Love Isn't Always Perfect (Percico/Pernico Oneshots)

Piano Lessons

A/N the media attached is the piece Nico was playing. Enjoy!

Percy felt unimpressive. All of his friends could do amazing things, but he couldn't. Annabeth could draw, but Percy was lucky if he drew a stick-person. Piper was really good at singing, but all Percy could produce was sour notes. Leo was really good at building things, like birdhouses and other things, but Percy couldn't even drill a hole through a piece of wood without cracking the board. Rachel was very talented at painting, but Percy couldn't very well. He felt envious, all he could do was surf and swim, but he wanted to branch out more, like his friends, who had numerous and varied talents.

He wanted another hobby, do something so well that it would wow his friends, something that he could brag about, other than 'wow, look, I can stand on a board moving through water without falling off',or 'look at me, I'm moving my arms and legs to get to the other side of a pool, look at how amazing I am'.

It was when he was surfing the Internet on his laptop—when he saw a video of someone performing a classical song on a piano—that it clicked. He would learn to play piano. It would impress his friends and family, and he watched a couple of those cliché romance movies where women found it attractive if a man knew how to play piano well (don't judge, it was his mom's turn for movie night), so he might actually get a girlfriend. Or boyfriend. He had no preference. Also, it would be something worth bragging about.

The image of him playing piano well made a wide grin form on his face. It wouldn't be such a bad idea to learn piano. He opened a new tab on his browser and searched for piano instructors in his area. A couple of people showed up until a woman with black hair and brown eyes caught his attention. He clicked on the link. She was a woman named Maria di Angelo. She lived just outside of town, and she had lots of experience with the piano, so he decided he would call her up. He wrote down her number on a blue sticky note and thought he would give her a call in the morning, since he knew she wouldn't appreciate him calling her at nine thirty at night.

The next morning, after a healthy breakfast of blue pancakes and milk, he tapped in her number on his cell phone and placed it against his ear. Ring. Ring. Ring. "Hello, di Angelo residence. This is Maria di Angelo speaking. Who is this?"

"Hi, I'm Percy Jackson, and I was wondering about taking piano lessons?" Percy inquired, tapping his other hand's constantly-moving fingers against his thighs to keep them occupied.

"Oh, would you like to learn?"

"Yes, that would be spectacular," Percy told her. "Are you available?"

"I could schedule you in," the piano instructor said. "Would today at three o' clock be convenient?"

"Absolutely," Percy smiled, silently cheering that he would be able to play piano. Like, that awesome rock-n-roll stuff that lots of people play. "How much would it be?"

"Is ten dollars good for an hour?" Maria asked.

"Yeah, that sounds alright." He had lots of money saved up, so ten dollars wasn't that much. Also, his father had plenty of money and was very supportive, so he could always ask for more money from him.