This is a weird chapter, I'm not sure I like it but here.
Chapter 41 - A Teenage Christmas Party (Pt. 1)
December 24, 6:57 PM
Mclean Mansion
Piper was running around getting things set up.
A Christmas party wasn't the original plan Piper had. At first, it was supposed to be just her mom, dad, and her spending Christmas together.
Aphrodite left yesterday saying something about an offer that was "too good to refuse". That was okay with Piper.
But then her dad called yesterday.
Piper had picked up the phone and spoke to him happily until he dropped the bomb on her.
"Pipes... I have some bad news," Tristan had said.
The grin on her face was slowly turning into a frown, "What?"
She knew what he was going to say and hoped that he wouldn't, but then he said, "Something came up. I can't come tomorrow, I'm sorry."
Piper remembered gripping the phone so hard it almost broke, "No... you said you would come!"
"Pipes..."
"Don't you 'Pipes' me," she shouted into the receiver, "You promised me!"
"I'm so sorry," her dad had said. And the worst thing was, Piper could tell he was being sincere.
She had hung up on him and cried into her pillow for almost an hour. Then, on impulse, she decided she would host a Christmas part. (Her regular routine for getting upset was to go to the bathroom and get the razor, but now Jason was checking her arms for marks so Piper couldn't do that anymore.)
Piper invited all her friends and some other people she knew from her grade, AKA the entire 11th grade. Then after sending the invites, she had looked around the house.
It was a pigsty. She really had bit off more than she could chew.
So Piper enlisted the help of Annabeth, mainly because she lived there, and together they spruced up the place just in time.
Now, it was almost half an hour before all the guests would arrive and Piper was making some last-minute adjustments. Annabeth was finishing setting up decorations, and the doorbell rang.
Piper's eyebrows shot up. No one was supposed to be here yet...
Annabeth called from the front door, "I'll get it!"
"Okay," Piper shouted back and turned to the mistletoe she was setting up in the kitchen. It was all part of the plan.
"Yo Piper," Annabeth yelled, "Jason is here."
Piper's heart leaped and she looked at the mistletoe. It could wait till later. She ran out into the main room and into Jason's waiting arms.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, and Jason grinned.
"Percy and I thought that you guys might need some help," he said, and Percy, who was standing behind him, waved, "So we came early."
"Oh my gods, yes," Annabeth said, slouching with relief, "We do need help thank you."
"What can we help with Wise Girl?" Percy asked Annabeth, and she smirked at him.
"Here," Annabeth thrust the jumble of Christmas lights she was holding into his arms, "Put them up while I go get ornaments for the tree."
Percy stared at the mess of lights in his hands, "But they're so tangled! How am I supposed to put them up?"
"I dunno," Annabeth shrugged, "Figure it out Seaweed Brain."
Percy sputtered out some nonsense, but Annabeth was already gone. Then he sighed and started working on untangling the wires.
"What do you want me to do?" Jason asked, turning to Piper.
Piper grinned wickedly, "I need your help with a plan."
She led him to the kitchen and explained her nefarious scheme to him. Jason was on board immediately.
Basically, Piper was going to make the kitchen off-limits during the party for regular guests. Then, she and Jason were going to ask both Percy and Annabeth to grab the same item from the kitchen. Piper had planted some mistletoe in the doorway, so when they walked in or out...
BOOM! You're under the plant suckers! Time to finally stop being oblivious and get together!
At least, that's how they had planned it to go. But it couldn't have gone more differently...
The guests had started to arrive just as the four of them finished decorating the house and getting the party set up. Hazel, Nico, and Thalia arrived first, with Calypso and Reyna right after them.
"Where's Leo?" Hazel asked Calypso, "Doesn't he usually come with you?"
"He was going to," Calypso answered, "But he and his father are doing some questionable activity first, so he'll be a bit late."
"So will Frank, he just texted me," Percy said, waving his phone around.
The other people in their grade started filtering in, and Piper got separated from her friends a lot. Finally, she found Percy pushing his way through random students.
"Ugh, Piper why is your house so bad to navigate?" Percy said frustratedly, "I literally can't find anyone!"
"Maybe you're just bad at finding your way around things," Piper shrugged.
"Haha, very funny," Percy said, sarcasm oozing in his voice.
"Have you seen Jason?" Piper asked him, "I need to talk to him."
"Are you sure that's the only thing you want to do?" Percy wiggled his eyebrows but stopped when Piper glared at him, "Ok jeez, calm it. I just saw him at the snack table I think."
"Thanks!"
As Piper made her way to the snacks table, Percy shouted, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
Piper rolled her eyes but smiled nonetheless. She found Jason staring at the lemonade pitcher at the snack table.
"Piper, I want lemonade," he said seriously.
"Well then... drink it?" Piper asked, staring at him weirdly, "Why are you just staring at it?"
"I think it might be spiked," Jason admitted, "I'm never gonna drink. Not after hearing about Percy's stepdad."
Piper nodded solemnly, "I understand. Come on, I'll give you fresh lemonade from the kitchen."
In the kitchen, Piper remembered about the mistletoe mission. She gave Jason his lemonade and told him it was time.
She was about to leave when Jason stopped her and pointed to the mistletoe, smiling.
"We have to do what it says, don't we?" he said, smirking.
Piper grinned, leaned in, and closed the gap.
~~~~~~~~~~
Leo stood by the door, tapping his foot impatiently.
He was waiting for someone to arrive. The party was going on inside, and a part of him longed to find Calypso and ask her to dance, but the other part told him to stop and wait and apologize.
To who, you may ask?
Well, Leo kinda felt bad about what he had said to Frank that other day in Hazel's apartment. But he never got the chance to apologize, so he decided this would be the perfect time.
"I just wanted to say, I'm really sorry for..." Leo trailed off, "No that sounds too unnatural."
He tried again, "Remember that time when I accused you and your dad of my mom's murder? Yeah well, I take it ba- This is impossible!" Leo kicked the snow outside with his foot, then shivered at the cold.
"What are you doing?" a voice from behind Leo asked incredulously.
Leo yelped and turned around, "Frank! I didn't see you there."
"Um okay?" Frank said, looking at Leo.
And they just stared at each other. For 30 seconds. All the words Leo had wanted to say were stuck in his throat.
He took a deep breath, but Frank cut him off.
"I'm sorry Leo," Frank sighed apologetically, "About the other day, I shouldn't have gotten so angry with you. You were just sad about your mom."
Leo was speechless. He had wanted to apologize, but then Frank came in and said it first? What the Hades?
"I-I'm sorry too," Leo stammered, "Sorry, this is weird, I was about to say sorry too but you stole my thunder."
Frank snorted, "Wow what a humble apology."
Leo grinned, "My finest."
And just like that, all was well. They walked into the party together, talking to each other like old friends. Hazel noticed them enter and smiled, nudging Calypso and pointing.
What a beautiful friendship.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the party, Jason and Piper had started making some progress on Operation Percabeth.
"Percy, Percy, Percy!" Jason called after the raven-haired boy, "Wait up."
"Whaddaya'' mean "wait up"?" Percy asked in amusement, "I'm literally not moving dummy."
"Whatever," Jason rolled his eyes, "I have a question for you."
"Shoot."
"Did you bring your mom's blue cookies?" Jason asked suspiciously.
That wasn't the original question but Jason needed to know.
"Uh yeah," Percy said, looked at Jason with a raised eyebrow, "They're in the kitchen, why?"
"No reason," Jason said quickly, "But I have another question."
"What is this, an interrogation?" Percy asked, smirking.
"No, I'm just wondering," Jason rolled his eyes.
Percy made the motion to say "go on".
"Do you like Annabeth?"
Percy stopped toying with a punch cup and looked at Jason with suspicion, "What do you mean by 'like'?"
"I think you know what I mean," Jason said knowingly.
"Yeah," Percy admitted, heat rushing into his cheeks, "I do like her, why do you want to know?"
"Absolutely no reason, but stay right here and don't move," Jason instructed and ran off before Percy could respond.
He found Piper at the entrance, waiting for him.
"Percy said yes, didn't he?" Piper asked, a smile on her face.
"Yep, did you ask Annabeth?"
"She already told me a long time ago."
Jason nodded, and with that, they put the second phase of the operation into motion. Jason ran back to Percy while Piper went to find Annabeth.
He told Percy that Piper was asking him to grab the plate of blue cookies he brought from the kitchen out onto the snack table and Piper told the same thing to Annabeth.
It was a completely foolproof plan... until it wasn't.
Percy was on his way to the kitchen when he bumped into Hazel, almost knocking her into the wall.
"Oh gods, Hazel I'm so sorry," Percy said, apologizing profusely, "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I'm okay, it's okay," Hazel promised, "I'm not hurt."
"Oh, oh good."
"Where are you going?"
"To the kitchen," Percy said, pointing his thumb in the direction of the kitchen, "I need to get the cookies and set them on the table."
"Ooh, are they blue?" Hazel asked excitedly.
"Naturally, except I made them this time," Percy said proudly.
"Oh."
"Whoa why do you sound so dejected?" Percy asked, mock angry, "I spent a lot of time on them. They're definitely not as good as my mom's, but they're not horrible!"
"Hmmm, I'll be the judge of that," Hazel decided, "I'll get them for you."
"Oh, okay sure," Percy said, "Just put them on the snack table after taking one. They'll be good I promise."
"I'd hope so."
And so Hazel made her way to the kitchen, but bumped into Frank on the way there.
"Hey Hazel!" Frank said, "Hadn't seen you yet today until now."
"Oh yeah," Hazel said, smiling at him, "I've been all over the place."
"What are you doing now?"
"Grabbing the cookies from the kitchen," Hazel said, "Wanna come with?"
"Sure," Frank agreed, shrugging, and they walked to the kitchen.
Walking in, Hazel grabbed a cookie from the tray that Percy brought and took a bit out of it. She was expecting the worst, but her face lit up.
"Wow, these are actually not that bad!" Hazel exclaimed, "Like mother like son I guess. They are both good bakers."
Frank laughed, and Hazel grabbed the tray and together they started walking out of the kitchen. All of a sudden everyone fell silent.
Hazel looked at everyone confused. They were all staring at something above their heads, either dumbfounded or grinning.
A weird feeling arose in Hazel's stomach. She looked up hesitantly, and there it was. She turned to Frank and saw that he had noticed the plant too. He gulped, and they looked at each other, not knowing what to say.
Hazel looked up again, wondering if her eyes were deceiving her, but it was still there
A green sprig of mistletoe placed innocently above her and Frank's head.
Oh gods.
-Blossom ;)