School.

Just the very word made Leo shiver, as though just the sound of that one syllable meant impending doom. Urgh.

"Hey, wake up."

Leo opened his eyes to find Nico hovering over him, a cute, crooked smile on his face. Of course, he'd stayed over again.

"No... go back to bed!" Leo whined, turning and attempting to squash his face into the pillows. He heard a giggle from just behind him, before...

"Oof!" Nico pulled the entire duvet off the bed with Leo in it, leaving him a disgruntled, undignified pile of limbs on the floor. Nico leant down, batting his eyelids innocently, and kissed Leo's cheek gently.

His lips grazed his ear. "I told you to get up," he whispered drastically, before ruining his dramatic exit by tripping over the blanket he wore around his shoulders. Leo burst into hysterical giggles.

Aww, his boyfriend was so dam cute!

~·~·~

"Remind me why we're here again, Leoooo," Nico groaned as the pair entered their school: HalfBlood Comprehensive.

"So we can learn and get good jobs, duh," Leo told his boyfriend, patting him on the head and ignoring the dirty look Nico threw at him. Yup, Leo was pretty small, but Nico was smaller.

A girl's voice interrupted their lover's tiff, and they looked over to see Piper bounding towards them, plaits flying.

"Guys! I haven't seen you in so long!" She grinned, wrapping her arms around them both and pulling them in for a huge hug. Both her and Leo laughed at the pure horror etched on Nico's face at being in such close contact with - as he would say - humanoid creatures.

Leo frowned as he remembered the whole 'Jason situation'. Piper was being way too happy, well, happier than Leo had been expecting. Saying that, Leo had been expecting a mascara-streaked disaster of a girl with hair messy enough for a bird to nest in and scrunched up tissues basically trailing behind her.

He almost laughed out loud; maybe he had gone a bit too far!

"So...what's up?" Piper asked awkwardly after the hug had broken apart and there was silence.

"Um, not much, to be honest. I made an origami pineapple though..."

"It was brilliant!" Nico butted in. Piper chuckled.

"Wow! Life goals!" She stated sarcastically. Her eyes flicked behind Leo's shoulder. "Hey, Annabeth! And... Percy?"

He turned. Sure enough, there was Annabeth holding hands with Percy, the guy from his youth club. They were smiling happily, despite it being the first day back at school.

"Hey, bro! I didn't know you were starting here!" Leo moved forward and fist-bumped his friend before turning towards Annabeth. "And I didn't know you had a boyfriend!"

Annabeth nodded, reading his lips and signing You never asked!

Yup. That's right, Annabeth was deaf. Piper had stumbled upon her when she was new and, being one of the few students to know sign language, had been asked to tour her around. They'd clicked instantly, and since then Annabeth had earned a place with the rest of Piper's friends. As a sign of support, Leo and Nico had learnt sign language too, and most of the teachers had too, so Annabeth fitted in at HalfBlood pretty well.

"She's got a point," Percy agreed. "And, yeah, this is my eleventh school now, so-"

Nico gasped. "Eleventh? Hi, sorry, I'm Nico by the way, but... eleventh?"

Percy nodded absently. "Yeah, stuff happened. But I've got you guys now, right?"

Leo grabbed Nico's hand and squeezed it tight, as though sending a silence message of yay, new friend, to his boyfriend.

"Hey, you're together?"

Percy looked shocked, while Piper and Annabeth looked scared. Oh, god... if Percy was homophobic...

"Cool!"

Everyone let out a deep sigh of relief at Percy's simple, one word response. Annabeth signed Thank god!

The bell rang and the group groaned simultaneously. After comparing timetables with Percy, himself and Annabeth headed off to maths with Mrs Minerva.

~·~·~

"Sorry, could I speak to Piper McLean, please?"

Leo looked up at the sound of the school receptionist's voice at the door. Ms Demeter, the art teacher, nodded, not looking up from the wheat field she was sketching for the class to see.

Why are you going?  Leo mouthed, completely confused. Piper shot him a puzzled look and shrugged, before the receptionist placed a hand on her back and gently pushed her from the room.

"What was that about?" Nico whispered to him from across the table.

Leo decided to ignore the perfect (seriously, perfect) drawing of a scarecrow that his boyfriend was shading in and instead answered, "I don't know..."

Nico looked thoughtful, his pencil tapping against the wooden table, before he shot upright, almost knocking the girl sitting next to him who gave him a death stare.

"Hold on, you don't think this is about... you know..."

Leo shook his head. "Nah, Jase is stable, right? Surely-"

"Boys! Stop talking or I'll split you up!" Ms Demeter snapped from her desk at the front of the classroom. Leo gave Nico a look like is she serious? but decided it was probably better to finish his drawing of a messy black scribble, sorry, an unknown form of plant life.

~·~·~

Leo was tucking into his cheese sandwich in the canteen when a voice broke through the comfortable silence between him and his friends.

"Hey, did you guys see Piper in the office?" It was Nyssa from Leo's metalwork class. She had long, straight, dirty-blonde hair and pale green eyes, with a fine dusting of freckles scattered across her nose.

"No... what's wrong?"

"Omg, she's, like, crying so hard right now!" A second voice interrupted the conversation, this one very fake and tacky sounding. It was Drew Tanaka, complete with hot-pink painted talons, several thousand hair extensions and so much eye liner and mascara her eyes basically looked like the plant Leo had drawn earlier.

Mentally, Leo shrugged. Eh, fashion confused him...

"You should go and see that she's ok," Nyssa suggested, looking slightly irritated at Drew's obnoxious interrupting. Nico looked up and met Leo's eyes, asking him, when Annabeth signed yes.

"Yeah, ok, we will. Thanks." Leo spoke Annabeth's words.

"No problem. See you later, guys!" With that, Nyssa and Drew disappeared, going their own separate ways.

"I don't get it. What happened earlier? Why's Piper upset?" Percy asked immediately, looking up suddenly and staring intensely at Leo.

Nico answered for him. "We don't know, she just got called out of art. That's it..."

Come on, let's go check it out, Annabeth signed impatiently, and the small group of four left the canteen, Leo grabbing his sandwich as he went.

~·~·~

They could only watch helplessly as Piper sobbed into Annabeth's shoulder, who patted her back gently and attempted to sooth her. Nico looked really worried, so Leo placed an arm around his small shoulders and pulled him to his side.

Nico looked up with shiny, marble-like dark eyes and whispered: "It's Jason, isn't it?"

Leo glanced at the distraught Piper and nodded. "Probably... I hope he's ok..."

Though Jason could be a bit annoying (long story short, Jase was the best at every single sport that existed, and Leo? Not so much), but they had been friends since forever and they were practically brothers.

Sparky and Fire Boy.

Leo bit his lip, forcing himself not to cry. He did not want to cry, not here, not now.

Eventually, Piper calmed a little and said, in a tiny voice: "You know how Jase had internal bleeding?"

Everyone nodded.

"Well, the bleeding in his head has started up again. Apparently he's undergoing surgery right now, and, and..." Piper looked straight at Leo, her eyes forlorn. "There's a chance he might not pull-"

She didn't need to finish her sentence. Leo's eyes welled up and tears began trickling down his cheeks as dread settled in his chest like a dead weight. Nico noticed and immediately grasped Leo's hand, squeezing it tight, when...

"Ewww! Gross!" All five of them whipped around, Annabeth following the others, to find Beckendorf behind them. Beckendorf was a mass of muscle, taller than most of the teachers with a mop of dark hair and a terrifying, cocky grin. No one, not even his evil friends, knew his first name.

"Oh my god..." Nico breathed, pulling his hand from Leo's as though it had been burnt and attempting to act neutral. Too late. Beckendorf began striding towards them, cracking his large knuckles and practically shaking the school with his size thirteen feet.

He bent down so his face was right in front of Leo and Nico before spitting out, "If there's one thing I hate the most in this world, it's sinners!"

Nico cowered at the sight of the gigantic fist that was being raised slowly, aimed towards his face. Hating the sight of his boyfriend scared, Leo turned shakily to the rest of his friends who were frozen in shock. Time seemed to slow down, when-

"Run!" Leo screeched, tears streaming down his face, grabbing Annabeth's arm and pulling her with him. As though someone had flicked a switch, time seemed to go back to normal as the group fled the school, terrified.

Percy screamed over the wailing wind. "I guess we're skipping the last two lessons!?" He had a crazy, exhilarated grin on his face and his hair was going mental.

No one bothered to answer.

AN
Eh, I didn't know how to end that!

Btw, I do not agree with Beckendorf! No no no no!

Ooh, tell you what, I'll stick a discaimer in :)

I, RandomPhandom, solemnly declare that Rick Riordan owns all of the characters in this book (except if I come up with a random person later, but I'm not planning to). However, I own the plot so... yeah... are disclaimers even necessary at this point I've never understood them???

I don't know... I'm tired and head-achey and bleh :/

Please feel free to vote and comment! I looove feedback!!!!!!

Adios, drama llamas!

RandomPhandom xxx

P.S: Emperor's New Clothes - Panic! At The Disco. Brendon Urie. Demon. This Is Gospel. Whaaaaaaat!!!!!!!!! It's BRILLIANT! Aaaand the new album Death Of A Bachelor is out 15th January 2016!!! Yaaaay!!!!!!! XD