Will's Mortal Friends

A skeleton drives me halfway across the country

Nico's POV

The next morning, my amazing zombie chauffer arrived in his sweet set of wheels to take me to Will in Nebraska. I was all packed up, yet a little grumpy that I had to leave as early as I did. Why did the Gods have to send Will so far away? And expect me to follow?

Jules-Albert placed all my bags in the trunk of his car and pushed me in gently.

I was semi-excited to go to Nebraska. Mostly because I got to see Will again. But I liked my non-stressful life back in Camp Half Blood. School was the last thing I needed.

Even though Jules-Albert was a fast driver, it still took a couple hours to get to Nebraska. It was tiring, too, so I fell asleep about twenty minutes after we took off.

Somehow, I didn't have any nightmares during my sleep. That confused me so much I didn't realize we were already at some kind of house. "Where are we?" I asked my chauffer.

Skeletons couldn't talk, so I kind of just had to assume.

"Is this where I'm going to stay?" I asked him instead. At that, my chauffer nodded. "Okay, thanks."

I grabbed my bags out of the trunk, and Jules-Albert sped away.

I sighed, checking out the house.

It was in the middle of the country. I mean this in the most literal way possible. The smack dab middle of the country. Plus, it was far from civilization. The entire property was one big farm, but thankfully it didn't stink. Plenty of cattle were herded in the lot, all of them staring at me.

I walked up to what seemed like the front door and knocked hesitantly.

A red-haired girl opened the door. She seemed about my age, so I wondered who she was. But instantly when she saw me, she grinned. "You must be Nico, the new kid at my school."

She extended her hand, and I gladly shook it, pulling a fake smile. "Yeah, I'm Nico. Uh, my father didn't tell me anything about this place, so who are you?"

The girl's smile wiped off slightly. "My name's Jasmine. My parents are off for a long work trip as farmers, so I'm in charge until they get back. Your father called me and asked if you could stay here, because supposedly your boyfriend is Will."

I smiled wholeheartedly. "Yeah, that's exactly right."

"Then you might want to see him, huh?" She asked, grinning wider, like me.

I nodded hastily. She opened the door wider and grabbed my bags, hauling them in. I was surprised by her strength. I had a lot of bags, and to be frank I had trouble hauling them on my own. (A/N I had to put that there. It's Frank Zhang's birthday Today!!!)

I followed Jasmine into her living room and saw Will sitting down on the couch, watching some kind of TV show.

Jasmine cleared her throat, and Will glanced at us, his smile widening when he saw me. He sprang up from the couch and hugged me immediately, stuttering out how much he missed me while he was away.

"I love you so so much," Will spouted when we locked eyes.

I blushed, not being able to keep it in. "I love you, too."

Jasmine wiped her eyes, fake crying. "So adorable. Will, can you help me show Nico to his room?"

Will nodded appreciatively and took one of my bags from Jasmine, the one she slung around her neck.

We both followed Jasmine up the stairs where there were three rooms.

She pointed into one that had a giant green and yellow sign on the door. "That's my room. Never go in there."

Will shook his head. "I already learned my lesson."

Jasmine then pointed to the two other rooms. The one with an open door was obviously Will's, because I saw his yellow sun hoodie hanging in the closet. That meant that the closed one was mine. I hesitantly opened the door, in case they'd prepared a prank for me. But I wasn't pranked.

The bedroom was like any normal guest room, except for one thing. There was a picture frame with a picture of Bianca and I from the Lotus Casino. I looked back at Will, who shook his head again. I then glanced at Jasmine. "Your father told me a couple things about you and sent this picture."

I wondered if she knew who my father was.

She walked into the room after me and placed all my bags gently on the bed. "I'll be driving you to school tomorrow morning. Will said you couldn't drive, so I'm the only one with a license. We leave at 7:40 sharp."

I nodded. "I can do that, as long as my alarm goes off."

"If it doesn't, I can always wake you up," Jasmine shrugged.

Will snickered. "I don't think he wants that."

"Wants what?" I asked.

"My wake-up calls," Jasmine shrugged. "Just wake up early enough."

I nodded. "Uh, okay."

That night, Jasmine cooked chicken nuggets, and I about died. I loved Mcdonalds so much, and any kind of chicken nugget reminded me of the amazing fast food chain.

"I know, I'm a chef," Jasmine flipped her hair jokingly when she saw my obsession with her food.

Will laughed. "Remember when you tried to cook spaghetti?" He pointed to a spot on the floor of the living room carpet where the carpet was burned.

She shrugged. "Hey, don't blame me for trying to get it out of the house."

That made me laugh.

Will smiled cheekily at that.

"Omigosh you two are so cute," Jasmione cooed. "When Will said he had a serious relationship with someone, I didn't think it'd be so cute."

I raised my eyebrows. "Cute?"

"I'm a fangirl," Jasmine smiled. "It's my job."

After we ate dinner, Will and I decided to catch up on everything in his bedroom while Jasmine probably was reading fanfictions or whatever a Fangirl did.

"Is she always like this?" I asked Will.

He nodded. "Yeah, mostly. But she's cool. Especially at school. She makes weird seem cool. I think you two will be good friends."

"How so?"

He smiled weakly. "She's protective. There're some bullies in the grade above us, and she always defends everyone. They really hate Gays."

My jaw dropped. "But-"

"I haven't told anyone but her," Will admitted. "I really wanted to, but I didn't want to show my demigodly rage, so I kept it a secret. Jasmine supports us, though. You'll understand it more tomorrow."

"You get bullied?" I asked him softly, running my fingers through his hair gently. "Why didn't you say?"

"I didn't want you to worry," Will shrugged. "I also didn't want you raising the dead."

I snickered. "I'm glad I found out more than tomorrow."

"That would've been interesting," Will chirped. "Oh, there's one more thing you might want to know about Jasmine."

"What is it?" I asked.

"She's a little afraid of thunderstorms," Will smiled weakly. "So if you hear sobbing or screaming in the middle of the night, that's probably why."

Thunderstorms?