Ting. The curly-haired Latino shifted a bit, rubbing his head after the pen hit him. Bonk. The brunette snuck her hand behind her back, flipping off the offender. Jason grinned, but but hid it behind his Honors Literature textbook when Mrs. Pallas looked towards him. Leo turned slightly, mouthing words to him. 'Fuck you.'

'My pleasure,' the blonde shot a rubber band at Piper who was still flipping him off with her left while writing with her right hand. Jason looked for more missiles to throw, but could only find his coin. It was golden with the inscription IVLIVS on the back with his old family crest on the front. It was his good-luck charm: he never failed a test and even managed to get out of detention. The little family heirloom rested in his hand, the metal slowly warming up to his body temperature. He grinned at the two teens in front of him. He focused his gaze on it again.

'C'mon, get Leo back for earlier,' and in one flick of his wrist, the object when flying and hit...somebody.

He muttered some insensible things under his breath as he waited for something horrible to happen. His mind raced. Should he pretend that it wasn't him? Should be apologize? Who the hell did he just hit? He did none of these hings. On the contrary, he didn't do anything. 'Shit, aww, crappy fucking mother of...' yes, Jason had a way with merging words into peculiar phrase.

The black-hooded figure turned around and met his gaze. For a second, as the sky-blue eyes met with dark-chocolate brown ones, Jason's breath escaped his: he was captivated. A pale figure with ebony-black hair which hung around him like a silk curtain, curling outwards at the ends. High cheekbones with pale, almost alabaster complexion with large doe eyes; there was something in those eyes that Jason took as a safeguard: they seemed frail, fragile, broken. Blood-red, full lips mouthed to the blonde after picking up the coin and shifting it between his fingers. 'This yours?'

He could only nod.

With a fluid movement, a pale hand tossed it to the blonde, like a knife cutting through butter; the blonde caught it more out of habit and instinct than consciousness. He was still in a daze when the bell rang.

Leo walked up to his tall friends, who was staring out into space. Probably fell asleep; the Latin shrugged- he didn't put anything past Jason. "Yo, Pipes?" The kaleidoscope-eyed teen peered upwards from her things.

"Yea?"

"Go ahead and tell the others we'l be out shortly."

" 'Kay," Piper nodded heading toward the door.

"And keep your mouth to yourself,"Leo added with a bit of a smirk. The Native American's cheeks grew a slight pink as she muttered under her breath. "At least I have a girlfriend."

"Hey, I heard that!" Groaning, he shook Jason. "Dude, dude. Man, you asleep? Dude, wake up," the latino resolved into yelling into the blonde's ear.

Jason snapped out of his daydream. "What?"

"It's lunch, big dude." The curly-haired male complained, as if it were the most obvious thing on earth.

"Aw," Jason grinned, "little Latino boy can't go to the big bad cafeteria by himself?"

"Fuck you. And I consider you my friends. Racist..." Leo lightly punched him on the arm. "Ye, and I'm leaving now. Bye~" He walked out the door waving, only to have the taller teen right on his heels. Jason pulled the Latino into a headlock and they laughed their way to their usual table during lunch. However, Jason couldn't get the beautiful stranger from his mind. He was certain that he had never seem him before.

"Hey," Percy nodded, implying a 'sup' in his motions. Annabeth greeted them.

"Ditto," Jason sat down next to Piper as Leo asked what was for lunch before being cut off by Hazel.

"Nico!" The golden-eyed teen jumped up from her seat and cheerfully waved a pale teen over. Jason nearly leaped from where he was, exactly like Hazel. Chocolate-brown eyes seemed to examine every single on at the take and the blonde's heart pounded when his eyes landed on the unknown yet familiar face. The dark eyes landed on a green-eyed teen. "Percy." His voice wans't a question.

"Hey, man. Where've you been? Long time no see."

"Sit with us, Nico," Hazel pleaded. Leo gave the pale Italian a look while Jason ran the name over in his head. Nico.

"Sorry Hazel. Have to go to the library. Project." Hen gently kissed the African-American girl on the cheek (Jason could clearly see the rage in Frank's eyes) and promptly left.

"What's his problem?" Leo muttered, putting a piece of chicken in his mouth from the lunch he grabbed. "Antisocial much?"

"Who ws he?" Frank questioned Hazel. She sighed. "My brother," she responded, as if tired from giving too much of an explanation. She sighed again as she perceived the looks the others were giving her. "Half brother. We look nothing alike." Frank visibly calmed down and continued with his lunch.
So," Jason spoke up "Nico Levasque?" Annabeth laughed a bit, making him feel stupid although he didn't know the guy prior to this day.

"No," the grey eyes flickered in his direction. "Di Angelo."

Hmm. Jason thought. Nico di Angelo. Nico... The angel? Fitting.

"Italian?" Piper questioned. Annabeth nodded. "What's his problem?" Leo spoke up again, a;ready almost done with his lunch. He repeated his question from earlier. Percy cleared his through.

"Nothing." The table (minus Hazel) gave him looks. Annabeth interjected for him. "Rough past." Leo snorted.

"Yea, but that doesn't give him the right to be a complete asshole." Hazel scolded him for his use of language, while ignoring the content of what he had just said. Jason joked with a straight face.

"Just 'cause you have a rough past does not mean that everyone else with a rough past will end up insane and crazy like you." The table laughed, the tension gone.

Truth to be told, they all had bad pasts.

Leo had been saved form a burning building by his neighbors but lost his mother in the accident. He had un away from orphanage to orphanhood for five years until he was sent to a private school with a full scholarship for his unnatural mechanical talents. Jason was an illegitimate child of a famous business owner and an actor. His stepmother sent him to a private boarding school after his real mother was sent to a mental asylum. There, he had accidentally electrocuted a bully, whose main victim was Piper; she herself was neglected by her famous father (an actor and brother to Jason's mother) and often bullied at school The trio grew up together when they decided to go to the public high school

Percy grew up with his stepfather a, who had physically and mental abused him and his mother. He doesn't know who his father is 'till this day. He hd been kicked out of several middle schools for cursing, misbehaving, and simply bad grades (he had dyslexia and severe ADHD). After his father had been caught in a severe car crash and passed away in a hospital, his mother had married another man, better this time, and a professor. He managed to get Percy into a charter school and he did not cause major damage to his record. Annabeth, his girlfriend, had run away from home when she was seven due to complications with her and her stepmother, and lived at the library for one before she ws caught and rang to the police.

After immigrating from China to the U.S., Frank's mother had died when he was young, and his grandmother had died a year before he was legally an adult. He was taken in by a monastery/church and had moved on to living with Hazel after starting high school. The African-American, youngest of all of them, had been a lone child brought up by her mother, donned 'The Witch' in the mafia group she was part of. So saying this, all had been through ups and downs, but their main concern was getting through public high school (accordingly the hardest thing they have all accomplished, in their minds).

The end-of-lunch bell rang, and the students filed out of the cafeteria, shuffling to their next period.