𝙸 𝙲𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚜

𝚂𝟷𝙴𝟷𝟶: 𝙳𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚘

"What's the class?" Jason asks.

Percy sits a little taller and says, "Sailing."

Annabeth snorts. Sailing at New Rome? "And how are they going to do that?" she teases. "We don't have an on-campus ocean."

Not once breaking his power pose, Percy says, "They'll do it with a real sailboat out in the parking lot."

Oh, like that makes it any better. How realistic.

"Oh, that sounds nice! I've always wanted to learn, but I get too seasick." Leave it to Hazel to find a silver lining in Percy's dumb plan.

Frank will join Annabeth in pottery though, and because she likes him, Hazel will have to abandon Percy in sailing and join Annabeth's side.

"Count me in too," says Frank. Not fair! Percy just stole Annabeth's number-one supporter!

And then like a dumbass—no, that's not original—Percy says, "Great! We'll be real seamen in no time!"

And because she's just so mature, Piper laughs at the word 'seamen.'

But there's still Jason. He's the tie-breaker.

"Jason?" Percy asks. "How about it? Sail across the parking lot with your bro?"

No, Jason, Annabeth wills internally. Make pots with the girl you like and your bro, Leo...

"Bro," Jason says, reasonable as ever. "If I'm not good at sailing, I'll have a bad grade on my transcript. If I'm bad at pottery, I still get an A. I'm joining Annabeth and the others."

This would be an inappropriate situation for Annabeth to stand up and scream, SUCK IT, JACKSON!, so she opts for a smug look. Jason said it well enough himself: you can fail sailing, but you can't fail pottery.

Despite his wounded ego, Percy says, "You'll be missing out."

Not caring if Percy can see her happy dance, Annabeth signs herself up for the pottery class. "You'll be sorry when you suck at sailing. Should I say 'I told you so' now or after you withdraw?" The look on Percy's face when he enrolls late in pottery after flunking out of sailing is going to be priceless!

"Watch it, Wise Girl. Sailing is in my blood," he says, whatever that means.

But damn, she really needs a better nickname for him. No, not a nickname! An insult. Friends give each other nicknames. Annabeth and Percy are... something else... frenemies?

"Mmhmm," Piper retorts. "Just like pottery is in my blood even though my last ceramics project was my kindergarten pinch pot."

Oh, shit. Can they laugh at that? It's funny because Piper said it, right? So can they laugh?

Annabeth looks around the room, noting that everyone seems to have the same reaction.

"I... I bet it's a wonderful pinch pot..." Frank offers shyly. Oh, Frank.

"My dad lost it when we moved to Oklahoma," Piper says. Dammit, Piper.

"I'm sorry to hear that." They need to stop talking about this now before it gets offensive.

"Not as sorry as my dad."

Piper is great. Annabeth loves her, but she can really make a situation uncomfortable. She's one of those people who can influence the whole room. If she's in a bad mood, so is everyone else. Some people think Annabeth has that effect, but she doesn't buy it.

"Oh," Frank mumbles. That just about sums up how Annabeth feels about this conversation.

"How about we study some Latin?" Jason asks. "Latin is good. Latin is not insensitive."