Thank you clicking on this story!
So, here's a little guide to the text messages:
Nico: DeathAngel
Reyna: PraetorGirl
Bianca: BinnyArrow
Thalia: PineConeFace
Percy: SeaweedBrain
Annabeth: WiseGirl
Jason: SparkingGrace
Piper: BeautyQueen
Frank: ChineseCanadianBabyMan
Hazel: GoldDigger
Leo: RepairBoy
Stay Strong and Enjoy!
I'm Nico di Angelo, also known as Neeks, Di Angelo, Death Breath, Death Angel, Death Boy, and Sunshine. It's a poor way to start a story on the last month of my life (not the last one I lived, the most recent one, just to clarify), but that's me inside and out: awkward, to-the-point, antisocial, and an introvert.
I'm not sure when 'it' started. Maybe when I realised I was gay, but I'm just going to go with the day of the Skittles incident.
It happened at lunch. I was sitting in my form room -Art 4- when the first strawberry-red skittle hit my head. I'm hindsight, I could've ignored it, but I was in a hacked-off mood that day, so, being an irrational moron, I retaliated.
"Who was that?" I snapped, whipping around.
As of now, I think I reached stupidly. As of then, it seemed perfectly sane and rational, but I can't complain: otherwise I wouldn't have gotten a glimpse of the 'fine piece of art' that was messing around on his phone beside the bathrooms.
Percy was smirking at the back of the classroom, holding a jumbo bag of Skittles.
"Jackson!" I moaned, standing up to organise my books for Creative Writing.
"C'mon, Neeks, embrace your inner rainbow!" he exclaimed, throwing a handful at me.
I jumped up. "Percy, I..."
He chuckled what felt like an entire truckload at me and readied more in his hand. "Embrace your inner rainbow!"
Now the entire form room was staring at me. I scooped up my stuff and scooted out of the door, trying to blend in with the people grabbing things from their lockers and joking around in the hall, but my clothing made me stand out, ironically, I might add, as I was wearing all black. When more Skittles hailed down on my head, I ran. I turned into the second art corridor, falling over when I caught my foot on the carpet. I'm extremely short, so everyone rammed into me, knocking me over with books and hand gestures.
As I ran up the stairs and into English Hall 1, I caught sight of a blonde leaning against the lockers, the screen of his phone reflected in his bright blue eyes.
'He's hot,' I thought, before scolding myself mentally. 'And he's probably straight anyway.'
I ran into the toilets, brushing past the guy. He had curly blonde hair that was deep brown at the roots. I sat down on the toilet seat in the cubicle, opening my phone. I selected the 'Siblings Stick Together' chat and tapped out my message.
DeathAngel: Percy is a dead man walking
PraetorGirl: Wtf did he do now
I sighed and recorded a voice message.
DeathAngel: Just peer usual Voice Message -
PraetorGirl has left the chat
A message popped up on the 'Friends to Death' chat. Curious, I swapped over.
SeaweedBrain: Nico?
WiseGirl: What did u do now?
SeaweedBrain: How do u type so good?
WiseGirl: I'm smart
PreatorGirl joined the chat
DeathAngel: Explosion in 3, 2, 1...
PreatorGirl: JACKSON!
GhostBoy: THERE we go
SeaweedBrain: Yes, Reyna?
PreatorGirl: You are a dead Kelp Head walking! Voice Message -
I unlatched the door and walked out, sitting in the canteen with my stuff as I listened to her message. In even more hindsight, I should've stayed in the bathroom to pick the sweets from my hair, but what can you do?
"Jackson, if you bully my brother again, you'll be in for a whole new world of hurt!"
SeaweedBrain: I wasn't bullying him! I'm so sorry Neeks!
DeathAngel: It's Nico, but np. Don't fret
WiseGirl: U idiot, SeaweedBrain!
SeaweedBrain: I'm so sorry
A mental image of that boy popped up and I typed a question I would regret later.
DeathAngel: Who were u talking 2?
SeaweedBrain: Will S. Basketball team captain and 'doctor'
BeautyQueen joined the chat
SparkingGrace joined the chat
BeautyQueen: What did he say?
SparkingGrace: Calm down, Pipes
I groaned internally, bringing my phone to my ear to hear the incoming voice message. "He said 'take it from me, another gay, that this isn't the best way to go about it,' then we walked off in different directions."
BeautyQueen: Neeks, I'm not going to play Cupid after last time. Pairing you up with the first gay we meet is mean
DeathAngel: Thx Pipes. Yeah, last time flopped
SparkingGrace: That is a cute ship tho
DeathAngel: I'm so done!
DeathAngel has left the chat
I saw a post on Reyna's Instagram of her sitting at the back of the classroom with the shelves of paint in the background. Her shirt was purple and gold, half and half vertically. The caption was 'So much art potential' God, the social media battle was driving me mad. The bell went and I headed off to my creative writing class, where we were writing a children's short story on the prompt 'It's the coldest Christmas Eve in history and a poor family has run out for coal for the furnace. One of the 3 children has 24 hours to get on the naughty list', which I loved. I passed the hot blonde on his way to anatomy, who did inspire one of the three children in my story.
"Percy playing 'Cupid counsellor' never ends well," Hazel pointed out as we walked home. It was a really long walk -45 minutes- but Bianca was at archery with Thalia so she couldn't get us in her car, dad was at work so he couldn't get us in the car, and our bus passes had run out that morning, just our luck.
"No schist," Reyna muttered, her long plat flapping in the wind.
I cracked a grin. "Thalia's parrot has issues, I swear."
Thalia has a parrot named Huntress what had learned to curse and make choking noises. Reyna raised her eyebrows. "No schist again, Neeks."
"I hope Bi and Thals are gettin' on well," Hazel commented. We were half an hour into our walk, meaning they were fifteen minutes into their class.
I smiled devilishly. "I ship it."
The girls jumped. "Nico!"
I grinned nastily. "It's in plain view, guys!"
They opened their mouths to protest but I cut them off. "They kissed in Spin the Bottle at our party. For, like, a whole five seconds."
They shut up.
When we got home, I raced up to my room to study for my history test and do my homework. After about an hour, I decided to stop studying when I got a text.
SparkingGrace: Apparently that Solace guy studied 4 the test 1hr every day in the last 2 weeks and 3hrs on weekends! Repair boy text me
ChineseCanadianBabyMan: That's 2 people in the class that'll get straight As
DeathAngel: A's, sure, i dunno about straight!
SparkingGrace: Nice 1 very funny
DeathAngel: I speak the truth
RepairBoy joined the chat
RepairBoy: OMG guys thx so much!
DeathAngel: ?
RepairBoy: Grace set me up with Calypso and we really hit off!
DeathAngel: WTF!?
RepairBoy: IKR! We're going out again 2morrow
DeathAngel: Calm the fuck down
RepairBoy: So, you've got a secure A?
DeathAngelo: Pretty much
GoldDigger joined the chat
GoldDigger: Nico take your earbuds out I've been knocked on ur door for an hour
DeathAngel: A, it's not an hour, B, HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND YOU'RE KNOCKING ON THE WRONG FUCKING DOOR!
DeathAngel left the chat
GoldDigger left the chat
Hazel swung open the door, red-faced. "Sorry about that."
I shook my head. "It's no problem. You just made a right Styx-ing fool of yourself."
We headed downstairs to the dining room. Posh setting, as always. I sat down on one of the leather straight-backed, no-armed chairs, putting my fabric on my lap. I reached into the centre of the table, scooping out a huge serving of lasagne onto my plate, dumping it onto my plate. I handed the spoon to Hazel, who stupidly dropped it onto her place from really high in the air, splattering grease on her face.
After a dinner with pleasant small talk (it's habit in our perfectly neat home) we sat down in the living room, relaxing in the chairs and on the couches until dad and Persephone went out to dinner because they hadn't eaten with us.
The second they left, Bi plugged in her FireStick to the TV, and put on 'Inside Out'. I grabbed my phone and started to text on the chat. We made small talk, until I saw Reyna pick up her phone on the other side of the room.
Pretty soon, a picture of Reyna as an eleven-year-old, with a velvety furry, black, long hoodie, with her lips pursed and bright red, her high cheek bones bringing out her eyes and her long dark plait draped over her shoulder surfaced on the chat. The caption was 'Look what Jason sent me...'
My reply was 'My famous social media sister!' with a heart emoji.
Reyna had blown up 'big' on social media a few years back with that very photo. She had every single social media and an account on every popular website. Seriously. Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, FaceBook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Vine, you name it, she had it. She has a rival two years our junior, Kayla Knowles, who is always posting pictures of her pulling kissy faces. I have accounts on all of them so I can stalk the both of them. I saw Reyna frown when she saw a new post from Kayla. Kayla's in our school, Year 8, but they never spoke at the time. She has no one she shares her surname with, but...
"She has a brother apparently," Reyna smirked, turning on the selfie camera and posting a picture of her pursing her lips and curling her plait around her finger, leaning back in the white leather recliner. Soon, I saw her post. 'Chillin' with my sibs' was the caption. In the comments, she wrote 'Your move, Kayla'.
Their online names were CarrotTop and PraetorGirl, but their real names surfaced as of last year. "God, you're so immature," I muttered.
DeathAngel: So, the social media battle progresses!
WiseGirl: *banging my head on the table* Srsly? Ur really immature!
PreatorGirl: No duh! Kayla and I will battle to THE DEATH!
I clicked off the chat, sighing. "You, Miss, are an immature moron."
