Hello everyone. I is back with another chapter. Shout out to everyone who reviews and reviewed to any of my stories. I would thank you all personally, but

1) it takes too long and

2) my wi-fi connection is crap.

So instead, I just shoutout to everyone, because you are all awesome. Yay. Confetti.

Thanks to Finwitch1 for the conference idea.

I changed Nico's last name because mortals remembering names and stuff is bad, but I am aware that it actually is DiAngelo.

Also... HAPPY 2015! Wooooo! Yeah...

Okay, I now present to you an 885 word chapter. You may now begin reading.

I do not own PJO and HoO, or any of the characters, places, and things in that story. I just own his plot, my OCs, and this author's note. Now that I am done with all this legal stuff, enjoy!

Nico took a deep breath and stepped into the building, expecting more stares then the few he got.

Oh right, he thought. Piper told me everybody would forget about it.

heHe let out the breath he was keeping in. Only a few people looked strangely at the son of Hades, and that was probably because he stopped in the middle of the doors. He quickly moved out of the way of the oncoming hallway traffic.

On his way to Paul's room, though, he was spotted.

"Nico! Wait up!"

Nico slowed down enough to let his pursuer catch up to him. "Hey Rose," he replied.

"Where were you yesterday? We missed you."

"I was sick."

"Oh. But are you okay now?"

Nico had to bite his lip to stop smiling. "You sound a lot like my friend Jason. And yes, I'm fine. I have a good doctor."

Rose frowned. "That was an inside joke, wasn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Oh... Okay!" Rose paused to open the door to homeroom.

Nico was just about to thank her for opening the door when a voice called out, "Great job at being courteous, Angel."

Nico bit back a retort, careful at what he did to agitate the bully. But ad it turned out, he didn't have to.

"Wow, great job using your spelling words, Mark." Nico glanced over at his new friend, surprised at the change from her normally passive behavior.

"Oh yeah? Well..."

"C'mon, leave them alone Mark." The two friends looked over at the source of the voice. Rose smiled.

"Hi Sam."

"Hey Rose," the guy, Sam, replied.

"Soooo... Nico, this is Sam. Sam, this is Nico."

"Cool," Sam replied.

"Great to meet you," Nico said without a hint of joy in his voice.

Sam frowned.

Rose elbowed Nico. To Sam, she said, "Don't worry. He's like this most of the time."

"How long have you two known each other?" Sam asked the girl.

"Oh, about, two days."

"Cool. Cool," Sam replied.

The three of them stood there awkwardly for about a minute. The first bell rang.

Sam broke the group's silence. "I gotta..." He pointed down the hall.

"Oh right. Yeah," Rose agreed. "Well, bye!"

"Bye," Nico chorused.

"See 'ya later!" Then Sam ran off and joined a group of other guys.

Rose stepped inside Paul's room, tailed by Nico.

As they sat down Nico asked a question that had been nagging him since he met Sam. "Did you two date or something?"

Rose looked up, as if she were tired of answering that question. "No. We were just bus and homeroom buddies. Then he moved, and this year we aren't in the same homeroom, and we have different teachers."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Yeah, well. Oh yeah, and he's also gay."

Nico blinked. "Really?"

Rose smiled. "Yeah. We had some good times together, talking about boys and stuff. But seriously, like all of my guy friends are gay or bi. Are you?"

Nico looked down. "Yeah. Gay."

Rose looked unfazed. "Really. Cool!"

"You don't think it's weird?"

"Nah, I think that it's perfectly normal. Plus, I grew up in a pretty accepting household. Bad grade in science? Just try your best. Punched someone mean in the face? He deserved it. Friend is gay? Great! Nothing wrong there."

"Wow. I want your family."

Rose gave him a sympathetic look. "Homophobic parents? Sam had them. That's why he was almost always at my house. But now he has other friends." She sighed. Nico couldn't help but notice the sadness in her voice.

"Sorry."

"Yeah, well. Answer my question."

"What? Oh, right. No, it's just my mom and sister are dead. My dad is an absentee of a father, but I like it better that way. He works with dead people, and years in the business have made him creepy as hell."

Rose was speechless. "Oh. Sorry about plaguing you with my problems. It sounds like you have enough of your own."

"It's fine. I have enough people protecting me from life as it is back at camp. But my life is better now. I found out that I have a step sister, and her friends as well as my cousins and their friends are all the family I need. And as for a mother figure, you ever heard of Percy Jackson?"

Rose nodded yes,

"Well, his mom is great. I also have my strangely endearing sister's friend, and Jason, who I mentioned earlier. I also have a sort of boyfriend."

"Would this be the doctor you mentioned earlier?"

"Yeah. He's in med school. First year."

"Cool." Rose then put on am evil grin and started a question. "Have you two ever?"

"No," Nico firmly said.

"But you didn't even hear what I was going to say," Rose whined.

"You were going to ask if we've ever played doctor. How, you ask, did I anticipate this question. Well, you see, they say that eyes are the windows to the soul. And you have the same eyes as my friends Leo, Cecil, Travis, and Conner, who each separately asked me this same question."

Rose smiled. "You know me so well. We still on for Friday."

"We're still on," Nico replied.

Thanks so much for reading. Please review, fav, follow, etc. I am also open to suggestions and constructive criticism. Thanks again for reading!

~ThatDamBookGirl

:)