Found Family (HoO, Mortal AU)

HALLOWEEN

[HAZEL LEVESQUE]

It felt like elementary school. The hall looked like a family fun day. Rachel and Hazel were painting people's faces, bringing in a lot of money. Hazel didn't like doing makeup, but face paint was fine.

Will sat down in front of Hazel. "I don't wanna talk to freshmen anymore."
"Then can I paint your face?"
"Uh- sure,"

Reyna came and sat across from Rachel, though Hazel knew it wasn't to get her face painted. Reyna had been smiling so much. Rachel held the side of her face while putting some face paint on it.

Will looked at Hazel, smiling.
"So cute," he whispered. Hazel just laughed, painting a sun onto Will's face.

[PERCY JACKSON]

He was playing games with the Stoll brothers. 'Knock the Can' 'Hit Mr Blofis on the Head with this Ball' 'How Many M&M's are in this Cup?'. The usual.

It was mostly freshmen and sophomores playing but Annabeth Chase lined up, taking a break from selling.
"Alright," Percy smiled. "Try knock over the six cans. You can try three if you don't think you can do six."
Annabeth scoffed. "I could do ten, thanks very much."

Annabeth did, in fact, knock over all the cans with a single throw.
"Sorry, Seaweed Brain. Keep trying, maybe you'll get better," Annabeth smirked, walking back to the stalls.
"That was just good luck, Wise Girl!"
"Sure, Jackson. Keep telling yourself that."

[WILL SOLACE]

Will got bored of selling. 'That's blah blah blah dollars.'
He handed a sophomore a small bag of cookies, Nico standing beside him, selling to a junior.

"This is boring," Nico whispered once the students went away.
"Very," Will agreed.
"Wanna go scare some freshmen?"
"What?"
"Come on, it's Halloween. Halloween isn't about selling-" Nico looked down at the cookies. "Blue cookies."

"So you want to traumatise freshmen?"
"Not traumatise, just terrify."
"Right."
"Are you in?" Nico asked.
Will thought for a minute. "I'm in."

[PIPER MCLEAN]

Will and Nico went off together, meaning Piper, Leo, Annabeth and Jason were the only people left. The food was selling quickly. Jason stayed away from Piper and Leo, while Annabeth was busy counting the money.
"Hey, Cecil!" Piper called. "We need a lil help here."
"What happened to di Angelo and Solace?" Cecil asked, putting on rubber gloves.

Piper shrugged. "Away to scare freshmen or something."
"That sounds way more fun than this," Cecil said.
"I know, right?"

Leo was being strangely quiet. Cecil moved a bit away from the two of them.
"Hey, Leo, are you okay?" Piper whispered to him, handing change to a student.
"I'm fine."
"You don't sound it,"
"I'm fine, Piper," Leo walked away from her.

"What was that about?" Frank, who was next in line, asked.
Piper shrugged. "I have no clue."
Frank frowned and bought a cupcake. Piper watched as he went over and gave it to Hazel.

[LEO VALDEZ]

He didn't want to get mad at Piper. She didn't do anything wrong, he was just frustrated. He sneaked away to talk to Hazel, meaning he had to get his face painted.

Thankfully, Rachel was painting Billie's face and not paying attention to him or Hazel, so they could talk.
"Jason did it again," Leo whispered to Hazel. "Also, please don't paint my face."
"Okay, okay," Hazel sighed. "I won't. But what did he do?"
"He kissed me. Then said sorry. Then walked away. He wasn't sorry."

"Oh, Leo," Hazel said. "I'm sorry. He's such a dick-"
"Yep. I know."
"I don't even know why we're still trying to be friends with him. I mean, come on, the only person he's actually nice to is Reyna. Nico some of the time." Hazel shook her head.
"I just want an answer," Leo lowered his voice, afraid of someone hearing. "I mean- what is he doing?"

Hazel didn't have an answer.
"It's been so annoying," Leo kept talking. "I want to hate him so bad, but I can't. Honestly, I want to stop being used."
Hazel looked like she was about to cry for Leo.

"I'm really sorry, Leo. You deserve much, much better than him."
"You don't have to be sorry. It's not your fault. I better go, people are waiting to get their faces painted."
Hazel nodded. "Okay. I'll talk to you soon."
"Thanks."

[NICO DI ANGELO]

Thankfully, they didn't scare anyone too bad. Or at least Nico hoped they didn't. It was hilarious, though. Until one of the freshmen snitched.

Mr Blofis came along, Will and Nico hiding.
"Di Angelo, Solace, I know you're here. Please stop scaring the other students."
Will was about to laugh. Nico hit him to tell him to shut up.

"What do we do?" Will whispered as quietly as possible.
Nico shrugged. "What we do best?"
"Uhm, what?"
"Run,"
"Huh. I'm not good at running-"
"Just follow my lead." Nico said.

When Mr Blofis least expected it, Nico ran out, followed by Will.
"Hey!" Blofis called after them as they ran down the corridor at full speed, pushing through students. Nico knocked over one of the skeleton decorations to cause a distraction, before running faster to catch up with Will.

Will was a little ahead of him, jumping down multiple steps at a time. Together, they ran into the sports hall.
"What now?" He heard Will scream.
"What do you mean? We've been here the whole time," Nico grabbed two pairs of rubber gloves, throwing one of them at Will then standing beside Jason.

"If anyone asks, we've been here the whole time," Nico said to Jason, who just nodded.
"You can't be serious," Will laughed. "No way that'd work."

[WILL SOLACE]

He got his breath back while selling cupcakes. Mr Blofis came up to him and Nico.
"Boys, don't pretend I didn't see you."
Will and Nico looked at each other.
"Excuse me?" Will said.
"There were multiple reports of you scaring freshmen-"

Nico shrugged. "We've been here the whole time. Must've been someone else."
"I watched you run away from me."
"Well, ask anyone. We've never left this hall."
Mr Blofis sighed. "You better not mess with any other students."

He walked away and Will smiled. He expected Nico to go back to selling quietly but Nico laughed. Genuine laughing. It made Will realise he'd never heard Nico laughed before.
He looked over to him and Nico stopped laughing and cleared his throat. Will just kept smiling.

[ANNABETH CHASE]

"I'm so tired," Piper said, sitting beside Annabeth, letting Miranda take over the sale.
"Tell me about it," Annabeth yawned. Grover and Frank both came over and sat with them, then Reyna. Eventually everyone came together, sitting down. Just the twelve of them, talking and laughing.

Most of them had some sort of crazy face paint on, including Annabeth. She rested her head on Grover's shoulder, trying not to fall asleep.
"So, when are we next hanging out?" Percy asked them.

Annabeth couldn't have been happier.

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Word Count: 1156

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A/N: wow a chapter posted at a relatively normal length and at a relatively normal time!!