PJO Short Stories

Guardian Ghost

"Nico!" Grover hurriedly trotted towards Nico di Angelo.

"What's up?" The man turned. Nico was now around thirty, teaching swordfighting along with Percy.

"One of my satyrs found someone you need to see. He just Iris-messaged me the place. You need to go!" Grover was pulling at his curly brown hair and chewing on his T-shirt in anxiety. As Nico watched, Grover chewed off the part of his T-shirt that said CHAMPION SATYR MAN

"Uh... Okay, G-man. Here's a can." Nico tossed him a empty Diet Coke can and in return, he got a piece of paper. Opening it, he read the words: Thorne High School, 288770

Oh gods.

Taking a deep breath, he melted into the shadows.

*****

Nico stumbled out of the shadows into a school courtyard decked out with balloons and flowers, as well as a huge banner that said Thorne High
Anniversary. He took a deep breath and searched the courtyard for a little boy with a baggy shirt and pants as well as a blue Rasta cap. It didn't take long before he found him, and he walked up.

"You're Nico di Angelo, right? Lord Grover's told me about you. I'm Jay and I'm the satyr for this school. Well... I found someone, a girl named Lea. I can smell demigod blood in her, but somehow... It seems stronger." Jay finished with a frown. "And I think the principal might be a monster."

"Who's the principal?" Nico asked.

"Uh... Lord Grover said you'd fought him before," Jay shuffled his feet. "He's Dr Thorne, right over there."

Of all the monsters, I get fucking Thorn. Nico was very tempted to cuss like Arion. Could've been worse though. I hate Lamias.

He followed Jay's gaze and looked over to where a middle-aged man was sitting on the bleachers, watching the kids dance around and play. He looked exactly like when he'd tried to catch Nico and Bianca, right before Annabeth had tackled him and went over the cliff. The Hunters had arrived... Nico's sister torn from him...

Stop it, he chided himself. Don't dwell on the bad stuff.

"Where's Lea?" He asked.

"There," Jay pointed to a knot of dancing girls. When they split apart and went to dance somewhere else, he caught a glimpse of a little girl with long black hair and olive skin, her green cap perched on her head. Turning his gaze away, Nico thought how much she looked like Bianca... They were almost like twins.

Making his way over, he bent down next to the little girl. She stared at him with brownish-black eyes, the same as Bianca's.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm Nico di Angelo. Your name is Lea, right? Jay told me," Nico spoke slowly, hoping that his voice sounded reassuring.

"I don't trust you," Lea frowned.

"You can trust me."

"Bee hasn't met you yet." Lea spoke, after she tipped her head like she was listening to someone else.

"Bee?"

"She's my guardian spirit, and I can summon her. But you're probably one of the others, the others that say that you can't see her and I'm making everything up!" Lea's words ended on a high note of frustration.