Chapter 7

                                    

                                          
"Hey dorks!" Alex exclaimed as he slid down to sit across from Nico and Magnus sat down next to him to sit across from Will.
"Hey Alex." Will smiled at Alex.
"Hey." Nico said, looking at Alex.
"So, what pronouns are you using today?" Nico asked, tilting his head at Alex. 
"He/him." Alex answered, smiling at Nico. "Thanks for asking!"
"I don't want to disrespect you." Nico shrugged. 
"Oh, I'm so glad Will befriended you and introduced you to us, you're such a sweet little thing!" Alex sighed out. 
"... Sweet little thing?" Nico's face scrunched up. 
"Don't mind Alex." Magnus rolled his eyes. 
"Yeah, but I really don't appreciate being called a sweet little thing." Nico grimaced, looking at Alex.
Alex shrugged, "alright! Alright, I won't call you that anymore!"
Nico let out a sigh of relief.
Magnus, Alex and Will all began to talk to each other. Nico was going to dig into his lunch, but he noticed someone looking at them from the corner of his eye. Nico looked over and saw Octavian was glaring at him. Nico raised an eyebrow and he smiled at Octavian. Nico used a hand to flip off Octavian and used the other hand, wiggling his fingers and mouthing the words 'boy kisser~' towards Octavian. 
Octavian seemed to growl and he was about to storm over before a girl quickly made her way over and stood in front of Octavian, scowling at him. Octavian grumbled and he turned away, not looking at anyone as he walked off. The female turned around and she looked at Nico. Nico met her gaze. 
She was older, her hair was black, her skin was brown, and her eyes seemed to stare right into Nico's soul. She seemed quite intimidating. The female looked away as a male approached her. He looked similar to Octavian, except that he looked more muscular and was definitely not skinny. If Nico squinted, he noticed a small scar on this male's lip as well. 
Nico also noticed two other people coming up towards the female and male, one a latino male and the other girl seemed to be Indigenous. Both had brown hair, though the male had curly messy locks while the female had sort of short, choppy-looking, chocolate brown hair. 
The four of them seemed to walk off and Nico looked back at his friends. Magnus, Alex and Will all seemed to be looking where Nico was looking. 
"Erm, who were those people?" Nico asked. 
"The popular kids." Alex answered, looking at Nico. "Reyna Ramirez-Arellano, the girl who was staring at you, is sort of in charge of everyone. I mean, she's not a mean girl, but she can be pretty tough. In all honesty, she's a badass." 
Alex began to tell Nico the gossip. 
"Jason Grace, the blonde that went up to Reyna, is sort of in charge too. But people find him more approachable. Honestly, he's sort of like Will, but only if Will was more... muscular and sporty, rather than... scrawny and well... nerdy." Alex said, glancing at Will. 
Will frowned and he rubbed his neck.
Nico looked at Will and he gently nudged him in the arm. 
"You're way cooler." Nico tried to comfort Will. 
"You haven't even spoken with Jason, you can't say that." Will slightly smiled at Nico, appreciating that he was trying to make him feel better. 
"Piper McLean! She's Jason's girlfriend. Also her dad is a famous actor, so people want to be her friend. She's also really good at getting what she wants, she can convince teachers to not do presentations in front of class." Alex continued on, getting Nico's attention again. 
"Though we are like ninety-eight percent sure Piper and Jason are just dating each other to hide the fact that they're gay." Magnus added, now catching Nico's attention. 
"And last but not least, Leo Valdez! He's like the funny kid in class, you know? Can be annoying, but can also genuinely be funny!" Alex smiled. "And since he's friends with Jason, Piper and Reyna, then he's automatically popular. And also, we're pretty sure that something is going on between him and Jason, they have some pretty intense sexual tension." 
"Alex!" Magnus scowled. 
"What?! It's true!" Alex exclaimed, looking at Magnus. 
Magnus rolled his eyes. 
"And with Reyna, we're pretty sure she's aroace." Will said, looking at Nico. "She's never accepted any confessions from guys or girls. Neither has she ever been interested in someone." 
Nico hummed, nodding. 
"Right..." Nico said. 
"You seriously can't tell me that you don't see that they have sexual tension, it's like you and me before we began dating-!" 
"Why are we talking about this in front of fourteen year olds? This is inappropriate, Alex!!" 
"Will had to suffer with us having sexual tension before dating-" 
Alex and Magnus slightly bickered and Nico and Will looked at each other. 
"... Do you often deal with this?" Nico asked. 
"Yeah." Will nodded. "But now I have someone to turn to while they bicker. Plus after a few minutes of bickering, then they start to kiss and excuse themselves and-" 
"We will be right back!" 
Will and Nico looked over to see Alex was dragging Magnus up and away from their table. 
"... And they're gonna be making out super passionately in the toilets because they're that kind of couple sometimes." Will finished his sentence as he looked at Nico again.
Nico scrunched up his nose. 
"Do they not care that some people may want to piss in peace without hearing two boys smacking lips?" Nico asked. 
"I think Magnus gets a little anxious about it but... I think kissing Alex is worth that anxiety?" Will shrugged. "Or, I think that's what Magnus thinks." 
"Mmh." Nico hummed. 
"Anyway, we should talk about how boring double English is gonna be." 
"Ugh... Double Italian would've been nicer."
"I know, then I could've doodle the entire time and then you could've caught me up on the notes by tutoring me..." 
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Word count: 1003