Chapter Text
Nico walked over to his locker, just another stupid day at this stupid school full of douchebags. He had been sat in the lunch hall eating his lunch, alone as he did every day, when he decided he’d had enough. The populars had just came in for their lunch, and Nico didn’t want to be anywhere near them. It wasn’t that he didn’t like them, he maybe liked one of them too much. I’ll tell you who they were :
• Percy, the captain of the swim team and the guy Nico had had a heart-breaking crush on since he was in middle school. He was totally hot.
• Annabeth, Percy’s girlfriend. She was actually really smart, she was head of the chess club so how she had landed Percy freaking Jackson, who knew? They had been best friends for years though and she was pretty hot it we’re being honest.
• Piper, the head cheerleader, and a typical one at that. She was always trying to get in Jason’s pants but Jason just wasn’t interested, everyone thought they should just hook up already.
• Jason, the captain of the football team and the most popular of them all. He was tall, blond and muscly, but he was smart too, which wasn’t the norm for your average football team captain.
They were the main four, the four that went everywhere together. Nico was surprised Jason and Piper weren’t a thing yet though. Jason always drove them to school in his flashy car and they always sat together at lunch, but there were more, that did stuff with them too, that sat with them at lunch.
• Clarisse, the hot headed leader of the girls soccer team. She always got into arguments with Percy.
• Will, who was also on the swim team.
• Selina, a cheerleader, who was best friends with Clarisse.
• Beckendorf, his real name was Charles but everyone called him by his last name. Him and Selina had been dating for ages. Beckendorf was on the football team.
• Drew, the bitch, that was also always trying to get into Jason’s pants but she wasn’t as close friends with him as Piper was. Drew was the meanest of them all though.
And that was about it for the populars exclusive club. Nico hated them, but he did have a massive crush on Percy, of course no-one knew Nico was gay and Percy could never love him back because how could any of the populars be anything but straight?
Nico was mulling over this at his locker. He got his books out of his locker for his afternoon lessons when he heard sniggering behind him. He looked at the girls laughing behind him and then he turned round going back to sorting out his books. He didn’t care if they were laughing at him. He took his backpack off and brought it round to put his books in, that’s when he realized there had been a note stuck to his back. He snatched it off his backpack angrily, it probably said something like ‘kick me’ or whatever so he sighed loudly. He looked at what it said and it said something very different to ‘kick me’. It said ‘call me’ with a phone number scribbled at the bottom.
Oh shit, who’s phone number was it? Nico went up to the girls that were sniggering at the note and he asked quietly, ‘do you know who’s number this is?’ He didn’t like talking to people but he had to know. Why would anyone give that to him, unless it was a prank.
‘Is that Jason Graces phone number?’ The blonde girl asked the brunette.
‘It is.’ The brunette sniggered. That was all Nico needed to know.
Nico stalked off muttering ‘If they think this is some kind of sick joke.’ No-one ever wanted to talk to him, no-one was ever interested in him. It was obviously a dare or a joke that one of the populars had decided to play on Jason at the expense of Nico’s feelings, but what did Nico’s feelings matter? He was just the extra smart kid that no-one liked. Then suddenly Annabeth Chase was in front of him.
‘It’s not a joke.’ She said with a vexing smile. ‘You should call him. Don’t tell the others, but he really likes you.’ She smiled, a more genuine smile but still annoying.
Nico looked down at the note. Jason Grace, the most popular kid in school, captain of the football team that drove a flashy car, liked him? No way. Nico couldn’t help but smile at the note. It even had a kiss under it. Nico’s heart did a somersault, he didn’t think anyone had ever liked him before, he was the geek, the smart kid that no-one wanted to know. He was the kid that usually got bullied, that ate his lunch alone because no-one wanted to sit with him. His sister, Hazel, was his only friend and now, suddenly, Jason Grace supposedly had a crush on him.
One problem. Nico did not have a cell phone so how could he call him? He turned the note over and scrawled, ‘I don’t have a cell phone, sorry’ then he ran into the lunch hall and he slowly walked up to the populars table, and put the note on Jason Grace’s tray, before running away as fast as he could, but he stayed in earshot, he wanted to hear if they said anything about him. His heart was beating, maybe he shouldn’t have done that, maybe he should have just left it, put the note in the bin and thought nothing of it. But no, he wouldn’t have done that because there was a smidgen of hope that this was a genuine attempt by Jason Grace to ask Nico out, and Nico wasn’t going to give that up.
He watched Jason look at the note, smile but shake his head at the same time then hide it before anyone else could see it. ‘What was that about?’ Percy asked him. Jason blushed and they all pretended not to notice.
‘I just had to ask him what the history homework was, I lost it.’ Jason smoothly lied. Jason and Nico were in the same History class, so it wasn’t complete bullshit. The others all nodded as if this made perfect sense as to why Jason would talk to the little weirdo. Nico disappeared then and he found himself back at his locker just standing there thinking what if it was joke? What if he really did just want to ask about homework? What if Annabeth was lying?
Because, come on, even if Jason Grace was gay, there was no chance in hell he would decide he liked Nico di Angelo, the most socially awkward person ever. Nico was in the middle of having this existiential crisis when Jason Grace, yes, Jason Grace himself appeared behind him. Nico somehow just knew it was him even without turning around, and his voice confirmed that.
Nico still had his back to him when he started talking. ‘Hey, I, er, do you er want to . . . maybe have lunch with me tomorrow?’ He asked, tripping over his words. Nico didn’t say anything, he stayed silent staring at his locker in surprise. He certainly wasn’t expecting this. ‘I mean, I know you’re probably not gay, and I might aswell just say it, but I wanted to ask you on a date because I really like you and I thought why not?’ Jason hurried out. Nico turned round and Jason was blushing. ‘So do you wanna get lunch tomorrow?’ Jason asked awkwardly when Nico looked at him in surprise.
‘W-w-with you? . . . and all the populars?’ Nico stammered and promptly blushed.
‘No. . . just me. . . . I’m sorry if I. . . weirded you out. Yeah, I’m er sorry, I should never have asked you. You’re probably not even into guys, but please don’t tell anyone I am. Please.’ Jason started to turn away and walk off but Nico spoke before he could disappear. He wasn’t just going to stand there like a dumbstruck idiot.
‘You . . . you didn’t weird me out. . . and . . . yes. I’ll get lunch with you. And . .. ‘ Nico looked down at the floor and blushed then. ‘I’d really like to go on a date with you.’ He said in the cutest way possible. Nico didn’t notice how cute he was being but Jason certainly did. Jason smiled, a smile that lit up his whole face and as he did so Nico peeked at him from under his black hair that hung in his eyes, he probably needed a haircut. Nico couldn’t believe this was happening to him. Best day ever. I mean, it wasn’t Percy Jackson, it would never be Percy Jackson but Nico could settle for Jason Grace.
Jason was still smiling brightly, and looking cutely proud of himself, something Nico didn’t think any of the populars could do, when he said ‘Okay, I’ll see you then.’ You could hear the joy in his voice as he bounded down the hall. Suddenly Jason stopped in his tracks. He turned round and since the hallway was empty he only retraced three of his steps before saying, quite loudly, ‘where should I meet you?’
‘Erm.’ Nico was tounge tied yet again. ‘I think . . . we have History before, so we’re already in the same class.’ Nico confirmed.
Jason nodded then smiled, another heart warming smile that suddenly made Nico’s heart do, somersaults again. ‘Cya.’ Jason called cheerily over his shoulder as he walked off, who knew Jason Grace was actually a massive dork at heart? As soon as Jason was out of sight Nico started worrying, about everything, but mainly Jason Grace and having lunch with Jason Grace and what the populars would think and if it was just a stupid dare that they had made Jason do and if it was joke and what could go wrong if it wasn’t a dare and if it was genuine and a million other things that made Nico almost hyperventilate, maybe he should talk to Hazel about it. No, he couldn’t tell Hazel, he couldn’t tell anyone because a) he wasn’t ready to accept his sexuality even if the second hottest guy in school had just asked him out and b) it might have been a joke, and what a fool he would look if it was. What Nico didn’t see though, was the way Jason smiled to himself as he walked down the hall, the way he blushed when Percy asked him why he’d been talking to Nico di Angelo, and no-one saw the million thoughts rushing through Jason’s head, the giddy thoughts, that finally he’d got up the courage to ask Nico out after crushing on him for months, that he’d said yes. And of course Jason was worried of what his friends would think, heck, only Annabeth knew he was gay, but in that moment, as he walked away from Nico with a smile on his face, he didn’t care. But Nico didn’t know any of that, Nico was left to worry and worry he did.
He worried all the way through Maths and Physics, he worried on the bus home and on the walk back from the bus stop. He worried when he was doing his homework and when he was having dinner. He worried when he was watching TV with Hazel and when he was in the shower. Nico didn’t sleep much because he was worrying about lunch time tomorrow and he worried when he finally dragged himself out of bed and got dressed.
Since Jason freaking Grace had asked him out for lunch, a joke or not, Nico actually put some thought into what he was going to wear that day. He stood, in his dismal boxers and his ratty t-shirt which he passed off as his pyjamas, and he stared at his wardrobe. There really wasn’t much variety there. There were black skinny jeans, grey skinny jeans and dark blue skinny jeans in the way of trousers, oh, and some jogging bottoms but he wasn’t going for the jogging bottoms today. He decided grey skinny jeans since he usually wore black. Then he went on to choose a t-shirt. He had an array of t-shirts, all black, and all with a different skull, or ghost design on them. He decided to go for the black t-shirt with a single skull on it. After he finally got dressed he stood in front of his mirror and looked at himself. His t-shirt was baggy because he was so skinny, he hoped Jason wouldn’t mind. He even checked his hair, his shaggy black mess that he called hair. It would do. He only had two pairs of shoes, black boots and white trainers (for gym) so the black boots it was. He grabbed his brown, leather aviator jacket and he left before he could change his mind about his choice of clothing. He was so worried he almost went back home and faked an illness, but he didn’t.
He worried on the bus and he worried through Chemistry, English and Geography. Finally, it got to History and Nico was first there. He took his usual seat and promptly started worrying again. He looked at the clock, only one short hour left until lunch, where he would find out if it had been some stupid dare or the more unlikely option, that Jason Grace actually had a crush on him. Nico watched the door until Jason came in. When he did, and Jason saw that Nico was staring at him, Jason smiled and waved. Nico tried to smile back but it probably looked more like a grimace he was so worried. His heart was beating fast and no doubt when he left for lunch it would get faster. He wondered if anyone else could hear it beating.
Jason kept looking at him from the other side of the room throughout history, and giving him cheeky little awkward smiles. Whenever he did, Nico would look away and pretend he hadn’t seen him. Nico kept glancing at the clock too, wishing for time to go slower for while he really wanted lunch time to come, he didn’t want lunch time to come, if you get what I mean. He was just so fucking nervous, he almost felt sick. He was busy stressing about what he was going to even talk to Jason about when the bell rang. It was time.
Nico slowly, shakily gathered his stuff, stood up and slung his bag on his back. His heart was beating double time, even faster than before. This was it, his lunch date, if you wanted to call it that, with Jason Grace. Queue awkwardness and embarrassment for Nico, and maybe Jason too, but Nico didn’t see how one of the populars could get embarrassed in front of a geek like Nico.
Nico walked out of the classroom basically last and Jason was stood against the wall by the classroom door waiting for him. Part of Nico silently hoped that it had been a joke because he didn’t know which would be worse, being humiliated, or actually having to go on a date with Jason Grace, which was probably going to be equally, if not more humiliating. I mean, jokes and pranks, Nico could handle, but dates? No way. Nico had never been on a date before; he was only fifteen, almost sixteen. Jason was sixteen, almost seventeen, just less than a year older than Nico. Nico guessed that Jason probably had been on a date before.
‘Hi.’ Jason smiled at him as Nico approached him.
‘Hi.’ Nico said, almost without emotion.
‘Ready for lunch?’ Jason asked.
‘Yeah.’ Nico said, again without emotion.
They walked into the lunch hall in awkward silence, until Jason said ‘Did you enjoy History?’
‘It was okay.’ That was a lie, Nico was barely even in the lesson, he may have been there in body but in mind and soul, no way. He didn’t even know what the lesson had been about.
‘I quite like doing about the classics, like the ancient Greeks and Romans and stuff.’ Jason said.
‘Yeah.’ Nico answered dismally.
That was when they got into the lunch hall queue. The populars were already at their table, minus Jason. When Nico and Jason walked in they all looked at them, stared at them from when they entered the lunch hall to when they went to sit down at the table where Nico usually sat alone. Percy looked at Jason as if to say ‘what are you doing?’ and Piper even mouthed those words. Jason simply turned to them as they did that and flipped them off. Nico had to smile at that. This wasn’t a joke, Nico was sure of that now.
‘Hey, why are laughing at me?’ Jason asked as he looked at Nico.
‘I’m not. I’m just, happy. I thought they’d put you up to some dare at my expense.’ Nico explained, a smile still spread across his face.
‘Oh. I wouldn’t do that to someone, especially not you.’ Jason smiled back at him. He studied Nico for a moment then said. ‘You have a beautiful smile.’ Which obviously made Nico smile harder, and blush a lot.
‘You do too.’ Nico managed, which made Jason smile and blush. Nico decided to start eating then since he was hungry and had probably just embarrassed himself massively.
‘I’ve always wanted to see you smile.’ Jason said. Nico just carried on eating. He hadn’t got much so it didn’t take him long to finish it. Jason started eating his too but he’d got far more than Nico.
‘Do you want some?’ He asked gesturing to his food after Nico was long finished.
‘No.’ Nico shook his head. ‘I don’t have a very big appetite. It, er, it got worse when my sister died.’ Nico confessed. Why was he telling Jason Grace this all of a sudden, no-one even knew he’d had a sister that died, only his family. Nico face palmed. ‘I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.’ He laughed without humour.
‘No, no it’s okay.’ Jason reassured. He was silent for a moment, thinking. ‘If you don’t mind. . . when did she die?’
‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ Nico said a little harshly. ‘ . . .sorry that was a bit mean.’ He apologized after a moment of silence.
‘It’s okay, I understand.’ Jason said, but Nico knew he didn’t understand. He probably had the perfect life, a perfect family, great friends, everything. ‘My mom died a while back.’ He admitted. He stared into the distance as he explained, like he was looking into the past. ‘A car crash. I was only seven. It’s just been me and my older sister ever since, I never knew my dad.’ Jason finished and as he did so, he looked down sadly. ‘You probably don’t want to know, but I thought it would be good to tell you.’
‘My mom’s dead too.’ Nico blurted out. He wanted to make Jason feel better and he didn’t know how so he thought of telling him the truth. ‘An accidental explosion, when I was nine . . . My sister was hit by a car, when I was eleven.’ Nico confessed.
‘Oh, I’m sorry.’
‘It’s just me, my dad and my half-sister now.’ Nico said glumly. ‘but never mind that. Why did you ask me to have lunch with you?’
‘Because . . . because I like you.’ Jason said matter of factly. ‘And I wanted to sort out a proper date.’ He smiled.
Nico almost choked on his drink then. ‘A . . . a proper . . . date?’ He said, he sounded like he was being strangled he was so surprised.
‘Yes, a date.’ Jason nodded.
‘You’re actually being serious?’ Nico asked.
‘Yes.’ Jason said, very seriously.
‘I don’t believe this.’
‘Why?’
‘Because, I’m the weirdo, the geek. The kid who sits alone for lunch everyday, who’s best friend is his sister. I’m the kid who does all his work on time and gets bullied because of it. I’m the kid that Jason Grace would never ever have a crush on, even if he was gay.’ Nico ranted.
‘But to me, you’re the mysterious kid that I want to find out more about. You’re the smart kid that I admire, you’re the kid that I want to protect from all the bullies. I want to sit with you for lunch everyday. You, Nico di Angelo are the kid that I have a crush on.’
‘Why have you never come to sit with me before then? Afraid of what your friends would think?’ Nico spat.
‘I was afraid of what you would think.’ Jason admitted, ashamed. ‘What if you thought I was a weirdo?’
‘You’re not a weirdo. Who cares what I think anyway?’
‘I do. And I want to go on a date with you.’ Jason pressed.
Silence then a timid ‘Yes.’
‘Huh?’
‘Yes, I will go on a date with you.’ Nico said as confidently as he could manage. Jason smiled at him.
‘Where do you wanna go, I don’t care as long as I’m with you.’
‘Stop being so sappy.’ Nico snapped, then he softened his voice. ‘You know the history museum down the road?’ He asked.
‘Yeah.’ Jason said.
‘Well, there’s this new expedition opening up there tomorrow and I was gonna go anyway so I suppose it wouldn’t hurt if you came with me.’ Nico shrugged. His heart was beating really fast, what if Jason didn’t like museums, what if he thought Nico was weird for wanting to go there?
‘That would be really nice.’ Jason smiled. ‘What time?’
‘Eleven?’
‘Okay, I’ll see you there.’ Jason smiled.
‘Yeah.’ Nico said and as the bell rang he got up and walked off, leaving Jason sat alone. As he was just about to go through the door Nico looked back at the table where they had been sat. Jason was still sat there, smiling like an idiot. Nico had to smile too and he was still smiling when he got to maths. He was smiling when he got home even.
Hazel was waiting for him when he got home. ‘What are you smiling about?’ She asked him.
‘Oh, nothing.’ He said, still smiling.
‘You know, you should smile more often Nico, it suits you.’ Hazel told him and that just made him smile more. He went to his room then, and he decided what to wear tomorrow.
___
The next morning, Nico was up bright and early which was unusual for a Saturday. He was on his way to the museum 10 minutes before he should have been really but that was okay because Jason was waiting for him when he got there, so he didn’t have to worry about being stood up. It was a nice date; it wasn’t awkward anymore like it was on Friday. They had plenty to talk about and they found that they actually had a lot in common. They both liked History, they both hated science, they both liked action movies, and they both hated rom-coms. Nico found out that Jason lived with his older sister, Thalia, who was ten years older than him, and Thalia’s boyfriend, Luke. He found out that Jason’s mom had been an alcoholic and that Jason wished she hadn’t died because it had been hard with just him and his sister. Jason found out that Nico felt guilty about his moms death and that he still wasn’t over his sister’s death after five years. He found out that Nico’s dad was distant and that his stepmom was touchy. He found out that Nico loved his half-sister more than anything in the world and that he had loved his late sister, Bianca more than anything in the universe. Nico found out that Jason didn’t have that much money, but he had enough and Jason found out that whereas Nico’s dad was distant, he sort of made up for it with money.
Jason found out that Nico hated going shopping but sometimes Hazel dragged him and Nico found out that Jason also hated shopping, but Piper, Percy and Annabeth loved to hang out at the mall. All in all, they found out a lot about each other and it was the first time Nico had really opened up to anyone, it felt good. They organised to have lunch together on the Monday again.