AN: Short clarification ➡ In this universe, Will and Nico are seniors. (In the first chapter, they were finishing up junior year. It's currently Halloween.) Percy & Annabeth are juniors in college. Jason & Piper are sophomores in college. READ ON (plus a second author's note at the end!)

It's getting harder and harder to keep a consistency in this story...

"Nico. Wake. Up. Now." Reyna stood over Nico's bed, nudging him with her toe. She sighed when he made no attempt to move. "Look, you can't sleep forever." She walked to the other side. "Get up!"

Nico chose to ignore her attempts to get him out, and slowly rolled so his back was turned towards her.

"Fine then." Reyna pulled the pillow out from under his head and whacked his head with it.

"Owwww. Reyna, that hurt." Nico whined, pulling his blanket to cover his face.

She smirked. "Shush, you big baby. I don't particularly care." She pulled his blanket off and whacked him a second time. "We have a lot to do today. Now get up!" With that, she whacked his body a third time and added, "Breakfast is ready!"

Nico groaned at the unfortunate fact that she was his best friend. So, he yawned, sleepily fell off the bed, and groggily walked towards the kitchen. "Where's Hazel?" he asked Reyna.

"She left thirty minutes ago to finish her part of the list with Frank. Here." she placed a mug of coffee down. He grunted out a thanks. "You're welcome. Once you're finished eating, start cleaning. I'm going to get the stuff for the party." She picked up her purse and turned around with a stern look, "and for goodness sake, you better be done by the time I come back. Bye!"

Not quite fully awake, Nico blinked slowly, trying to digest what Reyna just said. Instead he poured himself a bowl of cereal and munched thoughtfully while looking out the window. He'd spent the entire day watching horror movies (not that he was scared of horror movies, but he didn't enjoy them either) on his laptop in lieu of Halloween festivities. But that was before he found out that … SHOOT.

Yesterday, Hazel had picked up Reyna at the airport. She was going to stay with them until the end of Thanksgiving break. However, on their way back, the two girls apparently threw together an impromptu Halloween party at the di Angelo household. It only just ocurred to Nico that he needed to start getting prepared as the celebration would start roughly around from 3 to 5, depending on the time Percy and Annabeth would arrive from downtown.

He stood up, bumping the table that it shook vigorously and spilled the coffee on the table as he ran to check the time on his phone. The screen flashed. 10:47. Good, he still had about 3 hours to finish cleaning before Reyna would come back and scold his unproductiveness. Oh, and there were about 15 plus texts from Will. Hm.

Nico scrolled through.

Nnnnniiiiccccooooo (Fri, 5:43)

Yo, di Angelo, I kinda need help (Fri, 5:44)

Pbbbfff, fine. Be that way O_O (Fri, 5:44)

What'd you get on #5 on the chem review? (Fri, 5:47)

Help, I'm boreddddd (Fri, 6:02)

And so on and so on. Nico smirked at his texts, but enjoyed the fact that Will had turned to him when he was bored. He texted back a quick response, something along the lines of "sure, I'll see you later".

At the beginning of the school year, Nico appreciated his periodical (if not frequent) trips to Target. Through his weekly grocery trips, he really got to know Will, and albeit grudgingly (it wasn't really grudgingly of course. Nico relished the entire process) became relatively close.

Now that school started though, he was glad he made new friends. The few years before, Nico's only friends had been upperclassmen, but they all graduated and are well off into college, so he was pleased for any extra face he'd recognize in the halls.

He walked back out from his room and entered the kitchen, ready to vacuum, and sighed, only to be face to face with the giant stack of unwashed dishes in the sink accumulated in the last week.

"Hear me out," Will said dramatically, "Crab Tabs."

"What? That doesn't make sense."

Will gasped. "What do you mean it doesn't make sense? It makes perfect sense!" Nico raised his eyebrows at him as they sat down in the wooden chairs in a coffee shop Will had found around the corner. Nico slouched, slightly affected by the chill of autumn.

Thanks to boredom and Will's job, the two had started to mock all the product names on the shelf, claiming they could think of something way better than whatever the big companies came up with. It continued to be a game even when the school year started. (At times, Will would go as far as to scream his new invention in passing between classes. For example, while exiting calc, Will had yelled 'DINOSAUR BOOKSTORE' and ran to his next class. He'd spend hours trying to think of a new, creative name, just to see the small smirk on Nico's face when he voiced his new idea. Oh, how it brightened Will's day.)

"Sure thing, Solace. Crab. Tabs." Nico said sarcastically. "And what would this brilliant product do?"

"Uh, I… um. It's like um." Nico sniggered silently. "Hey, don't laugh at me! I really did have an idea going!" Will exclaimed jokingly.

"You see, that's your problem." Nico pointed a coffee stirrer at Will. "You can't just make a clever product name by making it rhyme. It's got to have a purpose!"

"Yeah," Will pouted. "You've got to admt though. Crab Tabs seems like a really catchy infomercial name though, doesn't it?"

Nico nodded his head slightly. "Yeah," he said quietly, "I guess it does." He felt his cheeks redden at the fact he agreed with Solace, and Will's cheeks did the same when he realized Nico approved.

"Di Angelo, we've got to go now." Their necks snapped up, only to be met with Reyna's smug look from the door of the shop.

"Wh-wha-wai-wha- how did you find me here?" Nico stammered.

She shrugged, "Just passing by. Now come on! Jason and Piper are arriving any minute now and we aren't even near your house yet!"

"Oh, uh, ok, um, bye, Will!" Nico squeaked and hurriedly walked quickly out the door.

"Oh yeah, Solace, we're having a Halloween party later today. Do you think you can come?" Reyna asked, sticking her head out from the door.

Will, surprised he was invited, responded, "Yeah, I don't have any plans anyway."

"Cool. Just come by Nico's house any time you want. He'll text you if the plans change. Bye!" She walked out of the shop faster than Will could ask any more questions. Nico stood wide-eyed on the street. "Reyna!"

"Shhh, I just did you a favor. You wouldn't stop staring at each other. Now come on, hopefully the decorations will be up by now."

Well that took way longer than it should've. Sorry I haven't updated in a (very long) while. Ever since the school year started, I've been having trouble keeping this story up. I also apologize for the choppiness and shortened length of this chapter. I have a bad case of writer's block.

Anyway, THANK YOU SO MUCH to all those who read, followed, favorited, and or commented on my story when I was gone! Your thoughts mean so much to me, and your positive reviews help keep my hopes up in finding a new idea for this story.

Speaking of which… as always, I ask of all of you to help me and send in possible story lines or suggestions you might want. Again, y'all are awesome, and I'm sorry for not updating sooner!

~ Phantomosolace