Percy was a little embarrassed to be standing in the "Feminine Products" aisle.

Okay, make that a lot embarrassed.

Especially since he was by himself and had no clue what he was doing.

As he stood there totally overwhelmed by the vast selection of pantiliners, pads, tampons, and adult diapers (what the heck?), a middle-age woman walked onto the same aisle. She scanned up and down, grabbed a package, and walked off without giving him a glance.

He stared after her, wondering exactly how women found this so easy. There were so many different brands, kinds of products, varying prices, and adult diapers (seriously, why were they there?). His brain felt like it was going to explode from the stress of it all.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, took a picture of the wall in front of him, and texted it to his mom with a caption that said:

what the heck am i supposed to buy? and why are there so many adult diapers?

He stood there studying the wall of Kotex, Tampax, Always, Seventh Generation, Playtex, Up & Up, Poise (why were there so many brands and why did most of the end with "x"?), and something called a "Diva Cup"? Now Percy was really confused. Did it like go in or up or...never mind. He didn't want to know.

His phone buzzed as it received a text from his mom.

I'll take whatever since I'm out of everything. I'm just glad that you're willing to do this for me :) you're the best! And I have no idea why they put the adult diapers there. It's weird to me too.

Percy sighed. That wasn't helpful.

He stared down the wall again, trying to figure out the best way to tackle this problem.

He came up blank.

Finally he decided to just grab one of everything and hope for the best.

He got a couple weird looks while walking to the cash registers, but he ignored them. Psh, he was just cooler than them. If he were them, he wouldn't have judged a guy in his early twenties who was pushing around a cart filled with feminine products.

Oh, who was he kidding, of course he would have judged that poor guy.

Percy vowed to himself to never judge someone by their cart contents ever again after this experience.

He looked over the cash register lines and sighed. They were all soo long and he had too many items to go through self check-out.

...Or did he?

He started to head towards the self check-out to see if he could go through it with all the twenty-something items he had (yes, he was buying stuff other than pads and tampons, and no, he hadn't grabbed one of those Diva Cups. They scared him), but before he took a step, someone behind him said, "Sir, I just opened register eleven. Would you like me to ring you up?"

He turned around and balked.

A very pretty woman about his age was standing behind him in the typical Target employee outfit, a red shirt with tan pants. She had blond curls that were pulled back into a ponytail. Her stunning gray eyes were looking at him expectantly. She also had a freckle above her eyebrow that Percy really wanted to touch for some reason.

"Uhhh..." he answered, the little amount of sense and articulateness he had abandoning him.

Now the gray eyes were confused. "Um, I'm sorry. Was that a yes?"

Percy shook his head a little. "Yeah, sorry."

She flashed him a smile full of straight, white teeth and he tripped over air trying to turn back around to get his cart.

She was already standing by the register when he finally glanced at her name tag.

He decided Annabeth was a really nice name.

Percy started to unload his things onto the conveyer belt. First, an energy drink, sour cream and onion chips, and gummy bears. Then shampoo, a new razor, and toothpaste. Then a box of food coloring because he had just run out of blue food dye. Then...

Crap.

Why couldn't the pretty cashier have checked him out (pun not intended) any other day? Preferably a day when he wasn't buying a bunch of weird, girl stuff for his mom?

Oh well, he thought. Not a lot I can do about it now.

So, he started to unload the rest of his cart.

Annabeth's face was looking pretty normal, until she hit the first box of tampons. She looked down the conveyor belt and her eyes widened in surprise. There were at least ten boxes of different kinds of pads and tampons.

She looked at him with an eyebrow raised, her freckle moving with said eyebrow, and said jokingly, but not unpleasantly, "Did your girlfriend's supply run completely dry or something?"

"Um, well no..." Percy rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He was awful at being cool around people he liked (and yes, he might've developed a teeny crush over the past minute and a half). "Actually, I didn't come here to buy those. I came for the other stuff."

Now Annabeth looked really confused. "So you just randomly decided to buy a bunch of pads and tampons?" Realization crept across her face. "Wait," she said slowly, "this is probably for some kind of prank, right?"

"No, no it's not." Percy pulled out his wallet and pretended like he couldn't find the correct card so he didn't have to look at the freckle (which may or may not be the only thing he can think about right about now).

"Well, I'm out of ideas." Annabeth stopped ringing up items even though half of his stuff was still on the conveyor belt. She leaned on the scanner in front of her and looked at him. "Why is a guy like you buying a bunch of period stuff?"

Percy looked up at her, slightly offended by her words, and retaliated with, "What do you mean by a guy like me?"

"Well, you're a guy. You don't need any of this. And you said your girlfriend didn't send you here for it and it's not for a prank."

"It's kind of hard for a girlfriend to tell me to get her something if I don't have a girlfriend." Percy wasn't sure where the heck that had come from.

They were kind of silent for a minute, neither one of them knowing what to say after that.

Percy didn't know why this experience was so embarrassing, but it really, really was. It would probably be easier to just tell her why he was buying the stuff. "I actually got all that stuff for my mom. I'm going to visit her later and asked if she wanted me to pick anything up while I was at the store. And, well, you can figure out the rest."

Annabeth's eyebrows rose. "Really?" After he nodded, she said, "Not a lot of people would do that for their mom. That's really sweet." She smiled at him.

Percy couldn't help thinking: Dude, this chick is weird... Cute, but weird.

As if she had read his mind, Annabeth said, "Sorry, you probably think I'm really weird. I just get bored and try to figure out scenarios that explain why someone is buying a specific thing. I couldn't really imagine why you were buying all these pads and tampons though, since you're obviously single."

Percy looked at her in a surprised, slightly creeped out way. "Wait, you knew that I was single before I told you?"

Annabeth smirked. "Well, I don't know many taken guys who buy just Monsters, potato chips, and gummy bears. They normally buy something healthy along with the junk food." She reached for a box of pads to scan, then looked up at Percy. "Do you want me to help you narrow down the amount of products you're buying?" she asked. "'Cause that is a lot of stuff for one woman."

Percy's shoulder sagged with relief. "Would you? I'd really appreciate it." Now all he could think was: She's pretty and helpful.

Annabeth chuckled and said, "It's no problem. I'll just have to be fast; there's quite the line building up behind you."

Percy turned to look and realized that there were a lot of people behind him. He hadn't even realized that a line had formed. (And no, it wasn't because he was busy sneaking glances at Annabeth. Not at all.)

After quickly helping Percy decide on three packages to get for his mom, Annabeth was putting the rest of the boxes into the return pile. As she stood back up, she asked, back into her Target persona, "Is that all, sir?"

"Yeah, I'm good. And please don't call me 'sir.' It's kinda weird since we're like the same age."

Annabeth smirked at him (which he couldn't help thinking was adorable) and said, "You can sign now."

He quickly scribbled his name, wincing since it was so bad he could barely read it.

Annabeth verified that yes, it was his signature. As she pulled off his receipt, she asked, "Percy Jackson, huh?"

He looked at her. And
she can read my writing! he thought.

Then he realized he still hadn't answered her. "Oh yeah," he quickly replied. "That's me."

Annabeth handed the receipt to him while saying, "You saved twelve dollars and sixty-four cents. Thank you for shopping at Target." Her eyes sparkled as she moved his bags to the little platform. "It was nice meeting you, Percy."

He gave her a toothy smile, hoping really hard that he had brushed his teeth before he had left home. "Thanks. It was nice meeting you too."

Percy walked out to his car and got in it. He folded his receipt and stuck it in his wallet. He put the key in the ignition...

...and didn't turn it.

He sat back in his chair staring at the wheel, mentally going through a pros and cons list.

PRO: She is really pretty.

CON: He hardly knew her.

PRO: She was cute and helpful, which isn't a very common combination in human beings.

CON: She would probably say no since she just met him.

PRO: Her freckle.

CON: She was a little weird.

PRO: He could get used to that.

Crap.

He already knew what he wanted to do. He just needed moral support.

He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts. Jason and Grover would just tell him to forget about it and that they were both attracted to girls all the time (even though they both had girlfriends), but just because she's pretty, doesn't mean you have to act on it. Frank would just tell him to let it be, because she'd probably say no anyway (because Frank tended to be a glass half-empty guy when it came to girls).

So he was left with only one person.

there's this really pretty chick at target..what should i do?

A few seconds later, a reply came through.

guuuuuuuuuurl get ittt

Percy sighed.

she saw me during one of the most embarrassing moments of my life

This reply came even faster than than last one.

DUDE YOURE A FREAKIN HOTTIE (dont tell jason i said that) AND ANY GIRL WOULD DIE TO HAVE YOU BE THEIR BAE NOW GO BEFORE I COME OVER THERE AND KICK YOUR SORRY LITTLE BUTT

There was also an array of emojis after the message, including some aliens, grapefruit, blue hearts, middle fingers, a pile of smiling poop, and other things.

Sometimes it was great to have Piper as a friend. She always whipped him into shape when he needed it.

Percy pulled out a pen and a napkin from his glove box and wrote on it. Then he catapulted himself out of his car, ran halfway to Target, ran back to his car to grab his keys out of the ignition so no one took off with his car, and ran back to Target.

He went through the automatic doors and made his way to check out number eleven.

He ignored the line and went straight up to Annabeth. He handed her the napkin, wondering where the heck this sudden burst of confidence had come from.

"I hope this isn't the only time I see you," Percy said, panting slightly.

She stopped scanning items and looked at the napkin. Then she looked up at him with that perfect smile. He smiled back and walked towards the exit, tripping over a cart (that had obviously moved into his way because it was bent on killing him).

Percy hadn't gotten very far before he heard running footsteps behind him. He turned around and there stood Annabeth. She handed him a piece of paper with numbers on it.

"Now you'll know who it is when I text you." She smirked at him.

He grinned at her, speechless. This was by far the most bizarre experience he had ever had.

He walked back out to his car, feeling like he was walking on air (which he guessed he technically could be, but thinking about how that would work made his head hurt so he didn't think about it).

He was glad that the cashier at register eleven had checked him out (and yes, pun intended).