Beach House (Percy Jackson/Heros Of Olympus)

Chapter 8- Nico's P.O.V.

Chapter 8—

Nico's P.O.V.

-Monday-

I took Will back yesterday and spent the day at Camp Half-Blood. It's still weird to me, going there and not being seen as a monster. Even at the beginning of this trip, I was pretty sure most of my friends still thought of me that way. They can be playful, and I really wish they wouldn't be, because it hurts sometimes. It's not like I'm going to say that to them though, so maybe it's my own problem.

Will was excessively worried when I left him again, but I assured him I AM having fun. I need to acknowledge that just as much as they're all messing with me, acting like I'm scary or whatever, I'm acting like I hate them. I don't hate them.

That being said, I'm not paying it a second thought right now. I tend to get lost in my own mind that way, so it's best to try to keep myself on what these crazy people are doing.

We're going to be outside for quite a while still, even though it's late. This way, we can be where I'd rather be; in the darkness. And obviously, the whole point of coming here was to make s'mores, so it's good that we're finally doing it now.

It's kind of cold out here, but it's okay. I'm used to it, and if I said anything (which I won't, ever), Leo would offer to set me on fire. Give a man fire and he'll be warm for a day, set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. That is what he would say...again.

I shift in my chair, having not figured out the best way to sit in this folding chair thing yet.

"Here, I made a couple. I'm done now." Frank decides, even though we've only been out in the dark by this campfire for twenty minutes, tops. It didn't take long to start. Piper was inside at the time, so Leo just did it with his powers. Jason could only scold him until Piper came out.

Percy quits looking up at the sky to look at us. "Nature is nuts, dudes."

"...Glad you're back from whatever that long silence was." Jason tells him.

"Nuts, as in you like it?" Frank asks.

"I love it. Leave me here, I'll live on the beach and in the water." He decides.

"Percy, what would you eat?" Annabeth asks. "You don't eat sea creatures."

"...I'd live off the land."

"You're from New York." She chuckles.

That's true. I'm sure he could do it if he was around someone who wanted to do it, too. It couldn't be me.

I have the biggest urge to do something dramatic still, something to get everyone's attention... Is that what I'm looking for? Attention?

"You could forage, it would be fine." Piper says.

Hazel helps Frank get his marshmallows off his stick and onto some crackers. I watch them. How are we doing this? Taking turns? Everyone gets the one they themself made?

"I'd eat berries from the woods." Percy agrees.

"You can't live off berries, seaweed brain."

"Gah! Let me be one with nature." He chuckles. "You guys need to leave me here when you go. Come back next summer and you'd see how good it's going."

"You're already bored of not being on quests." Jason tells him. "You literally spun on the water in circles for two hours."

"And you were LOOKING FOR quests yesterday, and the day before you fought a serpent for some reason?" Piper reminds him.

"Don't be so rude, guys. PERCY JACKSON could live without QUESTS." Leo says. I don't believe him. No one does.

Percy laughs. "I've been questing since I was twelve, Leo. It's not stopping anytime soon. If not quests, then what? I have no hobbies."