Hazel and the Phantoms

Confrontation

"Hazel, you and me are dancing tomorrow!" Flynn announced when she sat down at the lunch table.

"What?" Hazel asked, looking up from her sketch.

"I'm teaching you a dance routine after school for the performance tomorrow. It's not complicated, promise."

"I don't dance... I just know something called Tik Tok." Hazel said, setting down her colored pencil.

"That is dancing, sweetie."

"Oh..."

"What are you drawing?"

"Our assignment in art class was to draw a picture of our family. It has to be finished before the end of sixth period." Hazel explained, picking up her yellow colored pencil.

"They all look different..."

"Family comes in all shapes and sizes."

"Who's who?"

"Well, I'm in the center," Hazel said, pointing to everyone in the picture. "Going left to right, it's Thalia, Reyna, Annabeth, Percy, Rachel, Lavinia, Frank, me, Nico, Will, Meg, Ap... Lester, Leo, Leo's girlfriend Calypso, Piper, and Jason."

"That's a lot of people." Flynn said, then look at the right side of the paper. "Wait... That's what Jason looks like?"

"Yeah."

"Why does he have a scar on his lip?"

"He tried to eat a stapler when he was two. Our friend group jokingly ships Jason with a stapler because of it. We also tend to ship him with a brick, but that's a long story."

"I can imagine."

"Hey guys!" Julie said happily. She looked over at Hazel's drawing, eyes widening. "Holy crap! You draw that?"

"Yeah."

"Jesus Christ... That's so cool! No wonder you got into the art program. What's it supposed to be?"

"Family portrait, but I didn't just want it to be me and Nico, so I drew the rest of our friends into it."

"I... I don't see any other dark skinned people in it besides you. Which one's your brother?"

Hazel pointed to Nico, the brown of his aviator jacket being the only thing not colored in yet. "That's Nico."

"He's so pale!"

"Gods don't really have DNA. I mean... Yeah, they have it, I wouldn't have gotten gold eyes anywhere else, but it doesn't really show up on DNA tests." Hazel explained. "We inherit some traits. Nico got Dad's pale skin. For some reason, Athena likes having all of her children have blonde hair and grey eyes, but we primarily take after our mortal parents."

"Hey guys!" Nick greeted, sitting down next to Julie. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Nothing important." Flynn said quickly.

"What are you drawing, Hazel?" Nick asked, trying to get a look at Hazel's sketchbook.

Hazel quickly put it away. "Not important."

Julie gave Hazel a confused look before turning her attention to Nick. "You excited for Friday?"

"You bet. Seeing you and the guys perform is always awesome. You guys gonna be performing anywhere else any time soon? I know you guys did a mini tour around LA this summer, but-"

"They're playing at a music festival in San Francisco in a couple weeks, and they might be playing at Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party during October." Flynn answered. "Besides that, they're playing wherever and whenever they can. Just keep stalking the Instagram page like you usually do."