Work Text:
12:17pm
A-Day Lunch Period
15 minutes Before Disaster
Nico knew from the moment Leo appeared at the group’s lunch table, his peace and happiness would disappear. Nico just didn’t know how right he was.
“You guys wouldn’t believe what just happened!” The Latino happily says as he sat in the seat next to Hazel’s but directly in front of Nico’s. The rest of the group just got their lunch and was ready to eat. Today was ‘Breakfast for Lunch’ Day, which only happens once per semester.
“You’re in the dog-house with Calie again, so now we’re stuck with you for today.” Piper nonchalantly says while wiping her lip gloss onto a piece napkin. She always wipes her lip product before eating and then reapplies it after she’s finished.
“ Nooooo , I’ve decided to sit with y’all today because I know how much you guys missed me.” Leo bats his eyelashes at the squad but only got eye rolls, groans and awkward coughing in return. “Okay fine! And maybe me and Calie got into a tiny argument and she told me I couldn’t sit with her today.”
“What was it this time, dude?” Percy was dipping one of his French toast sticks into his blue-colored syrup.
“Something about me giving my robots more attention than her. I don’t know, I wasn’t really paying attention.”
“Calie is a saint.” Hazel says, as she rips her French toast sticks into smaller pieces.
“Honestly, how are you guys still together?” Jason asks, sipping his bottle of water.
“She can’t resist my rugged good looks.” Leo wiggled his eyebrows, which made Nico loudly fake cough and say, loser, under his breath.
“I have ears, Nico.”
“Good, I’m glad they’re working.”
“I suspect there was a reason, other than Calie, that brought you here.” You can always count on Annabeth to bring a conversation back on topic.
“Right right right. Feast your eyes.” Leo whips out an ordinary house bronze key.
“You found your house key…” Percy stares at the key.
“No, this isn’t a house key.”
“I don’t get it. Is this one of those social construct philosophical questions?” Jason says.
“No, this is the key to Bunker 9. I got it from Nyssa.”
“Bunker 9?!”
“That actually exists?!”
“I’ve heard about it, but I thought it was a myth.”
Being still practically new to the school and the legends surrounding it, Nico and Hazel didn’t understand what Bunker 9 was.
“I’ll bite, what’s Bunker 9.” Nico asks the group.
“I keep forgetting you and Hazel are still babies at the school. OUCH!” Since Leo was sitting across from Nico, he was in the emo’s kicking range. While cradling his leg wound, Leo continues “Bunker 9 is the storage room for all the failed projects of the robotic club. It’s like a robot graveyard. I needed some parts for a new robot I’m working on, so Nyssa suggested I look there for anything salvageable. And that’s how I got this bad boy.” Leo gestures to the bronze key. “So, I wanted to know if guys wanted to come with me.”
“Wait, like now?” Percy asks while stuffing his mouth with food.
“Chew dude. And yeah, I know we all, well excluding Nico,” Leo quickly stands up and jumps away from the table before Nico could charge up another kick. Nico glares at the Latino while Leo smirks at his own quick thinking, “As I was saying, I know we all, well excluding dear Nico, have clubs after school, so this could be you guys’ only opportunities to check out the place.”
“I’ll go with you.” Annabeth says, as she unfolds her napkin and places it over her tray. This was a signal to any cleanup crew (aka the custodians) that a student is away for the moment but will be back to finish their meal.
“Really?!” Percy and Leo say at the same time. “Jinx! Knock on wood!” Which made both boys knock on the lunch table quickly.
Annabeth rolled her eyes at their antics, “Yes really. I want to check the layout of the room. Some people say it was made before the school’s construction, while others speculated it was made after. I’m going to know for sure.” The blonde practically had stars in her gray eyes.
“What about ‘Breakfast for Lunch’?” Percy asks, gesturing at his food.
“I’ll only need 5 minutes to measure the room and take pictures. Besides, you don’t have to come along, Percy.”
“You know I have to.” Percy whispers while unwrapping his napkin. Even though Percy and Annabeth were talking among the group, Nico felt like he was intruding in one of their ‘will-they-won’t-they’ moments. Which is confirmed by the small blushes settling on the blonde girl’s face. There was a long silence among table 13, which was super rare.
“Well, I’ll go if Annabeth does.” Piper successfully breaks the silence.
“Guess, I will too.” Jason locked loving eyes with Piper.
“ Ooo , finally a cool adventure.” Hazel says in her deep ‘action movie’ voice. Soon everyone was putting napkins over their plates and settling their backpacks over their shoulders. Well except for…
“Dude, c’mon. You have to come with us.” Percy stares at Nico, while the latter purposely avoids eye contact.
“I’ll guard the food. Guys go and have fun.”
“Nico, think of the memories we’ll share together.” Hazel says, grabbing Nico’ non-syrup hand. Nico raises his eyebrows in Jason’s direction as a form of, ‘ Back me up’, please. But the blonde subtlety shakes his head as in saying, ‘ You’re on your own’ .
“Isn’t Annabeth taking pictures? I’ll live vicariously through them. I got an active imagination.”
“ Pleasssssssse , Nico” Hazel bust out the puppy dog eyes, the ones he couldn’t resist if he tried.
Nico exhales deeply, “Okay.” And with that, the group does a big ‘Hooray!’ which attracted the attention of the surrounding tables. Nico, too, places a napkin over his food and follows his so-called friends. Before leaving the cafeteria, Nico gives a final over the shoulder look to a certain blonde Texan’s table. There, his eyes widen upon seeing Will Solace already staring at him. The blonde’s eyebrows were pinched up as if he was contemplating something. Before Nico could stare a little more, Hazel grabbed his arm and led him out of the room.
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12:27pm
5 minutes before Disaster
After leaving the middle building (aka the main building) and entering the left side building, Leo leads the group down a couple of stairways until they reach the basement floor. After 3 rights and 1 left turn, Leo settles in front of a large steel door.
“Oh yeah, it's best to leave your bags outside of the room just in case there are any random ink spills.” Leo says before pushing his key into the keyhole. Everyone settles their belongings on the ground.
“So, the bunker is attached to the school.” Annabeth notes, while Leo opens the door, well tries to.
“I’m gonna need some help pulling the door.” Leo says, as Percy and Jason wrapped their hands on top of Leo and began pulling.
Sure enough, the heavy door opens and Jason puts his weight in front of it, having the door rest on his back while the other scurries into the room. When everyone finally got inside, Jason leaps into the room, making the door slam shut. Hazel finds the light switch and flicks it upward.
With lights on, the crew was able to take in the grayish blue cement room. Which, as Leo put it earlier, was a robot graveyard. There were scattered pieces of large robots, small robots, wires and scrap metal surrounding the floor.
“Jeez, dude. Why’s the door so heavy?” Percy asks, while inspecting the door.
“Oh that? The door’s made of pure steel. That’s to keep any haywire robots from escaping and exacting revenge on humanity...or something like that.” Leo shrugs as he knocks on the door to emphasis the strength.
Percy, not taking Leo’s words seriously, started laughing, “Good one dude, you almost had me.”
“No, actually -- I know I kid around about a bunch of stuff but I’m dead serious about this one. Just ask Nyssa if you don’t believe me. This is why there’s no signal or service down here, and why the room is like a cement box. We can’t risk a robot apocalypse.” And with that, Leo leaves a speechless Percy’s side to join the rest of the group. When Nico looked over at Percy, the boy resembled the surprise Pikachu meme.
“Are you okay?” Nico asks, walking over to Percy.
“I regret coming here. Did you hear what Leo told me?” Nico shook his head, so Percy continued, “This place isn’t just a graveyard, it's also like a prison just in case the failed parts try to put themselves back together and revolt against humanity.” Percy says in a panicked tone. Nico gave the waterboy the side eye.
“So now we’re suddenly believing anything Leo says? Do you remember how he tricked you into thinking it was pajama day…twice.” Nico sticks up two fingers to emphasize his point.
“Hey! He had some really convincing fliers made from the Arts & Crafts club.” Percy huffs, as he and Nico join the rest of the group. While Leo was explaining random robots' objectives and failures to them, Annabeth was looking over the layout of the floorboard and jotting down notes in a tiny notepad. The blonde girl had this weird way of knowing the exact measurements (length, width, and height) of any living or animate object just by eyeballing it. Soon after Annabeth was taking pictures of the room.
“Okay, I’m all done.” Annabeth mutters to herself after packing up her things back into her small satchel. She walked over to the group, who were busy listening to Leo explain another robot.
“And this was supposed to be a cleaning-bot, a little gift of appreciation for the janitors, but it winds up spilling ink everywhere,” With that omission, everyone in the group, except for Leo, took a step back from the robot in question.
“I’m all set.” Annabeth says, before turning her attention to Leo, “Thanks again for taking us down here. I really appreciate it, Leo.”
“Yeah Leo, this was super fun.” Hazel smiles.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but nice going Leo.” Piper says before grimacing, “But I could do without the random ink puddles.”
“Ladies, ladies, ladies, you’re making me blush. You’re all welcome. Now what do the gentlemen have to say?” Leo looked on to Jason, Nico, and Percy. Jason shrugged, Nico gave Leo the middle finger, and Percy still seemed shocked by their earlier conversation.
“You were joking about the revolution stuff, right?” Percy's eye brows were pinched up nervously.
“Nope.” Leo says before turning to the only door in the room and twisting the knob, except…” That’s weird.”
“What?” Percy asks.
“The knob won’t turn!” Leo replies, still turning the knob to the right.
“Very funny, Leo. Open the door.” Piper rolled her eyes.
“No, like I’m serious.” Leo kept turning the knob but the door wouldn’t open.
“Dude, let me try.” Percy insists, as Leo steps away. But the waterboy got the same result. “What the hell?”
“Good one, Seaweed Brain. You and Leo almost convinced us.” Annabeth snorts, crossing her arms.
“I’m not joking! Jason, come try,” With that, Percy steps aside for Jason, who also couldn’t turn the knob.
“There maybe a problem.” Jason says before turning his attention to the group.
“Jason, babe, we get it. You, Leo, and Percy had us fooled, now the door,” Piper says to Jason, her voice laced with slight annoyance.
“I literally can’t.” Jason says as Hazel moved towards the door and begin turn the knob, to no avail. Next, Nico goes to try his luck, and just like the others said, it wouldn’t budge. This wasn’t good. Nico did not like closed space, they made him feel trapped and helpless. He took a deep breath before turning to Leo.
“What the actual FUCK, Leo?!” Nico shouts as he lunges toward the taller Latino, but he felt two sets of arms holding him. “Let me go, let me at ‘em!”
“Dude, it’s not my fault!” Leo screams back, ducking behind Hazel, Piper, and Annabeth. The three girls were acting as a barrier between the two boys. “How was I supposed to know the door doesn’t open from the inside?”
“ Stupido, cazzo, idiota ! (You stupid, fucking, idiot!)” Nico curses, trying to get out of Jason and Percy’s hold.
“Now you’re not making any sense!” Leo cries, the group looks towards Hazel for a translation.
Hazel held her hand up in a surrendering pose, “Trust me, you don’t wanna know what he’s saying. Let’s just say its mean.”
“Boy, for a little guy, you’re sure are hard to restrain, Nico. The wrestling team would lov-- OUCH !” Nico felt one of the pair of arms leave him, he guesses it was Percy’s.
“Percy! You have a nosebleed,” Annabeth gasps, as the group looks in Percy’s direction.
“I do?” The teen touched his upper-lip and sure enough, he saw blood on his fingertips, “Oh shit, I do! What do I do?! What do I do?!” Percy asks frantically.
“I think you’re suppose to tilt your head backwards,” Jason says as he lets go of Nico to give Percy his undivided attention. The waterboy does as he told.
“No!” Annabeth rushes over to the bleeding boy, “Tilting your head backwards would make Percy swallow the blood which will give him an upset stomach. You have to lean forward and let the blood drain out.”
“Here, I got napkins.” Piper digs into her pocket and hands Percy a wad of tissues. Graciously thanking her, said boy stuffs them up his nose.
“Great, see what you did, Leo? Now Percy’s bleeding!” Nico angrily says to Leo.
“Dude, you’re literally the one that hit him! We all saw you!” Leo throws his arms in the air.
“I only hit Percy by accident because he was trying to hold me back from killing you. And I was trying to kill because you got us trapped in this stupid room. So, by correlation, you gave Percy the nosebleed.” Nico debates.
“Dude, it’s a wonder you’re not failing math, because that doesn’t add up at all” Leo shakes his head while crossing his arms. Since everyone was distracted by Percy – Nico -- for the second time that day, lunges towards Leo.
--------
12:37pm
“Seriously.” Nico mutters.
“Sorry, Nico. Until I can be sure you wouldn’t maul Leo, this is our new arrangement.” Jason emphasizes by swinging their interlocked hands.
You see, after the group separated Nico from Leo, Jason decided it was best to hold Nico’s hand til the subsequent future.
“Whatever.” Nico huffs, “I wasn’t gonna actually kill him or anything.”
“Dude, you literally shouted ‘I’m actually gonna kill you’ while you were on top of me.” Leo cries from his seat by the door.
“And I’ll do it again!” Nico tried to lunge again but he forgot Jason was holding one of his hands, so he winds up snapping back and almost falling over from Jason’s pull.
“Easy, Nico. Killing Leo would add more problems than solution--” Annabeth said.
“Thank you, Annabeth.” Leo interrupts, “I could always count on you for being kind and thoughtful.”
“You didn’t let me finish. I meant, the last thing we need is a rotting corpse in a poorly vented room.” Annabeth added, leaving Leo dejected.
“So, what do we do now?” Piper asked.
“What about the ‘Breakfast for Lunch’?” Hazel pouts.
“Well before someone tried to kill me,” Leo looked in Nico’s direction. Nico flipped him off in response, “I was going to say that Nyssa knows I’m down here and I promised her I’d return the key this afternoon. So sooner or later she’ll notice I’m not at the club and come searching for me. Which means we’re saved!” Leo cheers, but stops when no one else does. “Didn’t you guys just hear me. I said we’ll be saved.”
“What do you mean by this afternoon?” Annabeth asks.
“You know, by 3pm. That's when the robotics club meets.”
“So, you’re basically saying we won’t get rescued until 3pm, Leo?!” Piper’s eyes widen.
“Well, maybe around 3:30ish. I sometimes get there a little late.”
“Dude, not cool.” Percy says from his place on the ground. “I only ate like 3 French toast sticks before we got here.”
“I only got to eat 2” Nico groaned.
“I barely ate 1” Hazel’s stomach growled.
“Atleast you guys ate.” Piper sighs, “So this is our lives now? We got here at what--12:30ish? And now we gotta wait 3 hours for help.”
“Oh my God!” Percy gasped so loudly and so out of nowhere that he made everyone flinch and look in his direction. The green-eyed boy still had the tissues Piper had lent him stuffed up his nose. Said tissues were starting to look very bloody which meant he had to switch them out for some new ones sooner or later. “I’m genius, I’m a fucking genius! We’re saved, guys!” Percy stood up and punched the air with excitement.
“Must be the blood loss. Poor guy lost touch with reality.” Jason does a low whistle, while Nico snorted.
“I heard that, Jason!” Percy said, but Jason just shrugs. “You’re gonna give me big dubs when I tell y’all how I saved the day.”
“What are you talking about, Percy?” Annabeth inquired.
“Well now I don’t think I want y’all to know.” Percy crossed his arm like a defiant toddler. Annabeth stood up and twisted his ear in response. “ OW ! Okay okay okay, I’ll tell you.” Annabeth finally lets go, making Percy rub his reddish left ear. “Okay, so Piper, you got your next class with Grover, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So? So, this means everything!” Nico was starting to think the blood loss was getting to the swimmer. “While Leo was guiding us down here, I took the initiative to text Grover that we’re going to Bunker 9, just encase he went to our table and didn’t see us before we got back--”
“Oh my God, Percy! You fucking genius!” Piper gasped as she got up and grabbed both of Percy’s hands. The two of them were now playing ring-around-the-rosie.
“We must be in Tartarus ‘cause what the hell is going on right now?” Nico mutters.
“ Ohhhh , I get it! Maybe when we get out in time, we could ask the lunch ladies if there's any leftovers.” Hazel skips to the group and joins them in their chaotic little circle.
“I’m so confused, but I want in on that action.” Leo said as the circle made room for him. Now it's four kids running in a circle while holding hands.
“Pipes, what does Hazel mean?” Jason asks. He still didn’t piece the puzzle together.
“Since Percy sent Grover a text about us going to Bunker 9, he’ll find it weird that I’m not back for Greek Wars class and send help for us.” Piper says.
“Dude, I can’t believe I’m saying this but you’re a fucking genius” Jason smiles at Percy.
“I know right. I can’t believe it myself.” Percy whoops. “Wise Chips, come join us!” Percy shouts to Annabeth.
“Sorry to be the baron of bad news--” Annabeth sighs.
“That’s usually Nico’s job.” Leo sneaks in.
“Shut the fuck up and let her speak!” Nico tries to lunge at Leo again, but Jason just anchors him back. Right, the hand holding. Nico kept forgetting about that. He would need to act when Jason is distracted.
“As I was saying. There’s a fatal flaw to your plan.”
“No there isn’t.” Percy replied as he stopped swinging with the others, everyone else in the circle stopped as well.
“Yes, there is. Grover keeps his phone on silent whenever he has lunch with Juniper, remember.” Annabeth said.
“Oh yeah.” Percy murmurs as he walks over to Annabeth to reclaim his seat. He hung his head down, but Nico suspected it was more out of sadness and embarrassment than for the runny nose.
“That’s dumb, why would he do that?” Leo arched an eyebrow in confusion.
“Because he actually wants to give his girlfriend his undivided attention, Leo. Does that ring a bell?” The blonde girl rolled her eyes.
“Nope” Leo pops the ‘P’.
“The one time being a good boyfriend backfires.” Piper groans.
“ Sooooo ....what I’m hearing is no ‘Breakfast for Lunch’.” Hazel huffs as she kicks some robot scraps to make some sitting room. Everyone else who wasn’t seated does the same.
“Wait!” Leo shouts to the group. “I have just the thing for a situation like this.” The Latino rummages through his pockets. The group leans in closer to Leo’s space and asks questions all at once.
“A flare gun” Jason questions.
“Wireless communicator?” Annabeth asks.
“Chapstick?” Piper sighs.
“A car alarm?” Percy ponders.
“Food?” Hazel's stomach rumbles.
“A brain?” Nico scowls.
“Even better!” Leo said as he took out a bunch of tiny trinkets, screws, wrenches, and robot parts from his cargo pants during his search. At one point, he pulled out a folded piece of paper and quickly scans the contents before chucking it somewhere into the room. “There they are!” Leo whips out a familiar deck of cards.
“Uno? At a time like this, Leo?” Piper questions.
“Yeah -- I mean this could be a good way to pass the time.” Leo shrugs, “Plus, I don’t think I’ve ever played with any of you or in such a large group of people. This could be a fun bonding experience.” Leo says as he shuffles the deck. “Who's in?”
“What the hell, man. I’ll play.” Percy says as he sits next to Leo. Hazel soon sat next to Percy.
“Won’t we just wind up killing each other?” Piper looks over to Annabeth for any insight, but the blonde girl just shrugs.
“Maybe it’ll be a good distraction.” Annabeth sits next to Hazel and Piper soon follows.
“Wanna play?” Jason asks Nico. The Italian boy shrugs and they both walk over to the circle of people. Nico sat next to Piper while Jason sat between Nico and Leo -- fully completing the circle.
After Leo was done shuffling and passing out seven cards to each person, he looks over to Jason, “Left of the dealer, so you’ll start first, Superboy.”
How bad can it be? Just a simple card game between a loving group of friends…
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12:47pm
It turned out super bad…because a group of people means different ways of playing Uno.
“What the hell, Piper! That’s not a 6 and you know it.” Percy challenges.
“Whoops, my bad. I swore that was a 6.” Piper cheekily says before grabbing her 6 back.
“Now draw 2 for dummies.” Percy insisted.
“Draw 2 for dummies? What are you talking about?”
“Whenever you make a mistake, you gotta draw 2 from the deck.” Percy answers.
“You’re making that up. I’ve never played that way before.”
“He right, babe. You gotta draw 2 for dummies.” Jason added, making Piper gasp and Percy giggle.
“Jason! I’m your girlfriend, you’re supposed to defend my honor.” She dramatically placed her hand over her heart.
“Sorry Pipes, but there’s no friends in Uno.” Jason smirks.
“Even girlfriends?” Piper bats her eyes playfully.
“Especially.” Jason chuckles as he high fives Percy from across the circle.
“I’ll remember this the next time we have lunch outside.” Piper scoffs as she snatches the 2 cards Percy happily slides to her.
Nico scrunched up his nose at the soccer girl’s comment. Jason and Piper’s ‘having lunch outside’ was code for making out.
The game went on smoothly until Annabeth’s turn. She threw a red +2 into the pile which started an ongoing train where everyone luckily had a +2 to add to the pile. When it was Annabeth’s turn again, she threw another yellow +2, but this time Hazel threw in a +4 which didn’t sit right with some people.
“Hazel, do you have a +2?” Percy asks.
“No, why?”
“Nothing nothing. It’s just that you’ll have to pluck 14 cards and 2 more for dummies.”
“Excuse me?! How so? I literally have a +4.” Hazel says, “No way in heck I’m picking up 14 cards.”
“16 cards, the 2 are for dummies.”
“You’re a dummy if you think I’m gonna pick that up. +4 totally count!”
“No, they don’t!”
“Yes, they do!”
“I’ve never played with anyone that paired a +2 with a +4. It's either you stack with one or the other!”
“Well, you’ve played it wrong because the people I’ve played with use that rule!”
“I played with Jason and Nico. And they’ll back me up. Right guys--?”
“I played with Nico too and we totally do +4 with +2.” Hazel says as she and Percy look on to Nico to settle the debate. Truth be told, Nico doesn’t have a set way of playing Uno. He just adapts to whoever he plays with. But he’s pretty sure neither Hazel nor Percy would accept that answer. So, he just went with his gut.
“What should we do, Annabeth?” Nico turns to the blonde girl. He gave her his best, ‘Please help me out ’ eyes. The girl in question rolled her eyes before speaking.
“Let’s put it up to a vote. Who thinks a +4 should count?” Annabeth asks as Hazel’s shot both her arms in the air, Piper soon raised her hand.
“What the hell, Piper? I know you don’t play that way.” Percy accuses.
“Well, since I gotta do shit like draw dummies, I’m gonna let the girl have her +4.” Piper snorts.
“You’re doing this out of spite.” Jason chuckles. During the mini debate, Annabeth raised her hand in agreement as well.
“You too, Annabeth!?” Percy squawks.
“Why not” Annabeth shrugs, “It's not like I’ll draw the cards.” Annabeth narrows her eyes as if she realized something, “Are you just doing this because you don’t have an extra +4 or +2?”
“ Noooo .” Percy sputters, “It's the principle. They’re literally two different numbers. It shouldn’t count.” During that little debate, Nico raises his hand, making Hazel squeal in excitement.
“That’s 4 against 3. I win.” Hazel sticks her tongue at Percy before slamming her +4 on the pile.
“Dude, what the hell?” Percy said, feeling betrayed. “What happened to pals before gals?”
“One, she’s my sister, I’ll always choose her before anything. And two,” Nico lets a smirk spread across his lips, “I wanna see you draw 14.”
There was a moment of silence, before Percy threw his cards to the ground and left the group to sulk at one of the corners, “Fuck this game, I was feeling woozy anyway.”
“Boo, you whore” Piper tease.
“Do I hear a chicken?” Leo started making really good chicken noises.
Hazel, that sweet angel, was laughing so manically, it nearly made Nico stop laughing. Jason, on the other hand, was nearly in tears, clutching his stomach.
“I’ll end my turn here and check on the baby.” Annabeth sighs before collecting hers and Percy’s cards and stacking them below the draw-outs pile. She leaves to join Percy at the corner.
“And then there was 5. Whose turn is it now and what are we gonna do with the 14 cards?” Piper says.
“Leo’s. Yeah...wouldn’t the 14 cards go to you now?” Hazel ponders.
“That’s not fair--” Leo replies.
“No, I totally agree. Pluck those damn cards, Leo” Nico says.
“It was Percy’s, I’m not plucking them! Just tell me what the color is, Hazel and we’ll start a new slate.”
“No, I like this way better. Pluck the card, Leo!” Nico shouted.
“I’m getting a feeling this isn’t about the cards.” Jason mutters while looking over his own cards.
“I’m not plucking them!”
“Yes, you are!”
“No, I’m not!” Leo smirks, “Since you love them so much, why don’t you pluck them?”
Since Jason was sitting closer to Leo, Nico took a chance. And for a third time that day, Nico lunges towards Leo.
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12:50pm
“Earth to Will” A dirty-blonde boy says.
“Sir William” A girl with short purple hair adds.
“Willy”
“Williford”
"Willow"
"Willa"
“Bill”
“Really Cecil” The girl rolled her eyes.
“What, Lou? I heard ‘Bill’ is sometimes used as a nickname for ‘Will’” Cecil replied.
“Whatever.” Lou Ellen stares at the dazed Texan, “He’s really out of it.”
“If only Austin was here. His sax would of woken Bill up,” Cecil shrugs.
“Welp, there's only one thing to do,” Lou Ellen gives Cecil a devious smile.
“ Ooo, I know where this is going,” Cecil rubs his hands like an evil villain. Before he and Lou Ellen could pinch his arm, Will grabs both of their hands.
“You do know I can still hear y’all, right?” Will arched an eyebrow to both of them before letting go of their hands.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. What’s got the ol’ brain turning right now?” Lou Ellen asks. Suddenly, the warning bell for next period sounds off. After the trio drops their trays in the trash can, Will goes over to the empty table across the room.
“They haven’t returned yet.” Will says.
“Oh, you talking about Percy and them? Yeah, I guess it was weird they just left their food here.” Lou Ellen looks at the napkin covered trays.
“More for us, right?” Cecil held his hand expecting someone to give him a high-five him but all he got was a pointed look from Will and Lou Ellen.
“Gross, Cecil.” Lou Ellen pinches the boy.
“I was kidding!...Mostly” Cecil mumbled, “Anyways, who doesn’t eat their ‘Breakfast for Lunch’? Like, why even get it, if you’re just gonna leave it.”
“That’s what I’m wondering,” Will says.
“Is the ol’ Willy senses tingling?” Lou Ellen wiggles her eyebrows.
“I told you not to call it that.” Will rolled his eyes, “It's a hunch. Something happened to them, I just don’t know what yet.” Will picks up 2 trays before turning to his friends, “Help me carry the rest to the nurses’ office.”
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12:55pm
“Woah, Will. If you wanted me to cover for you tomorrow, all you had to do was ask,” The girl with ginger hair with green dye streaks says when the trio enter the nurse’s office with trays of food. It was Kayla.
Unlike Lou Ellen and Cecil (both of whom Will met in elementary school), Will met Kayla, Austin and Lester through the New Rome Secondary school’s junior nursing program. The program allows students interested in health care careers to shadow the nurse for experience and college credits.
Rather than have all 4 of them shadow him at once, Nurse Asclepius thought it was easier to give his attention to 2 students at a time. So, every A-Day lunch and 7th period, Kayla and Lester finish their lunch early and go to the nurses’ office while Austin and Will took B-Days.
“Good one Kayla, but that’s not why I’m here.” Will put the trays in the office’s fridge.
“His Willy senses are tingling.” Lou Ellen smirks.
“Seriously? What’s the prognosis?” Kayla asks Will.
The blonde scrunches his nose, “I keep feeling a dripping sensation from my nose, so I’m guessing someone has a nose bleed.”
You see, everyone at their school has a weird quirk about them. Lou Ellen is practically a witch with the amount of Wicca she practices, Rachel is a bonafide fortune teller, and Will is pretty sure he’s a ‘injury empath’ or atleast that’s what Lou Ellen says. Ever since he was a kid, Will had this ability to sense health issues from just standing near to people. It's a blessing knowing he can alert someone early on, but also a curse because it's an invasion of privacy and a bit overwhelming.
And for some reason, Will feels his empath power amplified whenever he’s in New Rome Secondary School -- as if he can account for everyone in the school grounds.
“How does this relate to the trays?”
“I started feeling the dripping sensation about 10 minutes after the group from Table 13 left. They didn’t even return for their food by the time the bell rang.”
“So, you think someone’s got hurt in that group?”
“It’s just a hunch but I’ll confirm it for sure when I get to class.”
“How so?” Cecil arched an eyebrow.
“I have next period with Annabeth and she never misses a class. She actually gets there about 15 minutes early, so I really can’t miss her if I tried.”
Kayla hums, “Nurse Asclepius went out for a walk. If your hunch is right about Table 13, then I’ll tell him to expect someone with a nose bleed soon.”
“Thanks, Kayla” Before Will and his friends could leave the nurse’s office, he finally notices a familiar curly haired brunette laying in one of the cots, “Lester passed out from the sight of blood again, I see.”
“Yep, it's a wonder why he wants to work in healthcare,” Kayla sighs as she continues to sweep the floor.
--------
12:57pm
After the group once again separated the two boys, Nico was once again subjected to hand holding but not by Jason this time. This time Hazel’s dark-skin hand was wrapped around his own which was very smart. Hazel was a master-class hand holder. Whether a rollercoaster ride, blood test (she’s super scared of needles), or even a simple stroll in the park, Hazel loves holding hands, and Nico, Bianca, or their mother would usually be the one to do it.
Whereas Jason has his body weight to pull Nico back, Hazel has an iron-clad grip. So even though Nico could easily lunge at Leo, he knows due to Hazel’s smaller body weight, she’ll fly too. And he doesn’t want to risk her getting hurt, which Jason must of figured out by having her take his place.
Right now, the siblings were lying down on their backs, watching the ceiling. Nico was getting antsy and convinced Hazel to walk around the room. The two settle on seeing what Percy and Annabeth were doing in their own little corner.
Percy & Annabeth
After Percy stormed out of the Uno, he was soon joined by Annabeth. “You alright?” the blonde asks, while scratching her wrists.
“Yeah, just tired.” Percy says blinking slowly.
Annabeth hums in response, “I think it’s time to change your tissues.” Annabeth gestures to the boy’s blood-soaked tissues. Percy takes them out and blood soon trickles down his nostrils. “Shove these up your blowholes”. Annabeth hands him some new tissues as Percy chuckles.
“Thanks, Annabeth.” He shoves the new ones up his nose. His eyes felt heavy as he soon found himself drifting to sleep while in a sitting position. He soon felt a gentle shake to his shoulder.
“Hey, Percy.” Annabeth murmurs, “Wake up.”
Percy rubs his eyes open, “How long I’ve been asleep?”
“About 3 minutes,” Annabeth was now scratching her neck. “I don’t think it's safe for you to sleep. You know, with all the bleeding and what not.”
“It would help if there was something to do,” Percy sighs. Annabeth sorts through her small satchel and pulls out a small book, one of which Percy instantly recognizes. It was one of Annabeth’s favorite books on architecture, The 100 Wonders of the World: Fun Facts on Historical Monuments and Buildings . Whenever the blonde was bored, she would take out her book and reread it for the millionth time. The blonde offers the book to Percy but he shakes his head. He was bored but not bored enough to read. “Can I see your notepad instead, please?”
Annabeth shrugs, and hands the boy her notepad and a pen, “What are you doing?” Annabeth assumes he would be playing tic-tac-toe or hang-man.
“I’m writing my will.” Percy says nonchalantly as he begins scribbling on a fresh sheet of paper. He was now lying on his tummy, kicking his legs like a love-sick school girl.
After about 5 to 6 minutes of writing and thinking, Percy got pretty far in his will. This was the moment his favorite brother-sister duo strolled by. Nico and Hazel sat near Annabeth’s space than his.
“What is he doing?” Hazel asks, curiously looking in Percy’s direction. Annabeth looks up from her book.
“Writing his will apparently.” Annabeth huffs at the boy’s bizarre nature. He never ceases to amaze her.
“Dramatic as always.” Nico rolled his eyes.
“You know I can hear you guys, right?” Percy sticks his tongue at him. “And, I wouldn’t need to be writing my will if someone didn't elbow me in the nose.”
“One, that was not my fault. It was Leo’s. Two, you’re not gonna die from a simple nose bleed, drama queen.”
“Oh, so suddenly you’re an expert on nose bleeds, Dr. di Angelo.” Percy cheekily says, earning a middle finger from the Italian, but Hazel hastily puts the finger back in place. She then leads Nico away from Annabeth and closer to Percy.
“So, what am I getting?” Hazel bats in eyes playfully.
Percy looks down his list before answering, “My Finding Nemo plushies, except for Crush. He’s getting buried with me.” Percy smiles.
“Understandable” Hazel nods.
“Mr. Emo over here,” Percy points in Nico’s direction, but quickly retracts his finger before Nico could bite, “Is getting all by black shirts, which is like 3, I think.” Percy ponders for a second.
“Let me see your list,” Nico snatches the notepad, getting a ‘ Yeah! ’ from Percy. With Hazel bunch to his side, they both scanned the list together.
Mom --- Everything else (She did pay for everything)
Annabeth --- There’s a dark blue box under my bed. Inside is Annabeth’s birthday gift. (Also any books she wants from my room)
Tyson --- There’s a baby blue box in my closet. Inside are the cool sticks I found.
Hazel ---- Finding Nemo plushies (except for Crush. Bury him with me!!!)
Nico ---- Black shirts
Grover ---
Jason ---
Piper ---
Leo --- tbd
“It’s not even finished,” Nico snorts, as Percy snatches it back.
“Well, duh. This was harder than I thought.”
“Awwwe,” Hazel beams at Percy, “Someone already went birthday shopping.”
Nico caught on to what Hazel was implying, “Yeah,” Nico smirks and Percy sported a full-on blush. “Aren’t you like 8 months early?”
“Hush, you two. I saw a good book and camera on sale. And the sale was gonna end pretty soon, so I took a chance.” Percy stammers. “It doesn’t mean anything, okay. I was being proactive.”
“ Proactive ?” Nico does a low whistle as Hazel giggles some more. “Look at you with those big words. That dictionary she got you really working, huh?” Nico teases.
“I don’t have to deal with this.” Percy sticks his nose in the air like a sophisticated rich man. Then, he scurries away from the giggling pair and sits back next to Annabeth.
“He’s so obvious.” Hazel sighs.
“And they’re so oblivious.” Nico shakes his head.
Jason & Piper
After separating Nico from Leo for a third time, Jason thought it was best to leave the boy in his sister’s care.
“You okay?” Jason asks Piper. They were sharing one of the four corners of the room. And since being at their personal corner, he notices Piper being a little too quiet and also facing the opposite direction.
“Yeah, it just…nothing.” Piper mutters.
“It sounds like something, Pipes. Now why don’t you turn around so I can appreciate your gorgeous face.”
Piper groans, as she turns around. Her hand was covering her mouth. “Happy?”
“What’s wrong with your mouth?”
“I have food in my teeth?”
Jason rolled his eyes, “Nice try, you didn’t get to eat.”
“Don’t remind me” Piper groans. She then gives Jason a determined look, “I’m gonna need you to be honest with me.”
“Aren’t I always?”
Piper nods in agreement, before removing her hand, “Okay, how do I look?”
Jason hates this question, because it usually meant Piper did something subtle to her appearance, which is noticeable to her but not so much for Jason. So, he went with the best answer. “Perfect as always.”
Piper rolls her eyes, “You don’t have a clue what I’m referring to, do you?”
“Yeah,” Jason scratches his neck in embarrassment, “That’s a good thing, right?”
Piper got closer to Jason, “Look at my lips.”
“Piper, is this really the time to be making out--”
“No, Jason! -- I meant does it look bad?” Jason finally notices Piper’s issue. Her lips were a bit chapped and cracked, which was weird since she looked fine this morning. “God, I knew it.” Piper groans into her arm.
“No no no, they don’t look so bad.”
“Yes, it does. I would’ve never wiped off my lip gloss if I knew we’d be trapped here.” She put said lip-gloss in her purse, which she left outside the room. Suddenly Piper’s eyes lit up, “Where’s your emergency lip palm, babe?”
You see, when Jason and Piper first started dating, Piper always emphasized his need to use lip palm because she didn’t like the feel of chapped lips while kissing. So said girlfriend brought him lip palm which he swore he would use and keep it on his person at all times.
“You mean the one you told me to keep on me at all times,” Jason says nervously.
Piper narrows her eyes while making the ‘gimme’ gesture towards Jason, “Exactly, where is it?”
“I think…in my other pants.”
“It’s hopeless.” Piper covers her shirt over her nose, which made some of her stomach visible. “I guess I’ll just be a shirt hermit.”
Jason gently tugged the shirt from her nose and held her face in his hands, “Like I said before, you look perfect no matter what.” Jason emphasized this by giving her a small peck on her lips, “No one would hardly notice.”
“You really think so?” Piper sniffs.
“I know so. Now c’mon, we’ve been away from the others for too long.” Jason got up and held his hand out to Piper, who took it graciously.
During their walk they encounter Leo, who was scavenging for parts through the pile of scraps.
“Woah, Beauty Queen,” Leo does a low whistle, “Those lips look parched. Do you need--” And before Jason could process what Leo said, Piper, for the first time that day, lunges at Leo.
--------
1:02pm
When Will first entered his Art History class, he quickly scanned the room for blonde hair and gray eyes. Unfortunately, Annabeth wasn’t in her usual front seat. Will decided to wait about 10 minutes to be sure she’s not running late. After she still didn’t appear at the doorway, Will asked Mr. Apollo for the bathroom pass.
--------
1:07pm
It took awhile to separate the two since Percy and Nico weren’t helping. Percy had an excuse since he felt too loopy but Nico just stood there smirking and cheering Piper on as Annabeth, Hazel and Jason were trying their hardest to detangle her from Leo.
Afterwards, Jason carried a kicking Piper to one of the corners while Hazel, scolding Nico for not helping, led her brother to another. As Annabeth trotted back to the corner she and Percy shared, the waterboy couldn’t help but notice something was off about the blonde. Even as she was walking towards him, he saw her repeatedly scratching her arms and fidgeting.
When she finally took her seat next to him, Percy took a chance. “Are you okay?”
Annabeth seemed shocked at his question, “Of course. I didn’t get hit if that’s what you are asking.”
“Not that.” Percy shakes his head, “Ever since we got here, you’ve been scratching yourself and fidgeting alot.”
“You’re imagining that. I’m fine.” Annabeth arched an eyebrow. Percy pointedly looks at her still hands. After a few bated moments, the blonde sighs and resumes scratching her body, “Okay, something is wrong.”
“What?”
Annabeth bit her lips, “Being here, in a small room littered with scrap pieces. Anything could be hiding underneath them. Anything like sp-spid-sp ” The panicked girl couldn’t even finish her sentence, but Percy caught the jest of it. As long as he’d known Annabeth, the girl has been freakishly scared of spiders. He used to tease her about it, but he soon stopped because the girl would have a full-blown panic attack and he didn’t want to risk giving her a heart attack.
“No need to worry. There’s nothing lurking in here or on you,” Percy reassures her with his hand on her shoulder. “It’s all in your head.”
“No, its not,” Annabeth hissed, “I feel something crawling on me!” And at that moment Percy’s heart dropped when he saw a literal tiny spider crawling up Annabeth’s shirt. FUCK. He put his other hand on the girl’s other shoulder just in case what he does next does not work.
“Annabeth,” Percy says calmly, “promise me you won’t look down.”
“Why?” Annabeth asked. Suddenly fear shot through her eyes, “Is there--” Annabeth looked down, saw the spider, and promptly screamed her lungs out before falling over. Luckily for Percy, he gripped her neck and head before she passed out. All at once, the rest of the group came over.
“What happened?!” Jason asked.
“Is she okay?!” Piper says from underneath her shirt mask.
“Oh my God, is Annie dead?!” Leo earned a back of the head smack from Hazel.
Percy shakes his head as he gently sets Annabeth on the floor, “She saw a spider and freaked out.”
Jason checked Annabeth’s pulse, “It might take a while for her to regain consciousness.”
Nico promptly takes off his aviator jacket, folds it into a pillow, and sets it underneath the blonde’s head.
Nico & Hazel
After the commotion with Annabeth died down, Nico and Hazel returned to their personal corner. Nico was starting to grow worried about his little sister. Instead of holding his hand, the girl was braiding her hair, which Nico dubs, ‘stress-braiding’. You see, usually when Nico was nervous or emotional, he fidgets with his skull ring as a coping mechanism or unleashes through physical means (cursing, pacing, lunging at Leo, etc). Hazel, on the other hand, bottles up her emotions and smiles through the pain. This usually ends with the girl having an emotional breakdown. Right now, Nico feels one coming on.
“Hey champ,” Nico says sitting next to Hazel. They always do this father-son pet name thing whenever the other is feeling down. It's weird but it always gets a laugh out of the sad one. “How are you holding up?” Nico gives her his best smile.
“I’m okay,” Hazel mutters as she continues to detangle and rebraid her hair.
“It’s okay to not be okay, Hazel.” Nico brings the girl into a hug and he feels her shaking.
“It’s just--it's just, I was looking forward to ‘Breakfast for Lunch’. And now it's gone,” Hazel sniffs.
Nico wasn’t really sure what came over him but Hazel swore up and down that the next moment happened when they rediscussed the event at a later date. “Hai te stesso da incolpare per questo. (You have yourself to blame for it).” Nico whispered as he felt Hazel’s shaking ceased.
“Excuse me?!” Hazel shouted, ripping out of Nico’s grasp and stood up. It was at that moment Nico remembered Hazel could understand Italian. Sure, she had trouble verbally speaking it, but understood the words.
“Oh please, ‘It’ll be fun, Nico.’ ‘This could be an adventure, Nico’ .” Nico does his best high-pitch Hazel imitation, “If it wasn’t for your begging, I would have actually eaten lunch by now!” Nico shouts back as he stands up as well.
“How would I know we would’ve been trapped here!?” Hazel angrily says, as Jason and Piper scurried over. Correction, Jason was holding Piper’s hand to keep the girl from lounging at Leo again.
“I heard screaming, everything okay here?” Jason asks.
“He says it’s my fault we’re trapped down here!” Hazel crossed her arms.
“I didn’t say it was your fault everyone was down here--” Nico answers.
“See Hazel, Nico didn’t mean it.” Jason interrupted.
“Oh, you didn’t let me finish. I meant it was her fault she and I are down here!” Nico crossed his arms and stared daggers at his sister. Hazel shot a death glare back.
“Okay, so maybe it's best for you two to separate. One of you should find another corner.” Jason sighs.
“Bye Hazel,” Nico waves away his sister, as he sat back down.
Hazel gasps, “I’m not leaving, I was here first!” She stomps before sitting down.
“Well, I’m not leaving either!” Nico snorts. Jason swore the two were about to lunge at one another so he made the executive position to sit in the space between them. Correction, Jason and Piper were sitting between the siblings since he still had to keep an eye out on his girlfriend, who in fact, was still staring daggers at Leo.
Jason turned his head to see what Percy was doing at the moment. Said boy was sleeping on his tummy next to the passed-out Annabeth. If the room wasn’t messing with his phone service, Jason would have taken a picture of them.
It was weird, even in the moment of despair, love still pokes through, somehow.
-------
Once in the boy’s bathroom, Will texted the group chat he shared with Lou Ellen and Cecil. Even though he knows the other should not be on their phones in class, he also knows they both don’t care for the rules.
~PowerPuffGworls~
1:12pm
Blossum: Yeah, y’all. Annabeth isn’t there.
Buttercup: Whats the move?
Bubbles: We can eat the lunches
Jk
Or am I ;D
Buttercup: …
I will pinch u when I c u Cecil
Blossum: …
Do any one have class with Grover rn?
Buttercup: I do
Blossum: What building, room number and teacher?
Buttercup: Right-side building, room 109, and Ms. Athena
What’re gonna do
Blossum: I’m gonna tell your teacher Nurse A needs Grover for some health forms, but I’m actually just gonna ask him if he know where his friends are
Bubbles: Oh shit!!!! Our William is gonna lie!!! To authority!!!
I never thought I’d see the day
They grow up so fast
Look at our baby Lou
Buttercup: ikr
He’s fully corrupted
I’m so proud
Blossum: …
I can’t with you two
I’ll see you soon Lou
Bubbles:
What about me…
Blossum: …
I’ll see you soon Lou
Buttercup: Can’t wait Willy ;D
Bubbles: …
--------
1:17pm
Will was 99.9% sure Ms. Athena knew he was bullshitting but for some reason she let him get away with it. Maybe she knew Will would only lie for a good cause. Or maybe she just didn’t care. Anyway, once Will got Grover, he gestured for said boy to follow him to the bathroom.
“Aren’t we suppose to go to the nurse’s office right now?” Grover asked.
“Not really, no. I kinda lied about that stuff to get you alone.” Will sheepishly says.
Grover’s eye brow raised to the roof, “Look dude, I’m flatter, really. But I’m already dating someone--”
Now Will’s eyebrows were reaching for the stars, “Oh, you think-- No dude, I wasn’t asking you out. Gosh, I just realized how my word sounded out of context.” Will chuckles.
“Yeah, and leading me to the bathroom didn’t help,” Grover smiles.
“Right, sorry about that. We needed a private place and I seriously need to use the bathroom afterwards, but that can wait,” Will say, “Look, I’ll make this quick. During lunch, I saw your friends leave the cafe’ but they never came back. I think something happened to them since I don’t since Annabeth was a no show at my class. Do you know where they are?”
“Wait, did you just say Annabeth wasn’t in class?”
“Yep. The front seat was empty n’ everything.”
“Something has to be wrong.” Grover takes out his phone to check his messages. He read it out loud, “This is from Percy. ‘Hey Groovy, me n’ the crew is going down to Bunker 9. We’ll be back in like 10 minute’. He sent this at 12:22 pm.” Grover looks up at Will with a questioning look, “What’s Bunker 9?”
“It's the robotic club storage unit. I’m not actually sure where it is but the robotic club members should know.” Will tries to think of any members he knows. One springs to mind. “Do you know Nyssa Barrera?” Suddenly Will’s phone alarm goes off.
He usually sets a 5-minute timer for whenever he asks for the bathroom pass. After he uses said bathroom, he usually wanders the halls to get his pent-up energy out.
Right now, he needs to return to class before Mr. Apollo gets suspicious.
“I gotta get back to class quick.” Will suck his teeth, “Do you know what class Nyssa has now?”
“Not really. I hardly know her.”
“That’s okay. You should actually go to the nurse’s office. Tell Nurse Asclepius I sent you. He’ll know the situation. Tell him you need Nyssa’s class schedule and then track down Nyssa and she’ll show you where Bunker 9 is.” Will looks at the taller boy. He had a panicked look in his eyes. “You okay, Grover?”
“Yeah,” Grover sighs, “It's just a lot to take in. There’s always something weird happening in this school".
Will felt his nose tingling again and smiles, “Yeah, you can say that again.”
--------
1:24pm
Nico began twisting his ring out of sheer boredom rather than nerves. How long have they been here? Nico silently scans the room.
Jason was still holding Piper’s hand, but Nico thinks it was for comfort rather than holding her back since the girl was also hugging Jason’s arm.
Hazel was still detangling and rebranding her hair but her body was facing the opposite direction, so Nico couldn’t judge her expression. She probably still pretty pissed off at Nico, which is fair. Nico admits he wasn’t in the right state of mind during their argument, so he’ll definitely apologize later.
Percy and Annabeth were lying on the floor at their corner of the room, the blonde still passed out while the green-eyed boy was softly snoring through his bloody tissues.
Nico then took the time to survey the Latino sitting close to the door, Leo . The boy was sitting crossed legged with robot parts lying in front of him. Nico guesses he was pulling apart and inspecting them. Nico then felt a sharp pain followed by his stomach groaning. God he was so hungry. He could actually hear everyone’s stomach growling… well everyone except for… Leo’s. Maybe it was the hunger fucking up with his head, but an insane thought pass through Nico’s head.
“You planned this” Nico said Leo, effectively breaking the silence.
“What--” Leo looks back at Nico with a confused look on his face.
“You heard me, you planned this.” Nico gets up from his seat on the floor and moves closer to Leo.
“Nico, get back here--” Jason sighed as he was getting ready to get up and retrieve Nico.
“I’m not gonna hurt him, Jay. I just wanna get something clear.” Nico says to Jason before turning to Leo. The Latino was now standing, trying to create a distance between them. “Admit it you did plan this.”
“Dude, you’re clearly not thinking straight. How could I have planned this,” Leo gestures the whole room, “I’m trapped here too.”
“That’s what you want us to think.” Nico shakes his head, “You wanted us to be just as miserable as you” Nico says.
“What are you talking about?!” Leo says.
“Did you or did you not eat your lunch before you went over to our table?” Nico asks.
“What does that have to do with anything?!”
“Just answer the question, Valdez!”
“Yes, but what does that--”
“It has everything to do with it! You got to eat your ‘Breakfast for Lunch’, but when Calypso kicked you out of her table, you couldn’t stand seeing everyone else be so happy. So, you came over to our table and made us come along with you even though you knew the door wouldn’t open from the inside. Now we’re here being hungry while you’re feeding off our misery.” Nico stepped closer.
“Dude, that was such a reach--”
“Is what Nico said true, Leo?” Hazel stood up and walked over to Nico’s side.
“No! He’s acting muy loco (very crazy)!”
“Now way, Leo. Everything Nico said made sense.” Piper says, from under her shirt-mask. Nico didn’t even notice when the Native girl walked over to them. “You mean to tell me I got chapped lips because you were being petty!”
“Piper, not you too!” Leo holds his hand up like he was trying to tame some dinosaurs. “Look, I know it easier to find someone to place the blame on, I get it. But if we’re getting all technical, it’s you guys’ fault for coming with me. I mean, like I didn’t force you to not eat your lunch. We could of went after y’all finished, hell we could have not gone at all.” Leo shrugged, but soon regretted his words.
“You two hold him down.” Nico says to Piper and Hazel as he cracks his knuckles. Leo’s brown skin seemingly became paler out of fright.
“With pleasure,” Hazel scowls as Piper nodded. The three of them walked closer to Leo as he scrambled into the corner of the wall.
“Jason! Amigo (friend)! You’re just gonna let them beat me up!” Leo shouts.
Jason all but shrugs from his seat on the floor, “Sorry dude, but you’re on your own. I can’t stop three people at a time.”
Suddenly, the sound of the door knob twisting could be heard. The heavy door was pulled open by two figures.
“Nyssa!” Leo cries as he quickly hugs the girl while Grover was struggling holding the door in place. “You guys came just in time! I was gonna die” Leo hides behind Nyssa.
“Leo, why are you still down here? Its 7th period now.” The Hispanic girl asked.
“Something’s up with the door. Its locks from the inside.”
“No, it doesn’t” Nyssa shakes her head.
“Yes, it does” Nico grumbles, “Why else would we stay here.”
“I promise you it doesn’t.” Nyssa says as she pulls Grover into the room. Since said boy was propping the door open with his weight, Nyssa’s sudden pull made the door shut behind him. The remaining members of the room look on to Nyssa in shock. Jason couldn’t stop himself from face-palming.
Nico literally fell to his knees, “Why would you do that?!”
Piper tugged her own hair, “Now we’re all trapped again!”
Hazel literally growled in the Hispanic girl’s direction. Nico was pretty sure she was seconds away from pouncing at her.
“To make a point.” Nyssa says as she faces cowering Leo. “Leo, do you remember the permission form you had to sign in order to take the Bunker 9 key?”
Leo arched an eyebrow, “Um…yeah.”
“Before signing it, I told you to read over the contents on the permission slip. Did you read it?”
“I mean--yeah, I skimmed it, I guess. What does this have to do with the door?”
“Because how to open the door is in the slip. You do still have your copy of it, right?”
Leo’s eyes widened as he went through his pockets. Then remembering that he tossed a piece of paper while trying to find his Uno cards earlier, Leo scans the room until he finds it lying on a piece of scrap metal. He unfolds the paper and began reading it out loud, “Rule 1: remember to return the key yada yada yada …Rule 4: remember that the door to Bunker 9 opens… counter…clockwise ” Leo nervously laughs as he refolds the paper and stuff it back in his pocket. “Whoops, my bad everyone...Atleast this could be a funny story to tell people...right?”
“...” The room was completely still for a moment.
“My breakfast for lunch!” Hazel says angrily, she was about to lunge towards Leo, but Nico held her back.
“No,” Nico shakes his head, “That’ll be too easy. Let’s let him have a headstart.”
“I like the sound of that,” Piper frowns, as Leo frantically struggles to open the door. “How long should we wait?”
When Leo finally opens it and scurries out, and says a quick, “Sorry!"
Nico does a mental countdown, “Now!” He, Hazel and Piper push the door open together and slip right out. Jason couldn’t help but chuckle. He then joins Grover and Nyssa, both of whom were over at Percy and Annabeth’s corner.
“Is she okay? I tried waking her up, but she hasn’t” Nyssa eyed Annabeth with fear.
“Yeah, she’s fine. She just fainted from shock. How’s about I carry Annabeth, while you two handle Percy.” Jason picked up Annabeth bridal style.
“Grover, dudeeeeee . How are you here right now? Am I in Elysium?” Percy loopily says when Grover shakes him awake. The waterboy kept poking Grover’s face.
“Nah dude, more like Tartarus,” Grover chuckles as he and Nyssa props Percy’s arms over their shoulders. The waterboy was soon snoring as the rest of them were now making their way out of the room and up the stairwell.
“Oh yeah,” Jason recalled Nyssa saying it was 7th period, “How did you two find us so quick?
“Do you know Will Solace?” Grover replies. The names sounded familiar to Jason, but his raging headache made it hard to think.
“I’m not sure.”
“He’s one of Nurse Asclepius’ aids. You’ve probably seen him around the nurse's office. Blonde hair, blue eye, slight Southern accent.”
Suddenly Jason was able to picture Will. He knows the boy through the many trips he and his fellow teammates would make to the nurse's office. He was a cool guy, though kinda scary if you don’t take his orders with caution.
Jason hummed, “Yeah, I know him. So he’s the reason?”
“Yep. He said he noticed y’all leaving the cafeteria but not returning for your lunch. By the way, he also said he left your lunches in the nurse's office, so you should pick them up before the end of the day. Anyways, he also has 7th period with Annabeth, so when he noticed she wasn’t there either, he thought something was up. So he tracked me down, then I tracked Nyssa down.” Grover nodded in Nyssa’s direction.
“Sorry about Leo. If I’d known he wouldn’t listen, I wouldn’t have given him the key.” Nyssa sighed. “Now you’ve all had to suffer from his stupidity.”
“Don’t worry it,” Jason shakes his head, “At least no one got seriously hurt.” That’s a lie. Jason knows Leo is definitely getting the beating of his lifetime as they speak.
On a brighter note, he knows Will Solace is getting a bone-crushing hug the next time Jason sees him.