Chapter Fourteen, I believe. Not even halfway through! So exciting!

Disclaimer: I swear to gods I'm only doing this now, but only because I keep forgetting about this. I only own Nemo Ledger and Teenaged Author owns Jaycee Carter and the rest of her characters.

Also, this chapter explains why Nico is now older than Jaycee. I know that he was the same age as her in And We Thought We Were Normal, but this will explain what happened.

Nemo's POV

The squid was coming and I tried to tug on my seatbelt, but it wouldn't come off. Percy, however, was lucky. His seatbelt slid back into its slot with a click and he shot up out of his seat, looking for a weapon.

"Percy!" I screamed. "Watch out!" The squid raised one of its legs or whatever and Percy ducked underneath it just as it smashed into the wall he was nearby.

"Help me Nemo!" Percy yelled at me, and I rolled my eyes.

"I'm still stuck in my seat!" I screamed back, and Percy groaned over the squid's shrieking.

"I can help with that." A voice behind me said, and my seat belt turned into dust. I turned around as soon I stood up to find Hermes standing behind me.

"Hermes." I whispered, and he winked.

"Look under your chair." He said, and then he was gone in the blink of an eye. I quickly dropped to the floor just as the leg swiped over me and looked under the chair to see a dagger duct-taped to the bottom of it.

Read the inscription before you use it. I heard Hermes' voice in my head, and I ripped it off and looked down at it.

"It's in Latin!" I screamed, and pocketed the dagger. If I couldn't read it, then I couldn't use it.

I ran for cover and found an iPhone on the ground. I quickly pressed the home button and unlocked it. Luckily for me, it didn't have a password. I looked through the apps to find the flashlight app, and I clicked on it, turning it to strobe. I made sure the eye of the squid was right on me, and then I pressed the on button.

"What are you doing?" Percy screamed, and I rolled my eyes again but succeeded in my goal to startle the squid, and before I knew it, I was covered in giant squid ink. And when I say covered, I meant from head-to-toe, stuck in uncomfortable places kind of covered.

"Whatever you did," Percy started, getting some ink from my hand into a small jar, "You managed to get the squid to leave." I looked back at the screen to see that it was blacked out.

"Yay." I said, dropping the phone on the ground, not really caring if I had broken someone's iPhone.

"We should probably get out of here before the authorities get us." Percy said, and I led him outside.

"Let's get to Elitch Gardens." I said, and I light-travelled us out of there.

"Why are you covered in ink?" Nico asked me when we landed at the entrance of the amusement park. Percy was unconscious and currently resting in the back seat of the car, where Jaycee and Connor were 'hanging out'.

"The squid attacked us, I scared it, and it sprayed me everywhere with ink." I complained, and Nico chuckled in his husky voice.

"Your lips look weird covered in black." Nico said. "I'm supposed to be the Goth one, Nemo!" I laughed and looked up at him (which was kind of a stretch for me, considering I'm super short).

"Well your lips aren't covered in black." I pointed out, and Nico stopped to think.

"You're right." He said, and before I could say anything, he kissed me. Just for a few seconds. But I was a bit wobbly on my feet after it. I looked up at his face to see that his lips were now black.

"Now you're playing the role of a true Goth." I said absentmindedly, and he laughed.

"Yep." He said, and we sat on a bench.

"So how come you're two years older than Jaycee?" I asked. "I heard that last year you were the same age as her." Nico looked tense, and he grimaced.

"But you don't have to tell me anything -" I started.

"No, I can tell you." Nico said, and he sighed. "Last year, after that whole mix-up with Jaycee, her family, and her older brother, Drew, I went on a mission for Chiron. I was supposed to rescue a powerful demigod from the family he was living with, because they were monsters. I don't know what kind, though. I can't remember. I became friends with him and then one night, when I was staying at his house, they attacked us."

"That's terrible!" I exclaimed, and he looked at me sadly.

"They killed the kid - Alexander - I was supposed to help in his sleep. But I woke up before they could kill me, and I fought them. They chased me to Central Park, and that's when they had called for backup.

"I was surrounded by these monsters, and I didn't know what to do. I used my power to banish them to Tartarus, and when I woke up, Apollo was standing there.

"He said, 'Nico, after all the power you used, you have been aged two years as a sacrifice. You are now fifteen.' I was completely shocked, and I almost didn't turn away when he left me. But I did.

"I came back to camp and told everybody, and I enrolled into Goode High School. I manipulated the Mist so the teachers wouldn't recognize me, all except for Mr. Blofis, or Paul. And since then, I've had to deal with being two years older than what I really should be." He ended his story and I looked down.

"That's terrible." I whispered, and he nodded.

"If I could redo what happened, I would've woken up before that poor unclaimed demigod died." Nico said, and I played with my bracelet. "And maybe I wouldn't have been in this whole mess." I looked at him in disbelief and stood up.

"That's all you care about?" I almost screamed. "If you hadn't been sent on this quest, I wouldn't have met you, I wouldn't have made another friend - which I so desperately need - and I wouldn't have fallen!" I stopped myself before I could give anything more away, and I stomped to the car, interrupting Jaycee and Connor in their 'quality alone time' (not necessarily alone, but good enough considering Percy was unconscious).

"Let's get to the Capitol before sunset." I said angrily, and Nico hopped in the car right before we drove off to complete the ritual.

After learning this little bit about Nico, I started wondering about what would happen if it was me in his position. Then I was brought out of my thoughts by Jaycee.

"We're here!" She said happily, and I hopped out of the car, tripping over Percy as I did so, so I fell.

I was lucky enough to fall straight on top of a poor black cat.

"Holy crap, cat! I'm so sorry!" I said, and picked it up. The cat looked at me and I saw that it had a sun amulet as a collar and Thalia's bright blue eyes. I quickly put the cat back down and it transformed into Thalia.

"That hurt, Nemo." Thalia grumbled as I helped her up, and I smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry." I said. "You make a cute cat." I patted her head and she rolled her eyes. Then she saw what I was covered in.

"What is that?" Thalia asked, and I looked down.

"This is giant squid ink." I said, and Thalia looked down.

"That's nice." She said, and when she looked up, I saw the faint pink blush on her cheeks. And then I saw her new outfit.

Instead of her silver dress with the white skinny jeans and silver boots underneath, Thalia was wearing bright red skinny jeans, a yellow tank top, and an orange over-the-shoulder shirt with a golden sun on it. She was still wearing her silver bracelet and that sun amulet, and instead of a silver circlet around her head, it was a golden one with a sun engraved in the middle.

"Thalia, what's this?" I asked, motioning to her new outfit, and she looked down at it, and then looked back up.

"This is my new uniform." Thalia said. "Well, the colors are new. I have a bunch of outfits I can wear in these same colors." Seeing the confusion on my face, she elaborated more. "I'm not a Hunter anymore. I'm now officially the Princess of Storms and Archery. I'm also -" Thalia gagged at this part. "- Apollo's 'queen'." She scoffed but I could see her cheeks turning red. Hmm...

"Nemo!" Jaycee said. "This ritual requires a rainbow." I groaned and Percy lifted up mist while I created the rainbow. Soon enough, the ingredients (and the rainbow) were gone and replaced by another ice diamond, this one black as Nico's eyes.

"Let's go!" I said, and Thalia turned back into a cat, climbing onto my lap as soon as I sat down in the car.

"Who's the cat?" Nico asked, and I rolled my eyes.

"Thalia." I said. Nico looked baffled and I giggled at his facial expression, but I didn't bother to explain further.

"So where does the map say we need to go, Connor?" Nico asked, and Connor looked at the map.

"We're headed to Reagan, Tennessee." Connor said, and we all looked at each other.

"We're headed where?"

We had stopped right in front of a giant pink house with a red roof in the middle of nowhere. I woke up to have my head on Nico's shoulder, my ink-stained red hair with highlights sticking to my face.

"Are we here?" I asked drowsily, and Nico laughed.

"We have been for about two hours." Nico said. "You just looked cute sleeping, so I didn't wake you up." I swear I saw Nico blush pink as I felt my cheeks burning, and I hopped out of the car.

Even Percy had woken up before I did, because when I walked into the house and, following the smell of food, entered the kitchen, he was sitting at the head of the table, two elderly people, a man and woman, cooking food.

"Oh, Nico! Nemo! So glad you two could make it!" The woman came up to me and took my face into her hands. After hugging me tightly, she pulled Nico into a hug even more tighter than mine was. "I missed you Nico!" Nico looked uncomfortable, until Percy elaborated.

"Nico, say hi to our grandma." Percy said, and I realized that he had controlled the Mist so we could stay here.

"Hi, grandma. It's good to see you." Nico said politely, and we sat down at the table at the only two spots left - next to each other.

"So, how's boarding school in New York?" The man asked, and I noticed that the question was directed to me.

"It's very educational." I said. "We were recently studying giant squid, so that's why I'm covered in squid ink." The woman smiled at me and she set down a plate of rolls as she asked me the next question.

"So, how long have you been dating Nico?" She asked, and mine and Nico's eyes both widened.

"Grandma, we're just friends!" Nico protested, and I nodded my head in agreement.

"If you say so." She sighed, and I looked at Percy - well, more like glared. He just shrugged and went back to eating his macaroni and cheese.

"Christine, can you please bring these kids more Coca-Cola?" The man asked and Christine nodded.

"Of course, Jack." She said, and then she disappeared out of the kitchen.

And Nico just had to put his arm around my waist when she left the room.

Dinner was pretty much uneventful after Christine mistook me for Nico's girlfriend. It was actually kind of funny (in Percy's, Jaycee's, and Connor's eyes) but I'm not Nico's girlfriend. It's not like I'll ever be his girlfriend anyway...

Okay, forget I said that.

But I was sharing the smaller room with Jaycee while Percy and Connor were taking the other room on our floor (which was bigger). Nico had taken the last room on the second floor (where we were), but there was a different staircase leading up to it because it wasn't connected to our rooms.

Nico and I trailed after everybody else (I of course had already taken a shower so I was now ink free) and I was about to walk up the stairs when he grabbed my wrist and turned me back around.

"Nico, what are you doing?" I asked, and he smirked.

"Telling my 'girlfriend' good night." Nico said, and without warning, he took my face in his hands and kissed me.

"'Not my girlfriend' indeed." I heard Christine in the background but paid her no attention. I just focused on the kiss while wrapping my arms around his neck.

"Finally!" I heard from upstairs, and Nico and I pulled apart to see Jaycee, Connor, and Percy all standing there watching us.

"Night, Nemo." Nico said, smirking, and after giving me a kiss on the cheek, he disappeared to his room.

"So, you're not Nico's girlfriend, Nemo?" Connor asked me as I was walking up the stairs, and I blushed.

"Sod off, Connor." I said, and I walked into my room, turned off the lights, and went to sleep, not being able to wait for the next day.

I probably should have explained that a bit sooner, but Nemo was raised by an English family (aka from England) so she has an accent. Probably should have mentioned that sooner.

And I know that this may be a 'Mary-Sue' story so far, but just wait until the end. It's completely unexpected and nobody will ever figure it out.

Also, just something random that happened to me earlier, I was shaving my armpits and I cut my middle finger on my left hand. Like, the part where it bands so you can type reviews and stuff (hint hint), and I'm not quite sure how it happened. But it took thirty minutes for it to stop bleeding! It was bleeding really slowly but just wouldn't stop. Anyway, thought I'd share that with you.

Until next time!

~*N.L*~