...Um...Hi. I know I haven't updated in a while. But I'm not dead!

Anyways, it's kind of a short chapter, but hopefully the next one will be longer. Please review more guys. Even if it's just saying something simple like, 'good job,' it seriously makes my entire day.

Anyways:

bluerasberry-butterflies : My school is putting on Suessical Jr. My director has been having me and my friends come in at lunch to teach us two and three part harmonies. It really is time-consuming

Also, I'm thinking of starting to do a sort of song-of-the-chapter thing. What do you guys think?

Nico's POV

"I hate school," Percy muttered, plopping down with a bag of food.

"What's new?" Luke said, laughing as Will high-fived him.

"Ha ha," Percy mocked sarcastically.

"Well, I totally just bombed that last test," Connor said, dramatically throwing himself down on the bench next to me and Jason.

"What test?" Travis asked from his spot next to Will.

"The one that Athena's giving out on everything we 'learned' so far-"

"What?!" he exclaimed. "Oh, schist! I have her next!"

"You're dead," Leo said. "It was hella hard." He paused, taking a bite of his taco. "But that new chick, Adriana, she finished in like, twenty minutes. Nobody EVER finishes Athena's exams in under an hour."

"Yeah, well that Tori girl managed to get through Apollo, Iris, Hecate, and Hades with ear-buds without getting caught once. I mean, Apollo wouldn't have cared, but, I mean, Hades!"

That was really annoying me. Seriously, that girl was slowly making me give her grudging respect. But something was off about her. She reminded me too much of Thalia.

I mentally kicked myself. Today, everything is reminding me of Thalia. I see her in everything; the blue of some random freshman's shirt that was the exact shade of her eyes, the Falling In Reverse logo that I had scribbled on my Latin notes, the dyed colors in my lab partner, Lou Ellen's , hair that were nowhere near the same as Thalia's, but still managed to draw my mind to her.

I was yanked out of my thoughts by a hand snapping in front of my face. I blinked a couple of times and looked at Will who was pulling his hand back towards him. "You okay, man?"

I was silent as I glanced around. Jason caught my eye and nodded slightly. I coughed awkwardly and stood up from my chair, walking away without saying a word. I was literally going crazy. Plus, just to add to all the stress, Bianca came home in a few days.

Bianca had chewed me out over the phone switching in between English, Italian, and Greek when she found out that Thalia left without me stopping her. And then again as soon as she realized Thalia left because of me. I had snapped at her, yelling that I already knew that I was the one who drove her away. And then I had broken down crying over the phone. Bianca was silent for so long I almost thought she had hung up. But then she started singing one of the old Italian lullabies that she had sang to me when Dad had accidentally gotten on a plane, forgetting us at a hotel. We were ten and he wasn't able to come back for nearly two months, since his flight got cancelled multiple times, then business called him and Bianca, being the more mature of us two, took care of me. It didn't matter that we were the same age (and it probably didn't help that she had had her growth spurt and stood a good foot and a half taller than me).

I bumped into someone as I walked down the hallway, nearly pushing them to the ground.

"Sorry," I muttered, reaching down to pick up the stuff that did fall to the floor.

I was pushing papers into a pile and saw another set of hands pushing some others together before catching sight of a Sleeping With Sirens label scribbled at the top of an English assignment. I was about to comment when my hands brushed across an open notebook. I could have sworn I saw one of Thalia's doodles that she had drawn one night when we had stayed up until five in the morning on my roof, eating bags of chips and emptying cans of energy drinks, talking about the most random schist ever, until she fell asleep in my lap. But the book was swooped up in the girl's nimble hands as soon as I blinked.

I shifted my gaze upward and saw that I was picking up papers from Tori, who reminded me so much of Thalia. I set the pile I had picked up back onto the ground and stood up, stepping back a few steps. It was too much to deal with today.

"Sorry," I mumbled again, before turned around and sprinting down the halls.

Before I knew it, my hands were gripping onto the railing of the stairway as I stood at the top of the landing where no one ever bothered to come up. The skin was pulled tight around my knuckles as my breathing slowed. I slipped to my knees.

This was too much to happen in one day. I couldn't deal with it. The door opened at the bottom of the stairs and I saw Percy and Jason standing there, their breathing a little ragged.

"Hey, we saw you run," Percy said, jogging up the stairs to sit on the stair right below him. He pushed his hair out of his face.

"You okay?" Jason asked, before chuckling humorlessly. "Okay, that was a stupid question. None of us are. But we'll be fine. They were able to let go, so should we."

But that was it, I didn't want to believe that Thalia was able to let go. Some part of my mind was hoping she didn't completely block me out. I knew those pieces were in their minds too.