SummerSpirit18: Dude, you don't celebrate Halloween?! I guess that makes sense, Halloween comes from the pagan holiday Samhain (Sowan) which was brought to America by the Irish when they came here in the nineteenth century, but the Irish didn't go to Romania. That's very sad, though. I feel bad for you. There's a lot more Thalico in this one, even if it isn't really the romantic kind. My story for American Lit...I'll talk about that after the chapter's over.
Goddess Of Idiots: I love your name, just so you know. I really liked writing about Thalia's friends, but after she meets Nico it's even better. You're the only person who mentioned the quote of the week, so thank you! I love it. My mom actually does a quote of the day, I just use one of hers. I love the one for today, too.
Mrs-diAngelo25: I actually like wearing dresses (don't tell) I just don't like wearing fluffy ones. Or short ones. I always wear long, straight, black ones. There are a ton of girls at my school who will wear ones that are really really really short with skirts that fluff out, and they look ridiculous. I got it out, I'm so excited! I finally finished the first chapter of my new story!
Lost Daughter of Poseidon: Yeah, they meet in this chapter. And they're perfectly weird. Hope you like it!
dont get too close: HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE THALIA?! She's awesome! I think if you read my author's notes you would know that I update once a week on Mondays. I don't know if you know this, you probably do, but you can follow my story and then you'll get an email when I update. And if you follow me, as in me the author, then you'll get an email every time I upload anything, a story or a new chapter. I usually do the same thing, I only read multi-chapter stories when if they're finished or if I know that the author is going to update. I got kinda sick of making Luke a jerk, but in my new story he will be, sorry. I'm not quite sure how this is fluffy, but okay.
infinity heart star lightning: Yeah, cute wasn't really what I was going for, I was thinking more along the lines of creepy. I hate Thaluke, they just don't work. I only use Luke when I need someone other than Nico to be Thalia's boyfriend. Because I don't really like Thaluke, but Perlia is even worse.
I don't own Percy Jackson. I do own Mrs. Moore and Diablo Cove (as far as I know).
Chapter 7 – Eleventh Grade Part One
Thalia slammed the door behind her. In the elevator she threaded her hands into her hair and breathed deeply. She hated her mother. God, she hated her mother.
Her mother had spent the last half an hour blaming Thalia for a wine bottle that had gone missing. Of course she'd either drank the bottle and forgot, or never bought it in the first place, but that didn't matter to Lillian. She and Thalia fought at least once a week. Thalia was just glad that this time she'd gotten out before it escalated.
She left the apartment building and began walking through the streets. She'd gotten better at navigating her way through New York, but she didn't want New York now. She didn't want skyscrapers and honking traffic and people yelling in more languages than Thalia could count, and the bright lights even though it was 9:00 at night. She wanted stars and ocean. She wanted her friends. She wanted Diablo Cove.
She'd never considered running away, never let herself consider it, but now she did. Leaving New York, going back to Florida. Or maybe she wouldn't even go to Florida. Maybe she'd go somewhere else. California. Or maybe she'd go north, Vermont, Maine, or all the way to Canada.
Thalia chuckled to herself. She'd never make it, she knew. She couldn't survive on the streets. She didn't know how. Sure, she could learn, but she wouldn't be able to make it all the way to Florida, or anywhere.
Maybe she'd try it someday. Spend one night on the streets. Just to see if she could make it. Or a weekend.
She laughed again. She was being ridiculous. Besides, she only had two more years. Then she could go wherever she wanted.
Thalia hadn't been paying attention to where she'd been going, and she found herself nearing some warehouses. A part of her was screaming at her to go back. She'd heard the stories about what happened in warehouses, especially warehouses like these, which looked abandoned. But another part of her told her to keep going. She was bored, and she didn't want to go back to the places that she knew. And there was no one here.
She kept walking, past the warehouses, and came to an old dock. It was wooden, and she could see the places where it was rotting. The ocean shone in the moonlight. The dock wasn't safe, and the sea smelled of rotten fish and garbage, but Thalia walked to the end of the dock and sat down, gazing at the water.
It wasn't Diablo Cove, but it was something. She didn't think she'd ever find somewhere like Diablo Cove, especially not like the cove itself. The town and surrounding beaches were beautiful, but Diablo Cove was something else. Thalia could just picture it on a night like tonight. Calm, black waters that looked like obsidian and sand that shone so bright in the moonlight it looked white. The idea of the rocks hiding just beneath the water that had given the cove its name. The ships that had sunk so many years ago.
This was different. This water was black, but it was deeper. There were no rocks, no sunken ships. Thalia imagined sharks and manta rays swimming beneath her feet. Of course there probably weren't any sharks or manta rays this close to shore, but Thalia pushed that thought out of her mind and tried to enjoy the bottomless feeling of the ocean.
She heard a noise behind her. It sounded like someone walking. But she didn't turn around, and it didn't come again. Maybe she'd just imagined it. She sat still for a few seconds, waiting to see if she would hear it again, but she didn't. She decided that if it had been a person they would have spoken, and if it was something she needed to worry about it would have made her worry already.
Half an hour later Thalia stood up, dusted off her butt, and turned around. She froze when she saw Nico di Angelo standing behind her. It had been a year since she'd come to Goode High School, and she still hadn't ever said anything to him. She'd seen him in the hall and in class, and heard what people had said about him, and she'd even defended him a few times. But she still didn't know any more about him than she'd learned the first day, except his last name (which she thought sounded perfect with his first. Nico di Angelo).
After a moment she walked past him, off the dock, and toward her apartment. Her mother would be asleep by now.
She saw him in school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but he wasn't there Thursday or Friday. She didn't talk to him, barely even looked at him.
On Friday night, a week after their encounter on the docks, she went back. There was no one there and she sat down, hanging her legs over the side and staring at the water. She hoped he would come again. She wanted to talk to him, she'd wanted to talk to him since she first saw him.
She heard the sound behind her and smiled. She turned around. He was standing there with his hands in his pockets. He was wearing black jeans, a black shirt, and a black leather jacket. She smiled and waved him over.
Nico stared at her. She'd been there last week, too, and he'd just stared at her. She'd looked beautiful, her hair shining in the moonlight. He'd been content to just stand there staring. A few times he'd almost said something, but he hadn't had the courage.
But now she was sitting there smiling at him and telling him to sit next to her. What was he supposed to do? Part of him wanted to sit down, and part of him wanted to turn and run. But he ignored both parts and just stood there staring at her until she shrugged and turned back around to look at the ocean.
He was still staring at her when she stood up and walked off the dock. He turned around and watched her go, which was more than he'd done last week. Last week he'd stood there, looking at the dark water and wondering if that had really happened.
But this time her shoulder brushed against his arm, and he knew from the tingling sensation that she was real. He watched her leave. He almost called out to her, even opened his mouth, his lips forming her name, but he couldn't make a sound.
Unconsciously Nico put his hand on his left arm and ran his thumb over where he knew the Russian spelling of Bianca's name was. He turned back to the ocean and stared for a moment, then turned around and left. For some reason he didn't want to stay that night.
He went to school every day next week, hoping to have the courage to say something to her, but he never did. Every day he watched her in class, and he felt something in his chest, like a hollowness. It was unfamiliar, but not unpleasant.
On Friday night he was sitting on his bed filling one of his flasks with vodka that he'd taken from his father and thinking about Thalia. He wondered if she'd be there again. If she was, would he be able to talk to her? Would he sit down next to her, or would he stand there staring like an idiot the way he had the past two weeks?
Across the room Nico noticed an extra silver flask, and an idea occurred to him. He stood up, crossed the room, picked up the flask, and sat back down on his bed to fill it.
Half an hour later he was passing the warehouses. When he saw Thalia sitting on the dock and staring at the ocean he stopped.
I can do this, he told himself. He swallowed and walked down to the end of the dock. He sat down next to her. Without taking his eyes off of the ocean or saying anything he reached into his jacket and handed her the extra flask.
Thalia smiled. She was finally getting somewhere with him. She opened the flask and took a drink. As the alcohol burned in her throat she almost laughed. Finally, someone with taste.
The minutes ticked by and they didn't say anything to each other. Nico's heart was thumping in his chest. He was sitting next to her, that was a step in the right direction (he hoped). Now should he say something?
Thalia beat him to it. "Mrs. Moore's a bitch," she said. Mrs. Moore was their Chemistry teacher. It was one of the few classes that they shared.
Nico smirked but didn't say anything.
After waiting for him to reply and deciding he wasn't going to, she continued, "It's like she hates us."
"She does," Nico said, and took another swig from the flask.
Thalia looked at him. She wanted to smile, to cheer, to tell the whole world that she'd gotten Nico to talk, but instead she asked. "Why? I mean wouldn't we do better in class if we didn't think she hated us?"
He snorted.
They sat in silence again. Nico patted himself on the back for talking to her at all.
"Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?" he asked finally.
She lifted an eyebrow but answered, "Why?"
"He didn't have the guts."
"That was awful."
"I know."
Thalia started laughing, and Nico's face broke into a smile.
"Okay, okay, I've got one," Thalia said when she'd calmed down. "What does a vegan zombie eat?"
Nico turned to look at her. "A vegan zombie?"
She nodded. "Yes. What does a vegan zombie eat?"
"What?"
"Grains."
"Why don't people in Africa gamble?"
"Oh come on, you have to at least laugh a little at that one." He stared at her and she sighed. "Why?"
"'Cause there are too many cheetahs."
Thalia leaned forward and put her head in her hands.
"That's not even my worst one," Nico said, grinning. He felt a little light headed, and he wasn't sure if it was the alcohol or because he hadn't smiled this much in ages.
Thalia looked up at him. "Do I even want to know?"
He shook his head. "Not yet. It's your turn."
She leaned back and looked up at the sky. Despite all the air pollution, she could almost see the stars. "What did the psychiatrist say when a man walked into her office wearing nothing but plastic wrap?"
"Oh no. What did he say?"
She grinned. "'I can clearly see you're nuts!'"
Nico laughed. Thalia's smile stretched across her face. This was better than she thought she would ever get.
"Okay, now you have to tell me your worst one."
He nodded. "What's brown and sticky?"
She thought for a second. "Caramel?"
"Nope. A stick."
Thalia nearly fell off the dock laughing, although that might have had something to do with the fact that she'd finished nearly half the flask of vodka. "Where did you get that?"
Nico tipped his head back. "I think my friend told it to me when we were in like first grade. And, you know, still friends."
"What happened?"
He shook his head. "Doesn't matter."
They sat there for another hour, and Nico found that he loved Thalia's voice even more when he wasn't listening to her answer questions in class.
The next week when he arrived and found Thalia drinking from her own flask, he couldn't help the smile that spread across his face.
I loved writing this chapter so much. I especially loved the jokes. I spent hours looking up bad jokes online. I found some other ones, but these were my favorites.
I finally finished the first chapter of my new story, I'll upload it right after I finish here. It's called Along the Way, it's a Thalico but it isn't really romantic. You can find it on my account, I won't give you a summary here.
I did finish my story for American Lit, it didn't come out quite as good as I would have liked. But I think it was pretty good anyways. Let's just hope that my teacher thinks so.
I have an Algebra II test tomorrow and a Trigonometry test the day after. Wish me luck. But I think I'll need more luck to sit through the pep rally that we have on Friday. I have to watch Powder-Puff Football. Who the hell came up with that name?
I'll let you all know how Homecoming goes, it's this weekend. We have Spirit Week this week, and the freshman are getting slammed. I don't know if Spirit Week is the same for other schools, or if other schools even have Spirit Week, but Spirit Week is the week before Homecoming when we all have to dress up, and each day is themed and each class gets a different aspect of the theme. So today was Pattern Day, the freshmen got floral, sophomores got plaid (I don't own any plaid), juniors got polka dots, seniors got stripes, and teachers got argyle. The freshmen always get the worst ones, it's funny when you're not a freshman. Last year I was, we had an animal print day and the freshmen got giraffe. Who owns giraffe print? Tomorrow is music day and the sophomores got country, but the freshmen got reggae. I can't wait to see that.
Quote of the Day: "Once again, I have onion ring in my cleavage." We were in the middle of a restaurant. Thanks, mom.
Review and go read the first chapter of Along the Way!
