Our Friend Unknowingly Third Wheels
Chapter 1: Our Friend Unknowingly Third Wheels
Italics - Main singer
Bold italics - crowd singing
(italics in parentheses) - back up singers
"Hey Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth calls from our apartment door, a leaf stuck in her white Bennie. It's the beginning of September and the leaves have changed from bright spring green to the yellow, red, and brown of fall.
"What's up Wise girl?" Percy calls as he gets up from the couch where there were scattered pieces of paper as he had tried to get a head start on his weekend homework.
He patiently waits for Annabeth to take off her light blue coat, yellow scarf and hat before giving her a welcome back kiss. Neither of them had had classes that week but Annabeth decided to take a trip to some art museum of architecture in San Francisco, so Percy hadn't seen her for almost five days.
"Are you ready for Friday date night?" He asked as he held her at arms length, taking all of her in.
"Yes, and I got us something to do," she responded.
"How do you know don't have something for us to do?" She gave him a questioning look. She knew him too well.
In Percy's defense, he was studying really hard (well, more like trying to find the will power to study at all) and Grover had made him help plant trees all afternoon so there wasn't time to make a booking or reservation.
Annabeth turned around and started rummaging through her coat pockets. "Yesterday, I was riding the subway and I heard some people talking about a new singer that was playing a concert for a few weeks over in Oakland."
Percy wasn't nearly as smart as any Athena kids but he didn't have to be a genius to know where she was going with this.
"Are you saying you got..."
Annabeth pulled her hand out of her coat pocket and held up two grey tickets with black writing on them.
Percy squealed like a little boy. His mom never had a whole lot of money so he never got those kinds of teenager experiences. Having no friends in school? Yes. Getting a ton of useless homework? Yep. Illegally selling candy? Of course. But one thing he had always wanted to do was go to a live music concert.
He laughed and pulled Annabeth closer to him, "You are the best person ever!"
Annabeth laughed too and they kissed. Gods Percy had missed this, holding her close, laughing with her, and kissing her too.
"Okay, okay, okay," the blonde said after a minute. "The concert starts at nine and it's a forty-five minute drive."
Percy looked at the clock on the small oven they had in their cozy little apartment and it read seven thirty-six.
"Okay," He gave in. "We'll both get ready and leave at eight ten?"
"I'll see you then Seaweed Brain," and with that she was off to their room to grab a dress and other things she would need. Percy waited for her to grab her things and move to the bathroom before he went in to get changed.
They did usually changed around each other but for date night they liked changed separately and just make it a bigger deal about it than it really was. There were little things like that that Percy thought made Annabeth even more wonderful. Most people saw her as a strict, smart, warrior but she also liked her fun. She enjoyed finding new outfits for their dates and he could tell she liked it when Percy was dressed up too. He picked up the white button-down he had ironed for that night and a pair of dark blue dress pants. He turned in the mirror, making sure there were no stains or anything on the clothes, and tried to brush his black hair down but after ten minutes of trying, he decided that it was probably a better idea to keep it as it was.
Of course, he got done before Annabeth, so he decided to sit on the couch in the living room and wait for her. He stacked all his scattered, undone papers and looked around at the little home he and Annabeth had created.
The apartment they shared wasn't very big. It had a small bedroom that fit a bed, a dresser, and a small built-in closet. There was a tiny bathroom with a shower, sink, and toilet and kitchen with a little oven with a stove, a sink, and a microwave on a small counter with two stools, with a few cupboards above the sink. The rest of the relatively small living space was a living room with a couch, coffee table, TV and rug. It was cozy. He looked at the walls that closed the room in from the outdoors and thought about how he and Annabeth had painted it together. The walls were originally a moody grey, but the couple had bought some periwinkle-blue paint and painted all of it except the white trim.
"Ready to go?" a voice behind him asked.
Percy stood up and turned to see his beautiful Annabeth stood there in a shimmering silver dress. The dress went down to her calves and there was a slit on one side that trailed up to above her knee. Her hair was left mostly out but she braided some of it around the top of her head to under her freely fallen hair so it looked like a braided crown. She had kept some of her newly cut curtain bangs out so the strains fell loosely around her face and some whisps of hair in front of her ears were curled so they matched the rest of her naturally wavy hair. There were silver earrings attached to her ears too, ones that Percy hadn't see before. They were little chains with tiny diamonds attached ununiformly on each chain. Percy walked over to the girl he got to call his girlfriend and kissed her.
"Yeah," he whispered into her lips. "We can't be late Percy," Annabeth reminded him.
"Can't I take a minute to appreciate my beautiful girlfriend?"
"You look really nice too, Percy, but I think you'll be sad if we show up late to the concert and they don't let us in."
Percy looked at the oven and to his surprise it read: 8: 20.
"Shit!"
Laughing, he grabbed Annabeth's hand and they ran out of the house and into their car waiting for them in the driveway.
***
They ended up arriving thirty minutes late. The couple were allowed in but they were stuck in the back corner. As Percy looked around the room, he took in the fact that the theme was obviously silver and black. The room's walls were a dark midnight black and the stage seemed to be made out of some dark type of wood. There were silver curtains on the very edge of the relatively big stage and the drum set and guitars that were being tuned by people wearing black clothes were the same color.
Percy couldn't compare the stage to other stages he'd seen, because he hadn't seen any others, but it looked pretty large. It was around 16 feet long with a smaller stage area sticking up with stairs leading to it. The stage was so tall it reached Percy's chin if he went up to it and there were barricades that made an aisle in-between the stage and the crowd and an aisle in the middle too.
After looking at the stage, and the obvious color scheme, Percy looked at the people around him. Unlike the rest of the room, they were colorful. Pinks and and greens and blues popped out against the dull background and it gave the room some light and color. Why the contrast?
"Excuse me?" Percy heard Annabeth ask someone in front of them. He turned his head to see her tapping the shoulder of what looked like a nineteen-year-old boy decked out with black ripped jeans and a blue T-shirt that on the back had white angel wings printed on and on the front said 'angels'.
"Oh, hi!" he said brightly as he turned to face Annabeth.
Annabeth smiled politely back, "I don't mean to be rude but, this seems like a lot of people for a new artist's first concert."
Percy took a second look at the crowd and realized that Annabeth was right (shocker). There were maybe a few thousand people packed into the building and of course he had never been to a concert before but he had assumed the max for a new artist would be a fifty or sixty, not a hundred fifty.
"It is!" the boy replied enthusiastically. "He's broken the world record for having the most amount of people at a first concert!"
"How long ago did he start releasing music?"
"Well, his first album came out eight months ago and he just released another one two months ago!" "How is he going on tour already?"
"Us angels demanded it!"
Annabeth made a face of confusion. "What are angels?"
"They're the fans!"
"Why are you called..." A loud cheer drowned out her words and brought everyone's attention to the stage.
On the dark wooded surface stood a girl with wavy brown hair and lightly tanned skin. She walked onto the stage with a silver stoned microphone in her hands. She set the mic onto the stand waiting in the middle and looked up to address the crowd.
"Hello everybody!" the girl said into the microphone. She looked only fifteen years old but her voice didn't quiver like most young kids do when they are put on a spotlight in front of a bunch of people. "We are so excited to welcome you to this concert!" she continued and the crowd cheered. "I am so honored to play on this stage tonight for you and I know my fellow band members will agree!" More cheers rose form the crowd and the girl's smile grew. "Now, I know I'm not the one you guys are paying to see so I won't make you wait any longer. Please welcome to the stage for his first time. . . Nico di Angelo!" Percy's brain froze as the crowd screamed. Did he hear that right? He must have because his friend/cousin/practical brother, Nico di Angelo, walked on stage with a yellow guitar, strumming along in time to the band on the stage. He was dressed in black (unsurprising) with black ripped knee jeans, a black T-shirt with a skull and drumsticks for the cross bones, and silver jewelry decorating his outfit and a matching silver belt. The guitar was a bright yellow, contrasting with his outfit and the room and there was a little orange sun painted by the sound hole. There's something 'bout the way The street looks when it just rains There's a glow off the pavement You walk me to the car Nico had walked to the microphone and started singing and it was hard for Percy's brain to match the voice to the person because he had never heard Nico sing before. Nico never sang at camp. There were many a times when Will, Jason, Percy, and the Stolls would all try and make him but he never agreed. So when he saw the boy open his mouth, Percy was shocked to hear a melodic voice he had only ever heard Apollo kids make. And I don't know how it gets better than this You take my hand and drag me head first Fearless And I don't know whyBut with you I'd dance, in a storm In my best dress Fearless Percy looked to Annabeth, picturing her just as shocked face, but she didn't seem confused or shocked that their friend was singing on stage. She looked at him with a small smile on her lips and her eyes wide, like she wished they could be bigger so she could see everything at once. Percy looked back at the stage and tried to see what she was seeing. Somehow she saw past the shock of their friend being on the stage and had found a something else in him. Percy tried to think about how she felt about Nico and how that could affect the way she sees the situation, and that's when it clicked. Ever since Annabeth had heard about Nico after her visit with Atlas, she had felt a little connection with him. She had said years later that she saw herself in the way he ran away, in the way he was left by his family and Percy was pretty sure she could sense his crush on him too. When they had ran into him in the Labyrinth, she became a little protective. She told Percy later that she felt like it was her job to protect him, and she had even made a bond with him enough to convince him to come back to Camp Half-Blood for a while.
He realized that what she saw was that Nico was on his own and was happy. He wasn't just smiling with his teeth or his mouth, he was smiling with his whole face and heart, and Percy could barley remember the last time he saw the younger boy looked so relaxed. He was alive on stage, more alive then most people had seen him in six years.
Well you stood there with me in the doorway
My hands shake I'm not usually this way but
You pull me in and I'm a little more brave
It's a first kiss, it's flawless, really something
It's fearless
Percy look at Annabeth. His girlfriend, his soulmate, or whatever people wanted to called it, and she turned her head to look at him too. There was a sparkle in her eyes from the excitement for the night and the insaneness of seeing Nico sing in front of more than a thousand people. "This is crazy," she said to Percy. "Yeah, it kind of is," he responded. Then he leaned down and kiss her.
Cause I don't know how it get better than this
You take my hand and drag me head first
Fearless
He decided to let go of the fact that his friend was preforming on stage and that he looked happier on stage then he did at either camp. He instead wrapped his arms around Annabeth's shoulders and let her sink into him. He was doing something he'd never done before and he was with the most amazing person in the world, he don't need to think about anything else.
Oh, oh
Oh, oh, yeah
The song comes to an end and the crowd cheers and claps for Nico as he steps back from the mic to absorb the massive crowd. He waves and then pulls the guitar strap over his head and hands the yellow guitar to a guy dressed in black that appeared on the stage next to him. Then he grabs the black guitar for the guy's other hand, mouths a thank you, and the guy runs off backstage.
"Hi," Nico says as he steps towards the mic again. The crowd goes into a little frenzy of whoops and claps and shouts with Annabeth and Percy adding to it as well. Nico's smile becomes even bigger at the crowd before him, "thanks again for coming to my concert! I'm excited to get to play my music for you all."
The crowd cheers again and even though Percy doesn't know any of his songs, he finds himself waiting with baited breath for him to sing another one.
"Alright, well the next song I'm going to play for you is I song I wrote a long time ago when I had a massive crush on a straight guy." There were some whoops and laughs from the crowd as Percy looked dumbfounded at the little Italian boy on stage. A song about him?
"Yeah, that wasn't one of my best moments," Nico laughed. "But it was a part of the journey that brought me here. So, in contrast to fearless, the song I just played, here's Red." The crowd screamed as Nico plucked the cords for the next song.
Loving him was like
Driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street
Faster than the wind, passionate as sin
Ended so suddenly
He was talking about him. He was singing a song, he wrote, about his feelings about Percy. Why couldn't he have used normal words though? How was loving him like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street'? What did 'passionate as sin' mean?
Loving him was like
Trying to change your mind when you're already flying through the free fall
Like the colors in autumn, so bright Just before they lose it all
Nico had his eyes shut as he sang all his old feelings for Percy, mixed up in poetic verses. It made the older boy start to wonder if this was how Rachel, Calypso, Reyna or even Annabeth felt at one point.
Losing him was blue like I'd never known
Missing him was dark grey, all alone
Forgetting him was like
Trying to know somebody you never met
But loving him was red
(R-e-e-ed, r-e-e-ed)
The back up singers came in and as Percy looked at all of them He realized that the same brown haired girl was there. He wasn't sure why he kept spotting her out, there were multiple other girls with similar looks but something about her felt familiar to him.
Fighting with him is like
Trying to solve a cross word and realizing there's no right answer
Regretting him was like
Wishing you never found out the love could be that strong
Nico took his hands off of his guitar as he sang at least 3 to 4 years of pent up emotion, and as Percy was listened to him and the crowd screaming the lyrics, he realized that he was beginning to hate this person. The person that this song was about.
The person who caused this confusion and heartache. And it was even harder to realize that that person was himself.
Remembering him comes in flashbacks
Nico put his pale fingers back on his instrument as he struck the chords of the bridge.
And echoes
Tell myself it's time now
Got to let go
But moving on from him is impossible
When I still see it all in my head
In burning red
Percy looked to Annabeth to see that see that she was screaming every line like they're the truest thing in the world.
"Wow, am I really that bad?" Percy asked, slightly joking.
She turned to look at him, "What?"
"Do you really see me like this?" he wasn't quite sure he wanted to know the answer.
"You are such a Seaweed Brain," Annabeth laughs. "Of course I don't see you like that."
"But you're singing these lyrics like..."
"Percy, they remind me of Luke."
He stared at her. Annabeth rolls her eyes. "I had a crush on Luke for years losing him was awful, missing him was painful, and regretting everything in the end was really tough."
"Oh," was all he can say.
"Everyone here isn't singing about you, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth reassured. "Everyone has their own person who they think about when they hear this song."
Percy nodded and as he listened to the lyrics he realized that they did fit to someone else, not just himself. It reminded him of his friendship with Luke, and his dad, and how his mom must've felt after Poseidon left her with nothing but a baby.
And that's why he's spinning round in my head
Comes back to me burning red
Yeah, yeah
His love is like Driving a new Maserati down a dead end street
The song came to a close and there was a big round of applause.
"I would love to bring Rachel here," Annabeth says suddenly.
"Why?" Percy ask, curiously.
"I just think she would really like to some of these songs," she says nonchalantly.
Percy laughed. He always found it weird how Rachel and Annabeth went from enemies to frenemies to friends in only a year or two. It was kind of nice though, since Rachel was usually at Camp and a pretty cool person.
He looks back to the stage and realizes that Nico had put his guitar away and the mic stand was also gone. He turned away from the crowd and walked over one of the guitarists and whispered something into their ear and they started playing an electric sound that reverberated through out the room and the crowd went wild. Nico then walked to the brown haired girl who sat herself down on the piano and mimed helping her find the chords and she played with strong chords that weren't used for the past two songs, making the crowd scream again.
The Italian walked farther up the stage to give a signal to the drummer and he hit a few beats before more instruments filled the empty space and Nico strummed an air guitar before staring over to the right of the stage.
Maybe it's the way he walks
Nico's melodies voice sings as he gets to the end of the end of the stage.
Straight into my heart and stole it
He waved to the crowd and strolled down the edge towards the center of the stage.
Through the doors and past the guards
Just like he already owned it
He walked past the center and continued to the left side.
I said, "can you give it back to me?"
He said, "never in your wildest dreams"
Nico walked inward to the middle of the stage and jumped up and down as the chorus came.
And we danced all night
To the best song every
We knew every line
Now I can't remember
How it goes but I know
That I won't forget him
Cause we danced all night to
The best song ever
Nico was at the edge of the and let the crowd sing every other line.
I think it went
Oh, oh, oh
I think it went
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I think it goes, oh
Percy and Annabeth bounced with the crowd as Nico sang that song and a few others for the next half an hour. The singer walked up and down the edges of the stage, singing and dancing and interacting with the crowd. They quickly learned the lyrics and yelled them with everyone else. They even started dancing with the teenaged boy from earlier, who's name they found out was Ameri, and his boyfriend, Luca. They all sang the lyrics at each other, and even though it was a little late, nobody didn't feel tired at all.
One of the last songs eventually ended with a thunderous applause, and Nico bowed, sending the crowd into a little frenzy all over again. When the crowd died down, the black haired boy walked over to the piano and began to play a few chords.
"What song is this?" Percy ask Ameri.
"I'm not sure," he shrugged.
"Thank you Oakland," he heard Nico say, and brought Percy's attention to the boy at the piano. "You have danced and sung with me all night. I don't think I could have asked for a better city to preform at for my first concerts."
The crowd whistled and screamed. Nico laughed, and he sounded like that little ten-year-old boy again, back when Percy had first met him. Back when he was just content to go to school with his sister and play his Mythomagic games.
"Now, you see," the Italian continued. "These last few songs have been about the two boys I've ever had a crush on. One of them being my boyfriend right now."
The crowd cheered and whistled.
"Yeah, I didn't think I'd get to say that," Nico smiles to himself. "Anyway, this next song isn't about a boy. It's about a girl."
There were 'oohs' from the crowd while Percy and Annabeth exchange a confused look at each other. Nico was gay and had only ever dated one person so, who was this girl?
"It's not what you think it is," Nico explained, "This is a girl, I have looked up to her for years."
"It must be about Reyna," Annabeth guessed.
Percy nodded with her. Reyna has been Nico's honorary sister for a few years, even though no one has seen her in a long time.
"I have multiple women in my life who are so strong and brave and caring and I look up to all of them, but this girl, well, okay, we didn't really get along at first."
"Oh, it's defiantly Reyna," Percy whispered to Annabeth. Reyna and Nico weren't really friends at first since children of Pluto weren't exactly welcomed at Camp Jupitar, but on their trip to return the Athena Parthenos, they bonded and have become pretty protective of each other since.
"See, the guy I liked had a crush on her." Percy was confused now. Was it Rachel?
"At the time he didn't know it obviously," Nico laughed again, "But he did and I hated it."
Percy had never noticed any bad blood between Rachel and Nico but as the shorter boy pointed out, he could tend to be a bit oblivious.
"The problem was that I didn't hate the girl, we actually had a lot in common."
Now Percy was extra confused. Rachel and Nico were about as opposite as you could get so, who was this girl?
"Who is this girl?" he whispered to Annabeth. She gave her boyfriend a look that told him was extremely stupid.
"Turns out," Nico continued, "A few years later they start dating."
Wait, is it... "Now they have been together for three years, they go to the same collage, and are probably going to get married."
Percy looked to Annabeth but she kept her eyes fixed on Nico.
"And it turns out I'm okay with that," Nico says with a sigh. "But I still envy her. She is so smart and pretty and perfect and everything I wish I was. So, naturally, I wrote a song about it."
Nico stopped playing the chords and started playing something else, something that made the crowd go wild. Annabeth didn't scream though. She didn't shout or clap or anything. She was listening, listening to the song that was written. . . about her.
When Emma falls in love she paces the floor
Closes the blinds and locks the door
Nico sang and the crowd clapped again and Percy wish they would stop so he could hear the lyrics.
She waits and takes her time
Cause little miss sunshine always thinks it's gonna rain
When Emma falls in love I know
That boy will never be the same
Cause she's the kind of book
That you can't put down
Like if Cleopatra grew up in a small town
And all the bad boys would be good boys if they
Only had a chance to love her
And to tell you the truth
Sometimes I wish I was her
Percy looked over to Annabeth to see that se had tears in her eyes. Did she not like the song?
"Hey," he said quietly to her. "We don't have to stay here."
Annabeth looked shocked, "do you want to leave?"
"Do you?"
"No."
When Emma falls apart it's when she's alone
She takes on the pain and bares it on her own
Percy was taken aback, "Then why are you sad."
Annabeth laughed, "I'm not sad Percy, I've just never thought of myself as someone to look up to, especially to Nico."
He blinked at her.
"Percy, I'm fine," Annabeth reassured him. She grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers. "I just was surprised and flattered that Nico thinks so much about me."
Percy smiled at her and kissed her forehead.
Well, she's so New York
When she's in L.A.
She won't lose herself and love the way that I did
Cause she'll call you out
She'll put you in your place
When Emma falls in love I'm learning
The piano paused for a moment and it felt like there was a pause of air as well.
Percy looked at Annabeth and hugged her closer. She is his Wise Girl, his other half, and he was glad that there was at least one other person who knew her as well as he do.
Emma met a boy with eyes like a man
Turns out her heart fits right in the palm of his hand
Nico resumed his playing and the crowd was frozen in the quietness of his singing.
Now he'll be her shelter when it rains
Little does he know his whole world's about to change
He sings louder and the crowd joined in once again.
Cause she's the kind of book
That you can't put down
Like if Cleopatra grew up in a small town
And all the bad boys would be good boys if they
Only had a chance to love her
And to tell you the truth, sometimes I wish I was her
Yeah, between me and you
Sometimes I wish I was her
Nico played the ending and everyone clapped and cheered and Percy kissed Annabeth while the crowd carried the applause without him.
"I love you, Wise Girl," he said.
"I love you, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth told him.
"Alright Oakland," Nico says, standing up. "Are you ready for one more song?"
The crowd cheers and the band starts to play the last song, and Nico walks over to the right side of the stage.
I have this dream where I get older
But just never wiser
Midnights become my afternoons
When my depression works the graveyard shift
All of the people I've ghosted stand there in the room
Nico crouches down at the edge of the stage like the crowd are the kids he trains at Camp and they reach their hands out and scream as he sings, and holds the microphone to the audience to let them sing one line.
I should not be left to my own devices
They come with prices and vices
I end up in crisis
Tale as old as time
He stands up and quickly walks over to the other side of the stage.
I wake up screaming from dreaming
One day I'll watch as you're leaving
'Cause you got tired of my scheming
(For the last time)
Nico once again crouches down towards the crowd just as he did with the other side.
It's me, hi I'm the problem it's me
At tea time
Everybody agrees
He stands up and slowly walks to the middle of the stage.
I stare directly at the sun
But never in the mirror
It must be exhausting
Always rooting for the anti-hero
He waves to the crowd and it waves back, then he turns around and walks towards the guitar players and sings the lyrics to one of them.
Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby
And I'm a monster on the hill
He leaves the four guitarists and walks over to the three back up singers on the other side and does the same.
Too big to hangout
Slowly lurching towards your favorite city
Pierced through the heart
But never killed
He starts to make his way to the center of the stage and acts out the lyrics as he does so.
Did you hear my covert narcissism
Disguised as altruism
Like I'm some kind of congress men
(Tale as old as time)
The singer walks towards the front of the stage and lets the audience sing the last line before the chorus.
I wake up screaming form dreaming
One day I'll watch as you're leaving
And life will lose all it's meaning
For the last time
Nico falls to his knees, looking up to the ceiling singing his heart out in the lyrics.
It's me, hi
I'm the problem, it's me
At tea time, everybody agrees
I'll stare directly at the sun
But never in the mirror
It must be exhausting
Always rooting for the anti-hero
The black haired boy stands up and walks over to the right side of the stage and walks down a set of stairs Percy hadn't seen, and it just then occurs to him how well Nico preforms on stage. He made thousands of people feel sad, happy, and angry and he knows when to be funny and when to be serious. It was like he was born for the stage. He goes up to the barricade that blocks the crowd from touching the stage and greets the waving hands that are reaching for him.
I have this dream my daughter in-law kills me for the money
She thinks I left them in the will
The family gather round and reads it and then someone screams out
He got to the middle and the whole crowd shouts his next line with him.
"He's laughing up at us from Hell"
He skips the aisle in the middle and walks to the left side of the crowd, repeating the same thing with the right. It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me
It's me, hi, I'm problem, it's me I
t's me, hi
Everybody agrees
Everybody agrees
He gets to the middle aisle again and he very slowly walks down it while making sure all the fans get their fair share of attention.
It's me, hi
I'm the problem, it's me
At tea time
Everybody agrees I'll stare directly at the sun
But never in the mirror
It must be exhausting, always rooting for the anti-hero
The song ends and Nico exits out the back, but before he leaves, Percy narrowed his eyes from the lights so he could get a better look at him. He looked more or less the same as he had on stage, but the older boy noticed that he had a rainbow bracelet on that stood out with his black and silver outfit. Where had he gotten that?
The crowd erupted in applause as the singer left. Annabeth, Ameri and I were not close enough to the barricades to see Nico or for him to see them but it didn't matter, tonight was magical and Percy felt like learned a lot about Annabeth, Nico and himself too.
"Thank you everyone!" the crowd turned around and Percy saw that the brown haired girl was back to center stage with a black microphone in her hand. "We had much fun again tonight and you can see us again because we will be here every Friday to Sunday at 9 for the next month so buy some more tickets if you can and drive safe!"
The crowd applauded and Percy lightly grabbed Annabeth's arm.
"Let's go say 'hi' to Nico," he suggests.
They said a rushed goodbye to Ameri and his boyfriend, and run out the door. They look around the cold and dark street, lit by a couple of lamp posts, but Nico is gone.
"I guess he didn't want to stay and chat to anyone," Percy said, a little disappointed.
"It's okay Percy," Annabeth said soothingly, "We'll tell him when we visit Camp on Wednesday."
"Alright," he agree and they walked to their car and start the long drive home.