Um, Hello! Sorry for not updating this for so long! Let me know if you guys catch any spelling errors, punctuation, etc! As per usual- please review and enjoy! ;D

"ico…"

"Nico..."

"NICO!"

Nico di Angelo's eyes popped open as the 9th grader shot up in his bed. Now awake enough to hear his alarm clock and see his half-sister looking anything less than pleased.

His sister, Hazel, wore honey colored eyes of frustration and confusion. Her dark eyebrows, the same gingerbread color as her curly hair, furrowed together- sharing the confusion in her eyes. On the girl's bronze skin, her nose crinkled in displeasure at the sight of her brother- who she once thought was awake getting ready for their big day.

"Nico what are you doing?! Your alarm has been going off for nearly 20 minutes!"

Nico then noticed that Hazel was in fact almost completely dressed already. Getting out of bed, whilst stepping on some things and tripping over others, he turned off his alarm and yawned in Hazel's direction.

"Oh yeah, yeah ok I'm up. I'll make breakfast today, you can go ahead and finish getting ready." He smiled at her lazily while scratching the back of his neck.

His black hair reached just below his ears, wavy here, curly there and straight for the majority of it. Nico's dark brown eyes shined happily at the girl as he placed his sandy colored arm at his side.

"But you have to get ready, you'll be late!" Hazel insisted. "You'll miss the bus!"

"No point in you being late because you didn't eat. Don't worry about it." Nico reassured her, exiting the room and heading towards the apartment's kitchen. "And the bus part is really un-necessary, the school's within walking distance."

"Well, if you really insist…"

"I do, really."

"Alright then, I'll finish getting ready, eat, and then go. But you better not be more than 20 minutes late!" Hazel rushed off to her room to finish preparing for school. Leaving a still yawning Nico to make breakfast to start the day.

"French toast…or omelets…" Nico pondered.

"And why, Nico di Angelo, are you late on the first day to your first hour?" A short, pudgy teacher named Mr. Hedge, bellowed when Nico slipped into class.

"Mostly because I didn't want to be here…" The teen murmured to himself mainly, but a few kids sitting in the first row snickered at the comment.

"What was that? I knew this class was missing something, but little did I know it was a class clown." The teacher smiled, satisfied that he'd come up with a half-decent come back.

"Sorry, what I said was: I got a little lost, ya' know? Being a freshman and all." Nico pulled his biggest, most fake smile out and put it on.

"You were lost for half an hour."

"Big school."

"Yeah, lots of people to ask for directions."

"I'm shy."

"Clearly."

And it was in that moment that Nico realized he'd met his match and gave in.

"Alright I'm late, anyhow, where do I sit?"

"Hmph thought so." Hedge grabbed a nearby clipboard that contained what appeared to be a seating chart.

"Alright….No that's 4th hour…" He turned to other pages. "Wait, that's 3rd hour…" He grumbled some things that Nico was pretty sure weren't allowed to be said in school. "Aw, heck! Just pick an empty seat for now!"

Nico scanned the class for an empty seat and found only one. He went over to it and got himself adjusted for a technically shorter, but long day.

"Jacksons!" He heard the teacher shout at some other kids.

"Dude. Knock. It. Off." Percy whispered out the corner of his mouth, barely turning his head to face the person behind him.

"I'm not doing anything.~" Leo snickered quietly.

"Yes. Yes you are. You're fuckin' emitting heat and I'm damn burnin' up!" Percy was relieved that Mr. Hedge was busy having a showdown with a late kid, otherwise he might notice that he had a new heater in his room.

"C'mon man, did you forget what Annabeth told us? Don't use your-"

Leo put on his best 'Annabeth' voice and cut Percy off saying: "Don't use your powers at school. I highly doubt that the government hasn't resorted to using kids as spies to find out who isn't what they say they are and blah blah blah."

Before Percy could interject, their teacher, who'd finished picking on the Di Angelo kid, called them out.

"Jacksons!" He yelled.

"Yes sir?" Leo asked, jokingly batting his eyelashes and smiling at his 1st teacher of the day.

"Would you like to share with me and with the rest of the class what you two are discussing?"

"Oh, no thank you." The two brothers said sarcastically in unison, but Leo let Percy take this one. "I'm sure you have much more important things to do, like finally teaching this History class."

"Aw man what a drag, what kinda teacher gives homework on the first day?!"

Nico heard a student complain as his 1st hour dispersed to their 2nd classes of the day.

"An angry one." Another retorted.

Nico began to follow stead and head to his own next class when he heard a chipper voice call after him.

"Nico! How was your first class?!" Hazel ran up to him and asked. "Did you meet some people?"

"Yeah...kind of I guess..." Nico said un-reassuringly.

Hazel noticed but didn't currently want to pry. "Well, that's good I suppose, but I'm heading the other way so see you!" She bid him goodbye and went on to next period.

Nico's next 2 morning classes were pretty much the same as his first. Spend class half listening / half zoning out / half wishing that he was still asleep and not with all these rowdy kids.

It wasn't like Nico didn't want to try to make friends (well that wasn't all of it) with his classmates, but maybe not before 10am on a Monday. He did talk to one person, though they approached him first. Which was new. Although Nico had noticed that the boy had been going around the class introducing himself earlier.

He'd made a weird face at Nico however, almost like he was shocked or confused. But nonetheless, he introduced himself as Jason Grace, asked things like "How's your first day been going? Made any new friends? Seen any old friends?" Even though Nico had been disinterestedly giving one word answers, his fellow 9th grader was still acting like some friendly upperclassmen and closed with "Haha, alright, see ya' 'round!"

Nico hadn't thought anything of it at the moment but he'd begrudgingly look back on it and see it as a very "fateful" moment. But for now, it was just annoying.

Brrrrrrinnng! An obnoxiously, loud bell called out to Nico, dragging him from his thoughts back into reality. Where, turns out, he was not currently watching TV on the couch and eating chips, but was instead apparently about to go to lunch.

"Good luck freshies!" His over enthusiastic art teacher, Ms. Dare cheered to his class, who gave back a collective groan.

Exiting the decorative room, it occurred to Nico that he didn't really know where any cafeterias were. And apparently, neither did the other 12 year old-looking kids wandering around, attempting to act like they knew where they were. Fortunately, security guards were pushing everyone towards a set of double doors.

Following suit, Nico for once in his life understood what it was to stare pure madness in the eyes. Hundreds of eyes that it. First of all, for some Godforsaken reason, Ridgewood High-school was fucking big. Nico would've gladly taken a bedroom the size of the classrooms. And the wings? A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, and K wing. His middle school would've been ashamed, with their less than 3 main hallways.

So for such a large school, one could only expect a large freshman cafeteria (yes, there is a lunchroom specifically for freshman), or a medium sized Starbucks. Why whoever's in charge decided to shove a bunch of fresh, energetic youth into such a small area, he just didn't know.

Walking through the large crowds, Nico wove his way around to find Hazel or at least wherever the heck the lunch line was. The former appeared first.

Some big, burly guy knocked Nico forward, which would've resulted in a fall, but he instead stumbled into warm, familiar arms and hands.

"There you are Nico!" Said boy stood up and saw Hazel beaming at him.

"I've been looking all over this jungle gym for you! How's your day been going? Mine has been excellent!"

Nico smiled at his half-sister's enthusiasm, feeling her optimism leek onto him.

"Pretty good so far, I actually talked to someone..." He laughed quietly, counting his small interaction with Jason as talking.

Hazel face lit up in a beautiful way, her eyes shining like gems at the good news.

"Hoorah for new friends! You have to introduce me to them sometime!" She did some sort of "happy dance" as she spoke.

"Oh right! I asked a new friend of mine to save two seats, do you want to come meet them with me?" Hazel asked pointing towards a pretty crowded table a little ways behind her.

Nico tried not to let the displeasure show on his face too much as he moderately replied:

"Nah, no thanks. I think I'll linger about in here and eventually drift out." He glanced at the security guards standing at what seemed to be all exits.

"Ok then, I'll see you some time after school I suppose." Hazel frowned a bit, trying to not let any disappointment show through.

Nico nodded his head and gave his sister a small hug before turning away and disappearing in the crowds of kids.

"Hey, you don't have to worry about this seat anymore," Hazel pointed to an empty seat next to her as she sat down "but thanks for holding them Frank."

The boy named Franks shook his head with the slightest tinge of blush painting his cheeks. The blush was particularly noticeable on his tan skin. Hazel might've noticed that the blush spread to his ears if his dark brown, and nearly black, hair hadn't swept down enough to cover them.

"Nah, it was nothing." When he bit into his piled high sandwich, a few contents popped out in Hazel's direction.

"M-My bad!" Frank exclaimed and hurriedly grabbed some kid's napkin to wipe away the small mess.

"Don't worry about it." Hazel dismissed, slightly blushing and waving her hands in a "surrendering" way.

"Yeah...sorry."

The silence settled in between the two, despite the noisy room.

"So what class do you have after this?" Frank tried, aiming to renew the table-talk that wasn't happening.

Push. Shove. Yell. Scream. Nico had once considered himself a patient person. Once. Upon finally finding the darn lunch line, Nico had realized how much he didn't want to be there. But the line wrapped around a corner that led to where you received your lunch and if you wanted to get out of line, well good luck. The only way back was to weave through the line, pushing others in a desperate attempt to escape this single-filed line from hell.

Oh yeah, the patience. Which he would still have some of if some god damn huge, bulky, and tall kids didn't try to get out of the line every minute! Resulting in Nico being squeezed up against some sweaty stranger who was yet to discover deodorant.

There was one plus side to his conundrum, which was how every now and then some guy trying to get out of line would think he was hot shit and attempt to hit on the girl in front of him. Here comes one now.

"Hey bitch ya' lookin' fine as hell, why don' you come with me!" The douche said reaching for her hand, and every guy within an earshot erupted into laughter as if he'd just said the joke of a century.

The girl seemed unfazed, though her eyes were whispering 'death' as she pulled her hand free and punched the fool square in the jaw. All laughter and conversations ceased - skin hitting hard against skin was not quiet.

"Shut your mouth, peasant. A creature of your caliber could never even hope to merely be with me. Much less anyone unfortunate enough to encounter you." The girl topped it off with a hmph as the idiotic boy scrambled away, shoving gawkers out of the way.

The first thing Nico noticed was how she spoke, like a queen. And a good one at that. One of those queens who made everyone around them shut up and listen well.

He heard her just barely audibly whisper:

"Note to self- never leave lunch at home." She sighed.

"The effort to make one is what counts." Nico replied before anything could stop him.

The taller girl turned to look at him and he was shocked to see how beautiful she was.

She had dark brown eyes controlled by long lashes above and below. Her skin was darker than Nico's and easily made him want to share the shade. Long legs and long arms made him think that she probably played some sort of sport- or that all the clubs wanted her to. Her eyebrows were perfectly arched, though one was currently higher than the other as she stared at Nico. And her hair was blackish-brown in a French braid that stopped a bit below her shoulders.

"True, but everything's futile if I forget to grab it."

Nico shrugged, "At least you have an after school lunch now?" He suggested.

The girl grinned, giving way to a possibly less queenly presence. "I suppose I do," She stuck out her hand in the cramped corridor towards Nico.

"Nice to meet you by the way, I'm Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano."

Nico took and shook the hand outstretched to him. "Nico."

Reyna raised an eyebrow again. "Just Nico?"

Nico shrugged once more. "Nico di Angelo."

"Well it's nice to meet you Nico di Angelo."

"Likewise."

Three boys crowded in a hallway, all with different hair colors and yelling at each other.

A brunet had a dark shade of bistre as the color of his curly hair that seemed to grow up and out instead of down. His elf-ish ears stuck closely to head, though covered by his hair. His eyebrows were currently furrowed in frustration as he argued, and his brown eyes, skeptical. On his dark sienna skin, he wore an irritated smile.

"I'm telling you, she said make a left!" He shouted.

The black-haired boy didn't smile and instead frowned out of annoyance. His light brown skin twitched around his shamrock themed eyes as he continued the disagreement of which way the teacher said the cafeteria was located. His jet black hair, though not as curly as the brunet's beside him, was wavy and quite rugged. It extended out past his forehead a bit, but curved back onto the top of his head.

"No! A right- she said a right!" The raven head cried.

The blonde seemed to be the most relaxed of the three, his light brown brows weren't trying to connect and his cyan eyes looked tired more than anything. Running a barely noticeably tanned (as the rest of him was) hand through his lightly wheat colored hair, an exasperated sigh escaped his thin, pink lips before he interjected:

"Uh, she definitely said to keep going straight."

"Stay out of this Jason! You weren't even listening!" Percy, the green eyed one, accused his friend, much to the blonde's displeasure.

"Oh yeah Percy? I'm surprised you had time to see what Jason was doin' because I'm more than sure you were too busy dragging us around lookin' for Annabeth!" Leo, the brunet spat at his brother.

"Shut up Leo! I'm so sorry for tryna find my girlfriend on the first day of school when I haven't seen her in nearly a week!" Percy complained, taking his attention away from Jason and turning towards the one who was now accusing him.

"A week? Gosh golly Percy I'm so sorry. It's almost as if I wasn't there to hear you whine and complain about this same matter for that same whole week." Leo apologized sarcastically, pouting in fake sadness.

"Ya' know what? Thanks bro. Thanks for understandin' bro." Percy thanked Leo.

"No bro. Thank you. Thanks for bein' ma bro, bro. I mean it." Leo replied with the same amount of sincerity.

"Uh bros? This isn't getting us anywhere…" Jason admitted awkwardly.

"Shut up bro!"

Jason snapped.

"Now wait a fuckin' minute. I know you two didn't drag me all over this damn place only to tell me to shut up!"

Amidst all the arguing that ensued between the boys, a girl with her blonde hair in a high ponytail and determined grey eyes headed their way. She wore an orange collared shirt tucked neatly into tan pants that fell into black combat boots. Along with a small purse strapped across her chest, she held a few papers connected by a paper clip and walked with a fast pace.

"Speak of the devil bros!" Leo exclaimed pointing behind his brother and brotherly friend.

Said boys turned to follow Leo's finger and saw the girl steadily approaching their group.

"Hey Annabeth." Percy blushed, struggling to make full eye contact with the grey eyes.

"Hey you guys, what are you all doing around here? This isn't even close to the freshman lunchroom." Annabeth frowned a bit, her eyes barely squinting in suspicion….

"You're not doing what I think you are, right?"

"Depends." Leo smirked and crossed his arms. "What do you think we're doing?"

"Something that I specifically told you not to." She huffed, crossing her arms and pushing all her weight onto one foot. She tapped the other, waiting.

"Don't worry Annabeth, the only thing they were doing was getting on my nerves. And an excellent job of it too." Jason reassured her.

Annabeth sighed in momentary relief but it was quickly replaced with more suspicion.

"Remember, be social but not suspiciously so, be careful of the friends you make, and-"

Annabeth lowered her voice and leaned into the group, "I can't use my ability to tell who has powers here, like it's being blocked out." She whispered.

Percy's eyes widened "Maybe it's just actin' kinda funny 'cuz you've never been here." He shrugged, well hiding nervousness.

"Y-yeah, probably." Leo agreed, not so well hiding nervousness.

"Even if that is the case-" Jason began to say the four kid's motto but was cut short by Annabeth.

"Better safe than dissected." She reminded them.

Silence filled the otherwise empty corridor as for the seemingly hundredth time, the truth of the statement sunk in.

"Well, anyway I was heading to the library to fill out some club applications. Do you want to come with me, Percy?" Annabeth smiled in Percy's direction.

"Yeah, lunch is pretty long anyways." Percy agreed.

"Alright bros," He faced Jason and Leo, "be safe and don't get kidnapped!" He joked as Annabeth took his hand and they walked some other direction.

"Like I was saying…" Leo turned to Jason slowly. "She said go left!"

"Straight!"

"So you just live with your grandma?" Hazel asked.

"Yeah," Frank responded, surprised he could hear her with the other hundred kids in here chattering away as well.

"I never really thought it was weird or anything. It's been like that for a long time now, so...um...yeah." He finished, not really sure how to wrap up that last sentence.

"Well, I think I can kind of relate." Hazel nodded her head in agreement. "When I was a lot younger, my dad passed away. A few agonizing years past with my mom being rather, well, probably not as kind to me as she should've been. Considering that we both lost someone important." Hazel's voice became bitter as she said that last sentence. Honey colored eyes turning a darker shade as repressed memories nearly pushed through to her attention. She appeared to snap out of it quickly (Frank thought otherwise however) as she added:

"But the years passed, my mom met my half-brother's dad, they hit it off and voila!" The girl ecstatically told Frank, outstretching her arms happily. "Although, they aren't home very much. Traveling the world as 'young lovers' they claim..." Hazel sighed, enthusiasm gone.

Frank let confusion paint his face as he noticed something not quite right with his new friend's story.

"Wait, you and your brother are just living alone right now?" He questioned. He'd heard of absent parents, in-and-out of the house, to work at 3am-home by 1am, but never there? That was new.

"D-do you have some sort of caretaker?" Frank didn't want to delve into Hazel's personal life too much, but he couldn't help being at least a little worried.

Hazel's expression turned into a mix of embarrassment, nervousness, and awkwardness. "Kinda…" She muttered, turning her head so that she didn't have to half-lie and half-tell-the-truth to the boy across from her.

Frank didn't pry and the rest of the conversation contained light small talk. A nice change from the deep and nearly depressing previous conversation.

A tall building stood kilometers away from the highschool, people in black suits rushing in and out gracefully.

Somewhere on the highest floors, a small room contained 3 people. One man sat at a desk, dim windows to his left as the sun rose slowly. He stared intently at the other two; a woman and a teenage boy.

"His name." The man at the desk stated.

"Yes sir." The other adult pulled the papers in her hand up to her eyes and gave the full name of the blonde boy beside her.

The man at the desk slightly and slowly glanced at the boy, creating eye contact despite the dim room. He seemed to stare into his soul, his black eyes unmoving. Facing back to the woman, he nodded. "He will do."

"Yes sir, we shall begin tomorrow. Ridgewood High-school, correct?"

Another nod, but accompanied with a smirk as he faced the windows; the sun now more visible the before.

"School is in session."