Raging Shadows [Percy Jackson] REWRITE

Chapter 1

N I C O

"No, no, no, no!"

Nico had to suppress the urge to groan loudly as Drew Tanaka, once again interrupted the painting session.

"You're doing it all wrong!" The daughter of Aphrodite was currently hounding om Cecil Markowitz of the Hermes cabin. She pointed a perfectly manicured finger at his canvas and demanded in her usual nasally "What the hell is that?"

"Um..." Cecil's gaze slowly slid over to his canvas, before his copper eyes averted back to her just as slow. He shrugged, raising an eyebrow and giving her a quirky lopsided grin. "Art?"

The room basically erupted in snickers. Nico covered his mouth with the back of his hand to stifle his own chuckle.

"It's a freaking half-assed rainbow, that's what it is! The colors aren't even in the right spot and what's with the awful paint stroke?

"Hey," Bethany Wilson of the Hermes cabin commented. She pointed to a little pink, purple, and blue bracelet she sported around her wrist. Of course, she had the usual Hermes grin plastered on her face as she continued, "That's homophobic. Every rainbow is a beautiful rainbow."

Of course, there was just a sliver of time to make his own statement before there really was a reaction from the class. He raised his hand in the air, "She's got a point."

That really got the class cracking up.

Drew spun on her heel to glare at him. Nico just shrugged, his tiny grin growing as he turned back to his own painting casually, as if he hadn't uttered a single word.

"See! Thank you!" Cecil gestured to both Bethany and Nico. "They know what's up! It could've been totally worse, you know! It could've looked like Sherman's!"

"HEY!" Sherman Yang hollered from across the room, immediately shooting up like a rocket. He waved a paintbrush threateningly, red paint flying everywhere. "YOU WANNA FIGHT, MARKOWITZ?!

Drew looked like she was gonna have an anger induced aneurysm.

"Okay! Okay, I think that's enough for today!" Rachel Dare announced with a nervous laugh, clapping her hands together loudly to get the attention on her. She wiped some paint on her already paint stained overalls. "Time's basically up anyway."

"Finally!" Cecil stood up, stretching and yawning as everyone began to make their way to dinner. "My back's killing me."

"You're lucky it's not Sherman," Nico joked, glancing over his shoulder to see the son of Ares still glaring in their direction. Miranda Gardiner was by his side, rubbing his arm and probably reassuring him that yes, he could kick Cecil's ass tomorrow in Capture The Flag.

Cecil didn't seem bothered by the stare whatsoever. He crossed his arms and regarded Nico with a smug smirk. "Nah, mah boy Sherman here is all bark and no bite." To make a point, Cecil raised his head and winked in Sherman's direction. The loud huff from behind him was enough to tell Nico that Sherman was aggravated.

Nico couldn't help but snort. Cecil was his friend and all but he was just asking for it now. "Isn't he on the blue team for Capture the Flag tomorrow?"

Cecil's proud grin was wiped right of his face. He let his arms fall to his sides along with his facade and cursed, "Hades on a burning bicycle. You're right."