In The Spotlight - Solangelo

Chapter Twenty Two

"And here we have, uh... I don't... Recognise this particular part of the forest... I, um... We should head back." He turned around. "Nico? Nico, where are you?" There was no reply. "Is this some sort of joke? It isn't funny! I'm responsible for your safety right now! If I... If I lose you, I'll have to... I-I don't know. It won't be good. Nico?"

The ball rang, but before we could all leave the teacher stopped us. Will sat back down next to me, as Miss O'Toole made her way to the front of the classroom.

"It seems to me that rehearsals for your pieces are in full swing now, am I correct?" The class collectively mumbled a yes. "Great. This time next week, we will be performing our pieces to each other."

Performing our pieces... to each other? Did that mean... Oh God. Will and I would have to show everyone else our performance. I would have to kiss Will in front of a crowd. I had been given a hard enough time after being kissed by Will in private; what will happen they people see me kissing him in public? This wasn't the plan. We hadn't even rehearsed the kiss scene, yet. What if I messed it up? What if, just before the scene, I get too nervous, and don't even go onto the stage? What if people make fun of us after?

Will must have noticed that the last statement was making me panic, because he wrapped his arm around me, and whispered, "Don't worry, it will be fine." God, I loved him so much. Thanks to Will, all my fears about the performance disappeared. Well, most of them. I was still anxious, but, as along as Will was right there with me, I knew I could do anything.

The teacher dismissed us. I began to walk down to the cafeteria with Will, but I was pulled aside by a girl. "Hey, Nico, right?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah? And who are you?"

"I'm Piper. Piper McLean." She looked around. "Can I talk to you for a sec?"

I looked over at Will, who nodded encouragingly. "Yeah, sure."

"Great." She dragged me further away from the class, across half the school, until we found an empty hallway. "So... You're friends with Jason, right? Jason Grace?"

"I am indeed..." I replied. "At least, I like to think that I'm friends with him."

"Ok, good, 'cause I, um..." She began to fiddle with her hair. "I kind of have a huge crush on him, and I was going to ask him out to the school dance that's happening soon, but I'm afraid that he'll say no, and I'm pretty sure that he's dating Drew Tanaka, so I just wanted to make sure that-"

"Just ask him," I told her. "He also has a crush on you. He doesn't even like Drew."

She smiled at me. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" Piper gave me a quick hug, then ran away, presumably to find Jason. It dawned on me that that was the second girl who I had given relationship advice to in less that twenty-four hours. What was happening to me?

I made my way back to the cafeteria, and took my usual seat next to Will. It appeared that Leo had brought Calypso to the table as well, as she was sitting next to him in Jason's usual seat. Percy and Annabeth were together like always. Jason was nowhere to be seen - maybe he was talking with Piper?

"What did Piper want?" Will asked.

"She wanted to talk to me about Jason," I informed him. "She, uh, has a crush on him, or something. I think she is planning on asking him to some sort of dance thing."

"Guys, guys, guys!" Jason came running up to the table, a huge grin across his face. "Piper just asked me out! Piper Mc-freaking-Lean! I'm going to the school dance with Piper McLean!"

Everyone at the table began freaking out, congratulating him and stuff. I just sat there calmly, and said, "Called it."