Nico awoke with his eyes glued shut from tears and the realization that he had accidentally fallen asleep with the radio on. Again.
His head felt as if it were being shredded, and in this moment, he remembered how he had laughed at Bianca whenever she attempted to describe what she endured every month, how he had taken the mentions of her pain with a grain of salt.
The thoughts didn't sit well, and he tried to imagine the memories disappearing down the toilet along with last night's dinner.
Still, he practically crawled on his hands and knees back to his bedroom, ignoring the annoyed huff of his stepmother as he nearly kicked her cat, Rosie, in the side as he rounded the corner. His stomach had refused to hold anything down since dinner on Monday night, and he could only be thankful that today's classes would be cut short (having your dad acting as Dean of students meant knowledge of when fire drills were scheduled, thankfully).
"Nico?" His younger sister stood in the doorway, completely dressed save for the hairbrush hanging from her hair and elastics bunched around her wrist.
"You're up early." He remarked, still sweaty, as Hazel invited herself into his room, taking in the sloppy state he had been practically marinating in all morning.
"And you look like you slept under a bus." Her foot tapped impatiently on the floor until he sighed and made room for her to sit next to him.
"It's a new trend. Do you even read half of those magazines you're still subscribed to?" said magazines littered his floor as well as hers, as if the wall between their rooms had never existed.
"First of all," she rolled her eyes, settling into a familiar crease in his desk chair, "you know I like the colors, and don't hate me for being old fashioned."
His smile was, once again, cut short by another searing wave of cramps.
Hazel leaned in, pulling him towards her chest and rubbing at the small of his back, easing and unfurling the knotted muscles. He had stiffened before melting against her touch, almost feeling guilty.
She frowned. "You sure you're up for school today? I'm sure you could get a note from the nurse or something, and then Frank can drive you home."
As much as he did love his sister, the idea of being subjected to Frank's attempts at making small talk in his current condition made something inside of Nico's stomach lurch. "It's only a half day, I'll be fine," he conceded, rising unsteadily and unpeeling the sweat-soaked pajama shirt from his chest, "You know that people will start to notice if I stay home too much."
"Right, sorry." Hazel rose from the bed, hands smoothing the wrinkles in her red skirt carefully. She strode towards the half-opened closet door and opened it carefully (so as not to disturb the mounds of folders and notebooks settled around the door). "So what's it going to be today?"
Nico rubbed at his eyes and turned to face the mirror, wrinkling his nose as he took in the state of his body; mussed black hair, red cheeks, and sickly pale skin. He had to admit that he looked a lot better than he had freshman year, without the skinny frame and too-long hair that he had been meaning to cut for some time by then, and he decided to dwell on this small victory rather than beat himself up over how sick he felt.
Maybe the therapy sessions with Chiron were working out after all. He made a mental note to inform his father that this attempt at helping his son had been far more successful than any of the herbal remedies Persephone had suggested.
"Something black."
Hazel laughed, shaking her head. "Nice try, but you're going to have to be more specific. It's like staring into the void whenever I look in here." He supposed she had a bit of a point, as nearly all of the items in his closet consisted of various shades of black, and occasionally dark grey.
"It's universally flattering. And you call yourself a stylist."
"Yeah, well, remind me to get you some colorful stuff for Christmas. Or at least dark blue."
"Di Angelo!"
"Here" Nico attempted to refocus on the details of the sword he had been sketching into his notebook cover since the first week of the semester, but was interrupted by the sharp smack of a ruler against the top of his desk.
Seriously, a ruler? This wasn't the fifties.
"Now," the wrinkled bat of a teacher in front of him plastered what he assumed was meant to be a pleasant smile onto her face and spoke slowly, "had you been listening, Nico, you would have known that I was announcing the pairs for the upcoming projects, hm?"
What he wouldn't give to just walk out of here right now, run down the hallway, and scream. "Oh."
"Yes, well, "Ms. Rhoarty gestured to the others around him, already moving in a frenzy to their assigned partners, though some a bit more reluctant, "I'm sure that you will find Mr. Valdez to be a suitable match in making up for your 'distractions'," she adjusted her grip on the ruler and slowly made her way back to her desk, pausing to reprimand a few louder girls as Nico remained at his desk, still not quite sure whether or not he should move or wait.
"Hope you're better at Shakespeare than you are at looking inconspicuous," Leo greeted him, swinging his backpack and legs over the desk nearest to Nico before pulling his own closer to it.
Nico sighed. "Still not sure why you're still taking another English class when you've had, literally, years to complete credits." Leo had managed to land himself in every one of his classes since seventh grade, but was ages ahead of him in Math, somehow.
"Not all of us can be history buffs, dude," Nico only rolled his eyes and reached for the human torch (God, what a nerd) water bottle on Leo's desk, taking a swig despite the other's protests and promptly sputtering across the desk.
"What the hell Valdez!"
Leo shrugged and uncapped the bottle with one hand, and retrieved an ice cube from the inside before popping it into his mouth.
"Dad thought," he said, water dribbling slightly from the corners of his mouth, "the cold would make me feel something, get my mind off of cigs, y'know?"
Frankly, he didn't, but Nico nodded anyways, still miffed that Leo hadn't realized what those damn things were doing to his breath sooner but a little satisfied at the visible puffs of air emitting from his mouth like smoke from a dragon's. "Frostbite beats cancer, huh?"
"Shut up. How's it feel?"
Nico rolled his eyes. "Like hell. I'm heading to the nurse," he scribbled out a pass on one of his index cards and slid it to Leo, who managed to pass a decent copy of Ms. Rhoarty's signature whilst shaking his head.
"I have pills here, you know."
"Nah, I've been meaning to catch up with Will anyways." Nico managed a wink before slouching out of the classroom while Ms. Rhoarty was nose-deep in a romance novel.
Thumbing through the copy of Romeo and Juliet that had been abandoned in Nico's haste to leave, Leo was almost struck with inspiration, but only shook his head as he dug out his iPod, allowing the music to drown out his classmates and rapid heartbeat.
Dear Oracle,
How close do you have to be with a friend before telling them how important they are to you?
-Anonymous
Now playing your 5th saved message from Dare, Rachel:
"Hey Octavian?"
Octavian Solace is not available to answer your call.
"Please pick up?"
At the tone, please leave your message.
"Octavian, please!"
-beep-
"Octavian! It's… It's Rachel, alright? Look, I know you left already but I just had to check.
"Octavian if you're messing with me, I swear to god I'll quit the paper, it's not funny anymore!
"There's someone in the building… I thought I was locking up tonight?"
"I'm looking now, I swear if this is you I'll-"
End of message. Would you like to replay the message?