Jason blanched when Nico mentioned that they had the same gym class. "Why would you be in a grade 12 gym class?" Jason spluttered finally when Nico had already moved on and was showing Jason where the French class was. Nico seemed surprised, though it was a very subtle surprise. All of Nico's emotions seemed muted, almost dead, it was a bit creepy, then he smiled and as Jason had thought Nico was creepy before, he was terrifying now. If Jason had been a bit more of a coward he might have run.

"The younger grades couldn't handle me." Nico said in voice that would have put a moonless night to shame. Jason shivered but reminded himself that Nico was helping him. He could have just left Jason to fend for himself and gone back to whatever he had been doing before but he was going out of his way to help. He couldn't be too bad of a guy so why was he pretending to be.

"You know where your French class is, the rest are downstairs." Nico said walking off quickly enough that Jason had to hurry to keep up. That didn't match up either. All of the Goth kids Jason had known before had slouched around kinda slowly as if making a point of not being in a rush. Nico had the hunch but that was different too, more defensive.

Jason kept puzzling over it as Nico helped Jason find the rest of his classes. It was a good thing he had because it turned out Jason's English class was an exception to the hall rules, and took place in what Nico had pointed out as the 'help hall'. By the time they were done the second period bell was ringing and it was time to get to classes.

"Are you gonna go to class?" Jason asked Nico. He was suspicious that Nico had just been playing hooky first period and wouldn't go. Jason didn't know why he cared but he asked anyway. Nico seemed to resent the question but he answered anyway.

"Ya, I'm going my biology teacher doesn't have any class pets, so he still lets me in the room." Nico smirked and then turned away walking quickly away through the crowds. Jason tried to keep up for the part of the way to class they had in common, but Nico moved like a ghost through the crowd and Jason lost him quickly.

Sighing Jason slowed down and headed at a more leisurely pace through the crowds up to his french class. He was still there before the bell and found a seat near the middle of the class and against the wall. He hoped he could just sit quietly and think, get a handle on this class and judge how hard it would be but no such luck.

"Bonjour." A girl's voice greeted him as she slipped into the desk next to his. "Je m'appelle Piper. Qui êtes-vous?" Her accent was something most teachers would be jealous of. As he looked up to respond he realized she was someone anyone would be jealous of. She was gorgeous, copper skinned and straight teeth bared in a dazzling grin. Her hair was choppy and cut badly but somehow it looked like it could be the next model look on her, most dazzling though was definitely her eyes, the opposite of Nico's hers new hard to look away from.

"Bonjour?" She said again waving her hand in front of his face and he realized he had probably been staring dumbly for way longer than was polite. "Se n'est pas bonnes manner de regard fixe." She said disapprovingly. He wasn't very good at French, but he got the message and looked away awkwardly.

"Pardon" Jason said looking away, it was close to the only word in French he knew because it sounded just like a word in English. He tried to make his accent sound at least a little like hers but the result was laughable and that's exactly what she did, laugh.

Jason hated his pale skin as it betrayed the blood racing to his face to the world. He looked down awkwardly hoping the other student filing into the room wouldn't notice.

"C'est bon." She assured him when she was done laughing and then asked again. "Qui êtes-vous?"

"Jason." He muttered still awkward and not wanting to embarrass himself by trying any more French. She nodded and opened her mouth, probably to say something more complicated in French that he wouldn't understand, but the teacher called the class to order then. From the look she was giving Piper Jason and been right and the teachers were jealous of her.

Piper winked at him and then turned her attention to the teacher looking as charming as and politician until the teacher seemed assuaged and turned her attention to the bored writing her name and talking about the course. Then Piper reached in her desk and scribbled on a piece of paper waiting for the right moment to slip it onto Jason's desk.

You're new here aren't you? The paper read, in English this time to Jason's relief

Ya I am. Just started today. Jason scribbled back wishing his writing was as pretty as Pipers. He was even more careful about passing it back then she had been. He had never really passed notes in class and he really didn't want to get caught doing something wrong on his first day.

I thought so I would have noticed you. Do you wanna sit with me at lunch today? Everyone can use a friend on their first day at a new school.

It was really nice of her to offer, so even though he felt a bit awkward about agreeing to sit with this beautiful girl he didn't know, he supposed he would have to sit with someone he didn't know anyway. It might as well be a beautiful girl.

Ya sure. Thanks. He wrote back and she smiled at him sliding the paper back into her desk now that that was settled. Jason smiled back and turned his attention to the teacher, she was going over basic sayings in french, most of which even Jason knew. He zoned out pretty quickly deciding nothing important would happen today and before he knew it the lunch bell was ringing, Piper was up before him, hooking her arm through his and pulling him to his feet.

"I brought a packed lunch, do we need to go to the caf for you or can we just stop by lockers and head outside? It's a nice day I think we should take advantage of it." Jason nodded and told her he had packed a lunch and it was still in his bag because he didn't have a locker before letting himself get swept up in her motion. It seemed like she was trying to get them out of the school as soon as possible but when he started noticing the eyes following her, he started to understand why and did what he could to help them get out faster.

Once they were out of the school Piper visibly relaxed, unthreaded her arm from Jason's and shoved her hands in her sweater pockets smiling.

"Sorry about rushing us out like that, this is a pretty good school but there are still some creeps about." She said leading him to a spot on the far side of the, mostly unused, school yard where there was a cluster of trees and bushes and behind it, so you could hardly see the school. "I'm afraid I dragged you along for a sort of selfish reason." She said smiling apologetically. "you look strong enough that if people thought we're dating they wouldn't be likely to pick a fight with you over me."

"That's completely fine." Jason said sincerely, he had almost wanted to pick a fight with those people with the way they were looking at her. Even if he didn't know her and they weren't dating it was disrespectful. "I'm glad I could help and I'll do it again if you want. Well, if it makes you feel safe I mean." He trailed off, he thought he might have just sounded like he was agreeing to date her or something, but she didn't seem to take it that way thank goodness.

"Thanks that's sweet of you." She said smiling at him as she opened her lunch and took out a saran-wrapped pb&j sandwich, Jason had a ham and for a while they just sat eating in a half comfortable half awkward silence.

It was quiet enough that Jason hear a girl shouting "come on Nico!" from across the yard and looked up to see a dark skinned girl with cinnamon hair pulling Nico along by his wrist. It surprised Jason how little Nico seemed to mind, in fact it may have been a trick of the distance but Nico even seemed to be smiling. In a moment of curiosity Jason turned to Piper and asked.

"What do you know about Nico Di angelo?" Jason knew she might not know anything, but she had been here longer than him and that she had written 'I would have noticed you' in her note hinted that she payed attention to the comings and goings of people at this school.

"Nico?" Piper echoed once she had swallowed a bite of her sandwich. "Not much. No one really knows much about, Nico, I know he freaks out when anyone touches him, and the only person he's close to is Hazel. Oh, and he has a violent streak that's nearly gotten him expelled a few times. But I think that's all anyone knows about him, presumably hazel knows more but she doesn't talk about things he wouldn't want her to." Jason nodded, most of things he had already known or could have guessed"

"Why is he so close to, Hazel?" He asked, partially curious partially trying to keep up conversation.

"They're half siblings I think. Share the same dad though they don't look like it." Jason nodded again. They didn't look like they shared a father, but one parent could make all the difference in appearance.

"Why so curious about, Nico?" Piper asked, her turn to be curious.

"I don't know." Jason said shrugging "He showed me around the school this morning and it kinda seemed like he was pretending to be scarier then he really was." Piper laughed.

"I think you're the first person to think that, most people are under the impression he's toning it down for school." She paused and thought for a moment. "But you might be right, after all he's very good with Hazel and from here I've seen him convince a couple cats to warm up to him and that's quite a feat. Maybe you'll have to find out about him yourself, maybe he needs someone to care." Piper had gotten a bit of a faraway look as she talked like she was looking into something that wasn't there but then her vision snapped back to Jason and she smiled. "But keep me posted okay? You've got me curiouse about the kid now too."