ꜱᴘɪᴅᴇʀ ʙɪᴛᴇꜱ: ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇʀᴄᴀʙᴇᴛʜ/ꜱᴏʟᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏ ᴘʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛ

ʟɪ ᴡɪʟʟ | ꜰʀᴀɴᴋ ᴄʀɪᴇꜱ ᴏᴠᴇʀ ꜱᴜʙꜱ

The drive over is refreshing, to say the least. Taking a long route and belting Taylor Swift is always therapeutic for Will, so he's not surprised when he feels better about both the Nico thing and the Annabeth thing. He'll just play it by ear. Just because his roomie tends to overthink things when she's sober doesn't mean he has to.

You know what else is therapeutic? Cleaning out the car.

You know what's not in the car for once? Annabeth's trash. She's not a total hog, but she usually lets the wrappers and soda bottles gather up over time. She always offers to clean it out herself when Will announces that he's going to clean the car, but he always refuses. He doesn't mind.

But when did she go and clean that out? And why is Will emotional about this? It's just a Happy Meal box and some candy and soda from the six-hour trip over here.

He parallel parks the car between a bike rack and the catering van.

"Oh, hell yeah," he says. That's a useful skill he's got.

He opens the trunk, where all four pieces of the cake are neatly arranged. 

"Will! Let me help you!"

Piper McLean!

Will squints to make sure it's really her.

It's Piper McLean!

"Hey, Piper," Will says.

Piper takes the base of the cake from the trunk. "C'mon! I'll show you where we're putting this!"

She leads Will back into the banquet hall, where Leo and Nico are... consoling Frank in the middle of the light-up disco floor?

Nico leaves the group to greet them. "Thanks for bringing the cake over. Can I help?"

Will starts. "Well, there's only two pieces left, but I guess you can close the-"

"Oh thank the gods. Let's go." Nico grabs Will's hand and practically drags him outside.

"Nico, what's going on with Frank?" Piper asks.

"Uh, subs?" Nico straightens his perfect purple tie with his perfect hands.

Piper crosses her arms. "I'll send you back in there with tissues if you don't tell us."

"I mean it! Something happened with the catering. They just dropped off like sixty of those five-dollar foot-long sandwiches!"

"Oh my gods, not more subs!" Will shouts.

Nico and Piper take the rest of the cake out of the SUV.

Will grabs the bag with the cake topper and closes the trunk via remote control. He slides open the door to the banquet hall and announces to the others, "The cake is here!"

"C'mon, Frank," says Leo. "Let's go put the cake together so Will can get seated. That sounds fun, doesn't it?"

Frank grunts as he gets to his feet. "I should probably say hi to Thalia and everyone else that just got here."

"That's the spirit!" says Leo.

Piper envelopes Will and Nico in a hug. "It's been real, guys. The moment of truth's coming up, so I should probably go check on Hazel. She's alone with Rachel."

"Yikes," says Will. "You might wanna do that."

Piper waves and then disappears into the bathroom.

"I hope it's okay if I put you by Percy's mom. You're probably one of the only people she knows here," Nico says. He leads Will down the aisle and towards a row of chairs.