You Are Not My Family

Chapter 6

Percy's POV

"I honestly couldn't care less about your churro, Leo." Those were the first words we had heard from Nico in one and a half years, besides his apperance, he hadn't changed a bit.

Leo frowned, "You should."

Nico raised an eyebrow, "Is that so?"

"Yep! Cuz that churro cost me ten dollars. And since you startled me into dropping it, technically I paid my debt to you."

Nico looked like he was about to blow a fuse, "How in the world does you dropping your food mean that you don't owe me cash?"

"Because I owed you ten dollars, and then you made me lose ten dollars so technically we're even."

"You dropping your churro got no money in my pocket!"

Finally Annabeth stepped in, "Both of you shut up!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"You still owe me ten bucks!"

"I DO NOT!"

"Annabeth told you to shut up, geez!"

"What? Are you kidding me! You're the one who kept going!"

"You started it! Talking about your stupid churro."

"NEVER call churros stupid!"

"Churros are stuuuuuupid! Stupid, stupid, stuuuupid!" Okay, maybe Nico had changed a little.

"I will burn off your eyebrows!"

"I'll drag you into Hades!"

"That's cute, I'd like to see you try!"

"Well since you asked so nicely!" And then Nico was lunging at Leo, roaring. Nico pulled at his curly hair and Leo was jabbing Nico in the eyes. They went rolling, crushing dropped food and knocking over deserted booths. Somehow, no one at the fair seemed to notice the two semi-scrawny fighting teenage boys.

Hazel seemed flustered, Reyna seemed amused and Jason looked annoyed. Piper was grinning, Annabeth was shaking her head, Frank looked like he was trying to not be a part of this, and if Calypso rolled her eyes anymore, they would fall out of her head. Percy just found it hilarious. He wished he had a camera.

Jess sighed like this was a common occurance and reached for Nico. Holding him by his dark, silky hair, she pulled him off Leo like he weighed nothing. "Look, you can settle this squirt scuffle later. Right now, I wanna know if we're staying to talk to these people."

Nico gestured to each of them, "This is Percy, Annabeth, Hazel, Frank, Jason, Piper, Leo, Reyna, and Calypso. And no, we're not staying to talk."

Hazel looked heartbroken, "Why not?"

Percy laughed lightly, "It doesn't matter. There are nine of us, and two of them. I think we can catch 'em."

Nico's POV

Nico actually found it quite amusing how easy Percy thought catching them would seem. Aparently his girlfriend did too, she smirked, and then asked him, "So, Nicky. What are the odds of them catching us?"

With his newly discovered genius brain, Nico quickly knew the answer. With his shadow traveling skills and his sneaky dissapear-into-the-shadows thing, the chance of them catching them was already down to thirty percent.

But he still had to add on Jessica's weird victory ability. The thing with being a daughter of Nike was that she couldn't lose. If Jessica's mind decided that getting caught was considered losing, then it woud be downright impossible for it to happen. She could also minimize other people's chances of victory and make them vulnerable to even the smallest fights. If she was on your team, you won't lose. Guaranteed.

"So if you add together my shadow traveling abilities and your weird victory mind thing...the chances of them catching us is about," he cocked his head to the side, "3.74 percent. Rounded to roughly 4 percent."

Annabeth shook her head, "That can't be right."

Nico shrugged and grinned, then he grabbed his girlfriend and started to back into the shadows.

Percy reached for him, "Nico di Angelo you better not!"

"See ya, suckers!" then the shadows wrapped around them and carried them away. They landed right outside the Daze because one, they had to get thier backpacks (which were in a bush) and two, Nico didn't know where to go. They had finally agreed on going to Santa Fe. It was more southern than they had wanted to go, but Jess' dad had a friend down there that she was sure they could stay with.

By the time they had manuvered thier backpacks out of the prickly bush, Reyna had appeared in the entrance to the fair and was running towards them.

"Jess! Now! Go!" His girlfriend hooked thier arms and then they super-speeded away. In addition to goddess of victory, Nike also controlled strength and speed. So Jess had super speed and super strength, which was sometimes annoying when Nico thought about how his girlfriend was stronger and faster than him. But most of the time it was cool and helpful.

Whenever Nico super-speeded, it felt like he was flying. His feet were lifted off the ground and when they stopped, Nico felt like his body took a second to adjust to reality. When he finally felt acclimated, he looked around.

They were on the porch of a big house apparently this house belonged to a former Lions player. He had been a close friend of Jessica's dad and he had even checked in on the twins when thier dad had started acting wacky. She was talking to him right now to make sure it was ok if they stayed with him for a while.

Nico thought about how he had left Hazel there. She was probably so confused and so was he. She probably thought he hated her, which totally wasn't true. Nico loved her to death and he would die for her, but he really didn't want to see her right now. She was just a big symbol that his dad hated him, or at least despised him. Seeing her today was like getting a huge slap in the face. Especially since she was wearing his skull ring, the one Hades had given to him.

When Jessica came out, she was cheering that he said they could stay. She faltered when she saw him smiling sadly.

"Nico, what's wrong?" Jess asked.

"Nothing." he answered, staring at the mountains of rusty, red sand.

She bumped her shoulder with his, "C'mon, I know you better than that. Something's up. Tell me."

Nico sighed, he could never say no to him. "I just probably hurt Hazel so bad today, and I want to apologize, but everytime I think about her, I'm reminded of the fact that I'm an outcast. At camp, and with my own family."

She shook her head, "Nico, they love you. Why else would they follow you all the way out here? I think you should face your family, but you don't have to. I promise I'll stick by your side 'till the end. Cuz that's what awesome girlfriends do!"

He snorted, "Thanks. You know I love you right?"

She smiled at him, showing her dimples, "I think I've heard that somewhere. "

He rolled his eyes and then kissed her, "Shut up."

She chuckled and then rested her head on his shoulders, "Love you too."

Hazel's POV

What was up with Nico? It was like he didn't want to see her. She hadn't done anything to him. Why didn't he want to talk to her? He had run away the first chance he got.

Did he hate her? She hoped not. Nico, she thought, I could care less about your stubborn antics. The next time I see you, we will have a nice, long, loving reunion. Even if I have to wrestle you to the ground and chain you to a wall.