"Nico di Angelo! Why can't you be a tiny bit more like your sister? Why?" A dark man silhouetted in shadows stood up in his black armchair and leaned over the desk. His face stopped a few inches away from a frightened teenage boy, who took a step back in rage.

"Stop fucking comparing me to her! She's dead!" the boy shouted angrily, sick of his father's mood swings.

"And whose fault is that?" the man shouted. He leaned over more and grabbed the boy's wrist, holding the boy in place. "Whose fault is it that Bianca is dead. It should've been you."

"It- wasn't- MY- fault!" Nico spat at his father, turning his head to the side so the man wouldn't see his tears.

"Hades, dear, calm down. You're hurting the poor boy." Nico's stepmother said from the door to the office, seeming to have been awoken by the shouting match.

"Poor boy, my ass. Listen here, you worthless piece of slime, I am done dealing with your nonsense and absolute failure. Tomorrow, you are not going to school with your friends. Persephone and I have talked about sending you to a boarding school in Maine –"

"But that's all the way across the country!" the fourteen year old said outrageously, interrupting his father.

"Shut up. I'm speaking. We have the money, we can afford it. Go to your room and pack your bags. Westover Hall for Boys is known for disciplining and turning silly boys like yourselves into men. That's where you're going." The tall man in the red robe grabbed a brochure from the desk in front of him and stuffed it in his son's face. "Go. I don't want to see your face until you're done."

Nico let out a small sound of rage and whipped his hand out of his father's grip, running for the stairs. "I hate you! Both of you!"

He entered his dark room and didn't bother to turn on the lights. Frustrated tears made their way down his face. He grabbed a comic book from the floor and threw it against the wall, stomping his foot in despair.

It isn't fair.

He sat himself down on his bed. Quickly mad at himself for yelling and angering his parents, he stood up, almost ripping the drawer out of his closet.

His vision blurred with tears and anger, he packed. Somewhere in his mind, the same though kept repeating itself. An all-boys school could be a problem.

The next morning, Nico was woken up by light knocking on his bedroom door. He had fallen asleep with his face in his suitcase and drool dripping onto his clean underwear. He sat up and groaned, still very mad.

"What?" he said in an irritated tone.

"Your car to the airport leaves in an hour, Nico. Are you all packed?" He heard his step mother's woice through the door.

"No. I left the brochure downstairs. Can you get it for me?" he said in the same hateful tone.

"Yes, dear. I'll also bring you breakfast. Your uniform is hung up in the bathroom. I've left your school supplies outside your door." Persephone said kindly.

"I didn't buy any school supplies, Persephone." Nico said, slightly confused.

"I took the pleasure of buying them for you this morning." He heard in reply.

"Thank you, I guess. What time is it?"

"Eleven thirty-three."

With that, Nico heard the woman walk back down the stairs. Nico examined what he had packed in his anger last night.

Not much apparently. He had taken a traveling trunk from the back of his closet and filled it with some essentials. Underwear, socks, a couple changes of clothes, all of Nico's mythomagic cards, and some toiletries. The boy stood up and grabbed a leather lap top bag from the ledge on his dresser.

Standing up with the bag in his grasp, he opened his bedroom door to find a two foot high pile of school materials. I'm gonna need a bigger bag.

In this pile of school materials, Nico found the following things. An English textbook named Elements of Language: Grade 9, a science book that weighed more than all that Nico had already packed named Life: a Science, a history book that simply looked scary – Power, Pain, and the Past: World History, a red mathematics textbook whose numbers made Nico dizzy, and about a dozen other things, including notebooks, reading books for school, pencils and markers, along with a brand new black leather bag.

Nico dropped his old brown one and spoke loudly, "Thank you, Persephone!"

"Not a problem dear. Most of the supplies I got were black, is that okay?" his dad's wife came into view climbing up the stairs, handing him the brochure.

"It's perfect!" Nico said, genuinely grateful, last night's events forgotten. His step mom smiled at him.

"Good. Now, why don't you go take a shower and look at your uniform? I'll make sure all your belongings get into the trunk. Charon will be driving you."

"Okay." Nico returned to his room for a change of underwear and walked into his closet. After getting what he needed, he continued deeper into his closet, until a black door made itself visible. He entered the bathroom, not paying attention as he stripped himself in the mirror with a self-hating glance at his milky pale clear skin, his dark thin eyebrows, and his dark brown eyes. His hair stood up everywhere and Nico could barely get his hand through it. Although Nico loved to eat, every single one of his ribs shown through his skin. The crazy bangs that rested on his forehead made the bags under his eyes darker. His skin whiter. And his thin lips redder.

Boy, he was just too much too handle. How did anyone resist this?

Nico's grim smirk faded as he entered the hot shower.

When he exited, he came face to face with the back of his black door. A uniform hung from it.

Four, actually. All of them were of the same color scheme however. One of them, the one hung foremost and center had a white cotton shirt with an orange logo on the top rightside: ᵂᵸ. It had grey pants that were comfortable looking and a brown belt. The outfit beside it was a white dress shirt that had an orange tie hung on its shoulder and a grey wool vest. The pants were the same, but there was no belt. Another white dress shirt hung beside it- an extra. There was also a nice dress jacket, grey in color. Nico assumed it meant he'd have to use the other belt. The third outfit was clearly a gym uniform. Bright orange t-shirt, an extra hung beside it, and grey gym shorts. Since there were no sweat pants, Nico assumed it was an indoor gym. Hidden beside the gym uniform, almost so that Nico didnt see it, was a black and green knee length speedo. Next to it, was one more outfit. An orange polo and brown riding pants. A black belt was looped into the outfit.

Nico frowned at the last two. He didn't know how to swim and horses hated him. He quickly changed into the first uniform, with a shout from Persephone that Charon would be here in 30 minutes. He took half a second to tousle his hair with his towel, making sure it looked half presentable. Then again, he'd be getting to the school at around eight PM after a 3 hour plane ride. He'd probably mess it up till then.

He finished looping his belt into place and exited his bathroom, all his uniforms in hand as he looked down to find four pair of shoes. Two nice black ones, a pair of black and green running shoes, and knee high riding boots. Looks like this school was really big on rich kid activities.

Was Nico a rich kid? Yes. His dad had money. A lot of it. He owned almost all the mines in California. Gold, oil, coal, you name it, and his dad had it.

When Nico walked back into his room, all dressed up, he found Persephone waiting for him. She held out a hand for the extra uniforms and folded them nicely, putting them into the trunk. "Your room's a mess, Nico. Breakfast is on the desk."

Nico shrugged, heading towards his bed to eat. The both of them continued their tasks in silence.

"There's some good news you might like to know." Persephone smiled mischievously at him.

"What?" Nico grunted, his mouth full. He was being shipped halfway across the country to some preppy rich kid's school. Seriously didn't think there was much good news.

"There's a neighboring girl's school near Westover. Apparently, all the co-ed activities are done with them. You guys share a field, the stables, and a lot of other activities. It's called Yancy Academy for Young Women. Hades told me that someone you might know goes there."

"Who?" Nico asked, immediately trying to think of anyone he might know that actually likes him.

"Your half-sister, Hazel. Her mother decided it'd be best for her." She smiled at her step-son's reaction.

His jaw widened in "Hazel! That's cool. I haven't seen her since last summer."

Persephone finished folding the last piece of clothing and stood up. The green silk dress she was wearing hugged her body. She told Nico he had twenty minutes and left.

Nico picked up the brochure from the desk where he'd put it on the floor. It listed all the activities the school had to offer, but one particular paragraph about the school itself caught Nico's attention.

Our school was founded on the remains of an old fortress built during the 1800s. Back then, it was a building for knights in shining armor. Today, our prized staff have the honor to take your boys and return them to you shining, brave as a knight, and disciplined as can be. Here at Westover Hall for Boys we pride ourselves in our future pupil's success.

Nico hated every word in that section. It was such a tedious paragraph. Very unlike him. Nico wasn't studious, he didn't care if what he did was right or wrong as long as he liked it and he didn't do shining. He did glooming.

"Nico! Come down to say good bye to your father!" the boy heard his step mom yell from downstairs.

He glared at the paper before throwing it to the ground, all of his anger towards his father returning. Without another thought, he grabbed his trunk and his school bag, rushing down the steps. He practically ran right by his father, ignoring him and placing his things into the car. Charon smiled at him.

He came back into the house and said a polite good bye to Persephone, cringing when she hugged him tightly. He turned around and was almost out the door before his father spoke up. "Where do you think you're going, young man?"

'Somewhere I don't have to see you every day.' Nico wanted to say so badly' but held back. "To cath a flight."

"Without saying goodbye to your father?" Hades asked, actually smiling at him. Nico, as much as he didn't want to smile at that moment, had to work to keep from it and put on a serious face.

"If you were my father, you would act like it. Say hello to Bianca's gravestone for me, I'm sure even her gravestone will be better than mine. Bye, father."

Before Hades di Angelo could say another word, his son was out the door and speeding away, anger and misery clouding his focus.

When he arrived at Westover Hall, his first thought was that this school suited him. It was dark and huge. Looming and grand. It looked like a medieval castle with towers and fog. He saw a cliff on the horizon, stormy water lapping against the rocks. On the other side was patches of green fields and a couple buildings. One stood out more prominently then the others, lit up and grand, the faint color maroon clearly visible. He guessed that was Yancy Academy.

As he stepped out onto the driveway, his luggage in hand, he was greeted by the sight of boys ages 14-18 walking around everywhere, greeting each other and walking into school. Nico was glad to see they were also dressed in their uniform, the polo and grey pants. It was quite chilly outside, so he quickly made his way inside, greeted by torches on stone walls and velvet red carpets. He walked to the front desk and waited behind a small group of older boys in line.

"How was your summer, Luke?" a boy of Asian descent said in a carefree voice, man hugging the attractive blonde guy in front of him.

Nico analyzed the older boys. The blonde was definitely the most attractive. He had blue eyes, a very nice jawline, and tousled dark blonde hair. But there was something in the way he stood and the way her looked that told Nico that he was bad news, no matter how attractive he was.

"Man, it sucked. Me and Thalia broke up."

"Thalia and I, Castellan. Being top of your year apparently doesn't mean much." The third guy in the group said. He had brown hair that stuck up in odd places and a crazy trouble maker look in his hazel eyes.

"Watch it, Chris, I can still tell Clarisse you hooked up with her bestie." The blonde spoke, the threat in his voice not completely teasing.

"Hey, just having a laugh. Why'd you two breakup anyway?"

Nico kind've zoomed out of the conversation, waiting for his turn at the desk. When the boys moved out of his way, Nico totally not sparing a glance at the way the blonde's nice ass moved, he turned his attention to the old lady talking to him.

"—your name?" the lady – Ms. Fait, according to her nametag – said impatiently.

"Nico di Angelo." The lady quickly looked through some papers and handed him a folder.

"Here you go, Mr. di Angelo, your schedule, a map of the school, your dorm key card, your locker number, and all the extracurricular activities our school has to offer. All rules are also included in the folder, no funny business will be tolerated here. Have a nice night, classes begin tomorrow at 9 AM; breakfast is at eight." The lady gave him a stern glance through her tiny reading glasses. Nico smiled rudely and took the folder.

"Thank you."

The lady gave him the evil eye as Nico walked away, holding the folder open in one hand. His dorm key card read Room 108, East Tower.

Nico looked at the map. Up three flights of stairs. Perfect.

When he finally reached the third floor of the school, he followed the signs directing him towards the east tower. At the very end of the hallway, a circular stone staircase led up, a plaque reading East Tower, hung above the stairway. Nico groaned before climbing up, wondering why he hadn't seen another student for a while, not even hearing the laugh of a couple boys joking around. He reached a circular platform at the top of the stairs. There was one door, the golden 108 glimmered from the torchlight.

Nico placed his card into the specific latch, glad when it opened. Nico walked in, looking around curiously. The room was spacy, big and wide. A bunk bed sat against the far wall, one trunk at the edge of the bed open wide, a splatter of color coming from inside it. Another trunk sat against the wall near the pillow on the bottom bunk, closed, a uniform neatly folded on top. On the opposite side of the room was a bed which Nico presumed was his, considering there was nothing on it or around it. There was a big window on the far wall that glittered with moonlight, and two desks against the wall under it. The third desk was pushed up against the wall at the foot of Nico's bed. There was a shelf on the wall above the top bunk and a bedside table next to Nico's bed. An open closet which looked empty sat beside the door, imbedded into the wall. The door Nico guessed led into the bathroom was slightly open. He dropped his bag and folder onto the freshly made bed and put down his trunk beside his desk. He sat on the bed, and sighed, his back hunching.

"Home, sweet, home."

The husky alien voice caught Nico so by surprise the boy almost fell off the bed. He looked up at his roommate. The first thing he saw, since his eyes trailed upwards from the floor, was that the boy was wearing jeans and he was shirtless. The second thing he saw was that the boy had a couple fading scars along his nicely muscled abdomen. He blushed.

"Oh, sorry, just changing into something warmer, it's pretty chilly in here, don't you think? I'm Percy."

Nico looked up to actually look at Percy. The boy had a sheepish smile and shaggy black hair that fell in his eyes as he rummaged through the open trunk at the foot of the bunk bed. He grabbed and pulled on a green sweater, smiling at him when he'd gotten his head through the hole. Percy had green eyes. Really, really pretty green eyes.

"Nico." He was able to choke out through his blush before the door was pushed open.

"Percy! Already stripping for the newbies, aren't you?" This tall, blonde blue eyed boy said as he entered, spilling a bag of toiletries on the bed; his hair was wet. He reminded Nico of the boy from downstairs but this blonde was lighter, neater, and had an air of a blonde superman about him. He wore grey sweats and a light blue tee.

Percy patted down his sweater and gave the blonde boy a look. "Oh, shut up, Jason."

"What, saving all the goods for Annabeth?" the blonde – Jason, Nico told himself – smirked at the blush on Percy's cheeks.

"that's none of your business." He said, sitting on the desk chair and spinning around once.

"Yeah, yeah. Hi there, Nico, I'm Jason. Sorry about him," Jason leaned down to stage whisper in Nico's ear, "he's a bit weird. Nobody likes him."

"Nico, don't listen to him. The first one isn't true, as for the second, I don't exactly have the best reputation." Percy laughed, a nice throaty chuckle that made Nico think he probably wouldn't survive a night in the same dorm as this kid, much less a year.

"Why don't people like you?" Nico asked, not able to satisfy his thirst for knowledge.

Jason sat on the bed and looked at Percy before speaking. "Percy is what people consider poor and stupid, here at Westover. I can be friends with him and get away with it; I'm just that cool."

The green eyed boy went into rant mode, pacing and gesturing, making faces at all the correct parts. "My mom works her ass to send me here, and what? So I'm still treated like an outcast. I was never good at school, but this is literally my last shot, I've been expelled from every single school I've gone to, but not this one. Doesn't help that I can't stand snobs and bullies, so other than Jason, all my friends are pretty disliked. "

"Oh." Nico frowned. He didn't feel like mentioning that his family was filthy rich, but he could say something else. "I've never had many friends either. Mostly on my own, my last school thought I was a creepy dork."

"Are you a creepy dork?" Jason asked honestly. Nico blushed, when Percy looked at him expectantly, awaiting an answer.

"Do I look like a creepy dork?"

At the same time that Jason said yes, Percy said no. Nico blushed again. "There you go."

"You are a niner right?" Percy asked, sitting on the floor next to Jason, who was on the bed.

Nico nodded. "What sports do you do?"

Percy sent a smirk Jason's way before opening his mouth to reply. "Jason's all about being the all-American teenage boy. Soccer, football, tennis, cross country – if it's a white boy sport, he's great at it." Jason punched Percy in the arm, but the boy continued. "I myself prefer less land, more water. Swim Captain this year, but barely. If I don't keep my marks up I'm a goner. Both Jason and I are pretty into fencing – which yes – the school offers. Weird, I know. You?"

At first Nico didn't realize Percy had asked him anything because he had been too busy watching Percy's jaw as he yawned the last word. Jason sent him an expectant look. He popped back into reality. "Oh . . . um, I don't really do sports. I like to play video games and read, mostly."

"What games do you play?" Jason asked him. Nico wondered whether he should say Mythomagic, but decided against it.

"Um, mostly zombie apocalypse stuff. Is there any tech in Westover?" He hoped the answer was yes.

"Well," Percy began, "depends if you're willing to break a couple rules. Are you?"

Nico thought about for a second. Anything to make his dad mad. "Why not?"

"That's the spirit. In a week, if you still want to play some videogames, ask again."

"Why not now?" he looked at both the older boys, confused.

"Three reasons," Jason said. "One, we don't know you all that well and it's too risky to show you our big secret yet. Two, we'd get caught for sure if we went anytime this week – the school's all over the place with the year just starting. Three, we're hungry, and if I'm right, the dining hall closes in 15 minutes. Come on, me and Perce will introduce you to some of our friends."

So Nico was dragged along with his new roommates to the dining hall. On the way down the circular staircase right under their room, he asked the two why there was only one room up there. They both shrugged but Percy tried to elaborate.

"Westover's weird. It was built ages ago, right? Well, almost none of it has been reconstructed. So, space and dorms are of all shapes and sizes. The East Tower? Well, that's one of the small towers. The heads of the school and all the professors stay in the North Tower. It's huge."

Both boys paused to smile as Nico almost tripped on the last stair before Percy continued with directing hand gestures.

"The southeast side of the school is dedicated to dorms. Real convenient, 'cause it means the profs' don't hear us from the North end. The southwest side is all classrooms – mostly core subjects – and the library – which is huge and scary and horrible to get lost in. The South Tower is where all of us came in; the gates. It also doubles as the Astronomy Tower – it's almost as tall as North. The school's auditorium/theatre thing is in the West Tower. Northwest is all the more creative classes like workshop, art, languages, etc. What we're walking around right now? That's the plaza. Outdoor activities? That's the place. It sides with the dining hall, a ballroom, and the kitchens."

"Makes it near impossible to steal some damn food, they're right next to the Heads tower." Jason added. Percy sent him a look for interrupting before once again, continuing to unfold the school to Nico.

"Northeast is basically all the good stuff. The pool, the gym, huge showers and baths area, and maintenance." Percy smiled largely before taking a huge breath. "My mouth is so dry now."

"How big is this school?" Nico ignored Percy, exasperated and amazed. Percy looked proud of his little speech.

Jason looked at him before looking ahead into what Nico realized was the dining hall. "Huge."

Jason was right, Nico decided. The school was huge. Nico trailed behind Percy and Jason as they lead him into the – room for a lack of a better word. His eyes trailed down from the expansive ceiling and to the wooden tables. Tables at the side of the expansive space held all types of dinner foods. The boys Nico saw earlier sat at one table, and boys ages 13-18 were spread all over the place mingling, laughing, and exchanging items, most eating.

"Problem is," he heard from in front of him. Jason was speaking. "You forget which way is North—"

Percy cut him off and finished his sentence. "—and you're not just lost. You're doomed."

Nico swallowed even though the boys faces showed hints of joking. Their voices were pretty serious.

After they lined up to get some food, and filled their plates to the brim with all you can eat in 10 minutes, Jason looked back at him and pointed to a table a couple of boys were already seated at.

"Time you meet our friends," he said.

Percy walked along in front of Nico and Jason. Something blue was poking out of Percy's jeans – a pen. It drew attention to his butt, which Nico forced himself to look away from. He had an extremely nice ass. Forcing himself to pay attention to Jason, who was apparently saying something, Nico got his mind out of the gutter.

"—a couple of other friends. There's the girls's school, Yancy, a km down the hills. They share their stables with us. We share our lake. The girls school is just as big as ours, but a lot of it is empty. They use our ballroom, our pool, and our aud. All events are basically conjoined."

Right, the school Hazel went to. Nico forced himself to say something. "That's cool."

They reached the table and Nico sat in between the two older boys. Percy looked over to him as he ate his first piece of chicken, looking around.

"The Hall isn't always like this. Weekends, holidays, first days back and exam week. That's when everyone can sit where they want. The rest of the week, or at least school days, you sit with your dorm at breakfast, during lunch you're free to eat outside or in the Hall with whomever, and at dinner you sit with your grade. It's pretty simple."

"Helps make friends." Jason stated, his mouth half full of salad. He began to introduce members at their table. "Nico, this is Leo," he gestured to a short Latino boy with crazy curls and elfish features. The boy was kinda cute but slightly weird. In his hands he held a broken apart yo-yo. Leo waved, his hand had black ink all over it, before returning to his food. Nico suspected the boy had broken a pen earlier.

"Frank," Jason pointed to a tall and chubby panda looking Chinese boy. He had black military cut hair and warm brown eyes. Cute too, but in a more teddy bear way. Frank lifted his hand to wave but accidentally knocked a glass of Canada Dry down. He blushed and rushed to wipe it off. The table burst into laughter.

"And that's Grover." A brown haired green eyed boy with freckles and crutches smiled at him. There was an enchilada in his hand and his shirt said Pan is Dead – Keep his Kingdom Alive. Nico had no idea what it was about, but to everyone else, it seemed normal.

"Last year Beckendorf bunked with us, but he graduated last year. He was cool. I think we'll all miss him." Percy said, smiling sadly before taking another bite of pizza.

Suddenly, a loud old school school bell rang loud and clear.

Nico looked up at the table, wondering what it meant.

"Warning bell," Leo said.

"30 minutes till curfew. The hall is closes in five. Come on, hurry up so we don't get in trouble." Frank said.

"But I still have another enchilada!" Grover hurried to stuff his first one into his mouth. One gulp and it was gone, Nico stared in wonder.

"We won't get in trouble," Jason said. "It's the first night back, no one gets in trouble. Maybe Percy, I bet he can do it though."

"You bet."

When Nico finally got to lie down on his bed to sleep, his alarm set for tomorrow 7:30 sharp, he wasn't so mad at his dad for sending him here afterall.