Let's pretend that I never posted during the weekend so I can still post on Monday. In truth; my friend had a boring weekend coming up so I was supposed to post multiple chapters of multiple things to keep her entertained.
I started a Mark of Athena story on Fanpop. I have a little over 40 replies even if it's just been 3-4 days that it's been out, so I'm like O_o but I'm not complaining if people enjoy it.
XII
December 11th
Ian had a cold or something like that that made him talk weird on the phone, which meant that Nico was on his own at school, which wasn't a problem for him.
"Hey Goth Guts." Someone called behind him. He turned around with a locked jaw. It was the 3 captains of the 3 main teams at the school. Football, soccer and basketball. The three of them just happened to be best friends, and jerks. Or maybe Bryce radiated it so much that it had caught on to Philip Fray and Diego Rodriguez.
"Can I help you?" He said coldly.
"Ooh, touchy," Bryce said. "We were just wondering what kind of treat you were begging for back with Miss Padma. Poor little teacher's pet doesn't get fed enough already?"
A few people turned around. Usually Ian was around, therefore Nico was left alone. Minus the guy everyone liked, Nico was easy target. Apparently. He'd been treated like this all year by the trio of captains and he couldn't care less about them. Now he was just annoyed. He had other places to be. Really bad.
"I'm not a teacher's pet." He turned around and got caught by the shoulder.
"Denial is a normal part of it Nico, you must accept your condition." Bryce said, in fake kindness. Nico's chest tightened, his shoulders stiffened.
Condition.
"You can learn to live with it, with the proper rehabilitation and treatment!" Philip added. Nico caught his breath and his jaw locked so tight, he might bite something off. His fists trembled with rage.
Treatment.
"Yeah, it's not always terminal."
Nico snapped.
Diego was the smallest, and Nico had no problem turning around and shoving him back.
"STOP!" Nico said. It was like an overflowing glass. They'd put in a drop too much –actually way more than a drop- and Nico was going to explode and take it all out on them.
Philip and Bryce objected.
"You think you're tough, Goth Guts?" Bryce said, looming over Nico. He was so big Nico wondered if he wore his football equipment under his clothes to make himself bigger.
"I think you should leave me alone." Nico said, trying to get them away before he could throw a punch.
"Or what?" Bryce taunted. Nico threw a punch and nailed Bryce in the nose. He punched again in Bryce's gut and Philip and Diego were on him.
But Nico was a demigod.
And if you're a demigod, you better be pretty damn good at fighting if you're living in New York City.
Nico was.
He dodged tall Philip and weaseled past Diego. He backed off because he had enough and he knew he shouldn't even have punched Bryce in the first place.
Just a mortal. Never take your anger out on them, no matter what. Chiron said over and over to everyone, and Nico got that. Plus it was against school rules and stuff.
Bryce wasn't ready to let it go. He punched Nico in the mouth and Nico grabbed his fist, but he felt blood trickling from his lip as it throbbed. People were gathering. He even heard a 'Holly Smokes the Goth kid fights!'
A few girls shrieked, and a few guys cheered. A few of them were so scared by the outburst that they shut up.
"Stop!" Someone yelled in the crowd. Nico thought it was Eileen and that just ticked him off even more.
"You think you're so buff enough to just attack me, Goth Guts?" Bryce taunted. Diego tried to grab Nico from behind, but Nico grabbed Diego's wrists –wrists were power- and swept his legs out from under him.
"Don't make fun of disease and hospitals." Nico said with a locked jaw.
"Or what?"
Nico nailed Bryce in the shoulder.
"We've been through this." Nico said. "Don't make fun of it because you know nothing about it, and you don't know how bad it can be!"
"And you do? Common, take a joke di Angelo." Bryce said.
"IT'S NOT A JOKE!" Nico yelled. "It's something real serious and people die and not everyone always makes it! And as a matter of fact- I do know!"
He felt like he was about to cry. His vision got hazy and he got pushed from behind. He fell to the floor and someone jumped on his back, and had him in a headlock when he heard someone coming.
"Stop it! Stop it- stop it!" Nico recognised the voice as whoever had been on his back got off and he staggered back to his feet. Someone shorter than him grabbed his shoulder.
"You two- office. Fray, Rodriguez- follow."
Miss Gomez dragged them into the principal's office. Nico saw Eileen looking at him with round eyes and worry and he almost felt like yelling and running away from Miss Gomez.
She plopped them on red chairs outside the principal's office.
"I'll be right back. Don't move." She ordered. She came back with some ice for Nico's bleeding lip.
"And I'm sorry but Principal Figgings is going to have to hear about this. I don't know what that was about, or who started it- you do not fight." She was looking at Nico directly like 'what gives, since when do you fight?'
"Sarah." Nico muttered, feeling horrible. Worse than ever.
"Who the hell is Sarah?" Bryce said.
"My girlfriend you idiot!" Nico snapped.
"Nico." Miss Gomez said. Somehow that calmed him down. He met her eyes, and the door to Figgings' office opened.
A tall man with a bald head that shone like a new coin, and square glasses, the principal was. He sat them all in his office, Miss Gomez behind them. He wore an olive suit and a yellow shirt. He leaned back in his seat and listened to Bryce, Philip and Diego recall how Nico had savagely attacked Bryce.
"I see. Nico, what's your side to the story?" Nico stared at his knees.
"Nico?" Principal Figgings said.
"It doesn't matter, just give me suspension or whatever." He said. He was not going to share his sob story with Bryce, Philip and Diego. He wasn't going to give them more ammo for him.
"Nico," Miss Gomez said, "That's not how things work. Tell him, please." He looked up at Miss Gomez. She already knew pretty much how things worked with him, she'd spent time trying to get him above a D+ in math and she'd always been nice to him. Somehow he couldn't say no to her.
Then he looked up, saw Bryce, Philip and Diego and he could.
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Nico, I'm going to have to tell them, because you're a good kid and you don't deserve the suspension that, so far, you're getting." She said. Nico took a deep breath.
"My girlfriend's in the hospital and she's terminally ill with brain and lung cancers." Nico said quickly, hoping that maybe Bryce's brain wouldn't register a thing. "I was alone so they started picking on me. I'd stayed behind to ask Miss Padma if we had to read this thing about emotions in front of everyone. I didn't want to read it in front of everyone, especially not people like Bryce."
"What do you mean people like me?" He bounced up to his own defence.
"Quiet, Bryce." Principal Figgings said. "Go on, Nico."
"So they just taunted me about a teacher's pet. I said I wasn't. And then they…" Nico's eyes got teary for real. It was just the frustration of the past days that had really tapped into him and was now overflowing. Over something this stupid, over Bryce Carlton. Who cared about Bryce Carlton?
Nico took a deep breath and ran his hands on his eyes.
"They said that I could live with a 'condition'. That treatment and rehabilitation was available. And that it… It wasn't always terminal." Nico buried his face through his hands for just a second before remembering that Figgings, Philip, Bryce, Diego and Miss Gomez were there. He straightened up and sniffed. He didn't even look at the three jocks.
"So you were provoked."
"Yeah, I guess. I mean, I shouldn't have punched Bryce in the first place-"
He could hear Sarah in the back of his head 'deny everything, deny everything!' and his insides seemed to swell up and block all passage of air.
"-but I was kind of sick of him being a jerk with everyone."
"What do you mean being a jerk with everyone?" Bryce protested, but Figgings holds up his hand in silence.
"What do you mean, Nico?"
So Nico had to explain that too.
"Bryce, this isn't the first time this comes up." Figgings said.
"He punched me!"
Someone knocked on the door and Miss Gomez opened.
It was Eileen with a secretary. Eileen wore tights under a black and white flowered dress. Black boots went up to just short of her knees and there was a black butterfly clip in her hair, which reminded Nico painfully of Thanatos. That didn't help his case right now. She hugged a binder for student council meetings (she represented the tenth grade) and her backpack was swung across her shoulder. She had smoky eye makeup, still and always lined with gold.
"Excuse me Principal Figgings, Miss Gomez- it's just that I saw everything happen." She said.
"Well, come in Eileen." Figgings said.
Bryce tried to be impressive and got up to offer her his chair but she gave him a look that no cheerleader had been known to ever give a football player at Goode. He sat back down pretty quickly.
She stood up as she explained how Nico had tried to back up but then the three of them had all piled up on him. How they'd been the ones to bother Nico and he'd told them to stop, how Bryce was a jerk with a bunch of others, especially the younger ones, etc.
Mr Figgings leaned back in his chair and pondered it. Eileen shot Nico a look and he turned his head. Then the door opened again, except the secretary stood there with –out of all people- Percy and a woman that Nico assumed was Ms. Carlton. Percy shot Nico a look like 'what the Hades?'
"Sir, you called for their parents?" The secretary asked.
"Yes, hello." He got up and shook hands.
"Hannah Carlton, Bryce's mother." The woman introduced herself, shaking Figgings' hand.
"Pleased to meet you," he turned to Percy. "Are you Nico's father?" He asked confused.
"Oh, heck no! I'm a cousin, umm, his legal tutor." Percy said. "My name's Percy Jackson."
"Paul's stepson, aren't you?" Figgings recognised.
"Yes," Percy said.
"Pleased to meet you, please take a seat," Figgings said. "Mr Fray, Mr Rodriguez; you can go, but expect some follow-up about detention sometime." They both scrammed and Percy sat down next to Nico. He eyed Nico, but he didn't look angry. Nico didn't really care anyways.
"Eileen, thank you for your time, you can go off to the council meeting now. Tell the responsible teacher you were with me."
"Okay Principal Figgings. Have a nice day, Nico." She said.
Figgings gave Percy and Ms. Carlton the brief on what had happened.
"Bryce!" Ms. Carlton snapped. "How could you? Bullying is bad enough already, but now you're making jokes about the most painful things in life? No- don't you 'I didn't know' me; it's not a joking subject, period. With anybody. Don't you think it's hard enough already for the people concerned? They don't need an idiot from school telling them something they didn't want to know!"
Nico closed his eyes and felt like sinking into his chair and melting with the plastic. Life as a chair must be so much easier… He should be rejoicing at this; Bryce was getting in serious Styx. But to Nico, that didn't change anything.
"Both of you will be punished for this. You threw a punch or threw one back- it doesn't matter, you threw it. Bryce, we've had kids coming in about bullying about you last year. You weren't suspended, but we did tell you that was the next step, didn't we?"
"Sir-"
"Didn't we?" Ms. Carlton said. "Bryce, common, he was clear on it."
"Mom-"
"No buts. You'll of course be suspended from the football team at the same time, for the rest of the year-"
"What? But Sir- I'm captain!"
"Not anymore. Coach Patterson will agree with me on this one. As for you, Nico, you might have been provoked greatly, but you still got in a fight. Detention every Friday until school ends. Is that clear with both of you?" Principal Figgings asked Percy and Ms. Carlton. She nodded vigorously, and Percy shrugged.
"Okay," Figgings said.
"Yes Principal Figgings. Thank you for your time." Ms. Carlton said.
"Yes, thanks." Percy said.
They all left and Percy pulled Nico aside, in a dessert corridor, away from Bryce and his mom.
"You okay?" He asked. Nico nodded.
"No idea what that was about. I just kind of…"
"Cracked." Percy guessed. Nico nodded.
"Look- where were you last night?" He asked.
"It's a long story."
"It doesn't matter," Percy said. "Do you want a ride to the hospital? Because I guess it's sort-of on my way back to NYU…"
"No," Nico said. "I can get there."
Percy put a hand on his shoulder and looked his cousin in the eye. It was the first time Nico saw Percy as really anything but his cousin who was letting him bunk with him, maybe a big brother. It was like Percy was a coin- you got the idiot demigod on the top and this side on the bottom. The side that gave him a home in New York, didn't keep him on a leash, ditched a university class to come to school when Nico needed a legal tutor around…
"Try not to hit people, Nico. I know it's frustrating and sickening and it drives you insane in general, but if you really need to blow off some steam, we'll find you a straw dummy next time." Percy said. Nico muttered something about hospital jokes again even if Percy had heard.
"They didn't know, Nico. They don't understand."
"I don't care. It takes three brain cells to know what happens in a hospital." Nico said.
"Yeah, but it takes a heart to know how it feels. That guy… I dealt with a bunch of them. He doesn't have it in him. You've just got to ignore them. It sounds cliché and everyone-says-that, but it's true Nico. You've got enough going on without having Bryce there too."
"I don't care about him," Nico said. Percy figured that he wasn't going to talk his cousin in and out of anything. Nico knew he wasn't an idiot, and that he knew that wherever he'd been last night was still bugging him. Nico couldn't agree with Percy more, but he wasn't going to say a thing.
They walked to the parking lot together and Nico walked down the sidewalk towards the subway station.
"Hey, Nico!" He heard. He turned around to see Eileen Donatello.
Oh man…
"Oh, hi Eileen." Nico said.
"Meeting was short tonight." She said. "Can I walk to the subway with you?"
"Umm, sure." He said. They walked a bit in an awkward silence.
"Umm, thanks for backing me up, earlier." He said.
"No problem. I hate Bryce. He picks out the girls on the cheerleading squad like he's playing eenie meeni miney mo, and they wait in line for him." Eileen said.
They walked some more in silence.
Nico had once heard that a silence was only awkward if you weren't comfortable with the people you were with. For Nico, there had never been an awkward silence until right now. With his best friend's little sister…
"Hey, umm, Nico, I was wondering if you'd want to catch a movie or something." She said.
And there it was…
"Umm, Eileen… You look nice and all, but I already have a girlfriend." Nico said.
"You do?" Eileen said, her eyebrows and face falling.
"Yeah, sorry." Nico said. He wasn't sure if he was being nice about it or not. He had zero girl experience except for Sarah, and Sarah wasn't exactly hard to read or be around.
"Oh." Eileen said. "I didn't know, cool, what's her name? Does she come here?"
Eileen was obviously not used to having this answered back to her. She knew nearly everybody in the school, plus a lot of guys would kill for a date with Eileen- 10th grade representative in student council, cheerleader, and about 12 other things. On top of that; pretty. He doubted a lot of guys had ever said no to her like he just had, or had so little interest in her. It sort of made Nico feel bad, but at the same time he had nothing to feel bad about and knew it. He didn't like Eileen, and it wasn't fair to either her, him or Sarah to lead her on.
"Sarah. Barclay. And no. She doesn't go here." Nico said.
"Oh, which school?" Sarah asked.
"Oh- I forgot my science book at school!" Nico said suddenly. "I've got a test tomorrow, I better go get it. I'll see you later, I guess."
"Yeah," Eileen said, a fake smile hanging on her lips.
Nico turned around, and walked away fast. But he didn't go get his science book (did he even have science this semester?); he just shadow traveled from a bush.
