A/N: This chapter… got a lot longer than I expected it to. I wrote it straight to my computer, something I don't usually do with this particular fic, so the writing style may seem a bit different, but I hope you like it anyway.

I got way too excited with the OCs. Jeannine's my new favorite character.

Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter, I'm really proud of it. I'll try to get the next one up as soon as I can.

Awesome as Annabeth: I have not yet checked out the song you sent me, but I will! I promise! I just forgot about it. I'm glad you liked the chapter, and thanks for reviewing!

kiplo: Heh… heh… Have you read House of Hades? Cause… that's not gonna happen… Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

Elmlea: Thanks for reviewing! I'm so glad you like it!

ObsessedwReading: I'm glad you like it :D Thanks for reviewing!

kittyhawk09: I'm glad you like my fictional history :D I'm still working on figuring out what the other characters did but hopefully we'll have more of that soon. And Adrianne's in this chapter! I'm so glad you like her :D I did see Sea of Monsters. I didn't love it (obviously) but I didn't mind that much that it was different from the book because Sea of Monsters was my least favorite book of the series. I was really mad that Kronos was in it though and that Percy learned the prophecy (that said he would die when he was 20 :P) because those were just stupid. But I wanted to make sure it made money so they would make Titan's Curse :D Thanks for reviewing!

Annabeth: The one thing I took out of your review was that you and your friends read this fic! That makes me so happy! I'm so glad you like it, and I hope your friends like it too even though they think it's sad (it is sad, who am I kidding?) Thanks for your advice on my original story, I'm working on adding plot to it. Thanks for reviewing!

MisunderstoodSociopath: Too lazy to say anything to you. Love you, you're wonderful, text me more, thanks for reviewing, adios.

PercabethDream95: Glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing.

27lablover: YAY GOLDBERGS! I'm glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing!

Death is my Daddy: Never seen that show. It sounds cool. Thanks for reviewing!

Jade kelly: That makes me so happy! Thanks for reviewing!

fanficlena: YAY I'M SO GLAD YOU LIKE IT! Ha… There will be Percico, worry not. It'll be secretive one-sided Percico that Nico will go to the ends of the earth to avoid talking about, but it'll be Percico nonetheless. Thanks for reviewing!

MElizabethdi Angelo: Updating! :D Thanks for reviewing!

TheDarkKunoichi: YOUR REVIEW MADE ME SO HAPPY! I'm so glad you like everything :D :D :D Leo and Jason will be in it soon, I promise, I just need to figure out what happened to them… But soon. And it will be sad, worry not. Thanks for reviewing!

Chapter time! WARNING: SPOILERS FOR HOUSE OF HADES AND ALSO THIS CHAPTER REACHES THE TINIEST BORDER OF ITS T RATING, JUST LETTING YOU KNOW.

Okay, enjoy the chapter and please review!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, I technically own Jeannine, Kerri, Adrianne, Tricia, Marc, and Bill, but they're all looosely based on real people so I only half own them.

Chapter Seven

"You do know you're just avoiding Percy, right?" the voice spoke in Nico's ear as the son of Hades knelt behind a car, watching the school entrance across the street with the trained eye of a demigod.

"Of course I'm avoiding Percy," he murmured, knowing the communications device his father had designed especially for him would pick up his words even at such a low volume. "What exactly would I say to him? I don't even know how much he knows."

"About what?" Hades asked, causing Nico to stiffen as he realized that he hadn't even told his father his secret yet- it wasn't exactly something he'd thought about in the last fifteen years, after all.

With a sigh, Nico muttered, "I need to talk to Reyna, get some advice from someone who understands."

His father didn't ask him to elaborate, for which Nico was grateful, but he did offer, "I can find out the Hunters' location for you if you wish, but it might alert Artemis of your existence."

Nico smirked at Hades's word choice, but didn't comment on it. "It's fine," he assured his father. "I'll find them later. I need to see Adrianne first."
"Haven't you been watching her?" the god asked, and Nico scowled at the hidden amusement in his voice.

"Yes," Nico admitted, "but I haven't actually talked to her yet."

He wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or surprised when the god of the dead burst out laughing, so all he did was warn, "I'm muting you," and turn off the comms.

Then Nico sighed again, feeling his breath catch in his throat, and forced his heartbeat to slow until he could get back on track.

He was on a mission, after all. And the familial purpose aside, he couldn't let his emotions get too involved.

As the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, Nico carefully stood up from behind the black convertible and leaned against the hood, watching the horde of girls rush outside, and trying to pick out the one specific girl he was looking for.

It wasn't hard. Adrianne had a sort of aura about her, a vibe that just screamed: Bianca.

Still. Seeing was one thing. Talking was another. And even if Nico managed to introduce himself to his older sister, would she believe him?
Knowing that Adrianne and her friends would have to cross the street to part ways at the bus stop (yes, he'd been watching her go home from school for almost a week now, and no, it was most definitely not creepy), Nico pulled the dark sunglasses out of his jacket pocket and slipped them on, half-smiling at every girl who passed, trying to get into character.

Nico was scrawny and covered in scars and just barely 5'4'', and yet the students of an all girls school were already fawning over him, asking each other who he was, waving nervously and giggling when he nodded back. He tried not to scowl in disgust at the boy-crazy teenagers, forcing himself to remember that Adrianne's best friend Jeannine was one of them and, also being stupidly courageous, would inevitably come over to try and talk to him.

And maybe, just maybe, he could get close to Adrianne through her, and then tell her the truth.

Because he couldn't just outright say, "In another life, you were my sister." That'd just be weird.

Almost immediately, just as he'd expected, Jeannine stopped at the school gates, pulling her two friends to a stop before they could cross the street without noticing the dark stranger first.

"What's up?" Adrianne asked, always the compassionate one (Nico could hear them talking and had to force himself not to smile).

"Do you see that guy?" Jeannine whispered, already unclipping her bushy blonde hair and running her fingers through it before returning it to its previous state atop her head. "The totally hot one with the radical car?"

Nico wanted to squirm uncomfortably at the use of the word "hot," knowing that his father on the other end of the muted comms line was laughing his immortal head off, but he also knew that it was only because he was a demigod, and a son of Hades at that, that he'd been able to hear her, so he focused on flirting with the other girls (from a distance) and using his amusement at the word "radical" (the future really was the 80s) to keep himself from blushing.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Adrianne frown in his direction. "Isn't that…?" she began, but cut herself off and shook her head. "Never mind. He must be someone's brother or something. Although he doesn't look even close to old enough to drive a car."

Jeannine rolled her eyes. "Who cares who he is, A? He's gotta be our age, at least, and news flash! He's attractive. You should go talk to him!"

Adrianne raised an eyebrow at her friend. "I should? J, you're the one who thinks he's hot. You go talk to him."

"Jeannine is still convinced that she has a boyfriend, if you'll remember," their quieter friend Tricia spoke up, smirking teasingly at the girl in question.

Nico had heard them argue this fact a few times before, something about how Jeannine's boyfriend thought she spent too much time looking at hot strangers (like she apparently thought Nico was) and not enough making out with him. They'd broken up a few days ago, but Jeannine thought it was only temporary. Her friends did not agree.

"Right," Adrianne jokingly remembered. "How is Fazz, anyway? Has he called you?"

Jeannine glared at the use of her boyfriend's (apparently) derogatory nickname (Nico, personally, thought it was pretty awesome). "Bill is great. We just talked yesterday, and he's agreed to come to the semiformal with me."

"Only so you won't go with someone else," Tricia teased, and she and Adrianne laughed at Jeannine's scowl.

Come on, Nico pleaded silently, risking a glance at the three of them. Shut up and come over here already. There was no way Adrianne and Tricia could actually convince Jeannine to avoid Nico, she would at least have to say hi, if only to prove a point (although what point she would be proving, Nico had no idea).

"If you admit that you and Fazz broke up because you have serious problems, and promise not to make me go to the semiformal with Marc Flamingo, again, I'll go talk to what's-his-name."

Nico smirked at the guy's last name, even though he had a feeling it was just a joke, but his smile immediately disappeared when he realized that it was Adrianne who'd spoken, and what's-his-name was him.

He almost panicked. He almost shadow-traveled away right then and there, or at least almost got in the car and drove away (pretended to drive away; cloaked the car in shadows and used the Mist to make people assume he'd driven away; he couldn't drive…). He almost took off his sunglasses and walked right up to the girls and hugged Adrianne like she was his long-lost sister (and she was) and just let Fate run its course from there.

But he didn't do any of that stuff. He just stood there, semi-calmly, as Adrianne crossed the street to meet him, leaving her friends to stay back and stare.

"Hey."

Nico looked up, as if he hadn't been watching, as if he hadn't been waiting, and found himself looking into her eyes. Bianca's eyes. "Hi," he said slowly, trying not to sound as panicked as he felt.

Adrianne frowned at him for a moment, narrowing her eyes at the leather jacket he was wearing (not his choice), then back up at his sunglasses (those were his choice; they were cool). "What happened to the pilot's jacket?" she then asked him. "I liked that one."

Nico blinked, certain he'd heard her wrong. "What?"

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, averting her gaze to the ground. "Look, I don't know who you are, or why you spent the last week and a half living on my fire escape, but considering you disappeared whenever I opened the window, and you were never there when I was, like, getting dressed or anything, if you explain yourself, I'm sure I can forgive you."

Nico was still staring at her, unable to believe what he was hearing. "You could see me?" he whispered.

Because that shouldn't have been possible. Nico's shadow powers should've made him completely invisible if you weren't looking for him. There was no way Adrianne should've been able to see him, if he didn't want her to.

"Look," Adrianne said again. "I almost thought you were homeless, but the sportscar obviously says otherwise, so just… stay off my fire escape, okay? It's kinda creepy."

And with that, she crossed the street to drag her gaping friends towards the bus stop, leaving Nico to stare after her, amazed at how perfect his sister could be, but also feeling the painful abyss of a missed opportunity in his heart.

"What was that?!" Jeannine exclaimed as soon as they were out of earshot of the hot stranger. "'Stay off my fire escape, it's creepy?' What were you thinking, A?!"

"I have to admit, that was beyond stupid," Tricia added. "You totally ruined your chances with that guy!"

Adrianne rolled her eyes at her friends. "Oh, so you're both trying to set me up now? Look, I'm telling you, that's the guy I told you about, the Houdini outside my window."

Jeannine groaned. "Adrianne, we told you that was probably a dream! Now you've ruined my plan!"

Adrianne raised an eyebrow. "Your plan?"

"Yes!" Jeannine exclaimed. "The plan where you date that hot guy, and then he cheats on you with Kerri, so you dump him, and he and I have become best friends by then so I'm the shoulder he cries on, and then we make out for six hours straight. That plan."

"Why do you automatically assume he'll cheat on her with Kerri?" Tricia asked.

Jeannine rolled her eyes. "Because Kerri's kind of a slut, if you haven't forgotten."

"While that might be true," Adrianne cut in, "I was not dreaming when I saw that guy outside my window, and despite how cool his car is, I'm like 85% sure that he's mentally unstable, so I'm gonna never talk to him again, and hopefully he won't turn out to be an axe murderer and try to kill me. Deal?"

"No, not deal!" Jeannine shouted as Adrianne started walking faster towards the bus stop, where the bus was already waiting. "This talk is not over!"

Adrianne paused with one foot on the steps of the bus, and turned to smirk at her best friends. "I'm pretty sure it is," she called to them, before disappearing onto the bus.

Jeannine and Tricia watched the vehicle pull away, then Jeannine sighed. "We could go back and talk to him," she suggested.

Tricia looked at her questioningly. "He might be gone by now," she pointed out. "That car looked pretty fast."

Jeannine scoffed and turned to start walking back to the school. "Don't be stupid, T. There's no way he's old enough to drive."

Nico di Angelo leaned against the car, trying to catch his breath, as he stared up at the sky, his heart pounding in his chest.

He should've been scared. He should've been running through worst case scenarios in his head, trying to figure out what could be wrong with Adrianne that could give her the power to see through his shadows.

But all he could think was: Of course she could see me. She's my sister.

A buzzing sound in his ear brought Nico out of his thoughts. He removed the earpiece his father had given him before unmuting the comms link, knowing that the god of the dead was going to-

"WHAT IN MY OWN NAME JUST HAPPENED?!"

That. He was going to that.

Nico carefully put the earpiece back on, trusting his dad not to deafen him, and ran a hand through his hair and he spoke, "She's Bianca. There's no other way to explain it."

"No, but that shouldn't be possible!" Hades insisted, quieter now but still loud enough to make Nico wince. "Nico, I don't think you understand how reincarnation works! Very little carries through to the second body. They might have a similar appearance, some shared personality traits, but demigod powers? Those stay in the Underworld!"

"Are you sure Adrianne's not a demigod?" Nico made sure. "Her parents are like sixteen years apart, it's completely possible."

"No," his dad assured him. "I checked, as soon as I was sure who she was. Her parents are her parents. She's completely, 100% human."

"So how could she see me?" Nico murmured, half to himself.

Still, his father answered. "I'm not sure. Maybe you should come back and we can talk about it, make a new plan. You could always-"

"No," Nico cut him off (something he wouldn't dare do fifteen years ago, and that scared him more than it probably should've). "Whatever my next tactic is with Adrianne, I have to figure it out. I need to get her to trust me, I can't risk scaring her off."

"So what are you going to do in the meantime?"

Nico sighed. He knew what he was going to do, and it was something he'd wanted to for a while now. But he'd been scared.

"I need to see Hazel," he told his father. "I have to tell her that-"

"Who are you talking to?"

Biting back a yelp of surprise, Nico spun around, muting the comms link with one hand just to be safe, only to see Jeannine and Tricia watching him from the corner.

"You're… Adrianne's friends…" he noted stupidly. Considering their routes home were past the bus stop where they usually left Adrianne, they had no reason to be there. He wondered for a second if they were monsters, but he quickly pushed that thought aside- if they were, he would know.

"Yeah," Jeannine said, raising both eyebrows at him. "And she thinks you're crazy, so do us a favor and prove her wrong. Who were you talking to?"

"My dad," Nico said calmly, honestly, gesturing to the earpiece he wore. "Bluetooth. And you freaked me out, showing up out of nowhere, made me hang up on him. Now I'm gonna have to call him back…"

"Sorry," Jeannine said, sounding like she wasn't at all sorry. "We just wanted to talk to you about what A said, about you hanging out on her fire escape like a creeper."

"I live next door," Nico lied smoothly. "Got sick of my folks, climbed down my fire escape and up hers. Great hiding place, the house next door, no one ever looks there. Sorry if I scared her."

The girls nodded slowly, as if trying to decide whether they believed him or not (hopefully they believed him; they had to believe him). Then they exchanged glances, and Tricia sighed before turning back to him.

"What's your name?" she asked him.

"Nico," he answered. There was no point in lying about that.

"I'm Tricia," she replied, "but they call me T. Well, my friends do."

"Yeah, the letters are kind of our thing," Jeannine added. "I'm Jeannine, J for short. I assume you know A pretty well?"

"You could say that…"

"Well then you know how stubborn she can be," Jeannine guessed. "We've been trying to set her up for ages, even got this guy she had a crush on to ask her to the semiformal last year-"

"Unfortunately, he had the personality of a lettuce leaf," Tricia added.

"But you seem different," Jeannine concluded. "So, if you don't give up on A being halfway decent to you, we can do the rest."

Nico blinked. "You… want me to date her?"

The girls rolled their eyes. "Duh," Tricia said. "You do think she's pretty, don't you?"

"Of course, she's beautiful," Nico automatically replied.

Jeannine grinned. "Great! Then we'll set it up. Semiformal's in two weeks, so we'll establish the friendship and then you ask her out. Deal?"

Nico nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

"Great!" Jeannine clapped her hands together excitedly. "Oh, and you'll have to bring the car, obviously. It's pretty rad."

"Thanks," Nico murmured. "It was a, uh, birthday present."

The girls nodded. "Makes sense," Tricia commented.

"But hire a driver or something," Jeannine suggested. "Don't want you guys crashing on the way there."

Before Nico could glare at her, or even register the insult, the girls laughed and walked away, leaving Nico alone with nothing but a car he couldn't drive, the buzzing silence of the comms unit in his ear, and a lot of questions.

The main one being: Was he actually going to have to ask his sister out on a date?

A/N: I hope you liked it! Please review and tell me what you thought of Adrianne and her friends!

Question of the chapter: If you had to pretend to be married to an Avenger for a month (live with them, go out in public with them, fake cry whenever they were on missions, etc, etc) who would it be? I'd either want Captain America or Iron Man (or Bucky, if he counts…)