A Bed of Roses
This is an AU. I can do whatever I want with the characters. In this, Thalia is lesbian instead of joining the Hunters. All are mortal. Severe OOCness on basically everyone's part.
Sorry for any mistakes in this – I'm British, so the grades and other things may be wrong.
As far as I'm aware, Vance Middle & High School, Maine does not truly exist.
Occasional tense change is intended.
Starts late 2014.
Synopsis – Madness is like gravity: it's always been there, but it takes a genius to notice it.
"I'm not insane," he says - but sanity is subjective. Who's to say he isn't?
Genius & schizophrenic Percy, genius & bipolar Nico, misunderstood Annabeth, confused Jason and many more. Murder, abuse, neglect, bullying.
The Man in the Mirror
Prologue
There were many words used to describe Percy Jackson. By his teachers, he was referred to as a young genius, a boy with great potential if only he say more than two words. His peers would describe him as freakish; an outcast. They had never appreciated him. "He only has two friends," they would say. "And they're freaks too. Makes sense, I suppose; those that don't fit go together." His friends wouldn't say anything. One would shrug, "It's not my business," he would say. "Percy is who Percy is." The other didn't think you were worth his time.
Percy never described himself as anything. He just looked. He didn't say anything; he stared. He stared with big green eyes framed by thick lashes, his jet-black hair falling into his face. His emaciated arms would be shoved into the pockets of his jeans that were both too small and too big for his long slender legs.
His dad ... Dad. The phrase in itself would cause sick laughter to bubble up inside Percy's throat and threaten to escape his constantly metallic-tasting mouth.
Dad...
What was a Dad? A father was the person sired you; the person who shared half of your genetics. But a dad?
Dad...
A Dad was someone you ran up to after you'd painted a picture when you were five years old.
"Daddy, Daddy, look at what I drew!"
Someone who paid attention...
"Not now, Percy, Daddy's busy."
Someone who stuck your picture on the fridge, no matter how atrocious it was...
"But Daddy, I drew a picture ..."
Someone who was always supportive of you...
"It's you, me and Mummy. See?"
Someone who didn't crush all your hopes and dreams as soon as you voiced them.
"Why put Mummy in the picture?"
"Mummy's still part of the family."
Someone who encouraged your naivety until the last moment, not crush it as soon as possible.
"No, Percy. Mummy's gone. She's never coming back and it's all your fault."
"But Daddy ... My picture ..."
A Dad was someone who cared.
They sat in front of the gas fireplace that night, watching television.
His father threw a piece of paper in the fire.
It was Percy's picture.
Percy watched his stick-figure drawing of his family burn. He watched the edges blacken and curl, and, though he didn't realise it, that was all his family was: the charred remains of childish naivety.
Percy didn't have a dad.
That night, Percy cried himself to sleep. And, for the first time, he didn't run to his dad about his nightmares.
It wasn't like he cared anyway.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
Percy Jackson grinned. It wasn't a normal grin for a twelve-year-old. It was an empty grin; a psychotic grin. It lit up his bottomless eyes with a sickly light and infused the premature lines of his face with a dark radiance.
Why was Percy Jackson grinning?
He had what he yearned for.
Burning. Fire. Destruction of the highest order. That was all Percy Jackson craved at that moment.
Burning of what? Destruction of what?
Memories. That was what Percy Jackson wanted to destroy.
Memories of Poseidon, of his mother, of her. Memories didn't do anything; all they did was hinder his ability to move forward.
He hadn't had the balls to do this before now. He'd photographed every good memory he could and kept them in a diary. God knew good times were hard to come by in his life.
There were his baby pictures, with him and his mother - he had long ago cut his father out of them. His image didn't deserve to taint them - and others, from later on. There was him and her at Disneyland. Her grinning at the camera, hair flying in her face. Her sitting next to him at his father's wedding to his step-mother Amphitrite. So many of her.
There were very few others.
Percy's grin faded as he held another. It contained about the only good memory he had of his father; the only one he hadn't considered tainted as time went on.
What many of Percy's classmates weren't aware of was the fact that Percy was heir to the Olympia family business - a billionaire family that made all manner of products: cigarettes to medical drugs; luxury cruise ships to first-class airlines; top-of-the-line sports gear to some of the most iconic fashion and music items.
What they weren't aware of was the Dark side of the Olympia family.
That being, the incessant and continuous substance abuse of nearly all of them, and their overlarge egos too big to admit it.
Percy's father was no exception; Percy didn't think he had ever seen his father when he wasn't drunk, or high.
This particular memory took place about five years ago, just before Percy turned eight. He didn't remember it well, but he remembered spending about a month on one of his family's luxury cruise ships that were loaded with drugs and hookers with big tits.
For many, the idea of an eight-year-old being surrounded by prostitutes, drugs and alcohol probably didn't seem like such a happy memory, but Percy remembered it more as the time his father had actually cared about him, and paid attention to him.
The contemplative light faded from his eyes as so many other lights did as he threw the picture on the fire. Memories were memories, good or bad. With them, he couldn't move forward.
At least, that was what he told himself, as he watched the only memorabilia he had of the time his father cared blacken and burn.
No, he told himself. Don't think like that. He burned them first, not you.
It didn't make it any easier.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
As much as he tried, there was one picture he couldn't bring himself to burn.
He didn't know why; it wasn't like he could remember when it was taken. It wasn't like he had any fond memories attached to it. It should have been dumped on the fire with apathy just like all the other pictures.
But it wasn't.
He held it over the fire for a few moments. The flames slowly caught on the end and started to char.
Drop it, he thought, Drop it in the fire.
His hand wouldn't obey. Instead, it dropped in on the floor and he stamped out the flames. He picked it back up and stared at it for a few moments, cocking his head to the side. Then he shook his head, and slipped it into his pocket,
He kept the treasonous picture in a locked case under a loose floorboard beneath his bed. He was determined to never take it out. He wouldn't look at it. He wouldn't think about it. It would remain there until it was dug up by archaeologists thousands of years from now.
But he couldn't stop thinking about it.
That made him angry. There was so much he just couldn't do. He couldn't throw the picture away, he couldn't forget about it, he couldn't not feel an attachment to it and there was no reason for that.
Maybe it isn't so bad, said a voice in his head. Maybe you need that.
Percy shook his head. He didn't need anyone but himself, and that's the way it would stay.
Chapter One
Jason Grace didn't believe in an afterlife.
Very few people knew this; they generally assumed he carried the same fanatically religious views that his parents did, and he could never be bothered to disprove them. They just weren't worth his time. If they'd had any semblance of intelligence whatsoever, they would've realised that Jason didn't even live with his parents; he was fostered by the Chase family after his parents were sent to prison for murdering their eighteen-year-old daughter (Jason's sister) because she was gay. Jason was only eleven, and he'd been devastated.
It was four years on from then, and (after extensive therapy) he'd finally come to terms with it and accepted his new family.
That didn't mean he liked them though. Far from it, in fact.
Annabeth was the eldest; eleven months older than he was. She was also the biggest bitch Jason knew.
She was a pretty typical prep: intelligent, rich parents, great fashion sense, no shortage of self-confidence and numerous suitors. That is to say: half-decent marks in all but maths, spoilt rotten, wore next to no clothes, was arrogant as fuck and had slept with the entirety of the football at both of her previous schools.
Bobby and Matthew, the twins, were alright. Spoilt rotten, obviously, and incredibly annoying, but alright compared to the rest of the family.
Fredrick Chase was ... unusual, and not in a good way. As arrogant as his daughter, he didn't like to spend time with any of the family (Jason decided to be thankful for that). Whenever he decided to grace them with his presence, he spent it giving unnecessary and unwanted advice on issues that were, quite frankly, none of his business and consequently tearing down everyone's self-esteem.
Helen was ... Helen. Jealous, petty, living off of her rich-ass husband, whose only self-esteem came from looking after her children and lashed out at anyone who challenged her way of life.
Jason grimaced to himself and stabbed his piece of steak with his fork. 'Steak Helen? Again? Can you cook anything else?' he thought. He had hoped that, after they had moved from California to Maine, Helen would try the 'new start' thing she'd been going on about for ages.
Oh, fuck you people, thought Jason, throwing down his napkin. "I'm going upstairs," he called, already half-way up.
"Whatever," replied Annabeth.
"Have fun," called Helen.
"You should have asked to be excused!" hollered Fredrick.
The twins were too busy building a tent out of cutlery, salt and pepper shakers and a napkin to notice, and they wouldn't have cared anyway.
Jason gave a snort as he closed the door to his room. This was his life. What joy.
Chapter Two
Nico di Angelo, quite simply, did not care.
Never had, and probably never would. He had stopped caring around age ten, when his sister had died in a plane crash.
Actually, that was a lie. That was when there was truly nothing he cared about left. He hadn't cared about the majority of things since a long time before that.
His family was about as messed up as it got: His uncle and father were both hard-core drug addicts who were violent and neglectful, too caught up in hookers and booze and getting high to focus on their children. His other uncle was marginally better, in a way. Violent and abusive, like the other two, but, rather than cocaine and meth, he used religion and xenophobia. Nico had a half-sister called Hazel, from one of the many times his father had cheated on his mother, but he rarely saw her. His cousin, Percy, had some half-siblings, too: Triton, who had committed suicide at age sixteen, and Tyson, who had severe autism and borderline mental retardation. His uncle Zeus was the only one to stay loyal to his partner, but, upon finding out that their fifteen-year-old daughter was gay, they had killed her in cold blood. The family had paid huge amounts to newspapers and T.V stations all over the world to keep that titbit of information away from the public.
"Mom," he said as he walked in the kitchen, "I'm going to Percy's."
He didn't need to shout, or ask if it was okay. She wouldn't hear properly either way.
She turned to him with half-open, vacant eyes – eyes so similar to his - and nodded.
Not too high yet, I see. He snorted internally. She'll be completely stoned by the time I get back.
Nico and his family had lived in Maine for as long as family history dated back; Zeus and Beryl had made history by moving to Mississippi, reportedly because they didn't want to live in "such a faithless state."
The Olympia family was divided into several branches: Grace, Jackson, Gardner, la Rue, Harvey, Solace, Hunter, Valdez, McLean, Stoll and Trevett. Nico was a part of the di Angelo branch of the family, and his cousin, Percy, a part of the Jackson branch. They weren't technically cousins, more like third- or fourth-cousins, but they were probably closer than most siblings, so cousin was a fair term to use.
The di Angelo mansion was only a few miles away from the Jackson mansion in rural Maine, and took about ten minutes at a jog through the forest. Nico decided to take the long route, though; the one by the river.
The path way rocky and uneven, and the river and surrounding areas home to numerous wildlife. Nico saw ducks, swans, geese, frogs, swallows, foxes, squirrels, and even the occasional badger on a regular basis.
'How many people actually notice the life around them?' he wondered. 'How many people think of the impact they may have?'
Everyone had impact, however miniscule, and sometimes it was only this thought that kept Nico going through the day. The idea of what he could do, who he could help, the change he could make in this world. It made him wonder how people could throw away opportunities like that; the opportunity to really do something. How people could destroy the perfectly healthy body that they'd been given, be it through self-inflicted injury or drugs.
How people like his family continued to function.
Gripped with a sudden, burning anger, Nico grabbed a pebble nearby and threw it at a nearby family of ducks. They squawked and left.
Nico threw several other objects at random things to release his emotions. The woods were his escape; the one place no-one noticed what he did and no-one cared; the one place he could be himself without judgement.
He pulled his arm back to throw a heavy stone at a rabbit hole across the river when something caught his wrist.
He wrenched his arm out of their grasp and turned, a temporary sense of insanity gripping him, before being met with the apathetic yet warm green eyes of his cousin, Percy.
He raised an eyebrow questioningly at him, opening the hand that wasn't holding his wrist to reveal a smaller stone; one that wouldn't cause as much damage.
"Thanks, mate," Nico muttered, taking it. "You're probably right."
He didn't want to accidently kill a rabbit, after all.
Percy nodded and stuck his hands in his pockets.
"So how are you?" asked Nico, unnecessarily. They both knew that neither of them would be here if they were feeling good. Or anything above average, really. Then again, 'average' for them was far worse than that for most people.
Percy shrugged a shoulder and rocked back and forth on his heels.
Nico nodded. His cousin had barely spoken a word in two years; in that time, Nico had become adept at reading his body language. He was never good at it around anyone else, though; Percy closed off even more around strangers, or even anyone that his wasn't 100% comfortable with.
Despite the one-sided nature of their conversations, Nico enjoyed spending time with his cousin. He never felt the need to fill silence with chatter, he always listened, and he gave the best hugs Nico had ever had – it wasn't really saying much, though; Nico didn't get that many hugs.
Percy grabbed his hand again, and adjusted his position to throw better.
"Thanks," said Nico again. It always went like this: Percy correcting something Nico was doing, and Nico thanking him.
He never got sick of it. It just proved that someone cared enough about him to correct his mistakes.
"School tomorrow," said Nico. "Looking forward to it?"
Percy shook his head.
"Didn't think you would," said Nico. "Still taking those online courses?"
Percy nodded affirmative. He was, for all intents and purposes, a child genius; he'd been offered to skip several grades in one of the best schools in the country, took most of his exams several years early and was currently attending to get education on the ones he hadn't already taken the exams for (for example, he was taking Spanish, Latin and Russian instead of Chinese, French and German). Bored with the 'lack of a challenge' (quote-unquote) he was taking online courses for an MBA at Chicago University's Booth School of Business and worked on the colonization of Mars project at NASA in his spare time.
Nico often had to quash feelings of jealousy when reminded of this; it wasn't as though he had gotten a raw deal in the brains department either; he was in the same year as Percy, having skipped two, and was almost guaranteed a job as soon as he graduated university.
"Apparently Jason's coming back," he said.
Percy nodded pointedly, in an 'I've heard' way.
'Of course you have', Nico thought. There was very little Percy hadn't heard of.
"He's got a new family," Nico continued.
"The Chases," Percy said. His voice was hoarse from lack of use.
Nico nodded. "So I've heard. 'Parently the dad is some big-shot university lecturer on history."
Percy cocked his head. "I'd like to study history."
"You'd like to study everything," observed Nico.
Percy smiled, and nodded.
He wouldn't say anything more, Nico knew. He had moments when he would continue a conversation, mostly a few sentences, then it would be back to the old Percy again.
They sat for a while until it got cold. Nico pulled his jacket tighter around him, looking at Percy. He wasn't wearing anything but an old Led Zeppelin t-shirt and jeans.
"We should go," he said.
Percy nodded and got up.
Nico checked his watch. 3:05, it read.
"How stoned do you reckon our folks'll be by now?" he asked.
Percy looked over Nico's shoulder at his watch.
He caught Nico's eye and pointed upwards.
"Sky-high?" Nico guessed.
Percy shook his head, pointing upwards again.
"Top-layer-of-the-atmosphere-high?"
Percy folded his arms.
Nico rolled his eyes and sighed. "Exosphere-high?"
Percy smiled and nodded.
"Mine or yours?" asked Nico. They always did this; every Sunday they would stay over at the other's house.
Percy cocked his head for a moment, and pointed at himself.
Nico nodded. "Cool."
Percy turned on his heels and started walking towards his house.
"Wait up, man!" Nico called. "We can't all run as fast as Usain Bolt, you know!"
Percy rolled his eyes and beckoned for Nico hurry up.
Nico di Angelo would never say he loved his life, but he definitely loved his cousin.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
The Jackson mansion was bigger than the di Angelo mansion, marginally. It was built in an English country house style, and bore remarkable resemblance to Longleat, in Somerset. There were several acres of land (a right pain to walk through in the morning, let him tell you) with extensive forests, lark lakes and ponds, multiple flowers and even a maze. The interior was closer to The Crocker Mansion, in New Jersey, though.
Nico followed a silent Percy through the imposing front gates and into the house. Collapsed on the couch with an empty whisky clutched loosely in his hand and white powder on his nose was Percy's father. Nico barely paid him any mind; this wasn't out of the ordinary at all.
They crept up several flights of stairs, to the very top floor. The cleaners never bothered with this floor; it didn't look as though anyone lived there. Compared to the rest of the house, the rooms on the top floor were tiny. That was why Percy liked it, Nico knew; tiny meant inconspicuous, and inconspicuous meant no unwelcome attention.
Percy and Nico had a routine whenever they slept over at each other's houses; Percy showered first at night, Nico showered first in the morning. Percy made breakfast, Nico cleaned up. They walked into school together every morning and left together every afternoon.
Nico loved saying at Percy's, because it meant he wasn't taking the responsibility for everything. It meant he had people he loved. It meant no nightmares. It meant no being woken in the middle of the night by a drunk and violent father, or vacant and stoned mother. It meant he wasn't alone.
He loved waking up to hugs and warm food. He loved how Percy's body heat was nothing like his house, where his father could never be bothered to turn on the heating. He loved his cousin.
Nico fell asleep smiling.
Chapter Three
Jason Grace was stopped by his older foster sibling on the stairs before school on September 15th. She had managed to make the female uniform for their school look more revealing than the majority of things in her wardrobe; the dark grey skirt was so short it was almost invisible under her blue blazer, her white blouse had the first three-or-so buttons undone, showing off more than a fair bit of cleavage, and she had already put ladders in her tights.
"You can't come in with me," she said bluntly.
Jason, startled at the sudden assault, asked, "What?"
"You–can't–come–in–with–me," Annabeth repeated slowly.
Jason stared at her blankly. "I'm your brother."
"My thick brother, apparently," she sneered. "And, like it or not, you will never be a true part of this family."
Jason levelled an icy cold glare at her. "I don't want to be a part of this family anyway."
He carried on downstairs, and walked out of the door without any breakfast.
"Get back here and have some breakfast young man!" he heard Helen shout as he left, but he paid it no attention.
He held back tears as he walked towards school. He didn't like the Chases, not in the slightest, but he'd always wanted a family. His older sister had been the best thing he'd had, and now she was dead. He'd heard about his father's family, but he couldn't remember them.
"I don't want my son mixing with such godless sinners as them," his father had justified.
'Better godless sinners than holy murders,' Jason thought, but he hadn't said anything.
To just be rejected like that from the only possibility of family he had was … upsetting, to say the least.
He arrived at Vance Middle & High School much earlier than he'd thought he would; about half-past seven. He didn't know what to do or where to go, so he sat moping in the hall for a while.
After a while, maybe five or ten minutes, a pair of black Chuck-Taylors came into view.
"You okay mate?" asked a male voice.
Jason looked up. "Yeah, fine. Just moping about, y'know?"
The boy, who had black hair, dark blue eyes and looked to be about twelve, gave a slightly twisted smile. "I know all about moping around."
Jason laughed. He nodded at his feet. "Are Chuck Taylors included in the dress code?"
Vance High School had a mandatory uniform (white collared shirt, black or dark grey trousers/shorts, blue blazer, optional blue jumper, white or black ankle socks and black shoes for the boys and similar for the girls), and Jason doubted they allowed Chuck Taylors.
The boy shrugged. "Dunno. They never check, though. I'm Nico, by the way." He gestured behind him. "This is my cousin, Percy." Jason just made out a slightly taller figure standing a few feet away.
He got up and extended his hand. "Nice to meet you."
Percy grabbed his hand and gave it a firm shake, nodding his head in greeting.
"He doesn't talk," said Nico.
"Really?" asked Jason. "What happened?"
Nico laughed, and Percy cracked a smile.
"Doesn't, I said. Not can't."
"Oh," said Jason. "I feel like an idiot."
"We're all idiots here," said Nico happily.
Percy looked at Nico pointedly.
"Well," Nico amended, "except for Percy here. But he makes Albert Einstein look like an idiot."
"Really?" asked Jason. "Do you know your IQ?"
Percy nodded.
"What is it?"
Percy held up two fingers.
"A hundred and twenty?"
Percy shook his head and gestured upwards.
"Two hundred?"
He gestured upwards again.
"Two hundred and twenty?!" asked Jason incredulously.
Percy nodded.
"We can show you 'round the school if you want?" Nico offered.
"I'd appreciate that," said Jason, smiling.
As Nico chattered away, giving Jason a basic history of the school and a briefing on everyone and Percy rolled his eyes, Jason felt more at home than he had in his two years in the Chase household.
He smiled.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
Jason was in Nico's maths class.
He was slightly surprised by that; Nico was two years younger than him, why would they be in the same maths class? It soon became clear that Nico was almost as much of a genius as his cousin allegedly was.
"How on earth did you get that?" asked Jason. "Surely x should equal fifty-six, right?
"Nope," said Nico. "Look, there's a negative here, and you divide b + a by two, not just b. And ac is multiplied by ten, not …"
He went on to explain, in almost excruciating detail, all the places Jason had gone wrong.
"Why does it matter?" muttered Jason irritably. "It's not like I'm actually going to use this!"
"Actually," Nico said, "algebra has tons of uses. Mostly it just teaches you to think logically, but it's the basis for things like rocket science. If you want to work at NASA, you need to be good at algebra."
"Do you want to work at NASA?" asked Jason.
Nico smiled. "Already got an offer. They'll pay for my uni fees for Massachusetts or Cambridge to study astrophysics, and, if I graduate with a GPA higher than 3.67 or the equivalent, I can work there immediately."
"Dang," said Jason. "Now I'm jelly."
"Don't be," he said. "I just have nothing better to do with my life."
"Most twelve-year-olds haven't been given that kind of opportunity," said Jason.
Nico hummed. "I just put a lot of effort into my studies," he said carefully. "For number five, did you get negative forty-nine?"
Jason turned back to his book, saying that he hadn't done question five yet.
"What does Percy plan on doing?" he asked.
Nico laughed. "It doesn't really matter. With the qualifications he's got now, he could get a six-figure salary, easy."
Jason frowned. "What qualifications?"
"He had been accepted into most of the Ivy League universities by the time he was my age. He took online courses for Chinese and German at Middlebury College and graduated with a 4.0 GPA two months ago. He's taking an MBA at Chicago University's Booth School of Business right now."
"Impressive," muttered Jason.
"Yup. For ten, did you get –?"
"I haven't done ten yet."
"Oh. What are you on?"
"Four."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
Jason got back to work.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
Jason was late to lunch that day.
His Head of Year, Mrs Bell – a strict yet kind-looking women with highlighted blonde hair in about her mid-forties – had wanted to talk about what he thought of the school so far.
"Have you made any friends yet?" she had asked.
Jason had shrugged. "I made acquaintances of a sort with two boys: Nico and … Percy, was it? Does he ever talk?"
Mrs Bell had winced. "Quite frankly, no. He refuses to ask questions or answer them except in written form. The only time we hear him speak is in oral exams for languages, and they only happen two or three times a year."
"Oh," Jason had said. "Pretty smart, aren't they?"
Mrs Bell had nodded. "Best students in the school, no question." She'd caught his eye jokingly, "But you mustn't tell anyone I said that. It goes against my policy of being unbiased."
"Your secret's safe with me, ma'am."
"It's Mrs Bell, Jason," she had said. "We don't use 'ma'am' and 'sir' here."
Jason had nodded, and left for the lunch hall.
It had taken him a while to find his two new friends, and he had a fleeting moment of thought on whether they were even there. It was quarter past one now, and lunch had started at five to. They could've eaten in the rose garden, too, or had lunch later. Maybe they'd had a club. There were so many options.
A few minutes later, Jason spotted the two at the very back of the lunch hall, near the prep tables. They weren't eating; Nico had a half-eaten sandwich in front of him, and Percy was tossing an apple in between his hands. They looked to be playing a game of chess.
"Can I sit with you guys?" asked Jason.
Nico looked up from the board. "What? Yeah, sure. What makes you late?"
"Had to speak with Mrs Bell," said Jason, taking out his lunch.
"What did she want?"
"Just to know how I was settling in at the school 'n' stuff." Jason started to eat his sandwich. He looked at Nico's barely-touched lunch. "Aren't you going to eat something?"
Nico shrugged. "Not hungry."
Percy coughed lightly and gestured back to the chess board.
"What? Oh yeah. Sorry cuz." Nico moved his queen five spaces to the left. "Check."
Percy moved his rook to take the queen and smirked triumphantly.
"I've been checkmated, haven't I?" asked Nico, and Percy nodded. He sighed. "I knew it was coming anyway. I haven't won a chess match against you since … well … forever."
Percy took a bite out of his apple and shrugged in a 'No-one has' way.
Jason scoffed his lunch in five minutes, while Nico just played with his and started a rematch with Percy, who took a few more bites out of his apple before throwing it away.
Jason checked his schedule. "I've got physics next. Have either of you?"
Percy raised a hand.
"You in my class?"
Percy shook his head.
"Percy takes all sciences and math with the Sixth-Formers," said Nico. "He's just a wiz like that, y'know?"
Jason nodded, but thought not really. "What do you have?"
"Um … Let me check … Oh, wait … I do have physics. Then I have music."
"Do you enjoy music?"
Nico shrugged. "Meh. Kinda. It's just sorta there, y'know?"
Jason nodded again, although personally, he greatly enjoyed music, and it was more than just 'sorta there' for him.
"Is it the end of the day then?"
"Yup," said Nico, popping the 'p'. "Two lessons then break, then another two lessons followed by lunch, then two more lessons before we go home. One full day, quarter to nine to quarter to four."
Jason nodded. "Cool. What do we do for the next … forty-five minutes-or-so of lunch?"
Nico shrugged. "Percy and I just generally hang out in the library." He looked around. "Speaking of Percy, looks like the bugger's gone and given us the slip. Wanna help me find him?"
"Yeah, sure," agreed Jason.
Nico promptly took off towards the library. "There are several libraries in this school," he explained as they walked. "You've got the Einstein Library – that's the non-fiction one – the Gates Library – computers – and the Rowling Library – fiction books. The computers in the Gates Library are for homework and research and only that. You've got to be quiet in the Einstein Library, and the top floor of it is reserved for Sixth-Formers only. If you want to talk while you do your homework, you go to the Rowling library. Those are the major libraries, but you've got the Careers Library, the Science Library and the Tutoring Library too. Capisce?"
"Capisce?" asked Jason. "What does that mean?"
"'Do you understand?'"
"No, that's why I asked you what it meant."
"No, capisce means, 'do you understand?'"
"Oh! Yeah, sure."
"Good." Nico smiled.
The Rowling Library was very homey. It had posters of books up on the walls (Skulduggery Pleasant for the boys and Twilight for the girls), a display with '6TH GRADE RECOMMEND [INSERT BOOK NAME HERE]' '7TH GRADE RECOMMEND [INSERT BOOK NAME HERE]', '8TH GRADE RECOMMEND [INSERT BOOK NAME HERE]', and 'FRESHMEN RECOMMEND [INSERT BOOK NAME HERE]' near the door, four computers, a circle of comfy-looking chairs, and several large tables surrounded by chairs, perfect for doing homework. The shelves were set to the right of the library, and the door to the next room was set between the two farthest-right shelves.
Nico walked through said door into the Gates Library. There were four rows of computers: two to the right of the door and two to the left. A large desk was straight in front of him and, to the left of the desk, was another door. Nico walked through that door, too.
It lead to the biggest of the three libraries Jason had seen: half of the room was dedicated to large desks and chairs, and the other half was case upon case of books. There were padded benches in between the rows of shelves.
The half with all the cases has another floor over it, which contained several more desks and book shelves.
Nico went over to the stairs leading to the upper floor. Jason assumed Nico was going up them, but instead he went over to the row of shelves tucked underneath. Unlike all the others, which were straight shelves, the one under the stairs curled in an L shape. Tucked up in the corner of the L, with a copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, was Percy.
Nico sat down next to him, close, resting a head on his shoulder.
"I thought you'd left me," he teased gently.
Percy took an arm away from his book and wrapped it round Nico's shoulders, shaking his head.
He looked up and caught Jason's eye.
Jason wasn't sure what to make of Percy. Nico was nice, but Percy … he couldn't get a reading on him. Despite that, he got the distinct impression that Percy didn't want him there.
He walked over to one of the desks and got a start on his math homework.
Neither Percy nor Nico acknowledged him until the end of lunch, and only then to show him where the physics classroom was.
Jason went home, unsure as to whether or not he'd made one friend, two, or none.
Chapter Four
'Worthless.'
'Scum of the earth.'
'No-one loves you.'
Cruel voices were whispering in your head. Constant; unending; unyielding.
'Stop,' you tell them.
'I don't listen to undeserving wretches like you,' a voice responds.
'Don't deserve us,' one whispers.
'You should be thanking us,' comments another. 'You would never know the truth without us.'
'What would make me better?' you ask.
'You could never be better,' says a voice harshly.
The room feels cold. There is condensation on the mirror in front of you. You reach out, drawing pictures absentmindedly.
'Why not?' you say innocently.
'You don't have the guts,' sneers a voice contemptuously.
It always went this way, every time. You agreed with them, every time they said that. You didn't have the guts, you ran away from them, hid everything with alcohol and cocaine and meth and all types of poison imaginable.
You aren't insane. You aren't.
You run off towards the liquor cabinet.
By three that afternoon, you were passed out on the sofa.
It was routine by now; a never ending cycle.
An eternal life of destruction.
Chapter Five
Nico thought Percy was unusually cold on the walk home that day.
"Percy?" he asked. "Are you … okay?"
It was a stupid question; Percy was never okay. Neither was Nico. They simply were.
Percy shrugged a shoulder.
"Is it Jason?" asked Nico.
Percy paused a moment, then pulled a 'sort of' face.
"I thought you'd be happy to have him back," said Nico. "He's family, you know."
"No," Percy croaked. "Not anymore. He has a new family."
Nico paused for a moment; Percy had rarely said that much at once before.
"He's our cousin," he said. "We can't just abandon the only family we have!"
Percy's eyes hardened. "He abandoned us," he stressed. "He doesn't recognise us; haven't you realised? He doesn't have time for us."
Nico shook his head violently. "He's family!"
"No. You're family. My father is not family. Your father is not family. We're related; we are not family. Jason made that pretty clear!"
"It's not –!"
"He has a new family," Percy said apathetically. "He doesn't want us, he doesn't need us. He seems perfectly happy with the Chases."
Nico looked up at his much taller cousin, and came to a realisation.
"It's Annabeth, isn't it?"
When Percy's eyes blazed with anger, Nico knew he'd said something he shouldn't have, and cowered. He'd had a lot of practising of that; cowering.
Percy grabbed Nico's hair and wrenched his head back, so that he could look him square in the eyes. "What did you say?"
Nico gulped. "Nothing."
"I thought we had an agreement. We do not, I repeat, do not mention her!"
Nico nodded hastily – well, as much as he could, with his head being wrenched back. "I'm sorry."
"You should be," said Percy threateningly. He let go of Nico's hair with a small – read: staggering – shove.
He glared at him, and not another thing was said between the two for the rest of the two-hour walk through the forest.
When they reached a fork in the road, Nico paused. Left from here would be towards his house; straight on would be to Percy's.
Nico turned to meet Percy's hard gaze. Silently, angrily, the elder genius gestured left.
It was a clear dismissal.
"Bye Perce," Nico said.
It was a last ditch attempt at a maybe make-up. Percy always gave him a hug at the very least when Nico had to go home, often choosing to walk with him. Nico didn't have high hopes, but he just wanted a smile.
Percy's flat gaze didn't change, and he walked towards his own house without a word.
Nico walked sadly back home.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
When it got cold out, and he didn't have anyone to chat aimlessly to in order to distract himself, a single tear slipped down Nico's face.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
When he started to throw stones at the river, and no-one came to correct his horrid style, or offer him a lighter stone, Nico started to cry.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
When it turned out that his father managed to not drink himself into oblivion, but merely a violent rage, Nico curled into a ball and sobbed.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
When there was no-one to help him pull out the smashed remains of a beer bottle from his shoulder, Nico felt despair clutch him.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
Nico pulled himself onto his bed, and stared at his phone.
The shiny screen of the yet-to-hit-stores iPhone 6 reflected his battered, tear stained face.
Should he, should he not?
Oh fuck it, he thought, calling the only number he had saved on his phone.
Once it rang … twice …
Answer machine.
Nico cried himself to sleep that night, and never wanted to wake up.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
Nico waited as long as possible at the fork in the road for his cousin before it became apparent he either wasn't showing, or had set off early.
Sighing, he got up and walked to school alone.
Chapter Six
Jason ambushed his sister when he got home that night.
"So," he said, leaning against the doorframe of her bedroom, "how was your first day?"
"All right," she said, shrugging.
"Fuck anyone?" he asked, overly-innocently.
"Fuck you!"
"Really? I don't recall we ever did. Wouldn't put it past you to try, though."
"Get out of my room, Jason," she said threateningly.
"Oh is poor Annie upset that she didn't get a new fuck-toy," said Jason in a baby voice.
"At least I made friends with people who weren't complete losers," she sneered.
"Really?" he said sarcastically, leaning forwards. "By whose standards?"
"They're infamous 'round here!" she continued, a triumphant tone edging its way into her voice. "Their parents are wasted and/or high basically all the time, and they apparently have some –," she lowered her voice, "– issues."
"You have issues," he observed. "Does that mean you don't deserve friends? Wait, don't answer that. I already know the answer."
Annabeth flipped him off.
Jason smiled and walked out.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
"So," said Fredrick Chase at dinner, "how was everyone's first day of school?"
Bobby and Matthew shrugged. "All right," they said in unison, continuing to flick peas at each other.
"Good," said Annabeth, smiling.
"Okay," said Jason, shoving his food in his face.
"Elbows off the table Jason," Helen scolded.
Jason shrugged and took his elbows of the table, but didn't slow his food intake.
"Make any friends?" Fredrick continued.
"Mmhmm," said Jason.
"Yes," said Annabeth.
"And what are their names?"
"Guy called Luke," said Annabeth. "He has a girlfriend named Tami. There's Charles Beckendorf and his girlfriend, Silena Beauregard. Um … Chris Rodriguez, too, and Jake Mason, Lee Fletcher and Michael Yew."
"Good," said Fredrick, nodding. "What about you, Jason?"
Jason shrugged. "Just two; Nico di Angelo and Percy Jackson. Vance High's resident geniuses."
Annabeth wouldn't say anything bad about them, he knew; she had a reputation with her father to keep up, one of a perfect little princess.
"Do try to be social, Jason," said Helen. "I'd hate for your life in this new school to be like your old one."
Jason grabbed his fork tightly. He'd gone to a school for juvenile delinquents before moving here. He'd had only two friends there, too; Piper and Leo. In hindsight, they seemed fairly similar to Nico and Percy – they were all intelligent yet quiet, and didn't like to talk about their home lives. Piper barely said anything, but Leo chatted constantly.
Jason just seemed to be drawn to those kinds of people.
He'd hated having to leave them. Leo and Piper were full-time boarders at the Wilderness School, whereas Jason came home on the weekends. As a result, they only got phone privileges once a week, and they always used it on their families. Jason hadn't spoken to them in months.
He continued piling food into his mouth, ignoring Helen's scolding about not eating so fast.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
Jason got to school early again, and went to the library. It was only about five to eight, so very few people were in the Rowling Library. School wouldn't officially start for another hour and fifty minutes.
Jason scanned the shelves for books, and eventually settled on Jane Eyre.
Yes, Jason liked Charlotte Brontë. No, you couldn't tell anyone.
Jason looked up, startled, when the library door opened.
"Hi Nico," he said, recognising the figure. He frowned. "What happened?"
Nico's face looked … well … awful, to put it simply. He had a black eye, a swollen lip and multiple cuts. It looked like it pained him to move.
Nico glared at him. "Just go away, Jason," he said, walking towards the Gates Library.
"What have I done?" Jason called after him, confused.
Nico just kept walking.
Chapter Seven
Nico felt bad about snubbing Jason. He really did. But, in a sense, Percy was right. Jason had left them, he still didn't recognise them. He wasn't acting like family.
Nico still thought Jason deserved a place in their family, of course, but, when asked to choose between Percy and Jason, it was a simple choice.
"Percy?" he whispered. There were never usually people in the Einstein Library at this time, but it felt wrong to disturb the quiet.
Percy looked up flatly from his copy of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, but his expression changed from 'go away' to 'oh my God what happened?' Percy immediately grabbed Nico's wrist and sat him down on the floor next to him. He reached into his bag and pulled out a medical kit.
Nico smiled wryly at this. 'Shows how fucked up our lives are that we carry first aid kits with us.'
Percy looked at him with concern as he cleaned a half-healed cut on Nico's right cheekbone. 'What happened?' he seemed to be asking.
Nico cleared his throat. "My dad."
Percy nodded. A few minutes later, Percy pulled him into a hug and kissed his forehead. "I'm sorry," he whispered hoarsely.
Nico shook his head. "Not your fault," he replied.
"You wanna go to the nurse?"
Nico shook his head. "They'd just get suspicious."
"They're gonna be suspicious anyway, Nick."
Nico wrapped his arms around Percy's waist. "I just … Maybe they'll call home if I go to the nurse. If I say they already know 'n' stuff, that it's fine, they'll leave it."
Percy buried his face in Nico's hair. "If you need me though … don't hesitate to come get me, okay?"
Nico nodded.
"You're staying at mine tonight," Percy said. "No objections."
Nico grinned and nodded again.
Chapter Eight
Jason's arrival in maths went unacknowledged by Nico. Jason tried not to get offended, he honestly did, but he wasn't sure what he had done wrong.
"Nico?" he asked. "Have I done something wrong?"
"Everyone does wrong things," said Nico stiffly. "It's a part of human nature."
Jason frowned. "I know that, but -,"
"Then why did you ask?"
"You didn't let me finish!"
"Then finish."
"I – you – what?"
"Finish what you were going to say."
Jason ran a hand through his hair. "Have I done anything in particular wrong –,"
"I've already -,"
"Let me finish!" Jason said irritably. "Have I done anything in particular to make you angry with me?"
"What makes you think that?"
"Stop deflecting!"
"Answer my question."
"When you answer mine."
"I don't want to answer yours."
"Then I won't answer yours."
"Fine." Nico turned back to his book.
Jason mimicked the action, sighing angrily.
"You all right dude?" asked the person behind him.
Jason turned. "Yeah, fine."
The boy, who had dark hair and looked Japanese-American, smiled. He was chewing gum, Jason noticed. "Don't mind di Angelo," he said, lowering his voice, so the teacher couldn't hear. "He doesn't care for people."
Jason felt Nico stiffen beside him.
"That's right, innit ya freak?" he said, smirking. He reached out and pulled Nico's chair out from under the smaller boy.
Nico fell off, hitting his already black eye on the edge of the desk.
Miss Hoban, the math teacher, turned at the sound. "Nico!" she exclaimed. "Are you okay?"
Nico nodded. "I'm fine, Miss."
"What happened?"
"Nothing, Miss."
Nico got back onto his chair and continued with his work.
Miss Hoban frowned, obviously still concerned. "Are you hurt?"
"No more than I already was, Miss," said Nico, smiling wryly.
"Do you want to go to the nurse?"
"I'm fine, Miss. Honestly."
The teacher chewed her lip, disbelieving, but not wanting to push the issue. "If you're sure."
"I am, Miss."
She went back to her desk.
"So," Ethan asked, as though he hadn't just made Nico worsen his already black eye, "you wanna sit at our table today?"
Jason hesitated. He didn't want to sit with a bully, but he didn't want to be bullied like he had been at his old school. Was it worth making his own life hell for someone who didn't even seem to want to hang around him?
"Sure," he said.
Ethan smiled. "Great! I'll see you at the lunch hall, five to one?"
Jason nodded and turned back to his work.
He pretended not to notice the betrayed look of the boy beside him. After all, Nico had betrayed him first.
Right?
Chapter Nine
Kay Hoban prided herself on several things:
One was being good at mathematics.
Another was being a sympathetic, understanding teacher that students felt they could turn to.
Several teachers had come to her with problems in the past, from homework to friendship groups to trouble at home, and Kay felt it was her duty, as a teacher, to find out these things and help her students.
Nico di Angelo was no exception.
"Nico?" she said as the students started to pack up. "Can you stay behind for a moment, please?"
As everyone started to leave, Nico leaned against his desk, shoving his hands into the pockets of his dark trousers. He looked nervous.
"Are you sure you're okay, Nico?" Kay said, in what she hoped was an understanding voice.
"I'm fine, Miss. Honestly." The smile Nico gave her would have been charming, but the effect was ruined by his swollen lip and battered face.
"How did this happen?"
He shifted uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck. "I … um … I don't …"
He was interrupted by a small cough at the door.
Standing in the doorway was a tall boy with messy black hair and green eyes.
Kay recognised him. Percy Jackson was quite the enigma in the school; by far the most brilliant to ever attend, he skipped several grades in most subjects and was taking several more. Kay herself had never taught him – she only taught up to sophomore year, and Percy took senior level math, however she had heard he was excellent at math. By far the most infamous thing about him though, was his refusal to say a word, except in language orals.
"Hey Percy," said Nico, sounding relieved. "Miss Hoban, can I please …?"
"No you may not," said Kay, frowning in disapproval. "Would I be right to say that Percy here would know how you got these injuries?"
Percy kept silent, and Nico refused to meet her eyes.
"Miss …" He sounded desperate now. "I have a lesson now and I'm late enough as it is …"
Kay's frown deepened. "Fine. But we will talk more about this."
Nico nodded hurriedly. "Of course. Bye Miss!"
He all but ran out of the door, closely followed by Percy.
Kay sighed and went to her next lesson.
Chapter Ten
Jason was in the same Mandarin class as Ethan.
"So," he said, popping his chewing gum, "where you from?"
"California," Jason answered.
"Pretty warm up there, innit?"
"Yup."
"Big change from down 'ere."
"I was under the impression Maine was further north than California."
Ethan frowned. "Whatever dude."
"So," Jason said, trying to make conversation, "what's your favourite subject?"
Ethan chewed his gum thoughtfully. "Dunno. P.E, probs. You?"
"I don't know what it'll be like in this school, but I like music the most."
Ethan looked at him oddly. "Oh. You're one of the band geeks, aren't cha?"
Jason furrowed his eyebrows. "No, not really. I enjoyed music class, but I never did anything extra-curricular that was music related. I was a lot more sports-orientated in that."
Ethan nodded. "Ah. All right then."
"Why?" asked Jason. "Is there something wrong with liking music?"
"No, no," said Ethan. "It's just … well, band geeks aren't fun to hand around."
"How so?"
"They don't know how to have fun, y'know?"
Not for the first time, Jason found himself nodding, despite thinking, 'no, not really'.
Jason found it hard to concentrate in Mandarin. Ethan didn't seem to understand that, yes, Jason was actually interested in learning this language, and didn't want to compare boob sizes of the girls in the class.
Jason hadn't even gone two lessons without sitting near Nico, and he already felt he was going insane.
_/_/_/_-_/_/_/_
Jason sat with a large group at lunch that day.
It was different to sitting with Percy and Nico, and not in a good way. Jason didn't like attention; it had always meant getting preached to and insulted in his childhood. He much preferred to be left alone. The table this large group sat on was a long one near the centre of the cafeteria. It was long and rectangular, and one of the shorter ends was pressed against a wall. Jason wanted to sit there, to fade into the off-white paint, but couldn't. He had to sit in the centre.
Jason knew a few people there: Ethan, who was in his Mandarin and math class, sat directly to the right of a boy with short blond hair and blue eyes – Luke, Jason thought he was called. No doubt his sister's next fuck-toy. Speaking of his sister, she was sitting on the other side of Luke, looking as smug and overly-sexual as always. Chris Rodriguez sat next to his sister, reminding Jason of what Leo may have looked like if he had grown up in a different environment – they had the same sharp features and mischievous grins, and looked to be Hispanic/Latino. Jason didn't know the rest of them, but he assumed he'd learn who they were eventually.
Luke smiled at him. It wasn't a comforting smile. It was more … predatory.
Jason gulped, and sat down.
End Part One.
So … Love it or hate it? Kind of a plot bunny that was jumping around in my head … if you've read The Sharpest Lives (if you're a fan of OOC characters, adding different backstories, and basically fucking around with characters without it technically being an AU then you may want to read it), this was a plot line to one of the movies I imagined Nico being in. I thought it was interesting, so I put it into a story.
If I turned this into an original story, it would be in the chapter style of Witch & Wizard, if you've read that series (highly recommended), i.e. short chapter that flit through different points of view.
This is part one, because I personally hate lots of really short chapters. If I have them, I tend to do as I have above, and just group them into parts. By pure coincidence, this happened to have ten (not counting the prologue).
This is probably going to be quite dark – it's dealing with serious abuse, neglect, bullying and mental disorders, what do you expect? – so if this is currently testing your limits on how 'dark' you want something to go … well, this story probably isn't for you.
For those who are wondering, this story is 27 pages on Microsoft Word, Arabic Typesetting, size 20, with narrow margins. It's also 9462 words.