Hey guys, so whenever I let my co-author write she always manages to do something weird, and last chapter she wrote in the letter J instead of L. It's been changed now so it'll be right if you look back, but we are sorry. Also sorry this is a short chapter.
Nico's P.O.V
Annabeth . . . she had a baby. It all made sense now, why I could never come over, or even walk Hazel up to the apartment. Annabeth acting weird when anyone ever called her mom.
But . . . she doesn't seem like that kind of girl . . . At least as far as I know.
The baby looked up at me, it's big stormy eyes smiling. How could I ever harm such a precious little thing? I mean it wouldn't directly be hurting him but . . .
I'm trustworthy, I wouldn't tell anyone. Annabeth could have trusted me with this.
Then my predicament really struck me, how was I trust-worthy? I was literally breaking into her house to deface stuff. This absolutely had to end, now.
I put the baby back in the crib and looked into it's eyes. "I'm not going to let this keep happening. I'm not gonna let these people, this 'B academy' walk all over me and hurt my friends." I said earnestly. I mean not like it understood or anything, but it made me feel better.
I left the apartment and hailed a cab back to my dorm.
Ok, so I had to stop the B academy. Unfortunately they had dirt on me, which meant I'd have to dish it before they could. But if I was coming out, I was going to do it in style.
Piper P.O.V (at the same time Nico was in Charlie's room)
*creak* I sat up in bed, placing my phone on my side table. What was that? Then I heard Charlie crying and started to get up, and promptly fell face forward on my carpet.
Crud! I'd left my school books beside my bed again. I brushed myself off and stood to get Charlie, but he had stopped crying. It was a little odd . . . but maybe he just went back to bed.
As I climbed back in bed I heard another loud, screeching creak. I tiptoed to my door and cracked it open to look through.
I could only barely make out a figure in a black hoodie - a hoodie that just happened to have a pink glitter line where Hazel had tried to paint wings on it when we were in high school. There was only one person that could be - and that was Nico.
Hazel P.O.V
"Ok now do a lion!" I laughed.
Frank roared really loudly, and really well, if you hadn't seen it you would of thought that it was a clip.
"How do you even do that?" I asked, leaning against a tree to catch my breath.
"I dunno, talent I guess." He turned around to face me, "Come on only a little bit left."
It had been Frank's idea to go to upstate New York and take a hike.
"Where are we going though?" I prompted.
He gave me a mischievous look, "that's for me to know and you to find out."
"Ugh but I want to know." I complained, starting to move again.
"Well it's too bad that I won't tell then isn't it?" He laughed.
But I had an idea once I heard the thundering of a waterfall.
We emerged into a small clearing that lead to a lake. A waterfall poured into it, flowing from a small cliff. The water shone an orange color, tinted by the setting sun.
Frank pulled a blanket out of his backpack and started unpacking some snacks.
He patted the spot next to him, "Come on Hazel, let's cloud watch."
I lied down next to him and rested my head on his chest.
"That one looks like two people holding hands!" I pointed up at a cloud.
"That one looks like a heart!"
"Oh and that one looks like two people kissing!"
-----
Once we had eaten all the snacks and pointed out hundreds of clouds, Frank pulled me off the blanket and towards the lake.
He held my hand and we walked across stepping stones till we were on a big rock right in front of the waterfall.
He grabbed my other hand and looked me in the eye.
"Hazel, will you go out with me?"
Drew P.O.V
I had just set out the last batch of nutmeg pumpkin cookies in the display case when Katie came out from the kitchen.
"Hey Drew I have a date with Travis, could you get my shift? I cleaned up most of the stuff in the back, and after your shift all you'll have to do is wash a few dishes." She gave me a little puppy face, not that she needed it, I didn't really mind taking her shift anyway.
"Sure, that's no problem, but I'll be expecting some chocolate crisps." I joked. She'd been trying a new recipe of chocolate cookies (vegan, of course) and they turned out thinner then construction paper.
"Oh my gods Drew, that was ONE time," she sighed laughing. "On the bright side you only have an hour left and that means you have all the last minutes crammers." She stuck her tongue out at me.
"Go before I throw something at you," I warned, on the verge of being serious. Crammers are just people who come in because they need to study late and are usually really obnoxious and rarely buy anything.
"Haha. thanks though." The bell above the door jingled as she left.
Manning the store front was my least favorite job to do at the cafe - accept early in the morning. But I still much prefer just baking in the back, I lose my temper easily with college students.
Sometimes you get a few nice people in the evening but for some reason it isn't as likely.
"Hello," a friendly voice said, snapping me out of my little rant.
"Hello," I greeted back, "how may I help you?"
"Could I have one of those delicious looking pumpkin cookies?" She pointed to my freshly made nutmeg cookies.
"Of course, would you like anything else?"
"No that will be all thanks," she handed over a dollar.
"You picked well, these cookies just came out of the oven," I took the dollar and got a bag for the cookie.
When I reached in to get it though the whole upper shelf came crashing down, I was lucky to even get away without my hand crushed.
"Wow, are you ok? Would you like a hand there?"
Sometimes I am stunned by human kindness. All I could do was nod and let her in through the employee gate.
"I'm sorry about your cookie," I apologized.
"Oh that's no problem," She looked back at me, "You'll just have to make me some more some other time," she winked. She winked, at me. Was she flirting? With me?
"Well, it looks like the screws were loose, it's a bit odd, but very easy to fix."
It takes her barely a minute to screw them back in. Under the shelf is a whole bunch of squished pastries, such a shame really.
"You can take anything if you want," I told her pointing to the quashed goods.
"Thanks," she said, grabbing one. "My name's Nyssa by the way." She grabs a pumpkin cookie.
"Drew," I replied, and she just kind of looked at me.
"I know," she said slowly like it was obvious. I must have looked confused, which I was, and she pointed to my name tag. Oh of course how did I forget, ugh so stupid of me.
"Well thanks for this, I really appreciate the help." It was odd here, everyone helped me because they wanted to; not because they were afraid of me, and it was nice.
"Well here's my card if anything else gets broken, and I won't charge you if I can take a few more treats for everyone back at the shop." She winked, pressing the card into my hand.
I laughed, " you can have them all if you want, we can't sell them now."
Nyssa looked genuinely surprised, but then smiled, "well I'll certainly take you up on that, everyone at the shop will appreciate it."
"Well I'll just head to the back to get you a bigger box to carry all that."
I headed back to the kitchen,and I could of sworn that the door was swaying, but Katie had left already so there wouldn't be anyone in the kitchen.
I returned with the box and put all the treats in the box. I gave it to Nyssa and smiled, should I give her my number? Would that be weird? Does she even like me?
"Well here's the bakery's number in case you ever want to order anything." I wrote it down on a piece of paper and handed it to her.
"I could of just looked it up on line," she laughed.
Ugh this is the second time I've done that! How am I such a idiot!
"Well I hope I see you around!" She left,and the bell jingled.
"Me too," I whispered after she'd left.
I looked down at my watch, 10:50. Yes, end of my shift.
"Ok everyone the cafe is closing in about five minutes, use your time wisely."
I got a few complaints about needed wifi and how actually it closed at 11 so they have ten minutes, but luckily most of them just got up and left.
I did a quick check around the cafe to make sure no one stayed, and the locked the doors.
I was washing dishes in the kitchen when I thought I heard the bell jingle from the door. Even though I was probably imagining things I went to check out what it was. Except the doors to the main cafe were locked, I ran to check the back ones, but they were looked too. And, I smelled smoke.