In The Spotlight - Solangelo

Chapter Fifteen

I was standing outside the gates of the swimming pool, Hazel by my side, when I remembered I still hadn't asked Will if I could bring her along. Why am I like this? I asked myself. First Dad with actually asking permission to come, and now this. What is wrong with you, Nico?

Will had asked me to meet him by the pool at 11am. It was now 11:05, and I still hadn't mustered up the courage to go inside. I'm such an idiot. I could tell Hazel was getting impatient, and probably quite confused as to why we were just standing outside. I didn't have the heart to tell her that the reason we were still outside was because I forgot to ask my friends if she could tag along, and I was afraid they would make her leave.

"Uh, Nico? Are we going to go inside, or are we just going to continue staring at this gate?"

I took a deep breath, and took a step towards the gate. "C'mon, we should go meet up with the others," I told her, though in reality I was talking more to myself.

She did a little jog to catch up with me. "Others? Who else are we going with?" she asked.

"Just some of my friends," I answered, looking around for Will. I was now seven minutes late, so he was probably wondering where the hell I was. I caught a glimpse of his golden blonde hair by the diving boards, but before I could head in his direction, someone's arm wrapped around my shoulder.

"Yo, Neeks," Leo greeted. "Can I call you Neeks? Is that a thing that can happen?"

"No."

"I was just asking, jeez." He looked over at Hazel. "Who's this? Your girlfriend? I didn't know you were bringing anyone along."

"This is my sister," I informed him, clearly annoyed about the 'girlfriend' comment. "Well, half-sister. It's... complicated."

"Hazel Levesque," she introduced. "It's nice to meet you."

"Leo Valdez." He held out his hand across me, and shook with her. "Damn, your hand is cold."

"And yours is boiling," she replied.

"Touché."

"So! Leo," I began, changing the conversation as to make it slightly less awkward (but not completely, because let's be real here), "I thought you were... Hanging with Calypso today."

A blush crept onto his face. "Yeah... 5pm tonight. I don't know why she wanted to meet so late, but..." He trailed of, but I could just hear him whisper under his breath, "La amo demasiado para cuidar." Of course, I had no clue what he said, because I couldn't speak Spanish, but I'm sure it was incredibly heartfelt and pure. Or he could be swearing aggressively. Who knows with Leo.

Suddenly, I felt a huge object weigh down on my back, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground. "What the hell?!" I exclaimed, struggling to get back up. Whatever had landed on me was clearly still on top of me. I couldn't turn around to see what it was. However, it felt vaguely... like a person. Had a person fallen onto me? Or, more likely... Jumped onto me? Well, whatever, or whoever, it was, it quickly got of me, letting me get up and turn around. And when I saw who it was, a blush immediately formed on my cheeks.

Unlike me, Will was laughing his head off. He could barely mutter an apology between gasps. "I'm... ha... so, so sorry." He sounded sincere, at least. At this point, he had calmed down enough to talk properly. "I honestly didn't mean to knock you over. I just wanted to surprise you."

I pushed him down to the ground. "Hey! What was that for?" I stared at him, like it was obvious. It was obvious. "Ok, fine, I deserved that..." He stood back up (again). "Anyway, the first race is starting soon. Percy isn't going to be swimming for another hour or so, but I thought he would want us all to watch the first race together. He saved us some seats. Annabeth and Jason are already over there."

We walked together down to the pool, and joined the others on front row seats. Nobody seemed to mind that Hazel was with me. Once again, they asked if Hazel was my girlfriend, to which I was half-tempted to shout out, "I'M GAY!" but didn't, because I was still trying to hide that fact. Instead, Leo told everyone she was my sister, and that was the end of that.

A whistle blew, and the competition began.

A/N: Ok, this chapter was really fun to write. And I put in some Spanish! In case you were wondering, it's supposed to translate to "I love her too much to care," but I used Google Translate so... I cannot speak Spanish, ok? If anyone reading this can speak Spanish, and knows of a way to write it better, please let me know. Thank you for reading, see you later :)