CHAPTER SUMMARY
Valentine's day arrives.
BEGINNING NOTES
Word Count: 2688
Content Warning: None
I was too tired to post yesterday (my dogs only let me get three hours of sleep and then I had a late shift at work) so I decided to morning post.
Hard to believe we're more than halfway through. Enjoy, guys :)
And all the characters are owned by Rick Riordan.
Credits at the end.
Aaaaand, we're online.
Perfect, thanks, Nico.
It's what I'm here for. You know we gotta finish this today if you want it ready in time. I'm going to have a lot to edit.
Well, let's get started, then.
Will told me the good news when he and Nico got back from the Field of Mars. I was so happy I almost screamed. It took a few months, but my plan was working. This was the first time since, like, ever that Nico actually made a friend. Six years of badgering and all it took was some cash from my pocket? I should've done this years ago, I thought.
Things couldn't have gone better that January. Nico joined Percy, Will, and I in the afternoons to do homework. He talked, he laughed, he even started doing this running, sarcastic commentary every time we'd read from our textbooks together. I'd never had so much fun doing homework.
I didn't catch him drunk anymore. He got high maybe once every few weeks, and only on the weekends. He still didn't talk to Persephone, but he didn't ignore her either. When she tried to talk to him directly, he'd usually give one-word answers, or a nod, a smile, a wave, something like that. It was progress, to say the least, and Persephone took solace in the little victory.
Solace. Heh.
No pun intended.
Accidental puns are the best.
In early February, while the four of us were doing homework, Hazel and Reyna came thundering down the stairs. I heard Reyna saying something like, "Hazel, you can't force them to do that."
Percy raised his eyebrows. Will and I laughed; Nico dropped his eyes to the floor and shrugged.
I didn't want them to see I was blushing.
Hazel and Reyna came into the living room... well, Hazel came into the living room. Reyna was kind of dragged in.
"Can we interrupt?" Hazel asked.
"It's just homework, you're not interrupting anything," I said.
"Yeah, give me any reason to put off trig," Percy said. "I get it, Sine, Cosine, Tangent. Why do worksheets fucking exist when we can use calculators?"
"I'm with you there," Will said. "What's up, little sis?"
Hazel smiled. She loves it when Will calls her that. "So, the Valentine's Day dance is in ten days..." she began. I saw Nico stiffen up, but he didn't say anything or storm out of the room. Again, little victories. "We should all go together and do something before the party!"
"You don't want to spend the afternoon with Octavian?" I asked.
"He's busy," Hazel said quickly. "I thought we could do like a triple date. Percy, Annabeth, you and Will, Nico and me."
"What about Reyna?" I asked.
"I don't do Valentine's Day," Reyna said. "Besides, I have a student gov meeting with Frank." She was freshman class president, and Frank was her vice.
"Oh, that's why you're not with Octavian; he's at the meeting," Nico said. He studied Hazel. I wondered what he was looking for.
"Yup," Hazel replied, just as fast as before. I could tell she wanted to shut down the conversation. There was definitely something fishy going on between her and Nico. I wondered why I didn't know about it; Nico told me everything.
"Sounds fun," Will said.
"Yeah, I'm in, too," Percy agreed.
"I thought you were going to Grover's," Nico said.
"He's spending the day with Juniper," Percy said. Juniper was Grover's new girlfriend.
"Oh, okay," Nico replied. He sounded a little... nervous.
That's an understatement. Why the fuck would I want to spend Valentine's day with both of my crushes with both of their girlfriends? But I had to go. Hazel was being really weird about Octavian, which meant I had a good chance to do recon. I hadn't forgotten the day I walked in on Hazel crying. Why did she feel like she had to be with Octavian? If the son of a bitch was pressuring her into anything, he would get what was coming to him. So, I agreed to go with them to the dance.
We decided to go to this cute diner called the Dam Snackbar. Yeah, I love the pun too. Annabeth agreed to join us as soon as we invited her. Everything was set.
I was so happy Nico was coming. This was my proof that Will was working. Nico had never gone to a school dance before, and now he was coming to one, and a pre-party too.
Flash forward to Valentine's day. Will and I spent bio planning out what we were going to do at the diner and at the dance. There was a lot of pressure on--we had to make sure Nico had a good enough time that he'd want to go out with friends more. If he had a bad time, he'd have an excuse not to leave the house again. I didn't want him to go back to his old self.
But, Will and I were a quote-unquote "couple," which meant that most people would expect us to spend the night alone together. We could count on Hazel to keep Nico happy when we were at the diner, but she'd be off with Octavian during the dance. We decided to use the Jason situation as an excuse. I'd tell Jason what Piper said (that she knew about his crush and liked him back, I mean) and then I'd spend part of the night trying to get him to ask her out. That would give Will an excuse to get away from me and talk to Nico. I'd kill two birds with one stone: my brother and Jason. It was the perfect plan.
Annabeth and Hazel came home with us, along with our usual crowd. Since Hazel didn't have anything after school (that's why she normally didn't join us) she sat on the bleachers and watched archery practice. I told her she could wait inside (it was super cold, California in the winter always is) but she refused. She even convinced Nico to join her since he didn't have detention.
Thalia kept coming to archery practice, even though she hadn't been able to shoot for almost a month; the baby bump got in the way. She helped Coach Artemis plan and coach practice instead. Sometimes, she'd run the practice alone so Coach Artemis could instruct Zoë one-on-one, prepare her for Jupiter's in the spring. Since both Thalia and I couldn't go to the competition, Zoë would be competing in the single's tournament instead. A lot was riding on her shoulders.
Thalia was running Phoebe, Naiomi, Celyn and I through drills when her phone went off. She ignored it at first, but whoever it was kept calling. After the fourth time, she caved and took the call. Her face fell. She didn't say a word, and then she hung up. "I have to go," she said quietly.
I grabbed her hand. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
"I'll see you... when I see you," Thalia replied. She wouldn't look any of us in the eye. She grabbed her backpack and slowly walked away. Coach Artemis didn't stop her. From her dark, guarded expression, she knew what was wrong with Thalia. I was sure of one thing: this had something to do with Luke.
I think I should take over from here. You got through all your... we'll say "exciting" stuff. My shit's better from this point out.
Go ahead. Dick.
Dick and proud.
I sat with Hazel on the bleachers, pretending to watch Bianca's archery practice. I couldn't focus on anything but Percy... story of my life up until that point. How was I going to get through an entire afternoon and night watching him with Annabeth? I hated Annabeth, or at least, I thought I did. She was the one who Percy loved when he could've loved me. Why didn't he love me when I'd loved him for so long?
Now, I'm good at hiding my feelings. Like, really good. Katniss Everdeen has nothing on me. The only one who can usually see through me is Bianca, and she's had a lifetime of practice. Even someone like Piper, who's insanely good with people, usually can't see through my blank stares and dead eyes. But, somehow, Hazel knew where my mind was. After sitting silently with me for almost all of the two hours, she turned and said, "I know you're dreading this."
I forced what I hoped was a snarky smile on my face. "How do you know I'm dreading it?" I asked, trying to sound like I was joking around.
"You hate people," she replied.
I playfully nudged her with my shoulder. I know, I know, I keep saying how much I hate people touching me, but something was always different with Hazel. "I love people," I protested. "I'm a social butterfly. I go to all the parties and make out with beautiful actresses and chant 'chug, chug, chug!' "
Hazel giggled, but she was still looking at me with concern, the kind of look I used to only get from Bianca. But there was something else behind her eyes... it was like she knew something, like she was reading my mind and knew what--or who--was on my brain. She took my hand and said, "Whenever things get bad, just look at me, and it'll be okay." She smiled. "That's what I do. I think about you, and I'm happy again."
I put my arm around her shoulder and side-hugged her. "Thanks, sis," I said.
"You've never called me 'sis' before," Hazel noticed. She sounded so happy.
I grinned at her again, but this smile was for real. "That's what you are, isn't it? You're la mia sorellina ad amare, proteggere, e curare."
"What does that mean?" she asked.
"It means 'my little sister to love, protect, and care for.' That's what Mamma would always say to Bianca and me, except we were her piccoli bambini." I squeezed Hazel's hand. "And I will love, protect, and care for you, Hazel, 'til the day I die." I let out a little laugh. "It turns out Papà betraying Mamma was a good thing. I got you."
I could see tears in Hazel's eyes, but she didn't let them out. That's when I realized that maybe she'd arranged the afternoon because she needed moral support, too. She knew that I could read her the way she could read me. She was asking me to help her in her own little way.
Hazel held her water bottle up like she was making a toast. "Like they say in New Orleans, laissez les bons temps rouler."
I held up my can of Coke. "Laissez les bons temps rouler."
We drank.
A+ Cajun accent there, Nico. Did you learn from Dick van Dyke himself?
I'm an Italian attempting to speak U.S.-American French. Lay. Off.
I didn't say much on the ride home; I was too busy freaking out. I was hyper-aware of the way Annabeth was pressing her leg against Percy's. I hated the way she teased him, and how loud his laughs were. I felt claustrophobic in that limo. I wanted to claw through the walls like an animal. When it got too much, I glanced at Hazel and forced myself to breathe. It worked better than I thought it would.
I hated how long it took for me to get changed into my clothes for the dance. I stood in front of my closet for ages, as though the right shirt or pair of jeans would make Percy Jackson love me. Finally, I caved. I pulled out my phone.
THE HUNTRESS
I need a good outfit for the dance. Help?
Help is on the way ;)
I heard a knock at the door pretty soon after that. But when I opened it, it wasn't Bianca, it was Will.
"What do you want, Solace?" I deadpanned.
"To whip you into shape," he said cheerfully. "Lemme look in your closet."
He stood there for a long time. "Okay, your clothes suck. You do know there are other colors besides black, right?"
"Colors are overrated," I said.
Then, Will threw a shirt at me. "Your jeans will work with this. I brought a second shirt in case I didn't like the first one. It's yours now," he told me. My heart started to race. It smelled like him, and it was driving me crazy.
"You want me to wear a button down. Are you crazy?" I protested, doing my best to keep my voice from shaking.
"It's a dance! You're supposed to dress up a little. The shirt's going to be a little big, but tuck in the bottom and roll up the sleeves and you'll be fine." He pushed past me and grabbed a pair of black military combat boots. I hadn't worn them since Westover Hall, the military school Bianca and I went to for about ten seconds. I hadn't worn them in forever. I didn't even know if they'd fit.
But I could never say no to Will. So, I squeezed into them. Will looked away while I changed. I felt hot and sweaty; my heart was beating a million miles an hour. I couldn't kick him out without telling him I was gay and that my mind was going places it should not go. Why else would I care? I changed in front of men at gym all the time.
That shirt was driving me insane. I prayed to every god I could think of that I'd get used to the smell and tune it out, and that, until then, my dick wouldn't want to say hi.
Ew, that's gross.
It's just biology, B. The birds and the bees.
Excuse me if I don't want to picture my brother with a hard-on.
We made it to the Dam Snackbar without any drama. Percy said I looked nice. My heart fucking stopped, and I was sure I'd died. But we joked around, ate some pretty good food, and it was actually a fun time. Even Annabeth wasn't enough to ruin it. Sure, I counted how many times Percy smiled at me or laughed at my sarcastic commentary——
That, as you can see, he still loves way too much.
——but that was perfectly normal, right?
Uhh, no.
They got that. Bianca, if you want to make comments as good as mine, you need to try a little harder. Say what everyone is thinking, but too nice to say. Think outside the box.
Oh, like "Nico loves his sarcastic little quips to mask his insecurities?"
Exactly! You learn well, grasshopper.
I didn't want dinner to end. If I could glue all our asses onto the gaudy red booth couches, I would've. But, obviously, it had to end. Bianca paid the check——it was our treat since dinner was Hazel's idea——and we piled back into the limo. The sun was already set. The night sky was beautiful, romantic, like a movie straight out of Hollywood. What I wouldn't give for one kiss under those stars. My brain fought it out, Percy or Will? Not that it mattered; neither of them would ever kiss me.
I was the first one out of the car. I walked as fast as I could into the gymnasium; all I could think about was how badly I needed to get out of there. I didn't stop until someone grabbed me and pulled me into a deserted hallway. I tried to yank my arm away, but the guy was too damn strong.
"Get your hands off of me!" I snarled. I looked up at him. He was a tall, muscular Asian guy, even more built that Bryce. There was no way I could take him in a fight. Was he from the Titans? I didn't owe Alabaster any money, did I? I hadn't bought anything from him in the past few weeks...
We turned the corner. "Let him go, Frank," Reyna said.
He let me go. "Why the fuck did you kidnap me?" I snarled.
"Octavian's blackmailing Hazel," she replied. "We need your help to get her out."
END NOTES
I feel like I should have some of that dramatic soap opera music at the end of every chapter. Cliffhangers, cliffhangers, cliffhangers galore.
(Cliffhanger, hanging from a cliff! And that's why he's called cliffhanger! Anyone get that reference? Just me? Ok.)
This week's beta commentary:
STORY: "Colors are overrated," I said.
JOJO: wow, do you have any other slogans from, like, hot topic?
JOJO: (i can make fun of him i lived in Depression Black™ for years as a teenager too lmao)
LUNA: What are you talking about, I still live in depression black
MELODY: Hot Topic's logo should be Nico in depression black with the word bubble "I wore it before it was cool"
JOJO: nico was wearing it in 2008 that's like exactly when it was cool
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!