So sorry, I skipped chapter 2. I had to delete this one and re-upload so that they would be in order. Again, so sorry.

I don't own Percy Jackson or All I Need by Within Temptation.

Song: watch?v=tKJkgawDfEk

"Nico!" his father said, snapping his fingers in front of Nico's face.

"What?" Nico looked up. They were all staring at him. "Sorry."

Bianca rolled her eyes. "He asked you how school was."

"Fine," Nico said, looking back at his plate. He didn't want to tell them about his classes, and especially not about his talk with Thalia after school.

"That's it?" Hades prompted, and Nico nodded.

Bianca smirked. "Why did I have to take your bag home today?"

Nico glared at her. "I had something to do."

Persephone grinned. "Something to do with a girl, perhaps?"

"It's none of your business!" Nico snapped at her. They sat in silence for a moment, then Nico stood up. He walked away to his room, closed the door, and lay down on the bed.

He really hated her sometimes. It wouldn't have been so bad if his mother had asked that. If his mother had been the one smiling at him and teasing him about girls. But she wasn't his mother. Persephone had no right to do the things his mother should do.

"That wasn't very nice." Bianca said, coming into his room.

"The door was closed."

"I know."

"You should have knocked."

"Oh well." She sat down on the bed next to him.

"It isn't her business," Nico said without looking at her.

Bianca shrugged. "She was just trying to be nice."

"She was trying to be our mother."

There was a pause. "Is that such a bad thing."

Nico sat up, staring at his sister. "Of course it's a bad thing!"

"Why?"

"Because she's not Mom!"

Bianca looked at him. "I know that. And I wish she wasn't here, too. I know she can't replace Mom. But she just asked if you were doing something with a girl."

He lay back down. "It's none of her business."

"But you were mean to her about it." Bianca began smoothing the hair around her younger brother's face.

"I don't care," he said.

"Dad does."

"She should go away. We were fine without her."

Bianca nodded. "We were. But Dad wasn't."

Nico closed his eyes. "I don't like her." He knew he sounded like a little kid. He didn't care.

"Nico, you scream at her every time she opens her mouth," Bianca pointed out. "It's pretty obvious you don't like her."

"Then she shouldn't talk to me."

Bianca stopped stroking his face and lay down next to him. "I feel the same way, sometimes. But Dad really cares about her."

Nico didn't answer. They lay in silence.

"Hey, Nico," Bianca said after a while.

He opened one eye to look at her.

"Was it because of a girl?"

He opened the other eye and looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah."

"Aww, Nico's got a crush. Who is it?" Bianca's grin could rival a crocodile's.

"You know the new girl in my grade, Thalia?"

Bianca's grin was wiped off her face. "You like the goth girl?"

"Don't call her that. And yes."

"Why?"

"Because…because…I don't know. I just do."

Bianca sighed. "Just be careful, Nico. She's obviously unstable."

"So?"

"Do you know anything about her?"

He nodded. "Yes."

"What?"

He hesitated. "It's sort of private."

Bianca rolled her eyes. "Tell me. I swear I won't tell anyone."

He glanced at her, but she was his sister. He had to trust her. "She's a foster kid."

"See? Be careful, Nico."

He rolled over and looked at her. "Promise."

She sat up. "Good. Wouldn't want my little brother getting hurt." She stood and walked out the door.

"Your little brother who's taller than you!" Nico called as the door closed behind her.

She stuffed her books into her locker and turned to see Nico laughing with his friends. She felt a pang of jealousy in her chest, but she ignored it. She didn't need friends.

But when she looked at him, she felt her breath catch in her throat. She rolled her eyes at herself. She sounded pathetic. Like a little lovesick girl.

She slammed the door to her locker, not caring about the stares directed at her at the sound. The hallway was filled with loud high school students gossiping about clothes and makeup and boyfriends and other thing Thalia didn't really care about. She couldn't wait for the day to be over. Unfortunately, it had just begun.

She groaned as she walked in and saw a substitute sitting at the desk. Greek was almost semi-enjoyable with Mr. Brunner, who taught them Greek mythology by making them act out the stories. Thalia fondly remembered the day they had to act out the Kronos myth; Brunner didn't cut out the part with Kronos eating his children, and watching them be puked back up was even more enjoyable.

But substitutes were always annoying. They talked to other teachers, and immediately labeled her "the problem child". She supposed she didn't help by making sarcastic comments and mouthing off to the sub. But she did that to everyone else, too. Of course, everyone else gave her detention. Just like the subs.

She resigned herself to sitting down in the back of the room. Maybe this time she could try to be nice. She was nice to Mr. Brunner. Of course, "nice" didn't mean much for her. Maybe she'd try not to get detention.

Nico came in, with all his friends. Another reason why Thalia liked Greek class: Annabeth answered all the other questions. She just had to sit in the back and look like she was paying attention. And she often noticed Nico doing the same thing. Percy, of course, had to sit by Annabeth in the front, so she could make sure he was paying attention. She refused to let her boyfriend do badly in any class. And Thalia knew about the failing English grade Percy had gotten.

Nico took the seat next to Thalia. She pretended not to notice him, but it was difficult. She could hear him breathing, see every time he shifted in his seat. She wanted to slap herself. She felt pathetic whenever she was near him.

"Nico di Angelo and Thalia Grace," she heard the substitute call. She looked up, thinking the woman was yelling at them. But she was just reading off a piece of paper. She called a few more names, then put the paper down. "You can get started."

Thalia turned to see Nico looking expectantly at her. "Well? Which one should we choose?"

"What?" Thalia asked.

He laughed. "Weren't you paying attention?"

She glared at him. "When do I ever pay attention, di Angelo?"

"Touche," he said, shrugging. "We're supposed to make a skit of a Greek myth. Which one should we do?"

"I don't care," she replied, resting her head on her hand and leaning on the desk.

"That's not helpful."

She grinned. "But when am I helpful?"

He glared at her. "Come on, Thalia. We have to do this. Which myth should we choose?"

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. How are we supposed to do this with only two people."

"We'll get there. How about the one when Hades kidnaps Persephone?"

Thalia snorted. "Only if you'll be Persephone."

"God, no. You're Persephone and I'm Hades."

"Keep dreaming, di Angelo."

"Fine, you come up with something."

She sighed. "Let's do the one with Artemis turning that guy into a deer."

He frowned. "When the guy gets eaten by his dogs because he sees her taking a bath?"

"Yeah," she said, nodding.

"You just want me to get killed."

"Thirty seconds to come up with a myth!" called the substitute.

"Fine, we'll do that one," Nico said. "What's the guy's name?"

"How should I know?"

"It was your idea!" Nico protested.

Thalia glared at him. "I just remember he was eaten. I don't care about his name."

Nico rolled his eyes. "You're impossible."

"Nico and Thalia? Do you have a myth?" the substitute interrupted them.

They looked at each other. "When Artemis turns a guy into a deer and his dogs eat him," Nico supplied.

"Do you have a name for this 'guy'?"

They looked at each other again and shook their heads.

The sub shook her head and moved on to the next person.

Nico's hand brushed Thalia's, and she stopped caring about other people's myths. Not that she'd cared in the first place. She mentally slapped herself. You know he'll leave. You can't be with him. She told herself. But her mind wouldn't listen to her brain, and somehow her fear started seeming less important.

She was only aware of the bell when Nico's hand went away and she realized everyone was leaving.

She checked her schedule and realized she had English next. She mentally groaned. English was one of her worst subjects, along with math and science. She stood up and walked out the door, making sure to glare at the teacher on her way out.

English was awful, as Thalia had expected. She didn't really pay attention, and got yelled at twice. Which was better than usual, but didn't stop Thalia from contemplating every way she could murder the teacher and fake it as a suicide.

Finally the day was over, and Thalia went down the hall to the detention room. She'd earned an hour in math when she called the teacher a bastard. She'd only muttered it, but apparently Mr Hendricks had owl ears, because he heard her and gave her an hour of detention after school for the next week.

Today, the detention room only had a few people, and Thalia recognized them all: they were regulars. Scribble, the red headed boy who scribbled on a piece of paper the entire time. Blue Girl, the girl with bright blue hair who Thalia hated because she acted very melodramatic when really there was nothing wrong. Red, the girl with frizzy red hair, paint covered pants, and a very rich daddy. The Monkeys, two boys with the same messy brown hair and cheeky smiles. And Space Cadet, the girl with dark brown hair who stared off into space and chewed her gum very loudly. Thalia took a desk near the back of the room. Blue Girl was typing furiously on her phone, and Thalia felt a pang of jealousy. She didn't have friends to text.

Then she mentally slapped herself again. She'd never felt this way. She'd never wanted friends, because she knew she didn't need them. She put her head in her hands. Nico was messing with her.

The hour crawled by. The only sounds were Scribble's pencil scratching the surface of his paper, Blue Girl's tapping on her phone, Space Cadet's gum chewing, and The Monkeys' whispers to each other. Sometimes The Monkeys would glance at her, and she would glare at them, and they would look away quickly and resume their whispering.

Finally it was over, and Thalia was the first one out the door. She ignored Red's protests as Thalia bumped into her trying to get out. But when she got out of the school, she stopped. She didn't want to go back to the foster home, but she didn't want to go to her alley, in case Nico was there.

Finally she decided to just go to the foster home, and lock herself in her room. It was better than running into Nico.

Which unfortunately was exactly what Nico wanted as he stood in the entrance to the alley, pacing back and forth. People were giving him strange looks as they passed, but he didn't care. He just wanted her to show up.

But she never did.

Eventually he walked home, ignored Persephone's cheerful hello and went to his room, slamming the door.

Why wouldn't she just trust him?

The first three chapters and the prologue were all prewritten, so the fourth will probably take longer. I've been having a bit of trouble with it and I planned to finish the whole story before uploading any of it, but I didn't. So I'm now going to try and finish the fourth chapter ASAP. But I won't rush myself, because that could result in a bad chapter. Bye for now.