𝙸 𝙲𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚜

𝚂𝟷𝙴𝟿: 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙺𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚏 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙻𝚘𝚝

Inspired by Community S1E19: "Beginner Pottery"

Percy POV

"Oh, Percy, you're here. Great," Annabeth says.

What a fantastic confidence booster. "I'll show up late every day if it gets me a greeting like that," Percy says. It was hard for him to warm up to it, but he's come to enjoy his and Annabeth's playful banter.

Piper stops chewing on her paper Starbucks straw and pulls her mask over her face before talking to Percy. "Annabeth was just telling us about... The Ultimate Blowoff Class!" she shouts like a gameshow host.

Percy takes his seat next to Annabeth and looks over her shoulder as she pulls up the course registration page on her laptop, a dinky HP Chromebook, Percy notices.

She reads from the page. "ART 105: Intro to Ceramics. Meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30 to 4:00."

"Never really took you for a pottery person, Wise Girl," Percy teases.

Annabeth rolls her eyes. "Oh, I'm not. But I was on Rate-My-Professor and it looks like this Vulcan guy is a total hippie, even more than Piper's ex-girlfriend. No offense, Pipes."

"None taken."

"Anyway, the entire grade is participation, so all you have to do is show up. You don't even have to make anything," Annabeth explains.

"Ooh, count me in!" says Piper.

"Me too!" says Leo.

An opportunity to spend some time screwing around with his friends is always a great opportunity in Percy's eyes, but unfortunately, he has a conflict.

"I'm actually all signed up to take a week-long intensive course. There are still a couple of spots left if anybody wants to join me," Percy says.

"What's the class?" Jason asks.

"Sailing."

Annabeth laughs. "And how are they going to do that? We don't have an on-campus ocean."

"They'll do it with a real sailboat out in the parking lot."

Hazel perks up. "Oh, that sounds nice! I've always wanted to learn, but I get too seasick."

"Count me in too," says Frank. Percy can always count on support from Frank and Hazel.

"Great! We'll be real seamen in no time!" shouts Percy.

"Ha," Piper laughs. "Seamen."

With the addition of Hazel and Frank, that leaves one spot left in the sailing class, if Percy remembers correctly.

"Jason?" he asks. "How about it? Sail across the parking lot with your bro?"

"Bro," Jason says. "If I'm not good at sailing, I'll have a bad grade on my transcript. If I'm bad at pottery, I still get an A. I'm joining Annabeth and the others."

"You'll be missing out," Percy teases.

He watches as Annabeth signs herself up for the pottery class.

"You'll be sorry when you suck at sailing. Should I say 'I told you so' now or after you withdraw?" Annabeth teases.

"Watch it, Wise Girl. Sailing is in my blood," Percy says.

"Mmhmm," Piper says. "Just like pottery is in my blood even though my last ceramics project was my kindergarten pinch pot."

There's an awkward silence. Is Percy allowed to laugh at that?