Just Blame the Frappuccino

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Nico Di Angelo, he is Rick's. Also, I don't own Chocolate Chip Frappuccinos because Starbucks owns them. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Al Capone all own themselves.

It started out at as a seemingly normal day and that's where my problem starts. I should have known better, because I'm a demigod and usually that's a sign that things were about to get abnormal when things looked normal. But stupid, oblivious me hadn't noticed the normalness of it as I hung out in some cemetery somewhere when I had the sudden urge for a Chocolate Chip Frappuccino. (Preferred drink of gods and demigods alike after nectar.)

I had only had that chocolaty chippy delicious drink from Starbucks once. It was when I was in Seattle since I had a sudden urge to get totally drenched in rain after I fell into a vat of melted cheese (but that's another story) and decided to get something sweet to drink.

The problem at this moment was that I didn't know if I even had enough money for a kid's size, which they don't even have at Starbucks. I had a sack full of drachmas that I won at last week's poker night with Abraham, George, and some of my other ghost friends (yeah, they can't read my poker face) but I doubted that Starbucks accepted solid gold and I really didn't feel like shadow traveling all the way to Olympus to the god-to-mortal-money ATM.

So, with that, I began to search my person for loose change. I checked my shoes, my socks, my backpack, my new trench coat's many pockets and came up with a five dollar bill, three quarters, six pennies, one nickel, and—best of all—a twenty dollar bill that I had thought Al picked off me last week but I guess that was some other poor soul's twenty bucks.

Feeling excited about this new discovery of riches, I summoned a shadow portal with the instructions to take me to the nearest Starbucks. I stepped through and came out of the other end standing next to the side of a red brick building. I peered around to find that I was standing outside a Barnes and Noble booksellers and about to scream my head off at a lurking shadow that I said coffee shop not book store. Of course, at that point I noticed the sign in the window that read, 'Starbucks Café' and calmed down a bit. I turned back to my shadow, which looked like a scared puppy and vaguely patted it before stepping around the building and nearly running headlong into a little boy and his older sister who stood in a very long line that ran out of the door that I hadn't noticed before—not the door, the line. (But can you blame me? I'm having serious Frappuccino cravings right now.)

"Oops, sorry," I said, stumbling back. They turned and blinked up at me in confusion before smiles broke ontp their faces. What the Hades? Why were they smiling at me? "Um, what's the line for?" I asked trying to get them to stop smiling since sons of Hades get seriously spooked out by things that involve cheerfulness—like smiling—and that is saying something since usually we're the spooky ones.

"It's the release party for the Lost Hero, the new Percy Jackson book!" said the little boy, bouncing up and down like he either was so excited he couldn't contain himself or he really, really had to pee.

"Uh," I said really intelligently; was there a fictional character named Percy Jackson? That couldn't be, could it? Nah, most defiantly not…and I'm not going to tell Percy about this either, since his swelled head would just more dangerously large. So changing the subject, I asked, "Do I have to wait to get into the café?"

The little boy shrugged and his older sister supplied the answer instead. "I don't think so."

"Good," I said cheerfully, and immediately felt scared of myself. With a shudder I continued making my way towards the door, calling, "Thanks!" over my shoulder.

"No problem!" the little boy replied while the girl added, "Nice Nico costume, by the way!"

But I didn't really hear her or understand her. (That was a problem I decided to think over at a later date.) Instead, I went into the bustling store, and following the smell of coffee, I made my way into the café that was bordered by the back of bookshelves. I made my way over to the counter and ordered my Frappuccino (A venti since I was feeling the need for a chocolate chip over-kill at the moment) before shuffling over to little cleared part of the counter that had the sign 'pick up here' above it and waited.

Glancing around at the tables in the café, I noticed that it was full of excited young tweens and teens along with a mixture of enthusiastic and bored looking adults. Most of them were clutching a book with the title 'The Lost Hero;' which gave me a headache trying to decipher since the letters kept jumping around.

After I finally figured out the title of the book, my Frappuccino was up and I took it with a thank-you before grabbing a straw from the little counter and beginning my conquest of slurping up the drink. Seeing that not only were all the tables occupied and that my demigod ADD wouldn't let me sit around long enough to enjoy my drink, I decided to venture into the rest of the store, which was my biggest mistake of the evening.

Drinking the sweet chocolaty deliciousness, I padded out of the café and turned right, heading down an aisle that separated the 'Literature' section on my left and 'Fantasy/Sci-Fi' section on my right, which I figured out not from the titles above the shelves but the pictures of dragons, castles, and elves on the right and people in petticoats, (surprisingly, I know what those are) and top hats on the left which usually was associated with the classic literature books.

Wondering if they had anything in ancient Greek, since the English words were already beginning to do the hula on their covers, I continued down the aisle and came out next to the graphic novels/manga that faced a row of tables with clearance items. About to snatch up the Batman and Robin book and let myself escape into the world of Gotham, I caught sight of a large group of people milling around, chatting to one another, or standing like they had seen Medusa and reading. (Like statues, in other words) They all had the same book that everyone in the café had been reading too, 'The Lost Hero.'

Curiosity came over me, and I put the Batman and Robin book under my arm before heading towards the milling mass of tweens and teens, still sipping on my Frappuccino as my eyes darted around in wonder. "Hey, nice Nico costume," someone told me as I passed by. I turned to look at the speaker by was faced with the backside of someone. With a frown, I continued into the fray, not really knowing what I was doing.

"Cool costume," a teen boy said with a smile before frowning a bit and adding, "But Nico wears an aviator jacket." I had to restrain from raising one of my black eyebrows at him. I had just gotten my trench coat since my aviator jacket was getting way too small, but how did this guy know? Had we met somewhere before? He really didn't look familiar and I usually don't forget a face.

"I grew out of that jacket a few years ago, thank you very much," I replied before continuing on my way through the crowd, beginning to regret that I had gotten the venti since I was feeling the need to find a bathroom beginning to grow. Yep. Sometimes, I have the world's smallest bladder. So, now with a goal in mind, I began to push towards the edge of the crowd so I could find the bathroom a.s.a.p.

But then someone else stopped me and said, "Cool Nico costume! Although he actually has brown hair and pale skin." I found myself staring at a picture of a boy with lopsided eyes and a very stupid look on his face. My mouth dropped open and my urge to pee was temporarily forgotten.

"I do not look like that!" I shouted before shoving the book out of my face and marching off, not knowing where I was going, just hoping the bathroom was this way and not on the other side of the store so I wouldn't have to wade through the crowd again.

Thankfully, I was in luck and I found the bathroom just in time, setting my drink and the Batman and Robin book on the little shelf outside the men's with the sign that read 'all items here' above it. Five minutes later, and feeling extremely relieved, I picked up the Frappuccino and graphic novel, having decided to buy it while humming the hand washing song in the bathroom, enjoying the foamy soap. (You got to admit, somewhere is classy if they have foamy soap.)

Off I went, towards the front of the store to see about buying my book. The cash register was totally swamped with more tweens, teens, and parents, all of whom were clutching their copies of that same book. Sighing, I waited in line for a good half an hour and started reading about the adventures of my favorite superheroes and their fights against the mob in Gotham. I had gotten to the fifth page (which is pretty fast for a guy with dyslexia) when it was my turn to check out.

I made quick business of it, pulling out the twenty and receiving three bucks, two dimes, and a penny in change before I scurried towards the poor. But then, suddenly, the smiling faces of two teen girls blocked my way. "Hey, would you take a picture with our friend?" the girl on the left asked and pointed to a girl wearing a short black wig and had green eyes. She wore a Camp Half Blood t-shirt over a pair of jeans and sneakers and held a golden capped pen in one hand.

"Um," I said glancing around for means of escape, which there was none. Sighing and wishing dad wouldn't absolutely kill me if I ever shadowed traveled when mortals were in the area, I shuffled over to the girl. Her two friends took out their cameras (one black and one pink) and snapped a few pictures while saying things like 'say I love Percy Jackson' (Eww…) and 'say drachmas!' (That I could do.)

After that, they lowered their cameras and all three of them chimed, "Thanks!"

"Uh. No problem?" I said eyeing the escape route to the doors that stood wide open.

"Ooh," said the girl with the pink camera as she studied the device's little screen, "This will look perfecto on the Percy/Nico blog!"

The other two girls hurried over and looked at the picture over her shoulder. Beginning to shuffle towards the door, I was stopped by a cheery voice asking, "Who do you ship?"

I turned and looked at the girl dressed up like Percy (a very feminine version of Percy, I might add.) "Ship?" I asked. Like a sea vessel with a fog horn that goes 'wah-woh?' (I can't do an impression of a fog horn, it's quite sad.)

"Yeah, ship or relationship. Like Grover/Juniper or Percy/Nico," said the girl with the black camera.

"Ah," I said before adding, "Then, I'm Team Percabeth!" With that, I bolted out of the store, leaving a trio of outraged (over the fact that someone shipped Percabeth) girls behind me and getting funny looks from everyone else as I hurtled past.

I ran out and rounded the corner of the building, running into a shadow portal. As the darkness swallowed me up, I pointed an accusing finger at the now empty Frappuccino glass I was still—surprisingly—holding. "This is all your fault," I told it.

Then I realized something; I wanted another Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino.

A/N: Thank you for reading and please leave a review! Also, this is for my sister, hillyhp2590; have a great sophomore year in college, drink many Chocolate Chip Frappuccinos, and write more Ghost King! (Check that story out too!)