CHAPTER SUMMARY
The first day of school.
BEGINNING NOTES
Word Count: 2750
Content Warning: None
Guess who's coming in this chapter?????
For those of you who are following my other fic, the Ghosts of Millennia, I know I didn't post the standard two chapters this week. I've just been super, super, super swamped. I'm going to post extra next week to make up for it.
And all the characters are owned by Rick Riordan.
Credits at the end.
I met Piper at our usual spot. Like most New York suburbs, our town is completely covered with trees. If you cut through the woods behind our houses, there's a narrow, overgrown trail that leads to a small creek in the middle of nowhere. Or, at least, it feels like the middle of nowhere. In reality, it's like half a mile from the road.
I think the trail used to be for horses because it's too big to be a foot trail but not big enough for off-road jeeps. I doubt anyone knows about it but my friends and I. Percy, Grover, Thalia, Zoë and I found it a few years ago while we were searching for Annabeth. There was an... incident with Nico, mythomagic, a giant boar, some skeletons from science class, and Coach Artemis. It's too long of a tangent to get into now, even for me.
The trail doesn't lead to anywhere in particular, but I know those woods like the back of my hand after all the years I've spent exploring them. Piper and I know how to cut through the woods to get to school; we usually walk together if it's a nice day and we have a bit of extra time on our hands. Some of our best conversations come when we're alone. And I was happy we had this morning because I had a lot on my plate.
"Morning, Bianca!" Piper greeted me.
"Morning!" I chirped.
Piper looked at me skeptically. "Okay, what's wrong?" she asked.
I groaned. Piper was too good with people for her own good. "Is it that obvious?" I asked.
"To me," she said. "Now, spill."
I kept my eyes on my feet as I explained about Persephone, Papà, and Nico. My excuse was that I had to keep myself from tripping over the stray branches, but Piper didn't buy it. The truth is, sometimes, like Nico, I need to hide from the world. When I put my head down and my hair falls in my face, it's like a little protective cage around me. It makes hard stuff easier to take.
Is that weird? It sounds a little weird.
Are you actually asking me a question?
Yes, Nico, I'm actually asking you a question.
But I thought I'm supposed to sit here and shut up?
You are a sarcastic little shit and I hate you. Now did that sound weird or not?
Bianca, we're recording an exposé that mostly consists of your high school social interactions and, spoiler alert, my love life. So, no, I don't think the fact that you put your hair in front of your face sometimes is the weirdest thing they're going to hear.
There's a lot more to the story than that, but solid point.
"So, what are you going to do about it?" Piper asked.
"I don't know," I admitted. "I don't want Nico to spiral even more than he already has. Junior year's so important, you know? And I'm afraid about next year when I'm in college, and he's by himself. If he keeps going like this... well, I don't want him to end up on the side of a road somewhere."
"That's not going to happen," Piper assured me. "Things aren't that bad with Nico. I think he just needs a friend."
"I've been telling him that for years!" I reminded her. "I know he needs someone else to look out for him, but he won't put himself out there at all." I sighed. "Even if I find someone for him, what if they enable it? I don't know everything about everyone in the school! What if he ends up on meth or something because I picked a drug dealer?"
"You need to stop worrying," Piper said. "We know who the crackheads are. And, let's be real, I don't think Nico's going to start doing anything hardcore."
"That's the thing," I said, pushing down a lump in my throat. "After yesterday, I'm not so sure that's true anymore. You didn't see the-- the look in his eyes. They were so empty. Even Papà's given up, stopped sending him to therapy, any of that. He's been getting worse this summer, he knows I'm leaving, and I think it's killing him."
Piper pulled me into a hug. "We'll figure it out," she whispered in my ear. "Nico's our friend, too. We're not going to let him fall."
She lifted a stray tree branch for me to crouch under. I ducked through, pushed back some more leaves, and there it was: Half-Blood High. Three lanes of cars zoomed past at the bottom of the hill, stopping every now and again at a crosswalk to let students through to the other side. The high school was a blocky, three-story brick building surrounded by stone paths through the college-like campus. Various sports fields hugged the side of the road, sprawling into the distance. Let's just say the school got plenty of funding.
I shot a quick text to Jason that Piper and I were on our way to the dining pavilion, then made my way down the hill to the crosswalk. Five minutes later, we were back in the white tile halls of the suckiest place on earth. I missed summer already.
Twenty feet from the dining pavilion, Percy and Grover assaulted us in the hall. "Piper!" Percy said a little too loudly. "Let's go to English together! Now!"
Piper looked at him, confused. "But we still have ten minutes--"
Percy cut her off. "We might get lost! Or... something... come on!" He grabbed her arm and pulled her back the way we came. She had no choice but to follow, stuttering as she tried to get a grip on the situation while Percy rambled about nothing.
I turned to Grover. "Let me guess, Golden Boy's having another freakout?" I deduced.
Grover nodded.
I pushed the doors forward and walked into the open-air pavilion. Jason was leaning on a table, head hanging over the side, heaving like he was about to throw up. Leo, Annabeth, and Rachel stood beside him, Leo with a hand on his back.
"Please tell me he didn't puke," I asked as I rushed over there.
"Close, but no," Grover informed me.
As we got closer, all I could hear was Jason repeating "I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this," over and over again as he hyperventilated.
"If Percy could ask Annabeth out, you can ask Piper out," Rachel said. "Annabeth's a million times scarier than Piper."
"You ask her then," Jason said. He stopped retching. "I'm good, I'm good," he panted. "All good."
"Crisis averted," Grover announced. "Piper's on the other side of the school."
Jason groaned. "Why can't I do this? She's just a girl! A really cute, smart, better-than-me-in-every-way-- ahh, dammit!" He threw his glasses onto the table and rubbed his temples.
"Look at it this way," Annabeth said, sitting next to him, "if you don't do it, I'm pretty sure seaweed brain's going to do it for you."
Jason groaned again. "I'm a weak human being," he moaned.
Leo got his usual troublemaker twinkle in his eye. "Do you know why we're best friends?" he asked Jason. Jason answered with another incoherent grunt. "We're best friends because when you don't have balls, I'm more than happy to lend you mine."
I elbowed Leo in the shoulder. "Don't make fun of him. I still remember Khione."
Leo grabbed his shoulder, wincing. "So this is what I for trying to cheer him up? Friends hurt."
"Nah, thanks man," Jason said, coming up from the table. "He's right, Bianca. I just need to do it. And I will, but it's... not the right time."
"It's never going to be the right time," Annabeth said. "Jason, you need to get over yourself and ask her."
The warning bell rang, signaling five minutes until first period. We all gathered our things, waved good-bye, and went our separate ways to class.
I walked all the way to the back of the Biology II classroom. If there was one thing I hated, it was the feeling of thirty eyes on the back of my head. I'll admit that I'm shy outside my group of friends, even if I am pretty popular. I slid in the furthest seat from the door, threw my backpack next to me, and shot a text to Nico, asking if he made it to school. When he texted me a 'no,' I locked my phone and threw it onto the desk without saying a word. He'd know how angry I was if I gave him the silent treatment, and that would probably be enough to get him to school tomorrow.
Can I just say how weird it is to hear myself talked about in the third person?
Are you stalling? Oh my god, you are! He's blushing, guys, he's honest-to-god blushing! This is so cute, where's my phone, I have to take a picture and send it to--
No phones in my recording booth.
We're not even in a recording booth. And that equipment isn't yours, it's Papà's.
Papà isn't your sound engineer.
You know what? I'm not going to let you stall anymore! So, I throw my phone down on the desk, and it slides right off and falls onto the floor. I bend forward to pick it up, but a certain someone beat me to the punch. I saw a hand grab the phone, and when I turned to look up, I saw a boy with blond hair and a smile brighter than the sun. I said something super smart, like "Um-- oh!" and shot up a little too quickly and banged my head on the bottom of the desk. That only made me more embarrassed. Like I said--shy, and not that good with people either.
"Ow, that looks painful," the boy said.
I couldn't think of anything to say. What do you say to a super gorgeous guy who just watched you make a fool of yourself?
The boy dropped my phone on the desk and sat next to me. "I'm Will Solace, I'm new here," he said, holding his hand out to me. My head was still level with the side of the desk, my hair was in my face, and one hand was on my forehead where a bump was already forming. If there was any way to look like more of a fail, I wouldn't know.
I managed to say "Bianca di Angelo," without stuttering.
Will smiled at me sheepishly. "I'm so sorry I caught you off guard! I didn't mean to hurt you!"
"I, um, I did this to-- to myself," I stuttered. The boy had a slight southern accent like he was from Georgia or North Carolina. And his smile was so damn distracting. I didn't like him, for the record, but shy girl plus hot boy doesn't exactly equal a successful conversation.
Will looked at me with concern. "You're stammering a lot," he said, his voice on the panicked side. "Do you think you have a concussion? I can take you to the nurse if you don't think you're okay."
I laughed nervously. "No, I just suck at talking," I said. "And I haven't had a good morning."
"Is that why you threw your phone on the floor?" Will joked. I nodded. If his smile was like the sun, his friendliness was even sunnier.
Beautiful, Bianca. A+ description. Very poetic.
I'm complimenting your boyfriend, jackass, stop being snarky.
You get mad at me for spoiling the Persephone reveal five seconds before you say it, but you give away the biggest spoiler in the entire story!
It's not a spoiler when everyone can guess it within five minutes of you two meeting each other.
You didn't! None of our friends did!
Yeah, well, as they're going to see, we were all kind of busy.
My phone buzzed, and Will saw THE GHOST KING flash as Nico tried to call me. He held the phone up to me, but I shook my head and said, "I don't want to talk to him right now," so he pressed the lock key to silence the phone and put it back on the desk.
"Can I sit?" he asked.
I nodded. He slid in next to me with that infectious grin on his face. I couldn't help but smile a little too, just by being near him. I'm sure Nico knows what I mean. ... Oh, if I could describe the face he's making right now.
"Boy trouble?" Will joked. I laughed.
"Oh, I wish," I said, "boys would be easier. No, it's my brother, Nico. He's... he's something else. I love him, but..." I lowered my voice so only Will could hear. I didn't know why, but I trusted him. He was so easy to talk to. "Are there moments you just want to grab someone and scream 'let me help you?!' at the top of your lungs?"
Will nodded. "I've been there," he said. "But, I'll tell you something I've learned: you can't help someone who isn't willing to help themselves." He glanced at my phone, still lit up with Nico's profile picture. "This is him, I assume?" Will asked, pointing to an eight-year-old Nico.
"Yeah," I said. "That's us at la Canalazzo, the Venetian Grand Canal. It was back when we lived in Italy." I picked my phone up and scanned the photograph. I'd seen it so many times; I'd memorized the way Mamma's eyes lit up, how Nico's eyes were scrunched mid-laugh, the way my hair flew in the wind like a model's, the hint of Papà's shadow in the water as he stood behind the camera, the smudge of a moving gondola in the back right corner, and the little lens flare that came from the setting sun.
The image faded back to my normal lock screen when Nico was sent to voicemail. "Everything was so innocent then, so perfect," I whispered. I felt a lump forming in my throat.
Will took my hand, a concerned look in his eyes. "Bianca, what's happened to your brother?" he asked. "You can talk to me. I know I just met you, but sometimes strangers are the best listeners."
Class had already started, but Mr. D cared so little that he let us talk through her announcements. In the next twenty minutes, I laid all my fears on Will: the drinking, smoking, and (probably) drugs Nico had done that summer, how Papà had basically given up on him, how Nico had basically given up on himself ... and Will listened. He was so good with me, I got the sense that he was better with people than even Piper, at least, in his own way.
I told him so when I was done pouring my heart out to him. "I like listening to people and helping them," Will explained. "I'm going to be a psychiatrist one day."
My heart started to pound with adrenaline... I'd gotten the best idea of my life.
"Will," I said slowly, "how would you like your first client?"
Will ran a nervous hand through his hair. "Seeing how I'm a junior in high school without a license, I don't think I can give anyone Adderall yet."
I spoke quickly. "If Nico won't get help, and if I can't help him, why don't we send help to him? If you could get past my defenses, I think you could get past Nico's. We'll make it a regular thing, a few times a week, we'll make sure you run into each other for an hour or two. Talk to him, like you would any client." I pulled a fifty dollar bill out of my purse. "There'll be money in it for you," I promised. "We'll only do it for a little while, until he's ready to help himself."
Will eyed the cash. I could tell from his ripped clothes and patched bag that he didn't have much money coming in. I knew it was a slimy thing to do, to bribe a kid to be my brother's friend-slash-secret-therapist, but I didn't see any other option. Will was my last hope.
"When can I meet him?" Will asked hesitantly.
I slipped the fifty into his palm. "Nico usually comes home with Percy and me after swim team and archery practice. I'll get his butt to school during my free. Make sure you're out front by 4:30."
END NOTES
Next week: it's time for some SOLANGELOOOOO
This week's beta commentary:
STORY: Are you actually asking me a question... to the story than that, but solid point.
MELODY: Me and my siblings 100% of the time.
LUNA: Bro me too.
Credits:
Author: Melody Rose (https://melody0rose.tumblr.com)
Beta Readers:
Jojo (archiveofourown.org/users/bannedfrompencils/pseuds/bannedfrompencils), Luna Rain (https://peppermintlove1.tumblr.com)
Please comment so I know what you think! See you next week!