soulmates ⋮ heroes of olympus au

three.

F r a n k

☼

Given his friends innate ability to tease each other about everything and anything under the sun, Frank really should have known that letting the boys see his schedule was a mistake.

"You're taking art?!" Percy practically cackled in delight as he took a look at my schedule during the lunch break. "Not that it's a bad thing, it's actually pretty cool. But how the hell are you in such an advanced class when it's your first year?"

Frank honestly didn't fully know that himself. It seemed to be a combination of very few students moving up into advanced art classes and the art teacher Mrs. Stevens' willingness to take on new students. Frank went in to show her some of his artwork, and then before he knew it, Frank found himself enrolled in Art III without ever having even taken an art class in his life.

It wasn't as if Frank wasn't good at art. Even with a lack of formal training, Frank had always had a knack for drawing and had always been known to create elaborate doodles in the corner of all his assignments. He'd never pursue art as a career, but it was something he loved to do and was a fun hobby.

His friends listened to his explanation, and Nico was the first to react. "Wow," Nico said with a raised eyebrow. "Who knew the star of the football team is actually a decent artist?"

Shaking his head, Frank found himself shrugging off the boy's teasing. Nico was especially prone to making fun of his friends with his sarcastic quips, but all of it was good-natured fun. The group of friends knew their limits with each other and rarely ever crossed the line between teasing and flat-out rudeness.

Frank checked his phone to see the time and cursed when he saw the time. When his friends looked at him with confused looks on their faces, Frank explained, "I've got to get to Art class. It's all the way across the campus and I've never even been in that area, let alone seen the room."

Waving goodbye, Frank quickly made his way out of the lunchroom and down the hallway.

As he sped away, the boy could almost feel his stomach twisting into knots at the thought of what this class could bring. Frank kept trying to tell himself that the chances of it happening were incredibly small, but it was like his heart didn't want to listen to what logic was screaming at it.

When he eventually found the class and sat down in a seat towards the middle of the room, silently celebrating over the fact he made it to class with plenty of time to spare, Frank couldn't help but think about the reasons he signed up for the art class in the first place.

The first reason is the one that Frank tells people who question his scheduling choice. He needed a fine arts credit to graduate, plain and simple. Frank had always been decently good at art, plus there's also the fact he has the singing voice of a banshee and couldn't play an instrument if his life depended on it.

The second reason was something Frank hadn't revealed to anyone, because to him it honestly was almost kind of embarrassing. His soulmate tattoo had a sketch pad on it, and Frank was clinging onto the hope that maybe – just maybe – his soulmate would be in the art class. It was the definition of a cliche, and Frank knew that his friends would make fun of him until the end of the days if they found out, but a part of Frank just so badly wanted to know.

As Frank waited for class to start, he found his attention captured by something else in the class. Actually, it was more like someone. Specifically, a really pretty girl.

Frank had seen her a couple times around in the halls, and he vaguely remembered sharing Honors English with her during freshman year. He recalled her being incredibly kind, but quiet and rarely spoke unless spoken to first. If Frank remembered correctly, her name was Hazel, but he really didn't want to call her by the wrong name and risk humiliating himself.