Between Light and Darkness

Chapter 2

Nico sat in a random seat, hoping no one else sat here. The teacher hadn’t been much help in the seat finding department. Nico pulled out his book again and began reading. The classroom filled up around him, no one paying him any mind. 

He generally was able to sit in plain sight, and no one would bother him. His once outgoing nature seemed to hide itself over the years. 

“Agitò la sua potente spada contro la bestia. Boom. La bestia cadde senza combattere. Sorrise in segno di vittoria…” Someone terribly pronounced, right next to  his head. Nico closed his book and sighed. What is with everyone bothering me today? There was a latino boy hovering over him.”What does that mean?” 

“It doesn’t matter,” Nico said shortly. He just wanted some peace and quiet. After the morning he had, he felt he deserved it. 

“Ooh, are you an exchange student? I love your accent.” The boy smiled widely. “By the way, my name is Leo.”

“Well, Leo, my dad and I just moved here from Italy. If you wouldn’t mind, lasciandomi essere…” He made a hand motion as if he were shooing Leo away.

“Nope, you’re stuck with me. You sat in the seat next to mine. You are lucky, you know. You get to be seated right next to me, the Super-sized Mcshizzle. Leo Valdez, Bad boy supreme.” He made a few dramatic hand motions then sat down in his seat. Nico sighed and laid his head down. It was too early for this. 

As the bell rang, Mrs. Dodds hit the whiteboard with her yardstick, quieting the classroom and focusing all eyes on her. “We have a new student, blah blah blah, be sure to welcome him, blah blah blah. Now pull out your homework.”

“Wow, what a great introduction.” Leo laughed. He looked over at the pale boy. “Man, do you smile?”

“No.” Leo’s smile dropped slightly. He wasn’t expecting him to answer that quickly, especially with no. 

“Ok, well it is now my personal goal to get you to smile.” He declared it a bit louder than he wanted, causing Percy to laugh from across the room.

“Say it a bit louder Valdez, I don’t think the other side of the school heard you.” Leo gave him a not so kind gesture in a joking manner. As Dodds approached Leo, he made sure she hadn’t seen anything. His homework was on his desk, numbers scribbled all over the page.

“Wow, you actually did your work,” Mrs. Dodds said in a snarky tone. 

“Thank you,” Leo said, leaning back in his chair. Mrs. Dodds snatched the work off of his desk and moved onto the next student. “She’s not much of a people person,” he explained to Nico.

“So I’ve heard,” Nico said. His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out, reading the text from Hades. Of course, it was just a stupid complaint about there being nothing for breakfast. 

“Who is that?” Leo said, leaning over trying to read over Nico’s shoulder. 

“Bene, se avessi avuto il senso di non guardarmi alle spalle ... e avessi chiesto educatamente, avrei potuto dirtelo. Lasciami solo. (Well, if you had any sense to not look over my shoulder...and you had asked politely, I might have told you. Leave me alone.)” Nico said, not wanting to bother translating what he had just said. Mrs. Dodds suddenly appeared between the two boys.

“Are you two talking while I’m teaching?” she snarled. Her old hag arms were crossed.

“Of course not. Why ever would we do that, Karen?” Leo said, calling her by her first name. She made a hissing sound, almost as if smoke was being exhaled. 

“Detention. Both of you. DiAngelo, Valdez, see me after school.” She walked off looking satisfied. 

“Sorry about that,” Leo said, shrugging. He went back to his work without a second thought. Nico however, started hyperventilating. He didn’t know how he was going to tell Hades he had to stay after school. He’s going to kill. Actually kill me. He looked at the clock, wanting class to end so he could find a dark corner to be by himself. 

“DiAngelo, what is the answer to the problem on the board?” Nico looked up. Of course, it was something he had never seen before in his life. “Didn’t you learn about this last year?” Mrs. Dodds sneared. Nico shook his head. “Well, why not. Did you skip all year?” As all eyes in the class were on him, Nico had trouble finding the words. “Answer the question, DiAngelo.”

“Mrs. Dodds,” Percy cut in. “But, Nico was in Italy last year. I’m pretty sure they don’t follow the same teaching curriculum.” The last sentence came out extremely sarcastic, like it was meant to. 

“Did I ask you, Jackson? The next time you speak out of turn, you will also get a detention.”

“But ma’am--” Percy tried saying again.

“Detention,” Dodds said, without thinking. Percy crossed his arms and glared at the teacher. The entire class was silent for a few minutes, before Mrs. Dodds went back up to the board and continued teaching. Nico laid his head down, feeling embarrassed. Maybe Hades killing him wouldn’t be so bad if he had to deal with Mrs. Dodds everyday. 

The class went on, as usual. Meaning, by the end of it “DiAngelo, Valdez, Jackon, Grace (Thalia), and Stolls” had all gotten a detention. Mrs. Dodds held all of them after class to give them a sheet of paper they had to have filled out by the end of the day.

“Off to our next class then,” Percy said smiling at Nico. “History.” They walked down the hallway together. A large group seemed to have formed around the two of them. There was a blonde standing next to Percy, her grey eyes staring at Nico. He shifted uncomfortably under her stare. 

“Hello, I’m Annabeth,” She said, holding out her hand. Nico shook it.

“Nico.” She turned back to Percy and they talked the entire way to class.