Chapter Thirty
Miscommunications

Ever had a day go amazingly and then suddenly everything falls apart?

Yesterday, Cyrus (it was weird calling a teacher by their first name, but it was even weirder telling someone you'd made out with Mr. Sol) had taken me to this little café a few towns away right after school got out.

I still hadn't told anyone about our relationship. I mean, the only person I'd think of telling was Thalia, and every time I tried, it seemed like she had enough on her plate. And if the wrong person were to find out, I was pretty sure Cyrus would be out of a job.

He was only six years older than me. It wasn't that weird.

It was actually kind of a good thing, when I thought about it. Most guys my age were concerned with seeing how far they could get with a girl, versus Cyrus, who seemed okay to let me take things as slow as I wanted.

We ended up staying out a lot later than I'd expected. Cyrus had a friend who was performing at an open mic night at a bar, so I'd agreed to go with him. I was banking on my dad not being home – and nine times out of ten, he wasn't.

Of course, it was the lucky tenth day.

Dad was sitting in the living room, calmly reading the newspaper when I finally stumbled through the door a few minutes before midnight. He gave me a calm stare before folding up the paper and saying, "Want to tell me what the hell you were doing?"

I bit back a remark about how he didn't have the right to ask when half the time we didn't know where he was. "I was helping a friend study. We have finals next week. It got a little late, but I didn't have clothes there or anything, so I came home."

"You think I can't tell when you're lying?" Dad asked.

"Well it's not like you're ever home," I shot back before thinking about it.

Dad grabbed his newspaper and went back to reading. "Go to sleep. We'll talk in the morning. But there are going to be consequences, Bianca."

I stormed down the hall and opened the door to Nico's room without knocking. Predictably, he was still awake, watching some horror movie on the huge TV in his room. He glared at me. "Thanks for knocking."

"Yeah, and thanks for telling me Dad's home. I'm in serious shit."

"You know everything's not about you," Nico hissed. "Where the hell were you? You know what? I don't care. But wherever you were, did you ever think about checking your phone? I needed you today. And Thalia came here today looking for you. Whatever." He mumbled something under his breath. I couldn't quite make it out, but it sounded a lot like selfish bitch.

Yeah, I was selfish. How could he think that? I was the one who took care of him, and suddenly everything wasn't all about him, and he was mad. It was my dad he should have been angry with.

I got to my room and grabbed my phone off my nightstand; I'd forgotten to grab it this morning. There were about twenty missed calls – a few from Nico, and the rest from Thalia. Before reading my messages, I sent Thalia a quick text.

Hey, are you still awake?

Immediately, I wished I hadn't. All of the messages from her were begging her to call me because she really needed to talk. They stopped around 10:30. I prayed she'd decided to go to sleep.

But then again, maybe if she was still awake, I could convince her to go along with my studying lie. She owed me after keeping her pregnancy secret. And then if I could figure out some way to get back on Nico's good side, everything would be back to normal.

Thalia was calling me, and I really didn't have an excuse not to answer now that I'd just texted her. Bracing myself for whatever crap was new in her life, I answered the phone.

"Oh my God. Where have you been? I've been trying to call you since it happened."

It. That sounded bad. "I was out with a friend, and I told my dad I was at your house studying. What happened?"

"So I was stupid and I told Luke and he kind of freaked out." I was probably supposed to say something, but I was too tired. "And he said we should get married."

"What did you say?" I wished I'd waited till tomorrow to call her, because right now, I was too tired to properly listen and react.

Thalia sighed. "I don't know. I told him we could talk about it once everything sunk in for him. But I'm not marrying him in high school. I don't think he's the kind of guy I'd want to marry ever."

"Then maybe you should have thought about that before you went and got knocked up," I snapped. My voice sounded a lot bitchier than I wanted it to. I swear, I was just tired. "Think about it – you're stuck with him for the rest of your life."

"You think I don't know that? God, if I wanted the parent act I would have just talked to my…"

"Well then what do you want me to say?"

"I need a friend right now, Bianca."

"So do I, but it's always somehow about you."

"You're a real bitch." She hung up.

I hoped that things would be better tomorrow. Well, this morning, seeing as it was now about one in the morning. There was jazz choir, so I figured I'd show up a bit early and talk to Cyrus. He'd understand.

Dad was gone when I woke up. I should have figured – last night was one fluke in 18 years of passive parenting. I ate breakfast quickly and drove to school.

Cyrus was sitting in his office when I got there, seeing as how jazz choir didn't start for another half hour. He was on the phone, and it sounded like he was almost done, so I decided to wait outside the door for him.

"I'm sorry, Daph…I was out with a friend and my phone was dead, like I told you…okay, so what am I supposed to do? You guys live three hours away…yeah, fine. Bye."

I probably wasn't supposed to overhear that, but it was too late to turn around. "Oh, hey, Bianca," Cyrus said, trying to sound cool.

"What was that about?" I asked, keeping the accusatory tone out of my voice. Or at least I thought so.

"My…my friend was sick last night," he snapped. "It was nothing. Daphne worries a lot about nothing." Before I could ask my next question, he answered it. "And Daphne is just an old friend. Now is there any other aspect of my life you want to examine before everyone else arrives?"

"I just wanted to talk to you! Sorry if that's an inconvenience."

"You know what? There's a lot on my plate right now and it doesn't help that you're-"

The door to the band room opened. "Sorry I'm late. I didn't get up on time, and…oh. I got the times mixed up," Grover said, realizing just how much of an awkward situation he'd walked into.

"I came to work on my solo," I said by way of explanation. "But Mr. Sol is so busy that he doesn't have time to help me."

Cyrus shot me a look. "I'll be in my office. Feel free to hang out, guys."

Grover looked as though I was the last person he wanted to be left alone with. Well what the hell had I done to make him mad? He chewed on his lip for a few seconds before blurting out, "I'm really sorry. I just couldn't do it. What if my parents found out? I really don't want to be kicked out of the house. I'm not even 16 yet. And-"

"Wait, what?"

Grover took a few deep breaths. "Nico didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"I, umm," Grover dropped his voice, looking at the direction of Cyrus' office. "I told him I'm never…gonna want to be more than friends."

"Oh." So that's why he'd needed me yesterday.

Grover looked eager to change the subject. "Did Thalia call you last night? She called me, but she told me she really wanted to talk to you. Can you believe it? I wonder what Silena's gonna be like today. Do you think they'll really get married? I told her my sister got pregnant and-"

"Grover. Stop."

It was going to be a long day.

You knew your day was going to suck when it started with Annabeth Chase calling you at six in the morning.

So Annabeth wasn't really that bad. At least, she didn't scare me like she used to when I only knew her as an uptight perfectionist. She was just a little….exhausting.

"I didn't wake you up, Grover. Did I?" she asked after I groggily answered the phone.

"Doesn't matter. What's up?"

"Well I forgot to tell you yesterday. It's Percy's first day back at school. We should go with him – you know, moral support and all." It'd been two weeks since we'd rescued him. "He seems okay, but really. How can you be fine after that?"

"Oh man. I would. It's just that I've got jazz choir this morning, and I've got a solo so I can't skip." And we had an earlier practice this morning that I'd completely forgot about. "And I'm already late, so I gotta go. Sorry!"

And I hung up quickly rather than facing the wrath of Annabeth.

My parents were already awake by the time I'd gotten dressed and run downstairs. I quickly made up some excuse about being really behind on a tech ed project that was due tomorrow.

Mom had been obviously irritated and had muttered something about not being able to wait till I could drive, but she did take me in. Practice was supposed to be at 6:30 – it had taken me ten minutes to get ready, and we were 25 minutes out of town.

I all but ran into the school and pushed through the door to the music room, blurting out an excuse about my lateness before realizing that Bianca and Mr. Sol were the only ones there.

And if that wasn't suspicious enough, Bianca immediately blurted out an excuse for why she was there. It sure seemed like she came early a lot.

Mr. Sol retreated to his office, leaving me and Bianca. And right now she was the last person I wanted to be alone with. She just gave me this level gaze, which I personally found a lot more unnerving than any amount of shouting.

Finally I cracked. "I'm really sorry. I just couldn't do it. What if my parents found out? I really don't want to be kicked out of the house. I'm not even 16 yet. And-"

"Wait, what?" she interrupted, looking completely confused.

And so was I. "Nico didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"I, umm." There wasn't any way to put it nicely. "I told him I'm never…gonna want to be more than friends."

"Oh." Bianca had this weird look on her face, kind of like she was lost in thought.

The silence was too awkward. "Did Thalia call you last night? She called me, but she told me she really wanted to talk to you. Can you believe it? I wonder what Silena's gonna be like today. Do you think they'll really get married? I told her my sister got pregnant and-"

"Grover. Stop." Bianca shot me one of those looks that had made me scared of her before I got to know her. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she didn't want to talk.

Other people started showing up about ten minutes later. When Silena arrived, it was obvious that Luke had broken up with her. And another thing that was obvious – she wasn't taking it well. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she was wearing baggy sweats and a hoodie. "I mean, I was going to break up with him, but he was just so…" she said loudly to one of the other girls, trailing off in a fit of tears. "It's Thalia; I know it."

The girl agreed a little too quickly before running off to talk with someone else. Silena upset seemed like a lot to handle – I didn't blame her. Well, until Silena sat down on the choir risers next to me. She was still sniffling.

"Did you hear, Grover?" she asked me. I shook my head, deciding it was best to pretend I didn't know anything. Silena fished her rhinestone-encrusted phone out of her pocket and scrolled down through her messages. "There. Start here."

Let me summarize so you don't have to go through the same torture I did: Luke tried to be as vague as possible breaking up with her, she got nasty with him, he got nastier with her, and it ended with him telling her to shut up because he had better things to do than argue with an "ugly stupid slut."

"I mean, I knew I was the rebound, but I never thought he'd go back to her! Not after what she did to him. You don't know him like I do. What she did really hurt him. I mean, he never talked about it, but a girl can tell these things. Why would he like her more than me?" Silena asked me, her eyes filling with tears again.

I wished Thalia hadn't told me last night, but even if she hadn't, I'd know this was about her. "Umm…I don't know," I mumbled. "Luke's not the greatest guy. No offense or anything. You're just…probably better off without him."

"But everyone's going to think it's so funny when he finally comes back to school and he's with her," Silena continued. "They'll think I'm just a stupid slut. But I guess it doesn't matter, because that's what they think anyway."

"It won't be that bad."

"Yes, it will. I mean, my reputation couldn't get any worse if I dated you. No offense," she quickly added. "Wait…maybe…if I…then people wouldn't think…"

"I, uh, have to go. Tech ed project," I said, quickly removing myself from an emotionally unstable Silena Beauregard.

Everyone else would understand. At least, I hoped they would.

Saying Percy Jackson was a nervous wreck was like saying I was kind of a perfectionist.

When I met him at the steps outside of school, he seemed okay. But that flimsy façade quickly disappeared on the walk to our lockers. He didn't say anything, but the slightest sound made him look over his shoulder.

"Percy. You're okay," I finally said after a guy on the swim team had tapped him on the shoulder and he'd jumped.

"I know that! But…" Whatever he said next was lost as a loud group of sophomores walked by us. "I don't know. I know it's dumb."

After the first day Grover and I had gone to see him, Percy had just shut down whenever we'd tried to talk about Mrs. M. I didn't get it. If it was me, I would want to track this Dean King guy down and tell him exactly what I thought of him.

It was like Percy didn't even care.

The story had been all over the news – of course, the version they told was far from the truth. They portrayed Mrs. M as a certifiably crazy woman (which I guess was true), and our school as a terrible place for hiring her (which again, was also true). Well, maybe their version wasn't far from the truth – it just had giant holes.

Most people were surprised Percy was back so soon. But two weeks added to an entire month away from school had added up. He said the school had called his mom and said a bunch of stuff about how they understood the situation, but if he didn't want to repeat his freshman year, he'd have to come back as soon as possible.

I think Percy's mom should have threatened to sue the school for all the trouble they'd caused. But you know, that was just me. Come to think of it, the entire family seemed really eager to put the whole incident behind them.

"Who's teaching English now?" Percy asked after looking over his shoulder again.

"The guidance counselor." I was pretty sure Grover and I had told him that during one of our visits to his house. "And we're doing poetry. I don't know how the school thinks he's qualified, but there's a lot of controversy about…you know…the hiring for substitute teachers."

I shouldn't have worried about treading lightly over the subject. Percy wasn't even listening. "Oh. Cool," he said when he realized I'd stopped talking.

"You know you could go home if you're not ready for this."

"I'm fine!" Percy said a little too loudly. A few groups of people stopped talking and looked over at us. "Seriously. I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be."

I wished Grover was here. What was I supposed to say?

That was when we saw Grover bolting down the hallway. "Gotta hide from Silena," was his brief explanation. "I think…she wants to go out with me."

As Grover continued running down the hall, Percy look at me and asked, "When did that happen?"

If only I knew.