Taking place after the events of The Trials of Apollo.

Will Solace and Nico di Angelo

"Jenna, have you seen my blue tie?" Arnold Swartz asked.

He was getting ready for his first date with a woman he had met on a dating website. Since he was scatterbrained at the best of times, the stress of making a good first impression wasn't helping him remember where he'd left things like his keys and the tie he wanted to wear.

His daughter, Jenna, turned the page of the book her was reading. "The bow tie or the necktie?"

"The bow tie."

"It's on the hook on the back of your door."

Finally, Arnold was ready. He went into the living room and let Jenna look him over for a final inspection.

"You're wearing two different socks," Jenna said with disbelief. "I pair up all the socks and you're wearing two different socks."

Arnold looked down at his feet. "They're both black."

Jenna shook her head and went to get him a matching pair of socks.

Once her dad was properly dressed and out the door, Jenna went back to her book with a sigh. Her dad really seemed to like this woman, and she had to like him at least a little if she agreed to go on a date with him. Jenna just hoped that her dad didn't scare her away by being too weird.

A few more dates later and Jenna was wondering if maybe her dad wasn't a weird as she though he was.

"Naomi wants to meet you," Arnold said.

Jenna looked at him and blinked. No, he was just as weird as she thought.

"Why would your girlfriend want to meet me?" she asked slowly.

Arnold tilted his head. "I don't know. She just said that she'd like to meet you and she invited us to her place for dinner."

"Dad, I don't do interactions with people well," Jenna reminded him. She didn't want to wreck this for him.

"It'll be fine," Arnold said. "She's got a son your age."

"Dad! That's even worse."

Arnold patted her on the shoulder. "It'll be fine," he repeated. "I've done plenty of bragging."

"Dad!"

Nothing Jenna said the rest of the week made any difference. On Saturday she and Arnold drove to the other side of Austin to Naomi's house. Arnold rang the doorbell and Jenna tugged nervously at the seams of her skirt while they waited. Was it too late for her to go hide in the car?

The door was opened by a boy wearing a white T-shirt that said "THE DOCTOR IS IN so you're not allowed to die". Jenna concentrated on his shirt because it was easier than trying to look him in the eyes and failing.

"Hi," the boy said. "You're Arnold, right? And Jenna?"

"Yuppers," Arnold said. "Are you Naomi's son?"

"Yeah," the boy said. "Will Solace, son of, uh, Naomi Solace. Come in?"

Will Solace, son of Naomi Solace? What was that about?

Will stepped to the side to let them into the house. Jenna looked at his face out of the corner of her eye and quickly came to the conclusion that Will Solace, son of Naomi Solace, was seriously hot. Like, surface of the sun hot.

This dinner was not going to go well.

Naomi Solace was a smiling blonde woman who made the best King Ranch Chicken Casserole that Jenna had ever tasted, ever. Jenna would have liked to keep her attention on her plate while conversation went on around her, but that was a little hard to do with only four people at the table.

"So, Jenna," Naomi said, "your dad told me that you're in your school band. What instrument do you play?"

"Saxophone," Jenna said shortly. Saxophone players sat in the last row during performances.

"My brother plays sax," Will said. "Jazz."

Arnold looked confused. "You have a brother?" he asked.

"Half-brother," Will elaborated. "His mom lives in Ohio. You met her once, remember, Mom? She came to one of your shows."

"Austin's mom, right?" Naomi asked.

Will nodded.

"Yes, I remember," Naomi said. "She's a lovely woman. We talked about writing a song together, but we've never found the time."

Two women who each had a child with the same man wanted to write a song together. Jenna couldn't have been the only person who thought that was weird.

"Have you met your dad," Jenna asked.

Will looked at her and she ducked her head to avoid getting the full force of his blue eyes.

"A few times," Will said. "He came to stay at our camp for a while as a guest…artist."

The doorbell rang and Will practically jumped out of his seat. "I'll get it."

Naomi attempted to continue the conversation while Will went to answer the door, but she dropped everything when Will yelled, "Mom, I need the first-aid kit!"

Arnold and Jenna looked at each other while Naomi jumped out of her seat and dove into a cupboard. She came out with a microwave-sized plastic tub with a red cross painted on the side of it and lugged it towards the front door.

Jenna got up and went after Naomi. She had first-aid training, so if someone was hurt she though that she should be there to help. Her dad came with her, because he didn't want to sit awkwardly at the table on his own.

"We're in the living room," Will called.

Naomi put the first-aid kit down next to the couch, where a dark-haired boy was bleeding all over the cushions and muttering in a language that Jenna didn't know. It sounded a bit like French.

"What happened to you?" Will asked the boy while he dug through the first-aid kit.

"I got attacked," the boy grumbled.

"By what?"

"By something."

Will looked at the boy with disbelief. "What do you mean by 'something'?"

"I mean something," the boy said. "I don't know what it was. It attacked me. I killed it. There wasn't exactly time to ask for ID."

Will shook his head at the boy. "You sound like Percy."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Would you please just stitch me up? I'm in pain."

"Shouldn't we take him to the hospital?" Arnold asked with wide eyes. "Or call an ambulance?"

"Will will take care of him," Naomi said. "Nico, I'm going to put together a plate for you. You're staying for dinner."

"Yes, Miss Solace," the boy, Nico, said. He winced when Will started cleaning a gash across his stomach with a golden liquid.

"How many times have I told you to call me Naomi?" Naomi chided as she went back to the kitchen.

"Ow," Nico said.

"I'm sorry," Jenna said, "could someone please tell me what's happening?"

"My idiot boyfriend," Will said, "got himself into trouble, again."

"He said he killed someone," Jenna exclaimed.

"Something," Nico corrected.

He squinted at Arnold and Jenna and asked, "You're Miss Solace's boyfriend and his daughter, right?"

"Yuppers," Arnold said.

"Ow," Nico said. "And you're not freaking out?"

"I'm freaking out," Jenna assured him. "I'm really freaking out."

Will put the golden liquid aside after he finished cleaning all of the cuts in Nico's skin. He reached back into the first-aid kit and pulled out a plastic bag filled with…lemon squares?

"How's that supposed to help?" Jenna asked.

Will broke one of the lemon squares in half and handed it to Nico, who looked at him like he'd just given him an entire lemon.

"Do you want me to burn up?"

"You won't burn up," Will said.

"You gave me half a square," Nico argued.

"Do you want me to tell you in detail how your injuries will kill you, or are you going to eat it?" Will asked.

In answer, Nico put the pastry in his mouth and chewed. Jenna gasped when she saw the gash in his cheek heal right before her eyes like a time-lapse video.

"How did you do that?" she exclaimed.

Nico and Will looked at each other.

"Mist?" Nico asked. "They are mortals."

Will shook his head. "They're probably going to be around here a lot. They may as well know."

"Know what?" Arnold asked. "Are you wizards or something?"

"Or something," Will said. "Have you heard about demigods?"

Will and Nico told Arnold and Jenna all about how the ancient Greek, Roman and Norse gods were real, and how those gods, still alive and well in the modern day, sometimes had kids with mortals. Kids like Will Solace, son of Apollo, and Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. It was fascinating.

Jenna was glad she didn't hide in the car.

A/n: So, this is going to be something for me to write stuff for when I need a break from my other writing. All of these short stories will be taking place in the same universe, which is a different universe from my Sisters by the Styx series but the same universe as the two Amazon stories I've written (Amazon Recruitment and The Hidden Queendom). This story will not have regular updates, like even more so than my other stories. Really I just started writing this for Camp NaNoWriMo and want to have it going for when I need a break (see above).

You will be seeing some of my OCs from my Sisters by the Styx series (if you read that), but remember that these are different versions of them, like how The Golden Dragon Lord has several different versions of his OC, Danielle.

Yours in demigodishness,

Cynder2013