The Violin That Started it Again

Part 5) Chapter Thirty-Three

I just had this random burst of inspiration and I think it was from all of the comments I got. So thanks I guess.

After this: Epilogue. A little bit of smut will be in the epilogue. It won't be all out though. I'm also including one last special event before I end this story.

...

Percy Jackson

A week had passed since the incident at the mall. I had finally gotten my questions answered by Silena, and our friendship terms have returned to normal.

Nico and I on the other hand... Things have been the same since the mall. We acted as if we were friends whenever we were around each other. We could never find the right time to be alone and talk things out. Annabeth had tried--I could tell--but things would always backfire whenever someone from our group realized that Nico and I were speaking to each other again. I could also tell how hurt Annabeth appeared whenever we acted as friends together. It was weird just being friends and joking around with him. It felt so much more different than before, but it was better than being ignored by him.

The cold, dark brown eyes... I never wanted to be regarded by them again. If I could only just be his friend then... I would just be his friend. But I couldn't jump to conclusions just yet; I hadn't even talked to the guy. I couldn't assume things because then I was just end up over thinking which would lead to even more problems for me.

"Percy Jackson!"

I snapped out of my thoughts and the realization hit me harder than the time Jason got hit with a brick. Where the brick came from was still a mystery to this day.

"Yes?" I offered a small smile toward the teacher who was slowly losing patience the more she stared at my weak attempt of a smile.

"Are you even paying attention?" She sighed, tapping the black Expo marker tiredly on her desk.

I laughed lightly. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

The teacher hummed, clearly not being fooled by my charade. "Okay then. If you were paying attention so well in my class, then tell me what Descartes' Rule is. Don't bother looking on the board I already erased it long ago. But since you were paying attention you would've already have known that."

I blinked blankly at her. Descartes' Rule? Why did that sound so familiar if I was supposed to have learned it just today?

Didn't Annabeth learn this concept last year? I totally remember making fun of the guy's name for some odd reason.

"Well?" A smirk slowly crept upon the teacher's face. "I'm waiting for your answer."

"I'm not sure what the actual rule states," I began, quite pathetically might I add, "but all I remember was that in order to find how many positive roots there are, you count how many times the sign changes in the equation or whatever. To find out how many negative roots there are, you plug in a negative x for each x there is, and then you figure out how many times the sign changes. After that, you find out the degree of the equation which tells you how many roots there should be and you could easily find out how many complex roots there should be."

By this point, I was completely out of air in my lungs. Jeez, was that a long rule or what? It didn't even give you an actual answer! It just told you the chances of the answer being positive or something! Why should I even bother with a rule like that anyway?

The teacher raised her eyebrows. "I'm impressed, Percy Jackson, you were paying attention. Good job."

She turned around with the Expo marker in her hand while reading out a problem from the book that had way too many x's and way too many numbers for me to count them all. Stupid polynomials and their stupid exponents.