The Hate Between Us (Percabeth&Solangelo)

Chapter Twenty-Five: Your Time Is Gonna Come

Nico POV:

"Haha!" I cheered. "I win!"

"Nu-uh, don't cheat," Reyna looked up angrily. "I have Hades, that's six-thousand attack."

"Yes, but only five-thousand attack if you are attacked first - and seeing as I just used Athena with three-thousand attack and the Manticore with three-thousand attack, it means I'm stronger. Plus, I used Apollo's 500 heal points, so I win."

"What? That can't be true, let me see," she grabbed the rule card and started reading with a furious expression in her eyes. I giggled.

"I told you, Hades is a bad figurine to have, he's not as powerful as you think," I gloated.

"That's so not true, there's no way you believe that – you wanted Hades this entire time," she pointed out.

"Yeah, maybe... he is pretty cool," I grumbled. "I still won though."

"Whatever, this game sucks," Reyna chucked the card down and leaned back, staring up at the sky.

"You're only saying that because you lost. This game totally rules."

"Yeah, maybe... it is pretty good."

I smiled and lay down next to her, staring up at the grey clouds that coated the city. We watched in silence for a moment, until my smile finally faded.

"Thank you for playing it with me, Rey, you didn't have to," I said gratefully.

"Of course I did, Nico, it's your favourite game. You know I was going to have to play it with you at some point."

"Yeah, well, it was a good distraction... from-"

"-I thought you promised that you wouldn't talk about Alex today," she sat up quickly. "Look around you, Nico – this field right here, this is a 'No-talking-about-Alex-zone'. Understand?"

"Yeah, but-"

"-No buts!" My friend urged. "Thinking about them makes you sad, and I don't want you to be sad. Only happy. Happy thoughts today, Nico. Happy thoughts."

I couldn't help but smile slightly, shaking my head at her.

"You're impossible," I smirked.

"I'm helpful," she retorted. "I'm actually the best-"

"-WhAT aRe YOu dOinG On MY fiELd, CuPCAkeS!?" Came a voice from across the grass pitch, making the both of us jump. We looked up to see Coach Hedge marching – no, strutting – towards us, megaphone in one hand, baseball bat in the other.

"Oh shit," Reyna cursed, and the two of us jumped up, hastily grabbing at the Mythomagic figurines that we had thrown around us, but we were too late. Coach Hedge reached us before we could get away. "Oh, hey there, Coach, fancy seeing you here." Reyna muttered cautiously.

"You're on my football pitch, Ramirez, during class hours," Hedge responded gruffly, having to look up at her because he was at least a foot shorter than the both of us. Nevertheless, he only had to adjust his grip on his dented baseball bat to scare us. "I could give you both a detention for this."

"No, please-" I began.

"-But you wouldn't do that to us, would you, Coach?" Reyna pressed. "Can't have your best wrestler getting a detention."

Coach Hedge puffed out his chest. "Don't be smug with me, Ramirez. Just because I like you when you're beating people up doesn't mean I like you when you're skipping class. Besides, he's clearly not a wrestler," he muttered, nodding at me. I looked down at my skinny legs and sighed. He had a point. "And I haven't seen him in any of my other clubs, so he means nothing to me. I can give him as many detentions as I want."