Hi guys, just want to let you know that this is going to be a little series, maybe two or three parts, so keep an eye out for the second part! Also, sorry this is up a day late, I went camping(ironic) and didn't find out I wouldn't have service to post until we got there.

Nico's POV

"Everyone has their bags?" Mr. Brunner asks, clapping his hands and staring around at the group of high schoolers, dark circles ringing the space underneath their eyes and shoulders slumped. Percy is falling asleep on Nico's shoulder and Nico shakes him awake, nodding dully as an answer to Mr. Brunner's question. When no one responds Mr. Brunner frowns, crossing his arms over his chest and taking another step, moving closer into the group of tired students.

"I said does everyone have their bags?" His question is met with a tired mumbled yes, thoroughly unenthusiastic. "Anyone forget anything else? Pajamas, toothbrush?"

"I forgot that at your mom's house," Leo calls out, giggling despite the light punch he gets from Piper. Nico keeps glancing at the door to the school, the bus parked outside and the engine running. He's tired of this, the constant questions that make him feel as if he's back in middle school. They're high school juniors, and they just want to get on the bus.

"I'm going to assume that you're all set, considering the lack of answers." Mr. Brunner sighs, rubbing at his eyes and grabbing onto his own duffel bag. "If everyone's all set, you can get on the bus." It's a mad rush as the students who had been practically asleep moments before fight each other tooth and nail for the coveted back seats that really aren't that great anyway, besides the ability to draw on the back window for the cars behind them to see.

Nico and Percy walk slow, sleep still clogging their systems and making them lag behind the others. Mr. Brunner follows them, dragging his duffel behind him and hiding a yawn behind his hand. Nico doesn't know how he's going to manage to handle a hundred and fifty high school juniors for a week after the other teacher called out with an aptly timed illness. Nico knows he couldn't.

"Who's in the rest of our group?" Nico asks as they slip into the front seats of the bus, their duffel bags weighing heavy on their laps.

"Uuh," Percy says, leaning his head on the back of the seat and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I think that singer kid. Austin. Oh, and Will Solace." Percy lifts his head up from the back of the seat, grinning. "Hey, isn't Will the kid in your history? The one you always talk about being cute? The one with the bi flag on his backpack?" Nico feels his face flush and he crosses his arms over his chest, fighting back a smile.

"Maybe."

"Dude now's your chance! Honestly, the same gender room placements aren't fair. Annabeth is on the next floor."

"You wanna trade being able to have your girlfriend in the same room as you for years of oppression?" Percy's face goes red and he picks at a string on his duffel, twisting it around his finger.

"I'll stop talking now." Nico smiles at him, pushing his feet up against the back of the seat in front of him and sinking down. The scenery whizzes past leaves of orange and red and yellow blending together until it's just one fall-colored blur. The bus smells of hot coffee and cold mornings and Nico burrows deeper into his sweatshirt, pulling up his hood so that his face is covered in shadows. He's comfortable, despite the bumpiness of the bus and the loud sound of chatter. Maybe a week of staying in cold cabins and doing activities with people he barely knows won't be as bad as the upperclassmen made it out to be.

"Seriously, though," Percy says. "You should go for him. He's cute. Like, I'm not gay, but I'd hit that. Don't know how Annabeth would feel about that, but I'd still hit that."

"Don't say you're not gay and then do everything to convince me otherwise."

"Don't change the subject. You got so lucky to have Will in your cabin and if you don't take this chance I'll call you stupid for the rest of your life."

"I'll think about it," Nico says, resting his head on the window. The bouncing of the bus knocks it around the glass and he can hear laughter from the back of the bus, laughter that sounds like Will's. It makes his heart leap, to think about spending a week in a cabin with him, living with him. Maybe he'll be too scared to mention anything, and maybe he'll go home with nothing more than a handful of memories and disappointment. But maybe Percy's right. Maybe it's worth it to try.

Will's POV

He can't stop looking at Nico as they unpack their things, spread thick woolen blankets over the bunks, pull on sweatshirts as the day grows cooler. Through some twist of fate, he's been thrown together with the boy he always ends up staring at during classes, the boy who pops up in his dreams at night. As they set up their cabin, leaves press up against the glass of the windows, autumn sprouting from the tips of branches. There's an eerie silence in the cabin, with Nico and Percy on the left side of the cabin and Will and Austin on the right. Tiny conversations happen between the pairs, as Percy murmurs in Nico's ear and Austin casually asks Will what they're doing next. But there's a distinct separation between the two sides of the cabin, and Will finds himself wishing that he had gotten a different cabin-mate, any other cabin mate. Nico is cute, sure, and whenever he leans in to talk to one of his friends they always laugh, but they've never said a word to each other, and Nico doesn't look as if he's going to try. Will may have to resign himself to a slightly uncomfortable week that he comes out of just as lonely as before.

"Okay everyone," Percy says, grinning widely and setting his hands on his hips. His personality is so boisterous, so completely opposite of Nico, it's shocking that they're even friends, let alone as close as they are. Even physically, Percy seems to tower over Nico, his shoulders broader, his smile wider. Maybe it's in the way they complement each other, small to big, quiet to loud. Because if it wasn't that, the attraction of polar opposites, Will wouldn't understand how they could possibly be friends. "Who's ready for lunch?" His smile is so white, so bright, and next to him, Nico only forces a tiny smile onto his face before following Percy out the door.

Nico clearly tries to walk ahead of the group but Percy pulls him back so that they're all in a clump of four, smiling widely at Will and Austin as he holds Nico to his side. "So, everyone's excited for this week, right?"

"It's a week off of school, anyway," Austin says, glancing around at the camp. Tiny cabins are scattered around the grass, groups of threes or fours exiting the wood buildings, clad in sweaters and sweatshirts and thick hats. Wind bounces off of the lake glittering in the distance and a distinct chill settles over the camp as they flood into the dining hall with the rest of their class.

They have to sit with their cabins as they eat their ham and cheese sandwiches, their chips, the water that just makes them colder than before. The room is filled with quiet chatter and people seem to be having one on one discussions rather than talking in groups, and fifty different conversations happen in fifty tiny pairs. But for some reason, Percy seems bent on them forming a special bond and he turns to the group with a wide smile, a spot of mustard on the corner of his lips where the sandwich disappeared. "So, Will, what do you like to do?"

"Huh?"

"Hobbies, clubs, sports. I don't know anything about you, and we have to live together for a week."

"Oh." Will shifts, glancing at Austin. There's a tiny glitter in Austin's eyes and he raises his eyebrows, nodding at Percy as a gesture to answer. "I like to sing, I guess."

"Oh, that's great," Percy says. "Nico listens to a bunch of music. Don't you, Nico?"

"Percy, shut up," he says through gritted teeth. Will doesn't think he's ever seen anyone so red before. "So does literally the entire world." He sinks down, picking up a single chip and chewing on it until he must be swallowing a mushy paste. Percy purses his lips, staring at Nico, waiting for a different response but he shakes his head and Percy sighs, starting up a conversation with Austin, something about how obnoxious the people in their precalc class are. Will hadn't had any idea they were in the same class but there's a connection forming between the two of them, a friendship, but Nico just sinks down lower in his seat. He's quiet as lunch goes on, eating one chip at a time, but Will keeps catching glances as he eats but every time he thinks he's about to make eye contact, Nico looks away just as furtively.

They swim that afternoon, dozens of teenage bodies splashing around in the cold autumn waters. Nico climbs out after twenty minutes, wraps himself first in a towel and then in a sweatshirt as he watches Percy swim around, splashing Austin with a huge wave of water. Nico lounges on the beach for the rest of the time, wrapped in a baggy sweatshirt with sunglasses over his eyes. Will can't be completely sure, but he thinks that Nico fell asleep for at least a few hours. But by the time that dinner is over and the capture the flag game is about to start, it's clear to Will that Nico wants nothing to do with any of them. "I think we need to split up for strategy," Percy says, hands on hips as he turns to face the rest of the team. The rest of their team rushes past them, high on the excitement of not having to be in school, being out in the middle of the woods with their friends but Percy stands in front of their group, blocking their path to the rest of the woods. "We're not going to win if we don't."

"We really don't need to do this," Nico says, rolling his eyes. "I'm gonna defend the flag. Just like I always do."

"No, we need you on offense," Percy says. "You're light and fast, you'll get through the woods faster. If you and Will look for the flag and Austin and I stay here, we'll have a better chance of winning."

"Why don't-" Percy stops Austin's words with a jab to the side, a pointed look, and Austin's eyebrows raise and he shuts his mouth. "All right, you two, good luck." Austin smiles widely and Nico sighs, glaring at Percy. Percy responds with only a smile and Will feels as if he's watching a tv show with a thousand subtle nuances that he doesn't understand. He's never been the best at deciphering those quick glances and under-the-breath murmurations. But he's smart enough to know that it has something to do with him.

"Have fun, you two," Percy says, pushing on Nico's back and grinning widely. "Go get that flag!" Nico glances at Will, his brow furrowed in the middle. In the dying light of the sun, he looks pale. Percy pushes him harder and he inches away from Percy's touch, rolling his eyes again. He glances at Will before his eyes flit back to the ground, and even though no one has done anything new, his cheeks flush red. He starts to walk, his movements awkward, almost robotic, and as Percy and Austin linger back to protect the flag with all of the other uncomfortable, nonathletic kids, Will has no choice but to follow Nico.

Nico's POV

He's uncomfortably aware of Will following him as he makes his way through the thick grove of trees, pushing past branches and awkwardly holding them out so that Will doesn't smack into them. He wishes that he was back with Percy, comfortably milling around the flag and pretending to protect it. Walking out in the middle of the woods, wandering aimlessly as he tries to find the flag that's hidden somewhere in the boundary line, he feels like a target, leading Will along on his pointless quest. "Do you have any idea where the other team hid the flag?" Nico asks, turning back towards Will. He looks uncomfortable, pale, a thin sheen of sweat sticking to his skin. Nico is sure he looks the same way.

"No clue," Will says, staring around at the forest that engulfs them. It feels as if they've been walking for hours, Nico's feet hurt, and night has officially fallen over the camp, their world in shadows.

"Wow," Nico says with a small laugh, kicking a pebble and watching it bounce across the dirt-covered ground. After a couple of seconds, he can barely see it, and it nestles in with the other rocks that litter the woods. "We really aren't good at this. I don't even know where we are, let alone the flag." Will laughs, stopping and leaning against a tree. It's broad enough to fully support his body and he tilts his head back, staring at the stars through the hole that the trees make with their branches.

"You know, I'm getting the sense that we should probably head back," Will says. "I'm sure someone else has already found the flag, anyway."

"Yeah," Nico says, squinting up at the sky. "What time is it, anyway?"

"No clue. I'm surprised I had enough stamina to stay out here for so long. I normally would have turned back by now."

"Me, too," Nico says. "What do you say we head back and see if we can dig around for some ice cream somewhere?" Will smiles, slapping Nico good-naturedly on the back. Chills run up his spine but they aren't bad chills, not like the chills of running into a group of classmates outside of school, or the pre-test chills. They're the chills of excitement, of the possibility of a new friendship, a new romance. When Will's hand leaves his back, Nico wishes it had stayed.

"Do you know where we are?" Will asks, doing a complete three-sixty as he observes their surroundings. Nothing has changed; it's still the same trees, the same branches, the same night sky above.

"No." Nico pauses, biting his lip and staring at the forest. "Did we cross the boundary line?"

"There was a boundary line?"

"Yeah," Nico says, his foot tapping on the ground and his hands on his hips. "They put down markers or something. Red lines on the trees, I think. We were supposed to be able to see one at all times. Do you see any?"

"No," Will says. His face is pale, scrunched up, and he's washed out in the light of the moon.

"Fuck. Me, neither." Nico sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose to distract himself from the cooling of the night, the pounding in his head, the boy next to him who is growing more attractive by the second, and the fact that he and Will are completely, hopelessly lost.

Hi guys, I hoped you liked it and I also just want to say how incredibly grateful I am to have such amazing readers, I just found out that I'm getting my novel published through this young writers program and I genuinely don't think I could have done it without your support on this book throughout the years. I'm gonna try to put it up here once it's completely done but I just wanted to say thank you so much for all your nice comments and support!!

Nina