This is just an old story I found lying around in my documents … kind of random actually. Hope ya like it, and if ya don't, let me know.

PS: I don't own anything.

~swimmergirl3

It wasn't a normal day. Not at all. The wind was blowing fiercely and the sky was gray almost black as I walked out of my apartment to go to school. Some day's I skipped class, I had no need or interest in school. I decided I didn't need to do my science test or my geometry exam today. Maybe id call in sick or something. I walked past the turn off to my high school and continued until I reached central park. Not many people here today. I walked over to my favourite coffee cart, the guy knew me pretty well.

'Hey Hali, the usual?'

'You bet Chris.' I said smiling. I took out the exact amount that the large café mocha would cost me, $3.85. He gave me my coffee and in turn I gave him the money.

'Have a nice day Hali!' he said cheerfully as I walked away. I needed to find another coffee cart. He was getting way too familiar with me. Like last time, after I finished my coffee I was about to throw it out when I found his number scribbled on the bottom of the cup. Talk about awkward. I rolled my eyes and walked towards the back of the park. I looked towards my bench. Ok, well its not exactly my bench, but it's the one I always sat at. Every single day. Someone was sitting on it. This could be fatal for them. I walked up to them and rested all my body weight on my right hip and crossed my arms making sure not to spill my coffee. The guy sitting on my bench was probably younger than me, I wasn't sure. But he had shaggy black hair, and pale olive skin. I cleared my throat really loudly, he didn't budge. His eyes were closed and his mouth was parted slightly like he was asleep. That's when I saw the two white cords coming from both ears. I followed the cords down to the pocket of his black skinny jeans. An Ipod touch was slightly protruding. Using my free hand I slowly pulled out the Ipod and pressed the center button. Crap. He had a lock on it. I went for another approach to wake up this kid. I put my hand over his mouth and nose. Within thirty seconds his eyes shot open and he jumped up off the bench. I smiled sweetly as he pulled out a headphone and glared at me.

'Its about time emo kid.' I said dropping the smile and replacing it with my own death glare as I sat down exactly where he had been sitting. I had almost completely forgotten about the cute emo kid standing in front of me until he sat down with his back against the tree trunk that was in front of the bench. That's also another reason that nobody sat here, there was a huge oak tree right off to the side of it. It blocked some of the view, but I didn't mind. His black eyes glaring into mine because I had interrupted his nap. He had put the other headphone back in, closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the tree like he was planning on sleeping again. Not on my watch. I kicked him gently in the shin with the toe of my black combat boots. His eyes opened slowly, the glare continued. I raised an eyebrow and he turned down the volume of his Ipod which I could clearly hear the lyrics of Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day being belted out by the lead singer.

'Dude look, you might be all emo and depressed but you don't scare me. You were sitting on my bench.' I finished off. He rolled his eyes.

'Im not emo Barbie doll.' He said looking me over.

'Hah. My blonde hair and blue eyes might fool you. But you don't want to mess with my combat boots.' I said kicking up the grass with my boots for emphasis. The corners of his pink lips turned up slightly.

'What's you're name Goth child?' I said trying to keep it cool. He was absurdly cute, in a boyish kind of way.

'Nico. What's yours Barbie doll?' I smiled,

'Halimeda. Hali for short.' He nodded slowly trying to figure something out. Probably the origins of my name.

'Greek means thinking of sea.' He said finally, he was grinning now. I have to admit, this kid was kind of cool.

'Good job genius. You like a Greek history buff or something?'

'You could say that …' he left it an open ending sentence with a cocky grin on his face.

'Got a last name Nico?' it felt kind of weird saying his name.

'Di Angelo, what about you Hali?' so he was Italian?

'Of angels? Are you kidding me? And its Wright.'

'Yeah, yeah I know. Ironic right? And Hmm … Hali Wright. That name sounds familiar. Wait, how old are you?' his expression turned serious for a moment until I answered,

'Turning fifteen in a week. You?'

'Fourteen, turning fifteen next month. One sec.' he pulled out an electric blue cell phone and started texting someone urgently. He waited for a reply and shot the slide down keyboard down and typed madly.

'You're cute when you're worried.' I did not just say that. I cant believe I let that slip out. I slapped my hand to cover my mouth (and the slow blush that was creeping up my cheeks). He looked up from his phone with sort of a blank half smirk on his face, then laughed and continued texting. Once he was finished he put it back in his pocket and looked around. He stood up and walked towards me,

'Walk with me?' he said sticking out his hand towards me. I grabbed it and he pulled me up. We started walking towards the entrance to the park; it was about a five minute walk from where we were.

'What was with the frantic texting going on back there?' I joked. He looked away for a minute, and then answered.

'Um, nothing. My uh … cousins wanted to know where I was. I told them that we'd meet them at the park entrance if that's ok with you?' I shrugged, I really didn't care.

'Sure.' I said finally. He laughed like he remembered something,

'So what was with that 'you look cute when you're worried' comment about hey?' he elbowed me in the side jokingly. It was way harder for me to do the same because he was taller than me by at least four inches.

'It slipped out, didn't think of what I was saying. Like many teachers and angry parents have told me in the past; I have no filter. Or sensor for that matter.' I smiled remembering that one time last year when my math teacher freaked out on me in the middle of the class. I started laughing and walked out. Lets just say my parents weren't too happy when I got an F- on my usually A+ report card. That was definitely fun to explain to the principle. Back to the present. We were almost at the gate when I saw a tall guy with black hair and green eyes wearing skinny jeans and an emerald green slim fit t-shirt fighting with a middle height girl with short black spiky hair, electric blue eyes wearing black torn skinny jeans, a Green Day t-shirt and an army jacket looking like they were about ready to rip each others heads off. Nico sighed and ran up to them. He stood between them with his arms out, they were still fighting but he got their attention after saying something, then glancing back over his shoulder at me. Their curious eyes followed. The tall guy with the black hair and green eyes expression changed from frustration to a smile as he looked at me. The punk girl punched him in the stomach as she probably reminded him of something. A look of guilt came on his handsome face. He probably had a girlfriend. Why do I care even? I caught myself asking. Nico waved at me with his hand to come closer, I did.

'Um, Hey.' I said giving a small wave to the two strangers in front of me. The girl looked me over, then probably decided I wasn't half bad and smiled a bit. She stuck out her hand and I took it.

'Thalia, nice to meet you.' I shook it,

'Hali Wright, nice to meet you Thalia.' Her eyes studied my own, and she dropped her hand back to her side. The tall guy with the black hair turned towards me,

'Percy Jackson, Nico to meet you Hali.' He was layering on the charm pretty thick. Thalia and Nico coughed in unison. I dropped my hand from Percy's and Thalia punched him again.

'Hey Seaweed brain, shouldn't we get back to you're apartment to meet you're GIRLFRIEND? She's probably waiting you know.' she emphasised the word 'girlfriend'. HA! So I was right, he did have a girlfriend.

'Player.' I said under my breath, Nico obviously heard me and smirked. I gave him a sly smile.

'So, uh, where are we going?' I asked.

'Percy's apartment if that's ok with you I mean …' I shrugged; I had no plans for the day.

'Ive got no plans. I don't mind.' We started walking down the street towards the busiest part of Manhattan. I really wanted to walk beside Thalia, but the two guys were sandwiching me. I slowed down, and so did they. The initial reaction was a bit delayed. My plan had worked. I slowed down a bit and Thalia looked back at me, I gave her a pleading look. She understood.

'Hey! Dead boy and seaweed brain! Give the girl some space!' she commanded. I could tell I was gonna like her. I smiled appreciatively as the boys backed off a little, giving me some space. We walked until they saw a big cement building that looked middle class. We walked through the double doors and straight to the elevator. An elderly lady with a wrinkly felt dress and a paisley bag followed close behind us. Thalia pressed the button. Nico leaned over and whispered something in my ear,

'Ill race you to the tenth floor.' I was ready for a challenge.

'Ok, you take the elevator and ill take the stairs. Sounds good. See ya Nico!' I called running towards the stairwell.

'Hey! What? No fair!' he called after me.

'Number 562!' called Percy. I pushed open the door and started running up the stairs. Not at a fast pace, but a normal one. I was a pretty good runner; I could do four miles in twenty minutes if that's considered fast …? By the time I made it to room 562, I didn't see anybody. I knocked on the door and a woman with long brown hair and kind blue eye's opened the door. She smiled at me,

'Um, are you Ms. Jackson?' I asked. She nodded,

'Well, technically Ms. Blofis now, but yes.' I smelled fresh cookies coming from the kitchen.

'Are you a friend of Percy's?' she asked me, the kind smile never left her face.

'Sort of I guess. Im just waiting for them to come from the elevator. I was racing Nico … but their not here yet.' She nodded, and then looked like something had just popped into her head.

'Oh! Then you must meet Annabeth!' she dragged me down the hallway and opened the door to a room that could only belong to a teenage guy. There were clothes everywhere, and random things flung on the desk in the corner by the window. Sitting on the bed looking kind of bored was a girl with curly blonde hair (kind of like my own) and stormy grey eyes. She looked up when Ms. Blofis shoved me in the room.

'Um, hi.' She said, her expression was confused.

'Hey, um, you must be Annabeth.' I said trying to break the awkward silence that happened after Percy's mom had left.

'Yeah, and you are?'

'Hali. You must be Percy's girlfriend.' I said making my way through the pile of dirty clothes and empty pizza boxes. Not to mention video game controllers.

'Yeah, I am.'

'He seem's nice.' She nodded slowly; this was getting painfully awkward now. She spoke,

'So how do you know him?' I caught maybe a hint of jealousy in her voice?

'Oh, I don't really know him, but I met Nico in the park today … and yeah.'

'Oh, I see. So where are they?' the jealous tone had dropped from her voice, she seemed to become more friendly.

'Im not sure, I was racing Nico up here, and I haven't seen them since they got in the elevator.' Her eyes went wide as she jumped off the bed and ran out of the room towards the kitchen leaving me alone in a stranger's bed room. I sat down on the bed and leaned back against the backboard and pillows and closed my eyes for a moment. I must've fallen asleep because I felt someone's breath on the back of my neck, and someone's arms around my waist. My icy blue eyes shot open; I was still in the same room, but I was lying on my side facing the open door. I turned my head slowly, not wanting to wake up the person sleeping next to me; it was Nico. If I had woken up anywhere else with any other person beside me, they would never wake up again. But I somehow felt alright with his long strong arms holding me by the waist. His black hair was messy, and his expression was peaceful. He reminded me of a child who had lost everything, who had to grow up too soon, who only wanted someone to be there for him. His eyes fluttered open; I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep for his sake. I groaned sleepily and turned over so I was facing him. I couldn't see his expression, but something told me he was smiling like an idiot. His arms pulled me closer towards him; he sighed and rested his head on top of mine. Im pretty sure I heard the door slam, but the only motion I felt was when he flicked his wrist. Probably someone wanting to give us some privacy. I felt his warm breath blow past my ear, after a while, his breathing became deeper, I was sure he was asleep. I wanted to make sure, so I peeked open one eye and sure enough, the innocent expression covered his face again. I got the strange feeling like he never let anybody close to him, like his friends knew him, but didn't really know him. He felt closed off, like he had a lot of brick walls covering up what he really felt like, all of his emotions covered up in a mask of 'I don't care' when he really does. I thought about this for a while, just lying there in the dark, sometimes looking out the window. It was dark out, the 'good' side of me kept saying that I should get home, but the sane part of me argued; you really want to go home? Mom's probably passed out drunk on the couch, she wont even notice that you're not there. And you seriously want to go home with mom passed out and that stupid man she called her husband (my step dad) drinking beer and destroying you're life? AHA. Don't think so. I was right again. That part of me was right; I had no desire to go home and be yelled at and called a slutty whore for skipping school and staying out late. Because that's what my step dad thought I did when I went out, he thought I was a prostitute or something. Dumbass. Those girls are pathetic. But im also sympathetic for them; most of them had hard lives like me, but they couldn't stand it, so they let their life go down a dark path. I would never let that happen to me, not in a million years. Nico stirred; once again his eyes fluttered open. They met my own.

'Good morning.' He whispered looking at the alarm clock behind me. I twisted my head so I could see it too; it read 5:42 AM. I sighed and flopped my head back over,

'Im not a morning person.' I grumbled trying to sit up and failing. His arms were still wrapped around me; I don't think he noticed how close he was holding me to him. Or maybe that was the point.

'Want to tell me what happened yesterday night?' I asked, giving up on sitting up. He wasn't going to let me it was obvious.

'Well, after you ran upstairs, we got in the elevator and it got … stuck,' I could tell he was lying. 'then Annabeth heard us calling for help and called the fire department who got us out, and when we got here, Percy's mom told us that you were passed out in his room, he looked sort of pissy, but Annabeth calmed him down. So they slept on the pull out couch, Thalia took the blow up mattress and I was sent in here.' I thought for a moment.

'Oh you are totally lying. I bet you offered to come sleep in here.' I smirked. He raised an eyebrow,

'My normally impeccable lying skills are failing me so far.' We both laughed at the failed attempt at a joke. I sighed and rested my head against his chest, his rested atop of mine.

'You seem so closed off from the world, like you don't want anybody to know who you really are.' I said breaking the silence. Another silence followed.

'Sometimes its better for people to not know who I really am; it causes less pain. For the both of us.' I could tell he was talking about me and him.

'You don't need to hide from me Nico. Im not afraid of the past; I wont run away.'

'I believe you.'

'Tell me the truth.' He hesitated, like he was debating what to do.

'You wouldn't believe me.' he said finally.

'What makes you think I wouldn't?'

'Sanity.'

'Haha very funny. Well I don't have any of that, so tell Me.' he sighed; id trapped him with his own words.

'Well, first of all, do you know all of the Greek myths about the gods and monsters and stuff?' odd question; but I do have to admit I was kind of a Greek history buff myself.

'Yeah, Titans, gods, monsters, underworld, all that stuff. But what does that have to do with anything?' he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

'As much as I can figure, you're a demigod.'

'Whoa, a … wait, what?' I scrunched my eyebrows together like I did when I was confused.

'Demigod. Half human, half Greek god.'

'Not possible.'

'Wanna bet?'

'You're on.'

'Come with me. I hope you're not afraid of dark, underground places.'

'Why would i be?' it was a stupid question, I know.

'Well, if you aren't already, then you soon will be. Come on!' he jumped off the bed and grabbed me along with him. We walked down the hallway towards the kitchen and living room where Annabeth and Percy were snuggled up together on the pull out couch. Nico let go of my wrist and held up a finger; he was basically telling me to stay here and wait a minute. He walked up to the bed and tapped Percy on the shoulder, his eyes opened slowly,

'What in Hades- I mean hell do you want Nico?' he said groggily correcting himself.

'We'll be back, just going to see dad for a minute, she's a non believer.' He said chuckling. Percy's eyes widened.

'Nico, you sure that's a good idea? You're dad isn't really the type for family visit's, especially when you bring a daughter of … well, her along. You know what happened last time don't you? When you brought that Michelle girl from Aphrodite? That was kind of funny I have to admit.'

'It was pretty hilarious to see dad get all mad, but ill be careful, I wont let anything hurt her I promise. She's too important.'

'Whatever. Oh, and next time you wake me up, don't be surprised when you take an unexpected shower dead boy.' He groaned. Nico laughed,

'Oh yeah, cause you would so totally do that!' Percy raised a dark eyebrow, Nico started backing away, but he couldn't get far enough before he was completely soaked through with water that came from nowhere. He started sputtering as Percy and I laughed. Percy reached his hand out and touched Nico's knee, he was automatically dry.

'Wait Wait, Wait. If we're talking Greek gods here, let me guess. Random thought, Poseidon right?' I said pointing to Percy. He smiled a wicked smile,

'Son of the sea god at you're service.' I laughed,

'So … if he's Poseidon's kid, and you were fighting with Thalia, and in the old myth's Zeus and Poseidon were always fighting, so she's got to be a daughter of Zeus.'

'You're pretty smart for a blonde girl.' Stated Percy. I shot a glare with extra daggers at him. I hated it when people mistook me for being a dumb blonde. He backed off. I pointed to Nico, who was still catching his breath, sitting back against the side of the couch,

'You're a son of Hades! That's why you're all emo gothic right? And you were seriously going to take me to see you're dad in the UNDERWORLD? What were you thinking! I don't even know who I am! Im not ready to meet a god!' I yelled at him quietly, still aware of the other patrons in the apartment. He looked up with a small smirk on his face.

'What?' I asked, sort of annoyed.

'Nothing, Ive just never seen a daughter of Artemis get mad before.' he stated simply. The apartment building shook, thunder boomed and lightning struck. Thalia came running out of the other room,

'Ok, who upset my dad this time?' she roared, clearly pissed off. Well, so much for being quiet. Annabeth rolled over and woke up, and Percy's mom and step dad came running from the other room. In answer to Thalia's question, me and Percy pointed a finger at Nico.

'Me? Hey! Im not the daughter of an eternal maiden here!' he said holding his hands up in surrender. Thalia's glare wiped around to me,

'Eternal maiden? You've got to be kidding me! Gods! What the Hades is going on? Ugh!' ok, I am officially SO confused right now.

'A-Artemis?' I stammered. Thunder boomed again, lighting struck, you get the idea. Yup, pretty sure that's exactly the moment I feinted.