Found Family (HoO, Mortal AU)

FRANK ZHANG

The last day of school fell on Frank and Grover's birthday. SATs were over, summer had begun, life was relatively good. The last day of school was still overly sad, though, in a good way.

Leaving was sad. Growing up was scary. Over the four years of highschool, Frank had complained about it a lot, but he didn't realise how much he'd miss it. Sitting at the lunch table with his 11 friends for the last time made him realise how great it'd actually been. Everyone was in a good mood- there was cake (baked by Sally, dairy free and vegan. Oh, and blue, of course), nobody had any exam stress and all of the seniors had gotten into their dream colleges.

Frank was with Grover, Annabeth and Percy when he got the college acceptance email. They were all planning to go to the same college and already had decided on accommodation. They got an email at the same time, all four of them getting accepted. There was a lot of screaming after that.

Reyna randomly texted into the groupchat one day- a simple 'I'm in', referring to Harvard. Her completely calm reaction shocked Frank, though he could tell she was freaking out behind the screen.

Leo and Piper filmed a strangely weird but emotional video-edit, using photos and videos from their childhood up to adulthood, where they both got into the same college. Thankfully Leo put funny music in the background for comedic relief.

Jason sent a three minute long voice note explaining the email in abnormal detail, not hurrying up and telling the result, before Leo, who was with him, screamed into the mic 'HE GOT ACCEPTED'

Will got the email in middle of math, his least favourite class. Frank was beside him and was made hold Will's hand for support as their teacher rambled on. Then Will screamed, not caring about the fact he was in class. That was how everyone found out he got into medschool.

Rachel never wanted to go to college, though Frank, Percy, Annabeth and Grover's off-campus accommodation had an extra room, just in case she wanted to stay. Frank knew she'd practically be living there.

Hazel and Nico did nothing but complain about the fact that they had to stay in highschool another whole year without their friends. Frank did feel sorry for them, but he was absolutely not repeating senior year for them.

After school, everyone went over to Frank's house to get ready for him and Grover's birthday party, which doubled as a end of highschool party, meaning every senior was invited. Some juniors invited themselves, of course, too.

• • •

Five minutes after the party started, the house was a complete mess.
"How are you ever going to clean this?" Hazel shouted over the music.
"You can help!"
"I'm not so sure."
"Hey, it's fine, I'll figure it out. Perks of having no parents?"
"No, Frank!"
Nico laughed. "He has a point."
"Nico!" Hazel scolded, running off after him.

"Y'know," Will said, standing beside Frank. "I'm gonna miss them. Alla you, actually."
"Obviously you're gonna miss Nico most," Frank teased.
"Shut up."
"But hey, we're spending summer together. We'll probably never be off FaceTime with each other and we'll arrange the same dates to visit home so we can all hang out."
"Yeah. I just don't like distances," Will frowned.

• • •

The next morning was their graduation. People hadn't even went home from the party until sunrise. Everyone was tired and hungover, but they all got ready and went back to the school, officially for the last time. Walking into the school, Frank saw a lot of people with their families- Sally and Tyson were waiting for Percy. Tristan was there for Leo and Piper. Rachel's mother, who Frank had never saw before, showed up. Naomi was there for Will, along with his cousin, Michael. Lee would be there too, of course, as he was a teacher. Both of Reyna's parents and her sister were there. Grover's parents were there. Annabeth's dad, stepmom and two brothers showed up. Even though she pretended to be annoyed because her stepmom never cared, she seemed kind of happy. Frank spotted Thalia, Jason's sister, too.

Everyone had someone- a parent, sibling, guardian. Every single graduate. Frank being the exception. No one was there for him- there was no one. Then he felt Hazel squeeze his hand.
"I'll be sitting over there with Nico, okay?" She said.
"Okay," he nodded.
There was one person there for him. Hazel Levesque was there.

Hazel and Nico left to sit down just when Thalia approached Jason.
"You made it," he smiled.
"Of course I did. One problem, though," she whispered.
"Oh no. What?"
"Dad's here."
Jason's eyes quickly scanned the crowd before he muttered "Shit."
"Look, it's okay," Thalia said. "Just act like yourself."
"Easy for you to say. He likes you."
"I have to go, Jason. Congrats on graduating, though. I'm proud of you."

Thalia sat down again, leaving Jason to look a lot more stressed than he should've on graduation day. Frank knew what it was like to have a strict guardian- his grandmother would be constantly yelling, but Jason seemed to be weirdly worried. He never talked about his dad, so Frank guessed his dad was more than just 'strict'. He was a lot worse than that.

• • •

Although Reyna was the one to get into Harvard, she got the title as salutatorian. Her speech was short but sweet. Annabeth got valedictorian- which was absolutely deserved. There were tears in her eyes during her speech.

Graduation went by quickly- at the end everyone got their yearbook and got ready to go home to celebrate with their families.
"Leo," Jason whispered. "My dad is coming over here. He's really homophobic. He's kinda racist, too- ignore everything he says. I'm sorry."
"Uh- okay."

[JASON GRACE]

Thankfully, when Thalia saw their dad walk toward Jason, she hurried over.
"Hello, Jason," he said.
"Good afternoon, Father."

His father looked over to his friends- an icy look in his eyes. He would've preferred if Jason was friends with guys like Octavian- straight, white, smart, selfish assholes. Jason didn't care, though. He would sacrifice anything for any of his friends.
"Let's go home," he said, after inspecting all of Jason's friends.
"Home? Do you mean your house?"
"Of course. Come on, Thalia."

[FRANK ZHANG]

Jason didn't say anything to his friends before leaving. Frank knew his dad's house was not 'home'. He knew Jason didn't want to go with him.
Leo sighed. "He'll be fine. Now I need some beauty sleep so-"
"You need a lot of beauty sleep."
"Shut up, Piper."

"But seriously," Annabeth said. "I am exhausted. I do think we should all get home."
"You're right, valedictorian," Rachel smiled. "Adios amigos. Have fun with your celebrations."
"I love you all so much," Percy said. "Goodbye. Love you. Mwah mwah and all that!"

"You coming round to ours?" Hazel asked as everyone else began walking away.
"If that's okay?"
"Of course. No one can celebrate graduations better than Levesques and di Angelos, right Nico?"
Nico frowned. "But we didn't graduate."
"We deserve to celebrate anyway. Cmon."

She took Frank's hand and together they walked away.

———

Word Count: 1205

———

A/N:
What a shock. Rachael is alive. The mortal au continues. A new chapter after like a month. The new chapter is a FRANK chapter?!?

Crazy things happen.

But seriously, sorry for not updating in so long, I don't really have an excuse other than school, exhaustion and zero motivation. Sorry if this chapter is messy, too, I'm really tired man 🥲

Love you all loads tho and thank you to anyone who has stayed for this long!:)

ALSO!! I've said this a few times but America's education system, wtf. I didn't know people could sit SATs in junior year. I didn't know they weren't sat at the end of senior year. I have no idea what gpa?? is. I don't understand how Americans get into college. I apologise lmao, this is so inaccurate