×ONE×
It was all Percy's fault, Nico thought as he sat on the uncomfortable black leather chair, And Jason's too.
The three of them were in the headmaster's office. Percy and Jason sat on his right, sitting in identical chairs that were probably just as uncomfortable as his. The headmaster sat across from them, sitting in his giant leather swivel chair that was the color of mud. It wasn't his first time in in the office, surrounded by its bland white walls. He was often dragged into Percy and Jason's ridiculous antics.
"Can you tell me just what you were thinking," There was a thunderous look on Headmaster Zeus's face, "when you stole those fish from the public aquarium?!"
"But Dad-" Jason started. Headmaster Zeus cut him off with a glare.
"Don't you dare 'but. Dad' me," Headmaster Zeus mocked Jason with a high-pitched, whiny voice. The blonde looked like he wanted to argue that he sounded nothing like that, but tactfully decided against it, "You guys are so lucky that no one is pressing charges against you otherwise we'd have to go to court!"
"But the fish looked so lonely in the tank!" Percy exclaimed, "We had to do something!"
Nico wished Percy hadn't said anything. He was only making the situation worse. Zeus's face slowly turned purple with rage, reminding Nico of a time bomb that would explode in a matter of second. And when that time bomb did explode, they managed to survive the fatal explosion despite their close proximity to said time bomb.
"THOSE FISH WEREN'T LONELY!" Zeus shrieked, and for a second Nico thought he saw steam coming out of his ears, "THEY HAD EACH OTHER!"
Percy opened his mouth to speak, and Nico immediately knew that whatever he was going to say was either going to get them killed or even worse, expelled. Shut up, shut up, shut up! Nico tried to tell Percy with his eyes. But if the dark-haired boy had seen him, he ignored him because the next thing he said was:
"But, Zeus-" The headmaster shot an annoyed look, and Percy quickly amended his sentence, "I mean, sir, just because the fish had each other doesn't mean they weren't lonely. Being alone is different from feeling lonely. You can be alone and feel lonely, but you could also be surrounded by people and still feel lonely. You get what I'm saying?"
Headmaster Zeus's furious expression was quickly replaced by a look of surprise. "Jackson," The man with shoulder-length black hair blinked in astonishment, "That was surprisingly deep."
Nico mentally sighed in relief. He'd felt so sure that the headmaster was going to strangle Percy for that comment. Maybe our punishment won't be so bad, He let himself have a brief moment of optimism -something Nico didn't usually do.
"But you guys are still in trouble," And just like that, Nico was no longer optimistic. Zeus continued, "But I've decided not to expel you three…for now at least."
Percy and Jason let out a breath of relief, their sighs in sync with one another. Nico however wasn't very relieved; he'd know that the headmaster probably wouldn't expel his own son and his son's best friends from the academy. Besides, Nico thought, if he'd been planning to them, he would've done it when Percy and Jason bribed a bus driver into driving the entire junior class to a strip club.
"Why do you guys smiling?" Almost instantaneously, the grins Percy and Jason had been wearing a moment ago were gone without a trace. The electric blue-eyed headmaster smirked devilishly, "By the time I'm done with you, you're going to wish I expelled you."
That line would have been a lot more intimidating if it weren't for the fact that Nico had caught the headmaster practicing those same lines in front of the mirror.
. .
"So you're going to a camp? As punishment?" Nico nodded, answering his sister's questions wordlessly. They were in Nico's room, with his sister leaning against his bed frame and the boy sitting on his comfy black comforter.
Bianca snorted, shaking her head in disbelief, "Damn, Zeus's punishments are getting stupider by the day."
The dark-haired boy nodded once again, this time in agreement. What kind of principal sent his students to a summer camp as punishment for larceny? Not a sane one, that's for sure. Nico's thoughts traveled back to an hour earlier when the headmaster had told them their punishment:
"I'm going to send you guys to camp!" Headmaster Zeus exclaimed, grinning widely at the trio, "A summer camp!"
The three teenage boys stared at him in bewilderment. He couldn't be serious, Nico thought, He's just joking. There's no way he'll actually send us to summer camp…right?
"What…?" Jason trailed off, but Nico and Percy knew exactly what he was going to say because they were thinking the exact same thing: What the fuck was Zeus high on?
"You guys are going to summer camp!" Zeus repeated, assuming that Jason hadn't head him, "It's about two hours away from here, and it's called Camp Half-Blood. Your brother," Zeus looked pointedly at Jason, "Dionysus called me yesterday, asking if you three wanted to go to the summer camp. So of course I said yes."
We're going to Dionysus's summer camp? Nico mentally shuddered at the idea. He had met Jason's former alcoholic of a brother on multiple occasions, and none of their encounters had been pleasant. He glanced around to find a squeamish-looking Jason Grace and a pale Percy Jackson. Why do they look -oh, right. Realization dawned on the dark-eyed boy. Dionysus had been out to get the duo ever since they had pulled that prank on him. That explains why he called Zeus, asking if we could go to his stupid summer camp.
"Don't worry. It won't be that bad." Zeus chuckled at their worried expressions, "It'll just be total hell."
"…Percy?" Bianca finished whatever she was saying with a smug-looking smirk.
Nico blinked at her. "What did you say?"
"So how's Percy?" His dark-haired sister repeated her question with a devilish look in her eyes.
Oh. Nico felt his cheeks redden at the sound of the raven-haired boy's name. "Fine." He answered in a strained voice.
"I was asking how he was doing, not how he looks." Bianca responded cheekily, and the dark-haired teen had the abrupt desire to throw something -a book, maybe. Yeah, a book would be good- at his beloved sister.
"Shut. Up." Nico hissed through his gritted teeth, his fists clenched at his side.
Bianca laughed. Her laugh was pretty and full of life, and like usual, her laugh made him smile despite his frustration. For a moment, his facial muscles ached; he wasn't used to making that kind of expression. Bianca sat beside him on the bed, and the dark-haired boy relaxed his hands at his sides.
"You're so cute when you're embarrassed," Bianca ruffled his hair fondly, and he swatted at her hand. She just chuckled at him, and pinched his cheeks
"And you're annoying." Nico retorted. But his tone lacked seriousness, and his lips were curled up slightly in a smile.
"When are you guys going to leave?" The olive-skinned female questioned, draping one arm around Nico's shoulders. The other hand played with Nico's dark, silky hair.
"In, like, two weeks." The Italian teen answered, absentmindedly picking at his ivory-colored nails.
"And you're going to be gone for the entire summer?" The teenage boy nodded, and even though, he couldn't see her, he knew his sister was frowning. "I don't know what I'm going tp do without you, kiddo."
"Me neither." Nico told her, and it was the truth. Bianca was practically his mom; she'd been taking care of him ever since his mother's death. His father was too busy with work to take care of them, so all they had were each other. They hadn't separated from each other, at least for a long period of time ever since…their mother's death. No, Nico squeezed his eyes shut and tried to clear his mind, don't think about that now.
As if she could read his thoughts, Bianca stroked his ebony black hair soothingly. "Don't worry. Jason's gonna be there." Her lips curled upwards into a smirk, "And Percy."
Nico's cheeks flushed tomato red, and he punched his sister's shoulder. "Shut up. Seriously."
Hey, guys! This is my first Percy Jackson fanfiction so hurry for that! Read, Comment, and Favorite! I love you all!
~Risa
