Nico threw open the door to his cabin in an angry huff.
All he had wanted to do was practice in the arena, maybe spar with some of the older campers. But no!
Chiron himself had to come down from the big house to remind the young son of Hades that until he recovered completely from the war with the giants, he was not allowed to engage in any stressful activity.
The second the centaur had left, half of the campers immediately burst out laughing while the other half threw him sympathetic looks.
Nico honestly didn't know which was worse. Before the second Titan war, he had been avoided like the plague, and even though it had hurt a little, he would take that over being babied and teased any day.
He kicked a stack of rubies and sent them scattering across the obsidian floor, where they caught the light of the Greek fire and spread red lights over the walls. His frustration began to boil over and he grabbed the closest projectile he could find, his skull ring.
The loud crash made when it collided with the floor made the boy feel a little better. He reached down for the ring when another noise startled him, causing Nico to jump back.
A medium sized green frog hopped out from behind a chair, emitting a loud croak. Nico looked at the frog curiously. It stared back, and then a long pink tongue snatched up the ring and popped it into the frog's mouth.
"Hey!" Nico shouted, jumping up from the floor, "Give it back!"
He lunged for the creature, who hopped out of the way a second before the now furious boy slammed into the wall.
"Ow! Get back here!" The chase lasted for a good half hour, and it consisted mainly of the frog moving in the nick of time and poor Nico ramming into some type of painful object.
With a final grunt, Nico attempted to climb up to the niche at the top of the left wall where the frog was hiding, but he lost his footing and crashed down onto the floor. The frog calmly hopped down and sat opposite to the groaning teen.
"Fine! You win," Nico wheezed, "But I need that back."
The frog blinked and gave another croak, its eyes focused on Nico's. Nico stared back. Another hour went by without either moving or breaking eye contact.
"Ha! You blinked!" Nico jumped up and did a little happy dance for winning the staring contest, and then he paused.
"You know, this is probably one of the weirdest things I've ever done. But it's not like I have anything better to do." The frog blinked, and it seemed to say, "Go on."
Nico shook his head bitterly, "I don't know why people don't like me. I mean, sure I'm creepy and all, but really. You should at least give a guy a chance instead of saying, 'that guy is scary. Let's shun him.' But sadly, do people ever?"
He laid down on his bunk, and the frog leaped up onto the chair facing him. "I guess it all started way back when it was me, Bianca and my mom…"
Nico continued, telling his life story to the frog. A few times during his tale, it would twist its head or blink, asking, "And how do you feel about that?"
When Percy came in to check on his younger cousin who had been missing for hours, he was shocked by what he saw.
Piles of precious metals were strewn all over the place, and there were several dents and cracks in the furniture, walls and ceiling. The place looked like it had been ransacked by a hellhound. He quickly drew Riptide, and caught his breath at the next sight.
Nico was lying on his bed, making animated gestures and talking to a frog as if they were having a therapy session. Percy blanched and slowly backed out of the room, but he still heard the end of his cousin's sentence.
"… and then she stole my French fries! Why would she do that?" The frog gave a small sound of agreement and the boy went on.
"It really hurt, in here," He pointed to his heart, "but I learned a valuable lesson that day. Never fall for someone with an even greater love of McDonalds than you do."