Okay this chapter is all Nico's point of view, to show how things have been going at school since Percy left and stuff. Also, I've got a FictionPress now, under the name of Sweetest Nightmare1897 and I'm planning on putting up a story. You'll get the full summary on my profile, but it's called Teenagers. So…. check it out please..

Chapter 10: Staying.

(Remember this is all Nico so no italics.)

I hate this.

Coming to school every single day and not having Percy here. I'm pretty sure he was the most fun, even when he was cracked and depressed and stuff. So… that's sad.

I've been hanging at Rachel's a lot lately, and that Luke kid is around a hell of a lot more often. We're usually up in her room planning the beach trip for when Percy should be used to being out of the hospital. We're planning on going all the way down to Florida and staying in this little town by the beach with a family run inn. It's way cheaper than going to a resort near Disney World, and I'm glad, because, even though I know Hades will pay for it, I don't want to have to ask him for a lot of money.

But, this Luke character. He's a creeper. Creepier than I'm rumored to be and that's saying something. He's got this weird scar running on his face and even though he's always happy go lucky and smiling he looks like he wants to kill the heck out of me, beat Octavian's ass and then rape Rachel or something. Then walk out of the house, steal their parents' cool Lexus and drive to California and steal someone's identity and kill a biker or something and then ditch town and watch as that guy, whose identity he stole, get arrested and bent over (repeatedly) in jail or something along those lines.

Like this one time:

"Rachel!" I shouted, as soon as I walked through her door. I had Hazel with me, who has a key, so I felt like a boss being able to walk into the house like I owned it.

"I'm coming!" she screamed. We were planning on having Riley over too, 1) to plan the trip 2) so I could stare at her for a while and 3) so she and Rachel could work on some abstract sculpture together.

"That's what she said." I mumbled and laughed under my breath.

"Good one." a voice suddenly said. I nearly jumped out of my skin, I was so startled. I did an automatic 360 of the foyer and I found Luke in their formal dining room, sitting with this wicked sharp knife, and sharpening it.

"Um… thanks." I said suspiciously. Hazel shuddered behind me and shoved her way into the house, grumbling about how I'm a sexist pig and I was damn heavy for being so skinny. I think, I didn't really catch it all.

"Is that your… girlfriend?" he asked. I walked into the room with him and stared at the knife for a moment. It was two different colors, and it looked deadly as hell.

"Nah, sister. She's adopted, don't tell her." I joked sarcastically, still staring at the knife.

"It's called Backbiter. It's supposed to be able to not only kill humans but also mythical creatures."

"Cool." I said suspiciously. This guy is seriously weird.

"Yeah, my mom's a serious Greek mythology buff."

"That's funny. My dad's name is Hades and his wife is Persephone."

"Insanity. That's such a weird coincidence. So you're like… the Ghost Prince." he laughed. But I didn't. That was Percy's weird nickname for me and he shouldn't know that considering I didn't think he'd ever met Percy.

Another time:

He was just sitting with Octavian, watching him as he cut open one of Rachel's old stuffed bunnies. I remember she'd called it Orry or something and she thought it was the coolest thing ever.

He laughed and laughed as the stuffing flew out of it and Octavian turned red with exhaustion like this was the most tiring thing he'd ever done.

Yeah, so Luke's a weirdo.

At school, a girl called Lea was telling me about how she knew him and she said that he told her that Percy was locked up in an insane asylum. Well, that's not entirely true, but I guess that's what she got out of the conversation. I wanted to ask how the hell she knew Luke Castellan considering he's a college student and his father was like the head dude in charge at the college so he was never really around us high schoolers.

Now everyone at school is talking about how Percy Jackson went totally bat shit crazy and got caught trying to saw his freaking arm off and is now currently residing in the local asylum. I tried, believe me, I tried to stop everyone from saying that, but I'm not that guy. I'm the kind to get into fights over the little things, but I can't do didly squat about the things that actually matter.

This dude's ruining my life, without even being a real part of it.

You try going to school and, after being the hottest thing since sliced freaking bread, go to having people call you and your brother and all your friends really weird, nut job, wackos and some other things that weren't nearly as nice as those. People have always suspected me of being suicidal. I found about 20 letters addressed to me with the suicide hotline number written on them. The guidance counselor keeps calling my freaking house, teachers are talking to me about… feelings and shit. Girls totally ignore me. Or avoid me, like the plague or a leper. And it's not fun. It' actually really sucks.

I've been, excommunicated or something.

I haven't seen Luke in a few days, but he's been showing up at Rachel's more and more and more.

Right now, it's lunch time, and all the people who used to want to sit with us actually went and got a life so they have their own friends and shit to sit with.

"This is fucking horrible. What the fuck is wrong with Castellan? Who the hell does he think he is?" I ranted at the table, picking at my lunch rather than eating it. Rachel rolled her eyes but Riley stared at me with big sad eyes.

"I know right? How did he even get this rumor around? He doesn't even go to this school, doesn't live in anyone's neighborhood… what in the world?" she sighed. She looked exhausted. People had been shoving her around lately, saying that she and Rachel had led Percy on after Annabeth left and he fell for one of them. I'll give teenagers this, they're pretty damn loyal to their Mr. Populars. Maybe I should've been nicer to them and we wouldn't be in this situation. But it's too late.

"This is bullshit." Travis agreed. He'd gotten into about 4 fights since Percy left. Super amounts of detention, near suspension, and it's only been like, 2 ½ weeks.

"I wish he was here." Hazel sighed. She's known him forever, and, though she'll never admit it, Percy's just as much her brother as I am. Frank was comforting her, and I was glad because I didn't have it in me. I wanted to strangle the shit out of someone. I wanted to bash their face in with my baseball bat and I'd laugh, I'd be happy about it.

"Hey di Angelo!" a voice shouted over the noise of the cafeteria. I rolled my eyes and turned around. It was Dex Hall. Basketball player or something, tall as hell, all muscle.

"What?" I said, putting on my bored face.

"So… I heard you've gotta get your wrists checked every day by the guidance counselor." he said, sitting down next to me, and shoving Conor away. Conor raised his eyebrows in shock, and I'm sure he was about to take a swing, but Travis held his arm back.

"I heard your girlfriend fucked Travis last month. What's your point?" I asked cheekily, not denying it. There was no point, it was true, and no one would believe me anyway.

"So is it true?"

"I don't know. Is it?"

"Shut the fuck up about Lisa di Angelo. I'm over it."

"I bet you are. I can tell by the way that vein is popping out in your neck." I shrugged sarcastically and he stood up. Pulling me by the collar.

I loved fights.

I never play fair either, I like fighting kinda dirty. It's pretty fun.

"Do you have something to say, di Angelo?"

"No. Do you, Hall?"

He swung at my face, and, because I'm ADHD, I jerked my head in the other direction. He swung again, and I moved again. Really easy if you ask me, he moves too slow for someone as awesome as I.

"Nico stop, sit down." Riley admonished. I looked over her, to wave her off, to tell her I would be fine, when Hall punched me in the nose, making my face jerk.

I looked up him and smiled. I could tell there was blood on my teeth and dripping onto my shirt. It was black, so no one would notice, except Persephone maybe. I saw fear flash in his eyes for a second.

I punched him in the face, and as soon as he jerked the other way, I elbowed him, making sure he was disoriented as he fell to the ground. I sat on top of him, grabbed his collar, head butted him.

"Stay the fuck away from my table, scrub." I whispered to him.

My nose was still gushing, and I knew head wounds always bled a lot, but hell, I was in pain.

"Shit Neeks. C'mon." Riley sighed. Rachel was busy staring at Dex's unconscious body, the twins were glaring at other people, and looking out for the principle, and Hazel had her face buried in Frank's neck, probably crying her eyes out.

I followed Riley out of the cafeteria. Her curly blonde hair was in a high ponytail but a few wisps escaped and framed her face perfectly.

She stopped by a water fountain and ran to the girls' bathroom.

"C'mon you idiot." she hissed at me.

There were three… 10th graders, I think, in there, doing their make up or something.

"Out." I growled, knowing how I looked, knowing my reputation. They scrambled away, looking at me with fear in their eyes, I smiled at their retreating backs, satisfied.

"You didn't have to do that." Riley said quietly, looking through her purse.

"I'm not supposed to be in here. They'd go tell or something." I shrugged.

"Not that. You didn't have to fight Dex. That was stupid. You could've just told him to screw off."

"But I didn't! So why the hell does it matter?" I groaned as she touched a wet napkin to my nose. I was probably just fractured, not broken, but it still hurt like a bitch.

"Sorry." she mumbled, and wiped more of the blood away. I'd stopped gushing, so most of the blood was dry and starting to stink like hell.

We stood in an awkward silence as she cleaned me up, offering me some tiny mouthwash to rise out all the blood. I kept a piece of napkin stuck up my nose for a while, as we stood there, and took it out when I was sure I wasn't bleeding anymore.

"Be right back." she mumbled and walked out. I watched her walk down the hall and stop at a vending machine. I heard something drop, and then she was walking back, looking like an angel.

I wished I had the balls to tell her. I can tell anyone anything. But I couldn't tell riley that I'd been in love with her for months on end already.

"Here, babe." she said and handed me two cans of Red Bull. But I couldn't focus… she'd called me babe. I mean, she does that all the time, but this time… it was different. She was looking me in the eyes, hers were all huge and blue, like the ocean or something and she made me forget how to breathe and it was freaking weird.

"Why two?" was my brilliant response. She rolled her eyes. Moment… ruined.

"One for your nose, the other to drink, maybe. You need a smoke?" she asked. Rachel, Hazel, Percy and Riley were the only ones who knew about my bad smoking habit. I tried not to, so I could keep in shape for baseball and stuff, but still, when I get stressed I get nervous if I don't have a cigarette.

I nodded quietly and took out my Newports, lighting one, and offering another to her. She smirked and shook her head no.

The first puff, amazing. I let out the smoke with one long shuddering breath.

Second puff. Awesome.

I finished the ciggie off after about 5 minutes.

We walked around the halls for a while, since lunch wasn't over, and I was scared to go back for fear the security guards and the principle, Mr. D, were all in the café. I downed my Red Bull, held the other one against my nose, and sighed at how great it felt.

"Thanks." I muttered. We were standing at her locker, and I was watching her profile as she picked her books for biology.

"No problem. I knew it was gonna happen soon anyway." she shrugged, no big deal.

"How?"

"Percy usually keeps you out of trouble. He's all nice and charismatic and shit. People listen to him." she shrugged again, making her perfume waft over to my nose. Again, no big deal. I'm not hyperventilating or anything.

She turned and looked at me suddenly, and something was in her eyes, it was incredible. I didn't know what to do.

But she kissed me. She pressed those warm, pink lips against my lips, and breathed in my gasp until she had a moan and we were nothing but electricity and warmth and I was a puddle of nothing.

She kissed me.

How you like dem apples? I had so much fun writing this, I loved Nico. So much. Hope you enjoyed and everything. Check my profile and vote on that poll too. It's really important.