Piper McLean, October 6, 6:00 AM

"Wait, what are you doing here?" came a voice from downstairs, waking me from my slumber.

I frowned. Who could be at our door at 6 fucking AM?! I mean, I knew Percy and Annabeth both went on hour-long runs in the morning, but they usually didn't ask each other weird questions like that.

I decided to do some natural makeup today. My feathers had stayed perfectly in place from my earlier hair treatment at the spa and after my talk with Annabeth, I thought maybe I could tone down the makeup a bit. By that, I mean no foundation. But it's a start! It still took me an hour to get ready.

I walked downstairs to see two kids who I'd never seen in my life before in our kitchen, drinking glasses of water and eating cereal. A shriek almost escaped my mouth, but Percy walked in the door, sweaty after his run. I stood at the top of the stairs, just watching. There was a boy wearing all black, a pair of headphones hung around his neck, and a girl with short, spiky black hair tied back in a braid.

"Well, Sally said you transferred to Goode. We've been out of the country so long that we just wanted to drop by and say hi. We're just on our way to school anyway," the girl said. "It's okay if you wanna talk another time, or--"

"No, I'm happy to see you, Thats. I really am. I mean, I just wish you hadn't walked into this house when it wasn't... decorated," Percy said, glancing at our very barren living room area.

The boy in headphones looked around. "It is pretty ugly."

"Nico!" the girl hissed, nudging his arm. "Our cousin moves into a new house with a bunch of kids he just met and you call it 'ugly' first?"

"What? I'm just being honest!" 'Nico' retorted.

He was right. It looked like no one lived in this house, as if it was new. Even our rooms didn't have personal touches, and we barely spent any time in the desolate living space. 

Percy sighed, walking up the stairs. "I'm gonna go take a shower. Sorry. My mornings are usually pretty busy." He glanced at me. "Oh, hey, Pipes."

Is he not gonna comment on how I was just creepily standing a the top of the stairs?

"Why are you standing creepily at the top of the stairs?" Oh. The emo boy did it for Percy.

"Nico, for fuck's sake!" the girl groaned. "Can't you keep your mouth shut for once?"

"Well, I'm sorry, Grace, maybe you should try not looking so perfect and 'tough' in front of Percy and actually say something honestly for once?" Nico snapped back.

"I just, uh, didn't wanna intervene in anything," I explained when they were done arguing.

Awkwardly, I slipped by them and grabbed the milk and cereal from the fridge. "My name is Piper. I live here. W-Who are you?"

The girl quickly slapped a hand over Nico's mouth before he could say anything. "Nice to meet you, Piper. My name is Thalia and this is my annoying cousin Nico. We're cousins of Percy's and we just arrived back in town from boarding school."

I raised my eyebrows. "Boarding school, huh? Which one?"

"Oh, just one in Switzerland," Thalia explained. "I dunno. It was mostly cheese, cheese, cheese, and cheese again."

"Percy's lactose intolerant ass would die," Nico commented, chuckling.

I frowned. "Wait, Percy's lactose intolerant? He eats ice cream and cereal like... all day."

Thalia and Nico exchanged an eye-roll. "That Kelp Head always does whatever he feels like doing, doesn't he? He doesn't really know any better," Thalia said.

"Kelp Head?" I questioned, starting to munch on my cereal.

"Our nickname for him," Nico explained. "It's kinda hard to sum up in a whole story, but basically, he fell on his face when we were at the beach and he had a little piece of kelp stuck on his cheek for the rest of the day. We found it and immediately called him Kelp Head for not noticing it right away."

"He's an oblivious blob," Thalia added, fist-bumping Nico.

"Tell me about it," I chuckled. "There's this one girl that I'm convinced is meant for him, but he won't even look at her in that way. They're either arguing or they're competing with each other."

"Oh, you mean like a girlfriend?" Nico scoffed, laughing. "No way. That's actually pretty funny that you think he'd ever be into that shit."

"Be fucking polite, Nico," Thalia hissed, nudging him in the ribs. "What he meant to say was that Percy's never really been interested in dating because he thinks it's--"

"Too sappy. Oh, this girl is the same," I reassured her. "Honestly, for two rivals, they're scarily similar."

They started to reply, when I spotted Annabeth walking down the stairs, phone in hand. She had glammed a bit more than usual, as I could tell by her poorly blended under-eye concealer. Weird. That usually means she didn't get much sleep and she normally goes to bed pretty early, unless she was watching some show in the dark again.

"Morning, Annabeth," I said, winking at the cousins.

"Morning," she said absently, grabbing an apple from the fridge.

Annabeth noticed the two cousins and frowned. "Who are they?"

"Nico, Thalia, this is Annabeth. She's another person who lives with us." I waved a hand of introduction. "Annabeth, this is Nico and Thalia, Percy's cousins--"

At the mention of Percy, Annabeth's cheeks immediately flashed red and she looked fifteen times as awkward as she did earlier. "Uh... nicetomeetyougottarun!"

With that, she sprinted out of the house, snatching her backpack up and slamming the front door behind her, almost getting the back of her new hoodie stuck in the door. Wait, when did she buy that new hoodie? A mock sense of betrayal settled on me when I realized she had gone shopping without me.

"Is that the girl?" Thalia asked, staring at the place Annabeth had just been.

"How'd you know?" I replied, frowning.

"Just assumed," she said, shrugging. "She was oddly jumpy when you mentioned Percy. Though, if they're rivals, I'd assume she'd go scream in a fit of anger or something dramatic like that."

"Just because Uncle Z is a crazy drama king doesn't mean everyone's a crazy drama king," Nico muttered.

"Well, just because Uncle H is a low-key emo doesn't mean everyone's an emo," Thalia retorted.

"Yeah," I said, breaking their bickering. "Uh... that's odd. She usually doesn't act like that." I looked up the stairs at Percy, who was now coming down. Did something happen?

"Hey, did something happen between you and Annabeth?" I asked.

To my surprise, he had the same reaction. He quickly grabbed an apple from the fridge and raced out the door. "NothinghappenedgoodtoseeyouNeeksandThalsandPipesokaybye!"

"You're right," Thalia said, watching her cousin race out the door. "They are similar."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry he's being... blunt. I'd expect him to properly greet his house guests."

Nico shrugged. "Percy's never really needed to greet us. We're in his house all the time anyway."

Thalia nodded. "It's much nicer than any of our other homes. It's got 'old money' written all over it."

My eyes lit up. "Like Greek columns and white walls and everything?"

"It looks like a cloud, if you ask me," Nico chuckled. "My house is all black. My, uh, dad is a fan of the color."

I glanced at his outfit. "I can tell."

"And my dad decided to choose a modern look for his house." Thalia rolled her eyes. "Like, I get he wants to be all 'high-tech' because all our dads have sibling rivalry, but it doesn't mean everything has to look bland as fuck. Speaking of bland as fuck... do you guys even use your living room?"

I chuckled nervously. "No. We recently just became sorta friends, so we haven't had time to decorate or do anything together."

"Ouch. That's emo." Nico deadpanned.

"You're emo!" Thalia nudged him. "Come on, let's get to school. Nice meeting you, Piper."

I stared at the door. Did something really happen between Annabeth and Percy? I frowned. It surely wasn't a fight. They didn't act like that after they fought a couple days ago. In fact, they were more pissed than awkward. And it definitely wasn't anything good if they're acting awkward around each other.

I walked out the door, spritzing a bit more perfume on. Whatever it was, Detective McLean was on the case.

A/N: just a fair warning for any of you who expect my daily updates, I'm leaving for a songwriting camp like... in an hour, so I won't be able to update this as frequently as I usually would -- thanks for your patience! be back in a week for all of you!!!