Nico POV

(Skip to Friday afternoon)

I stood in front of the clothes I had laid out for the trip. Dad had asked Sally to take me to the airport, because he was busy. Like always.

Okay, I think I have everything. I packed my spare toothbrush and toothpaste for when I go places that isn't home, so I packed toiletries. Everything was here and ready to go.

My phone buzzed from another text from Paisley. She asked me to do a checklist for her like her Mum used to do when she was going somewhere, and because I'm her best friend, even though I wish we were more, she asked me to do it.

Paisley:

Everything's here. Are you excited for tomorrow? I am.

Nico:

What kind of question is that? Why of course I would like to be stuffed into a giant metal flying contraption for gods know how long that could possibly crash. What are you talking about?

Paisley:

The sass is real! The SASS IS REAL! Someone get me a camera.

Nico:

Ha ha, very funny

Paisley:

I know. I'm fabulous.

Nico:

Cocky much?

And after that I didn't get a reply.

Why wouldn't she reply? Did I say something wrong?

Paisley:

Goodnight Nico.

That makes sense. Paisley goes to sleep at like, eight thirty because she "Has an alarm clock in her head that makes it so she wakes up at five". Her words. Not mine. She was most likely getting in her pajama's.

Nico:

Night Pais.

In the morning, I shower quickly and change into the black short sleeved shirt and dark jeans I had laid out. It was still early, so after the shower, I was still only half awake.

I grabbed my bags (Carry on bag included) and tromped down the dark hallways of my house.

I dropped the bags by the front door, so I wouldn't have to worry about the until I left, and stuck two pieces of toast in the toaster.

My phone buzzed with a new text

Paisley:

Morning Nico! We're on our way now!

Nico:

Cool. See you soon.

As you can see, I'm the plain one out of the two of us. She just has her good days and her bad ones. On her good days, she's more hyper than Leo and on her bad ones she's moodier than thirteen year old version of me.

The toast popped up and I stuck them on a plate, continuing to swipe some Vegemite on them. Paisley think Vegemite is a rip off of Marmite, whatever that is. When i asked her she ignored me for two days before explaining it was a sandwich spread like Vegemite, but you can only get it in NZ.

I ate the bits of slightly burnt toast quickly and chugged a glass of water. They'd be here any minute.

Just after I stuck my plate and cup on the drying rack, like Persephone nags me to do, the doorbell rings.

I jump to get the door, before the person pushes it again.

Paisley's standing by the door, with a giant grin on her face. She was wearing a sky blue singlet top (a/n Kiara, even my mum agree's its a singlet top. You win) and a pair of dark blue jeans. Her wavy hair was pulled away from her face in a ballet bun.

"Let's get going, shall we?" She says, grabbing my bag and dragging it out into the hall. Someone was eager to get to the airport.

"Paisley, I can take my bag." I say, closing the door after me and trying to take it off her as we go to the steps. She refuses to go into an elevator unless its snowing. Her brother, Cody, locked her in one before and she was stuck with a cockroach for a few hours. Hence her fear of cockroaches and elevators. She's also scared of butterflies for some unknown reason.

"I know you can take your bag, but thenwe'dd take forever to get to the airport." Paisley replies, lugging my bag down the stairs herself, batting away my hand whenever I tried to take it.

Once we get to the car, and my bag is in the boot, we climb into the back seat.

"Ready kids?" Sally asks, beaming at us through the rear view mirror. I nod.

"Yes!" Paisley shouts. Percy, who's sitting in the front passenger seat winces and rubs his ears. It's not the most pleasant sound in the world.

After that, Sally revs the engine and we're off.

Halfway through the silence, I try to make a conversation with Paisley, only to find her curled up on the seat, her hands wrapped around her knees and her feet on the back of Percy's chair.

"Are you okay?" I ask tentatively. She nods, before turning her head to look at me.

"Just thinking." She says, smiling softly. Her eyes were duller than from when she was knocking at the door, all the excitement drained from them.

"Hey, you can go surfing there." Sally says, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yes!" Percy says, fist pumping, "We haven't been in ages."

"Now boarding flight 28a to Los Angeles." The automated voice says, making us all stand up. (Sorry if I spelt it wrong)

Piper's mum came along with us, so there was two Mum's looking after ten kids. Great. Though I'm grateful for the extra hands to help, all the more people that there is to embarrass when we lose. Not that my faith in my band mates are weak.

"Okay, do you all have your boarding passes?" Sally checks with us, to which we all say "Yes, Sally."

"Show me." And then we all hold up our boarding passes. "Good. Now, we couldn't all sit together, so we paired up. Sorry if you don't wanna sit next to the person, its just the way it is."

Mine said 10B so I wasn't by the window. Stink. Well, at least that way I didn't have to see how far up we went.

As we boarded the plane, we all went our separate ways to our seats. Piper was paired with Calypso. Percy and Annabeth. Paisley and Leo. Thalia and Luke. So that left me with...

"Hey partner." Jason says, sitting in the isle seat next to me. I give him a blank look.

"No." I shake my head.

"Prefer I was Paisley?" Jason taunts. Okay, well maybe I did have a small crush on the girl, but that was it. It was a teeny tiny one. Like minuscule.

Like he can talk anyways. I bet he'd prefer I was Piper. And that's exactly what I tell him. He shuts up after that.

:D (Back with the smileys now, I think)

At the airport, I could tell something was off with Paisley. When she was in a good mood, it was consistent all day and there was noting stopping it. But she was silent.

At the baggage claim, I spoke to her.

"Are you alright?" I ask her, heaving my bag off the carousel.

"Yeah." She says blankly, "Just thinking."

"'Bout what?"I ask as she waits for her bag to appear from behind the black curtain.

"My Mum died here." She says, before spotting her sky blue bag.

Her Mum died when she was thirteen, a month before her fourteenth birthday on the way back to New York. Someone had thought that it would be a good idea to bring a gun to the airport and open fire. Paisley's Mum was one of the unlucky victims, being hit twice once in the stomach and once in the chest.

I'm quiet after that, not sure how to react. She sniffles quietly before sitting on her bag.

I walk over to her, sensing that she need's a hug. When Paisley needs a hug, she needs a hug. I wrap my pale arms around her, and let her calm down for a minute. Aprodite's third (And last) bag hadn't arrived yet, so we were still waiting on that.

"Thanks Nico." Paisley says, wiping away the last tear and smiling sadly at me. "I needed that."

She goes up on her tip toes and kisses my cheek quickly before blushing.

"No problem." I say to her, smiling awkwardly before Leo decides to jump at me screaming:

"How come you never give me hugs, Neek? I feel wounded. Utterly wounded." Leo pretends to sob into my shirt.

"If you're trying to impersonate what I was just doing, you're failing."Paisley says before a real grin appeared.

"How?" Leo asks, as I stand stiffly, trying not to touch my band mate who has me by the waist in a very uncomfortable position.

"You're not snotting on his shirt." She points out and before Leo can 'snot on my shirt' I tear him off me.

"Oh! There's my bag." Aphrodite says, before adding the last bag to her pile, "We can leave now."

At the hotel, other bands who had arrived earlier were flooding the lobby, chatting among themselves. A few looked up when we walked in, but other than that they ignored us. Way to be good sports, guy's.

"BUT THE PARTY DON'T START 'TIL I WALK IN..." Leo says, before dramatically walking in. People stare at Leo's grinning figure.

"What the heck do you see in him, Calypso?" Mutter's Annabeth.

"I don't know." Calypso says, knowing Leo was listening.

"Caly, you know you love me." Leo says, causing Calypso to look down and blush.

"Let's try and, you know, not cause a scene." Sally says, with a total of fourteen room keys in her hands, "I have one for everyone and one spare for each room. The girls have one room and the boys have another. Aphrodite and I are across the hall from you guy's and you're next to each other. Play nice with the other bands and don't offend anyone. We want to keep ourselves away from the Police, Perseus Jackson." Sally says, pointedly looking at her son who was looking around the room with his hands stuffed in his pockets, whistling innocently.

"Kidding, Mum." He says, before kissing her cheek quickly.

I wonder how long it will be until the rules she set are broken.

A/N

Hey! I love you guy's so much like you wouldn't believe. Like, 8 comments on that last chapter. Thank you so much.

Paisley POV Next and then back to the beginning of the POV cycle.

I'm happy with therate I'm producing these chapters, but school holiday's are almot over and we all know that means the teachers will pile homework on us so...

~KaleidoscopeColours

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