Nerd Alert

Piper waits for Annabeth to respond and with every second that ticks by she smiles a little wider.

“He really is a nice guy,” Annabeth says with less enthusiasm.

Piper huffs and tugs the dress back off, not caring if her hair is messed up in the process. There are too many dresses sitting in the corner of the changing room, Annabeth has had to zip her up too many times, and she swears if she has to listen to Croony McManpain complain about a vaguely described girl one more time she’s going to lose it.

“This guy had better be worth it, Annabeth.”

“He will be. Just give him a chance. He’s smart and focused and very cute. Just your type,” Annabeth’s voice radiates the pride at setting this up for her.

The door of the dressing room next to her clicks open and then closed, Piper figures Annabeth has decided to use the time to find something for herself.

“So any chance of him putting out on the first date?”

“Piper!” Annabeth hisses.

“What? I just want to know my odds here,” Piper laughs as she talks, throwing the dress she’s just rejected over the partition wall at Annabeth. “You should try that on, maybe you can wear it on your next museum date with Percy. Your legs would look fantastic, and that way you could both admire something you really like,” Piper says teasingly, imagining the slight flush of Annabeth’s face.

Her friend talks a strong game and can even dish it out at times, but in the end Annabeth never fails to become at least a little flustered by Piper. Though knowing that Annabeth is flustered is a skill in itself, she hides her embarrassment a lot better now than she used to.

“Piper!” This time Annabeth doesn’t hiss the word but half-shouts it.

“What?” Piper half-shouts back.

The person in the changing room adjacent to hers clears their throat, and it’s too deep and too testosterone laced to be Annabeth.

“I, uh, I think this is yours,” A guy says as the dress she just chucked is draped over the partition.

“Oh shit,” Piper blurts. “I’m really sorry, I thought you were my friend.”

“It’s okay,” he says calmly. “Don’t worry about it, really.”

Piper silently curses herself and wrenches the changing room door open enough to glare out at Annabeth who’s staring at the guy’s door. When Annabeth glances over at Piper they have a very silent, very quick exchange where Piper blames Annabeth and Annabeth laughs at Piper’s misfortune. Annabeth also nods her head in the guy’s direction and raises her eyebrows, as if to say he’s really cute too. Piper decides to borrow from Annabeth’s playbook and rolls her eyes, earning her a glare in return.

With nothing left to say without actually saying anything, Piper closes the door and returns to hunting for something passable for her date. In the midst of tuning out another repetitive song and keeping herself from throwing all the outfits on the floor she misses mystery guy’s door open. It’s only when she hears muttered conversation coming from the waiting area of the changing rooms that she realizes something is going on, something she has a tingling sensation she should be a part of. By the time she decides on a dress, tugs it on, and zips it up the guy’s door has already clicked closed. Leaving only Annabeth waiting for her to emerge.

“Hey,” Annabeth says excitedly. “I think we have something here.”

Piper steps in front of the three mirrors so she can get a full view of herself and the dress. It’s a dark navy blue with a simple cut falls just a few inches above her knees. The intricate lace pattern lets the skin of her chest and a few inches of her thighs peak through where the internal lining doesn’t extend. Annabeth is right, it’s the best thing she’s tried on so far.

“Who were you talking to?” Piper whispers, her eyes darting to the reflection of the changing room doors behind her.

“Jason,” Annabeth says with a smile. “The guy you threw a dress at after asking what your odds of getting laid were.”

Piper sticks out her tongue in the mirror and shoots Annabeth a look, it only makes Annabeth laugh.

“What were you two talking about?” Piper asks, doing her best to keep the curiosity limited.

“He was wearing a Cornell shirt. Turns out he’s a professor there.”

“Wonderful,” Piper rolls her eyes. “I’m sure you bored him to death regaling him with the fact it’s your alma mater.”  

“I did,” Annabeth says with a nod. “Then we talked about our programs, he teaches history by the way, and end up talking about a new exhibit the American Museum of Natural History is putting on about Greek and Roman architecture.” There’s a blatantly obvious level of excitement in Annabeth’s voice that can only have come from talking about architecture to a fellow dweeb.

“Oh my god,” Piper groans. “He’s a nerd. Just like you.”

“And yet here you are, spending your day with me,” Annabeth shoots back.

“What can I say? I have a thing for hot, dorky blondes.” Piper grins at Annabeth’s reflection and wiggles her eyebrows.

This time it’s Annabeth’s turn to stick out her tongue but there’s a glint in her eyes like she knows something Piper doesn’t, which isn’t surprising. Piper is just about to make a ridiculous face back at her friend when Jason’s door swings open and he steps out into the waiting area. Piper immediately focuses in on the grey sweater, the cuffs and collar of his white dress shirt showing, sleeves shoved back nearly to his elbows, and finally she sees his eyes, a bright blue that makes the air feel charged with static. She’s too busy focused on how gorgeous his eyes are to notice them running along her legs, her dress, her shoulders, and taking in every inch of her.

“Wow,” he says a little loud and a little wistfully. “You look-” Piper snaps out of her stupor at the exact same time he seems to and their eyes meet for the briefest second.

Jason’s face turns a bright, adorable, red as he clears his throat and glances around wildly. He reaches up to rub the back of his head and without looking back at her ducks into his changing room, slamming the door behind him.

“I think we have a winner,” Annabeth says, a wild grin plastered across her face.

Piper blinks, glances at the door Jason has disappeared through, and lets out a small sigh.

“Yeah, guess we do,” Piper mumbles.

She walks back to her dressing room, hoping that Jason will reappear from the changing room, even for a second, so she can finish admiring him. Unfortunately he stays tucked away and she has to change out of the dress and back into her jeans and tank top.

“I’ll be back,” Annabeth shouts, voice echoing off the thin walls and Piper doesn’t bother to respond.

Halfway through pulling her jeans on she hears his door click open softly, for a second she debates rushing out after him and asking what was up with his comment but decides against it. The poor guy is probably making a run for the hills and she should let him go, so she takes her time. The last dress she tried on, the one Jason stared at her in, sits on the top of the pile of discarded clothing. She should buy it, but she’s not sure the guy Annabeth set her up with is really worth it. Hastily she jams the dresses back on hangers and carries them to the discard rack, ready to dump them all and be done with the day. Piper shoves the hangers onto the metal rack without realizing he’s there, he has to clear his throat for her to catch on.

Piper spins around, eyes wide. Jason is still wearing his sweater and dress shirt, the sleeves jammed up just as high as before. Piper tells herself not to bite her lip, begs herself not to.

“I’m wanted to apologize for earlier, I- I’m sorry,” he sounds sincere and bashful and keeps his eyes lowered.

“It was kind of flattering,” Piper says quickly, hoping to ease the embarrassment she can feel radiating off of him. “And you look…” Piper trails off, giving him a teasing smile.

“Right,” Jason says with a nervous laugh. “The dress looked great though,” his voice wavers just a bit as he speaks. “He’s a lucky guy,” Jason says quickly, eyes finally meeting hers.

Piper feels like she’s been struck by lightning, rooted to the ground as a wave of regret that she’s not buying the dress for a date with Jason rolls over her.

“Good luck on your date,” he says and walks away with an uneasy smile.

Her stomach drops, any will to do anything but eat ice cream for the rest of the day vanishing. Conveniently that’s when Annabeth reappears, eyes moving from her to the dress on the rack.

“Not buying the dress?”

“Why?” Piper groans. “Why are all the cute guys complete dorks that won’t ask me out?”

“Sorry, Pipes,” Annabeth says gently, her arm wrapping around Piper’s shoulders. “But all is not lost.” Annabeth gives her a shake and an optimistic smile.

“I don’t have his number, I don’t even have his name, I don’t have anything,” she groans.

“Then it’s a good thing I got it from him. I thought maybe we could see that new exhibit, but since you’re not interested in nerd things like that-”

Piper elbows her friend in the side, ending Annabeth from using her own words against her. She then wraps her friend in a hug and squeezes until she might break one of their ribs. The fact that there’s hope for seeing Jason again is well worth spending a Saturday trailing around Percy while he makes heart eyes at Annabeth.

“Wait,” Piper says suddenly, turning back to the rack of clothes she’d left behind and ripping through them until she finds what she’s looking for.

Piper examines the dress one more time, wondering silently what exactly it was that got a random guy to simultaneously compliment her and embarrass the shit out of himself. She also wonders if she could make him do it again. When she turns back to Annabeth, who is staring at her smugly, she gives her friend a hard look.

“Shut up. I don’t want to hear it,” Piper says, pointing at Annabeth and clutching the dress tighter.

“Guess you’re suddenly into Greco-Roman architecture,” Annabeth says, lifting an eyebrow.