"This is Natalie! She's pretty new, so I figured we could bring her into the group a bit, you know?" Hazel introduced. That was code for "I found another demigod to protect."
"Hiya Natalie. I'm Percy, my girlfriend is Annabeth," Annabeth gave a small nod, as did the rest of the group as they were introduced. No one seemed to have much of an opinion of her yet. Except for Will, who seemed wildly uncomfortable.
"Hi! I'm really happy to have a group of friends so quickly!" Natalie proclaimed. She wasn't the girl that Nico and Will had a small encounter with, though Will was looking at her like she was.
"We're always here to help." Jason smiled. Natalie seemed to have finally recognized that Will was there, and she rushed to him due to that.
"Willy! It's been so long, how are you?" Natalie asked with a smile. Will took a step away from her.
"I've been fine. Why're you here?" Will asked bluntly.
"My mom, you know her, was offered a job all the way out here! And, I mean, she couldn't not take the offer, right? I'm so glad you go here!" She took a step towards him, an innocent looking smile on her freckled face.
"Now who is this, Willy? One of the famed exes?" Leo asked curiously.
"Mhm! I think it ended on pretty okay terms, though, so it shouldn't be too weird!" Natalie answered for Will. Will looked like he wanted to say that it had not ended on good terms, but he didn't.
"Sorry to tell you, Will's been dating around. So that may be-" Piper started, But Will cut her off.
"I'm actually not. Anymore. I gave up on that." Will stated. "So it won't be an issue or awkward or whatever."
"Perfect! It wasn't going to be awkward anyway, girls used to hit on him all the time and there weren't any issues." Natalie explained, slowly getting closer to Will.
"Girls still do. And his other ex goes here now too." Nico told her, speaking finally. He seemed a bit suspicious of Natalie, and he wasn't the only one. Nico was the most suspicious, though.
"Oh that's right, Jessica! She was always pretty cool. Jess was Will's first, I was his more recent ex, right Willy?" She leaned a bit against him, which wasn't hard, what with the height difference.
"Yeah. Natalie was some time last year, Jess was probably two years ago." Will explained dully. The difference between Natalie and Jessica was a lot, truly. It didn't look like Will had a type at all. Jessica looked a lot like a punk; the black hair, of course, plus a choker and all black, small clothing. Nothing wrong with that style, of course. But then there was Natalie. Still fairly long hair, except a striking red. Freckles sprinkled all about her face, even more than Will had. Bright green eyes that went with her, also, bright green sundress. Definitely different styles.
And then there was Nico-wait, why mention Nico? Because Will had definitely not thought about dating Nico. Of course not.
"One year and one month, actually! And three days." Natalie specified.
"That's awfully on point." Nico mentioned. Natalie frowned, seeming to suddenly realize what she'd said.
"Oh, yeah, I just like keeping track of things! That's just the day we broke up. We were together for six months and 22 days, we got a whole summer together! Best summer of my life." She smiled sweetly, batting her eyes at Will.
"Something like that." Will muttered. He took another step away from Natalie, making her stumble a small bit.
"So are you planning on finding other friends other than us or what?" Thalia asked, a bit suddenly.
"Don't be rude." Jason muttered to her.
"What? She's a kid of Aphrodite, she'll do fine. We don't need more friends." Thalia argued.
"I'm a what?" Natalie asked.
"Nothing, don't worry about it." Will told her quickly. Natalie just seemed happy that he talked to her at all.
"Okay!"
"Still, don't be rude to her. There's nothing wrong with more friends." Jason told Thalia.
"There's actually a lot wrong with more friends." Nico mentioned.
"Technically, more friends isn't always beneficial." Annabeth agreed.
"We're keeping her as a friend as long as she needs us to." Jason stated decidedly.
"Or, maybe more?" Natalie suggested, yet again attaching herself to Will and staring into his eyes. Will was quick to stop the eye contact.
"Nope. Nothing more. Not getting into another relationship, especially not with you." Will told her bluntly.
"We'll see."