Just My Luck- Solangelo highschool AU

4

N I C O

Reyna and Nico stopped in front of a room with their subject number on it. During the walk Nico opened up to Reyna, a bit telling him some things about himself, but never about his background. He couldn't bear the thought of someone finding out who he really was, which was why he never really attached himself to anyone but his family. A family with loss. Something murmured to him from the back of his head.

Reyna pushed the door open, and she and Nico were shocked to see that there was no teacher in the class. The place was a wreck. Students were busy chatting with their friends about their holidays. The jocks were busy arm-wrestling at the back of the class, with some cheerleaders hyping them up. Some other students were sitting at tables or making paper airplanes and flying them all over the class. Someone was drawing cheese sticks on the smartboard... weird.

Reyna and Nico made eye contact, and both nodded in agreement. People are stupid. And that they should probably take a seat at the furthest corner of the class to avoid attention.

Nico slid into the seat close to the window, while Reyna sat beside him. Nico looked outside and tried to block out the sounds of screaming tenth graders and focus on the beauty of modern nature. Yes, modern nature. A phrase Nico had come up with to describe the simplicity of natures thriving body in the modern world. Sure there was deforestation, gradual depletion of the ozone layer due to greenhouse gases, and the fact that they might all die from skin cancer due to UV rays that came from the sun. Nico decided to see the beauty in that. He wasn't sure how he did though, all that was terrifying yet to Nico they seemed quite... different.

Nico pulled out his sketchpad from his bag, with two pencils different in shade variation, and an eraser. He would usually have his paint set with him, but in the previous grade anytime he brought them to school, the teachers or the jocks were always there to seize them. He would never complain about any of this to his father knowing fully well Hades could land them in trouble. Being the son of the Mafia had its perks.

Hades di Angelo, the leader of the New York City mafia. He didn't indulge in the kind of dirty tricks any of the other Mafia leaders played. No. He was the opposite. He was just powerful and had control over most of the businesses in the whole city. He did do shady business deals, but he stopped a few months ago.

Nico began to doodle mindlessly, just creating little aesthetic drawings like rocket ships in the ocean, an astronaut in the ocean, stars, paint flowing down walls, coffee cups, and just anything that came to his mind. He even drew potatoes sitting on a couch! Nico stopped what he was doing when he noticed someone staring at him. It was Reyna. Nico dropped his pencil and looked at her in embarrassment.

Reyna looked at the drawing book then Nico, then back to the drawing book, amusement dancing in her eyes.

"Woah! Rossi! Didn't know you could draw like that." Reyna gushed as she traced her finger over a bear sitting in a lake. Nico flushed in embarrassment but kept a neutral expression on his face, seemingly unaware of the amount of focus he had put into it.

"Yeah, it's-it's a hidden talent," Nico said awkwardly. How was he supposed to act when someone just finished praising him?

"Well um... do you have any other drawings?" Reyna asked Nico. "I mean if you don't want to show me it's fine, I'll understand." She quickly added.

Nico had never shown anyone any of his drawings before. The only person he had ever shown them to was Hazel. Hazel practically lost her mind over them, constantly yelling at Nico to show his talent to the world. Nico had always shrugged her off and said that he wasn't really that good. But somehow, hearing it from Reyna made Nico think that maybe he was as good as Hazel had told him.

"Yeah, I have a few..." Nico said as he flipped open the other pages of the drawing book. Reyna stared in awe at the artworks she saw before her. From beautiful landscape sceneries like sunrises and sunsets to still-life objects shaded to perfection capturing every detail such as the direction of the sunlight to the beautiful contract made between each object to various figure drawings of humans in different postures carrying different emotions.

"This is..." Reyna trailed off as she flipped to another page. "These are all so beautiful Nico! Why don't you show anyone?" she asked, closing the book once she had reached the end. Reyna left her hand to linger on the back of the book before she turned it over after staring at it and opening it again to look at the drawings. No matter how many times she saw them, she couldn't get enough of them.

"I don't know, I just don't want too much attention?" Nico lied. There was another answer to that question: 'why don't you show anyone your drawings?' An answer that held a lot of weight to it.

Reyna stared Nico square in the eye as if she were trying to read him. Nico tried to avert his gaze, but he couldn't seem to, his eyes just stayed glued to hers as she read his story. Nico couldn't help it, he leaned forward, closer to her, almost closing the gap between them, with his warm breath fanning over her lips and then... he caught the pencil before it rolled off the table. He sighed as he sat back in his seat, finally able to break Reyna's scary gaze. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to make Reyna an acquaintance, if she could read him, then she could find out his secret.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable Nico, it's just the way you said you didn't want to draw attention, seemed untrue," Reyna said as she closed his drawing book and slid it back to him. Nico eyed her looking for any Genuity in those words. She seemed to be full of it and Nico relaxed a bit.

"It's okay, I overreacted." Nico apologized. Something that he rarely did. "It's just the answer to that question is personal and I'm not ready to-"

"I understand, I will respect your boundaries," she said. "Change of subject?" she asked.

"Thank you," Nico said as he packed his art supplies and stuffed them into his bag.

"So, what's your favorite ice cream flavor?" she asked as she brought out her phone, to text someone.

Reyna is different he said to himself. Nico knew that she wasn't the type to go around spreading rumors or she was some spoilt preppy cheerleader, who loved nothing more than to ridicule people on their fashion choices. Reyna was welcoming, diligent, smart, and protective. Nico knew she was the one who would go into battle to save any of their friends in battle. She reminded him of someone, an older sister figure. Nico's heart melted at that, and he decided to give Reyna a chance.

They continued to talk for a while until...

"Settle down students! How was your break? Nevermind, I don't want to know. Get your textbook and notebooks out, and please open to page 42. Today's topic will be Trinomials." A scruffy man in a white shirt and blue jeans announced to the class, as he wrote his name on the board. Mr. Lester Papadopoulos.

What a funny name for a funny guy. Reyna and Nico shared a look, this was going to be a long school year.

Welcome to high school bitches!

***

Chapter 4 sorry it took so long. Chapter 5 out tmrw

--- a year later---

"Where's chapter 5?? Out tomorrow?? Whoever said that??..."

Ahem... uh...
*disappears*