Not talking to those idiots about Will was probably the dumbest thing I've ever done in my entire life.

For the next three weeks, they pestered me, teased me, got in my way, left notes in my locker or on my desk, sent texts, and even emailed me! They did anything they could to make me spill my guts when I couldn't even tell them if I wanted to. I had no idea if I had a crush on him or not.

The only thing that was good about this situation was that they hadn't gotten Percy or Leo into it.

By now you're probably wondering about Will. Who is he? How do I know him? What does he look like? Well, I will answer all of those marvelous questions.

First, let's talk about who he is and how I met him.


William Solace is one of my best friends. I met him on the very first day of my junior year when he bumped into me in the halls.

"What is your problem," I said.

"Oh, my god dude! I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going. Do you need help?"

I looked up from where I sat on the floor and gasped.

Standing above me was a literal god. He had an athletic surfer body, shaggy blonde hair, and gorgeous blue eyes. They were a deep blue that seemed to perfectly match the sky. He had very faint freckles dashed across his nose and perfectly white, straight teeth.

"Dude, you good?" he asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I felt heat rush to my cheeks and shook the hair out of my eyes to try and stop it.

"I'm fine," I huffed, reaching up for his outstretched hand.

He pulled me up and proceeded to help me pick up my things.

"See you around." He smiled when we both had our possessions.

"Probably not," I said quietly.

I turned around and walked away towards my first class, and as I was walking into the classroom, I ran into a very solid structure.

I looked up in deep annoyance and saw blondie staring back with a smile on his face.

"Dude you really need to watch where you're walking," I grumbled reaching up for his hand once again.

"Maybe you need to learn how to not fall onto your butt," he answered.

"And you should probably get a lesson or two on how to treat the people you ram onto the floor."

"Sorry. Again," he said with a slight flush on his cheeks.

"That's much better."

We both started laughing.

"Can we start over?" he asked, "I'm Will Solace."

"Nico di Angelo," I responded.

"I know," he said, "I've seen you around. Plus you're Jason's friend. There are very few people who everybody in this school knows including Jason Grace, Percy Jackson, and their friend Nico."

"Who would've thought that I'm so popular." I teased.

"Dude everybody knows you. You're Jason Grace's terrifying best friend."

"Is that really how people know me?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Well, if it helps, I try not to be scary. It just comes naturally."

He burst out laughing.

"I'm just shocked that the most mysterious kid in school is funny," he said, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

I rolled my eyes.

From that moment on, with five out of eight classes together, Will and I were inseparable.


I plopped down next to Will with a scowl on my face.

"What's up with you?" Will asked with a smirk on his face.

"Jason and Nikki won't stop bugging me. It's been three weeks and they won't stop pestering me."

"Sounds like you should talk to them. We both know that neither of them will leave you alone until you tell them whatever they want to know." he reasoned.

"I don't even know the answer to their question! I couldn't tell them if I wanted to!"

"Well, then you should probably fix that first."

I was about to ask him how I do that when Ms. Dodds started class.


"That was the most boring lecture I have ever been forced to sit through."

"Nico, you say that about every lecture," Will responded.

"That's not true. I only say it about the Math, Science, English, Shop and History ones." I defended myself.

"That would mean that you only don't say it about Art and Photography. And you don't even have lectures in those classes."

"Exactly."

"You're such an idiot," he said in between laughs

"Thank you."

He started laughing harder and I smiled. I love it when he laughs. He looks like a cute little puppy dog. And his laugh. It's the best sound in the world. I would constantly listen to it if I could. Wait how long have I been staring at him. Snap out of it man!

I pried my eyes away from his face and looked down at the floor in pure embarrassment.


The next day in History we started working on a group presentation and, of course, Will and I were partners.

"I don't understand. Why did Hitler kill people who didn't have blonde hair? He didn't have blonde hair!" Will asked.

"He didn't kill people who weren't blonde. The Nazi racial theory had a pecking order. The tall, athletic, blonde, blue-eyed 'Nordic Aryans' was the ideal. At the other end of the spectrum were the Untermensch - Jews, Gypsies, Slaves, blacks - who were considered only suitable for slave labor or extermination.

"Yet, being blonde could save your life. When the Germans flattened the Czech village of Lidice as a reprisal, they shot all the men and sent all the women and children to concentration camps, but, a handful of blonde, blue-eyed children were saved and sent to German families to be raised as Germans. The kidnapping of children was in the aim of promoting racial purity and was yet another cruelty practiced by the Nazis." I explained.

"It still doesn't make sense." Will sighed.

I rolled my eyes.

"How do you know that anyway?"

"It's called research. Maybe you should try it sometime."

"Ouch. That was harsh. I'll have you know that I do research all the time. I just don't do it about something as depressing as World War II."

"So you're telling me that you never wondered what happened during World War II?"

"Well, I wondered, but I never did research about it. I knew that it would make me cry."
"You never googled the Holocaust because you knew you would cry?"

"Yeah. During third grade, I started crying when the teacher showed us a video about animal poaching. Hitler was basically a human poacher, and I know for a fact that it would make me cry."

At that, I just burst out laughing.

"It's not funny." Will defended.

"It's hilarious. People think that you're so tough, but deep down you're just a big softie." I stated, gasping for air from laughing so hard.

I looked up and saw Will, practically beaming, despite my teasing and knew that I was in deep trouble.

I had a crush on my best friend.