"Don't look, don't look, don't look, don't look," I mutter in a sort of chant to myself. My eyes shut tight, and hands clenched into fists. I'm uneasy. I'm a daughter of Demeter! Can you honestly blame me? I spend most of my days in the sunlight for Zeus' sake!

"Can you please shut up?" A calm voice asks, sarcastically.

"This is creepy."

I hear a distinct snort of incredulity. "Okay. Now shut up."

"But-"

"Shut-"

"What if-"

"-Up." He hisses lowly. Which is really creepy, because with my eyes closed, I can't see anything. So I don't even know where he is. "We'll be there in less than a minute," he informs me, sounding bored.

I don't respond.

"Are you like dead or something?"

"You told me to shut up," I point out, "And besides, wouldn't you, of all people, know if I was?"

"Touche."

His grip on my arm tightens, "We're here."

My eyes open, and I immediately wished they hadn't. The sunlight was blinding! "Ergh..."

"Yeah. Tell me about it," Nico says, huffily, running a hand across his eyes. "Ergh," he agrees.

"Okay," I comment, once my eyes have adjusted. Before us, stood a tall school building with banners and ribbons that screamed 'Give us your money' strung around the windows and above the front glass doors. "So, do we just go in or something?"

He stares at me for a minute before rolling his eyes, "We can't just walk in. We have to manipulate the mist first."

"Manipul- what?"

"Manipulate the mist," he repeats, exasperatedly. I look at him, blankly. "You know. Confuse the mortals?"

"Oh," I sniff, "And you know who to do this?"

He sighs and walks off towards the building. Well. Excuse me.

The inside of the building is just as obnoxiously blunt as the outside. They might as well hand out flyers that say, 'Send us your kids and a couple thousand bucks, and you'll achieve absolutely nothing! - Oh yeah, no refunds!'. Not exactly where you'd expect an oracle to attend school.

"Excuse me Miss," Nico says to the lady at the front desk, with a charming smile. Well, as charming as you can get when you're a child of Hades. And when you're thirteen years old.

The woman narrows her eyes at him and lowers her square framed glasses, "May I help you?"

"We're looking for a Rachel Dare." He snapped his fingers in front of her face, which was kind of odd. No. Very odd.

Her eyes grew, for lack of better words, misty and she nodded absently, "Of course." She scans her clipboard and smiles back at Nico, "Room 213 on the second floor."

He doesn't reply, which is very rude, but I figure that growing up in the Underworld he wouldn't know much about manners, anyway. He ignores me and heads towards the staircase. I find it very ironic that I'm following the lead of a thirteen year old. Very ironic, and very sad.

Regardless, I follow him to room 213.

"This is it," he retorts, looking at the door.

I snort, "Obviously," my hands gesture to the big, bold white numbers '213' that rest on the upper side of the door. We stand there for a few more moments before I grow frustrated, ADHD and all, "Are you going to knock?"

His face flushes for a moment before he glares at me, "Aren't you?"

I roll my eyes and knock once.

"Just a second!" A voice calls from the other side. "Be right there!"

The door opens, no more than a second later, revealing a pretty redhead with green eyes. She looks at me in confusion, before noticing Nico who was convienently lurking in the shadows of the hallway - go figure - and she smiles. "Oh. Hey guys. Need a prophecy, I'm guessing."

"Yeah," I say, because Nico's too busy lurking like a creeper to say anything potentially useful. "I'm Katie, by the way. Katie Gardner."

"I'm Rachel," she beams, "Nice to meet you! Come on inside, don't want anyone, um, witnessing or anything," she smiles sheepishly.

"Okay," I glance back at Nico, "You coming Nico?"

He grunts and follows. Hmmm... Not very literate, is he?

"So, who's your parent?" She asks curiously, her green eyes lighting up.

I smile, proudly. "Demeter, goddess of -"

"Flowers and stuff, right?" She interrupts brightly, and I nod. "Cool, cool. Hey Nico," she waves at him.

His face flushes, again, and he waves back shyly. Oh Zeus. He's got a crush on the oracle. I resist the urge to laugh. "So, we need a prophecy-"

"Oh, sure," her face falls slightly. "I don't get many visitors, and when I do...It's well, you know," her smile this time is weak.

"Oh. We don't mean to be a burden," I lie, we just really need a prophecy, so give it up.

She waves her hand in the air and rolls her eyes, "Don't be silly. Now's, like, the perfect timing. My roommate's at some theatre production class. She won't be back for a couple hours. So anyway, prophecy right," she says, without taking a large breath once.

Man, this girl can talk.

"Okay. All you have to say is this: Oracle of Delphi - "

"What is the prophecy we seek," Nico continues, obviously feeling more bold around his 'crush'.

Her eyes glow green, and I mean like greener than they were originially, and green mist spouts from her mouth. Disgusting...

"One becomes lost,

Successfully paying the cost,

Of a prideful one's game,

A quest in her name,"

The glow in her eyes die down slowly. "Well...What did I say?"

I don't get the chance to tell her, because everything goes black.

AN

NICOOOOOOOO'S GOT A CRUSH.