"Nope. No way. No can do. Uh uh. No!"

"C'mon Nico! You have to learn sometime."

"Sometime. Not today. Maybe in a few years."

"Grover's party is in two weeks. Either you learn to swim and get in the pool by yourself, willingly, or I'm not gonna stop Jace or G-man from pushing you in. And you know they both can!"

"I'll handle those two, but I'm not gonna learn how to swim"

"What about Leo?"

He paused, "Fuck."

"Exactly."

"Okay, okay. But if anyone asks, I learnt how to swim when I was a little kid but I haven't gone swimming for a long time so I'm a bit weak. Okay?"

"Okay whatever. Now are you coming in or do I have to come out and push you in?"

"Hehehe."

"Don't laugh Will! I will kill you!"

Will laughed again. "Just get in Nico. Percy's not gonna let anything happen to you."

Grover's 21st birthday was in two weeks. Right in the middle of summer. And that meant a pool party.

Grover didn't have a pool in his apartment at the village, so he was hosting it at Will's house, no, mansion, in the Hamptons. His parents were always travelling on business, so he nearly always had the house to himself anyway.

Will had approached Percy a couple of days after the invitation, explaining how Nico didn't know how to swim. Percy had immediately offered to teach.

So he drove up to Will's place to help out. Seeing as how the party was gonna be held there, Percy thought it would be the best place for him. Also, Nico definitely wasn't gonna come and learn in a public swimming pool.

"The water's cold!"

"No it isn't, Will warmed up the like 5 minutes ago!"

"10 actually! So it should be nice and steamy by now!" Called Will from the deck chair.

"Are you my boyfriend or Percy's?"

"Quickly Nico!" was his reply, " I've made a reservation for 7 and there's gonna be traffic."

"It's 2 o'clock"

Three hours later, Percy and Nico finally got out of the pool and headed to the changing rooms. Will was waiting in the kitchen, two mugs of steaming coffee were sitting on the platform, a third nestled in his hands.

"Good lesson?" he asked.

"It was alright." Nico said.

"Nico, it was great!" Percy smiled. "You're a quick learner! You'll be as good as me by the party!"

Two weeks later, Nico scored his team 7 points to win pool volleyball for his team against Percy, Jason, Grover and Piper.