SummerSpirit18: Have fun with that. I've been to three schools in my life, and one of them didn't have a cafeteria, but I never got pizza. Except sometimes one of the boys in our class would come in with pizza and trade it for something else because his dad owned a pizza place and he got sick of it. I like the cold, actually, I like being able to snuggle up in fuzzy blankets. There's a boy in my class from Florida, and one day he was in his car and it was sixty degrees, and he was shivering and asking his mom to turn up the heat. Sixty degrees! I like writing in Thalia's POV, it's a lot more functional. Nico's so monotonous, he just goes through the motions. Thalia's not exactly happy, but she's sarcastic and fun to write. Our grass grew, and we had to measure the length of the roots. That was fun. Not.

Mrs-diAngelo25: Percy will be trying for the rest of the story. He's not the type to give up on someone. Yeah, I like writing about the people whispering about Nico. The majority of this chapter is in Thalia's POV. Hey, my nails are still intact, I'm pretty excited. I've had them for over a week now, that's a new record for me.

V.I.D Vishii: I like writing for Thalia, and can you imagine Percy actually changing?

infinity heart star lightning: I know, I love Percy. I don't like writing Percy stories, too many people do that, but I do like having him there as a character. Don't worry, Percy will always be trying. Just wait for the next chapter, the Thalico takes off. Sort of. Yeah, I'm a smart cookie. I'll be taking Precalc next year and Calculus the year after. I'm so not looking forward to that. I'm sorry I didn't get to post a new story. I did survive my week, thank you. Not so much enjoyed. And any review you write that doesn't say "great story" or "update soon" is great!

raisa864: Please, just keep reading. It just gets more and more tense. Yeah, school and great aren't words that I would put in the same sentence. I'm surviving. So far. But if my American Lit teacher doesn't calm the fuck down, I don't think I will be for much longer.

ThalicoXTratieFan4Ever: Every Monday, promise!

I don't own Percy Jackson. I do own Amber Day, Micheal Mathews, and January, June, April, July, May, September, and December Storm.

Chapter 5 – Ninth Grade

Nico leaned back on his hand, staring up at the stars. The water was clear, the moon was bright, and no one ever came to the docks. He'd been coming here for years, since the night of his father and Persephone's wedding. Sometimes he brought his matches and let them and threw them into the water like he had that first night, but usually he brought a flask of whatever alcohol he could find and just stared at the sky while he drank.

He'd been introduced to alcohol at the beginning of the year when Percy had dragged him to a party ("We're in high school, you have to go to a high school party!" Percy had insisted). He didn't remember much about the party and he was pretty sure he didn't want to, but he did remember waking up the next morning with a horrible headache and the feeling that for a while, he'd been free.

He had no idea where he'd gotten the idea to start drinking cough syrup or taking pills, but he felt so much better every night when he was lying there on the docks. He didn't know if he was high or drunk, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Nico took another swig of the vodka in his flask. It burned going down his throat, but he loved it. He pulled the little orange bottle out of his pocket. It was Persephone's xanax, she barely ever took it but she picked up a new bottle of it every few months, so there was always enough for Nico to sneak some. He'd learned the right amount to take after passing out too many times to count and waking up the next morning feeling awful. Sometimes he would take a little bit too much and wouldn't be able to remember the way home, but after doing it for however many months (five? It was February, right?) he'd gotten to the point where he could tell exactly how many he should take to feel numb, but not pass out.

He was getting that feeling now, like everything was in slow motion and nothing mattered. Briefly he wondered if this was how Percy felt underwater, but the thought was soon pushed out of his head by the stars. They were shining brighter tonight, Nico thought. It must be a good night.

He sat up, pulled out his pocket knife, and rolled up his sleeve. He ran his thumb over one set of scars. It was from one of his phases, when he'd been translating Bianca's name into any alphabet he could. He had it in Russian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, and he'd even tried in Elvish, but he couldn't quite get the swirly letters right. This particular one was in Greek. Bianca had always wanted to learn Greek.

He couldn't feel his arm, and that was exactly how he wanted it. He pressed the blade of the pocket knife into his skin, and slid it across his arm. He felt the pressure, felt the blood trickling down his arm, saw the blood gleaming in the moonlight, but he didn't feel any pain. He laughed. This was the only time he ever laughed.

It just showed how fucked up he was, didn't it?

And he knew. He knew exactly how fucked up he was. He knew what was wrong, he knew that what he was doing was unhealthy. And he hated it. He hated what he'd turned into. If only Bianca hadn't died. Who would he be if Bianca was still there? Would his father have married Persephone? Would his father still care about him? He wanted his father to care about him. He wanted Percy back. He wanted Persephone gone, because she could never be the mother that she thought she was.

He wanted someone to notice. He wanted someone to care.

And he could feel that somewhere there was someone who did care. Somewhere there was a person who would notice that he was drowning, that he was slowly killing himself. And someday they would come, and everything would get better. He knew it was true. It had to be true. It was all he had left.

But what if they came too late?


"We're moving."

Thalia gaped at her mother. For the first time in weeks Lillian Grace was sober, and this was why?

"What?" Thalia said, trying not to screech.

"We're moving."

"But…why?"

Lillian sighed. "Because I said so."

Wow, Thalia thought. I'm fourteen years old, and you still treat me like I'm five. Glad to know I'm so important, Mom. You can't even tell me why we're moving.

But out loud she asked, "When?"

"At the end of the summer. You'll be starting in a new school."

"But my friends are here. I have a life here!" Thalia knew she was holding on by a thread, and a weak one at that, but she had to try.

Lillian rubbed her temples and mumbled something about needing a drink. "We are moving to New York in August and there's nothing you can say that will stop us."

New York. The words didn't seem to register in Thalia's mind. They were moving from Florida to New York. And she wasn't even starting high school in New York, she was being thrown into a new school for tenth grade. Did her mother have any idea how hard that was? Had Lillian even been in high school? I can't just start in tenth grade! Thalia wanted to scream. I can't just start in the middle of high school! It's almost as bad as starting in the middle of the year!

But she didn't say anything because her mother was in a good mood for once and she didn't want to push it. If she pushed it then Lillian might start drinking again and then Thalia would go to school the next day with a black eye.

Well actually she wouldn't, it was Friday.

Wow. Her Friday night was being ruined by her mother, and there wasn't even any alcohol involved. A day for the history books.

"I know you don't want to, but you'll make new friends and it's only for a few years."

"A few years. What happens then?"

Lillian looked surprised. "Well, I'm assuming you'll go to college."

Thalia wanted to laugh. College had never been part of her plan. She wanted to open a coffee shop, as weird as that sounded. She didn't think she'd need college to open a coffee shop. And besides, she probably wouldn't get accepted to anything but a community college anyway.

She shook her head. "Where in New York?"

"Manhatten."

Of course. Lillian had always wanted to go to New York City. She was convinced that it was where all her dreams would come true, although Thalia was never able to figure out what those dreams were. She suspected they had something to do with performing. Her mother couldn't sing to save her life, but she loved to pretend that she could. Thalia wouldn't be surprised if Lillian had some sort of fantasy about being a famous singer. That was probably why they were moving. Of course Lillian would end up working at Walmart or some grocery store or worse: as a prostitute. The prostitute stage had started when Thalia was ten and had ended when she was twelve, and it was by far the worst two years of her life. She thought maybe there had been another prostitute stage that had resulted in Thalia, because she'd never met her father and as far as she knew Lillian didn't know who her father was.

"Fine," she spat and stormed off to her room, ignoring her mother's yelling.


"Hey!" Micheal yelled when Thalia walked onto the beach. Thalia grinned. She could already tell he was drunk. He was waving his arms around and he'd almost fallen over when he yelled.

"Hey!" she yelled back. Amber turned around and ran up to Thalia to give her a hug.

"Oh my God, I haven't seen you in like forever!" Amber squealed. Thalia winced.

"Yeah, a whole day. Tragedy." Thalia laughed.

"Oh, be nice, Des," she scolded.

December scowled. "Don't call me that," she snapped. She was wearing black jeans and a black tank top with a black sweatshirt over it. Her dark hair blew in the wind. She was holding a red solo cup.

"Dessy, Dessy, Dessy," Micheal sang, dancing around her. Everyone except December laughed when he tripped over his own feet and faceplanted into the sand.

"You're an idiot," Thalia said, helping Micheal up. She kicked off her sandals. The sand was cold, but it felt so good on her bare feet.

"You're going to step on something," December said in a dry tone.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "December, how much have you had?" she asked.

December shrugged. "A couple beers."

"Yeah, well, go have more. You're depressing."

December smirked. "I'm always depressing."

"Except when you're drunk. Then you're actually pleasant to be around. Go get drunk."

December rolled her eyes, then turned around and walked away.

Amber tugged at Thalia's sleeve, bouncing. She was wearing a purple top and a denim jacket and a short brown skirt that flipped up every time she bounced. Her feet were bare. "Come on, come on."

"Where?"

"To where there are people. Do you like hanging out by yourself? You know, sometimes you're worse than December."

Thalia rolled her eyes and followed her best friend towards the rest of the party. Micheal seemed to have made his way back.

Amber Day had been Thalia's best friend since they were in first grade. She'd always been bouncy and excitable and completely oblivious. Even at fourteen, her favorite color was pink and she had a butterfly print backpack. She was the exact opposite of Thalia, who liked black and black and more black. But they balanced each other out.

Micheal Mathews was the captain of the football team and a complete idiot. Which sounded stereotypical, but he was actually very book smart. He just didn't think things through. He was very nice once you got passed the popular boy exterior. He could be a jerk sometimes, but Thalia had been friends with him long enough to know that he was just pretending.

December Storm was sarcastic and mean and didn't like anyone. She dressed in more black than Thalia did. She had six sisters, and they were all named after the month they were born in: January (29), June (26), April (22), July (19), May (17), and September (15). They were all incredibly smart except December, who was failing three classes, and they all had either their mother's blonde hair or their father's red hair except December, who had dark hair. Everyone in the town knew that December was not her father's daughter. Most of the Storm family wasn't particularly fond of December, so she spent most of her time out with her friends. Not that she had many.

"Here," December said, handing Thalia a red cup. Thalia took a sip and screwed up her face.

"God, this is awful."

"It's beer."

Thalia glared at December, who was smirking. "Is there any real alcohol?" she asked in a withering voice.

December shrugged and downed the rest of her cup. "Probably. You might have to wrestle it away from someone, though."

Thalia threw her head back and sighed. "Fuck it," she said, and took another gulp of the awful beer. She didn't usually drink beer, she preferred hard liquor, but desperate times called for desperate measures. And this was a desperate time.

"I'm moving," she announced.

Amber spun around from where she'd been talking to some girl Thalia didn't know and gaped. "What?"

"I'm moving to New York City in August."

"Lucky bitch," December muttered into her cup.

"But…but…why?"

Thalia rolled her eyes. "Mom won't tell me. Probably something about 'pursuing her dreams'."

Amber threw her arms around Thalia's neck, making Thalia drop her beer. "I'm gonna miss you!"

Thalia laughed. "Well I kinda hoped so."

After she'd gotten Amber detached from her neck she turned to December. "So?"

"So what?"

"Are you gonna miss me?" she asked, crossing her arms and smirking.

December snorted. "Yeah right," she said. They all stared at her and she sighed. "Maybe a little."

"Aww, you're gonna miss me, Dessy."

December threw her drink at Thalia. "Not anymore I'm not."

Thalia laughed, despite the fact that her favorite t-shirt was now covered in beer. "Yeah you are."

December rolled her eyes and walked away.

Thalia turned back to Amber to see that Amber's eyes were full of tears. "Hey, I'll come visit. Promise."

Amber sniffed. "I know," she said, hugging Thalia again. "But I'm still gonna miss you."

Thalia tightened her hold on her best friend. She was going to miss them too.

I absolutely love Thalia's friends, especially December. I have no idea where I came up with the idea for that family, but I think I might use it in another story, because I love her so much.

I hope there isn't too much Thalia in this one, I thought it was necessary.

I'm sorry I didn't get a new story up, but I really am working on it. I've got the whole thing planned out, I just have to write it. As soon as I finish uploading this chapter I'm going to go work on it. But I also have a story to write for American Lit, so it might be a little while. I'll try to get it done for next Monday.

I did survive my week, but that doesn't mean I'm at all looking forward to this week. Luckily I don't really have any Biology homework tonight, so I might actually get started on my new story. Oh, and on Friday we made cookies in Culinary. My group made snicker-doodles and they were the best cookies made out of all the groups. One group made these cherry filled jelly cookies that were okay, except I don't like cherries. One made peanut butter chocolate no-bake cookies, and they were awesome. The last group made chocolate cookies, they were really dry.

I hope you all have a relatively good week, and remember to review!