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Chapter Text

High school is rough. I should know. The hallways are hardly ever empty, there are always papers flying everywhere, and sometimes your locker jams. Then, there's the teachers that seem like they have it out for you, namely my Italian teacher, Mr. di Angelo. He hated me for some reason, and I understood why, but that didn't mean he had to call me out on everything. I hated it when teachers did that.

I walked down the crowded hallways—and by walked, I mean evaded every person, trying not to run into them or step on the backs of their shoes, and avoided getting hit in the face by anyone or anything—with my Italian textbook tucked in my arm and my homework about 75% done, aimed for my next class, which I was dreading with every fiber of my being. My girlfriend of a year and a half, Annabeth Chase, babbled about something she found interesting about the architecture of the Roman colosseum as we made our way to our next class. I nodded to tell her I was listening, but I really wasn't.

Most guys my age were in basketball or some sport, but I'd always been fascinated by the bass guitar and music in its entirety. People told me to go out for swimming, which I would be absolutely amazing at, but I was unable to maintain a good enough GPA to be able to participate, even with a girlfriend as smart as Annabeth.

She waved goodbye to me as I entered the gloomy torture chamber that was known as the Italian classroom. I sighed, sitting down in my assigned desk, which was next to a girl with black hair, the tips of it dyed blue.

Her name was Thalia, and we'd been friends when we were younger, both of us wanting to start a band, but we never actually were able to because of other kids' lack of interest. Her younger brother wanted to join, too, but he was just kinda annoying. After then, in middle school, we sort of drifted apart. She joined this skater group called "The Hunters of Artemis," and we went our separate ways. Mainly because we never had time to hang out anymore.

"Buon giorno," said the devil himself as he entered the room and set his books on his desk.

I felt a shiver of foreboding course down my spine as he looked directly at me with his intimidating brown eyes.

"Everyone got their textbooks? If so, open them to page 293."

I huffed as I flipped to the page, which was a lesson assessment (those are just fancy words for a test that I didn't study for).

The bell rang, the final bell for the day, and I left the Algebra classroom faster than Grover left to the cafeteria on enchilada day. Annabeth had tried tutoring me in math, but we both eventually gave up on it, mainly because I did not want to put the effort in. It was just not worth it. I wasn't going to use it. Ever. Not everyone is going to be a super smart engineer.

I just wished I could have a music class, just one, but my schedule didn't allow it. It was more focused on credits I needed so I could graduate. Then, maybe I could get a music scholarship and go somewhere that I could start a band.

Lost in my thoughts, I ran into a boy shorter and slighter than me.

"Oh, sorry," I told him, but the dark-haired boy only casted a glare at me.

I froze. I just pissed off the one person I shouldn't have. Nico di Angelo, the son of the teacher that absolutely hated me. Goodbye, graduation. Damn it.

Once he saw who ran into him, he turned his head away quickly and rushed in the opposite direction.

"What's his problem?" I muttered to myself before shrugging it off and walking to my locker.

I slammed my fist against my locker in frustration—the lock jammed again. Now I was going to have to talk to a custodian and get it undone so I could get my stuff. I headed toward the main office to ask if the receptionist knew where one was.

As I reached the main office, I saw it. The most beautiful flier I had ever seen.

"Ready to rock your socks off?" the flier read in metal-band-style letters. "Bring your band to our annual Band-Off and win a musical scholarship! Preforming April 21st. Entrance deadline March 15th."

It seemed as if it was made just for me. The frustration I felt alleviated, and I resisted shouting in joy about the flier, which was manna from heaven. My mind was set. I was going to start a band and we were going to win that scholarship. I thought of the first person who would join a band with me and fantasized us playing together. I felt my stomach flutter in excitement.

After getting my locker unstuck and coming home, I decided to text Thalia to tell her about my latest and greatest discovery.

You: Hey, Thals. I saw the coolest thing today.

Pinecone Face: What?

You: There was a flier for a band-off in April. The winner gets a scholarship to a music school. How cool is that?

Pinecone Face: Really?

You: Yeah it was in the office

Pinecone Face: we should make a band and get that because I'm surely not getting any of those other scholarships Annabeth had me apply for

You: Yeah that would be so cool

You: but who would join?

Pinecone Face: Jason can play electric, like me. He can join. Trust me he's not that annoying anymore.

You: I guess he can join. Annabeth told me once she could play piano and her friend Piper is really good at singing.

Pinecone Face: Yeah, they can be in it. You can play bass and backup vocals because you're not bad at singing

You: Is Thalia complimenting me?

Pinecone Face: don't let it get to your head. We still need a drummer.

You: I don't know anyone that can play drums very well.

Pinecone Face: How about asking one of those band kids?

You: I don't think the band kids have the best opinion on me

Pinecone Face: Why?

You: well, I kinda accidentally set the band room on fire in sophomore year.

Pinecone Face: oh yeah, you were the one that did that?

You: Yeah.

Pinecone Face: Why am I not surprised

Pinecone Face: how did you even manage to do that

You: I don't remember.

Pinecone Face: well we need to find a drummer. We can have Annabeth help print out fliers and we can ask around for one.

You: Yeah we can do that

Pinecone Face: k I gtg.

You: k

Pinecone Face: Also if my contact name is pinecone face again I will personally murder you.

Pinecone Face: love ya, Perce.

Damn it.

Chapter Text

"So, Annabeth," I started, leaning against the desk beside the one she was sitting in.

I stayed up nearly all night out of excitement. My mind would not rest. It kept racing and asking new questions that caught my interest more than my need for sleep ever could. I tried to sleep, I really did, but my brain would not let me. I had to suffer from lack of sleep this morning, but I thought to myself that it didn't matter.

"What?" asked the blonde girl, her stormy, grey eyes not leaving the book she held in her hands.

"Thals and I are starting a band," I said. "I was wondering, it's just an idea, would you be interested in joining? You could be, like, the keyboardist."

"Why would I waste my free time on a band?"

"Annabeth, please," I pleaded. "There's a Band-Off in April, and if our band wins, we can get a scholarship."

Annabeth finally looked up from her book. "A scholarship? A musical one?"

"Yeah," I shrugged. "I would love to get it."

Annabeth sighed defeatedly. "Sure. As long as we win."

"Yep, I'm planning on it," I responded. "I also heard your friend is good at singing. Maybe we could ask her to join too?"

"I can ask her," Annabeth told me, her eyes trained upon the words on the pages of the book she was reading. "Shouldn't you be getting to class?"

"Working on it," I told her.

God, this was going to be a long day. I felt it.

"So, Perce," Thalia leaned in and whispered to me while Mr. (or Professore, he tried to have us address him) di Angelo was writing this week's vocabulary words on the whiteboard. "Where are we gonna practice? At my house or yours?"

"I was thinking mine, in the garage," I replied. "It's out of the way, and my mom wouldn't appreciate the loud noises if we practiced inside."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Thalia agreed. "My dad would throw a fit."

"Right? Your dad's really dramatic." I didn't realize that Mr. di Angelo's arms were crossed over his chest in annoyance, and when I looked up, my excitement deflated.

"Detention, Mr. Jackson."

I nodded in understanding; this wasn't the first time I got detention for talking during his class this year. My mom was going to be upset at me.

"Now, since we're all done conversing, let's review the definitions for these words."

I sat in the Principal's Office for what seemed like hours. I already had texted my mom and told her I got detention again. She responded accordingly, and told me no car for a week. That's a fair punishment, but I still felt heavy disappointment. I was probably going to take Annabeth out that weekend. It depended on how much homework I was assigned by the Devil himself, who had taken the human form of a middle-aged man with a wicked beard that taught high school students Italian.

This time, fortunately, we only had to sit in a quiet, empty classroom and do homework until detention time was over. And, by we, I meant me and some curly-haired boy I've seen around the school once or twice. I think he was a grade below me, but I wasn't sure. He was tapping around like crazy, and I just assumed he had ADHD like me. He was currently disassembling a pen and reassembling it, then clicking it repeatedly while he struggled with some of his homework.

"So, what did you get detention for?" He finally broke the silence and spoke to me.

I looked over at him, putting my pencil down in defeat—goddamn math—and shrugged. "I was talking in class. Y'know how Mr. di Angelo is."

He grinned. "Yeah, that dude gives me the heebie-jeebies. So does his kids. Well, not the girls. They're super pretty. They just haven't noticed me yet."

I laughed. "I'm Percy."

"Leo Valdez, A.K.A The Super-sized McShizzle, Bad Boy Supreme," was his response.

"So, what did you get in detention for?"

"Well, you know the Phys Ed/Weights teacher, Coach Hedge?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I played around with that stupid megaphone he always carries around. I put in some animal noise maker and... Well, you can figure out the rest."

I laughed again. "My mom took away the car. For a week."

"My mom doesn't know yet," Leo said. "She'll probably take away the drum set again."

"Wait, you play drums?"

"Yeah," he answered. "It's really fun. It keeps my hands busy and I think it sounds really cool."

"Well, you heard of that Band-Off thing, right?"

"Yeah, I have," Leo told him. "I was super stoked about it, but all the bands I talked to were too edgy for my taste or already had a drummer."

"Well, I'm making a band, and I need a drummer."

His eyes lit up. "For real?"

"Yeah."

He pumped his fist in the air. "Finally. Wait, you're not into that screamo stuff, right?"

"Well, no, we're more of a rock band, like, garage band rock, y'know."

"Oh thank god. That screamo stuff makes my arms tired. I'm more of an alternative rock person myself."

"Me too. Ramones, Fallout Boy, stuff like that."

"Cool. I love Fallout Boy."

"Quiet! Before I give you another hour!"

The two boys immediately shut their mouths.

"Hey, Piper!" Annabeth called to her friend.

The choppy-haired girl whipped her head around, the wooden beads in her hair clacking with her movements. "Oh, hey, Annabeth. What's up?"

"Just heading to class. Wanna walk together?" the other girl offered.

Piper shrugged. "Sure. It wouldn't hurt."

"So, Percy can't take me out again this weekend."

"Just dump him already, then."

"I can't," the blonde replied.

"What do you mean?" Piper said.

"He's practically my best friend, and if I dump him, then maybe it would be different between us," Annabeth told her. "He hasn't been getting the signs. I haven't tried to kiss him in forever and every time he planned something romantic, I've turned it down."

"Just tell him you want to be just friends, then," Piper shrugged.

"I don't want to hurt his feelings."

"Trust me, Annie," Piper retorted. "Breaking up with him now and feeling guilty will be a million times better than having him think you two have something special and then breaking his heart."

"I'll think about it," Annabeth said to pacify her. "Anyway, he is starting a band and invited me to be the keyboardist."

"What did you say?"

"I said yes."

"Annie," Piper sighed. "I understand he's your friend and you knew each other since you were twelve when you went to that summer camp together, or whatever, but you gotta learn to tell him no."

"If we win, we all get a scholarship. Of course, if he doesn't get a scholarship, he won't go to college. I know how important this is to him, so I agreed. He actually wanted me to ask you to be the lead singer."

"Me?" Piper scoffed. "I'm nothing special."

"You won the talent show your freshman year for your singing."

"That was for money."

"And this is for a scholarship. It is money, just that it is handled by someone else to pay for your future, which will give you more money, and you don't have to pay anyone back."

"That sounds appealing, but I have to pass, Annie."

"If you change your mind, you know where to find me, I suppose. Maybe if you refuse altogether, I might have to share a little secret."

"You wouldn't."

"Jason and Piper sitting in a tree—"

"Oh shut the hell up, Annie."

Annabeth laughed as she turned into her classroom.

Chapter Text

"Give me back my book, you stupid scarecrow!"

I heard a girl shout, and I immediately knew who it was. I turned to see Reyna Arellano, a girl a year below me, and a boy who did indeed look like he belonged in a cornfield rather than at a high school.

"No can do," Octavian smirked as he held her textbook in the air with one of his skinny arms.

Octavian wasn't exactly the school bully per say, but he still gave a couple of people a hard time. Well, I was one of those people. In freshman year, I pulled an all-nighter, so I brought my panda Pillow Pet to study hall so I could take a nap. It's not childish; it was smaller than any other pillow so it was portable, and I grew to like it. Octavian, he tore it up and called me a Momma's Boy. My mother, I had to talk her out of running him over with her car.

Clarisse La Rue, too, is another not-quite school bully, but still gives some people a hard time. Yet again, me. Her brother, Sherman Yang, helped her out sometimes, to my disappointment.

"I said give it back!"

"Okay, I'll give it back."

He eyed a shelf too tall for the girl to reach and set it down there, only for Reyna to glare at him and kick him hard in the shin.

Octavian returned the glare before walking off like the snooty princess he was. You know Sharpay from High School Musical? Yeah, kind of like that.

She huffed, trying to reach the textbook from the shelf before she sighed in defeat.

"I'm going to be late for class now."

I'm a nice guy, but I know that when a girl is stressed, you want to run far, far away. I considered the options and helping her out won over walking away.

I set my bag down on the floor before standing on my tiptoes and pushing the book off the shelf with my fingertips. Once I retrieved the book, I handed it to the girl who was sitting against the wall.

"Reyna, right?"

"Yes. You're...Percy?"

"Yep, that's me."

"Thank you."

"No problem. We better get to class before we both get detention, huh?"

"Yeah, that'd— That'd be a good idea."

I sat down in my seat just as the bell rang, fortunately. My mom would have killed me if I got another detention that week.

Thalia looked at me from her seat across the room and gave me a wave. I returned it while Mr. Brunner, my history teacher, was finishing typing something from his prep period and stood up to begin his lecture. Another Greek unit, to my relief. That is one of the only things that managed to keep my attention.

"So, good news," Annabeth told me as she set her tray next to mine.

"What?" I asked through my mouthful of food.

"Charming," Annabeth commented, flicking my forehead before continuing. "I got Piper to join the band."

"Tha's great!"

"Seriously, Seaweed Brain, don't you know to chew your food before talking to people?"

I shrugged before seeing Thalia and Jason approaching our table with their trays. I waved at the two of them as they set their trays down across from Annabeth and me.

"So, I heard you got Leo to join our band," Jason told us. "That's cool. We've got this in the bag."

"Yeah, I just hope he's good," I replied after I swallowed.

Thalia and Jason nodded in agreement. I suddenly felt the sensation that someone's eyes were on me before I looked to my right, seeing Nico di Angelo turn his head at his tray quickly. I raised my eyebrow before facing my food again and shoveling another forkful of mediocre casserole into my mouth. It was nowhere near as good as my mom's cooking. Not at all.

"So, all we really need is a manager."

I looked up at Thalia who was playing in her serving of previously canned fruit with her spoon.

"Oh, yeah, I didn't think of that."

"Anyone come to mind?"

I looked over at the girl, her hair in a cocoa braid over her shoulder, looking at her food with a doubtful gaze.

"Yeah, I think we've got someone," I said, a slight smile coming to my lips.

"Who?" Jason asked. "Reyna?"

I nodded.

"Dude, she's our class president, plus she's involved in practically everything," Jason informed me skeptically. "I'm pretty sure she has an internship at the mayor's office."

I shook my head. "I can get her. Well, maybe you can convince her."

"Me?" Jason responded incredulously. "You're good at talking to people. Why me?"

"She totally has the hots for you, dude."

"She does?"

"Who even uses that phrase anymore?"

I ignored Thalia and nodded at Jason. "She sometimes looks over at you. Look."

He looked over at the caramel-skinned girl, who glanced up at the blond before blushing and staring down at her lunch tray.

"You're right, but I'm not going to take advantage of a girl's feelings for me. That's just messed up."

"I'm not saying that," I told him. "Just ask her. I'm sure she would more likely accept the position if you ask her. She doesn't know that you know. She probably wants to spend more time with you. Managing a band with her crush in it, plus getting a scholarship. It's a win-win, don't you think?"

"That was strangely smart for you." Thalia raised an eyebrow.

"What? I'm smart."

"If you put that much effort into your math homework as you do into your musical career, you'd be passing," Annabeth said.

"Rude."

She rolled her eyes as she took a drink of her milk out of the minute carton.

"Fine, I'll go talk to her," Jason declared as he stood.

Reyna looked at the tall blond as he approached her, a red hue adorning her cheeks.

I watched the exchange from my seat at the cafeteria table, a smile of anticipation wide on my face. She looked anxious, but it was only natural from a girl. This was a boy she liked, and he was talking to her. Annabeth and I were never really like that, so I did not understand fully, but I could see where she was coming from, and I didn't judge her behavior.

Soon enough, Jason returned, assuming his seat beside his older sister. "She said she'd think about it."

"So, is that a yes, or a no?"

Thalia shrugged. "You never know with a girl. What was her tone? Was it unsure, or was it motivated?"

"I dunno..."

"That's okay, we'll receive our response soon, I guess."

The rest of us nodded in agreement, finishing our lunches and dumping the waste from our trays before the bell rang.

Chapter Text

A week had passed, and we had gathered all of the members of our band. We hauled all of our equipment into my garage, which was adjoined to my house, but my mother told me it was okay that we could practice in there. She sounded more enthusiastic about us practicing when I mentioned that there was a scholarship involved if we won the contest.

We all sat in a circle of folding chairs in my garage, our instruments set to the side for the meantime. Reyna printed out the criteria of the Band-Off and she was reading off the points that we needed to follow.

"We need a name to enter the competition," Reyna told the group, glimpsing down at the rules and requirements. "Our song cannot be longer than five minutes. We can preform an original piece or a song already published, as long as we don't copy the original artist completely. Songs should not include inappropriate language or mentions of sexual activities."

"Well, there goes 'Sugar We're Going Down,'" Leo joked.

I smiled, but then turned my attention back onto the band name requirement. "So, what should we call ourselves?"

The room was silent for awhile as we tried to brainstorm a good name for us.

"DEATH!!" Thalia suggested. "All capital letters, two exclamation marks for emphasis."

Jason shook his head. "Too edgy."

"Well, those Word-the-Word bands work well," Annabeth suggested. "Or single-word band names."

"Yeah, like Coldplay, or something," Piper said.

"Warmplay," Leo joked.

"No," Jason told him.

"How about Seppuku?" Annabeth suggested.

"What's that?" I asked.

"It was a ritual suicide preformed by samurai in feudalist Japan," she answered. "I thought it might be an interesting name for the band."

Jason and I were skeptical, but Piper, Leo, and Thalia seemed to be in agreement with the name. I thought it didn't really suit ourselves or who we were as a band. However, since it was four to two, that was going to be our name.

The bespectacled blond and I shared an unimpressed look, but I shrugged my shoulders.

"Let's get to practicing then," I said resignedly as I grabbed my guitar.

The rest obeyed and grabbed their instruments. Reyna moved all the chairs to the side and leaned against the wall, observing our actions. Jason, Thalia, and I plugged our guitars into our respective amps as Piper grabbed her microphone. Annabeth assumed her position at the keyboard, and Leo took a seat at his drum set, twirling the sticks around in his hands in anticipation.

Jason and I began the intro to the song we had decided to learn separately so we would know our individual parts. It was still in progress, as we were not perfect, but we knew what we were doing. Thalia began her own part on her guitar, an intense part that soon died down as Piper held the microphone to her lips and began to sing, low in volume to match the current music intensity.

"Another head hangs lowly, child is slowly taken, and the violence caused such silence, who are we mistaking?"

I focused on my part, which was quite simple, as bass guitarists usually repeat the same notes to form the base of the structure, which securely holds the rest of the music up, like the base of a tower.

"In your head, in your head, zombie, zombie, zombie, what's in your head? In your head, zombie, zombie, zombie."

I closed my eyes to let the melody wash over my senses as I continued the notes that my part was composed of. I let the music become my feelings, my surroundings, my experiences as we played on, Leo's drumming setting the rhythm, Annabeth's keyboarding and Thalia and Jason's combined efforts becoming essential ingredients. Piper's singing tied it all together, and I held it all up with my own low notes I was producing. It was something I alone could do. It was something that made me feel a part of something. Music as a whole made me feel this way. It made me feel passionate, happy, and complete as a person. Nothing else made me feel this way but music.

We finished up the song, feeling satisfied with our practice. Reyna was pleased by our skills, as well. Leo joked, and we laughed. It was like we joined a new family. No, even better. We made a band, and I was a crucial part of it.

"When should our next practice be?" Reyna asked, making a schedule for this month's practices.

"How about tomorrow?" I suggested.

"I'm not sure if I can make it tomorrow," Reyna said. "I have paperwork to do."

"Well, when's the next day you have free?"

"Thursday."

"Then Thursday it is."

I walked swiftly, almost jogged, through the hallway, making it to class in record speed. I eyed Jason sitting across the room, so I decided this was the perfect chance.

"So, did your new string make it in yet?" I asked eagerly as I dropped my books on the desk beside him.

We had to cancel practice yesterday because one of Jason's strings snapped, and I did not want a single moment to go to waste. We had started practicing every day after school, even if Reyna was not able to attend.

"Yes, I just need to get it fitted. We can practice today, don't worry."

I grinned at his answer as our English teacher—my stepdad, Paul—came in through the door, greeting our class and immediately telling us to open our exercises.

English was a bit of a struggle for me. Dyslexia is terrible when you're trying to get by without a few late assignments or any stress whatsoever. I needed to maintain a stable GPA, because, to my surprise, my ACT scores were pretty good, so I could go to a good college if I tried my hardest. Annabeth was pushing me in that direction. She signed me up for tons of scholarships beforehand, and she told me I was able to write decent essays that could qualify as long as I got them in on time. That is, if my ADHD, dyslexia, or homework assignments didn't interfere.

Chapter Text

"Percy, we need to have a talk."

Those words coming out of a girl's mouth, especially Annabeth's mouth, is never a good thing.

I froze, sighing in dread before composing myself to face my girlfriend.

"We do?"

She nods solemnly.

I took this time to think of who to leave my things to after I died. My guitar would go to Jason; it would find a good home with him. My video games and my PlayStation, to Thalia. My comic books, probably to Jason again. He would stack them so neatly on his shelf and they would never be lonely.

"We should practice a little less, don't you think?"

"No, why?"

"We are all burnt out. We don't want to practice every moment of every day."

"Don't you want to win?"

"We've got months to practice, Percy."

"That's the point! If we practice all the time, we'll be the best, hands down!"

She sighed resignedly. "That's not the point, Percy. It'd be better if—"

"No, we have to get better! We have to! Don't you want to win the scholarship?"

She hesitated. "Of course I do."

"Then we should practice."

"You're so selfish!" she shouted suddenly.

I was not expecting that. "What?"

"You only care about the scholarship. You don't care about us."

"Of course I care about the scholarship, but I care about you guys, too. I'm not selfish."

"Then why don't you think about how we feel about this? We're exhausted. We're tired of practicing. We hardly have any free time anymore!"

"I know! A real band has hardly any free time, either."

"You don't get it!" she huffed in annoyance. "We don't want to practice every day. We want to have some time to rest."

"We can rest when we go home. We have to get better."

"I hardly even have the time to do my homework anymore. You know what, if you're going to be this selfish, then I quit."

"You can't quit!"

"Trust me, I can." Those were her final words before she packed up her keyboard and left my garage.

"Fine! I don't need you! I can get another keyboardist that actually wants to practice."

She ignored me. Piper sighed and packed up her stuff as well, leaving alongside Annabeth.

"Do you guys think we practice too much?"

"A little, yeah," was the general response.

"I guess we can tone down the practices then."

"I can't be in the band anymore either," Thalia admitted resignedly. "My grades are too low and my dad says I have to quit practice and focus on my schoolwork."

I looked at her incredulously. "Seriously?!"

She nodded. "I'll try to get my grades up as soon as possible, okay?"

After she packed up and left, I saw that the only ones that stood in the garage were me, Jason, and Leo. A drummer, a electric guitarist, and a bass guitarist. Pretty pathetic band, if you ask me.

"I guess the band's off, then."

The other two nodded, and soon they were gone, too.

Seppuku was history. Literally.

I sat in my garage, my face buried in my hands. My world was crumbling around me. I lost my girlfriend and my dream all in a matter of minutes. All I could do was dwell on what I had done wrong. I should have asked my bandmates when they wanted to practice except of just planning practices and making everyone attend them. The promises of improvement were empty. There could never be improvement if we don't take our time and have the ambition to want to practice. I retreated back in the house, ignoring my mother, and I plopped down on my bed, burying my face in the soft pillows that smelled of my shampoo and laundry detergent.

It wasn't long until I heard the gentle knocks on my door.

"Sweetie, are you okay?"

"The band's done for. Annabeth practically broke up with me. I'm failing Italian. Yeah, I'm just peachy."

She comforted me the way she always does: hot chocolate with blue marshmallows floating in it. I smiled at her attempts of cheering me up. She hugged me and offered to find me a tutor. I nodded.

"That sounds good, Mom."

I walked down the empty hallway on my way to the restroom. I had gotten yet another detention from not paying attention in class. I wish I had picked a different foreign language than Italian. Something easier, like Spanish.

I texted my mom the news as I sat on the toilet seat. Luckily, she didn't punish me that time. I tucked my phone in my pocket and buried my hands in my hair. Italian was giving me a killer headache. Annabeth was not talking to me, so I assumed I was single now. I would not cry. I wouldn't. I let the tears slip from the corners of my eyes. I'm pathetic, I told myself.

Once I gathered myself, I walked out of the bathroom and back toward Hell, where the Devil would hand me a detention slip and have me organize the supply closet in the basement again. What a joy that was.

Annabeth sat at a different table than me. That was to be expected. Leo, Jason, and Thalia sat beside me, though, and I was thankful for friends in such a hard time. Depression was a recurring thing for me. It was an unstable disease, and music was the only cure. Unfortunately, I had to suffer through this detention alone, battling with the thoughts in my mind, telling me I had no future and no chance at having a decent life because I would be struggling with student debt my whole life, as I'm terrible at managing money. Furthermore, it would probably land me some dead end job that I don't enjoy, so I'd be struggling my whole life and won't even have a crack at writing and producing music, as I had hoped ever since I was little, when I first held a bass guitar and learned a few chords.

Leo shook me out of my self-deprecating thoughts with a corny joke about drums dropping out of the back of a truck. Music jokes. What a terrible sense of humor I had. I laughed anyway, because I needed to. I needed to not be sad. Annabeth wasn't there for me, as she always had been when I was depressed, but I didn't want my mind to get started on Annabeth while it was already yelling at me that I was hopeless. She was just another weakness in a myriad of self-doubts.

Chapter Text

As I look back on my high school years, I would definitely say that detention was my least favorite part of it all. I got at least one a month because of talking during class, being late, not turning in an assignment, or just not paying attention. Normally for others, it would just be a warning, but I'm me, and I was a repeat offender, so it was an automatic detention. I didn't waste my time on complaining or overthinking it. I just went. Sometimes, it helped me get my homework done. There was no devices allowed, so we weren't supposed to listen to music.

Unfortunately, instead of a somewhat blissful hour of sitting at a desk in an empty classroom, this particular detention took place in the basement: a dark, grey, concrete-walled nightmare with slippery tile floors and a feeling that someone was watching you no matter where you went down there. It would help if there were less flickering lights, or if at least someone put up one of those "Hang in There!" posters with the cat hanging from a tree. It would at least distract the students walking down the hallways from the feeling someone with a knife was going to jump around a corner and attack them.

This fateful detention was alike some of the others I had, but it was the most important one, now that I see it. The one I met Leo was up there, but this was the single most important detention in all of my high school career. Because this was the one I met the love of my life. Well, technically, I already had met him, but he always was sitting in the back of class, quiet as a dormouse, and always avoiding my gaze, so I never had an actual conversation with the guy. I didn't notice the cute freckles that splashed the bridge of his nose, or how good his shampoo smelled. I didn't notice his chocolate eyes or how they sparkled when someone mentioned something he was interested in.

Well, back to the detention. I was assigned to organize the supply closet (again), humming to myself some Green Day song and trying to think of something that was not depressing. My phone was sitting up on Mr. di Angelo's desk, all alone and afraid in the Devil's domain, or else I would've had my playlist on, which was fortunate, as if it was on, I would not have heard the beautiful piano playing a few doors down the winding labyrinth that was the eerie basement hallway.

It started out as soft, gentle notes, but soon grew a little louder. The song being played was unfamiliar, but it was pleasant. The intensity wavered back and forth as the person pounded on the keys, the notes reverberating down the hallway.

The supply closet forgotten, overpowered tremendously by my peaked curiosity, I began to follow the notes. I travelled down the hallway, the music growing louder and louder as whoever was playing put all his heart and emotions into the chords he was creating. I wetted my dry lips with my tongue as I reached the door that held the piano. I creaked it open silently so the person would not hear me, but I did not have to worry, as he was too lost in his music to sense my presence. His skilled fingers were dancing across the keys, the dark brown hair swaying with the melody the piano produced.

Only one thought crossed my mind at the time: I needed him in my band. Even if my band didn't exist anymore. I would create a new band just so he could be in it. Little did I know that this would be one of the greatest decisions I would make in my life. As the notes came to a rest, and he lifted his tired fingers from the instrument, I whistled in amazement.

He jolted and turned on the bench swiftly, his face a shade of pink and his doe eyes widened dramatically. Once he saw who had been behind him, his blush darkened even more so.

"That was awesome!" I complimented.

He seemed to be searching his mind for a way to respond, but it soon came out as a cute, stuttered, "Th-thank you."

"What was that song?"

"I call it 'Cough Syrup'," he responded. "I... I wrote it myself."

My eyebrows raised in surprise. "That was really good. You wrote it by yourself?"

He nodded sheepishly.

I grinned at him. "Well, I'm starting a band, if you're interested in joining. We could use somebody like you."

A blush reappeared on his cheeks as he pondered the offer. "Um, sure. When do you practice?"

"After school, usually. Do you have clubs or sports?"

He shook his head.

"Okay. If you can write down your number, I can text you the time and place."

He paused for a moment before nodding and hunting for a pen.

With Nico's number on the back of my hand, I waved goodbye and headed back to my punishment of organizing the abandoned supply closet. Little did I know that that exchange that occurred between us would change my life forever.

It was a chilly late January afternoon we all met. Thalia was finally able to join us again after her history grade increased to a C-, but her father was still not satisfied. Luckily, it was enough, but he still was reluctant to let her go.

At the sight of Nico, she leaned in and whispered in my ear. "Isn't he that weird sophomore that sits in the back of class?"

I nodded. "Thals, he's a genius. Trust me."

"Where'd you meet him?"

"Detention."

"Of course. If he's into screamo, I'll quit," she joked.

I rolled my eyes as Reyna commenced the practice and reread the rules to us. After a couple of months and no practice, we needed to get warmed up. As we had the lack of a vocalist, I stepped up to the plate, while Jason took over my role of bass guitar. Leo, our wonderfully ecstatic drummer, twirled his drumsticks around in his hands.

"What is this sheet music?" Jason asked, holding up the handwritten sheet music between his index finger and his thumb.

"Nico wrote it. It sounds really good. Trust me."

He waved sheepishly at him. After our basic scales, we sat in the chairs, arranged in a small circle in the center of my garage.

"We need to come up with a new band name," I announced. "Seppuku is dead. We are a new band now."

"Seppuku?" Nico asked with a distasteful tone.

Jason nodded solemnly. "Yeah. It was a mistake. Annabeth picked it. I did not favor it very much."

"Me neither," I agreed. "Well, new band, new name, new us. Any suggestions?"

The circle was silent for a moment.

"My DEATH!! option is still up."

"Yet again, too edgy."

Nico looked shyly at the ground, keeping quiet nearly the whole suggestion period, which lasted about 20 minutes.

"Maybe we'll come up with one later," I waved it off. "We should practice."

"How about 'DEMIGODS.'?"

All of our eyes met the youngest of the group's, who finally was looking up at us.

"'DEMIGODS.?'"

"Yeah, I always thought that would be a pretty good name. All capital letters and a period at the end."

"Like, in mythology?"

"Yeah. Not quite gods, but not quite human."

We all remained silent for a moment, contemplating Nico's suggestion.

"That's... actually really cool," Leo said.

We all clamored in agreement.

"Well, I think that might be it," I said. "Nice one, Nico."

He blushed slightly. "Don't mention it."

"So what should the practice song be?"

"I was thinking something Green Day."

"Of course you'd say that."

"Actually, that doesn't sound bad. We should sing that just for this practice."

"What song are we doing for the competition anyway?" Leo asked.

"The one Nico wrote. He wrote out sheet music for us, too."

"He wrote a song?"

"Yeah. It was pretty good. He was playing it on a piano, and I was surprised he wrote it on his own."

Nico flushed, embarrassed by all my compliments. "It's okay," he said, modestly.

"Let's get to practice then!"

And DEMIGODS. was created. It was the sole moment of high school that I fully felt at home, with this new family that I never thought would be united. A class clown, a punk rock girl, a class president, a nerdy jock, a loner, and one who could never do anything right. I did do something right that day, however, and it led to the wildest roller coaster of my entire high school career. My entire life, arguably. We all came together that day, and it was a day I now look back upon with fondness. I would not trade that day for the world.

Chapter Text

"That was..." Jason began.

"Actually amazing, bro!" Leo finished. "You wrote that?"

Nico grew nervous at all the attention, but he answered anyway, drawing his tired fingers back from his keyboard. "Y-yeah, I did."

"All by yourself?" Thalia asked.

He nodded.

"See, I told you! Genius. Exactly what we needed. With this, guys, we can win!" I said.

They all seemed in agreement with my words, which made Nico flustered, but he soon smiled at our hopefulness.

"Yeah, that'd be cool. I need a scholarship, anyway," Nico said almost sheepishly.

I clapped him on the shoulder with a confident smile before we called it quits on the current practice, packed up, and everyone went home. Nico asked shyly for a ride, as he did not have his driver's license yet and his phone died so he couldn't contact his sister. I agreed, snatching my keys off the counter and telling my mom where we were going.

Nico di Angelo lived in the North Side District, which was about two miles from my own house. He told me his older sister, Bianca, usually gave him rides to school, as she was a junior this year.

It was a cozy little neighborhood, almost like a cul de sac. He lived in a house bigger than mine; it had two floors, a wrap around porch, and a balcony on the top floor. It was a cozy gray, nesting in the halos of nearby street lamps. It had a neat, white picket fence that matched the porch and the trim of the house. At the front was a deep red door, almost a maroon. I could see glimpses of a pool in his backyard. The only question in my mind was, "How could a teacher live in this kind of house with his salary?"

Nico smiled at me, thanking me for the ride as he pulled his backpack out of the front seat. He walked around the front of my car, slinging his black backpack over his shoulder. As he approached the front steps, he hesitated and turned around to face me.

"Would you like to come inside? I could show you a couple of things I think are pretty cool."

I was not looking forward to seeing Mr. di Angelo outside of school, so I was preparing to politely decline.

"My dad's not home," he quickly added, seeing my facial expression.

With that in mind, I shrugged, putting the car into its park mode, and took the keys from the ignition. I slid them into my back pocket as I walked up the steps to the higher end house, Nico at my side. He took his key out of his pocket, which was hanging off a Black Parade keychain. I smiled at that; I had him figured for a My Chemical Romance fan. I liked them too, in their prime.

Once he unlocked the door, he flicked on the light and kicked off his shoes at the mat. I followed suit, closing the door behind me. He threw his backpack on the nearest chair.

Now that the dim room was bathed in light, I could properly look around. The floor was hardwood with a shiny chestnut-colored finish. I imagined sliding down the hallways in my socks. The walls were white and the ceilings were lower than I expected them to be, but from them, there hung bright, modern, circular lights. A large piano sat against the wall. The chairs and couch, brown and plush, were all placed to face a modest coffee table. A flat-screen television was mounted on the wall, above an unlit digital fireplace. On the wall, there hung pictures in dark frames of Nico, Bianca, Mr. di Angelo, and a dark-haired woman I'd never seen before. I assumed she was his mom.

Houseplants sat beside the furniture, fashioned like the ones you would see in a lobby of a hotel or an orthodontist's waiting room. On side tables sat modern lamps, magazines, remotes, and PlayStation 4 controllers.

I followed Nico through the living room, and we stopped at the well-kept kitchen, with its granite countertops and modern appliances. A large black fridge covered in pictures and sticky notes towered over the black stove, stainless steel sink, and counters. Wooden cabinets, which were the same color as the floorboards, alone matched the height of the fridge.

Nico stood on his tiptoes and reached for one of the ornate knobs of a cupboard, pulling out a small bag of Doritos from its midst.

"Would you like some?" he asked politely.

"Sure," I responded.

He tossed me the bag, which I immediately shoved in my hoodie pocket, before he grabbed his own. He also fetched us cans of Mountain Dew, and, with those, we continued down the hallway, up the wooden stairs, and to his bedroom.

I envied the size of his room.

It had a dark gray carpet, which was plush beneath my feet. Lots of band posters hung on his walls, ranging from Panic! At The Disco's Brendon Urie to Five Finger Death Punch. His full-sized bed, adorned with black and gray sheets, blankets, and pillowcases, sat against the wall. The floor was remarkably clean, which directly opposed to the one in my own room. He had blue string lights that lined the crevice where the wall met the ceiling. He had his own large television about the size of the one in the living room, which sat against the wall opposite of his bed on a stand. Another PlayStation 4 sat beside it, along with a plethora of games. I spotted a few Assassin's Creed games and a FarCry, as well as Skyrim and a couple of Call of Duty games.

"Dude! You've got Syndicate!"

"Yeah," he said as if it was no big deal. It was, in fact, a big deal.

"We should play a couple of games together sometime."

He nodded, a slight flush on his cheeks as I continued looking through his collection of games.

"Oh, Mortal Kombat. Cool. I'm pretty good at SubZero."

"I'm more of a Scorpion person, myself."

I smiled before turning my head to face him. "So, what did you want to show me?"

He looked up at me in confusion before his eyes widened in realization. "Oh, yeah."

He pulled out his laptop from underneath his bed and typed in his password. He closed out of a couple pages and clicked on an icon. The page loaded, leading him to one covered in music wavelengths and other technical stuff that made my head hurt somewhat. He typed a few words in the search bar, pulling up a vocal part, along with the background vocals, accompanied by the keyboard recordings.

"I wanted you to see this," he told me, patting the blanket beside him as invitation for me to sit with him. I obeyed his gesture.

"These are the main parts for the vocals," he pointed out. "I just thought you might want to hear it rather than sight read it. I'm glad the others like how the melody goes. If I'm correct, the competition is in four months, so we need to learn our individual parts. During practice, you seemed very competent with learning new things and playing together to blend, but I'm not so sure how easy this one is going to be. After all, you've heard the other song countless times. You've only heard me play this on the piano at school and on the keyboard at practice."

"Sounds good. We've got a while to learn it anyway."

Nico nodded. "This is me singing it, so I'm sorry if it sounds bad. Just trying to show you how I wrote it, but you can change anything you like."

I nodded.

He clicked the triangle, beginning the song, accompanied by the melody on the keyboard, as well as the backup vocals. He added the technological beat in place of drums.

He began to sing; his voice was actually really good and he could hit some high notes in his background vocals. Impressed, I raised my eyebrows. He pointed out little bits and pieces as the recordings played.

"The background vocals have the same notes as the electric guitar at these parts."

"The bass guitar has its own little thing here."

"This is a tricky part, but I imagined electric guitar here, as well as gentle drumming and a little piano. It's more of a solo, but Thalia can play it, right?"

I nodded. "She's really good. I'll let you listen to her for a bit."

"Alright, sounds good."

"You can do your own thing here, instead of that, if you want. I imagined more of a whoop! but you can smooth it out, if you think it sounds better."

"I wanted to put violin at the beginning and the end, as well in the solo a little bit, but I can replace it with my keyboard and incorporate it into my part."

I nodded. "This is actually really cool."

He blushed a little bit. "Thank you."

A sudden knock on Nico's door sounded through the room, making the two of us jolt. He shut the lid of his laptop, which stopped the recording.

"Come in!" Nico raised his voice, the loudest I've ever heard him talk.

The Devil poked his head through the somewhat ajar door.

"Nico, you have...company," he said, almost contemptuously.

"Mi dispiace, Papa," Nico said, filling me with confusion at what he said. "I only wanted to show him something I put together."

"Va bene," he replied.

"I should be going, actually," I told him, standing from his bed. "My mom's making dinner."

"Oh, okay," he said. "See you tomorrow."

"Yeah," I told him. "See ya."

With that, I walked out of his room and descended the stairs, overly aware of my Italian teacher's presence behind me.

I waved goodbye to him to be polite, but it ended up being awkward, so I put on my shoes and removed myself from the beautiful house, anticipating the delicious dinner my mom was preparing at home.

Chapter Text

I lied awake in my bed, writhing in excitement like a teenage girl who just got a new car. Perhaps it was just from the excessive caffeine I consumed from the can of Mountain Dew Nico gave me, but I felt anticipation for the morning, which was saying something, since I hate mornings.

The recordings that Nico showed me replayed in my mind; his pleasant singing voice rang in my ears as I stared up at my plain white ceiling. The posters on my wall were staring at my strange behavior, I felt, but I was too excited to care, or to sleep.

The way Nico played the solo part so expertly sent adrenaline through my veins and pleasant shivers throughout my body. I loved how the high notes of background vocals and the electric guitar complemented the song so beautifully. How a boy in his sophomore year of high school could conjure up a song like that blew my mind. Some people are naturally gifted, I knew, but he put so much passion into this that I was certain it was not just that he had an affinity for music. How much effort did he put into this? How many years did it take to learn how to arrange music? Did he have a particularly talented private instructor? Who knew.

The sound of my alarm jolted me from my thoughts. Tossing my covers to the side, I sat up in my bed, picking up my screaming phone and discontinuing the annoying noise. Thalia had sent me her usual good morning text, to which I immediately replied before placing it back on my nightstand. I stood up on my coarse carpet, not nearly as soft on my feet as the one in Nico's room, and made my way to my dresser to pick out my outfit for the day.

After a quick shower, which consisted of me washing my hair and singing a Panic! at the Disco song loudly in a shampoo bottle, I dried my hair, dressed myself, and tried to tame the unruly black mane that sat on top of my head. That never worked, unless I used some gel, but, then again, I hated the feeling of it in my hair.

I rushed down the stairs the way I always did: sideways with my hand brushing the thin banister, and I glimpsed in the kitchen to see if Mom decided to make breakfast. She did, to my elation.

She handed me my plate of blue pancakes, which she only made when she was in a good mood. I cast a smile at her.

"Thanks, Mom."

"No problem, sweetie."

She ruffled my hair, and I sent a half-hearted glare in her direction.

"Mom, I just brushed it."

"It didn't look like it."

"It never looks like it, Mom."

"I guess you're right."

I sat down at the table, burying my fork into the spongy pancake, which was filled with melted chocolate chips and was completely covered in syrup: the way I like it. I hummed in contentment as I slid a bite in my mouth.

Paul entered the kitchen. He ruffled my hair as well, which earned an irritated expression, but he only laughed. He kissed my mom goodbye.

"Hey, Perce, do you want a ride?" he offered.

"Nah, I'm okay," I told him. "I'll drive. Thanks, though."

He nodded before he bade us goodbye and left the house through the back door.

I quickly finished my breakfast and left the kitchen, but not before kissing my mom goodbye. I slipped on my shoes, slung my backpack over my shoulder, snatched my car keys off the counter, and followed Paul out the door. I made a beeline for my car, a blue vehicle that my father bought for me for my sixteenth birthday. It was not necessarily new, but it worked just fine and the gas mileage was not too demanding.

I inserted the key into the ignition, turning it away from me to start the engine. As it hummed to life, I flipped through the channels on the radio until I found a decent station. Then, checking the time, I pulled it out of park and into drive, carefully directing the car out of its parallel-park position.

The commute to school did not take very long; it never did. The school was just outside our neighborhood, but too far away for me to be inclined to walk. Besides, I loved my baby blue.

My usual parking spot had been taken due to my late departure from my house, so I had to spend a little while trying to find another place to park. I spotted Nico climbing out of the passenger seat of a silver car that belonged to his older sister. I smiled and waved at him, an action which caused him to blush slightly and meekly wave back.

After finding a place to safely leave my car, I locked it and walked toward the school, my backpack hanging off my shoulder and my car keys in my back pocket.

I ventured to my locker, readying for my first period, when I heard it.

"Buenos nachos, Valdez," a male voice teased.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. I was no hero, but when one of my band mates was in trouble, I would help.

I turned the corner to see Leo pinned against some lockers by Luke Castellan, Ethan Nakamura standing beside him. Now these guys were the school bullies. Clarisse and Octavian teased me every now and then, but Luke and Ethan went after anyone who was vulnerable. I don't know why; maybe it was to compensate for the joy that was missing from their lives, but I was not going to stand for Leo getting bullied. He was my elated drummer that loved what he did and always cracked jokes to make everyone laugh.

"What's going on here?" I asked.

"Ah, Percy! Thanks, buddy!"

"Shut it, El Mexicano."

He glowered at him—a face I never thought Leo was capable of making.

"I think you should step away from him. He didn't do anything to you."

He shrugged with a sheepish laugh.

"Unless he did. But, still, leave him alone."

"Percy Jackson, huh?" Luke asked in an amused tone. "I heard you joined the Band-Off. Don't get too defensive, we were just checking out the competition."

"You probably should find another way to take care of this, guys. C'mon, Leo. We gotta get to class."

"Don't get your hopes up, Jackson," Luke mused. "We are going to win that Band-Off. Just you wait."

I rolled my eyes as I beckoned to Leo, who eagerly followed me, escaping his tormentors.

Chapter Text

"C'mon, man," I sighed. "What did you do to them?"

"Well... I changed Ethan's ringtone to the Veggie Tales theme song because he keeps making fun of me, and I called him during class and got him in trouble."

I smiled. I could not be mad at Leo for too long because all those stupid stunts he pulled. "Okay, okay. Don't get too involved with them. They are bad news."

Leo nodded in understanding. "Gotcha. Will leave Scarface and Patchy the Pirate alone from now on."

My smile widened as the bell rang for us to get to class, and we parted ways.

I stood at the gates of Hell, peering in to see if Thalia switched spots or just was gone that day. It was strange, as she usually did not send me a good morning text when she was going to be absent. I shrugged and practically threw my stuff on my desk. The few hours of sleep I got were starting to catch up with me. I lounged back in my plastic chair and stared at the whiteboard, which was scribbled in Mr. di Angelo's cursive all the words we were supposed to learn. I winced, as I forgot to study them.

"Hey, Percy," I heard a familiar voice call.

I looked behind me to see Nico di Angelo waving at me. He usually sat alone in the back of the classroom, so I never really noticed him. I waved back before gathering my stuff and joining him in the empty seat next to him.

"I forgot to study," I confessed.

He rolled his eyes with a slight smile. "Of course you did. Want to borrow my notes until the quiz?"

I nodded, as his notes were probably better than mine, anyway. He handed me his black notebook—I took it gratefully—and I began to flip the pages to the vocabulary words for that week. His handwriting was unusually dainty for a guy's, but he seemed like the kind of guy to have nice handwriting.

"How do you say this one, again?"

"Per piacere," he read. "It’s one of the many ways to say 'please'."

"Ah," I said. "It sounds so much nicer when you say it."

His cheeks flared a little, so he avoided my gaze. "Not really. I just..."

"What did you say yesterday?"

"About what?"

"When you spoke to your dad in Italian when I was at your house."

"Oh, yeah. I apologized to him for having you over without asking him first."

"Yeah, he doesn't seem to be the biggest fan of me."

Nico rolled his eyes. "I know, it's ridiculous. He'll get over it, probably."

I nodded as the tardy bell rang and Signor di Angelo walked in the room. My gaze stayed on Thalia's empty seat for too long, but I soon paid attention to what he was telling us as he took attendance.

"No Percy or Thalia?"

"I'm back here," I told him.

His eyes looked up and found me in the back of the classroom. He never minded when people changed seats since he never assigned them any, but I could tell he was considering telling me to return to my seat. To my surprise, he remained silent, his dark eyes returning to his computer. He clicked something else before standing up and grabbing a stack of papers off his desk. He hit the short ends of the paper against his desk to straighten the stack before collecting them and resting them against his forearm.

"As you all know, we're going to do the quiz for the words this week. Once the papers are passed out, you are all to be silent." His emphasis on the word was directed at me, I could feel it. "Hope you studied."

He promptly began handing them out to the students sitting in the front. Oh God, I hoped I was not going to fail this. Nico cast me a look of reassurance as he pulled out his mechanical pencil, also black. What was with this kid and the color black? Black bed, black shoes, black notebook, black backpack, black pencil... It was almost an obsession.

I returned his smile before gazing at the paper that sat before me, my fate resting in its blank answer spaces.

Nico sat with us at lunch that day. Thalia showed up second period, too. She said she and Jason were forced to go to a lame breakfast meeting with their dad and his coworkers. I sympathized with her.

Nico was a lot more vocal than yesterday, as he was contributing to our conversations with his own thoughts and explaining them a little. I liked Nico a lot better now that he actually spoke, and his smile was nice to see.

He allowed the others to see the recordings he showed me the night before, assigning their individual parts and describing little pieces he wanted them to notice. I noticed how he kept the vocals off, and how he seemed embarrassed to let me hear them. Was he self-conscious of his voice? It was pretty good, so he shouldn't have.

"You should let them hear the vocals, Nico," I suggested.

His gaze avoided mine, instead finding its way onto the tiled floor. "No, I think it's fine without them."

"They're good, though. You sound really nice," I encouraged.

"Thank you, but there's too many people around," he said nervously. "It was fine when it was just you."

"It's okay, Nico," Leo reassured. "I bet you sound fine."

"Yeah, we won't judge. It would be nice to hear the vocals, too," Thalia contributed.

"Yeah, to hear when we play and stop," Jason added.

He hesitated, weighing the options in his mind, before he pulled up the vocals and started the recording over.

"I'm sorry if they're bad."

They listened to the music for when their parts mixed with the words, for when they played and when they stopped. They complimented Nico's tenor voice. He was modest, as usual, but he did not completely refuse.

The bell rang, so he told us we could listen to the rest at practice, which was at 6 o'clock that night because of Jason's basketball practice.

I smiled at the B I got on the math test. Paul was helping me with it a lot more, since after Annabeth broke up with me. I was sad that she still did not want to talk to me. She was upset because she thought I replaced her, so I told her I just needed another keyboardist, and Nico fit the bill. She seemed to understand, but I could see she was still upset.

I was fine with it, but the real thing that worried me was Luke and Ethan's threat. Would they go out of their way so they would win? I hoped not.

At practice, it was the only thing I could think of. But, after we attempted to do a run-through of Nico's song, I knew. After Nico smiled at one of Leo's jokes, I knew. When we came together, we made something beautiful. We were a band, and we were pretty good, too. No matter what Luke or Ethan could say or do, we were going to hand their asses to them. I knew we were.

Chapter Text

I was faced with yet another D on my assignment in first period. I really wished Italian was not first period, so that I actually could've had time to study throughout the day, and so that my terrible grades would not have put me in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

I threw it on my desk frustratedly and buried my hands in my hair. Nico looked at me sympathetically and patted me on the shoulder, uncertain of how to comfort me. Thalia was sick, which was unfortunate, but we did not schedule practice after school that day, so we did not have to cancel it.

"What'd you get?"

I ashamedly showed him my paper. He winced.

"I know," I sighed. "I'm terrible at Italian. I can never remember the words, but I need the credit so I can graduate. At this rate, looks like I'm not going to get it."

He looked like he had a question on his mind. I glanced over at him expectingly.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing much. I just was wondering..."

"Hm?"

"Well, I can speak Italian fluently. It's my first language. Maybe I can tutor you, or something?"

I smiled at him. "Yeah, that actually sounds great."

He blushed, which was usual for him. I didn't know why, but he always blushed whenever I complimented him or said something like that. I didn't exactly care, but it kind of puzzled me.

"After school at my house, then?" he asked demurely.

I nodded. "Okay, I can give you a ride home and we can run through it."

He smiled, red present in his cheeks, glancing down at his lap then back at me. "Okay."

We sat in silence for a moment before Signor di Angelo finished passing out the quizzes and returned to the front of the class to begin the day's instruction.

The rest of the school day came and went. I smiled every time I thought of going to Nico's house after school. His house was really cool, and maybe after we studied, we could play video games together. Ever since he said he was a Scorpion person, I wanted to test his skills. As I knew the type of person he is, I anticipated he would win, but it was the thought that counted.

As the final bell rang, I gathered my stuff, stood, and started to make my way out of the classroom, only to be tripped and drop everything on the floor.

"Whoa, watch where you're going there, buddy," Luke jeered. "You're going to hurt yourself."

He laughed as he left the room. Ethan, trailing behind him, smiled humorously at my suffering as I lifted myself to my knees and picked up my papers and my book. I rolled my eyes, choosing to ignore them, when a girl kneeled at my side and helped me pick up my stuff. To my surprise, I saw the red bandana wrapped around her brunette head and her tomboyish style. Clarisse la Rue. The girl that always made fun of me.

"Sorry about my band mates," she said. "They're assholes. Look, I don't like you either, and I do think we're going to win, but I'm not going to be a dipshit about it. There you go, Prissy. Don't confuse this for kindness."

I nodded, grateful for her help, although she assured me deeply that it wasn't. I stood and made my way to my locker, silently hoping that it would not jam on me again.

Nico followed me to my car and climbed in the passenger seat. We threw our backpacks in the backseat and I started the car. As I was about to switch it out of park, he reminded me to put my seatbelt on. I forgot that seatbelts even existed since I got the car, mainly since I never put it on, but I obeyed, then we left the school parking lot.

"So Luke tripped me in Algebra today," I told him.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Typical."

I smiled. "So I dropped all my stuff. They jeered at me, but I ignored them. I begin to pick my stuff up, right? And, hear this, Clarisse la Rue helps me with it."

He looked at me in disbelief. "Clarisse la Rue?"

"Yeah."

"Stop making this stuff up, dude."

"No, seriously," I told him. "She even over-explained how she was not helping me and that she hated me."

He shook his head, his eyebrows raised. "Wow. I didn't know she had it in her."

"Right?" I laughed.

"So, how do you want to study?" he asked me.

"What?" I responded.

"Like, out of the book, flash cards?" he explained.

I shrugged, my eyes not leaving the road. "Whatever is easier for you. I just need help remembering."

"Okay, we can do flash cards," he said.

We pulled up to his driveway and I parked the car, grabbing everything I needed out of it then locking it. I pocketed the keys, waiting for Nico to walk around and catch up with me. He unlocked the front door like he had before. Again, I did not point out his keychain, but I still found it amusing.

We took off our shoes, grabbed some snacks, and walked up to his room in our socks. His socks were black, as well. I still didn't know what was up with this kid and the color black. We put our stuff on his comfortable bed, and I sat down on it while he hunted for a stack of index cards.

"Our next exam is next Wednesday," he informed me, unwrapping the pile he found and hitting them against his thigh to straighten them out. "He told me about it yesterday. So, the words he wants us to know are on page 318, which is just restaurant terminology. Like, cameriere."

"What does that mean?"

"That would be your waiter."

"Oh."

"Alright, lets start."

"Hey, Mom, I'm home!" I called as I entered the house, tossing my keys perfunctorily on the counter. "And I got my math test back."

"That's great, sweetie," she replied from the other room. "Did you do well?"

"Yeah, I got a B."

"Good job, sweetie. Paul will be happy to hear that."

"Where'd he go?"

"He has a meeting tonight."

"Oh," I said, disappointedly. It was movie night, and Mom always picked scary movies. It was amusing to see his reactions whenever there was a jump scare. "Well, are we still having movie night?"

"Yes, just later than usual. You can invite your friend over, if you want to."

"Which one?"

"Your tutor one."

"Okay, I can text him."

Nico and I had become sort of texting buddies over the past week and it was nice to talk to him. He was almost a completely different person over text; maybe because he couldn't see me so he didn't feel nervous about talking to another person. I liked him, anyway. He was a good friend and I liked when we spent time together.

He thought it was a fun idea and agreed to come only if Bianca gave him a ride. I offered, but he said Bianca could. I left it at that. He arrived at our front door about fifteen minutes later. I could tell he was nervous, although he had been at my house numerous times for practice. We spent most of the time in the garage, but we came in every once in a while for drinks of water and snacks. Mom joked that we were eating her out of health and home, but she didn't object. She loved it when I had friends over.

Paul came home soon after; the duration of the time waiting for him was spent in my room, talking about school and the band.

The movie was selected; tonight, it was Oculus. We decided on a movie we'd never seen before. Nico said he was comfortable with scary movies, so that was that.

We laid out a soft, thick blanket on the floor for Nico and I to sit on while Mom and Paul got the couch. The smell of microwave popcorn wafted through the whole house as I hooked up the PlayStation that was previously in my room and signed in.

When Mom came out with two large bowls of popcorn, we situated ourselves on the blanket and started the movie.

It started out pretty straightforward; I was enjoying it already. Nico and I shared a bowl of popcorn and Mom and Paul shared another. We sipped at maroon cans of Dr. Pepper and commented on the movie every now and then. It was a nice family time, plus Nico to join. He confessed that he wished he was as close with his parents as I was to mine. He almost sounded sad.

It was an intriguing story with hardly any jump scares. The ending dissatisfied me, and I complained, but I knew they must have been coming out with a sequel.

Afterwards, Nico and I joked around, throwing the remainder of the golden kernels that didn't pop at each other and laughing. Then, he got a text from his dad that told him he was on his way to get him, as it was a school night and he needed to get home. We cleaned up and waited for his dad to pull up in our drive way. Once he arrived, we all bade him goodbye, and Mom offered him to come by again. He agreed with a smile. He hopped in the black car, and they drove off.

I returned to my room and lied on my bed with my headphones in, listening to some Green Day song I heard over and over throughout my life. I heard a knock through Billie Joe's singing, and I took an earbud out.

"Yeah?"

"Can I come in?" asked my mom's voice.

"Yeah." I paused my music and took my other earbud out, sitting up as my mom came into my room and sat down on my bed beside me.

"Paul and I were wondering," she hesitated. "Do you, perhaps, like boys?"

I raised my eyebrow. "Where'd this come from?"

"Well, honey," she began. "We watched you and Nico, and you acted as if you liked him, well, more than a friend."

"Um, okay," I said, understanding what she was implying. "There's nothing going on between me and Nico, Mom. I swear."

"It's fine if you do have something going on," she said. "It's completely okay. We were just wondering. You're just going to his house a lot lately, you talk about him a lot more than you talked about Annabeth when you two were together, and you two were acting like you liked each other during the movie."

"He's my Italian tutor, Mom. And, how?" I asked. "He was scared."

"You let him use your shoulder when he needed to look away, honey."

"I just wanted to help him out."

"Well, sweetie, if he's into boys, you should make sure he's not getting the wrong signals," she told me. "You can hurt him. Unless you want something to happen between you."

"Okay, Mom, I won't."

She nodded, kissing my cheek, and stood. She bade me goodnight and left my room, ensuring that she closed the door behind her.

I put my earbuds back in and resumed my music, isolating myself with my thoughts and Green Day's distinguishable electric guitar.

Chapter Text

"Would you prefer your water naturale or frizzante?"

I thought for a moment before answering the boy in front of me, who sat cross-legged on his neat, black-blanketed bed, reading to me out of a textbook that rested on his black-skinny-jean-clad thighs. He looked up at me expectantly with doe eyes.

"Naturale, por favore," I answered.

He nodded. "Okay, let's say you just finished eating. What would you tell your cameriere?"

"Il canto, por favore?" I said unsurely.

He bit his lip before correcting me. "Close, it is 'il conto', with an 'o'. You'll get it, don't worry. You were really close."

I nodded. "Okay."

"The quiz is on Wednesday, which is about six days from now. You should relax and take these flash cards. Ask your mom to quiz you, so you don't have to study so much over the weekend. She seems really nice."

"Yeah, she really likes you."

It was silent for a moment before I cleared my throat. "Um, Nico, I need to ask you something."

"Hmm?"

"Do you...um, are you into, uh, boys, maybe?"

He looked shocked for a moment. "Why?"

I hesitated. "I dunno, I was just wondering."

"I... I don't..."

"It's okay, Nico. I don't care if you are. You're still my friend and my band mate. I won't treat you any differently."

He bit his lip and his gaze shifted from his lap to off to the side despondently.

"Hey," I said gently.

He refused to look at me, so I moved my head to meet his gaze.

"Percy, you don't understand," he said quietly, almost a murmur.

"I don't need to. Just know that it's okay. I won't tell anyone."

"Promise?" He looked up at me with a look of trust and nervousness and held out his pinky.

I laughed at his childlike gesture and gave in, interlocking our pinkies. "Promise."

I looked down at the overturned paper that sat in front of me. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. It was the following Thursday; the anxiety of taking the quiz had already been endured and now I faced my results. I looked back at Nico, who smiled at me hopefully as he looked at his own grade, which was no doubt perfect.

With a tremulous hand, I reached for the paper that held my fate, written in ink as a large letter on the top right corner. To save myself the intensity, I flipped the page over quickly, like ripping off a Band-Aid. My eyes widened at a letter I never thought I could achieve in my first period Italian quiz. An A- was written in black ink on my paper. I smiled in excitement at my quiz, reviewing my responses. I only got three wrong out of all the questions. I restrained a whoop of happiness that threatened to escape.

I looked back at the dark-haired boy that sat in the back of the room, who was looking at me expectantly. I did a fist bump in the air to tell him I did well, and he gave me a smile and a thumbs-up as a response.

Never was I so happy to sit through a whole period of Hell.

I felt the music whelm me. It carried me into a state of euphoria, yet feel shivers down my arms and legs. I enjoyed the notes Thalia played as I waited for my cue to sing. This time, I was not playing an instrument, rather than vocals. I began to sing the lyrics I've heard throughout my life, losing myself in the chords and words and strums of her guitar.

"Summer has come and past, the innocent can never last. Wake me up when September ends."

As I began the next line, I heard the gentle, high notes of Nico's keyboard join in with the music Thalia and I produced.

"Here comes the rain again, falling from the stars. Drenched in my pain again, becoming who we are. As my memory rests, but never forgets what I lost. Wake me up when September ends."

Leo began to drum, his hands itching to do something, rather than wait for his part to come. Thalia was happy to actually put some effort into her part, rather than strum lightly at her instrument. Jason joined in on his bass, and I continued to sing. The music we all created formed one song, beautiful and dripping with nostalgia.

Thalia zealously played her solo, the wide smile plastered on her face indicating that she enjoyed doing this as much as I did. We all enjoyed doing this; we felt as if it were our calling.

We wrapped up the song, with the strums of Jason's and Thalia's guitars and the notes produced from Nico's keyboard. My mom clapped from the doorway, acting as our first audience. I felt like a child putting on a show for his parents. This somehow was different, because she was honest that we were good at what we did and she was impressed by how much we've progressed in the past few months.

Reyna nodded at her comments. "Well, while we've still got a while to practice, I went ahead and asked a favor of my sister. She agreed, of course."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well, we need to get more experience performing in front of actual people, other than your mom, so we got you a gig at the restaurant she worked at for a while," Reyna said. "It will be good experience for us. It's not too fancy, either, so that will be better."

"Sweet!" Leo exclaimed.

"That is awesome, Reyna!" I praised, hugging her out of excitement, which I could tell surprised her a bit, but she acquiesced. "Couldn't have asked for a better manager."

"It wasn't too much of a hassle," she shrugged.

While we celebrated the news of getting an actual gig, I smiled at Nico, who looked a little downcast for some reason. He caught my gaze, smiling at me sheepishly. I wondered if he had a fear of preforming, which would make sense because of his other anxieties and insecurities. I sat beside him and we watched the others cheer. Thalia had one arm around Jason's neck, and the other was around Leo. She ruffled Leo's curly hair to the best of her abilities with the remainder of her arm.

"We're going to be rockstars, boys!"

"You betcha we are!" Leo agreed.

"I guess," Jason buzz-killed.

She sent a playful glower at her downer brother. "Don't let it affect your grades."

"Speak for yourself," he countered. "You're not even a rockstar yet and you've already let your grades slip."

We all laughed, even sullen-looking Nico. We loved each other dearly. We had to. We were a family, after all.

Chapter Text

At last, it was the weekend. It was Friday night, and we were preparing for our first gig as a new band.

Hylla's van was a light brown one with a dark stripe on its sides. I expected something a little more modern or, well, appealing than that considering her occupation, but it was big enough to carry our band and our equipment, so it was good enough. We climbed in the back after we finished loading and awaited what was to come: a gig at the restaurant Hylla worked at before.

We had plenty of practice for the songs we were going to preform, which were the Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day, Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones, and Somewhere Only We Know by Keane. The last one was more dependent on the keyboard rather than the guitar, but Thalia still got to play. I just thought Nico wanted to be heard a bit more, as he was really, really talented and I wanted to give him his time to shine.

Nico sat next to me in the bus-like van, anxiously tapping on his lap. It was going to be a while until we got to the restaurant—about an hour—so we brought pillows and blankets in case we wanted to sleep.

I took a gulp out of my water bottle as the van started and pulled out of the driveway.

"Hey, Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't you think it's a little weird?"

"What?"

"That I'm sitting next to you, and you know my..."

I shook my head. "No, you're my friend. I could care less who you like. It doesn't matter to me. You know Thalia? She's bisexual, and I don't care."

Nico nodded, almost as if my answer did not completely satisfy him.

We did not really talk that much for awhile. His gaze was trained out the window at all the tall buildings flying past. The sky was darkening as we drove on. My anticipation was built up far too much for me to even consider falling asleep.

I was jolted out of my thoughts as I felt a sudden weight on my shoulder. I turned my head to see a familiar mop of dark hair resting on me. I smiled at the sleeping boy, the thought of resting his head on a pillow not even occurring to me.

The rest of the world seemed to vanish around us as I reached over to brush some of his hair out of his face and behind his ear. He looked so peaceful asleep; all signs of shyness and anxiety disappeared from his features. As his face nuzzled into my shoulder as if it were a pillow, an intimate feeling crept into my stomach. I resisted the urge to hold him closer and protect this innocent creature from the impurities of the world. I didn't know what came over me. It was infectious, like a virus. I wanted him to never feel upset or hurt. I unconsciously stroked his silky hair as he slept on my shoulder and dwelled in this moment, if just for a little while. He stirred a little, and I ceased my actions, trying not to wake him.

His movements halted, and I sighed in relief. I tried not to move as much as possible so he could remain asleep. I cursed the potholes, as few as they were, wishing that the government would use taxes to fill them so they would not wake the boy next to me. Soon, the van pulled to a stop at a light.

"Enjoying yourself there, Perce?" Thalia said teasingly as she leaned over the back of my seat.

"Shh," I whispered to her, pointing at Nico's warm, slumbering body.

She rolled her eyes and, with a joking tone, asked, "What? Is he your boyfriend now?"

I ignored her as the car began to move again. I knew he wasn't, but something stirred in me. What if he was? I smiled at the idea of holding him in my arms, or laughing with him as we played video games. I didn't want to get too excited, but the thought appealed to me. I looked down at his sleeping figure and thought, "Maybe."

"Oh, simple thing, where have you gone? I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on. So tell me when you're gonna let me in. I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin," I sang softly.

I looked over at Nico as I sang, his skin golden in the restaurant's light as he pounded on the keyboard, producing beautiful chords.

"Is this the place we used to love? Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?"

I began the chorus again, my eyes back on the people sitting in booths and watching us preform our last song of the night. We all were so absorbed in our parts that I had forgotten we had a crowd.

"And if you have a minute why don't we go talk about it somewhere only we know? This could be the end of everything so why don't we go somewhere only know?"

His head swayed as he got lost in his music, his chocolate eyes passionate. I smiled as I watched him, his eyes meeting mine as I sang the last of the song. The applause of the crowd drowned out in my mind as we shared eye contact, lost to the rest of the world. It soon was broken by Thalia practically jumping on me and laughing victoriously. Nico blushed and turned his gaze away from me.

I turned to Thalia, celebrating with her and the rest of the guys as Hylla and Reyna helped pack up our equipment. We thanked the owner for the opportunity, then we loaded up our instruments, amps, and speakers in the modest van. I wanted to hold Nico's hand on the ride home, but he sat with Reyna. Instead, Leo sat with me. We joked all the way home, my gaze sometimes floating back to the boy in the backseat, conversing with Reyna something I couldn't hear. I waved back at him, and he demurely returned it before resuming their conversation.

Hylla dropped us off at my house after we unloaded everything that belonged to us in the garage. Leo called his mom, a beautiful Latina whose hair was tied back and her clothes covered in grease stains. She and her son loaded his drum set in the back of her light blue truck that looked like it was from the sixties before climbing inside and closing the doors behind them. He waved goodbye to us before the two of them left.

Thalia drove Jason and their stuff home in their own car, while Reyna left with Hylla, leaving me and Nico alone in my driveway.

"So, do you want a ride home? Or, well, you can always stay here with me for the night."

A slight blush appeared on Nico's cheeks. "S-sure. That sounds fun."

I smiled at him before I turned, approaching my house. I heard Nico behind me as I reached for my keys in my pocket. He laughed at my Ramones keychain as I unlocked the door. He followed me inside as we navigated through the hallways we had walked through many times before to my bedroom. I called to Mom and Paul to let them know Nico was with me. Nico, in turn, texted his dad and told him he was going to stay at a friend's house. He did not say which one, but I knew the reason why.

Never in my adolescent life have I had a better sleepover. We played Mortal Kombat and took turns playing other games on my PlayStation. We ate snacks and joked until we put on a movie and fell asleep. Then, the next morning, Mom made us breakfast. She loved Nico, probably even more than Thalia, and that was saying something, since I had a hunch that she would trade Thalia for me in a heartbeat.

As we laughed over our pancakes, I decided that my new favorite thing in the world was Nico's smile.

Chapter Text

I took a deep breath as the booklet and the answer sheet was placed before me. We were all issued No. 2 pencils to replace our mechanical ones. I stared down at the three capital letters that seniors and some juniors everywhere dread: SAT. That test was one of the most important, influential standardized tests that I would ever take. The results would dictate my future, and, unlike the ACT, wrong answers did count against me. I wished I would have studied a little longer. Nico so graciously helped me cover the materials I needed to study, and, thanks to him, I knew I was going to get a better score than if I didn't go to him.

It was a grueling day in that classroom, my brain aching and the pressure weighing down my shoulders. I ran my fingers through my hair as I read the question, trying to comprehend what it was trying to tell me, but my brain felt kind of fuzzed. I remembered Nico's little tips that he read from online as I filled in a circle.

It felt like an eternity before I finished the final question for the section, waiting for our advisor to tell us it was time to stop and flip to the next section. I eyed Annabeth across the room. Of course, she had finished long before me. She caught my gaze and waved at me. I returned it.

Eventually, we finally finished the last section. I glanced at the clock and saw it was about noon, the time our counselor said we'd be done with this damn thing. We were dismissed and were sent back to fourth period. Mine was History, but it was about over, anyway. My brain hurt too much to focus on it, really, but at least we did not have any homework, nor did we have to take notes.

As the bell rang, I nearly raced out of the classroom and down to lunch. I felt like I was starving. I retrieved my food from the lunch ladies and I promptly sat down at my usual spot at my usual table and dug in, now carefree and ready to face the rest of the day.

Thalia, Jason, and Nico soon found their ways into the seats beside me, biting into their cheeseburgers and dipping their golden fries in ketchup, or ranch, in Jason's case. We conversed as per usual. I thanked Nico for his help, at which he blushed slightly before shaking his head. I laughed a little. He was actually really cute. Man, how did I not notice? Through the three layers that screamed "edgy" and "lone wolf" I could see that he was actually an interesting person, and I wanted to know more about him.

The fliers were up, and everyone was talking about it. It was usually talked about all year, but, now, it was everywhere. Senior prom. At the beginning of the year, I didn't sweat it. I thought I would just take Annabeth, like I did last year at junior prom. But now, I was single and without a date.

Jason and I sat in our desks in English, talking about said matter. Jason had two girls crushing on him, I knew. There was Reyna, and Annabeth once said Piper had a thing for him. I mean, if I was a girl, I'd probably want him to ask me to prom, too. He was the ideal teenaged boy: blond with blue eyes, a nice smile, a star on the football team, a starter on the basketball team, and the president for many different clubs he was involved in. Plus, he could really play guitar, and girls really liked that. Not that I viewed him in that way. I had my eye set on someone else.

"Who should I ask?" Jason asked me. "Y'know, its only in a month, and I need to get fitted, and my date would probably freak out if my suit didn't match her dress."

"True," I said. "Maybe ask Reyna or Piper."

"But which one?"

"Who do you like better?"

"I don't know. I know Reyna better than Piper, but... I don't want to create tension, like with you and Nico."

I coughed. "What?"

"Dude, it's not like you're secretive about it. The past few practices, you practically were drooling over him. I didn't even know you were into guys, but..."

"I'm not. It's just... He's different," I told him. "I don't know what's up with me. I just find myself staring at him and noticing little things about him, like his eyes, or how nice his shampoo smells, or... God, I just sounded super creepy. I'm not a girl, but... I don't know."

"Well, he does blush around you all the time," Jason said. "He only really talks to you. I mean, he's a cool guy, now that he actually talks and sits with us and stuff, but I have a feeling he's only here because of you."

"What do I do, then?"

"Why don't you ask him to prom?"

"And out him to the whole school? No way. I mean, I'd love to take him with me and just hang out the whole time. I wouldn't have to worry about anything, like corsages and boutonnieres, but that would just be mean, dude."

"You don't have to out him," Jason sighed. "Just ask him during one of your study dates, or whatever."

"Please be quiet," Paul spoke, eyeing the two of us. "It's SSR time."

"Okay, one, he's my Italian tutor," I whispered, flipping open my book. "Those are tutoring sessions, not dates. Two, how would I do that?"

"Just slide something in with those notecards you carry around, and while he's quizzing you, he'll come across it eventually."

"Dude, that is literally genius!"

"Quiet down, guys," Paul repeated from his desk.

"Sorry," I apologized.

I smiled to myself as I directed my gaze down at my book, which was a dystopian novel about some virus that ravaged the United States from China, or something. I planned it out smoothly. God, I hoped that it would work. Most of all, I hoped that I wouldn't go and mess everything up. I imagined his reaction and smiled wider. I hoped he would say yes.

Chapter Text

"Mi chiamo Percy," I tried for the fifth time that evening, looking up at Nico for approval.

He nodded with a pleased smile.

"Piacere di conoscerti," Nico responded absolutely perfectly, looking at me over the frames of his glasses, which were starting to slide down his nose. "Mi chiamo Nico."

Before we started, he told me he'd be a minute because his contacts were bothering him. I, first of all, was offended because I never knew he wore contacts, even after our sleepover. I was twice as offended when he left the bathroom a couple of doors down the hallway with black-framed glasses that made him look cuter than he already was. At this point, I didn't think it possible, but here he was, proving me wrong once again. He was sitting criss-cross-apple-sauce on his bed, looking at me expectantly for my response. He buried an edge of a perfectly white tooth in his lower lip, his dark eyes boring into my soul.

"Pia... Uh," I hesitated, distracted by his gaze.

"It's fine, we'll work on that." He smiled to himself as he flipped to the next card in the pile, which I knew was the one with the four capital letters written in red Sharpie.

I smiled in anticipation as he paused for a moment.

"Come state?" Nico asked.

"Wait, wait," I paused him, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "I think you skipped one."

"I did?" he asked, turning to search in the discard pile.

He carded through the pile before he found the previous notecard which, surely enough, had another one attached to it.

"Oh, I did," he said. "Sorry."

"It's fine," I said expectantly, awaiting his response.

As he peeled the card from the other, he curiously read the large, red letters and the question mark printed on the front. I could see them through the back of the card, knowing for sure that it was the right one. He stared down at the card, speechless. His mouth was partly agape in surprise as he fumbled for a response. He looked up at me, asking silently if that card was meant for him.

I merely shrugged in response with a knowing smile, waiting for him to compose himself.

"You're asking me?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Who else would I ask?"

"One of the girls in the long line that are waiting for you to ask them to prom. I mean, lots of girls want you. You know they do."

"Well, there's a difference between you and those girls," I said. "You're actually enjoyable to be around."

Nico laughed. I decided I loved that sound.

"So, what do you say?"

"Oh, I don't know."

"You don't know? Well, if I asked myself to senior prom, I would say yes."

Nico laughed again. "It's your last prom. You don't want to go with a guy."

"Why not?"

He was silent for a moment, as if he was searching his mind for a valid response.

"Because you're straight." His tone sounded a little sadder than it usually did. His eyes avoided mine, lacking their usual warmth.

"I don't care," I shook my head. "I want to spend my last prom with you."

"Percy, let's be honest here."

"I am being honest."

"No, you're not," he said, sending my mind spiraling into confusion. "What do you wish to gain by treating me like this? You have been ever since you learned about my... my tastes."

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying not to get distracted by the many hand gestures he made while speaking. Well, he always was like that, and I thought it was cute, but he wanted to have a serious conversation, and I would oblige him.

"I mean, constantly showering me in compliments, letting me use you as a pillow during our little road trip—I know that happened, don't deny it—staring at me, telling me I'm worth something, smiling at me and treating me like..."

"Like what?"

"A girlfriend, Percy. You're treating me like you like me. How am I supposed to deal with that? Being tempted constantly by your kindness and attention, but then going home at night and crying myself to sleep, knowing I can never have this. Now, you're asking me to prom. Your senior prom, Percy. I feel like you're just exploiting me. Tell me the truth. Is this a joke to you?"

I paused. "I... I didn't know you felt that way."

"I do. I really, really do." His eyes began to tear up. "Leave me if you want. Kick me out of the band, I don't care. Just stop torturing me like this. I looked at you freshman year and I knew I wanted you, but I could never have you. You hung out with Jason and Annabeth and Thalia, while I sat in a corner by myself. I looked at myself in the mirror and I hated myself. I hated myself for loving you. I've fallen in love with you even more since you started talking to me. You're the sweetest, funniest guy I could ever dream of."

I was silent for a moment before I could find words to respond. "So, is that a yes?"

He shook his head in frustration, burying his head in his hands and sobbing.

"Hey, hey, Nico," I said, wondering if I should've tried to comfort him. "Don't cry. I... I do care about you. If you have a crush on me, fine. That's completely okay. I didn't mean to offend you. I just wanted to go to prom with you. I want to spend the night with someone I care about, and the first person I thought of was you. If you need time to think about it, go for it. I don't need an answer right away."

He sobbed again, his body shaking.

"What did you do?" barked a voice from the doorway.

With a start, I looked the direction from which the voice came to see my Italian teacher, Nico's dad, with a glower more intense than normal.

"I didn't...! I just asked him..."

"Get out. Now."

I held back my rebuttals and nodded, looking back at Nico sadly before snatching my backpack off the plushy floor and moving past the devilish man standing in the doorway. I descended the stairs and aimed for the front door, pulling on my shoes and leaving the house.

As I sat in my car, I slammed my head against the steering wheel, closing my eyes in frustration. Why couldn't I just tell him I liked him, too? No, it was just my usual "it's okay" bullshit front that I used when I was too scared to admit something. As I composed myself, I started my car and headed for home.

Chapter Text

I glimpsed back at Nico from the front of the class as he stared off into space. He had been doing that the whole period. On the sole occasion that we did share glances, I waved back at him. He ignored my gesture and crossed his arms, staring off in another direction. I lowered my hand and frowned. I really hurt him, and I didn't even mean to.

The bell rang, and I stayed in my seat, waiting for Nico to pass me on his way out the door. I grabbed his wrist, stood, and, despite the confused looks, I led him to the nearest empty classroom and shut the door. I just wanted to sort this out. I didn't want another band to crumble and fall at my feet. They were all my family. I didn't want to lose another person I cared about.

"Nico, I'm sorry," I told him. "I didn't mean to make you feel this way."

He stared at the ground. "I guess it's fine."

"No, it's not," I said. "It's not okay. I've been negligent of your feelings and... I want to make it up to you. You're practically my best friend, and I don't want to lose you. So, maybe don't go to prom with me if it will make you feel uncomfortable. I'll tag along with Thalia."

He smiled softly. "But I do want to go to prom with you. I thought it over, and I decided I do want to. I'm the one who should be sorry. I was just overreacting."

"No, you weren't. Feelings are hard to deal with. I'm glad that you're willing to still be my friend."

"Well, crush or not, you're my best friend, too. I've never had so much fun hanging out with anyone before."

I smiled, offering my hand. "May I escort you to class?"

"But won't you be late?"

"It's nothing new."

He smiled, hesitantly accepting my hand and allowing me to guide him to his second period.

I walked down the hallway with a smile on my face. I ignored the girls who stared at me from my other classes, wondering if I was going to ask them to prom. Unfortunately for them, I already had a date. The best one in the whole school, if you asked me.

I opened my locker with ease—it didn't jam this time, thank God—and I took out my Algebra book, along with my blue notebook. Okay, I'll admit it. Alike Nico's obsession with the color black, almost everything I owned was blue. My blankets were blue, my towel was blue, my guitar was blue. I think even my socks that day were blue.

I made my way upstairs and sat in my usual seat in the Algebra classroom, seeing that a substitute teacher was sitting in the chair in which Mrs. Dodds usually sat. At least I would be spared a day without her stern, bird-like face glaring at me.

I pulled out the homework from the night before—Paul helped me with it again. It was one of the few assignments I actually finished in her class. I was pleased with myself as I turned it into the box in front of the class, feeling a strange confidence as I strode back to my seat. I felt a gaze on the back of my head, so I turned around to face Luke, who was staring at me like there was something he knew that I didn't. I felt somewhat unsettled by it, but I paid no mind. Instead, I turned to face the kind-looking substitute, who was now standing before the white board in the front of the classroom.

"My name is Ms. Iris, and I will be your substitute teacher today."

At least it was last period.

"Come state?" Nico asked.

"Bene, grazie."

He smiled at me. "You got it."

I fist-pumped in the air, hissing out a breath of, "Yes!"

Nico shuffled the cards with a smile of accomplishment blessing his lips. Then, he set them aside, a question on his face. I looked at him attentively, prepared for his question.

"Percy, I... Dad's gonna be pissed."

I laughed, knowing it was true. I could see the menacing glower already.

"We can just not tell him."

"I can't do that to him. He'll find out eventually and he'll be twice as mad."

"Well, we can wait until after this next test, right?"

Nico laughed to himself, and I found myself staring at his cute features. His eyes held the warmth to which I was just recently introduced, his lips looked soft in the smile he was wearing, and his hand shyly came up to push his glasses up his nose. The desire to brush the hair out of his face overwhelmed me and I had to utilize all my willpower to keep my hand on the bed.

Nico raised a curious eyebrow before I sat back and cast a smile at him.

"I suppose you're right," Nico said before engaging himself back into his study mode.

"Hey, Nico."

"Hm?"

"I'm actually really excited to go with you."

He smiled. "Me too."

I knew his dad was skeptical about me coming over after the "incident," but I came over anyway. I mean, Nico came over to my house for band practice. It was fun, really.

We hung out regularly, but now I was wary of Nico's crush on me, so I held back on the compliments. I was the happiest I've ever been in my entire high school career. My crush liked me back, I had my friends, and we were closer than we had ever been. Our practices were sounding better and better, and the piece that Nico wrote was surely to win. It was slowly starting to fit together like perfect puzzle pieces, and it sounded incredible. I was confident in it, and I even started to ignore Luke's glowering in seventh period. It didn't intimidate me anymore. If we were going to win, we were going to win fairly. I was going to be able to go to music school, and my life wouldn't be wasted. Maybe, if I played my cards right, I would have Nico on my arm, too.

Chapter Text

I entered the building: a simplistic, inconspicuous place, with plain white walls adorned with pictures of men in expensive, sleek suits with beautiful women hanging over them. I rolled my eyes mentally as I strolled up to the front counter. I already had called a couple of days ago, telling them my dimensions, and my mom already paid with her credit card. I had to do some extra chores around the house, but she had coupons, so it made it cheaper.

The brunette lady at the front desk smiled at me and asked me for my name. I obliged her, and she typed a couple of words quickly onto her keyboard. She tapped her pink, pressed nails on the counter as she waited. She showed me the design to confirm it, and I nodded.

"Perfect," she said. "I will get that for you."

She turned, her hair flipping slightly, and ventured in the back, only to return a moment later with a translucent bag with an elegant suit inside. I took a second to admire it. It was a pristine black with a light green tie, which my mom said was "mint green" and "matched my eyes". I still don't understand women and their coordination skills, but I went with it, hoping Nico would be impressed. I wanted to look the best I ever looked on prom night for him. I was more excited for prom than I should have been. If my behavior was girly, I didn't care. I was allowed to be excited without criticizing myself.

I thanked her, and carefully held up my suit as I walked out the door to Baby Blue. I unlocked the door with my key, placed my suit in the back, and climbed inside. Prom was coming up quickly, only in a little under a week, and I wanted everything to go right. If anything, I felt a strange combination of anxiety and excitement since it was so close.

I headed to the mall to get some hair gel and some dress shoes, maybe stop by a flower shop and get Nico a boutonnière, one that would match his suit. He said his tie was red (Nico didn't want to match, because he still wasn't out of the closet yet), so I would get him a rose and some of those white filler flowers my mom called "baby's breath". I didn't understand why the floral industry decided to call it that; it was a strange name for some little flowers.

I searched for a parking spot at the mall. It was packed with teenagers' cars, spending the afternoon there for the mere fun of it or for frantic, last-minute preparations for prom. I was the latter.

I finally found a spot around the middle of the parking lot and locked my car, making my way to the entrance. I didn't go to the mall often, so I checked the map near the food court where all the stores were located.

"Hey, Percy!" called a familiar voice from behind me.

I looked over my shoulder to see who said my name, only to see Jason waving at me. I waved him over to me, and he obeyed.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Oh, y'know, prom stuff," he answered, his hands anchored in his blue-and-white letterman jacket pockets.

"Same. Who're you going with?"

"Oh, Piper," he said.

"Why not Reyna?"

"Oh, well, she already had a date. Some guy in prom committee."

"Which one?"

"Dakota, I think."

"Oh, cool. So, wanna come with me?"

"What do you need?"

"I need some dress shoes, some hair gel, and a boutonnière for Nico."

"What color is his suit?"

"He has a red tie, he told me, so red. Probably a rose."

Jason nodded. "Sounds good. I think Piper's dress is maroon, so I could get her a rose corsage, too."

"Sounds about right," I replied. "So, what do you need?"

"I already got my suit yesterday, and I already own a pair of nice shoes, so maybe some cologne, or something."

"Good idea," I said. "I could get some, too. Mom said not to go too crazy, but I'm just getting the necessities."

He nodded, motioning with his head to where the salon was. I picked up some relatively cheap, but effective hair gel, and we traipsed over to the shoe store, past couples and friends carrying each other on their backs and sipping smoothies.

We asked the sales clerk for the formal section, and he led us through the maze of walls of shoes, ranging from Converse to Adidas to Vans, until we reached some nice-looking shoes. I managed to pick out three pairs, from the 75 to 90 dollar range that I supposed went well with my suit. As I tried one on to feel how it fit, I heard a jeer from the end of the aisle.

"What's up, Jackson?" asked Luke, his familiar smirk adorning his face. "Shopping for your boyfriend?"

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and maintaining my composure before replying, "He's not my boyfriend. We're just going together."

"Just because you couldn't find a girl that wanted to go with you?" He teased.

I shook my head, "Nah, just wanted to go with a friend."

He snorted malignantly. "Just an excuse for being gay."

"Don't you have somewhere better to be, like shopping for something to cover your face?" Jason asked, sizing him up.

He responded with something about having a junior stand up for me, but I didn't hear it all because I was too busy telling Jason that it wasn't worth getting kicked out of the shoe store for a petty fight. Luke sauntered off, displeased.

He shook his head. "Seriously, did his mom not give him enough love when he was younger?"

"Daddy issues, probably," I joked.

He raised his eyebrows in a knowing manner before pointing at the shoes I was wearing. "I like those ones."

"Yeah?" I asked, playfully modeling them.

"Yeah."

Luckily for me, they were the least expensive ones, as they were on sale. I bought them with Mom's card, then we left, continuing on to pick out our flower accessories for our dates.

The girl at the counter had reddish-brown hair and a kind smile, and I immediately recognized her as Katie Gardner, a girl in my History class. She was always nice to me whenever we were grouped up for projects, and she waved at me when we saw each other in the hallways.

She greeted us with professionalism before asking us what we needed.

"I need a boutonnière, a red one."

"What kind of flower? Roses are more popular for prom, but they don't last too long, even when we spray them, but I would recommend a red carnation, because they last longer and are cheaper. They're pretty, too."

"What does it look like?" I asked.

"I'll be right back," she replied, patting the desk quickly before venturing to a fridge, pulling out a flower and returning to me. It was a pretty flower, one that I've seen throughout my life but never knew the name of. It had frilly petals, and she said it would last a while. While it was kind of bulky, I figured she could find a way to make it look good.

"One second," I told her as I whipped out my phone.

I texted Nico, asking him whether he wanted a rose or a carnation for his boutonnière.

"I got a white rose for you, but you can get me whatever you want," was his response.

"Cool," I replied.

"Sure, I'll take a carnation," I said.

She nodded. "What about you?"

"I need a maroon rose corsage. Do those exist?"

"Dark red and purple roses do," she said, repeating her venture to the fridge to show him the two colors.

"That one," he said, pointing at the purple one.

She nodded, quickly replacing the red rose in the fridge. "Do you guys have any particular styles that you want?"

Both of us shook our heads.

"No, just surprise us," I said.

"Gotcha," she said, beginning her work.

In about half an hour, she called us up, and showed us the accessories.

"Perfect," I said.

"That's good," Jason said.

She sprayed them and wrapped them up loosely in white tissue paper, placing them in small, white boxes. She then rang us up, and we paid. Mine was cheaper than Jason's, but she only had to wrap ribbon around the flower stems and put a pearly pin in it, while she had to get a bracelet for Jason's. I wondered what mine looked like. I couldn't wait to see Nico's face once he got his boutonnière, and I would put it on his suit. His eyes would light up, and he would...

Jason nudged me out of my reverie, telling me something about cologne.

"Yeah, let's go."

We picked out cologne at JCPenny's, and I wondered what Nico's reaction would be to my cologne when we danced. Would we dance? Would we slow dance, with his arms wrapped around my neck, and mine around his waist? Would he be close enough to hear my heartbeat? A stupid smile must have been on my face, because Jason teased me about it.

"Shut up, Jason," I grumbled.

I was too far gone for my own good, I supposed. I just couldn't wait for prom. Maybe I would tell Nico I liked him. Maybe he would think I was cruel and just teasing him, or it would be the best night of his life. I hoped for the latter.

Chapter Text

After we finished up the song, we stood in my garage in silence, in awe of how well it went.

It seemed like our hundredth attempt at the song, and it went so smoothly, it could've been butter. I looked back at Nico to see how he felt about it. He withdrew his hands from the keyboard, meeting my gaze.

"That was perfect," he said, almost in disbelief.

"We're so gonna win!" Thalia cheered, whipping her guitar from over her head and setting it down on its stand.

Reyna, who usually calmed us down if we were being overconfident, didn't say a word.

I still felt chills. The guitars, the vocals, the keyboard, the drums, the song in general gave me goosebumps. We executed it perfectly, finally. I wished the competition could come sooner so I could see the look on Luke's face when we handed his ass to him.

He probably was doing something like Breaking Benjamin, or something. Not that I didn't like them, I thought it was just his style, but I knew we were better. We had to be. My future depended on it. Although I applied for other scholarships as a back-up plan, I needed this. We needed this. It would strengthen our bonds as a family, as friends. Thalia and I would exit our senior year as champions, and we would leave the legacy for the juniors and the sophomores, who would have their scholarships reserved for them when they graduated.

I hugged Nico, who tensed up in my embrace, but I didn't care. I was just happy.

"Thank you," I whispered.

It took a second or two for him to adjust and hug me back.

"No, thank you," was his response.

I smiled before letting him go. His face was redder than a beet, but it was cute. He was too cute for his own good. He nervously swept a strand of hair behind his ear.

I didn't realize I was staring until Jason cleared his throat. I returned to reality, turning from my crush and facing the rest of my crew.

"We're gonna win!" I exclaimed, and they all cheered.

After exchanging our comments and cheers, we picked up our equipment.

"Once more," I said.

And we played.

"Dad!" Nico shouted into the house as he let his backpack slip from his shoulder onto a chair. "Dad! I need to tell you something."

He didn't receive a response. He huffed resignedly and kicked off his shoes at the door, prepared to run up the stairs to his office, where he spent long hours grading papers and projects.

He knocked on the plain, white door, listening for any sign that denoted his dad was in there. "Dad!"

"Be quiet, Nico," he said from behind the door. "Your mother is sleeping."

"She's always sleeping," Nico murmured.

Maria di Angelo worked long night shifts at the office, so he only got to see her on the weekends, and hardly even then. When she wasn't working, she was sleeping. Sometimes, it seemed as if he didn't have a mother at all.

"Are you busy?"

"Yeah, but you can come in."

Nico entered quietly. "I need to tell you something."

"What is it?" his father asked, not turning around in his office chair to look at him.

"I'm going to prom."

"I know, I called to rent your suit. What of it?"

"I thought you might want to know who I'm going with."

"I thought you were going with Bianca."

"That was a lie." He stared at the back of his dad's chair, knowing he was raising his eyebrow curiously.

"Who is it, then?"

"Percy Jackson."

He heard a paper crumple slightly from his dad's desk. His tone darkened. "Why him?"

"I dunno," Nico said. "He asked me. I really like him."

"You like him?"

Nico nodded, but remembered that he couldn't see him. "Yes. For about a year now."

The tension was almost palpable between them.

"What exactly do you see in him? He comes over after school because you tutor him in Italian..." He was quiet for a moment. "Are you guys actually studying?"

Nico's face heated up, but he denied it. "Yes, Dad! He doesn't like me in that way. He only likes me as a friend."

"Then why did he ask you to prom?"

"He said he wanted to go with a friend."

"Do you believe that?"

"Yes, I do," said Nico. "He's one of my closest friends. He's so sweet, and... Dad, you don't know him that well. He may not do good on quizzes and he's constantly late, and I know he's not the smartest, but he's not dumb. Honestly, I think it's partly because you intimidate him. He's such a nice person. Don't judge him solely on his ability to learn. He's not a delinquent, or a bad influence on me. Trust me. I want to go to prom with him, and I told you because I thought you deserve to know. So, please?"

He closed his eyes in exasperation and sighed defeatedly. "Fine. Fine, do whatever you want. Where are you going out to eat?"

"Well, we were going with Jason, Thalia, Leo, and their dates to some local place."

"Okay." He reached into his pocket and gave his son a $20 bill. "Don't go too crazy. Be back by midnight."

"Grazie, Dad," he told him, holding back his smile of excitement. He resisted the urge to hug him; that would be just too much. He turned to leave.

"Oh, and, Nico," he began as Nico reached for the doorknob.

"Hm?" he asked, looking over his shoulder.

"When he comes over in the future, keep your door open."

His face reddened, but he tried to maintain his composure. He answered only with a nod before leaving his dad to his work.

He all but skipped down the hallway until he reached the door to his room, where he plopped down on his bed and texted Percy.

Hey, I told Dad we were going to prom.

Really? Should I lock my doors and windows?

Nico laughed.

No, he was kind of fine with it. Had to convince him a little, though.

That's good to hear.

I still probably won't sleep tonight. Just in case.

Nico rolled his eyes. How he fell in love with such a dork, he would never know. However, he just kept falling deeper and deeper. How would he cope when Percy graduated, leaving him behind? Would Percy still text him? Would he still care about him? He thought he should have kept himself at bay to protect himself from the inevitability of Percy never loving him back and leaving him for his future. While it was a selfish thought, he couldn't deny it. He wanted Percy, nothing else.

He laid back in bed, shutting off his phone. Abandonment issues could wait.

Chapter Text

I pulled up in Nico's driveway, my heart pounding. My fingers drummed nervously on my steering wheel as I attempted to regain my composure and build up enough confidence to knock on his door. It was Saturday, prom night. Now that it had finally arrived, I never felt so nervous.

I took a deep breath, snatched my keys from the ignition, and left my car, anxiously walking up Nico's steps.

This was a bad idea. What if his dad changed his mind? What if Nico doesn't want to be seen with me?

I shook my head and raised my hand to knock on the burgundy door, the white boutonnière box in my hand and my heart in my throat. I knocked quickly as if the wood was burning hot.

Geez, was it always so hot out here? I pulled at my collar nervously, waiting for someone to answer the door. Maybe no one heard me.

Knock again, Percy. Knock on the damn door. Then another voice, arguing with the first one. No, Percy, you don't want to appear too eager.

I disobeyed the second voice and knocked again, louder this time. A couple of moments later, I received my answer.

Bianca di Angelo opened the door, makeup on her face and her hair tied up into a neat bun. Two strands of dark hair fell at the sides of her face, framing it. I'd seen her a few times in the hallways at school, and she always looked beautiful. She was known throughout the entire school as being beautiful. In fact, she was prettier than I'd ever seen her as she stood before me in her doorway.

But she was no Nico.

I smiled politely, gripping the box tightly in apprehension, but overall keeping my composure. She raised her eyebrow at me expectantly. My eyebrows raised quickly; I realized I needed to say something.

"I'm here for Nico," I said.

A somewhat mischievous smile appeared on her face. "I'll get him for you."

She walked through the living room that I'd seen a hundred times and called up the stairs to her brother.

"Neeks! Your boyfriend is here!" she said, and my face felt hot.

"Ah! I'm not ready! I'll be down in a minute!" he shouted down the stairs. It was quiet for a moment as he realized what she said. "And he's not my boyfriend, Bi!"

She laughed. "Sure," she teased, looking over at me.

I stood awkwardly in the doorway, unsure of what to do. I didn't want to look too eager and just walk in. She acknowledged my reservations and let me inside, where we sat on the couch, waiting for Nico to finish up.

"I'm the girl, and he takes longer than me to get ready," she said, under her breath.

She wore a sparkly, slim-fitting, black and silver dress with a split on the knee, and the colors fit her pretty well. The back of her dress pooled around her, and she made an attempt to pull it in to neaten it. Her eyes were like Nico's, warm and brown, and a splash of freckles trailed over the bridge of her nose, similar to Nico's, but darker, more prominent.

"Sorry, he takes forever," she told me. "But it's his first prom. He's actually really excited."

"Me, too," I replied quickly. I winced at my answer, knowing it was too incriminating.

She smiled to herself, and the telltale pattering of Nico's shoes descended the steps, getting louder and louder as he neared the floor. I stood, the anticipation physically hurting me.

He turned the corner with a timid smile. Usually, in those cliché high school movies, the guy watches the girl intently as she slowly traipses down the stairs, the most beautiful he'd ever seen her. Cheesy music would play in the background, time would slow down. This was different. Not just because he was a guy, but because he was Nico. This was real.

His usually messy hair was combed back elegantly, his sleek suit fitting his slim body like it was made just for him. His red handkerchief and tie nearly matched the redness of his cheeks as he looked up at me with his dark eyes expectantly. He was wearing his contacts, like usual, but it suited him well. He looked like a model in a prom magazine: sophisticated, poised, graceful.

"Percy, please say something," he said.

I realized I hadn't said anything—I was staring at him. I mentally shook out of my stupor and smiled at him.

"You look great," I told him, handing him my box.

He raised his eyebrows in pleasant surprise as he accepted the box, opening it and pushing the tissue paper aside to reveal his boutonnière. He smiled, picking it up to admire it.

"It's perfect," he said quietly. Then, he realized he had forgotten mine. "Wait for a bit, I'll be right back."

He rushed back up the stairs, leaving an amused Bianca and me alone in the living room.

I had to take a moment to absorb all of what happened. He was beautiful. These sentiments that I dubbed my whole life as cliché and overused were different when you experienced them firsthand. I didn't know if I could last all night; he looked perfect. It helped that I was falling for him, for his eyes, his sense of humor, his modesty, and his shyness. He was out of his shell now, too, and that was equally adorable.

He came back down the stairs before Bianca had a chance to tease me, presenting me with a similar box. I playfully thanked him, and his cheeks flared.

I opened the box, discovering the white rose and little filler flowers wrapped in ribbon.

It was perfect.

"Thank you," I hugged him. Alike the last time I hugged him, he tensed up. I laughed slightly at his nervousness and pulled away from the brief hug. "Where's your dad?"

"He's upstairs. Why?"

"My mom wanted you to come over so we could take pictures."

"Oh, okay," he said. "I'll go tell him."

He turned to the stairs again to inform his father of our plans, and once his footsteps lessened, I turned to Bianca.

"He..."

"He's what?" Bianca asked, a sly tone in her voice.

"He's... Wow."

She laughed, and I suddenly felt embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. He looks incredible."

I nodded in agreement.

"Okay, let's cut to the chase," she said, her tone serious. It intimidated me a little. "When are you going to ask him out?"

"What?"

"You can't just string him along like that. You gotta ask him out. He likes you, and practically the whole school knows you like him."

"The whole school?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "But I'll tell you right now, if you break his heart, I'll be after you."

I smiled. "Yeah, I know. I'd be worried about your dad, too. He'd tie me up and put me on a rotisserie if I hurt him."

She laughed, entertaining the thought. "Yeah, he would."

Nico came back down the stairs with a smile on his face. "Let's go."

"Ready to roll?"

"Don't say that, please."

I laughed.

He waved goodbye to Bianca, complimenting her before we left, headed for my mom's house. She would be so thrilled to see how beautiful he looked in his suit.

Bianca's words repeated in my mind, telling me to make a move or tell him that I liked him. I knew I couldn't just lure him in just to panic and leave. I didn't want to break his heart, either. He was so damn important to me and the band that I didn't want to ruin the bond we had between us. He gave me a nervous look and my heart fluttered. I didn't want to deny myself of what I wanted, but I didn't want to hurt him, either. As I drove back to my house, I cast a sideward look at him and felt myself fall deeper for him. I was falling in love, and I couldn't stop it, no matter how hard I tried. I didn't want to stop, either.

Chapter Text

The music pounded in our ears the moment we walked through the door.

The Grand March was torture; it felt as if everyone's eyes were on us, disapproving that friends, who just so happened to be guys, decided to go together. Or, perhaps they made the assumption that we were dating. I didn't care; Nico and I were close, and a bunch of mean, old people who had nothing better to do than to judge us was no skin off my nose. We stood under a balloon arch as a bright light shone in our eyes. The photographer snapped a picture, and we sauntered off, arm-in-arm, to the endless line of high schoolers standing impatiently, waiting for it to be over so they could escape into the gym and dance the night away.

Thankfully, it was over and done with. Now we stood in the gymnasium, which was decorated neatly and extravagantly for the annual event that all high schoolers anticipate. The DJ sat in the corner on a stage, playing the list of songs the prom committee gave him. Neon lights splattered and dashed across the walls, and other than the lights strung around and the ones coming from the DJ's corner, the gym was completely dark.

The punch bowl looked alluring, so we ventured over to the long table, covered in chips and snacks. We were served our glasses, and we sipped at them as we looked for a place to sit down. I sloshed the punch and ice around in my cup, flashing my date a smile. He returned it through a sip of his punch, which stained his lips pink.

We sat on a table, which, along with the rest, seemed to be pushed carelessly to the side and out of the way so people could dance. We drank our punch and talked about the everyday happenings of our lives.

"I swear, my mom loves you more than she loves me."

Nico snorted. "No way, she loves you."

"You should see how she talks about you. Seriously. I'm wondering who's really your best friend, here."

Nico rolled his eyes and sipped his punch glass, only to realize that it had been reduced to ice, and only hints of the drink remained. He frowned.

"Want more?" I offered mine.

He shook his head. I pretended not to notice his blush.

We sat by the sidelines for awhile, watching Jason, Thalia, and Leo dance.

Like her personality, Thalia's dress was a bright color, but it matched her skin tone. Her usually unruly hair was pinned back. She looked beautiful.

Bianca sat at a circular table with her friend, a girl named Zoë Nightshade, who wore a similarly silver dress. Nico smiled over at her while we conversed. She waved us forward, motioning us to dance.

Nico shook his head rapidly.

"You don't want to?" I asked.

"You do?" he returned.

"Well, yeah," I shrugged.

He blushed violently as he rubbed the back of his head. "I dunno."

I sighed. "It's my last prom. Please."

I gave him my infamous baby seal eyes, which appeared to deter him more than convince him.

I was proven wrong by his answer, "Um, well... I guess we can."

I smiled.

We waited until a song that we knew came on, then I offered him my hand. He accepted it, hesitantly. With that, we were off to the floor, where a tumultuous sea of high schoolers were waving their arms and dancing wildly. Even if they didn't know the song, there were some people who never left the floor.

The song was something wild and fun: a good intro song to prom that got everyone hyped up. We heard the roar of approval over the beginning of the song before it died down and we danced.

The rest of our friends soon joined us, creating a little circle of people tripping over the heels of their shoes and the hems of their formalwear.

Nico laughed as he almost stumbled over Thalia's dress, which did funny things to my heart. He caught himself before he fell over, but I still reached over to stabilize him. We continued to have the time of our lives.

Soon, the song was over, and everyone listened through the brief silence for the beginning of the next song, to determine whether they were to stay on the floor or not.

It was a slow song. Piper and Jason grabbed each other's hands and shuffled into their positions as Thalia and her date left the floor. My heart thumped as I looked to Nico for approval. He began to walk off, but I grabbed his wrist, effectively stopping him. He looked at my hand, surprised, then looked up at me inquisitively.

My eyes asked, "Do you want to dance?"

He smiled slightly. We replicated everyone else's dance position; I put my hand on his waist while his found my shoulder. Our free hands clasped together, and we began to sway to the music. The golden, artificial lights accentuated Nico's skin, and the blush that was present on his cheeks. His eyes were warm and timid as they looked into my own.

We moved along with the other couples, following the pattern of the dance, and I held him closer—close enough so that he could smell my cologne. Suddenly, his hand disappeared from my shoulder, and he pushed me away.

"What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I can't do this."

He walked away quickly, leaving me alone on the dance floor.

It happened so suddenly that I didn't know what happened. I stood there, speechless, watching him disappear through the sea of dancing couples.

I fisted my hair frustratedly, knowing that I went too far. I put my own desires ahead without care for his emotions. I knew what I needed to do.

I shimmied through the forest of sweaty teenagers and left to the bathroom—no doubt where Nico had run off to.

Nico slammed the stall door behind him before sinking down onto the tiled, bathroom floor. He didn't even care how dirty it was. He didn't care about anything. He drew his knees to his chest and tried his best not to cry.

Was Percy just trying to tempt him? It felt so nice, to be held close to him. He smelled of cologne and the scent that was just him, and he just wanted to dwell in it. He knew he was just trying to make him feel better about himself; he had no romantic intent, but it still felt like Percy wanted his actions to mean something. Nico wanted them to mean something. He wanted that look in Percy's eyes to mean something.

Everything he did made him feel special, but he knew it wasn't meant to make him have feelings for him. Percy wanted to be his friend.

Was he that close with Thalia, or Jason? He tried to remember a time where he looked at anyone else that way, but he couldn't. He knew he didn't know Percy all that well compared to them, but he couldn't help but think that maybe Percy liked him back.

He hit the back of his head against the wall. Impossible. He was just daydreaming again. Percy could never feel that way toward him. Not him, when there were so many other people, who were smarter and better-looking, and...not him.

He wanted to leave, but was it really Percy's fault, or his own? Percy never intended to make him feel bad; he knew that. He was just stupid enough to let his feelings get in the way. Stupid, stupid Nico.

He leaned his head against the tile wall and let the tears stream down his face.

"Nico?" I peeked my head into the boy's bathroom, searching for my date who suddenly walked off.

It was all my fault, anyway. I was too caught up in my feelings for him that I neglected his own. If I had approached it more cautiously, like nearing a scared rabbit with a piece of celery, we would still be dancing, and perhaps I would confess to him. That me was a lot smarter.

I continued to call his name, but I didn't get a response. I began to push open bathroom stall doors, revealing nothing behind each one. I pushed at the the last and largest stall, but the door wouldn't push. I looked beneath and saw his figure sitting on the tile floor.

"Nico. I'm sorry."

I heard sniffling behind the door.

"It's all my fault. I should have thought about your...feelings. I was too caught up in this whole thing that I forgot."

"No," Nico replied.

"What?"

His suit rustled as he stood. "It's not your fault. I just let my feelings get in the way. You don't mean to dangle yourself in front of me. I just... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you alone like that."

"Nico—"

The stall door pushed open, revealing the sulking boy, his cheeks red and puffy and his hair slightly disheveled.

He smiled wistfully. "I just love you."

I returned his smile and pulled him into a hug. He melted into me, instead of tensing up like he usually would. His hair smelled like mint. I held him tightly as I waited for him to feel better.

"If you want me to take you home, I understand," I said into his hair.

He shook his head as best as he could in my embrace. "No, I want you to have fun. It's your last prom. I'm sorry for making it so..."

I huffed annoyedly. "Nico, stop apologizing. You did nothing wrong. It's not your fault you feel. You're human, right?"

He nodded.

"Stop apologizing about your feelings. They are the one difficult thing you can't control about yourself."

Nico's breath was hot against my collarbone, but I didn't mind. I never wanted to let him go.

"C'mon," I pulled away. "Let's finish that dance of ours, yeah?"

He smiled and carefully wiped his eyes with the backs of his hands. "Yeah."

He was so beautiful I couldn't stand it. I really needed to do something about it.

His hand in mine, I led him back onto the dance floor.

Several songs later, we were dancing. We never left the floor.

He laughed and smiled and blushed, and I had to restrain myself. I wanted to push everything else to the side and kiss him, but that wouldn't be fair to him. The whole school would know he was gay, and I would never forgive myself for outing him like that.

Halfway through "Counting Stars," we were joining the masses of people dancing wildly. We didn't care what we were doing, except that we were there and having fun. I could feel that I would remember this night for the rest of my life.

Nico nearly squealed as I spun him around, but it was drowned out by the music. As he turned to face me, he gave me a look that rendered me speechless.

Then, his hair was flattened by punch pouring over his head. His mouth widened with surprise as he dripped of the red liquid, and I looked to the perpetrator. Luke flashed me a grin, dangling the empty plastic cup over Nico's head.

"Oh, sorry, di Angelo," Luke jeered. "I was aiming for the fag."

Now, I could care less if he teased me and bruised my dignity a little, but bringing Nico into it was pushing all the wrong buttons, especially to the degree of drenching him in punch.

I glared at him. "What the hell is your problem?! He's never done anything to you!"

"Ah, sorry, I can't speak gay."

Overcome with anger and with no response to counter with, I raised my hands to his shoulders and shoved him back.

His eyes furious, he pushed me back. I returned it, pushing him back into a dancing couple.

"Percy, stop it!" Reyna exclaimed, squeezing through the couples who hadn't noticed our dispute.

She tried to stop me, and I would usually would heed her word, but Nico's dignity was at stake, and I wasn't a coward who would throw it away. I was always a fool, and I wasn't going to change for a bully like Luke.

I struggled out of her hold. I saw Annabeth emerge from the crowd to restrain Luke, shouting at him to leave us alone.

Everyone stopped to observe our scuffle while our friends tried to hold us back. The prom chaperones soon joined them.

Once we explained our situation to them, Luke and I both were given a demerit.

"I think it best that you both leave," said Mr. Chiron.

I had no objections, but I was still disappointed as I watched the chaperone walk off. I knew I did the right thing, and I convinced myself that was all that mattered to me. I offered Nico my hand.

"C'mon, Nico, let's go."

He didn't seem to have any objections, either.

Chapter Text

After we got Nico cleaned up in the bathroom, we got in my car and sat in the parking lot in silence. With a sigh, I shut the door behind me and planned to take Nico home. His gaze was locked on his lap timidly. He probably was humiliated from the punch shower, and how I reacted to Luke. I felt kind of ashamed, but I didn't regret it. Nico didn't do anything to deserve that.

I looked over at him, wondering if I should have asked him if he wanted anything to do with me in the future. His gaze remained downward, his hands fidgeting in his lap.

"What do you want to do?" I asked, breaking the silence.

He focused his gaze on his shiny, polished dress shoes, not uttering a syllable. I sighed defeatedly.

"Look, I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't've—"

"No." He looked up at me with a meaningful look. "Don't... I mean, it was kinda...cool. You know, the way you fought off Luke. He... I..." His face was completely flushed, as if all the blood in his body rushed to his cheeks. He looked down in his lap embarrassedly. "No one's ever done that for me before."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, not expecting his response. Was this the part of those romcoms where the boy leans over the console and kisses the girl? I looked over at him, casting him a smile. All of my courage clenched into a little ball and disappeared into a cloud of smoke in my gut.

"No problem," I told him, mentally cursing myself.

It was quiet for a moment, only the chirping of crickets filling the empty spaces of silence, and Nico looked up at me with a question on his face.

"We can go to my house, maybe," Nico suggested. "Get out of these suits, and all that. We can, I dunno, have like a movie, video game night, maybe? We can always swim, too."

If a sleepover with the boy I'd been hardcore crushing on for months wasn't the greatest opportunity presented to me on a silver platter, I didn't know what was.

The street was quiet when I pulled up to Nico's house. The windows were dark, and only the sounds of crickets were to be heard. The headlights of my car sliced through the darkness as I looked over at my gorgeous passenger whose face was still flushed from earlier. He gave me a shy smile before he unbuckled his seatbelt and moved to get out.

"Wait," I said, effectively pausing his movements.

"What?" he asked.

I didn't answer; I gave him a sly grin as I opened my door and stepped out onto the pavement. He watched me walk around curiously before my hand was on the door handle, and the door was opened for him.

"If you could let me be a gentleman for just a little while," I shrugged.

He returned my smile as he stood, thanking me playfully, and, like a lovesick puppy, I followed him into the house.

"You've never seen the hot tub, have you?" he asked as I loosened my tie and kicked off my shoes at the door.

I shook my head, but I was excited.

"I don't have a swimming suit."

"Underwear works fine. Unless you're a tighty-whitey type of person," he teased.

"Me? No."

He smiled to himself, amused, as he hung up his suitjacket—it still smelled like punch, but at least his suit and shirt was black. His dad would take it to get dry-cleaned before they returned it, he told me. He didn't seem upset about the punch shower, after all. Anger still bubbled in my stomach at the thought of it.

Nico started unbuttoning his shirt, and I felt my face heat up. I turned around to give him some privacy and hide my obvious flustered state, hoping he didn't notice. I began to undress, laying out my clothes neatly so they wouldn't get wrinkled. I stood in his living room in my boxers and socks, trying to hide my embarrassment. He blushed as he led me outside into the chilly night air.

The stars shone brightly above me as I watched Nico remove the hot tub cover. He turned on the lights and jets and sprinkled some chlorine powder in the hot tub before stepping carefully inside. The water was warm, contrasting the chilliness of the air. I followed him, sitting across the hot tub from him. He scooted closer. I was nervous.

"Thank you, by the way," Nico told me as I leaned back against the wall of the tub, feeling my muscles melt into the hot water.

"For what?"

"Everything, I guess. For putting up with my shit, mostly."

I laughed. "It's okay. I overstepped."

He shook his head. "I just... I don't know. I guess I started thinking that you liked me back, and... Yeah, I know it's ridiculous."

My eyebrows creased. "Why would you say that?"

He shrugged. "You're... you. You're considerate. You always make me feel special. You're a good singer and leader. You care about everyone else's happiness before your own. You're just too good for me."

I smiled. "Thanks."

The night was silent except for the water bubbling from the jets.

Tell him, Percy, said a voice from inside my mind. He likes you. You like him. Tell him.

"Umm, Nico, about earlier..."

"It's no big deal," Nico interrupted. "Even if you were given a demerit, it was for doing something you felt was right. I think Luke should've gotten worse."

I nodded. "Me too."

He smiled at me. My heart fluttered. He sat right beside me—there was not even a foot of space between our faces.

"I like you," I said, my tone slightly above a whisper.

He smiled slightly. "I like you, too."

"No, I mean..."

He had a confused look on his face.

"I... I like you, like really like you. I have since our first gig. You just... I don't know." My heart pounded in my chest. My hands were quivering with nervousness. "I just like you."

Nico looked at me in disbelief. This didn't seem real to me, either. It felt like I was going to wake up at any second in my bed, none of this actually happening. I hoped I wouldn't.

He smiled slightly, keeping his eyes on his hands in his lap. "I don't know what to say."

I looked at him expectantly. His soft brown eyes gazed into mine. My heart was thumping so loudly, I was certain he could hear it. He buried a tooth lightly into his lower lip. I stared at his lips. I could kiss them, if I wanted to. From his shy mannerisms and the redness of his cheeks, it seemed like he wanted me to. I leaned forward, hearing his breath hitch quietly. His cheek was warm beneath my fingertips. The anticipation built, embedding itself in my chest. I felt his breath on my lips. I wanted to simply lean in and quickly claim his lips with my own, but I was afraid it would shatter the fragile mood that had settled carefully around us. His eyelids dropped.

"Hey!"

I turned swiftly to the source of the voice, only to see Nico's father standing in the doorway, looking furious.

He approached us, and I separated myself from Nico as quickly as I could.

"You," he pointed an accusatory finger at me. "Get out of my house."

"Dad, please, he didn't do anything—!" Nico began.

"I got the phone call. He got into a fight."

"To defend me! Luke Castellan poured punch all over me and started insulting us. He was defending me, that's all. Percy was nothing but helpful and supportive."

He shook his head and looked over at me. "From now on, I want you to stay away from my son. Get out."

I nodded, gathered my stuff, and rushed to the living room to grab my suit and shoes. I spared no time in pulling some pants on and rushing out to my car.

Chapter Text

Nico sat on the couch in shame, his father's cold look pressing heavily down on him. Bianca had returned, but she sensed the palpable tension of the room and escaped upstairs. Nico would have done the same, if it were Bianca sitting on the couch and not him.

He fiddled with the drawstrings on his sweatpants and avoided his father's eyes. The air felt suffocating around him. The silence was ringing in his ears.

Finally the silence got to be too much, and he spoke.

"It wasn't his fault, Dad." The voice didn't feel like his own. "Luke poured punch all over me and he started just..."

He felt the glower intensify and curled into himself slightly.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to..."

"No, Nico," he snapped. Nico, surprised, caught his gaze. "Think about this for one moment. I didn't want you to go to prom with him in the first place. I didn't want you to be around him at all. The tutoring was one thing, but prom and the band... He's going to hurt you. I got the phone call that you were kicked out of prom because a fight broke out, and God, I thought it was you. He's not good for you, Nico."

"He's good for me, Dad," he said quietly. "He would never hurt me."

"Who knows? Your mother and I worked so hard to raise you to be a good person, and I don't want you to become one of the undesirables. You are going somewhere, Nico. He's going to hold you back, and I don't want you to be miserable."

The anger began to boil in Nico's stomach.

"I won't, Dad. He won't hold me back. The band is so good for me, Dad. I could hardly talk to people at the beginning of this year, and now I have so many friends. We are good for each other. We help each other grow. I know you think Percy isn't a good influence, but he's so good for me. If you actually saw how he acts towards me, you would see that, but you can't because you're blinded by impressions. He's not a bad person. I don't know how many times I have to say this. You don't know him like I do."

"Nico, I'm trying to protect you."

"I'm sixteen! I can protect myself!"

"Nico di Angelo, don't you raise your voice at me. I am your father. Have you forgotten that? You're young and you don't know what's good for you."

"You're not listening to me! I know what's good for me! You don't even have the slightest idea of what's good for me."

"Enough!" he barked, and Nico flinched. "I was easygoing enough to let him come over, for you to be in the band because I wanted you to get out of the house and be around people every now and then. I know what is good for you, and don't even tell me for a second that I don't. I have worked hard for you to live the way you do. Your mother works hard. We wanted to raise you with better than what we had, but obviously that has made you ungrateful."

Nico's eyes reverted to the floor. "I— I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let you be in that band in the first place."

"No, Dad, please. I'm sorry. Let me stay in the band. I'll do anything. They need me."

He shook his head. "No."

Nico felt warm tears blur his vision, and he made a quick dash for the stairs.

Nico flew down the hallway and slammed the door behind him. He buried his face in the pillow and emptied all the tears he could muster into the fabric, the softness muffling his sobs.

Hades watched his son leave and raked his fingers through his short, dark hair before settling on the couch, where Nico had sat mere moments before. It had to be done, he told himself. Nico needed to be told. Hades didn't want Nico to end up like he did in college. It had to be done.

I stared up at the ceiling in the dark, now changed into more comfortable clothes. Now, others would be at after prom parties, or hanging out with friends. At the moment, I didn't really want to be with anyone but Nico.

Mom was concerned, but I just played it off as nothing. She didn't seem too convinced, but she left me alone. As much as I loved my mom, I was grateful to be by myself.

I had never felt more embarrassed—or scared for my life—than I had in that moment. I knew Mr. di Angelo never really liked me, but that was just the icing on the cake.

I would never do anything to hurt Nico. Ever. But, I'm not sure he really knew that. He thought I was a bad influence. A punk kid that got into fights at prom and people like Nico shouldn't want anything to do with me. Nico was too good for me.

At least Mr. di Angelo and I agreed in one area.

I texted Nico, but he never texted back.

I thought about the band. What if he wasn't allowed back? He was the one who wrote the song, the backup vocals... If we had to play without him, we wouldn't be near as in-sync. We wouldn't possess the flow that we had whenever he was there. Or, maybe that was just me. Regardless, he was a crucial member of the band. We couldn't have (or wouldn't have) possibly performed without him.

I tried him again, but the result was the same. Maybe he had his phone taken away.

Maybe I overstepped. No, I knew I overstepped. I always let my emotions take flight. I shouldn't have tried to kiss him if I knew his dad was home. That was stupid of me.

Nico seemed pretty into it, though, when I defended him. Just thinking about it gave me butterflies.

I lied in bed, smiling to myself. He did like it. He told me so. He liked me complimenting him and standing up for him. He liked me. I couldn't believe it, even though I knew before. I think I'd known since the start, before he told me, even though there was something in my mind that didn't want to think it.

His dad probably never wanted me to be around him again. Because I was a delinquent. Because I got bad grades, and I was often late for class. Because I thought about everything else but Italian while he was teaching.

But, I really liked Nico. I probably even loved him, so I knew I wouldn't let his dad come between us, the band, and the music we all made together. Not when the competition we'd worked so hard for was just two weeks away. He would have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Chapter Text

When I walked into Italian class, Mr. di Angelo cast me the meanest scowl he ever had. I wasn't sure if he was capable of one that exuded more hatred and disgust than that. If someone, anyone, was capable of it, they'd deserve an award of some kind.

I lowered my gaze and sat in my usual seat. I attempted to meet Nico's gaze, but he kept his eyes on his desk. It wasn't a look that held shame or anger. He was being evasive for a reason, and that reason was currently writing this week's vocabulary words on the white board.

He wouldn't meet my gaze the remainder of class. And in the hallways. I was beginning to think he really was angry at me, but after fourth period, he pulled me around the corner and into the bathroom.

"My dad said he didn't want me to be around you," he said once the door shut behind us. "I'm sorry for ignoring you. I'm not angry at you."

My suspicions confirmed, I let out a relieved breath. "It's okay. I'm sorry."

"What for?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"For the whole fight thing and..."

"No, my dad's the one who should apologize to you."

"I think it would be easier to teach an ostrich French."

He laughed at that. I loved that sound. It made my insides tingly and warm.

"Percy, he doesn't want me to play on Saturday."

I paused. I suspected so, but actually hearing the words hurt.

"What? But, we..."

"I know, I know, but I'm trying to talk him into it. We got into a fight that night, and I might not have said the best things. It's mostly my fault."

"It's not your fault, Nico."

"No, it is. I really shouldn't have said those things to him. I just got really angry. But, if I can play, I'll be there as soon as possible, okay?"

I smiled. "Yeah, that sounds good."

I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm.

"Percy..." he began, nervousness lining his tone. "Did... Did you really mean what you said to me? In the hot tub that night?"

I gave him a quick smile. "Yeah, of course I did."

He smiled at that--he was practically beaming--and released my arm. I was compelled to kiss him there. His large, brown eyes gazed into my own ever so alluringly, but I resisted. If that was going to be his first kiss, I didn't want it to be in a public bathroom.

My stomach grumbled, demanding food.

"Oh, lunch, right..." he said, a blush appearing on his cheeks. "See you later, Percy."

He seemed to gain a single, quick moment of boldness as he stood on his tiptoes and pressed a brief kiss to my cheek. He swiftly left the room, my hand unconsciously moving to the place his lips had touched.

I stood there, dumbfounded. I was in shock--I didn't know how to react. Then, my stomach grumbled again, and I followed him to the cafeteria to appease my hunger.

The week practically flew by, and, before I knew it, I was packing my equipment to go to the Band-Off. It was finally here, and nervousness sat in the pit of my stomach like a heavy stone, unwavered by the comforting words I told myself.

I loaded my microphone and guitar in the backseat of my car and checked my phone, looking to see if Nico texted me back.

Nothing. He hadn't said a word to me since the bathroom incident. I was still in disbelief. He kissed me on the cheek, and he knew what he was doing. I felt heat rise into my cheeks at the thought before relinquishing it. I had other things to worry about. The rest of my life was depending on winning this thing. If Nico wasn't able to make it, we'd do our best to play without him, no matter how much we'd be lacking.

I hugged Mom and Paul--they both wished me good luck--before hopping in my car and heading to the park, where the competition was being held.

I found a place to park and hauled my stuff out before texting my bandmates that I arrived. Leo, Jason, Thalia, and Reyna all responded, but Nico remained silent. I wasn't sure if he even had his phone.

I sighed, anxiety settling in my chest that I tried my hardest to chase away. Nico was going to be there. He had to be. There was no way his dad could make him stay home when he'd been working so hard to be there.

As I entered through the gate, telling the woman stationed there who I was and which band I'd be performing with, Luke bumped into my shoulder with a sneer.

Of all times, he had to be there. He always made things worse, just by being there. I didn't even want to look at him, let alone get trash talked by him. I ignored him and decided I would let DEMIGODS.' performance do the talking.

"Ready to get your ass kicked, Prissy?" Luke chided.

I kept on walking.

"Yeah, you better walk away, like the pussy you are."

I didn't even spare him a glance.

"Whatever, faggot."

I didn't care what he had to say to me. It was all just a way to make him feel more confident in his band, which we were going to beat, no matter what. We had to. Losing wasn't even an option.

The stage was large, overlooking the grassy field that was the park. It had lots of room for people to watch, and spotlights overhead made it look like I was at an actual concert. And I would be singing, in front of all those strangers. It would have made me feel antsy and nervous, but after Luke showed his face, it made me feel empowered. I was going to rock it. No, we were going to rock it. We were going to show Luke and his cliché bully band who really was top dog around.

Backstage, the other bands had their instruments, tuning their guitars, warming up, and practicing drills.

I finally saw Leo's hair, and Jason and Thalia weren't too far away.

"Hey," I greeted. "You're here. Have you heard from Nico?"

All of them shook their heads. My hopes deflated a little.

"I know his dad is mad at him, but he probably will be here," Jason said.

"Yeah, he has to be," Thalia said.

"He's our best, most favorite keyboardist," Leo said. "Of course he will be here."

"Don't worry, Percy," Reyna comforted. "He's just running late, is all."

"Yeah," I sighed. "You're right. Let's warm up, shall we?"

Everyone was in agreement, and we got out our instruments to practice. I kept glancing at the door and my phone between vocal exercises, expecting a text from Nico to appear on my screen, saying he was on his way, or for him to dash through the door with his keyboard, frantically apologizing for his tardiness.

But, neither of them came. I was beginning to get worried.

Luke, Ethan, and Octavian sauntered over to us, and I had to close my eyes for a second to remind myself to stay calm.

"Where's your boyfriend, Prissy? Did he bail out on you because he finally realized what a loser you are?"

"Shut your lid, Scarface," Leo snapped back.

"No, Leo," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Don't waste your breath. We're gonna kick his ass."

The look in his icy blue eyes was dangerous. "You better prepare to eat those words, Jackson."

I stood my ground, not breaking eye contact with him. "I mean it. You don't stand a chance."

"Against you and your band of misfits? I don't intend on losing."

"Neither do we."

He glared at us and walked off.

"Asshole," Thalia said beneath her breath after they were out of earshot. "We're gonna slay them. Aren't we, guys?"

"Hell yeah, we are." Leo smirked.

I felt slightly more confident, after that.

The door opened, and my hopes soared, but it was just the stage director. He spoke through the small, microphone piece that was positioned by his mouth, and he ensured that all the bands were present.

He reread the rules to us, gave a brief explanation on how we were judged, and gave us the lineup: first was The Emancipated, then the Brick Walls, 90-Proof, Heatstroke, The Queen Bees (an all-girls band), The Lightning Thieves (Luke's band), Area 52, the Night Kids, and DEMIGODS. (us).

Of course we were last. It would be enough time to build my anxiety up.

But, if Nico was running late, it would give him enough time to arrive, and we would have a lasting effect on the audience, rather than being lost in the middle.

In the end, we were the lucky ones.

The Band-Off had begun, and Nico still wasn't there. I texted him multiple times, but I never got an answer. If he wasn't going to be here, we'd have to perform without him, and I didn't even want to consider it. I kept telling myself that he was just late, and he would come.

The Emancipated performed a Bon Jovi song, and it was pretty good.

Nico wasn't here.

The Brick Walls played Queen.

Nico still didn't answer any of my texts.

90-Proof played Soundgarden.

I began to worry that Nico just wasn't going to show up.

Heatstroke's and The Queen Bees' performances blurred together; I didn't even pay attention. I kept my eyes on the door, waiting for the mop of black hair to burst through the door. I waited, and waited.

Then, Luke and his band performed "Dream On" by Aerosmith, and it was pretty impressive. I got nervous. What if we weren't half as good as we thought we were?

It was the best performance yet, and the crowd of people cheered loudly, almost deafening.

As Luke and his posse came backstage, he cast me a smug look. He mouthed "Loser" over at me, but I kept my indifferent, cold look.

I was going to beat him, even if Nico wasn't here.

As the Night Kids began their performance, we decided to do as much as we could without Nico. Jason was solid on background vocals, as he heard Nico practicing often, and Thalia was going to try and incorporate some of Nico's keyboard solo on her guitar. It wasn't going to be perfect, but it still was going to be good.

The Night Kids stepped up on stage. We would have to do our best to beat Luke. I just wished Nico would have been here to see it.

Nico cursed as he ran down the street. He had crept out his bedroom window, carefully bringing his keyboard with him. He ensured it wasn't broken when he landed on the ground. His dad was going to kill him once he saw he wasn't in his room.

Hopefully he wouldn't be too late.

Eventually, a car slowed to a stop beside him. A blonde-haired girl smiled at him through the window of her car. It was Percy's ex-girlfriend.

"Hey, Nico, right?"

"Yes," he panted. "I'm sorry, I would love to talk, but I really have to get to the park."

"I know. Want a ride? You don't want to be late for your big performance, do you?"

He paused, and cast her a grateful smile. "That would be amazing."

He threw his keyboard in the backseat of her car and jumped in the passenger seat.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

I sighed as we were about to be called to stage if Nico wasn't going to be here, we would perform it for him. He couldn't help the circumstances that led to his absence. It wasn't his fault.

I pulled out my guitar and played a few chords when the man came back and called for us.

"DEMIGODS., you're on in five."

Every word was a sword through my gut. If Nico was here, he'd know how to comfort us. Some leader I was. He was the true inspiration. He was my muse, and everything that came with it.

Then, the door slammed open, and Nico came in with his keyboard, panting. I shot up from my seat.

"I'm so, so, sorry that I'm late!" he exclaimed, catching his breath. "I was trying to come here as quick as I could..."

We all greeted him with happiness. He was here, after all.

"I knew you wouldn't set us out to dry, Neeks!" Leo clapped him on the shoulder. "Didn't I say it? He's our favorite, best keyboardist."

"So glad you could make it, Nico," Jason said.

"That's our boy," Thalia cheered.

He smiled at her and hugged Reyna before looking at me.

"Hey," I greeted, lacking better words to say.

He gave me a demure smile. "Hey."

"I'm... I'm glad you're here with us, Nico."

"Me too."

His eyes sparkled as the lights reflected in them. I wanted to kiss him, our surroundings and situation forgotten.

"I wouldn't have made it if it weren't for Annabeth."

"What?"

"She... She gave me a ride. And, she told me to tell you good luck."

I processed his words and smiled. "Okay."

"DEMIGODS., you're onstage."

"Well, it's now or never," Reyna said. "Good luck guys. Kick their asses."

I never heard her swear before, but it sure encouraged me.

I looked at Nico one more time. He cast a smile at me that could rival the sun. "Oh, we will."

We stepped onstage, taking a moment to set up our equipment. The whole field in front of the stage was filled with people, strangers, and the blinding lights shone in my eyes.

I took a deep breath as I stepped forward to the microphone.

"Hello, we're DEMIGODS., and we're going to be performing an original song, written by our own, our keyboardist, Nico di Angelo."

He waved tentatively at the crowd, and they cheered. We waited until they settled down to hold our instruments and prepared to play.

"One, two, one, two, three, four," I said beneath my breath, the microphone capturing my voice and relaying to the whole audience.

Thalia began to strum, just as we practiced. Jason began his bass line, then Leo began to drum. I waited for my cue, and I began to sing.

"Life's too short to even care at all. Losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control."

I looked over at Nico, and he gave me a smile before he began his vocals, with his keyboard.

"These fishes in the sea, they're staring at me. A wet world aches for a beat of the drum."

Leo drummed his heart out as we hit the chorus. I've never felt so alive.

"If I could find a way to see this straight, I'd run away to some fortune that I, I should have found by now."

Nico oohed in his high tenor voice. He sounded like an angel.

"I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down."

We all came together. Nico's background vocals and keyboard, Leo's drumming, Thalia's guitar riffs, Jason's bass lines, and my vocals. By ourselves we were great, but together we made music. No, it was more than music. It was magic.

The whole crowd disappeared before us, and it was just our magic, filtering through the air.

My tone lowered to a mezzo piano. "Life's too short to even care at all. I'm losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control."

Thalia began her solo. It was the most beautiful she'd ever played it. She took her soul and thrusted it into her notes, baring herself to the whole world, as Leo drummed gently in the background. Nico played his keyboard with her, and it was the sweetest thing I'd ever heard. It was sound ecstasy, and I was lapping it up like a dehydrated dog.

Nico harmonized with me. It was a bond we shared that was deeper than intimacy. Greater than love.

"If I could find a way to see this straight I'd run away to some fortune that I, I should have found by now."

He lost himself in the music he created. It was his blood, his body. It was everything he was. It was everything we were, a star going supernova in space, sharing our gifts with the rest of the universe. I felt the power build in my voice, my emotions overflowing.

"So I run now to the things they say can restore me, restore life the way it should be. I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down."

The instruments, all but Nico's masterful keyboarding, lessened in the background as I sang the remainder of the lyrics.

"One more spoon of cough syrup now."

The music faded, and we looked out into the crowd as if they appeared out of nowhere. The night was silent for a moment, with only our halted breaths lingering in the air.

Then, they roared. The cheering was louder than I'd heard backstage, and it repleted me with emotion. We looked at each other with unadulterated triumph and jubilation on our faces. We looked out into the crowd, and we felt complete.

Once the response died down, we moved back behind the curtain, excited laughter and playful banter between us.

Nico laughed as Leo wrapped his arm around the back of his neck.

"We slayed it!" he cheered. "Did you hear them? We were all like, music! And they were all like, 'oh my God, they were the greatest musicians we've ever heard! Is that Leo Valdez? Oh he's the dreamiest guy in all of creation.'"

Nico shook his head lovingly and removed his arm from his neck. Then, he looked at me, the happiest I've ever seen him. He was gorgeous, his hair mussed up from passion, his eyes illuminated by laughter and triumph.

He'd never looked more lovely.

It was a split second as he ran towards me, practically leaped into my arms, and pressed his lips to mine. His arms were wrapped tightly around my neck as I held him closer. His lips were softer than I could have ever imagined, and the taste of victory lingered in his mouth. My heart leaped into my throat as I kissed him. I never wanted it to end. I never wanted to release this beautiful boy from my arms. I wanted to hold him forever, my lips eternally sealed with his.

I was in love with him, and I knew in that moment that I always would be.

We parted for air, and as I looked down at him, the feeling swelled in my gut. Adoration, infatuation, call it what you will, but to me, it felt infinite.

A voice echoed in the walls of the backstage room. "All bands to stage. We are announcing the winner."

Suddenly, I felt antsy again, but one look at my friends and Nico, and it all disappeared in a cloud of smoke, as if it never existed in the first place.

With Nico's hand in mine, we made our way to the stage.

We all stood in groups on stage, and despite the large size of the platform, it seemed crowded.

Nico's grip on my hand tightened from the anticipation. I wanted to kiss his hair, but I knew I couldn't. I would wait. I'd waited my whole life for him; I was capable of waiting a little longer.

Luke cast me a nasty sneer, which could probably make flowers wilt, interrupting my sentimental thoughts.

I chose to ignore him. I was confident enough. We gave it our all, and it was the most incredible thing.

"Our judges have decided. The winner of the 12th Annual Band-Off, and winner of the Band-Off $5,000 Scholarship is..."

Tension lingered in the air, and Nico gripped my hand impossibly tight. Luke smiled as if he had this victory in the bag.

The anticipation was killing me, gnawing at my gut like a starving wolf. What if we didn't get it? What if we'd brought ourselves all this way just to lose? What would I do with the rest of my life.

Nico seemed to feel my unrest, as he gave me a consoling look. The rest of the bands seemed anxious. The announcer gave such a long, painful pause. Why did it have to be so drawn out? It seemed like unnecessary torture. But, the crowd was hanging on, suspended in the tension.

"DEMIGODS.!"

I couldn't believe it. Every cell in my body seemed to have frozen in incredulity. Then, the news fully sank in.

We won. We actually won.

We all screamed in excitement and pulled each other in a tight hug. I felt like crying. Thalia and Leo actually were. Despite her cool composure, Reyna was cheering, excitedly.

Nico pulled me in by the back of my head into another searing kiss.

I'd never been happier in my whole life.

After we were handed our awards and our pictures were taken for the local newspaper, my mom gave me a hug that rivalled the intensity of Thalia's.

"I'm so proud of you."

I buried my nose in her cinnamon hair, and a tear escaped from the corner of my eye.

Things worked out. They really did.

Nico was breathtaking, as usual, as he gave me another hug. I would explain the newly-imposed nature of our relationship to my mom later.

From then on, it seemed to be a stream of neverending hugs. Jason, Leo, Thalia, Reyna, Paul, Mom again, Nico a few more times. Then, a familiar face showed. Her wavy, blonde hair nearly went up my nose.

"Congrats, Perce. You made it."

It was a great deal coming from Annabeth, even if she wasn't my girlfriend anymore.

She cast me a smile. "I know about your feelings for Nico. Honestly, I don't know why I didn't realize it sooner."

"I'm not--"

"It doesn't matter. You're cute together. He really likes you."

It filled me with joy, and I hugged her again.

I looked around, and it seemed Luke and the rest left. Probably out of embarrassment and shame. I know I would have.

It filled me with the sweet feeling of victory, all the same.

After it died down, I gave Nico a ride home. While I would have been full of dread to face Mr. di Angelo again, Nico seemed too happy to let consequences burden him. He gave me a barrage of kisses before he left, taking his keyboard from the back of my car.

I waved at him as he turned towards his house, practically skipping to the door.

I had everything. A family, whose bonds were forged by the most raw and powerful forces: love, passion, and music; the most incredible boyfriend, whose beauty could rival the most attractive of male models; and a life paved for me by hard work and dedication.

Graduation was right around the corner, then the rest of my life.

I couldn't wait for it to begin.