a/n: alright kiddos! say it with me: F I L L E R C H A P T E R-

sorry that it took so long... delays, came up. BUT IT'S HERE NOW

yaddadeee

Piper pov

The next morning I decided to act "normally" as I could. I didn't know how many knew the prophecy so the less suspicious you could be, the better.

I wondered if Leo made it out alive after the glitter prank, so since I have nothing to do for a few days why not check up on him?

When I arrived at the forges I saw an odd pair of people. Nico and Leo. Nico and I started getting to know each other better after the war since he and Jason were friends. He's a great person, but he just went through schist so he created barriers. I wish people could try seeing that too but no. People will be discriminatory over small things because they are "different".

I waved at Leo, he turned and gave an elfish grin.

"Hey Pipes! Watcha' doing?" He gave a quick hug before running to put out a small fire.

"Just wanted to see if you were still alive." I joked. Leo laughed while being on fire after it started to spread onto him instead. Nico splashed water on him to put it out.

"Leo, what were you even planning on doing to the fire?" Nico asked shaking his head. Leo shrugged drying himself up with a towel.

"Hey Nico, what are you doing around here?" I asked with a laugh.

"Will's busy and tired so I'm just giving him quiet. Do you want to help with the design?"

"What design?" I furrowed my eyebrows. What was he working on now? Battle armor for Festus?

Nico waved over to where he was at a work table. I went over and looked at the notes and blueprints. It was... a chair? Why a c h a i r!?

"This is the multi-use spinny chair! Or MUSC, I should probably change the name." Leo announced. He went on to explain how it could be a normal chair, store weapons in the side, give massages, and also spin (this was the reason most adhd demigods agreed).

"That's an interesting project," I stated. Leo waved a hand in a "don't worry about it" way.

"Well, we worked on a FLYING WAR SHIP, so this won't be hard!" I guess he's right, but I still had no clue why we needed this. It seemed fun though.

After hours of working the lunch bell rang and Leo nudged me with his elbow.

"Hey beauty queen, can you please grab something back for me? I don't want to leave the forge unattended?" He asked with puppy eyes. Yes, I'll get the food for him not because of the puppy eyes though, just because I could.

"Ya, I will. Just finish the small thing I was working on?" I said with a little charmspeak slipping into my voice, crud. Leo quickly nodded and started to comply.

Nico noticed and briefly looked up but went back to his work. I really need to be more careful right now. He didn't say anything but I knew that he knew.

-----------------------

I came back later and passed Leo his tacos. He devoured them insanely fast and then continued working. I saw that his sister Chloe had joined and was spinning in the test model backward. Her chest where your back would be, and her chin resting on the board.

I checked how far they had gotten and saw that the next portion I was doing was a two-person job.

"Hey Nico, can you help me with this part since Leo's busy?" Nico nodded and walked over to where I was working.

We gathered the materials and didn't say anything other than the stuff for working. Surprisingly Nico broke the silence.

"This is not in my area but are you doing ok? You just seem a bit more quiet and less enthusiastic." I sucked in a breath and nodded.

"Yes, kind of tired. That's all." I smiled lightly even though I knew I wasn't selling it off. Luckily, he dropped the conversation and went back to work.

-time skip brought to you by: Jason being a vanilla furry sometimes-

As we were cleaning up for the day Percy burst through the door, fell flat on his face, then quickly got up arms in the air.

"We're having a beach party!!" The boy exclaimed excitedly. My chest tightened. Was this a good idea? What if I got angry at someone? I might accidentally charm speak another person! What if-

"Piper! Are you coming or not?" Leo cut off my thoughts. I quickly made up my mind and responded.

"Yeah, sure. I'll be there!" I smiled at him.

"Why not?" Nico sighed.

"Yay!" Leo and Percy said in unison. Percy dashed off to find his next invitation victim.

Oh, this is a bad idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After getting ready I made my way over to the beach. I tried to pick out the least showing bikini in the Aphrodite cabin, but I failed either way. The least showing one there was to just above my belly button. Oh, why am I using the Aphrodite cabin's swimsuits? Well, a certain girl who starts with M and ends with E forgot hers. Why did I even decide to go? Either way, I would've seemed suspicious. One was just less concerning. If I didn't go they would know something's up, but if I did go I would seem a little off. So it makes more sense that everyone has tired days rather than not interacting with others. Right?

I felt an arm placed around my shoulder by none other than Jason Grace. Once again, I felt my chest tighten. Why can't he tell that I don't like this.

"Hey Piper, you look pretty." He stated. I genuinely couldn't tell what he was feeling or thinking right now. Like, he was just saying stuff.

"Hi, Jason. Thanks, I guess." I sighed returning the same emotion keeping my eyes away from him. Jason cleared his throat and simply looked ahead.

The rest of the walk was painfully awkward and tense. The most that happened was Jason tripping over a pebble, a literal pebble and I think he... growled at it like it was being rude to him? W H A T

As we got closer I could smell the salty sea and guessed we had like 5 minutes left of walking.

"We're almost there," I stated looking at the grass. Yes, what lovely grass it was, it didn't hide things from me, and have no personal space awareness.

"Ok."

... Why is he so bland in vocabulary? I thought he spoke Latin and was part of a legion!? Or was all personality lost with the mind wipe?! Or maybe it was the brick...

When we arrived I felt the satisfying feeling of sand slipping between my toes. I couldn't appreciate it since a beach ball flew at my head! I ducked and it hit Jason in the head and he caught it and looked to see who threw it. Percy was dancing at him in the water and Jason chucked it back at him and then chased him off leaving me to simply stand there.

I looked around and saw most of our friends and a few others doing different activities. Malcolm had recovered enough and was chatting with Jenny and another girl I'd seen at camp, Maybe her name was Zaria? I remembered her dark-toned skin and the braids that went down to her stomach. They were laughing about something Zaria had said, I was surprised that Jenny didn't have her nose in a book for once.

I looked over to the left I saw a bonfire being built by Leo and his sister Chloe. Let's just say, they both looked like pyromaniacs. She was around 13/14 (cm tall *cough*) and had the ends of her brown hair smoking, but her eyes and freckles were glowing in the firelight with pure chaos. I decided not to interfere.

Over at the the water, it was tinted orange from the setting sun. It would've looked beautiful if the guys weren't having a water war. Travis was mounted on Percy's shoulders, and Nico on Jason's. Connor might've been pretending to be a shark because he was swimming underwater and would attack either team's legs occasionally. Will was the referee and was making sure weapons didn't unsheath.

It did look mildly fun but I didn't really want to.

I spotted a girl by the water who looked like she was trying to comprehend whatever was happening. I remembered seeing her since she was one of the healers who helped Malcolm while Will was busy, I was glad that the infirmary got more staff to help because one person whose main talent was healing is defiantly not enough.

She saw me approaching and waved with a smile. "Hey, do you want a snack or drink?" She asked. I was going to refuse but I that I was infact hungry.

"Sure, what do you have?" I sat next to her stuff and listened to her listing the options. There were a variety of juices, pops, fruit, bread and crackers, cheese, and different kinds of sandwiches (a/n. If you haven't drank or eaten in a bit, go drink or eat!). All with decorative plates themed on the cabins. I looked over at her basket, it was a normal-sized picnic basket with no tech.

"How do you fit all of that in there?" I asked. "Is it something from cabin nine?"

"First, eat something. Second, no. It's just resourceful packing." She smiled. I picked up a slice of watermelon and started nibbling away. My eyes widened in surprise. It was sweet and juicy but didn't get all over your hands. She laughed at my expression,

"They're good right?! You should try the pineapple!" She handed me a slice. One word: amazing.

"Where did you get these!?" I exclaimed.

"I visited a pineapple tour in Costa Rica. They gave tips on what tastes best and how to find it!" She pointed to the bottom of another pineapple. "This area is the sweetest by the way." The girl put a finger to her lips as a mock secret. I laughed, and then I realized I had forgotten something.

I looked at her and asked, "Hey what's your name? I forgot to ask!"

She gave a quick laugh, "Venesse. I would ask yours but-" She shrugged making a circular motion with her hand. I saw Jenny creeping up from behind her but I didn't mention anything, I gave a look to Jenny and then turned my attention back to Venesse. She was making a silly doodle in the sand with a smile. It didn't last long as Jenny scared her from behind, Venesse let out a surprised shriek before bursting out laughing clutching her chest.

"JEN! You scared me!" She said between laughs laying flat on her back and clutching her stomach. Jenny gave an innocent smile.

"Can I have something?" She asked

Venesse nodded. "Sure go ahead!" Jenny grabbed a few cheese and crackers. Venesse looked at the Chloe running over and laid on her stomach. Chole superhero landed on her back and hugged her. it was funny how THEY WERE literal children of gods but just decide to use their time like this.

"Hi Chloe." Venesse said unamused but smiling. "Can you get off?" Chloe shook her head. Venesse let out a sigh. Zaria had waddled over and was chatting with the two of them.

I looked over and saw Hazel playing with dog Frank, tossing a stick into the water and Frank getting it. Travis and Nico had dismounted and were just splashing at the other team.

I heard a surprised inhale and two people laughing. I turned back to the girls and saw Chloe and Venesse were cackling and Zaria just looked at them with a shrug.

"I mean he would be a furry!" The daughter of Iris said making Jenny join the laughing.

"Wait, who?" I asked.

"Oh yeah. Jason. Like, I imagine him at night during the full moon just barking RA RA RAR! Like not a cute bark just violent AR ARGH ARGH!" Zaria explained. I snorted imagining the scene.

"I mean, he was raised by wolves! It would explain his relationship skills!" I added.

"EXACTLY!" Venesse laughed. And for once I felt entirely comfortable.

The evening passed by quickly and I spent most of my time with the new group of girls. They were fun and weren't constantly suspicious or worried. I couldn't blame my friends for being on high alert, but with this new group I didn't feel like a demigod who has been through a lot of stuff. I felt like a regular teenager for once. I had always been friends with Leo but things changed once Jason arrived and the whole prophecy thing started. I've been through a lot with the seven, but this group made me feel like I wasn't going to be called by the gods any second to fight. It felt... relaxing?

Besides some dreams, I slept well that night.

a/n: holy-. I THOUGHT THIS WAS A FILLER! This is the longest chapter so far with like 2000 words!?

what's your fav picnic snack? Mine's cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, don't judge.

anyway, any suggestions or questions?

Stay lovely, butterflies <3