Silver Eyes | Nico di Angelo

Chapter 4: I Eat Magical Pizza

Chapter 4: I Eat Magical Pizza

"...the cabins," Nico said. His voice was monotone and indifferent, like it had been throughout the whole tour of camp. He didn't show any excitement or expression, just named each place one by one. He answered my questions like I had done something to annoy him. Maybe my existence, to him, was a pain in the ass. "You live in the cabin of your godly parent. Those who are unclaimed stay temporarily in the Hermes cabin." He pointed a finger at a cabin titled "11," with a staff and a pair of snakes that wrapped around it. "You'll be staying there until you're determined."

"Oh," I said. "So, there's cabins for each god and goddess?"

Nico frowned. "Well," he mused. "There are a few gods and goddesses out there who don't have a cabin. They have no demigod children that we know of, but the camp had been quick on building new cabins when there's a child of a god or goddess that doesn't have a cabin."

I thought about the E on my mom's necklace, and I wondered which god's name started with an E. I couldn't think of any off the top of my head. Before I realized what I was doing, I had blurted out, "Which god's name starts with an E?"

Confusion was etched across Nico's face for a second before a shadow passed over it. His jaw tightened and his eyes hardened. He looked at me with a cold expression, almost anger. "I don't know," he said quickly, way too quickly for me to let it pass. He had thought of something, and that something wasn't good - he just didn't want to share it with me. "You'll find out your parent soon enough. I think the tour is done." His voice was short and clipped, tartly polite. He pointed a finger at the cabin he had shown me half a minute ago, cabin eleven. "Just go to the Hermes cabin. They'll get you settled in until you're claimed."

I was about to open my mouth to say something, like how a good guide was supposed to be responsible, or that he had been the worse guide ever, or simply ask him to show me around more and explain more things. Something about this boy, I had no idea what, intruiged me. I wasn't sure what it was. It might've been the mysterious air around him, the dark eyes that looked like shattered pieces of obsidian, the masked emotions. But the only thing that came out of my mouth was a weak, rather pathetic, "Thanks for the tour?" By the time my sentence was finished, Nico had already turned and was about ten meters away from me already. He didn't turn back or respond to me.

I let out a small sigh of defeat and turned to cabin nine that Nico had pointed out. If it took time to make friends with someone, then it must take decades to make friends with Nico, especially with his attitude. He seemed to be a stranger to the word "friendly", or probably anything that involved "friend" in it. Maybe "unfriendliness," possibly.

My feet pulled me to cabin nine, which was about fifty meters from where I was currently standing. On the outside, it looked rather plain compared to some of the cabins at camp -- it was just made of wood and stone. The only thing that made it different was the cabin number and the staff that hung above the doorway, the one with the two snakes that curled around it. I stared at it for a couple of minutes before raising my hand over the door to knock.

Before I could, however, the door swung open to reveal a boy in the doorway. He had brown hair and hazel eyes, an impish grin and a rather short figure -- for a boy, at least. He was still taller than me. "Hermes cabin!" he exclaimed. "What do ya want? We have a lot of pranking things, though we do require stuff in return, y'know. Anyways, how can I help you?"

It took me a couple of moments to respond. I blinked at him, confused, trying to figure out what was going on. "Oh, no," I finally managed out. "Um, I'm new. My name's Clara, and my tour guide just sent me to the Hermes cabin to get settled in and stuff until I get..." I thought about the word Nico had used. "Claimed."