On Board (Pirate AU)

Chapter Five - Oh wait these people actually don't suck. Huh.

Will POV

I was let out for lunch, but Annabeth was assigned to guard me from harm all day long. Still, I was glad to be out of the rat-room. Lunch was fine—I mostly forced myself to not think about the taste. I'd actually found that most of the people here weren't complete bags of shit. In fact, Nico seemed to be the only one not willing to befriend me. After bringing me breakfast, he'd ignored me, and even gone so far as to turn around and walk the other way when he saw me coming.

Annabeth took great interest in the textbooks in my bag. Since they'd been taken as children, reading was still a bit difficult, which caught me off guard. It made sense, obviously, but it had never occurred to me that I might be the only fully literate one aboard. I explained the text to her as respectfully as I could, and we discussed it in detail. Apparently Annabeth was exceedingly smart. The opportunities to learn had just been taken from her.

Percy, on the other hand, seemed happy to be able to never have to do schoolwork again. He was smart strategy-wise, but completely uninterested in anything he didn't strictly need to know. His opinion was that school was dumb, and he'd planned on becoming an aprentice to a ship-builder anyway, so why not upgrade that and be a pirate's apprentice instead, and then a real pirate? So that's what he had done.

A dark-skinned girl named Hazel had taken a liking to me instantly. She traded items at lunch and she told me stories of the crew with bright eyes and a mischievous smile, though the stories she told were not mischievous in the least. She was a total sweetheart, and I began thinking of her as a sister.

There was one person missing from the ship who I kept looking for. I waited for her to show up at lunch or dinner or take a shift guarding me. She never did.

I figured Hazel was as good a person to ask as any, so while Jason and her showed me how to mop the deck, I decided to just go for it. "Did a girl named Bianca di Angelo ever make it aboard the ship?"

They quieted.

"Di Angelo?" Hazel echoed. "Yeah."

Jason narrowed his eyes at me. "How did you know about Bianca?"

"I...heard about her," I lied. "Is she okay? I haven't met her yet."

Hazel clutched her mop. "Bianca was murdered."

I snapped my head up. "What? How long ago?"

She gave me a sad smile. "Several years ago. Nico and her were both young, if you were wondering. The old captain didn't like Bianca. I had just arrived when he..." She wiped a tear away. "It was horrible. We don't like talking about it, because it usually shuts Nico down when he hears us. Won't leave his cabin."

"That's horrid. I'm so sorry. I suppose I shouldn't bring it up again, then. If it makes Nico..."

Jason picked up his bucket. "That's probably best. He rarely brings it up, so as long as you don't, he'll be fine."

Annabeth leaned against the rail. "It's almost sunset. Nico wants us in his cabin to go over plans tonight. Will, will you be okay alone for a little while, or would you like to sit in on the meeting? You'd have to promise not to touch anything if you don't come along."

Hazel and Jason led me away to put the supplies away. "Nico would probably want him to sit in on it rather than be alone. Nico's nervous Will is going to hurt himself on equipment somehow."

"I'd kind of like to be there, if that's okay. I'd like to know when I can return home."

And I'd like him to stop fucking ignoring me. He had to recognize me, right? You don't just blow someone off like this unless you have a reason. Unless maybe he's just guilty. Oh, wait, maybe he really is just guilty, and he doesn't remember me at all? Oh Lord. [When I die, put my ashes in the trash bag. I don't care where they go. Don't waste your money on my gravestone. I'm more concerned about my soul. If y'all know these lyrics. Yay. Me too. NF is my favorite artist. - Chris] This boy was going to drive me insane.

Annabeth shrugged. "We're all in agreement, then. Let's go. We won't want to be late."