February 23, 2011

You can do this. You can do this. Nico di Angelo had been repeating the mantra for two hours. He was positive he was garnering stares, and certain he'd be getting a lecture later from his sister about standing out. But the fourteen-year-old didn't care. Today was the day he was going to march into Professor Triptolemus's office and request an extra credit assignment. He could do it. He was going to do it. He was definitely going to do it … tomorrow. His grade could wait until tomorrow. Dejectedly, he walked all the way down to the Slytherin dorms. Extra credit in Herbology would have to wait until another day.

"Hey, di Angelo!" He paused, although it was entirely possible that Bianca was somewhere ahead of him. Surprisingly, the boy who had called his name was calling for him. Nico recognized him: William Solace, Hufflepuff in his year, object of Nico's admiration for six months.

"What is it, Solace?" Nico asked. Inside, he was grinning.

Solace held out a piece of paper. "You dropped this in Herbology this morning. I've been looking for you all day."

Nico took the paper and his face burned with embarrassment. It was the last quiz they'd taken and his D stood out in red amongst the black. He couldn't help it; he killed every plant he touched, which made Herbology an absolute nightmare. When he looked up, however, he found no judgement or - thank Hades - pity. He shook his head inwardly. Hufflepuffs.

That wasn't to say Nico had anything against Hufflepuffs. His cousin Percy was a seventh year Hufflepuff, and he'd made it all the way to Head Boy. Also a Hufflepuff was Nico's half-sister Hazel. She was a third year. He didn't see her much since she lived with her mom, and he and Bianca lived with their dad. The only Hufflepuff he really had anything against was Frank Zhang, but that had more to do with the fact that Frank had a crush on Hazel than the fact that he had a yellow and black tie.

And… none of that had anything to do with Will. "Thanks," Nico muttered.

Will's face lit up. "You're welcome," he said.

Nico nodded awkwardly at him. "Right." Then he rushed out to ran back to his dorm, but physically bumped into Piper McLean. Nico liked Piper, he really did, but she was way too intuitive. Five hours after he'd admitted to himself that he liked Will, Piper dug it out of him. She'd also been responsible for getting Katie Gardner and Travis Stoll together, back when she was a fourth year. She was now a sixth year. To say Nico was scared of her would be an understatement.

"Hey, Neeks!" she said.

"Not 'Neeks', just 'Nico'," he reminded her.

"You talked to Will!" Piper declared.

"You're magic," he sighed.

"Well, duh," she grinned. "Did you tell him?"

Nico eyed her. "You are way too excited about my love life."

"That wasn't an answer, Nico."

"Of course I didn't tell him, Piper! Besides he was only there to give me an Herbology quiz I'd gotten a D on."

Piper sighed. "You're harder to crack than Katie. Fine, let's forget about Will. You can help me plan jaw-dropping hairstyles. And, before you start, I know you're all about blending in, but this is for me. It's fun to see Jason try to name my hairstyle of the day.

"You do know he's my cousin, right?"

"Yes, but as my best friend in this house - "

I thought Annabeth was your best friend."

"She is, but she has 'Head duties'."

"In other words, liplock with Percy."

"Precisely! So you see, you have to help me, because if you don't I'll have to ask Drew."

"Okay, okay, I'll help. But so help me Hades if you do anything to my hair, I will dump an entire bottle of pumpkin juice on your hair feathers."

"Fine. Leave my feathers alone!"

Will problems would be solved tomorrow, Nico decided, as would Herbology grades. Right now he was with his best friend and he was going to focus on that. Piper needed him. Will could wait. Now, onto the eternal question of French braids or Dutch braids…

Well, I'm still not completely sold on this chapter (six months after writing it, classic me) but it's good enough to post. This will be one of the shortest ones, but none of these are going to be long. The word average is in the story description.

Hope you guys like this. I changed my profile page again, and there's something in there just for you guys, so be sure to check that out! Happy (almost) New Year!

~swanglade37