The living room floor was a disaster of tangled limbs and crumpled plastic. The colorful mat was wrinkled from all the shifting, red and blue circles creased under knees and palms. What had started as a “fun, harmless game” had very quickly turned into a test of balance, flexibility, and patience.

“Play Twister,” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said.

“You’re on top of me!” Percy groaned, his voice slightly muffled against the mat as he tried to twist his shoulder out from under you.

“I’m not controlling the damn spinner!” you shot back, breathless as you tried not to collapse. Your left hand was planted on a blue circle, your right foot stretched awkwardly across two bodies to barely tap yellow. Your muscles were already starting to tremble.

“Foot to red!” Grover announced far too cheerfully from his spot by the spinner.

Percy let out a long, dramatic sigh. “I get this is Twister, but bodies don’t move like that, dude.”

“Stop whining and play the game!” Annabeth called from the couch, where she was watching with poorly disguised amusement. She was clearly enjoying the chaos far more than she should.

You huffed and carefully shifted your weight. Lifting your foot felt like defusing a bomb—one wrong move and everything would topple. Slowly, you extended your leg, searching blindly for the nearest red circle. Your balance wavered.

“Careful—” Percy started.

Too late.

Your foot landed on red, but in doing so, you had to lean forward to keep from falling. Now you were practically draped over Percy, your knee hovering near his ribs, your hands braced on either side of his shoulders. If gravity betrayed you, you were absolutely going to crash straight into his face.

He squinted up at you. “This is a safety hazard.”

“You’re the one who insisted we play,” you muttered, trying to ignore how close you were to losing your balance.

Annabeth giggled from the couch. “Wow. You two look very stable.”

“Stable isn’t the word I’d use,” Percy grumbled.