Chapter Twelve
Girl Power

I was expecting to be able to drive home without someone running out in front of my car screaming at me.

Selfish, I know.

If that person hadn't happened to be my very pissed girlfriend, I might have just kept on driving and hoped they moved. But then again, I really didn't want the very real reason of manslaughter added to the list of completely false reasons I was getting suspended.

Very generously, I stopped. She stormed into the passenger seat and slammed the door. "Well? You're just driving away? No fight or anything?"

"13 days off of school. Why would I?"

She was fuming. "I don't know if you realize this, but pretty soon we're going to be applying to colleges."

"They don't see your disciplinary record."

"But they do see your GPA."

"I don't even show up to half my classes anyway. It won't be that big of a deal."

"Does anything get through to you?" she hissed. "You want to be stuck living in this town working at Gas and Grub for the rest of your life? Because that's all you're headed for right now."

If I'd been listening to her, I might have actually agreed with what she was saying, but I'd become really good over the years at toning out shouting. "Thank you, Mom. That was a very nice speech."

"You're such a smartass," she groaned. "Sometimes I wonder why I even try. Can you just take me home?"

I remembered that I'd picked her up this morning. Driving away without the girlfriend – I was definitely going to lose boyfriend points. Whatever.

Thalia sat there with her arms folded across her chest, staring out the window. "Do you care about anything?" she finally asked.

I turned the radio up.

"Don't ignore me!" She shut the radio off. Well, someone was in a bitchy mood. "You know the empathetic part of the brain that allows you to actually have human emotions? I think you were born without it."

"I'll go back and argue with the school after I drop you off. Would that make you happy?" Anything to get her to stop shouting.

I saw her roll her eyes. "Whatever. You're just saying that."

Yeah, I kind of was, but whatever. I turned the radio back on and hoped she was done being a bitch.

"Pull over," she said suddenly.

Seeing as how she looked ready to jump out before I did, I pulled over without asking questions.

She barely made it out before she puked. I looked away until she got back in the car.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. That's the last time I ever eat school food."

She didn't say anything else besides a quick goodbye when I dropped her off.

I decided it was best not to pry.

The Star Spangled Banner was really starting to get old. It was a good thing Veteran's Day was tomorrow, because the song really put me in a bad mood.

Or maybe that was just Bianca rubbing off on me.

"Remember, you guys need to hold that last note out. Sopranos, you're flat. Tenors, you need to be louder." Mr. Sol had been getting more and more stressed over the last few days, even though he insisted he thought we were ready to perform.

Silena sighed loudly next to me. She'd also been more grumpy for the last week or so. "Can we be done now? I want to pick out my musical theater solo for festival."

Mr. Sol shrugged. Apparently he was sick of the Star Spangled Banner, too. "I guess so. Remember, come in here during your break. We'll go through it once and then go perform."

"And don't be too amazing or they'll want us to sing at basketball games and shit. Oh, wait. That won't be a problem since you all suck," Bianca muttered. Mr. Sol shot her a dirty look but didn't say anything.

Silena ignored her. "I'm singing Popular from Wicked," she announced to anyone who was listening. "And this year I'm going to state. The only reason I didn't last year was because I got laryngitis."

"You owe me twenty bucks," Carrie whispered behind me to Josh. "She's been single for three weeks now."

"Not true," he sputtered. "I saw her making out with the new kid at the Halloween party."

So that's why a "quick trip to the bathroom" had taken half an hour. Then I'd gone upstairs with Nico, come back down, and found him outside with Annabeth Chase. I know, it was weird.

"Her Facebook still says she's single. Twenty bucks."

I stood up and grabbed my bag. "Not doing a solo, Grover?" Mr. Sol asked. I felt my face turn red as everyone in the room looked at me.

"You should," Kasey gushed. "I mean, you have a really good voice and all."

"She's so fake that Barbie is jealous," Carrie whispered to Josh, giggling. I had to agree with her.

I shook my head as I walked out the door. "Not this year." Not any year. Going up in front of a group of strangers and singing a solo was a disaster waiting to happen.

Nico was waiting outside. "I thought you'd never be done."

"I didn't know you were waiting." We'd only hung out a few times since the Halloween party. "Why…were you waiting?"

He shrugged. "We never hang out."

"We weren't friends before. It would look weird if all the sudden we started hanging out."

Nico rolled his eyes. "You're so paranoid. Being in the closet is boring."

Yeah, my extremely radical Catholic parents would love to know that their son was gay. "What's wrong with being in the closet for now?"

"Whatever. Oh, Bianca knows. And our dad has a funeral out of town this Friday, so she says you can come over if you want." He chewed on his lip ring. It made him look almost…nervous?

"Yeah. Sure. I gotta go before everyone else leaves." I looked at the door. "Right after school?"

He nodded. "Cool. See you then."

Yeah, I just had to figure out a way to tell my parents that I was going over to the house where the "crazy devil worshipping party" had been.

I repeat, extremely radical Catholics.