SummerSpirit18: Pizza is supposed to be tasty, but I wish someone would tell that to the people who cook the pizza at my school. I had a piece today, the crust wasn't cooked, it was still doughy, and the cheese was overcooked, and there was barely any sauce. How hard is it to make a cheese pizza? Wow, you're still on vacation. Lucky. I'm only on my second week of school and I already hate it. Especially because it's starting to get colder, so I wake up at five o'clock in the morning and it's like thirty degrees. And I have to get out from under my soft blanket and two quilts and get ready for fucking school.

Mrs-diAngelo25: The part when Percy ran over to help Nico was probably my favorite part to write. Yeah, just proves how idiotic tourists are. We have tourists who will stop in the middle of the road, climb out of the car, and stand there for like ten minutes just to take pictures of the leaves changing. The thing is, black bears almost never attack people. Still, telling your kids to get close to baby bears to take their pictures is a classic example of someone who wants to get rid of their kids. Which I can understand, but still. Try not to be so obvious, please.

infinity heart star lightning: Not a lot of bears at the beach, no. You're lucky, I would love to live on a beach. Yeah, our school is three stories, but it's tall and thin. And the classrooms are relatively big. It turns out Ancient World goes up to the end of the fifteenth century, which means we stop just before everything gets interesting. I'll have to take Modern World next year. I think the other chapters will go by about as fast as that one did. I usually write my stories in a notebook while I'm at school, then type them up at the library or at my laptop at home. Over the weekend I'll type them at home or at the library.

PercyAndAnnabethLOVEBUG4EVER: Uhhh...thank you? I think. I'm not quite sure what you're "Awwwwe"ing about, but thanks for reviewing.

I don't own Percy Jackson. I do own Amber and Victoria Jennings.

Chapter 4 – Eighth Grade

Eighth grade. They were the rulers of the school for the next year. At least that's what Percy had been told. He pulled his notebooks out of his bag and stuffed them into his locker. One more year until they were in high school.

Percy scanned to crowd for Annabeth, but he didn't see her. Out of habit he scanned again for Nico, although he didn't expect to see him. Percy hadn't seen his best friend since last year, they hadn't done anything during summer vacation and Nico had been so busy with online school and therapy he hadn't had time for Percy during the school year. At least that's what he'D told Percy.

He was about to turn back to his locker when he saw a head of black hair near the front doors. He shut his locker and made his way over, trying not to get his hopes up. It wasn't likely that Hades would have let Nico come back to regular school.

But it was Nico.

"Hey Nico!" Percy said as he reached Nico's locker at the same time as Nico.

"Hey," Nico muttered. He didn't want to talk to Percy, he didn't want to talk to anyone. He just wanted to go to class and hope that no one noticed him. He could already hear them whispering to each other.

"Didn't see you over the summer. What'd you do?"

Nico shrugged. "Not much."

"How come you didn't come to my birthday party? I called you, didn't Persephone give you the message?"

"Persephone doesn't talk to me if she doesn't have to." Nico gave up trying to open his locker and started fighting his way through the crowd. Why were there so many people in the halls? Didn't they have anywhere else to go? The library, maybe? Class?

Percy followed close behind him. He didn't try to talk, but Nico felt a bit better knowing that Percy still wanted to be his friend.

"That's the boy who collapsed in the caf last year," he heard a girl whisper.

"I thought he, like, died or something," her friend said.

"No, I heard he was on drugs," a third one replied.

Percy cleared his throat loudly and glared at the three girls, and they hurried off in the opposite direction. As it turned out, being captain of the swim team had its advantages.

But Percy wasn't with him during all of his classes, and when he was alone he sat in the back, listening to people whisper and watching them stare. They thought he didn't notice, but he did, and sometimes he wondered if he really was the freak they made him out to be.

Percy never gave up on him. Admittedly he hung out with Annabeth and Rachel and Luke more than he hung out with Nico, but he made sure to sit with Nico at least once a week, and those were the days Nico liked best. They were the only days when there was a chance of Nico smiling.

Hades ignored him more than ever, and Persephone hated him more. Nico started digging his nails into his palms. Eventually he began drawing blood. He would sit in class, staring down at his hands, at the little red crescent-shaped marks surrounded by white, white skin. It hurt, but it made him feel better.

Everything else in his life was going to hell, a lot of it was already there. His father didn't care, Persephone cared too much, but this was one thing that he knew. He could control it. And somehow, that was all he needed.


"Nico, I'm just asking you to be a little nicer to her." Hades' voice was calm but was strongly laced with anger.

"Why would I be? When has she ever been nice to me?"

"She's nice to you every damn day, Nico. She makes dinner every night, she asks you about school…"

"Dad, she can't cook and she asks me about school while she's leaving the room. I'm not going to be nice to her, she's a fucking bitch. Why did you even marry her?"

"Do not speak like that! She is your mother!"

"She's not my fucking mother! Maybe you've forgotten, but my mother died ten years ago!"

"Of course I remember, Nico. But it's time to move on, Maria isn't coming back, and Persephone is trying so hard to be your mother."

"Well I don't want a mother. I have a mother."

"Nico, Persephone is trying. I'm just asking you to try, too."

Nico took a few steps backwards. "Persephone shouldn't be here and I'm not going to pretend to fucking like her." He turned around and ran upstairs to the bathroom, locking the door behind him.

He gripped the sink and stared at his reflection in the mirror.

He hated her. He hated Persephone. And he hated his father for trying to make him like her. What he'd said was true, she couldn't replace his mother, but the entire truth was he couldn't really remember his mother. She'd died when he was three. He remembered her smile, her laugh, and sometimes when he was trying to fall asleep he remembered her singing.

Persephone couldn't replace his mother, but he didn't remember enough about her for Persephone to replace her. No, what Nico was afraid of was Persephone replacing Bianca. Bianca had always been his mother figure, even if she was only two years older than he was. Persephone had come into his life a year after Bianca's death. And she couldn't replace Bianca. But what hurt Nico the most was that to his father, Persephone had already replaced Bianca. And Maria. His father didn't need them anymore.

He raised his fist and smashed the mirror. Glittering shards rained down into the sink. One of them slashed his hand open, and he stumbled back, clutching his hand and sucking in a breath. His back hit the wall and he slid down it to sit on the floor.

Blood flowed out of the cut on his hand. He watched it, shining in the light. It was warm and sticky but somehow it released something. Like he'd been full of pressure and he'd finally let it out. He felt…free.

Nico tipped his head back, looking up at the ceiling. Tears streamed down his face and stung his hand, and he didn't know if he was laughing or sobbing. He found that he didn't care.


Percy noticed. When he sat down next to Nico at lunch on Tuesday, he noticed. He noticed the long black sleeves Nico was wearing, and maybe he shouldn't have been particularly surprised by that, it was almost December, after all. But something was different.

He asked Nico about the cut on his hand. Nico told him about the broken mirror, but Percy couldn't help but feel like Nico was hiding something. It wasn't just a broken mirror, Percy was sure. Something else had happened. But Nico just brushed him off, insisting that he was fine and that nothing had changed.

Percy tried to brush it aside, but he couldn't ignore the nagging feeling that something was very wrong, and that something had to do with his best friend.

He knew he was right when Nico reached over to steal Percy's apple, and Percy saw the thin red line across Nico's wrist. He didn't confront Nico about it, he didn't want to risk their friendship, especially not now, when Nico was being so open. Besides, he didn't quite understand the idea of cutting oneself, and he wasn't sure he should ask Nico about something that he himself didn't understand. But he decided that if it got any worse he would go to the guidance counselor.

Of course he didn't remember making that same promise to himself a year before, just before Nico had collapsed. He still didn't know what had caused that, but he wasn't particularly worried about it anymore. He had a feeling that Nico wouldn't do whatever it was that he'd been doing that made him collapse.

It didn't occur to Percy that what Nico was doing might be worse.


"Oh my God, did you see Victoria Jennings' jacket today? It was so cute. I have to find out where she got it," Amber gushed.

Thalia laughed into the phone. "Amber, not everyone cares about clothes as much as you do."

"But did you see it?" Thalia had to hold the phone away from her ear so she didn't go deaf. "It was so cute. And those sequins totally made it pop."

"I'm sure."

Amber humphed. "Look, it's not my fault that you have no grasp whatsoever on any sort of clothes that aren't black."

"Hey, my favorite t-shirt is bright green."

"Whatever. We have to go shopping together. Winter break is coming up, we'll go Christmas shopping together. For ourselves."

Thalia rolled her eyes and was about to answer when she heard her mother calling her name. She sighed. "I gotta go, Amber. I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

"I s'pose. I dunno, I'm kinda thinkin' I'll skip tomorrow."

"Thalia!" her mother screamed.

"I really gotta go, Amber, bye." She hung up the phone before Amber could answer. She heaved herself up off of her bed to go into the kitchen.

"You'er supposa make d'nner," her mother slurred. Thalia sighed at the sight of the half-empty bottle sitting on the counter. "Jusd dinner. Stupi' gerl."

"Come on, mom," Thalia said. She took her mother's arm and started leading her towards the couch. "Here, lie down and I'll make dinner."

She walked back into the kitchen. A few minutes later she heard soft snores coming from the living room.

She sighed and got out a pan to make herself some eggs.

It was the same every night. Her mother couldn't seem to be sober for five minutes. It was a wonder she still had a job.

That's what I want, she decided. For my birthday, I want my mom to be sober. It's almost a month away. That could happen, right? It's just one night. I want my mom to be sober for one night.

Right. Like that would happen.

I loved writing the last part, I love Amber. You'll get to meet more of Thalia's friends in the next chapter. There's a lot more Thalia in the rest of the story. I know her POV wasn't in Without You By My Side, but I really wanted to add it.

Hey, I updated on time this week! Yay!

My first week of school went about as well as anyone could expect, which means it sucked. I do like Culinary, Ancient World, and Chorus. But I hate Algebra 2 and Trigonometry. And I think I might strangle someone in Biology. We're growing grass as our first experiment. Seriously, I think we grew grass in like second grade. And in American Lit we're doing grammar. I hate grammar.

I got my nails done yesterday, it was awesome. I'm not really a girly person, but I love getting my nails done. They're black with red French tips. They're amazing. I was going to do neon green French tips, but they didn't have it. My sister thinks they look like I've been gouging people. Hey, I'm cool with that.

Again, I will be updating next week on Monday, and I might have started another story by then, too.

Review!