When We Were 'Us'

Why Do We Never Find It Out From You, Jackson? - Piper POV

To say I was surprised to see Percy at breakfast was an understatement. For starters, it looked like he hadn't slept at all. His hair was a mess, worse than usual, and he had huge bags under his eyes.

This was also the first time he'd come to breakfast since the Annabeth fiasco.

"He doesn't look good at all." Mitchell whispered.

Lacy shook her head. "Somebody buy that boy some concealer."

Tiana snorted. "How about we start with a hairbrush and dry shampoo."

Percy got his food and shuffled over to the Hades table. Jason and Nico were sitting there.

When he sat down, Jason leaned over and quietly asked him something. He shrugged in response and began to pick at his food.

Once I finished my good, I went over. Percy glanced up and grunted half of a hello.

"You look awful." Nico told him. From Percy's half-shrug reaction, this wasn't the first time he'd said so.

"How are you holding up, Perce?" I asked.

"I feel like Tyson sat on me." He said flatly. "I was up all night thinking about my decision."

"Did you make one?" Jason asked.

Percy nodded, rubbing his eyes. "Yeah. Told Chiron too. No clue what he'll end up doing with that information."

"Are you going or staying?" Nico pressed.

Percy waved him off and stuffed a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"Keep questioning him, maybe it'll encourage him to eat." I rolled my eyes.

"We'll get the answer sooner or later." Jason shrugged. "If you are going we'll miss you, bro."

Percy shook his head and pointed at my boyfriend with his spoon. "Why is everyone assuming that if I go I won't ever come back? Vacation time for a job does happen to be a thing."

"Point." Nico nodded. "But do you want to be here when she is?"

"I've managed so far, haven't I?" Percy pointed out, his expression darkening. "Speaking of, she's been staring at me since I walked in."

"Not surprising." I shook my head, not bothering to look over at the Athena table. If anyone would be able to tell Annabeth was staring at them, it would be Percy.

"Besides," Percy continued, shoving another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. Nico rolled his eyes. "I've got plenty of friends here and that outweighs having to deal with Miss Chase for sure."

Jason snorted loudly. "Are you really going to refer to her like that from now on? Because that sounds really weird."

Percy shrugged. "Probably not. I could pull a Wizarding World deal and start calling her She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

"Gross, you nerd." I snorted. He grinned at me flicked a Cheerio at my head.

"What do you suggest then?" Percy added.

"I don't know, 'that one Athena kid' rings a bell." Nico supplied helpfully.

"Didn't you call Will something similar that one time you got in that fight?" Jason asked.

Will, sitting nearby at the Apollo table, chucked a piece of bagel at Nico's head. They'd made a bet of some sort to see who could throw the biggest item at the other without getting the Hermes cabin's attention and thus starting a food fight. 

Will had decided to put his uncanny aim to use and continued to nail the son of Hades in the head with various food items.

Nico growled under his breath. "Yeah, and he's getting really close to only being referred to that way again."

"You started it." I pointed out.

Nico rolled his eyes and dropped a quarter of a muffin into his shadow. It disappeared and landed on Will's head.

"Di Angelo!"

------------------

Chiron stood at the end of the pavilion at dinner to make an announcement.

"Some of you may know this, and some of you may not, but Camp Jupiter has made an offer to a certain camper of ours. They're looking for a swords-master to teach classes at their camp, and are offering college level courses in return.

"This offer has been presented to our very own Percy Jackson, who has given it quite a bit of thought and gave me his answer last night."

Percy was sitting with us at the unofficial Big Three table again. He waved cheerfully at the people who turned to stare in our direction and took another bite of his pizza casually.

"After his deliberation, Percy has decided to take this job at Camp Jupiter and is taking their offer of college studies to pursue a career in Marine Biology."

"That's soooooo cheating." Leo called.

Percy snorted and finished off his pizza.

"So, who wants to help me pack?"