Piper's school bullies

I walked down to Piper's school after school had ended, to try and see who these bullies that picked on her were. As I got close I used my sky god vision to see the entrance and pick out Piper from the rest. I spotted her and teleported into the shady part of the entrance where no one could see me and watched for trouble. Piper was walking down the steps when three obvious "popular clique" girls came out and pushed her books to the floor. They started to harass her as well, so I started walking towards the stairs swiftly. When I got close I called "Hey! You should not be calling her other than by her name!" Pop girl no. 1 turned and looked at me with goo goo eyes. "Awww, are you Dumpster Queen's boyfriend? You are too hot for her." I jumped up the steps. "She is not a dumpster queen. She's my Queen, and if you have something to say about it, say it now." I waited. By now almost everyone had gone, including teachers and security. I raised an eyebrow at all three of the Pop girls. "Well? Say sorry." "Sorry Piper." They all muttered one way or another, and walked away out the gates. Piper looked at me with shining eyes, then ran and hugged me. "Thanks Jason." She whispered in my ear. I smiled at her. "Anytime, Piper. Now how about we get you home, deal?" She nodded her eyes still shining and held out her hand. Before I grabbed ahold of it I flicked my finger, so that the girls would have a wet walk home. I

Latched onto her hand and we walked out of the high school front yard together.

The next day after school…

I was walking Piper home again, when suddenly there were three big guys in letterman jackets surrounding us. The leader stepped forward. "We heard you made our girlfriends look stupid, and we don't like that." I prepared for a fight as the other two made swipes for my arms. I evaded their hands and clocked the leader in the face, whose jacket named him as Austin. Austin staggered back, and fell on his butt looking dazed. The other two charged me with the swiftness of defensive linebackers. I jumped at them and let my old Camp Jupiter hand-to-hand incapacitating combat lessons take over as I blocked, rolled under and kicked their backs so that they fell on their faces in the dirt. "C'mon, let's go guys!" Austin had gotten up and was running the opposite direction. The other two stood up, stunned, and ran away with Austin, calling back, "Sorry dude! He told us to! Don't follow us, please!" I turned around and looked at Piper. She looked like she was ready to faint from fright, so I walked up to her slowly. "Piper, you okay?" "You stood up for me6 in a fight against Austin and his crew of ugly linebackers." She said, awestruck. I nodded confusedly. "Hasn't anyone stood up for you before?" She shook her head slowly, and ran at me to give me a bone crushing hug. "You…are…the…best…boyfriend…ever!" She laughed in my ear. I saw Jay's figure appear behind Piper and give me a thumbs up, and disappear back into Chaos almost immediately afterward. I smiled and hugged her back. This had been a great day.

A glimpse into the mind of Nico

Nico

I paced around my Underworld room feeling sorry for myself. It wasn't fair, I thought, that Bianca had gotten all the power, when she hadn't even been alive until recently. I pounded my fist against the wall and the door opened. I turned around in surprise. It was Bianca, in her darkness clothes and her symbol

of power the hellfire whip, with its enchanted handle that granted its user all the powers of the helm of darkness. The Cyclopes had made it for her after the Second Titan War, I thought bitterly, and not for me. "Nico." My big sister said my name in a calm voice. "Yes?" I sighed miserably. She had probably come to hide me with her whip. "Come. I want to show you something." Bianca said and walked out of my room, leaving the door wide open. I stared after her. I was allowed to go out of my room now? She poked her head back in and said, "Now, Nico." I hurried after her. She walked past the tunnel to the throne room and into our former stepmother's garden. I looked around at all the jeweled trees. Bianca had stopped at a place where skeletons were digging a hole in front of a pomegranate tree. I walked swiftly over to Bianca and stood at her side. "Watch." She ordered softly and summoned a spirit from the ground. I peered at its face, and could not look away, because it looked so familiar. The woman smiled at me sadly. "Nico, my child. You don't remember me but I remember you." "Are you my mom?" I asked, tears in my eyes. She nodded, and asked Bianca, without taking her eyes off of my face, "Bianca, dear, why have you brought him here? Thank you for letting me see my son, but what lesson does he need to learn that you can't teach him yourself?" Bianca nodded at me. "Tell her what you've been up to." I started to tell her how I had spied for the Titans on Camp Half Blood in exchange for Bianca's life, soul, and memories if they won. Then I told her about trying to defeat Percy and Annabeth on dry land by summoning them to the desert and losing terribly, and how I had misused my powers on the new gods, trying to make their existence as miserable as I could, because Bianca had been chosen and not me. I finished with the story of how I threatened to take Jason's future Queen away, and stopped confessing, with many tears in my eyes and on my cheeks, while my mother looked on me, almost disappointed. Her almost solid form tipped my chin up. "Nico, listen to me. I would have done many things you have done, in your place, because I would not have thought things through all the way. But you cannot hold grudges against anyone, especially when they have done nothing wrong to you. It seems this 'Jay' simply made the logical choice since you made your task in life clear: bringing your sister back. You of all demigods should know that the laws of death must be obeyed, except on the most rare occasions when they need to be overlooked." I nodded my head and sighed, still slightly crying. Bianca looked at our mom. "Thank you, mother. You may rest again." Mom nodded. "Good bye Nico. Think things through and remember what I said." She faded into mist that disappated quickly. Bianca touched my head and I felt my powers return. "I hope you use them wisely now. " She said, walking away. I hurried after her. "Wait, Bianca…I'm sorry for everything. I don't hate you." Bianca's face softened. "I know, Nico. I know. Apologize to Jason, then go out and help the world somehow, okay?" I nodded and ran into the shadows, melting into them.