Hey ho!

Thanks sooooo much for all the reviews, favs and alerts. You can't believe how happy they make me.

So I won't talk around much and just say: Enjoy!

Chapter 4

They found Will in front of his classroom, squinting at his schedule.

"Hey, Will!", Spacey-girl called, prompting Nico to look annoyed.

Will looked up and started smiling, when he saw the two of them. Spacey-girl next to Nico instantly smiled brighter.

"What do you have next?", she asked, looking at Will with the same look as before in the office. A lot of the girls around them had the same look in their eyes, Nico noted grumpily.

"Chemistry and you Nico?"

"Me too. Let's go!"

"Bye, Gina", Will said and he followed the son of Hades down the hall.

Gina was left standing dumbstruck in the hall.

"She is so annoying", grumbled Nico, when they stepped through a door and out of the building.

"What did she do to piss you off?", Will laughed.

Nico scowled at him and kicked a stone out of the way. It slammed into a poster stand, knocking it over. Two older guys lounging near it on the lawn raised an eyebrow at him.

"You don't have to talk about it, you know. I was just curious"

They passed a sign saying, 'Science' pointing upstairs. Nico didn't say anything, just started climbing the stairs going towards the Science Building.

The Science Building wasn't really a own building but the upper floor of the main building. The main building was built like a giant 'L', with the shorter part being the Art Building on the ground floor, the Science Building on the upper floor and the Music Building in the basement. The rest of the subjects were in the longer part of the 'L', called the Main Building. Technically there was a way from the Main Building to the Science Building without going outside, but this way it was shorter and it was nice weather. They learned all this from Spacey-girl when she told them about everything before their class.

They did indeed reach the room after only a minute or two of walking. The teacher, a young woman of about 26, was already there, shuffling around a stack of papers and looking up surprised when they entered.

"Hi, we are new students. Will Solace and Nico di Angelo", Will said.

The woman just stared at them for a second, before nodding. She looked around for a second, making sure, they were completely alone before saying: "Are you two demigods?"

"What?", Will asked confused.

"Are you the cloud nymph working here?", Nico asked at the same time.

Will looked at him now. "What?"

"Yes, that's me. Miss Orleen. Chiron told me there were demigods coming and that I should keep an eye on you in case you got in trouble."

"What?"

"Yeah, he told us that too. We're just gonna sit down now"

"Okay, the other students should be here in a few"

Will was still looking completely confused, head swiveling between Nico and Miss Orleen trying to figure out what was going on. Nico grinned at that.

"What just happened?", the son of Apollo asked as soon as the were sat at one of the tables.

Miss Orleen was back to shuffling papers.

"Didn't you listen? She is a cloud nymph, working here"

"Yeah, but when did Chiron tell us that?"

"Yesterday. It was written in the letter I found on the table."

"You never told me about it"

"I was going to, but then you threw that concealer ball and later I was mad at you"

Will opened his mouth to say something, when the gong interrupted him. They didn't notice the room filling up with other kids. Miss Orleen now stood in front of her desk catching everyone's attention.

"Maybe you have noticed, that we have two new students. Say 'hello'"

A chorus of 'Hello's filled the room.

"In the last lesson we started talking about the pH value of acids and bases. Today I want you to partner up with one or two other students and then we will make our own pH scale. For this you will get a worksheet and different acids and bases and an indicator to measure the pH value. Please read he instructions and work carefully, those substances are quite dangerous. Go to work"

Immediately the kids shuffled around the room, either trying to get their friends as partners or the good kids.

"I'm good at chemistry, I think. Wanna partner up?"

"How are you good at chemistry?"

"I helped out in the Hecate Cabin a few times. They mix together some stuff, just like chemistry"

"That's not the same."

"Be a spoilsport, don't you"

Will pouted. Nico rolled his eyes. Both burst out laughing. It was still the same as always. Except, that Will didn't kiss him, like he normally did. Miss Orleen put down two worksheets in front of them, gave them a wink and went over to the next pair.

"Hey, guys, do you have place for another partner?", a shy voice came from the front of their table.

There stood a small boy, with longish brown hair and hazel eyes, holding a sheet of paper and looking nervous.

"Sure", Will, ever the people's person, said and motioned to Nico to scoot over.

Nico dragged his chair to the side, giving the boy space to sit.

"I'm Paul.", the boy said, while sitting down.

"I'm Will that's Nico, he's boring. I doubt you'd want to hang out with him"

Nico gaped at him. He didn't just say that. Judging by the smug look on Will's face, whatever he did worked.

"I doubt you'd want to hang out with him either. He is stupid enough to think potions is the same as chemistry"

Will's smug look fell of his face. He narrowed his eyes. The game has just begun.

"At least I don't look like Snape as a kid"

"That's harsh", muttered Paul, who was watching them with big eyes. Nico ignored him.

"At least I'm not afraid of flies"

"What? Flies?"

"If you tell him about the flies I will tell him about Albania"

"So you wanna go down that road?"

"Yeah."

"Ok then. You say a word about Albania, I tell him all about your date with Lacy"

"You wouldn't dare"

"Try me"

They now had a glaring contest, half the class watching.

"Umm, guys?", Paul asked shyly. They ignored him.

"Idiot", muttered Nico.

"Loser", Will snapped right back.

"Seriously? You have to do better than that"

"Anemic Loser"

"That's not better"

"Octavian"

Now Will looked smug, half the class wondered what was so bad about it. One guy, with a dog named like that, was offended. Nico looked horrified.

"What did you just call me?"

"Octavian. You said, I needed better curse words. That's the worst I know."

"Yeah, but, you can't just call me that"

Will shrugged. "You just can't stand to lose"

Nico narrowed his eyes. "That's not true"

"Yes it is. You remember that one time we played 'Capture the Flag' and your team lost?"

"That was like five years ago! Besides that was Thalia and Percy, not me."

"Wait you telling me, you have never played since then?"

"'Course I have. I just never lost" Now Nico looked smug."Wait. Did you just say that without proof?"

"Well, it's not my fault, you never lose 'Capture the Flag'. How am I even supposed to keep track of every single game?"

"So you just said something without proof."

"I guess?"

"Who's the Octavian now?"

The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, before bursting out laughing.

"You are weird", concluded Paul.

They abruptly stopped, noticing the stare of everyone in the room on them. Miss Orleens cleared her throat. "Paul, how about you get yourself new partners and you two come back for detention this afternoon? Now out of the room. I don't need anymore interruptions today. The rest of you go back to work."

Nico felt embarrassment creep into his cheeks, tinting them red. As fast as they could they left the room. Once in the hallway Will grabbed Nico's hand, pulling him into a janitor's closet. It was small, but had a nearly as small window, which Will opened to let air in. The fresh stream of air, let Nico relaxed and he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"A closet, really?"

He didn't get an answer. Instead Will pressed his lips on Nico's, effectively taking away his breath again. They kissed for what felt like eternity, Nico crossing his arms behind Will's neck, pulling him closer. Sometime later they ran out of air and pulled away from each other. Will leaned his forehead against Nico's, wrapping his arms around him.

"What is wrong with us?", he whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"Since we are on this trip we are constantly fighting. Maybe Chicago is bad luck and we should have gone to that town in Colorado."

Nico closed his eyes, thinking about it. Suddenly something Chiron told them two days ago came to his mind. The concealer balls need a power source. This is emotional power, so they will suck something out of you. If you discover what it is, work on building it back up and it should work, while you won't have problems.

"It's our patience.", he said, opening his eyes again.

"Huh?"

"Remember what Chiron said about the power source of the concealer balls?" Nico could feel Will nodding. "It sucks the patience right out of us. And because there are three of them around us all the time, we get pissed at each other a lot faster"

"So we have to stay calm when around each other and just get the patience working again?"

"Yeah"

They just stood there in silence for a while.

"You wanna go somewhere else?", Nico asked.

"Probably better"

They found the library about ten minutes later, confusing the librarian.

"What are you doing here? Don't you have school?"

"We kinda got kicked out", said Will, blushing a bit.

"So you want to read about what you are missing. This is really responsible, you know? There aren't many teenagers anymore doing that."

"Yeah, that's exactly what we were doing", Will flashed her a smile. "Come on, Nico, let's find some chemistry books."

The two disappeared into the science section, sitting down at one of the tables there.

"We aren't seriously doing anything, are we?", Nico asked, looking at all the books with a horrified look.

"Keep up the charade and we are on the librarians good side. It's always good to be on the librarians good side.", Will said, pulling out a couple chemistry books and laying them out on the table.

Then he disappeared into a section labeled 'Psucholigo' or something along the lines. The librarian chose that moment, to come around the corner.

"Do you need anything?"

Nico was tempted to shake his head, but then he remembered the homework for Literature class.

"You don't happen to have 'To kill a Mockingbird'?"

The Librarians smile got even wider, so that Nico wondered, if her face hurt from all the stretching. "Of course! It is so nice, that some teenagers are still interested in good books."

With that she practically ran of.

"What was that about?"

"I just asked her if she had a copy of some book we're reading in class"

"Wait, you want to read?"

Nico glared at him again, before realizing what he was doing. Now he was trying to calm himself down. Ugh, having a shitty patience sucked.

"Anyway. I just found this in the Psychology section." Will put a book down on the table. Nico leaned forwards to get a better look at the title.

"'How to get a better patience'?"

"Yeah. Won't harm to try, right?"

"Except for the reading part", Nico pointed out.

"You are quite pessimistic, aren't you?"

Nico shrugged.

The librarian came running back around the corner holding a tattered copy of a small book.

"Here you go. If you have any questions, I'm right here" She laid the book on the table, before returning to wherever she came from.

Nico picked up the book. The cover was faded, the title nearly invisible and the pages were yellow. Nico had the feeling it would fall apart upon opening.

"Could you set that on the shopping list?", he asked Will, who was frowning at the first page of his book.

"It's in the bag", he muttered, not taking his eyes away from the letters.

Nico reached over and pulled Will's blue backpack towards him.

"Why do you have a first aid kit in there?"

"For first aid, duh"

Nico pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of the bag laying it on the table. He also found a pencil in the bag, acting as a bookmark for Will's math book. He scribbled the title of the book on the paper, folded it carefully and put it on top of the first aid kit.

A gong sounded, interrupting the two boys. Nico looked up from where he had written down a few words to the relationship between Scout and Boo Radley. Will was still engrossed in his book, currently on page seven. He looked up, when he felt Nico's gaze on him.

"What?"

"Nothing. You wanna grab some lunch?"

At the mention of food Nico's stomach rumbles. He hadn't eaten anything since yesterday afternoon and he was craving food.

"Lunch sounds good"

They packed up their books, Nico bringing back 'To kill a Mockingbird' and Will checking out his Patience book. In the hallway they stumbled into Paul, who was nearly dropping his books, he was that surprised.

"Oh, hey guys. You calmed down?"

"Yeah, sorry about that. You had fun afterwards?" , Will asked.

Paul shrugged a bit, but didn't elaborate.

"Miss Orleen said, that you have to do some of the stuff in detention today. And she wants to speak to you after lunch.", he told them instead.

"Okay. So, you know were the cafeteria is?"

Paul perked up at that. "Sure, follow me"

Paul steadied his books and started towards the door, leading out on the lawn. The cafeteria was in an extra building across the lawn, with tables outside, slowly filling with students. Paul opened the door, holding it open for the other two and following them inside. About a third of the tables were already filled, a long queue going straight through the room. The boys fell in line behind a group of girls, younger than them and giggling about something.

"We aren't keeping you from your friends, or anything, right?", Will asked.

Paul went stiff for a second, before shaking his head. Nico gave Will a look, that clearly said Drop it.

Will realizing his mistake, wanted to apologize, but Paul beat him to it.

"You couldn't have known." He stared at the floor, shuffling his feet.

Will looked at Nico. What should we do?

Dunno. I'm not a people's person.

Yeah, but we can't just leave him on his own. You know I don't do that.

I have noticed.

Don't worry, I'm not going to date him.

Nico snorted at that and turned back to Paul, who was staring at them.

"What?"

"Nothing, you just did … that. You're a bit crazy"

"Thank the gods or we probably would have died a long time ago", Nico muttered under his breath and turned around to look, how long the queue was and how long they would have to wait for something to eat.

"Will!", a girly voice called out.

Nico groaned. Not her again. Spacey-girl arrived, with Andy and another girl in tow.

"Oh, hey Gina", Will said, not sounding too happy about it. Nico grinned, still facing the other way.

"You wanna sit with us?", Spacey-girl asked.

"Sure", Will still wasn't as enthusiastic as normally. Nico was nearly laughing now.

"Are you okay, Nico?", asked Andy.

Nico turned towards him.

"I'm good.", he said, barely holding in laughter. "Just perfect."

So that was it :)

See you in two days

~thegoddesskym