Percy had been standing in front of the amusement park. A wait that had only been 10 minutes felt like an eternity. 

Percy was nearly overstimulated by the bright lights and blaring music, coupled with the screamings and ravings of some of the attendees at the park.

He only found security in scrolling through his social media feed, looking through the lives of people he barely knew.

“Boo.”

Percy screamed and jumped, fluttering his wings, quickly turning around and revealing Philly behind him.

“Screw you!” Percy flew down slightly to punch Philly’s shoulder.

“Hello to you too” Philly chuckled.

“You Jerk” Percy looked at Philly’s shirt. “You - you have less dirt on that shirt than usual,”

“Yeah well, we had a critique today so we didn’t do much,” Philly added. “How are you?”

 “Well, I was doing just fine till you nearly gave me a heart attack.” Percy looked away and smiled while biting his lip. “You know that test I’ve been telling you about?”

“Yeah, what about it?” Philly asked. 

“You're not going to believe this but” Percy paused. “I passed with an A minus.”  

“See, I told you you’d pass it!” Philly said. 

“You did” Percy turned to Philly “But that was dumb luck,” 

“Well, my grandpa used to say that dumb luck is the best kind of luck.” Philly pointed out

“Oh really?” 

“Yeah.” Philly pointed over to something behind Percy. “Let's go over there.” 

Phill pointed over to the booth. Percy looked over at a wooden booth. There were four targets, each riddled with holes, and at least four people throwing darts at them. Not a lot of people were there so they were able to play against each other.

“Alrighty,” Percy shrugged as he followed Philly over to the booth. Percy walked over to the right end of the booth. He tried to reach up to view the table to no avail. 

Percy jump and fluttered his wings until he was able to see the table. Percy saw an indent on the table containing the bright red darts with green feathers on the ends. Percy reached out for one of them to see if they were one of the sticky darts that could cling to his hooves.

They weren’t. 

So Percy used both of his hooves to cling onto the feathery tail of the dart. Not only was he fluttering in place attempting to stay in one spot but he was also holding a dart with both hooves.

Percy looked at Philly and Philly instinctually looked at Percy.

“Are you sure you wanna do this?” Philly asked.

“Positive,” Percy smirked with determination. 

Once the bell rang he started throwing them at the target one by one. He tediously threw a dart, missed the center, flew down, grabbed another target, fluttered up, and threw that dart only to miss the center again. And he did this 14 times.

Once the buzzer set off, Percy looked at the indent with the darts. There were 25 darts in that indent before the game, now there were only 11.

He looked over at Philly’s set of darts only to see them all gone. He looked at Philly’s board, and the board had a set of darts all localized at the bottom of the circular board on the first row.

At least 20 hit the first row and 5 darts hit the second row.

On the other hand, Percy was able to localize most of his darts on the second row with 9 on the second row and 5 on the third row which narrowly missed the center.

The first row was 5 points, the second was 10 points, the third was 15 and the center was 25. Percy did the math in his rather quickly. 

Philly was able to get 20 sets of 5 points which gave him 100 points and along with the 5 sets of 10 he got 150.

Percy, on the other hand, got 9 sets of 10 which gave him 90 points but along with 5 sets of 15 he got 165, which means…

“Yes! I won!” Percy screamed.

“No way…” Philly turned to Percy.

“Yeah, he did…”  A plump grizzled centaur walked over from the left.  “Congrats, kid. What do you want?”

Percy looked over at the prizes; Stuffed animals, and balloons, but what really stood out to Percy was a giant blue bear. 

“I’ll take the bear,” Percy said.

… 

“Wow, you suck,” Percy noted as he began hoping and with the giant blue bear nearly sliding off his back.

Percy kept his wings up to slightly support the bear which did little to keep it from sliding. 

“So do you” Philly noted. 

“Well, at least when I sucked it was tactical,” Percy added while skipping with the bear on his back. “I was the one who won this bear.”

“That was just dumb luck, Percy.” Philly objected

“What's the matter” Percy sneered “I thought dumb luck was the…”

“ Percy?” A different voice entered the conversation, a familiar voice to both Percy and Philly who looked in front of them to see Sophia. Next to Sophia was a familiar sphinx slightly taller than Percy but shorter than Philly. 

“Sophia!” Percy gasped with excitement. 

“Oh my gosh,” He screamed. “Sophia! My goodness, it’s been eons 

“Yeah.” Sophia agreed. “It’s so great to see you both. How have you two been?”

“I’m doing great,” Percy said. 

“I’m great,” Philly said. “How are you?”

“I’m good, thanks,” Sophia said. “This is my boyfriend, Kaleb. Kaleb this is Percy and Philidelphia.”

“Nice to meet you both,” Kaleb said.

“Have we met before?” Percy asked. 

Kaleb paused for a while putting his paws on his chin and thinking before slowly saying “We were lab partners once.” 

“Oh goodness.” Percy gasped.  “I’m so sorry.”

“It's cool,” Kaleb said. “All these classes kind of mesh together in my head so I don’t blame you.”

“Where were you guys heading?” Philly asked. 

“Oh, we were going to the Sound Breaker ride,” Kaleb replied. 

“Oh shoot,” Philly said. “Can I go with you guys?”

“Of course,” Sophia replied. “Although I’m going to have to sit this one out I’ve been on too many rides today.” 

“I’m not the biggest fan of rides,” Percy said. “So I’ll be sticking with Sophia on this one.”

“Alright then.” Philly turned around. “Let's get going.”

… 

Percy and Sophia were sitting on the bench in front of the metallic array of loops and bends that was the Sound Breaker. The line was incredibly long yet Philly and Kaleb seemed to be having a long winding conversation that left Percy’s mind at ease.

“Sorry that I haven’t been able to talk to you all that much lately.” Sophia took Percy’s attention off of the boys.

“Wait, what?” Percy tried to mentally recover from the sharp transition. “No, it's fine. It happens.”

Percy smiled before looking back at the line.

“How has everything been?” Percy asked. “ How's the relationship?” 

“Amazing, school is kinda a bummer but Kaleb makes everything a little brighter,” Sophia said.

“What’s it like?” Percy asked, “I mean, like a relationship, because… like… yeah.”

Sophia looked at Percy with one eyelid raised in confusion.

“Well…uh…” Sophia slowly said. “I guess, it’s like having a super close friend. Like that person, makes you feel, alive, and cared for. Like… You really like to be around that person, You’d do almost anything for them, you know? I don’t really know how to describe it too well.”

“Hmm, okay,” Percy replied. 

He looked back at Philly and Kaleb, still talking but a lot deeper into the line.

“Why do you ask?” Sophia once again caught Percy’s attention. Sophia began teasing him “Does someone have a crush?”

“Me?” Percy pointed to himself before shaking his head. “No never.”

“You and Philly seem really close” Sophia added. “I mean, I’ve seen so two around each other a lot sometimes.”

“No, we're just best friends…” Percy stumbled. “I mean, like you’re my best friends, I meant to say we’re super close friends…I mean, good friends, you know.”

“Mhm,” Sophia smirked. “I’ll believe you…”

“I’m not lying,” Percy added.  “We’re just friends.”

“I said I believe you,” Sophia reassured Percy.

Percy looked at the line silently while Sophia looked at the floor. There was a long awkward silence between the two, both friend riding their individual trains of thought.

“I don’t know what to do.” Sophia looked at Percy. “Like, I’ve found people attractive and all that, but I was never close with any of them. Not like him. And it’s a bit overwhelming like I don’t know what to say.”

“Just tell him how you feel,” Sophia answered.

“How do you do it?” Percy asked. “Like I’ve never said anything like that to anyone. How do I know if he feels the same way?”

“I really don’t know,” Sophia shrugged, “I usually find out if someone likes me if I confess my feelings and it’s never really been that much of a struggle.”

Percy looked at the crowd, putting his hoove by his mouth and softly biting on it.

“You’re no help,” Percy mumbled. 

“I know,” Sophia sighed. “But you’ll cross that bridge when you get there. I know you’ll get there.”

“I hope so,” Percy said, he looked at Philly still talking with Kaleb just a bit closer to the ride, unable to do much about the momentum of the line itself. 

…

The hallways of the dormitory were still, normally it was quite lifeless. If it wasn’t for Percy and Philly walking and talking down the halls, it would be perfect silence.

“Gosh, I’m so glad I got rid of that bear,” Percy sighed. “My wings were stiffening up.”

“Doesn’t she have like two giant bears in her dorm?” Philadelphia asked.

“Yeah,” Percy said. “But she said herself a third one can’t hurt.”

“Yeah…” Philly paused as they both came to a standstill in front of Percy’s dorm. Percy and Philly looked in opposite directions, staring down at the matted floors.

“Well…” Percy said. “It’s been fun…”

“Yeah…” Philly said.

“Text me when you get back to your dorm.” Percy was unlocking the door while looking at Philly. “Okay?”

“Okay.” Philly squinted his eye.

Percy opened the door, he looked into his room, contemplating his next move.

“Uh, Philly?” Philly turned to face Percy. Percy’s lips quivered a bit. “I l-”

He paused for a brief second, before recovering. 

“I… care… about you…” Percy managed to say. “A lot…”

Percy could only scream, ‘What is wrong with you?’ to himself 

“I-” Philly squinted. “I care about you too… a lot.”

They both chuckled.

“Goodnight, Philly.” Percy smiled.

“Goodnight Percy,” Philly said back.