Will's POV

High school teachers had two different moods, the first being the you have a pop quiz today and you're all going to fail it mood. The second mood generally only came on rare occasions, the let's all skip last period to play school wide hide and seek and try not to be too loud because I'm not supposed to be letting you out of class kind of mood. Thankfully, it was during the final fifty minute period before vacation began that Mr. Gibbon was in that mood, releasing us to run wild through the school. 

"Does that mean we can just leave?" Percy asked, grinning from ear to ear. His hand brushed against Annabeth's and I could tell that he was already itching to grab her and pull her out of school, but his face dropped when Mr. Gibbon shook his head. 

"That means that you can go play hide and seek as a class," he said, rubbing his tired face in his hands. Papers were splayed across his desk, a hot cup of coffee sitting at the edge. "I'll be calling you all back here through the intercom near the end of the day and if you don't show up you're getting a zero for the day, so don't even think about leaving the school grounds." He waved his hand at us, gesturing for us to leave. "Think of it as an exercise in teamwork. Now, get out. You're wasting time." I could tell that he meant we were wasting his time, but I wasn't insulted as Annabeth quietly shut the door behind of us, our small group clumped together in the empty hallway. 

"Do we really have to play hide and seek, or can we walk around until he calls us back?" Leo whined. "This sounds boring."

"Knowing Mr. Gibbon we'll be getting a quiz on how we did as a team when we get back from break, so I'd suggest playing," Annabeth suggested. 

"Besides, it sounds kind of fun," Percy quipped. "Who wants to be it? I nominate Jason." 

"Is this because I have glasses?" Jason asked, swatting Percy's arm. "You know I can see fine, right?" 

"Sorry, bud, can't talk," Percy said, grabbing Annabeth's arm and pulling her down the hallway, their footsteps bouncing off of the walls. "We've got to hide. Have fun finding us!" I heard their footsteps echoing down the staircase, finally fading away once they must have hit the first floor. Jason, who had previously been watching them run, turned back to the crowd that had once stood before him, but we were already gone.

We had paired off into groups of one or two, and it was almost an unspoken agreement that Nico and I would hide together, our footsteps pounding against the linoleum tiles in unison, our arms flailing as if it would somehow make us faster. For a while I thought I could hear Jason's footsteps behind us and I pumped my legs harder until the footsteps behind us got quieter and quieter until I couldn't hear them any longer. That was when my hand shot out, grabbing Nico by the bicep. He turned toward me and I could see that his face was as red as mine, his mouth ajar and his hands on his hips. 

"I need water," I gasped, bending down and taking in long sips of the cool liquid. I waited for Nico to get his fill, my back against the wall as I leaned on it for support. He wiped his mouth when he was finished, turning toward me. 

"Where do you want to hide?" I asked. "We have anywhere in the school we want, as long as it's not being used."

"I don't think we should hide," Nico grinned, a gleam in his eye. "We should keep running, see if we run into Jason."

"Nico, that's dumb, we're going to get caught," I told him.

"Exactly," he said, and I frowned. "It's risky, it's fun. It's not like we're going to die or anything." I must have still looked skeptical, because he sighed. "Please?" he begged. "What else do you want to do, sit in a storage closet for the last fifty minutes of school? This is like, a once in a lifetime opportunity, don't you want it to be fun?" 

"If we get caught," I spat. "It's all on you. Got it?" Nico grinned. 

"I'll take the blame," Nico said. "Which way do you want to go?" To the left was a staircase, leading to both the first and third floor. We could get anywhere in the school using that staircase, a valuable tool we had at our disposal. To the right was the way we had come, classrooms lining either side of the hallway, and Jason likely prowling around where we had begun, looking for anyone stupid enough to go back there.

"Right," I decided. 

"You know Jason might be over there, right?" Nico asked. "I thought you didn't want to get caught?" I shrugged. 

"Maybe you were right," I said. "What's the fun without a little risk?"

We kept our footsteps quiet as we inched through the halls, our eyes peeled for any sign of movement. Occasionally we would be passed with a student on their way to the bathroom or to get a drink but other than that, there was no one in the hallway besides the two of us.

When we finally found Jason, quickly walking in the opposite direction from us with obviously no idea we were so close, we burst into giggles. It might have been the adrenaline pumping through our veins or perhaps pure excitement but whatever the cause it was a bad decision because Jason spun around, his eyes widening once he spotted us. 

"We should run," I said, watching as Jason began running down the long hallway, quickly gaining ground. 

"Good idea," Nico said. I could hear our hearts pounding against our chests as we sprinted down the hallway, Jason on our heels. We nearly tumbled over our feet as we ran down the stairs, each one seeming like a sharp decline. Jason was yelling at us to come back, but I could hear the exhaustion in his voice. We were about to lose him, and I just had to figure out how. 

We were on the first floor and I could see Jason begin to fall behind, although with the way my face was beginning to burn I wouldn't be able to keep up the sprint for much longer. The chase was no longer about speed; it was about strategy, and I knew that the only way to outrun Jason would be to outsmart him. My only task was to figure out how.

As we neared the math wing, a plan became obvious. The shape of the wing was strange, with two separate hallways branching out around the music room and meeting back up on the other side, a bathroom on the wall where they met back up. That was where the hallway continued to the science wing, meaning that Jason would run past the bathroom, expecting us to have gone into the science wing. "Nico!" I hissed, my words barely discernible over my heavy breathing. "Split off here, meet in the bathroom." I wasn't sure if he was able to understand until he nodded, going left as I went right. As I turned the bend I could hear Jason's footsteps stop as he caught his breath, trying to figure out which way we had gone, unsuspecting of our plan. After a few more seconds he began running right, but I already had enough of a head start to barrel into the bathroom just in time, nearly collapsing onto Nico. 

We let out a sigh of relief as we heard Jason's footsteps fade into the science wing, unaware that he had been so close to catching his targets. Nico and I slid our backs against the cool tiled wall of the bathroom, finally sitting down on the floor, our legs stretched out in front of us. Nico's smile was miles long, and seeing that on his face was almost worth all of the running we had to do. "Where do you want to go?" I asked, turning to him. His head was leaning back against the wall as he greedily sucked in breaths, his eyes closed. He opened them at my question, his brown meeting with my blue.

"We don't have to do something," he said. "We can just stay here." He didn't break his gaze, not even when he leaned in for a deep, passionate kiss, our warm lips pressed up against each other. "Unless you want to go somewhere. We have twenty five minutes left." I was still staring at him, drinking in every last inch of his body. He looked strangely ethereal in the soft lighting of the bathroom, a lock of black hair curling up from his forehead, his cheeks rosy.

"Let's stay here," I decided, wrapping my arm around his waist, prompting him to lay his head on my shoulder. "It was fun running around the school like that but right here, I just want to be here with you."

I was sad when the intercom crackled, calling Mr. Gibbon's class to his room, signaling the end of our short adventure. My legs trembled underneath me when I stood up from a combination of sprinting around the school and sitting down for such a long time, but it only took a few seconds to get my bearings until we could make our way back up to the second floor where the rest of our class was waiting. Mr. Gibbon was quickly taking attendance, and he barely even registered our arrival, only giving us checks on his clipboard, hurrying back into his room as he wished us a quick have a good break. 

"Did you end up catching everyone?" Nico asked. 

"I caught Percy and Annabeth in the library," he smirked. "And Leo was hiding in the bathroom. It was such a dumb hiding spot, too. I never caught you and Will, though. I was a little upset about that, especially since I almost got you at the beginning." 

"Guess we just had a good hiding spot," I shrugged. 

We said goodbye to each other and soon it was just Nico and I, standing outside in the slush as we stared out at the gray sky. "That was fun," Nico sighed. "I wish we could do it again."

"We'll have more fun," I told him. "After all, it is vacation. We can have as much fun as you want."

Hi guys! I'm not sure if that one was good or not, it's late so sorry if it wasn't. Anyway, I hope you liked that one!