Happy Halloween guys! Here's a Bianca one-shot for ya :)

Disclaimer: I am as much Rick Riodan as Alexandra Daddario is Annabeth Chase

It was like a sixth sense, this feeling of foreboding that hung like a shadow over her head. From the moment Bianca had stepped into Westover Hall she had felt it immediately. It wasn't just the unsettlingly obvious clues, like the fact the vice principal once breathed smoke out of his nose or eyes once turned red. No, it was just the smell of the school itself- a dark odor that she would catch a whiff of every once and a while. Maybe it was the smell of her fear. Bianca didn't have any answers.

She never mentioned her uneasiness to Nico. The kid was so young, and she was trying her best to help him remain carefree- while he still could. Bianca took it upon herself to protect her little brother from this ominous shadow, come what may. They were all each other had. Bianca needed to keep them together, preferably in one piece.

She was melding this over when a triple-tap knock sounded from her dorm room door. That'll be Nico, she thought tiredly. The two had worked out a secret knocking system so that the two could sneak into each other's dorms to still be together. Lately, her little brother frequented her room over five times a day, and Bianca didn't know how much longer he could pull it off without people noticing and suspecting.

"Come in, Nico," she said softly, not wanting anyone to hear.

The door opened slowly, and her little brother walked into the room, shuffling his feet sullenly on the ground and wiping his red eyes. Bianca's mother-hen protectiveness clicked into gear, and she swore to pound the daylights out of whoever was responsible for hurting Nico. Hopping up to her feet, she ran over to his side and put her arm around his slumped shoulder. He sniffled once or twice, and then looked up at her with watery eyes.

"Bianca?" he asked timidly.

"What is it? Are you alright?"

"Ye-yes," he choked out, sinking down onto her bed.

She sat down next to him and put her arm around him again. "Nico, what happened? You can talk to me," she said soothingly.

"The boys- they were laughing at me for playing with my Mythomagic cards," he said sadly. Bianca sighed with relief, this was a minimal trouble that had been recurring over the past couple of weeks. They could work through it. "Am-am I a baby for playing with them?" he asked nervously, the thought obviously had been bothering him for a long time.

"No, of course you aren't," she assured him. Bianca secretly loved the way he played with Mythomagic cards. It was proof that despite their hard past Nico really did have a remainder of his childhood innocence left within him. "No, it's fine to play with them. I mean, we play together sometimes and I'm older than those boys, right?"

Nico's face broke into a lopsided smile. "Yeah. Yeah, that's right," with an obvious rise of spirits. A bell sounded from the corridor outside of the dorm room.

"You need to go to your next class, Nico," she told him, handing him a jacket and pushing him toward the door. "I'll meet you down you by the cafeteria at six, and then we can go to the dance."

Bianca winced inwardly when she said this, because she would have preferred to hide in her room reading then put up with those annoying girls from math class in a gym full of blasting rap music. But Nico had insisted they go, and just to give him something to look forward to, she had grudgingly agreed. He needed happy memories, and Bianca feared to deprive him of those. I can prevent the end of his innocence, she promised herself. I can save him from that shadow. Bianca knew better now.

Annnnd that's it. Review, please.