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“Have you got the marshmallows?”
Hazel merely raised an eyebrow at Leo as she dropped the massive bag of marshmallows beside him, startling him out of the very poor way he was trying to light the campfire using two random rocks he’d found. “No.”
He looked between the bag and her, before rolling his eyes at her. “Ha ha. Very funny.”
“I’m considering starting stand up.”
“Are you two going to keep bickering or is someone going to light this fire?” Frank asked as he headed over, firewood in his arms. He dropped the pile on the other side of Leo, making him jump again, before raising his eyebrows at the two. “Well?”
Hazel gestured to Leo. “He thinks he can do it with rocks.”
Leo spluttered indignantly. “I can do it with rocks.”
“And you’re doing so well.”
“Shut up!”
“We brought hot do— what’s going on?”
As a way of celebrating making it through exams, the group of college students had decided that it would be a good idea for them to have a gathering, of sorts. A little campfire party. Something small, just to boost their moods and have some fun before they all went back home for the holidays. Really… it was more a way of them having an excuse to put off travelling that little bit longer, to avoid heading home so soon.
Leo had been made responsible for finding them a spot and “securing the vibes” (his words), hence the whole setting up a campfire in the pit round the back of one of their dorm buildings. The others had then been tasked with getting various campfire snacks, which was how Hazel had ended up bringing a bag of marshmallows the same size as her. She, of course, had done this with Frank, so whilst he was getting firewood, he also got to claim at least part of the snack fetching. There had been no sort of coordination over what each person (or couple, it depended on how you looked at it) would bring, so the get together was either going to be a buffet success or a sugary disaster in terms of food.
Right then, Hazel turned to see that some of the others had arrived — namely, Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Nico and Will. Reyna was nowhere to be seen as of yet, but she tended to be late to get togethers — they were more than willing to save food for her, whenever she turned up.
It was Percy who had announced that he had brought the hot dogs (of course).
Hazel casually gestured at Leo. “This guy doesn’t know how to light a fire.”
Leo spluttered indignantly, which pulled a snort out of Frank. “I know how to start a fire! I’m great with fire! I’m a borderline pyro!”
“That’s not something you should really announce,” Piper pointed out as she headed over, sitting down beside Leo. “Need some help?”
“No!” And then he paused for a few moments, before relenting. “…Yes.”
Piper put down what she had brought (a tray of fruit kebabs, which Leo would have questioned if not for the fact that he met Annabeth’s glare almost as soon as he saw them and realised that he would probably end up roasted on the fire himself if he brought them up) and took the stones from Leo, striking them a few times before the sparks caught the kindling. There was a collective cheer as the fire started and then gradually grew.
Piper handed back the rocks. “Bring matches next time.”
Leo grinned at her and saluted. “Yes, ma’am.”
The rest of the evening, and late into the night, was chill. Hot dogs, sodas, fruit kebabs and s’mores — there was plenty of food to go around. And Reyna brought along enough to have Percy, Jason, Leo and Frank stuffing their faces all evening: quesitos, tostones, empanadas, chicharrones… she was completely forgiven for being late because of it.
As midnight drew closer, the group fell into a companionable silence, with Leo tending the fire as the others either sat with each other or, as Nico and Hazel had opted for, roasted marshmallows for more s’mores. It was Piper who broke the silence, speaking up from where her head lay in Annabeth’s lap (Annabeth herself was resting against Percy, who was gradually making his way through his fifth soda of the night).
“Do you guys ever think of where you’ll be in five years?”
Jason looked up from where he and Will had been working together on a game of solitaire, and then his head tilted back as he considered it. All of them were quiet as they considered their answers, waiting to see who would speak up first.
“Alive, hopefully,” Jason joked, which earned him small laughs from the others. And then he shrugged. “I don’t really know. I’ve never fully thought about it. I’m still reeling from the fact that I actually got into law school.”
“You’re at the end of your second year,” Hazel pointed out.
“Exactly. Still reeling.”
“Would it be too optimistic of me to say I want to have my own architecture firm?” Annabeth asked. “I mean, I know it won’t be easy to set up, and I’d need to get experience whilst working for someone else, but I think five years is doable.”
“I think you could absolutely do it in five years,” Percy pointed out. “If any one of us could achieve that kind of goal, it would be you.”
“Well, that’s not sappy at all,” Reyna teased, and Percy kicked out at her playfully.
“What about you?”
“I want to see the world some more,” she admitted. “My dad, before he died, he used to talk about all the places he would visit whilst deployed, all the different countries he saw. I’m no military girl, but I want to see many places too, have stories to tell people. Travel the world, meet new people. Broaden my horizons.”
Percy’s eyebrows rose at that. “Wow.”
Reyna’s cheeks flushed. “Too much?”
“No! No, that’s kind of amazing, actually.”
Annabeth patted Percy on the chest. “Come on, Seaweed Brain. What about you?”
Percy cleared his throat, looking around. “I mean, in five years? Married marine biologist, I think.”
Annabeth’s cheeks flushed dark, and slow grins spread around the group, but before she could say anything, Leo piped up with, “You’re gonna marry a fish?”
Laughs echoed around the circle, only prolonged by Frank’s, “I wouldn’t put it past him, to be honest.”
Percy downed the rest of his coke, flattening the can, before throwing it at Leo’s head, catching him and making the other guy grumble as he rubbed his head where it had landed. “Alright, Leo, you’re up. In five years’ time, where are you?”
Leo straightened up and cleared his throat, which got rolled eyes from all the girls, before announcing, “I, Leo Valdez, shall be a true engineer in my own right in the next five years.” He grinned at everyone. “No, but seriously. I absolutely will stay in engineering. I’m still trying to decide on the exact branch of mechanical engineering, but I do know that I’ll make some awesome stuff.” He picked up his poker (which he hoped was not still hot) and poked Frank with it. “Frankie boy, what about you? Got any five year plans?” He glanced at Hazel. “Also married, maybe?”
Frank’s cheeks flushed. “Oh, uh, I definitely haven’t planned that far ahead relationships-wise,” Frank admitted with an awkward laugh. “I once considered enlisting, like my mom did, but…” He shrugged. “That’s not really in the cards for me anymore. I just want to do something I love, something I enjoy. I might start looking at those zookeeper apprenticeships again, actually. Maybe I’ll be doing that in five years.” He bumped his shoulder against Hazel’s knocking her aside slightly. “Your turn.”
Hazel laughed a little, before pushing some of her hair back. “My turn, my turn…” She sighed as she tried to think of an answer herself. Admittedly, this had been a question she had been considering for a while, in much depth. “I might actually take up that Chemistry Teaching Assistant post, see where that goes.” She shrugged. “You never know, after my degree I might actually go into teaching. It sounds really fulfilling.” She looked over at Nico, raising a single eyebrow at him.
Nico shrugged. “I just live from day to do. I don’t plan too far ahead. It stresses me out.”
“I, on the other hand, have a full five year plan set out for us,” Will announced, which pulled out laughs and groans from the group, and got a raised eyebrow from Nico himself. “Obviously I’ll be well into nursing by that point, which is a nice steady career. We’ll have our apartment with a fish tank for all of Nico’s weird tropical fish—”
Nico scoffed,
“—and maybe a couple of cats. I considered dogs, but they have so much energy that I can’t expend at the end of the day. So cats. Cats and fish, maybe a hamster—”
“My zookeeper apprenticeship might just be in your apartment,” teased Frank.
“Well, it would give Hazel an excuse to see you and Nico together every day.”
“You say that like you plan for me to be home all day every day, like a house husband,” Nico teased. “Do you want that?”
Will grinned, but he didn’t give an answer, letting the tease hang in the air.
Annabeth stroked Piper’s hair, tilting her head as she looked down at her. “Well, you’re the only one left to answer. Where do you see yourself in five years?”
Piper was looking up at the stars as she thought about her answer. Where did she see herself five years from now? Where did she want to be?
She realised that the answer to that question was far too easy.
“Here, by the campfire, hanging out with you guys,” she answered softly. “Maybe things will have changed. Some of us will be married, maybe one of us will have a kid by that point—”
“Percy,” Jason coughed, which got him a teasing punch from Will.
“—and there will probably be more of us here. You know, relationships and all that.” Piper shrugged, before giving a sigh. “But, yeah. In five years’ time, five years from now, I want us to be here. Hanging out. Catching up.” She reached up and took Annabeth’s hand. “I don’t want us to lose touch. I want us all to stay friends. For life.”
The silence that followed was soft, comfortable. There was an air of contentment. Like they all agreed. Like they all wanted to be there, again, in five years’ time.
Leo was the one who broke the silence.
“As long as you bring more than just fruit kebabs.”
Piper sat up suddenly, glaring at Leo. “Leo, I will roast you over that goddamn fire.”