Shining Through the Darkness (Solangelo AU)

Prom? -14

"Percy!" I yell to get his attention.

"What's up Death Boy?" He says, jogging over to me from Annabeth's side.

"Why do I keep hearing about a Camp Half Blood prom?" I ask, curious from seeing many posters and the Aphrodite kids going haywire about it.

"Oh, yeah, we always have a prom at the end of summer. It's free, but we have a prom invitation contest every year. Gonna invite Will?"

"Uh, I don't know Perc."

"You better."

"Okay Percy. Okay."

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"You're going to do it right?" Thalia asks.

Piper, Thalia and I are all sitting in a circle in the Hades cabin. We've become pretty good friends because neither one of them is bothered by the so-called "doom and gloom" feeling of the cabin. We've got quite a bit in common, too.

"I don't know. When are you gonna do it Thalia?" I ask.

Thalia starts to blush, as she has a mad crush on Piper. Piper and Jason broke up just after I got here, apparently. If you ask me, Jason has a strange obsession with bricks. He's insisted upon creating a statue out of bricks at his cabin. I think that's why they broke up.

"I don't know if I will." Thalia replies

"Thaliaaaaa," I say, whining right to her. Piper looks at me as if I've gone insane. She doesn't know about Thalia's crush.

"Well, I have the best idea for you asking Will," She says, "although, we may need to work on that spelling of yours."

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A crowd is gathered around me. Piper called almost the entire camp to see this and put will front and center. 'Just a few words.' I tell myself 'just get it out.' I turn to Will, he's staring at me expectantly, and still clueless as to what I'm about to do. I take a deep breath. I stare at the crowd.

Soon, Piper notices me struggling and comes over to me.

"I can't do this." I tell her "This is coming out. This is being 100% sure I want to be with him. I'm not. I'm not sure. I can't do this. I can't hurt him if I change my mind."

"You can do it." She says, her voice calming "Do it. Before people lose interest."

I nod and turn from her. I whisper a few words in Greek, and the ground starts to shake. Before long, bones of people who have died, some jewels from Hazel, and a few other bits and bobs from the underworld settled on the ground spelling out a message. Don't worry about Hazel's curse. Dad liked this idea so he said he would make the jewels move if someone tried to touch them

Wil yew go 2 porm w/ mee sunshyn?

Will turns his head. I feel my face fall.

Piper stands next to me. "Oh Nico, the spelling. It's because you're nervous."

I barely hear her because I'm so focused on Will, waiting for an answer.

He turns back to me, a slight smile appearing on his face. Slowly, he nods.

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"You're gonna win for sure." Percy says.

"I didn't do it to win," I tell him.

"You better not have."

"Why are you so protective of him? He's been here for longer. He can take care of himself." I say, suddenly appalled at the idea that I did this only to win that stupid contest.

"Some people need protecting more than others," Percy says, shrugging it off.

"Why? Why does Will need it more than others?" I ask angrily.

"He cares too much and still he doesn't care enough." Percy says as he walks away. 

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Thalia has been planning her promposal since the day in my cabin. Granted, it's only been a couple days but, still. She didn't want to make a huge deal out of it in case Piper said no. Piper is bi but she hasn't really told anyone, which makes it a whole lot harder to do something like this publicly.

Therefore, it's just Thalia, Piper, Percy, Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, Leo, Jason and I around this time. I now wish they hadn't had to call the whole camp to attentions for my promposal to Will. Anyway, Thalia's plan was simple. Give Piper a hug, ask her to prom. And that's what she did.

"Will you go to prom with me Piper?" She asks, her voice shaking just a bit.

Piper smiles and gives her a hug. "Yes."

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Somehow, everyone decided that I should come up with the music playlist for prom. Why? I don't know. So, I set to work making a playlist.

Fall Out Boy? Check.
Panic! At the Disco? Check.
My Chemical Romance? Check.
Twenty One Pilots.
Velvet Revolver.
Bastille.
Florence and the Machine.
Imagine Dragons.
Of Monsters and Men.
Fun.

I'm working hard at adding songs together when I hear someone knock on my cabin door.

"Shouldn't you be doing... Training?" I hear Will ask

"Au Contraire, Sunshine. I have to make this playlist for prom. Help?"

"Let's see what you've got." He answers, laughing slightly "These are like entirely punk rock bands."

"Yea." I say

"You need something more mainstream." He says

"Noooooo" I say. Soon Will has taken control of the playlist.

Lorde.
Miley Cyrus.
Justin Bieber.
Walk the Moon.
One Direction.

And the list goes on and on until we have seemingly hundreds of songs, mainstream and not, and Will seems satisfied with the mainstream-ness.

"Now, Nico." Will says "We should go swimming."

"What." I say

"Swimming. In the lake. It'll be fun. Come on."

"Fine." I say

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And that's how we end up in the lake.

"Race me." He says

"No. No way" I say

"Come on. Pleaseeeeee." He says

"Okay. Fine. Fine then."

"Good. From Percy's cabin to that stick in the middle of the lake and back." He says "ready set go." Before I can argue, he leaves. 

I swim. I'm in shape from training, so it's not too bad, but it still is a long ways. As I swim, I clear my mind of everything else. I reach the stick and turn around and swim back. Will finishes the race first, about ten yards ahead of me. Suddenly, I feel a fish touch me, which causes me to scream and swim faster. I lose track of where I'm going until I run into Will. Somehow, I fall into his arms.

That's how we end up kissing.

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Published 10/26/15

Edited 12/27/16