Today is the day my sister finally comes home. While she was gone, I could hardly do any activities because of the "buddy system" that had been installed last year when Mitchell tried to climb the lava wall without anyone to hold his ropes and almost died. We lost enough people in the second titan war that Chiron decided that it would be safest if there were at least two people at every activity. It was okay for a while, but then my sister left to go look for boyfriend, Percy Jackson, who mysteriously went missing a few months ago. The only activities deemed "safe" enough to do without a buddy were arts&crafts and independent study. I'm great at both, but after a while they just get really boring.

Annabeth said she would be back by lunchtime. I thought as I sat the vacant Athena table and stared at my lunch. Most of the campers had already finished, but I wanted to wait for Annabeth. Besides, there wasn't that much else to do.

"Malcolm!" Quintus called as he walked towards me. I looked up at my much older half-brother, but my face smile faded when I saw his expression.

"She's not coming, is she?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"No, I just got the Iris message" he said solemnly, "I'm sorry."

I wanted to cry or scream at Quintus or make a scene, but that wouldn't help anything. So instead, I just calmly stood up and walked out of the dining pavilion, leaving my uneaten lunch at the empty table. I didn't have any destination in mind. I just wanted to be alone. Unfortunately, as I stumbled on towards the woods, blinking tears out of my eyes, I encountered Sherman and Mark. As sons of Ares, they are very rude and always trying to aggravate you. I try to ignore them, but it doesn't help much.

"Oh, look, Mark, it's Malcolm and he's crying," blurted Sherman.

"Hey crybaby, what are you doing this afternoon? Oh wait, I forgot. Nothing! Because you don't have a buddy," said Mark.

"Hey crybaby, does it ever bother you that you don't have any friends so you can't do any activities?"

"Hey Malcolm, do you want to be my buddy?" Sherman smiled mischievously, "We could do the lava wall." Even if I wasn't the son of the wisdom goddess, I would still have the common sense to not trust my life in the hands of the same bloke who dunked my head in a toilet on my first day of camp.

"I thought I was your buddy Mark," Sherman looked hurt that his brother would desert him for me. He wasn't the brightest. As they bickered amongst themselves, I slipped away into the woods and hid behind a tree.

I suppose it was a really beautiful and peaceful part of the woods, but honestly, I wasn't in the mood. I had waited for so long for Annabeth to come back, and then she just deserted me. I could feel the tears streaming down my cheeks but I didn't care. I cried because Mark and Sherman were right about one thing: I didn't have any friends. I never fit in with the mortal world, and I didn't have any cool powers like the other children at camp. The only person who kind of understood me was my sister, and now she left me too. I cried so hard that I almost didn't notice the boy staring at me from behind the bush on my right. At first I thought that Mark or Sherman had found me, but neither of them would have hid from me. I turned to get a better look at him. Once he realized that I had seen him, he slowly emerged from the shrubbery.

"What's wrong Malcolm?" The boy asked. He looked about 13 or 14, but his eyes looked like they belonged to someone decades older. I stared at him for a few moments, unsure if he was real, before I realized he expected me to respond.

"How did you know my name?"

"Those boys don't exactly have an inside voice," he stated, "but that's not what we're talking about. I asked you a question."

"Well, my sister deserted me, I can't do any activities because of stupid safety rules, the only person who even offered to be my buddy was the bully who dunked my head in a toilet, and here I am rambling to my imaginary friend from the bush."

"I'm not imaginary," he protested.

"Whatever," I said as I started to leave before I got into an argument with my imaginary friend, "you don't understand"

"Hey," he called. I stopped and turned around to face him. "I'm all alone too. My sister left me for the hunters, right before she…" he trailed off, lost in thought.

"What?"

"Nevermind, it doesn't matter," he said, anxious to change the subject "the point is, now you have a friend," he stated, "hopefully I do to."

"Oh," I realized he was asking me to be his friend "yeah, of course you do."

"A quarter till four," he muttered, staring up at the sky, "I need to be going."

"Can't you stay a while longer?" I asked, not wanting to lose my new friend so soon.

"I wish I could," he said with a sigh "I will return tomorrow. Farewell, Malcolm."

"Wait! What's your name?"

"Nicholas Di Angelo," he said with a slight hesitation, "but you can call me Nico," and with that, he melted into the shadows.

Authors Note: In case you haven't figured this out yet, this story takes place during that time period after Last Olympian, but before Lost Hero. Just some background: In my story, Quintus is just a grown-up son of Athena. He's not Daedalus or a robot or anything else. Yes, in the books there are about a dozen other children of Athena at camp half-blood, but in my story they probably fell through a crack in space and time. Probably, either that or they never existed. Likely both. Anyway, I made camp half-blood out of legos, and in lego camp half-blood we only have enough lego people to put two or three in each one. Plus, in the books, only 2 Athena campers were even mentioned by name. So there. Nico gets to narrate the next chapter (finally, a Nico-chapter!), so stay tuned. I'll try to finish it before Christmas. This is my first story, so let me know what you think. For you DW fans out there, the crossover part won't come in until later, but it will be there, and I will try to make it fantastic.