Npov

I had lost touch with Will years ago.

I had to move to America from Italy, but Will was still in Italy.

I missed him, but I doubted I would really want to see him. He would probably find out I was gay and hate me, which would be worse than just not seeing him at all.

I go to an orphange, because my mom and sister died in a car crash, and my dad left when I was born.

I guess we should probably start with the story.

-

I waited in the classroom for the rest of the class to come.

I sat in the very back corner, trying not to be noticed.

Mrs. Stocks glared at me. I nervously looked at my lap.

The other kids started filing in. I didn't look up.

I heard someone sit down beside me and I finally looked up, alarmed. No one ever sat by me...

"Hi. I'm Will."

I blinked. Will?

"You might not want to sit there." I told him quietly.

"And why is that?"

I sighed, "I'm sure you'll find out soon en-"

"Hey!" Someone else yelled from across the room.

It was Luke. I winced.

"You must be new. No one else is dumb enough to sit by him." Luke said.

Will raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Luke glared at me. "His name is-"

"Sit down, boys." Mrs. Stocks interrupted.

Luke walked back to his seat and I relaxed. Will was still sitting next to me.

By the end of class, I hurried out of the classroom as fast as I could. Just as I was about to enter the nest classroom, someone grabbed my wrist.

I turned to see who was grabbing me. It was Will.

"You never told me your name." He said.

"O-oh. I-I'm Nico." I stuttered.

His eyes widened. "Nico? Nico...Di Angelo?"

I nodded.

He laughed. "Nico-oh gods- It's me! Will Solace! Do you recognize me?" He beamed.

"I knew it was you." I said quietly, "I just...."

"What is it? Nico, are you okay?"

"I-I...."

Luke approached us. "Will, you need to stay away from him. You could join my group of friends, if you'd like."

"I don't think so." Will said.

"Will-" I started to tell him that he shouldn't hang out with me, but he interrupted me.

"Why do you hate him so much?" Will asked, angry.

"He hasn't told you yet? Okay, I guess I will then. Nico is-"

"No!" I yelped, "Please..." Luke and I had a stare-off.

"Please don't tell him." I whispered.

"Nico, whatever it is, It won't change anything between us."

"I-"

"Nico's gay." Luke said.

"Is that all?"

Luke stared at him. "You don't...care?"

Will shook his head. "Why would I?"

"He-You-Ugh! You'll see. He's a freak. Don't come running to me."

Luke stormed off. Will turned to me, "I'm sorry Nico. Does Bianca know about them?"

"I..."

"She doesn't, does she? You need to tell her."

"She-uh-"

Will walked into the classroom so I followed. I sat in the back again, and Will sat next to me.

The class started, and I tried to take notes, but I'm not very good at taking notes.

This was my last class of the day, and then we went home.

I almost fell asleep.

-

After class, I hurried to my locker. I grabbed everything I needed and hurried outside.

Will was right behind me.

"Nico, wait up!"

I slowed down a bit.

"Don't you have to wait for Bianca?"

"About that...Will she-"

Octavian interrupted us by shoving me to the ground. I scrapped my hands, but other than that, I was fine.

"Hey!" Will said. "What was that for?!"

I got up, careful not to let Octavian shove me back down again.

"We need to go." Octavian said.

"I-"

Octavian grabbed my arm and dragged me away.

"C'mon." He said.

When we arrived at the orphanage, I ran up a set of stairs and down a hall to get to my room. There weren't many boys in this orphanage, so each room had two boys in it. I shared my room with a little boy named Percy. He was only five, but he was by far the nicest person in the orphanage.

I didn't bother to lock the door behind me. That's when Percy walked in.

"Hi, Nico!" He said cheerily. I sat on the bed and he sat next to me.

"Hi Percy. How was your day?"

"Good! On the playground we played tag and- Nico, what's wrong?"

"I met an old friend of mine."

"Did he get mad at you for liking boys?"

"No. He didn't care."

"That's good. Nico, I have a question."

"What is it?"

"Why do they get so mad at you for liking boys? Annabeth likes boys. Why can't you?"

I smiled at him. "They don't like boys liking boys or girls liking girls."

"Why?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"And uh Nico?"

"Yeah?"

He looked nervous, "I got in trouble today at school."

"What?! What did you do?!"

"They were saying bad things about boys that like boys, so I..."

"What did you do?" I asked, though I had to hide a smile.

"..I uh..may have punched him." He looked at his feet in shame.

"Who?"

"His name is Gabe."

"Percy, you know it's not nice to punch people."

"But he was being mean!"

"I know." I sighed. "Maybe someday the world will accept people like me but for now, at your age...well, you can't just go around punching homophobes."

"What's a homophobe?" He asked.

"It means someone that doesn't like people like me."

"Oh." He said. "Is Octavian a homophobe?"

"Yes, Octavian is a homophobe."

"I don't like homophobes." Percy said, his expression turning to one of disgust."They're mean."

"Yeah." I gave Percy a hug before standing up.

"Where are you going?"

"To the park. I need to think."

"Oh. Okay."

"Do you want to come?"

"Yeah!" He beamed.

I took his hand and walked out of my room. Octavian was waiting for me.

"Hey freak." he said.

Percy put his hands on his hips, "Stop being a homophobe."

Octavian raised an eyebrow. "Is Nico teaching you new words?"

Percy nodded proudly, "And I'm going to tell them all to Annabeth tomorrow at school."

"Oh really?" Octavian looked up at me. "Where are you two going?"

"To the park." I said.

"Are you meeting someone there?"

"No."

"Good."

We continued to the park. We weren't stopped on the way there. I looked down at Percy, who was skipping.

I gave a small smile,