𝙸 𝙲𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚜

𝚂𝟺𝙴𝟹: 𝚂𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚜 𝙵𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝙼𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚘𝙼𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚌 𝙲𝚘𝚗

"That's great and all," says Jason, "but can I please put some pants on before we get into this?"

✎✎✎

"I'm so glad Leo was able to score us tickets," Frank says from the backseat of Percy's Jeep. "I was worried I'd have to go with the MythoMagic Club, and none of them drive, so I'd have to get van certified."

"That's nice," Annabeth says, turning up the radio. As shotgun, she earned Bluetooth privileges and is now making the entire car listen to Mother Mother.

At one point, Hazel whispers to Frank asking if she should be concerned that Annabeth listens to such angsty music, and then judging her song choices becomes their activity for the car ride.

"Hey, can I play something?" Hazel asks.

Because it's impossible to say no to Hazel, Annabeth passes her phone back and Hazel scrolls through her playlist, looking to see if there's an ounce of happiness in there.

"MCR, Green Day, old Fall Out Boy... Is she okay?" Frank whispers.

"Watch this." Hazel hits play on a pop song from 2012, just to see Annabeth's reaction to something so... bubbly.

I threw a wish in the well, don't ask me, I'll never tell, I looked to you as it fell-

"Goddammit..." Annabeth mumbles before taking a sip from the Cherry Coke Percy bought her at the gas station.

"So," says Percy. "Who's the best MythoMagic character, Frank? Gotta be the war dude since the game's about battle strategy, right?"

"Well, not necessarily," says Frank. "You have to have the right expansion decks and weapons cards to win with Ares. I prefer Apollo, but he'll lose to Zeus every time. Most of the characters lose to Zeus though."

"So is that like a legendary Pokémon?" Percy asks.

Frank purses his lips while Carly Rae Jepsen launches into the next verse. "I mean, kind of? It depends on what you equip him with and what his opponent is."

"Oh, so like how a water type will beat a fire type. So Poseidon will beat Hephaestus?"

"I mean, usually, yeah, but if you have the Greek Fire expansion pack you might be able to-"

"Cool, so like Pokémon!" Percy pats his hands against the steering wheel, feeling quite proud of his connection.

Hazel snickers. "Don't think I don't hear you humming along, Annabeth."

"I am not. I would never."

Percy hits the turn signal and then the GPS says, "Your destination is on your right."

So of course, everyone looks to the right, trying to look for the hotel. "What's everyone going to do when we get there?" Percy asks.

Frank furrows his eyebrows and sets down the pamphlet he was reading. "Uh, follow Leo's itinerary? Get in line for autographs?"

Hazel looks at Frank and then she looks at Percy. "What are you guys doing when we get there?"

"Well, uh, we were going to go to the aquarium, and then the Funko Pop store, and then-"

"Wait, you guys aren't going to the convention?" Frank asks.

Annabeth queues another Mother Mother song. "We're going to the convention before the concert tonight."

"The concert?" Hazel asks.

"Yeah, we're seeing Måneskin."

Frank gasps. "You got tickets to see Måneskin?"