soulmates ⋮ heroes of olympus au

eight.

N i c o

☼

To Nico, there was very little point in P.E. class.

Sure, it was perfectly fine as an elective. If people wanted to spend the time working out and doing physical activity, then it was alright. It was never really Nico's thing, but he had friends who loved it – which he didn't understand, but whatever floats their boat. He understood that working out was important to his health or whatever, but that didn't mean that he liked it. Nico survived by doing the bare minimum.

But the fact he had to take a full year and a half of it before to graduate high school? Absolute bullshit.

There was the option of taking a P.E. class as a zero period to let students take whatever classes they wanted throughout the regular school day. But that was an immediate and resounding "No" from Nico. He was in no way a morning person. Getting to school at 7am was enough. Nico wasn't about to get there any earlier.

"You ready for another day of running laps and playing extremely violent dodgeball that probably violates several different school codes?" Percy questioned aloud in the locker room as the two finished changing into their P.E. uniforms.

"Do you mean another day of me hiding in the corner of the gym to avoid everything you just said. Then yes."

Chuckling, Percy pushed open the locker room door and the two walked out to the bleachers where the rest of the class sat. It was filled with a mixture of jocks – most of which were assholes who had the emotional range of a teaspoon – and people who just wanted to get that P.E. credit completed. While Percy did technically fall into the athlete category, he was in the latter category with Nico because he honestly didn't really want to be there.

After a few minutes, Coach Hedge jogged into the gym and blew into his shrill whistle for a few seconds longer than needed, making Nico wince and cover his ears. He had a surprisingly large lung capacity for a man who was at least a foot shorter than me – and Nico wasn't exactly someone you'd call "tall."

"Listen up, cupcakes!" Coach Hedge bellowed. The class snapped to attention, even the kids in the back who appeared to be half asleep. Even with his size, no one wanted to face the wrath of Coach Hedge. "Today we're going to be playing extreme dodgeball."

The class began to grumble quietly about the prospect of playing yet another intense round of dodgeball. "What a surprise," Percy mumbled out of annoyance next to Nico, rolling his eyes.

"Jackson!" Coach Hedge yelled, glaring at Percy from under his baseball cap. Percy sunk down in the bleacher seat out of fear of having the gym teacher hear him, and Nico would have laughed if it weren't for the short man in front of him. "For that, you're going to be one of today's team captains."

Frankly, Nico was just glad he wasn't dead. Percy smirked and sauntered over to Coach Hedge, who now looked so furious he was nearly purple in the face. "That'd be just delightful, Coach."

"Watch your attitude. Friedricks, you're the other captain."

Carson Friedricks, who Nico liked to think of as the leader of the assholes, jogged down the bleachers and stood on the other side of Coach Hedge. Nico hated the guy with a passion. While most of the school was relatively chill, there was that group of people who seemed to be living in the 1950s that Carson happened to be a part of.