He walked into the building slowly, dragging his feet and dreading the day ahead of him. How he hated being here more than anything else, well not more than he hated himself, but that was without speaking. Once he reached his locker he threw his bag in and picked the few books he needed for class and then made his way to first. Once inside he sat in the back and promptly stared at the desk in front of him. Everything in his being said to leave and not come back, but he had already tried that before and it didn't end well. Then they came in.

Probably the weirdest group of friends he had ever seen in the school. Normally everyone belonged to the little stereotype, nerds, jocks, cheerleaders, and so on. These kids, they were all different and Nico thought they were all crazy, but what did he know. The most prominent of that group had to be Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. Percy was captain of the swim team, gave swim lessons to young kids, and was generally the nicest person on the planet. Annabeth was his girlfriend of a few years. She was president of the student council, most academically achieved person in the school, ran the drama production, debate team, and was a cheerleader.

Those two had to be the best people the school has ever seen. That's not where it ended though. Jason Grace, quarterback and captain of the football team, ran track, VP of student council, and perhaps one of the most outspoken people ever. His girlfriend Piper was head cheerleader, lead in every school play, and helped with the guidance counselors when it came to discrimination considering she was native American. Leo Valdez, ran a workshop of his own and helped start up the robotics and engineering clubs at the school a year ago, and was the most spastic person ever. Then there was Hazel, his half-sister, which he never talked to, she was not as achieved as the others but was a cheerleader and helped Piper with the equality whenever she could.

He himself simply dealt with all her success and then there was her friend that she was crushing on but could never work up the nerve to ask out, Frank Zhang. He was huge, was the best wrestler in the state, and refused to play any other sport. He seemed huge and intimidating but from what he had seen he was a big softy on the inside. Then came the people Nico knew very little about, first was Reyna. All he knew was she was from Puerto Rico, was a mean basketball and softball player, and rooted out any type of bullying she could find. Last was Will Solace. All Nico knew was he was tall, blonde, had blue eyes, and was from Texas.

Not knowing things pissed Nico off to know end, but he refused to ask anyone anything about him. They all came from across the board and basically ruled the school, which made it a hell of a nice place to be. Well, considering they were in the outskirts of New York it was a blessing to have such a nice place. However, Nico hated just as much as he hated his home life but he hated just about everything. Nico looked at the clock and he had another five minutes to go and so he put his head down and waited for the bell to ring so he could pay attention. Not that he needed to, he had learned all this information years ago, perks of having a photographic memory.

But, his mother wanted him to have an actual high school experience so he had to stay here and barrel through it all. Most teachers knew about him and let him do mostly whatever he wanted, if he didn't disrupt class. He liked that at least, or until he got called down to the guidance's office and had to have sit down with some professional. Usually they just tested his memory and asked basic questions and he could leave. Hazel had tried to help him with the group her and Piper ran but Nico shot them down every time. He generally kept to himself but every now and then someone would mess with him. Usually it left him with bruises but he just worked through it.

He never called Reyna or anyone to help because he didn't want their help. He was more than capable of taking care of himself. The bell rang and Nico brought his head up for the morning announcement and attendance. Nothing new was in them, just the next swim meet or basketball game. His teacher, Mr. Brunner, talked softly beginning the lecture. Nico liked him as he didn't treat Nico differently like the other teachers did. He would ask him a question now and then to make sure he knew what was happening. Not that it made a difference, and he had him for only this class. Once out of here, he would be looked at like he was a freak of nature.

He looked around the room bored and noticed two sleeping and another barely awake, which he could understand. Mr. Brunner, or Chiron he insisted being called, wasn't the most energetic but he was the only one who would mix up things with a reenactment, or some other engaging activity that lifted his spirits. He continued to scan the room and saw something odd, he would catch either Percy, Will, or Annabeth look at him quickly. He just shoved that aside as he was staring at them which probably made them uncomfortable.

So, he just turned his attention to the outside and he could see a few flakes falling in the dim light of the morning. They hadn't gotten and actual snow storm yet but if the flakes were anything to indicate, one was close. He liked the cold and snow, something pure and innocent, but is very dangerous if you aren't careful. He always thought he could be like that one day and then maybe they would stop picking on him but that was just a fantasy. Before Nico knew it, the bell had rung and he was one of the first out the door.

He liked that his locker was so close to his first period, so he didn't have to worry about being late. He noticed Percy and Annabeth came out last and Annabeth gave him a side glance before walking down the hall with Percy. Nico found it odd but pushed it away, because he had to hurry. This was the time of day that his tormentors would come around and begin the routine. Usually it was either Ethan Nakamura, or Octavian who messed with him but that wasn't always the case. There was and few others who joined in every now and then but those two seemed to enjoy it more than others.

Just as Nico thought he would miss it, his locker was slammed closed and he was cornered by Octavian and Ethan. Today would suck.

"How are you today, fag?" Octavian asked.

"Piss off." Nico said.

"Let me think about that. No." Octavian mocked.

Before Nico could respond the breath was knocked out of him but a punch to the gut by Ethan. Nico fell to the ground and coughed trying to get some air back.

"Not so snarky, now are we?" Ethan said.

He followed with a quick kick and Nico was now on his side and in a lot of pain. They just kept kicking him over and over, and eventually Nico saw he coughed up a bit of blood. The bell rang and they left then, not wanting to be late to class. Nico just decided to lay there and wait until he felt good enough to walk before trying to get to class. That plan was shot to hell when someone walked down the hallway and saw him.

"Nico?!" they yelled.

His vision was blurry and he supposed he was going to blackout soon. The person was talking to him but he couldn't hear them let alone make a coherent sentence. He felt himself being picked up and then he saw a black screen. He eventually came to and felt as if he had been hit by a car. His stomach ached and his head was pounding. He was lying down, that much he could tell. He slowly sat up and could tell he was still at school which meant not much time had passed. He swung his legs over and he was about ready to leave when someone walked in.

"Whoa, you're awake!" they said.

"No shit Sherlock." He snapped.

"Well sorry for helping you."

Nico looked up and it was none other than Will Solace himself. He had on a stupid grin and stood completely relaxed. Nico's stomach did a flip and he cursed himself for getting this way. He wouldn't form any attachments to anyone, ever again.

"Well, whatever I'm leaving." Nico hopped down.

"Oh, no you're not! You got beat up pretty bad." Will grabbed his arm.

Nico hissed and yanked it away and gave him a hard glare. Nico didn't say anything, he simply grabbed his bag and ran out before Will could stop him. He didn't want to talk to him, or anyone for that matter. He had dealt with this before without help and he could do it again. He managed to find a little hiding place for himself in the bleachers in the gym and he was lucky for it. For only a few seconds later Will ran in and looked around. Jason walked out of the locker room and Will called out to him.

"Hey, Jase did you see Nico run in here?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"Well he passed out and it turns out someone beat him up. When he woke up he simply stormed out before I could catch him."

"Can't say I've seen him but I'll keep an eye out. You know we have to be careful, he hasn't shown any signs yet so we can't expose anything."

What were they talking about?

"I know, it's just hard to sit by and watch this happen."

"I never said you have sit by, just don't give anything away."

Will nodded and they both left the gym, and most likely they would both be looking for him now. But, Nico was lost, what could they not reveal to him and what signs had he not shown? No one ever watched him as far as he knew, and he tried to avoid people. He'd figure it out later as he had Calculus to get to. The clock showed almost the end of second so he was out for maybe half an hour, maybe a little more. He just hoped that was all they were going to try today.

If they were in a bad mood, he would receive a double dosage or sometimes even a triple. Usually it was only once a couple days or so that they would be bored enough to do anything. Nico moved back to his locker quietly, and grabbed his books as the bell rang. He quickly rushed to the class, sat in the back, and slumped down in his seat. Luckily Will nor Jason were in this class and he doubted the had told anyone of their friends yet. The only one of the group in this class was Annabeth, and he knew for a fact that she came from the other side of the building before this class.

The second bell rang and he saw Annabeth walk in, calm collected and sit right next to him. He couldn't have felt more awkward at that moment. She always sat in the front and by some of her cheerleading friends. Not once had she done anything like this before. His mind was put at ease when the teacher walked in and the class' attention switched to the front. He tried to not notice her sitting there and she didn't say anything or hint at his existence. She made it seem as if she had always done this and nothing was wrong. When the bell rang, she was the first one out, and didn't even say a word to him, but she didn't need to.

Nico sighed to himself and made his was to his next class which was history. Probably his least favorite subject. He had and photographic memory and the entire class was simply memorization. Most of the time he slept, unless there was quiz or test which he always got and perfect score on. However, in this class he had Jason, Percy, and Leo which meant class was going to be either entertaining or extremely annoying. When he sat down, he sat in the back as usual, and waited. The trio walked in and made people start to whisper to each other. As Annabeth sat next to him, these three sat around him, almost as if he needed protecting.

He huffed, and ignored everyone and put his head down just wanting it to be lunch already. This day was beginning to shape up to be one of the worst in a long time. He brought his head to rest on his arms and opened the one notebook he had. He never wrote anything down as he could never forget it, but this notebook was covered in his art. Well he called them doodles and it was always of things he dreamed of. Either it was a three-headed dog, or a half man half goat. He didn't know where he had the memories to dream them but what did he know about dreams. They were something no one would likely ever understand. He liked the doodles though, it showed that somewhere his mind still got to enjoy something.

He looked at the latest of his drawings. It was of him wearing some fighting robes, with a black sword standing at the edge of a cliff. He thought the clothing was fitting and the sword seemed cool, but he had no idea where it came from. He saw Percy glance at his notebook and tense slightly but then relaxed just as quickly. Nico thought it strange, but then he would have to say everything about life is strange and he didn't want that kind of headache. The teacher droned on and on about some point in history that Nico had probably learned years ago, and didn't care to learn again.

He saw many either asleep or texting under their desks, and unfortunately this teacher never paid any attention to the class while lecturing. Well unless it was something he did, as with some of the teachers here no matter what he did or how small of an error he was there was always a scolding. Now, if it was not paying attention in class he would usually shut the teacher up on the next test and never get bothered again. But, if it was him accidentally dropping something or doing something too loudly, like tap his pencil, he would get yelled at. He always thought that most of the teachers had a huge stick up their ass.

Nico really didn't care all that much, he was only here because his mother wanted him to be here. He always listened to her, and too his sister, and that is where he stopped that train of thought. He sat there making simple lines of the page waiting for the bell and then he could escape to lunch and have some peace for once. Much to his liking, the bell did ring and he was out of the class as fast as he could. He shoved his books away in his locker, grabbed his lunch, and made his way to the lunch room. He always sat at the same table, in the back, by himself. It was very peaceful and he enjoyed the quiet, from the craziness of the halls and classrooms.

"Hey, are you alright?" someone asked.

There went his peaceful lunch.

"What's it to you?" he turned.

Will stood before him, "Well you kind of ran off and I couldn't find you."

"I'm fine now go away." The butterflies in Nico's stomach began to work in overdrive.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, now go." Nico growled.

Will looked disappointed, but left and went over to join his friends. Nico didn't need someone to worry about him every single moment of the day. Nico could see Will talk to them and then several of them look over at him. He glared back and they simply avoided eye contact. Nico didn't get what had Will so worked up but it didn't matter. He could care less about Will and his problems, as no one cared about his. He simply ate in silence and enjoyed what little time he had to himself. He watched others talk animatedly with each other, some laughed, others simply just listened. Nico took it all in, but he always avoided one table.

Octavian's table included all of those who enjoyed to mess with him, tease him, and beat him up. Octavian was the ring leader and all those around him were like sheep to a shepherd. Nico hated all of them the most out of everyone in the entire school. Most people would say that hatred isn't a good thing to have in large quantities, but at this point in his life he didn't care. Nico went back to his meal and sat there quietly, until he was scared to end when someone slammed a hand down on the table.

Before him stood Hazel, who looked extremely concerned, and Reyna who looked extremely mad, which was normal.

"What?" he demanded.

"Nico, Will told us he found you earlier today all hurt and on the floor." Hazel said.

"That was just a fluke and it should never have happened, and you have nothing to worry about." He said evenly.

"I doubt that very much di Angelo. Now most likely it was a result of bullying and because I don't tolerate that kind of thing at this school I need to know now." Reyna said.

"Oh, you care so much don't you," Nico said sarcastically, "It must pain you to have to stoop so low to fix stuff like this. So why don't you take your arrogant ass and leave me the hell alone."

"Nico!" Hazel yelled.

Reyna held up a hand, "No, no, if he doesn't want help then I can't force it upon him. However, if this happens again I will help, no matter what you say."

"Just leave." He said.

Reyna left quickly but Hazel looked back sadly and Nico avoided her gaze and went back to his meal. When Nico looked up he saw not only Will look at him, but he saw Octavian glaring daggers at him. Nico then knew he would be getting another meeting with him before the day was out. Nico sighed and hoped that it would be right after lunch so he could just get it over with and get on with the day.

When lunch ended, Nico walked slowly back to his locker, not wanting to face the rest of the day. As he had hoped Octavian was waiting at his locker, and he even let Nico get his things when he saw he wasn't planning on running.

"Nico, Nico, Nico. You seem to be getting some unusual attention, should I be worried?"

"No, I told them to fuck off. Now can we please get this over with so I can get on with my day." Nico said.

"Well if you insist."

Octavian punched him square across the jaw then followed up with another to the stomach and Nico was on his knees. Octavian shoved him down with his foot and smiled down at him. Bringing his foot back, Nico readied for another round of kicks that might do some real damage for once.

"Repellendum!" someone yelled.

Octavian went flying into the nearby wall and looked up angrier than ever at whoever interfered with his fun. However, his face quickly changed to fear and he ran. Nico looked over to see Will and Reyna looking down at him. He had no idea how they got Octavian off him so easily, but he supposed it was because Reyna was terrifying and Will was much bigger than he was.

"I told you next time this happened I would help you whether you liked it or not." Reyna said.

Nico got to his hands and knees and grabbed his books. He used the wall to slowly stand up, and he made sure that neither of them touched him. He stared at both hoping they would just go away, but Nico had no such luck. Will looked extremely concerned and Nico then thought of a way to get out of this situation.

"If I go to the nurse's office, will you then leave me alone?" he asked.

"If you insist." Reyna said.

Will looked like he wanted to protest, but Reyna gave him a look and he slumped. Nico, for some odd reason felt bad for him. He had no idea why, he had never felt bad for anyone in his entire life, let alone Will Solace. He knew next to nothing about the guy and here he was, wanting to apologize and seeing what he could do to make him happy and cheerful again. Nico hated that, he had always denied that part of his life, and himself.

He trudged behind Will and Will seemed to have a bounce in his step. It annoyed Nico that he was always so cheerful and full of energy. There was no possible way for someone to always have that energy and enthusiasm. They both entered the office and Will sat Nico down on one of the couches and quickly went around and grabbed various items from the place.

"How do you know where everything is?" Nico asked.

"Oh, I help out here every now and then." Will responded.

"That's not weird at all." Nico said sarcastically.

"Ha, I suppose it is."

Nico grumbled but sat there and waited. Once Will seemed to be satisfied with what he had he walked over and kneeled in front of him. Nico simply let him work, no matter how much he hated being touched. He managed to keep his temper down for a few minutes before Will decided to try and lift his shirt up.

"No!" Nico yelled.

He yanked his shirt down and held it there and Will looked surprised there for a second but then calmed and smiled again.

"Nico, I need you to lift it if I'm going to help." He said.

"I never agreed to you doing that. I don't want anyone touching me, but I dealt with it. Trying to get my shirt off is crossing the line and I'm done."

Nico stood grabbed his books and stormed out. Will was saying something behind him, but he didn't care. All he wanted to do is to go hide and not face anyone for the rest of the day, which wasn't long. He shoved opened the doors and went out to the trees in the lawn. He found one reasonably far away and sat under it and just fumed.

He wouldn't allow himself to cry as he wasn't that weak, and he shouldn't be crying over something so trivial. He sat there and looked up at the sky and simply let time roll past him. He didn't want to go home as there was nothing for him, and he didn't want to go back in and face all those people in there. He looked over the books he had and realized he had left his coat inside his locker, and it was freezing outside. He grumbled and simply crossed his arms close and dealt with the cold. It was not as if anyone would ever notice him or even care about him.

"Nico!" someone yelled.

He froze and waited, thinking someone was going to talk to him. He didn't hear anyone running up to him so he relaxed and closed his eyes.

"What are you doing out here?"

He jumped surprised by whoever was here and cursed himself for letting himself being caught.

"Why do you care?" he noticed it was Hazel.

"Because Nico you just can't do this to yourself."

"Yes, I can. You can go tell on me to your friends but that won't change anything. I don't care if they want to help or not I am more than capable of taking care of myself!" he yelled.

Hazel looked shocked and sad by the way Nico had spoken and he did admit it was much harsher than it needed to be, but if that was what it took for them to leave him alone then it was worth it. She quickly turned and left without saying another word, and Nico sank further into the cold ground. His hands were beginning to lose some feeling but he didn't care. He felt a single tear somehow make it down his face and that made him stand up and go back into the building.

He didn't even try and attend class, for at this point he didn't care, and it was not like anyone would notice he was gone. Some teachers may even be relieved that he wasn't there. He simply got his jacket and bag from his locker, slammed it shut, and began the long walk home. Most likely his father wasn't there and that was a plus for him. The less he had to deal with for the rest of the day the better.

So this is an idea I've had bouncing around my head for a good while now, and I decided to give it a beta test. So let me know what you think, and if there should be any fixes or changes made or if you have ideas let me know. Or you can just simply enjoy the story, whatever you want. Enjoy and review. -starwarswiz