28Please leave a comment and a follow if you enjoy this! And leave a comment if you didn't-criticisms are welcome! I'll post another part later when I get inspired :)
Feel free to check out my other works too, they're all HP/PJO/HoO based.
Percy's P.O.V/
"Percy, breakfast!"
I yawned as I stumbled out of bed. "Yeah, coming, gimme a sec.."
"It's blue pancakes!"
That got me moving. I quickly threw on a random shirt and jeans, checked that Riptide was in my pocket, and hurried to the kitchen, drawn by the smell of pancakes. "Morning, Mom."
"Morning, Percy. Breakfast is already ready, I've got to get going as well, so you'll have to drive yourself."
"Yeah, that's fine. Bye Mom, love you!"
"Love you too, hon! Try not to get into trouble, alright?" She blew me a kiss as she hurried off to change into her work attire.
I chuckled. "That'd be the day." I turned and was about to sit in my usual chair when I realized that someone was already there.
Nico di Angelo. Eating black pancakes.
"Um, what are you doing in my house?" I was surprised, Nico usually stayed at one of the camps. He was a roamer. Not a school-going kid.
Being from the 1900s and having no family to tie him down (except maybe his father) helped. It's incredibly hard to explain to mortals that you were born in 1932 but got stuck in a casino for 70 years.
"My father insists I get some form of education. It's also much easier to hitch a lift with Paul then it is shadow-traveling there every day and having Will and the rest of the Apollo cabin yelling at me if I dissolve into shadows so I'm staying here." Nico shrugged.
I blinked. "Um..where are you going to sleep?"
"In your room. Didn't you see the mattress on the floor?"
He saw the confused expression on my face. "It was literally right next to your bed, hoe did you-y'know what, nevermind."
I just got more confused by his "explanation". "Whatever. So, were the blue pancakes a lie or what?"
Nico pointed at the table. Where a plate of blue pancakes was sitting in plain view. "No wonder ANnabeth calls you Seaweed Brain and Thalia calls you Kelp Head."
"Shut up." I rolled my eyes at him in and dug in.
(line break time skip to arrival at Goode :P)
"We're here, try not to gawk." I told Nico as I pulled into a parking spot.
Nico rolled his eyes at me. "I know what a highschool is, Fishhead."
"Half the girls here could be in the Aphrodite cabin."
"...Great. Are the teachers here duds?"
"Half are, half aren't. See you at lunch." I grin, practically pushing Nico out of the car before getting out myself and heading off to homeroom.
Nico's P.O.V.
I stalked into my homeroom class and found a seat in the far corner. Hopefully I'd get a good homeroom teacher ...One that would ignore me.
I actually hoped for that for every class.
But the Fates decided to have a field day instead.
For homeroom, there was this dude who told us to call him "Mr. Shaky". And then he had each of us say our names, favorite color, favorite hobby, and a random fact about ourselves.
Luckily I wasn't first. That was the only good thing though.
I was last.
After the girl next to me had gone ("I'm Susie Reynolds, and my favorite color is rose red, my hobby is watching anime, and I volunteer with the non-profit Food4All"), the teacher motioned me to speak. And with 15 minutes still on the clock, of course I had to.
"Nico di Angelo, black, nothing, and I'm not interesting."
A few kids snickered. The teacher shushed them. "Everyone has a hobby and something interesting about themselves. What do you like to do most?"
I briefly considered the real answer (which would have been annoying Percy), but of course I couldn't say that. That would've been weird. Besides, I knew Percy was popular. I didn't need that kind of socialness. I wasn't ready for it.
"Um...I don't know?"
"Hmm...Then how about a random fact about yourself? Surely you can do that."
Great. My whole life was centered around my heritage, which of course I couldn't exactly just start spewing out. "Um..I'm a head counselor at my summer camp?" That was the truth, plus it didn't give anything away. And it was better then saying I talked with ghosts or something.
Mr. Shaky looked impressed. "Very nice! Which summer camp?"
Uh-oh. "It's a private camp. You have to be invited to go, so not many people know about it."
"Liar, liar, pants on fire." I heard someone mutter.
"Got any proof, Goth?" someone else asked in an I-know-you're-lying way.
I gave them a death glare. "Plenty." I pulled out my necklace. "Been going for four, going on five, years. Each year we get one bead."
Some looked like they half-believed me. The others ...Well, it was pretty obvious that they'd want to get a second opinion. And I was definitely not telling them who to ask.
Mr. Shaky seemed to decide to go along with it, for the most part. "Very impressive, Mr. di Angelo." he said, as the bell rang.
I was one of the first to get out of that place, stuffing my necklace back inside my shirt as I walked out the door.
My next classes, Math and History, went in a similar fashion. I guessed that Father had made arrangements about me being dyslexic and all at some point, by the way the teachers acted. For the most part, the majority of my classmates stayed away from me.
Except one.
I was about to head into English with Paul (at least he knew better then to single me out) when I heard a voice yell,' Oye, Nico!"
I turned to see the son of Posiedon weaving his way through the crowds of gawking students towards me. Sighing, i asked, "Whaddya want now, Fishhead?"
"Did you get into Greek?" he asked.
Seriously?" Obviously yes. I get enough of Latin from the Twelfth Legion, I definitely got too much from Octavian."
"Great, oh and you have lunch after this right?" I nodded. "Look for me after you get your lunch, I'll save you a seat." he grinned, heading off to his next class. I facepalmed. Knowing Percy, his table would be packed with people.
Fun.
I dragged myself into English right as the bell rang. I ended up flopping into the seat nearest to the door. Paul winked at me when he saw me, I nodded back.
"Welcome, everyone, to your first day back! Now this semester.." My brain was already long gone-if anything, I'd just get the rundown from Paul at dinnertime.
At some point, I dozed off a bit and woke up when the bell rang again.
"..and don't forget to read the first few chapters in The Last of the Mohicans for homework!" Paul called as everyone started leaving. I yawned, grabbed my stuff, and shuffled off to the cafeteria to endure the horrifics of eating.
Entering the noisy cafeteria, I quickly glanced around to get my bearings before eating the gunk they were serving (pizza, which didn't look like pizza). Once out of the line, I started to look for Percy, but only because every other table was filled with people and I did not want to deal with a bunch of strangers at that moment.
Being short was a huge disadvantage at times like this.
"Nico! Nico di Angelo! Over here!"
I followed the sound of the yelling voice to where Percy and his troop of friends were sitting. A mix of everyone but Aphrodite-type girls. Typical Percy. I sat down in the last open spot at the table.
"So you're Nico? I'm Jake." A kid that was obviously part of the popular crowd that was sitting across from me introduced. "That's Aaron, Quincy, Josh, Lia, Sabrina, Seb, and Carly. And you obviously seem to know Percy." The students all waved. I nodded back, and took stock of who was who.
Aaron was wearing a swim team shirt, probably for the school. He and Sabrina both looked like they worked out. Quincy was reading a book-an obvious nerd. Lia had earbuds in and Carly was definitely on the wealthy and popular side, with her perfect hair, perfect clothes, and self-confidence. Josh seemed pretty average.
I wondered how on earth some of these people had ended up forming a friend group with Percy, who was the jock/troublemaker. Or maybe they were all troublemakers in some way or another.
That wouldn't have been surprising.
"So, Nico, which part of New York are you from?" Aaron asked.
I shrugged. "Depends on where I'm staying at the time. Right now? Manhattan. Last week? A camp near Long Island Sound."
"Cool, least you're not from East Village or something. You into anything? Art, music, sports..?" Josh asked.
"No."
Percy's friends looked confused at that, so of course the idiot jumped in. "He means he likes shutting himself up in his cabin all summer and you have to have a good reason to want him to come out and socialize."
Nico punched him. "Shut up Jackson, I did not."
"Yeah you did. The only time you didn't was because the Stolls painted your cabin bright pink."
"And to keep you from shooting people with your terrible archery skills."
"Exactly." Percy grinned.
"You guys go to the same camp?" Lia asked. Percy nodded. "I'm head of cabin 3, he's head of cabin 13."
"Wait, you're 14 right? Isn't the usual counselor age around 16 though?" Sabrina asked curiously.
Nico kicked Percy under the table. "It's a long story."
Percy winced at the kick, but got the message and changed the subject to what classes everyone was taking. Nico stayed silent, instead observing. He noticed that the only person who didn't really talk was Quincy, still absorbed in his book. Just like an Athena camper, Nico thought. He even looked like one. Nico wondered if that was why Percy had him at his table, in case he was a demigod.
After all, anything was possible.