Solangelo One Shots

Hide and Seek

Will's POV

High school teachers had two different moods, the first being the you have a pop quiz today and you're all going to fail it mood. The second mood generally only came on rare occasions, the let's all skip last period to play school wide hide and seek and try not to be too loud because I'm not supposed to be letting you out of class kind of mood. Thankfully, it was during the final fifty minute period before vacation began that Mr. Gibbon was in that mood, releasing us to run wild through the school. 

"Does that mean we can just leave?" Percy asked, grinning from ear to ear. His hand brushed against Annabeth's and I could tell that he was already itching to grab her and pull her out of school, but his face dropped when Mr. Gibbon shook his head. 

"That means that you can go play hide and seek as a class," he said, rubbing his tired face in his hands. Papers were splayed across his desk, a hot cup of coffee sitting at the edge. "I'll be calling you all back here through the intercom near the end of the day and if you don't show up you're getting a zero for the day, so don't even think about leaving the school grounds." He waved his hand at us, gesturing for us to leave. "Think of it as an exercise in teamwork. Now, get out. You're wasting time." I could tell that he meant we were wasting his time, but I wasn't insulted as Annabeth quietly shut the door behind of us, our small group clumped together in the empty hallway. 

"Do we really have to play hide and seek, or can we walk around until he calls us back?" Leo whined. "This sounds boring."

"Knowing Mr. Gibbon we'll be getting a quiz on how we did as a team when we get back from break, so I'd suggest playing," Annabeth suggested. 

"Besides, it sounds kind of fun," Percy quipped. "Who wants to be it? I nominate Jason." 

"Is this because I have glasses?" Jason asked, swatting Percy's arm. "You know I can see fine, right?" 

"Sorry, bud, can't talk," Percy said, grabbing Annabeth's arm and pulling her down the hallway, their footsteps bouncing off of the walls. "We've got to hide. Have fun finding us!" I heard their footsteps echoing down the staircase, finally fading away once they must have hit the first floor. Jason, who had previously been watching them run, turned back to the crowd that had once stood before him, but we were already gone.

We had paired off into groups of one or two, and it was almost an unspoken agreement that Nico and I would hide together, our footsteps pounding against the linoleum tiles in unison, our arms flailing as if it would somehow make us faster. For a while I thought I could hear Jason's footsteps behind us and I pumped my legs harder until the footsteps behind us got quieter and quieter until I couldn't hear them any longer. That was when my hand shot out, grabbing Nico by the bicep. He turned toward me and I could see that his face was as red as mine, his mouth ajar and his hands on his hips. 

"I need water," I gasped, bending down and taking in long sips of the cool liquid. I waited for Nico to get his fill, my back against the wall as I leaned on it for support. He wiped his mouth when he was finished, turning toward me. 

"Where do you want to hide?" I asked. "We have anywhere in the school we want, as long as it's not being used."

"I don't think we should hide," Nico grinned, a gleam in his eye. "We should keep running, see if we run into Jason."

"Nico, that's dumb, we're going to get caught," I told him.

"Exactly," he said, and I frowned. "It's risky, it's fun. It's not like we're going to die or anything." I must have still looked skeptical, because he sighed. "Please?" he begged. "What else do you want to do, sit in a storage closet for the last fifty minutes of school? This is like, a once in a lifetime opportunity, don't you want it to be fun?"