Hell no!

Chapter 26. English and broccoli soup (Will)

In the bus Jason was acting obnoxious. He only wanted to talk about Piper, it seemed. I think he wanted Nico to tell her, which he did, so he'd have an easier time asking her out. And he constantly wants my advice on how to ask her out. He thinks, and Percy too, that because I'm gay I know everything about girls. Well, I don't. I'm just as clueless as they are, if not more. I never asked a girl out, how should I know? I don't know what to do when you are about to kiss a girl. I've never even kissed! But they think I have some kind of superpower when it comes to girls. I just don't. Still they insist on talking about it with me all the time. And in the bus Nico wasn't even listening much to our conversation, so if he was trying to hint to Nico that I'm gay, well, that didn't work, because Nico was either texting or staring out of the window. We got out quickly, before Jason could say anything and I opened the front door. When we walked in, I smelled the wonderful aroma of my mom's cookies. They are literally the best. We walked into the kitchen and mom just got the cookies out of the oven.

''Hey honey, would you like a cookie? Oh, and would you like one too, Nico?''

''Thanks mom,'' I said.

''Thank you, Mi…Naomi. They smell great.'' Nico said. He took a bite and then followed, ''And they taste great too.'' He gave my mom a small smile. Holy shit, Nico di Angelo, grumpy mr. Doom and Gloom, smiling? I must have stared, because both my mother and Nico gave me weird looks. Mom looked more happy, as if she thought that I had a crush on him, which I have, but she doesn't need to know that! Nico looked a little unsure of what to do, and also a little uneasy, he looked at me questioningly.

''Sorry, I have just never seen you smile, di Angelo!'' Nico blushed slightly. Ahw, so cute! No, stop thinking like that, stupid brain!

''I do smile from time to time, Solace. I'm just not always as sunshiny as you.'' he shot back at me. Mom raised an eyebrow. I thought about that for a moment. Was he flirting with me? Or was he just… I don't know, complementing or insulting me? I must have looked utterly shocked and surprised, because Nico smirked and mom laughed.

''Uhm… okay, eh, let's start with, eh, with English.''

''Okay, honey. Good luck!' mom called, as we were walking up the stairs. ''Oh wait, Nico, are you staying for dinner?''

''If that's no problem, I'd love to stay for supper.'' Nico said politely.

''No problem, Nico. I'll make some extra for you.'' mom said, and Nico nodded. He got his phone and texted his parents, probably to say that he would stay here for dinner.

''Okay,'' I said when we got to my room. ''I found some extra information about JFK, I think I've got the book here somewhere…'' I'd gotten another book about the history of America when I was in the library today, and it had a lot of information about JFK. I grabbed my backpack and looked for the book. When I'd found it I handed it to Nico. He looked at the pages I'd marked and nodded.

''Seems like a good source for our project.'' he answered. We worked for another hour or so, and then we were nearly finished with the whole thing. Only thing left was to show it to Miss M. tomorrow in class and ask her if it was okay, and maybe edit some parts. Then Nico got a text, which he looked at and then ignored.

''So, now we've finished our English project, what do you want to do?'' I asked Nico. He shrugged.

''I don't know?'' he said. Well, helpful, Nico, very helpful! I closed our English stuff on my computer and looked at my screensaver. Michael and me. Nico looked over my shoulder with me at the photo.

''Is that your brother?'' he asked. I nodded in response.

''That's me and Michael, about a week before we went to the beach…'' my voice trailed off. Nico seemed at a loss of words, not knowing what to say exactly. Then he went to his backpack and got out some kind of map. He opened it.

''This is a drawing I made. It was on the holidays, when we were in Italia.'' he said, his slight accent audible when he said Italia. Then handed me a drawing he'd made. It was obviously him and his sisters, arms on each other's shoulders and smiling widely. Nico was wearing a big black sweater. I think that must be the moment he'd described to me yesterday, the moment he'd gotten it from his sister and put it on. Even in this drawing he looked incredibly cute! I smiled at the drawing and handed it back.

''It's beautiful, Nico. You can draw incredibly well.'' I thought I could see a faint pink glow on his face through his bangs, but I'm not sure. Then he got out his phone, scrolled for a while and handed it to me. It was a picture of him and his sisters making funny faces. The photo was obviously taken by one of his friends, as they were standing outside of a building, which looked like a school.

''That's me, Bianca and Hazel, a week before…'' he said in a quiet voice, almost inaudible. ''Piper took that picture with her p-phone, while we were goofing around. She later sent it to all of us, Annabeth had been sick at home and told us it looked like we had a lot of f-fun. Bianca had shown the picture to our parents, and mom had laughed r-really loudly when she saw it and even dad had smiled.'' Nico sounded really sad. I needed to comfort him, but how…? I gave him back his phone, and took him in for a hug. He froze for a moment, but then he hugged me back.

''Thanks, I needed that,'' he said when we broke apart. He still looked a little sad, but also comforted. We sat in silence for a couple of minutes, not knowing what to do but that was okay. It was a comfortable silence. Then Nico's phone buzzed, and mine did so as well about ten seconds later. He looked at his phone, send a couple of texts, and then suddenly blushed and quickly sent a response. What was that about? Then I looked at my phone, and saw two stupid texts from Jason.

Jason: Hey Will, how's it going w/ Nico? ;) ;) ;)

Jason: Made any progress? *wink wink*

I nearly facepalmed and I wanted to scold at him. The idiot!

Me: Jason, kindly SHUT UP! Don't start like that, we are friends! As for you and me…

Jason: No need 2 threatn me, Will. Just asking, as u r obvs into him. Do u even know if he… u know, swings that way?

Now I really wanted to smack him in the face. Luckily Nico was busy with his phone at the moment, so he couldn't see Jason's stupid texts. I am so going to kill him!

Me: We are done talking about this, Jase. You are a great friend, but seriously, not now! Bye!

Jason: OK, bro. Just remembr u can talk 2 me about it, kay?

Yeah, talk with him about it, my ass! Nico was still typing on his phone, but then mom called us for dinner. We went downstairs and I smelled that mom had made her delicious broccoli soup and also her homemade bread. Yum, I love it, so much!

''Hey, kids. I made broccoli soup for dinner. I also made us a corn and cheese bread.'' mom said happily. Mom loves to cook and goes out of her way to make the best dinners, all hand made. We would sometimes eat out, but most of the time mom just made something fancy if we had something to celebrate.

''I've never had broccoli soup,'' Nico said.

''Oh, it's the best,'' I say with a big smile, because I just love it so much, ''and mom's bread is also great, especially her cheese-corn bread. You'll love it, I'm sure!'' We sit down at the table and mom gives us a big bowl of soup and a chunk of her cheese-corn bread.

''Your father is running late today, and he won't be home before 10. So it's just the three of us for dinner,'' mom says. I nod and eat some more of the bread. Gods, it's delicious! Nico also looks like he likes mom's soup and bread, because he has another small smile on his face and closes his eyes every bite, as if to enjoy it more.

''Your cheese corn bread is delicious, Naomi. Almost as delicious as…'' his voice drifted off. He seemed to be lost in thought. Mom changed subjects quickly.

''Thank you, Nico. Now tell me, Will, how was school today?''

''History was quite boring, all those guys are dead, you know.'' Mom laughed and even Nico smiled a tiny bit. God, I love that smile, even though I've nearly never seen it. ''But the subject was interesting, I find the Greeks and their gods... well, interesting. Then free period, which I spent in the library with the guys, who were talking nonstop about two of Nico's friends while I made my homework. Then after lunch I had art, and I sat with Nico and two of his friends, Piper and Katie.'' I was telling them, ''We got back our drawings from the previous lesson, and I'd gotten an 8. Then we all stared at Nico's drawing, which was really life like, and we didn't hear Miss A. tell the next exercise. That was a little embarrassing, but it turned out we need to make a portrait of the person opposite to you. So me and Nico had to start with that, and I guess next week we'll follow with that.''

''What did you two draw last week?'' mom asked.

''I drew you, mom.''

''I drew my sister Bianca. I was really surprised I'd gotten a 9 for it, though.''

''Your drawing was great, Nico. And you obviously deserved it.'' I told him, and he blushed slightly at the complement. I then turned to mom, ''Miss A. had said only one person had a 9 and that most had a 7 or 8.''

''Wow, Nico, that must have been a beautiful drawing.'' mom said. Nico nodded at the complement. Then mom got to the dessert, which was cannoli from the bakery. Nico looked at it with a nostalgic gleam in his eyes. It must remind him of Italy. He ate it, also with his eyes closed, and then he said he'd have to go home. Mom offered him a lift, which he accepted. I wondered if I should go with, until mom asked me if I was coming. We got in the car, and mom and Nico had a conversation about Nico's friends. When we got to his house, Nico got out and thanked my mom.

''Thank you for bringing me home, Naomi. See you tomorrow at lunch, Will.'' He waved at us and walked into his home.

AN: So, all my chapters are updated/corrected. This chapter is so very late because first my laptop was 'updating' which took over 24 hours. Then I forgot about not posting this chapter and went on vacation to France. Now, back in the Netherlands, I have better internet to post so I post.

I will also post my new fic story soonish, when I have corrected it and checked everything and think it's okay enough to post.