Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson
Nico's POV
We started to walk over to the girls, me in the lead, somehow. I felt Frank inhaling and exhaling deeply beside me. I nudged him.
"C'mon, dude."
"I know, but what if they reject us?"
"They probably will, but maybe we'll walk out with a bit of dignity left."
By the time we got over there, however, I was feeling it too. Since when was I, Nico di Angelo, Death Breath, afraid of rejection?
The girls saw us and folded their arms across their chests.
I cleared my throat, about to talk, and shoved Percy forward. Percy gave me a look like, I thought we were friends. Sorry.
"Um... We're sorry?" I facepalmed.
"Look, Hazel," Frank started, "the last few years have been hell without you."
"Then why did you turn your back on us?" Hazel asked harshly.
"W-w-well... y-you see," Frank stuttered and pushed me forward. Now I know how Percy felt.
I stood there trying to formulate something that covered how sorry we were, but, apparently, I took too long, so Jason stepped in.
"Pipes, please," He said desperately.
"Wise Girl-" Percy started.
"Save it," Annabeth said forcefully, "Try and come up with a better apology after our little race."
The girls walked away.
"Well, there goes our chance," Jason said miserably.
"Better get ready for my race," Percy said half-heartedly.
"Alright."
"Cupcakes!" Coach Hedge roared, "Chase! Jackson! Line up! I want you 2 to line up and go all the way around this track!" What?! That's 400m!
"Does anyone have any complaints?" It was like he read my mind.
I glanced at Percy and saw him looking at the sky like he was asking someone up there a question. Annabeth, on the other hand, looked perfectly fine, if not even more determined.
"I said line up!" Percy and Annabeth obliged.
"ON MY WHISTLE!" It seemed like Percy was trying to strike up a conversation with Annabeth, but she wouldn't listen.
I heard the whistle and it was like the race was in slow-mo. I saw Annabeth pull ahead, then Percy, on and off, back and forth. They got to the finish and I couldn't tell who got there first, no one could, surely.
Coach Hedge scratched his neck. "Um, do it again!" He ordered. Percy, whose hands were on his knees and breathing was ragged, gave Hedge a look like, Really, dude?
"Take 5!" Half a heart, huh?
Percy staggered over to us and we all slapped his back, which probably didn't help with his breathing problem.
"Dude, you kept up with her!" Jason exclaimed.
"Yeah-yeah but I-I can't do that a-again!" Percy wheezed.
"Man up!" I shouted.
"C'mon, Perce," Frank urged.
"I-I'll try," Percy decided hesitantly.
"OK! Chase! Jackson! I've decided you will run half of the track, which is 200m! I've reached this decision because if you noodles drop with exhaustion, that'd be a lot of paperwork! So, line up and go on my whistle! No pushing, pulling, tripping or anything else you guys do these days!"
"THREE!"
I inhaled.
"TWO!"
Exhaled.
"ONE!"
Inhaled and exhaled.
TWEET
C'mon, Perce.
It was pretty obvious Percy was tired, he was lagging more than he did last time. Annabeth seemed fine, not at all tired from their 400m race. Percy took the lead and hope surged through me.
"LET'S GO, SEAWEED BRAIN!" I shouted before I could register my words. Seaweed Brain was Annabeth's old nickname for Percy. She was probably going to kill me. She took just long enough to slow down a bit and glared at me for a fraction of a second. Percy slowed down too, but way too much. He looked at me and then at Annabeth longingly.
By the time Percy picked up the pace, Annabeth was already at the finish line. Hedge looked livid.
"WHAT? WAS? THAT?" Coach fumed and tried to get in Percy's face, which was kind of funny because Hedge couldn't have been more than 5"1 and Percy was 6"1.
"Sorry, Coach," But Percy didn't sound like he meant it.
Percy walked over and I could see he was drenched in sweat.
"I'm going over there," Percy said confidently. I can't say I was surprised.
"Did you lose because you were coming up with that apology?" I sniggered.
"Yep, meant to do it all along," Percy said sarcastically.
"Sure you did."
I sucked in a breath and started to walk over to the girls. Then I hung back and let Percy go first.
Percy cleared his throat. Annabeth turned around.
"I, uh, came up with a better apology," Percy started, a little less confident now.
"Mhmm," Annabeth mused.
Percy took a deep breath. "Annabeth, I'm sorry. Those words have probably lost their meaning by now, but, I really mean it. There's no good excuse for what we did, and I'm not going to try to make one up. I regret turning my back on you. All of you. I regret wanting to date Rachel. I'm still not sure why I wanted to do that. But I know I'll regret that choice for the rest of my life. But I won't regret this."
And then he pulled her closer and kissed her. Just kissed her. And I think she kissed back!
"Pinecone Face," I looked at Thalia, inspired by Percy's success, "I love you. I really do. And I want you. And I want to get as far away as I can from Reyna," then kissed her. I kissed Thalia Grace. And this is the best day of my life.
And she didn't pull away and slap me! That's like saying she loves me right back!
I looked over at Piper and Jason and Hazel and Frank. Frank twirled Hazel around and kissed her, like a real gentleman. Jason stood and glanced at Piper and blushed. I eternally rolled my eyes, he's so scared of Piper. Piper was the one that eventually had to kiss Jason and he looked like his brain was melting out of his ears.
I finally pulled away from Thalia to breathe (although, if it was kissing Thalia vs. Breathing... that would be a tough one).
"Don't think you're automatically forgiven," Thalia said threateningly. I shrugged, I could live with that.
Percy, Jason and Frank were grinning like idiots, although I probably wasn't much better. The realisation hit me like a punching glove.
"What are we going to tell our... former acquaintances?" I asked.
"Who are you- ohhh," Percy snapped his fingers when he caught on.
"Let's dump them at the end of the day," Frank suggested, he looked like he was still in La-La Land with Hazel.
"Hey! Don't keep us out of it. I want to see the look on those assholes' faces," Piper said menacingly.
I was looking forward to it too.
So, this was the unintentional rewrite of chapter 6. It probably wasn't as good as the original, maybe that wasn't good in your opinion either. That okay. My mental health is deteriorating.
Thank you to all who viewed, reviewed, followed and favourited.
KEEP BEING AWESOME,
captainMcSchizzle
