Hi. Yeah, I'm still here. Sorry for the delay.

I won't keep you, so I'll just do the disclaimer and be on my way.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, because if I did, I'd be working on finishing the House of Hades. Which needs to come out soon. 'Cause I need it.

Really. ;)

~Fawkespower

Sleep. Glorious sleep. I pulled my blanket closer up to my chin and turned to my side, snuggling deeper into my pillow. I breathed in slowly and savored the feeling of not having to get out of bed. Nope, no monsters chasing me, no annoying step mom or step grandmom nagging you to get out of bed and eat cereal or garden or something equally ridiculous, just me and my bed. I sighed contently until—

"Nico di Angelo! If you don't get out of this cabin in the next five minutes, I will drag you down to the Underworld and let Demeter force you to farm for a month!" I heard a female voice screaming at me from outside the Hades cabin, and then angry stomps dimming in sound.

Annabeth had been assigned the duty of waking me up early again, since she insists that she needs to go over the 'rules and regulations' for the trip with all of us.

Anyways, disregarding Annabeth's incessant need to obsessively organize, there are 10 kids going to school at first as a test trial to make sure everything goes smoothly. Thinking back on it, Annabeth choosing me was probably a poor decision. For one, I'm a son of Hades, and you know what they say about sons of Hades.

If you didn't know, it's something like we attract disaster and chaos and random shit like that.

Anyways, I rolled out of bed (Annabeth threatened me with death if I was late today, which is a threat taken quite seriously by demigods), and I groggily pulled on some clothes. After properly checking that I hadn't worn my pants on my head or something equally embarrassing, I sluggishly shuffled up to the door of my cabin and swung the door open to end up face to face with a brown haired girl around my age. She shrieked, and stumbled back. I raised an eyebrow impassively, but my emotionless face was probably due to the fact that it was 7:30 in the morning.

"Er, Annabeth asked me to make sure you come to breakfast on time. Right after she's having her meeting about the rules and regulations on the schools, which she says won't take too long." she said, rolling her eyes. She had regained her composure, but she seemed a little pissed that I startled her.

"Um, we?" I recognized her now. Her name was Gyne, daughter of Hecate. One of the lamer goddesses. Don't look at me like that, you have to admit, Hecate is pretty lame. Goddess of magic? Puh-leeze. I mean, it would be a little more impressive if she was the only goddess who used magic, but that's not even true. Seriously, Hecate, what is your purpose?

Ahem. Continuing, Gyne was wearing shorts and her CampHalf-Blood t-shirt, and a bright neon green backpack was slung over her shoulder, with a Gatorade bottle sticking out of the end.

She rolled her eyes again at my question, but apparently decided that she was going to answer it anyways. "Yes, we. I'm going too." She crossed her arms expectantly at me. "Well? You're going to be late for breakfast. Annabeth told me to tell you that if you arrive late, she will rip your legs off and feed them to Peleus." Gyne tilted her head at the dragon curled around Thalia's pine tree, and it roared. I shrugged.

"Well, if you would get out of the way, then Annabeth wouldn't have to do a thing. So, move." I said, flicking my hand at her. Yeah, kind of rude, but again, not a morning person. Do not mess with Nico di Angelo in the morning. Unless you're Annabeth, who does it anyways, because she knows that I can't do a thing against her. Probably because I'm deathly terrified of her.

Gyne scowled at me, and then whirled around on one foot and stalked towards the pavilions, probably to eat breakfast. I took a step to follow her until I was bombarded by two sandy haired figures, their faces covered by the shadow of my cabin.

"Nico!" the first one said, grinning evilly. "Just the person we were looking for!"

"Well, we were looking for him." The second one said, shrugging. "That's why we came over to the Hades cabin. I mean, no one wants to come here without any sort of reason anyways."

"Heh, guys!" I chuckled nervously. "Why don't we all go down to the pavilion and eat breakfast! There are witnes—uh, waffles there!" I held my hands out pleadingly.

Travis and Conner stepped out of the shadows and towered over me (what do you expect, they're three years older than me!), but the effect was ruined when I actually saw their faces.

I slammed a hand over my mouth to stifle my laughter, but it didn't work so well. "W-what did they do to you!" I chuckled, pointing at the make up plastered onto the sons of Hermes' faces. Travis and Conner looked like a messed up Barbie doll, with bright red lipstick making their lips look much bigger than they really were, and sparkles decorating pretty much every inch of their face.

"It's your fault." Conner said, crossing his arms and pouting, making the lipstick look even more ridiculous.

"Well," I said thoughtfully. "Not really. If you had just given me the marker—"

"We don't want to hear it." Travis said, narrowing his eyes.

"Wait," I paused. "At the meeting the other day. You didn't look like this!" I pointed out, curious.

Conner shrugged. "We got Gyne to do some magic on us so Chiron wouldn't see. If he did, we'd get in even bigger trouble. Of course, he'd never punish the Aphrodite cabin, or any cabin other than Hermes." He said bitterly.

"But that's why we're coming to you!" Travis said brightly. "Revenge!"

I stared, terrified, at the evil expressions on the two demigods I used to call my friends, all the while carefully formulating a plan in my head. The timing had to be perfect, every maneuver had to be carefully put into action.

"HEEEEEEEELP! HELP ME!" I screamed as I raced towards the pavilions, Travis and Conner not far behind. I glanced behind me and saw them coming closer and closer—they weren't sons of Hermes for nothing. But their godly parent did not help their intelligence—I managed to push Travis into Conner, and sent them into a deadly sprawl with each one wanting to get up before the other, giving me time for my escape. I should have known that it wouldn't last for too long.

I continued to sprint, my legs screaming in agony and the sword on my side painfully clunking against my leg. I was almost there—5 meters, 4 meters, just a couple of feet—

"Oomph!" I fell face forward as my foot caught a rock. I groaned and rolled over onto my back to be faced with two, very livid, sons of Hermes.

"Hello Nico." Conner said, smirking.

"How are you today?" Travis cracked his knuckles.

I smiled sheepishly. "H-hey guys? W-what abo—"

"What are you two doing?" I heard someone's voice from above my head. I jerked back and saw an angry Annabeth glaring at Travis and Conner.

"Uh…." Travis said sheepishly. "Training for the ballet?"

Conner slapped Travis' shoulder. "No, we're doing extensive martial arts training!" he said, and struck a pose. "Hi-yah!"

For a moment, Annabeth just stared at the two. Then she shook her head, exasperated.

"Just leave." She said, pulled me up by my arm, none too gently, and led me towards the pavilion.

Well, I guess you could say that I owed Annabeth. But I'd still prefer getting beat up by Travis and Conner than forced to go to school.

Wouldn't you agree?

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