. I know."

><•><

"Piper!" I shouted. "And, all the rest of you, hi!" I opened the door more, letting everyone in.

"Alright! We have the entire house to ourselves, but that does not mean trash it. You can throw any stuff you have upstairs in my room." I led everyone upstairs and into my bedroom. They threw down their stuff—sleeping bags, pillows, duffles—and we headed back downstairs.

"So! First things first; we are playing hide and seek," I started. "And before you all start laughing at me, just wanted to say; fuck you, and this can actually be fun." I paused. "Alright, Jason will be it." I announced.

"Wha—why me?" He protested.

"Because I said so. Everyone else, find a hiding spot!"

We all scattered and so the game began.

•••

Authors note

alright, another shitty ending idek why y'all are still here like I just wanna say, thank you for putting up with my shït writing and some of you even like it like... what?? Pshh Idk what's wrong w you but hey, I won't judge. Anyways thanks for all the reads don't forget to vote comment etc. thanks nand love you guys!
-bella💕

Also, @brxkenpersxn whERE YOU AT THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT AND VoldemortOnTheArgoII yEET