noticed that Nico had been silently observing what he had been doing during his entire time helping to unravel the makeshift blanket restraints until she spoke again. Once she did so, he lifted his head to look at her, an eyebrow raised in confusion.
"What were you doing just now? Did you somehow manage to tear my bed apart while trying to remove the threads?"
Nodding, Nico simply replied with a nod of her own.
Jackson narrowed his eyes slightly at the girl's response. "Did I hear correctly?" he questioned suspiciously. "Are you telling me that you tore my bed apart because you thought that I somehow broke it?" At hearing her affirmation, he sighed heavily as he rubbed a hand across his face in exasperation. He couldn't help but feel irritated by this situation. He really had hoped that he had managed to keep all of his belongings hidden well enough from Nico. Even still, he couldn't help but wonder if it wouldn't be best if he should tell his friends exactly how he managed to break his bed apart in only a single day.
Nico frowned slightly at his tone. "Do I do something wrong, Jackson?"
"No!" Jackson shouted quickly before lowering his voice to prevent anyone outside of the room he currently inhabited from hearing his outburst. "It's not that; it's just…" He paused for a moment before turning back to face her, his eyebrows furrowed together in concern. "Are you sure that you haven't torn anything? Because last night, I could have sworn that–"
"Last night, you said that I tore the sheet of the mattress and you couldn't move. Are you saying that it wasn't me that ripped it? Was there someone else here, maybe?" she asked curiously, cocking her head to the side and crossing her arms across her chest.
He paused for a moment. He knew that the truth was going to come out eventually, so there was no harm in telling her the truth now. Besides, he wanted to spend as much time with her as he could before the rest of his friends arrived and forced him to leave. Still, he had promised his mother that he would spend as little time as possible with her. He would never disobey her.
With a heavy sigh, he answered Nico's question. "No. Someone else may have broken into the cabin earlier. I'm sorry. I should have told you that yesterday when you went to wake me up." He paused once more, thinking hard about what he should do next. "Would you like me to take you to see what happened? Perhaps you might be able to help me figure out who did it. I don't think they have been here lately, but who knows? Maybe they'll return before too long…"
"Maybe," she agreed. She looked away from him for another minute before looking back at him again, this time with a serious expression. "However, we're going to have to wait for everyone else to arrive for me to show you what happened. If I take you with me and something happens, that may ruin your reputation with your friends. I already know how badly you want to make new friends, Jackson. Do you really wish for that to be ruined? Especially now, with all the people that you have coming? They may even hate you for this! I don't think you realize how important it is that you don't make enemies, especially with the group of demigods that are arriving. They aren't here to be your friends. In fact, if you mess around with them any harder, they probably won't even bother to show up at all, and that would be the end of us. You'd never have anyone willing to help you."
Jackson sighed deeply as he leaned backwards against his pillows. "You make a valid point, Wise Girl." His eyes wandered back towards the ceiling before they suddenly landed back on her, the same determined expression on his face as previously. "Then, let's try this. For the next few hours, we'll stay in this cabin and pretend nothing has changed. We'll continue to act normally as usual, and things may just work themselves out eventually… right?" The corners of her lips twitched slightly into a tiny hint of a smile before she nodded.
The boy smiled back at her as he continued to speak. "If you say so, Wise Girl. Now, let's go get breakfast." He got up from his bed and stretched his arms up above his head before walking past his friend and heading straight out of the door.
Nico watched him walk off with an amused grin on her face and a chuckle escaping her mouth. After closing the door behind her and making sure that it latched securely, she walked down the hallway to join his friends downstairs.
As she began approaching her cabin, she stopped abruptly when she saw three familiar figures sitting underneath the shade of one of the oak trees near the cabin, all of them seemingly engrossed in whatever books they were reading.
One of them was definitely not Percy Jackson, however. That was Annabeth Chase.
She cleared her throat before speaking up loudly. "Good morning, girls!" she called cheerily.
The others looked up from their book immediately after the sound of her voice, and Annabeth's facial features lit up upon realizing that it was actually Nico standing beside Percy.
"Hey, guys. What brings you here, anyways?" she questioned curiously.
Before Nico could open her mouth to reply to the question, both Hazel and Will glanced at each other before smiling at her.
"Hey, Nico, good morning!" exclaimed Will excitedly.
"And hello to you too, Nico. I guess that means that you've met Jackson and Jason yet, huh?" added Hazel kindly.
Nico smirked slightly, though it was obvious that she wasn't entirely happy about meeting the two of them again. She then turned towards Will and shrugged, "Yeah, I've actually met them both recently."
Will grinned widely at her words. "Really? Where?"
"Oh, I actually didn't know where either of them were staying. I was planning to visit Reyna, but apparently they moved out of their cabin," replied Nico as she rolled her eyes slightly. She seemed to notice Annabeth's curious expression. "But don't worry, Wise Girl." She grinned at her mischievously before continuing. "I'm pretty sure that I've figured out which of them is whose."
Hazel grinned brightly as she responded to Nico, "Well, whoever it is, it sounds like you've already gotten along just fine, at least so far."
Nico merely smirked knowingly before replying sarcastically. "Yup. That sounds about right."
"Who, though?" continued Will.
Nico stared at him for a moment longer before shrugging. "I honestly have no idea. They've done some stupid stuff and almost killed themselves, but I don't care. So far they seem alright."
A sly grin appeared on Piper's face. "That's a very bold claim. You sure that it isn't Percy or someone like that that's caused your change of heart?"
Nico frowned slightly before responding to Piper and shaking her head. "Absolutely not." Her face soon returned back to its original neutral expression as she continued talking to the three other girls. "Anyway," she added somewhat hesitantly. "What does all of this mean for my relationship with the rest of my friends? Am I supposed to continue seeing them without having to explain everything to them or am I supposed to stop being friends with them altogether?"
Her question made Percy frown. She hadn't been quite certain whether the rest of his friends had realized the truth about the incident yet. She had assumed that they had. But clearly, it appeared that they weren't aware of the details.
After a moment's hesitation, he spoke up. "You don't need to start hiding things from them anymore, Nico," he told her. "If you don't want to be around us anymore, just tell us and we won't mind. It doesn't matter. Whatever happens between the three of us, you can always come to us first whenever you decide that you want to talk to us about whatever it is that is bothering you. Just please promise me that you'll tell us when things start to become more difficult. Alright?"
Nico simply nodded her head, silently agreeing with him. She wasn't exactly ready for the rest of the group to know, even though she trusted them with her life. It didn't seem fair that she would have to tell them when she couldn't even trust herself. She decided to drop the subject. Instead, she focused her attention towards Will and Annabeth.
"So who are these girls anyway? And why did they ask me to hide something from them earlier?" asked Nico quietly. Although she wasn't particularly interested in finding out who the girls were, her curiosity would still remain.
Annabeth shifted uncomfortably in her seat before answering. "They are our best friend and sister Hazel. She's sixteen years old. And yes, she is extremely stubborn, but she cares about everyone that is close to her. She would have found out sooner or later anyway, especially since you are her closest friend and her brother is a lot older than her," said Annabeth as she gestured to Percy, "and that is my younger brother, Will. He is also sixteen. You must remember the girl that was crying at the train station? That is Piper, and she is my girlfriend. They have lived together for three years now."
Piper raised her hand slightly. "Hello, Nico," she greeted. "It's nice to finally meet you. I'm Piper McLean. Nice to see you again, too. I haven't seen you around much lately." She looked at the blondes expectantly.
Annabeth smiled politely. "Piper, I believe that we introduced ourselves properly last night. It is nice to finally meet you. As to why we wanted to talk to you, I guess that's because our father wants you to move here. He wants you to come live with us and teach us how to use the weapons."
Nico was surprised at the sudden news. She knew that there was no way that her father would ever want her to live somewhere else, so what reason would he have for bringing her here? Was it possible that the reason she had been ignoring the messages and calls from Reyna and Annabeth was because they told her about this arrangement beforehand? No. That wouldn't be a thing that her father would do. It would have made much more sense if it was the other way around. Still, Nico could feel herself beginning to panic.
She swallowed hard before taking a deep breath and trying to relax, knowing full well that she needed to be calm and collected for her own sake. She was about to respond before she heard footsteps approach her from the side