I don't own Percy Jackson or Wake Me Up When September Ends by Green Day. I do own Karen Edgerly, Mr. Pickering, Bryce, and Matthew.

Chapter 1 – The Innocent

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends
Ring out the bells again
Like we did when spring began
Wake me up when September ends
– Wake Me Up When September Ends, Green Day

The autumn air was cold, and Nico could almost smell snow in the air. He pulled his jacket closer and tucked his nose in against the wind. He hated winter. Even at five years old people made fun of him for being "emo", though he didn't think they really knew what it meant. Hell, he didn't know what it meant. And Bianca wouldn't explain it to him, she just assured him that he wasn't. And that was good enough for him. His sister was always right.

But despite people insisting that he was "emo", and picking at the long sleeves he wore, he really didn't like long sleeves. He liked to be able to run around outside in his t-shirt (but still in jeans, he'd never liked shorts), and winter made that difficult.

Also, it made his knuckles stiff, and that made it difficult to play his game. And no matter what they said, Mythomagic wasn't a baby's game. He wasn't a baby. He was five.

Bianca said it was okay to still be a baby sometimes, though, so he supposed it was. Just not at school.

He'd been so excited to go to school. He was smarter than a lot of his classmates, he'd already been able to read when he started kindergarten that year. He loved reading, especially about the monsters and gods he already knew about from his game. That was how he'd learned, actually. He'd gotten tired of needing Bianca to read him the cards, and decided that either he'd have to memorize each card based on its picture, or he'd have to learn to read.

He'd ended up memorizing the cards anyway, but that was beside the point. And his teacher, Ms. Karen, had been very impressed.

Ms. Karen was the nicest lady Nico had ever met, even if Karen wasn't really her last name. He'd overheard the principal talking to Ms. Karen. He didn't know what they'd been talking about, but the principal, a big, beefy, red-faced man name Mr. Pickering, call Ms. Karen Mrs. Edgerly. But Nico didn't like that name, it wasn't nice enough for Ms. Karen, so he never called her by it. Ms. Karen had black hair and smiling eyes, as Bianca liked to call them.

Nico blew on his hands to try to warm them. He glanced across the playground. A fifth grader named Bryce was shaking another kid upside-down for his lunch money. Nico remembered his first day, the one he'd been so excited about. Until Bryce had put him in the exact same position that this poor boy, who Nico now identified as Mathew from the first grade, was in. Nico had learned to bring a lunch to school a few days in.

He didn't like school anymore. The other kids didn't like him because he was different. He had moved to America just three months before, and although his English was very good due to Mythomagic and the American television that Bianca loved so much, his accent still left something to be desired. Sometimes his classmates would give him words to say. One of their favorite things to do (when they were in a good mood) was try to teach him to speak without the accent. They especially liked giving him words that began with "h", because he always dropped it. He hated it. Or rather, 'ated it.

"Hey," Nico heard, and looked up to see Bryce standing in front of him flanked by two cronies (cronies had been Bianca's favorite word for weeks after she'd heard it in a television show). "Still playing that baby's game?" Bryce asked, smirking. His cronies chuckled.

"No babies," Nico muttered, looking back down at the figurines spread across the cold ground.

"I'm talking, idiot," Bryce snapped. He knelt down and grabbed the collar of Nico's jacket. "Do you understand my words?" he asked slowly, mockingly.

Nico didn't answer, and the crony on the left went behind him and shoved him. "Answer."

Nico glanced back up at Bryce. "I understand," he said.

Bryce laughed, letting go of Nico's collar. "Understand," he said, trying and failing to roll the r like Nico had. He shoved Nico back and Nico fell, sprawling on the ground. Bryce picked up one of the figurines. "Who's this?" he asked with a sneer.

Nico sat back up. "Athena."

Bryce snorted and threw the figurine at Nico. It hit Nico's jacket. "That's so stupid."

"Is no stupid," Nico muttered, picking up the figurine. He leaned forward to pick up the others, but Bryce grabbed his hand.

"Learn how to speak English," Bryce said. He squeezed Nico's wrist and bent it backwards.

It wasn't the first time Bryce had done this, and Nico knew how it would end if he didn't react. The first time he'd tried to pretend it didn't hurt (even though it did, Bryce was strong) and had ended up having to wear gloves until the bruising went away. He didn't tell Bianca or his father, they had too much to worry about already. And the teachers wouldn't care. Bryce had told him so.

He whimpered an "ow" and tried to pull his hand away. Bryce and his cronies laughed and Bryce let go. He stood up and led his cronies away from Nico, probably to terrorize other small children.

Sitting there, holding his wrist and hoping that it didn't bruise, Nico wished that they had never left Italy. Not for the first time either. He sniffed and wiped away the tears forming in his eyes. The one good thing about winter was that he could pass off tears as his eyes watering from the cold.

"Hey," came a voice above him. He looked up. Standing there was a girl about his age. She had black hair and electric blue eyes. The combination was almost terrifying. "Are you okay?" the girl asked.

Nico nodded furiously and began picking up his Mythomagic.

"I'm Thalia," the girl said, sitting down in front of him. She picked up one of his cards.

He snatched it out of her hand. "No touching," he snapped.

"Sorry." Thalia looked down at the other cards and figurines. "What is this?"

"Nothing."

Thalia raised an eyebrow. For a five year old, she was very good at it. "Okay, then." Then she cocked her head and frowned. "How come you talk funny?"

"I am not America."

She giggled. "American, silly."

"American."

"I wasn't making fun of you," Thalia said. "Where are you from?"

He glanced up at her. She really wasn't making fun of him. "Italy."

Thalia's face lit up. "Oh, that's so cool! How do you say hello in Italian?"

Nico stared at her. Was this girl serious? "Salve," he responded. "Ciao, to friends."

"What?"

He sighed and sat back. "You have hello, yes?" She nodded. "You have hi to friends, yes?"

"Oh," Thalia said, drawing out the word. "So salve is like hello and ciao is like hi?"

Nico nodded, and could help the small smile that crossed his face.

"So really, what are you playing?"

He looked down at the figurines and cards, now stacked in neat piles. "Mythomagic," he responded, looking back up at her.

"What is it?"

"It is game for god and monster. Of Greek."

Thalia nodded. "I don't know what that means," she said, laughing.

Nico reached forward and picked up a card. "Manticore," he said, handing it to her. "Put down." He motioned for her to place it on the ground. When she had done so, he picked up another card and put it down opposite the Manticore card. "Apollo." He pointed to points on the cards. "You win."

Thalia looked at both of the places where he was pointing. "Because Manticore has a bigger number."

He nodded. "Attack," he said, pointing at the number of Attack Points on the Manticore card. "Defense," the number of Defense points on the Apollo card. "I first, Attack," the Attack points on the Apollo card, "Defense," the Defense points on the Manticore card.

Thalia looked up at him and grinned. "I get it. So if I win, what do I get?"

Nico searched through his pile of figurines until he found the one he wanted. He held it and the Apollo card up. "Apollo."

"That's really cool! Okay, let's play."

Nico grinned and dealt the cards, five to each of them.

By the time Ms. Karen started calling for their class to go in, Thalia had started getting better and had beaten Nico twice out of the five games they'd played. "That's really fun," she said as she helped Nico pick up the cards.

Nico smiled and nodded. "Yes, fun." He put the cards and figurines in their boxes and tucked them all into his bag. Swinging the bag over his shoulder he began to walk back to the school.

"Wait," Thalia called, and he turned around. "I don't know your name."

"Nico."

Thalia grinned. "Ciao, Nico," she said, waving.

"Ciao, bella," Nico responded. Thalia laughed, giving him a look that showed she didn't know what that meant, and that she didn't particularly care. He waved back and Thalia turned to go back to the playground. Within a few seconds she'd gotten lost in the crowd.

Nico walked back into the classroom smiling.

"Bianca!" Nico called as he opened the door to their small apartment. He dropped his bag on the floor, keeping a hold of the smaller one with his Mythomagic in it, and ran into the kitchen. Bianca went to a different school than he did, and her's got out earlier, so she'd already gotten home.

She was in the kitchen eating a snack. His father was washing dishes in the sink. Nico had forgotten that it was Wednesday, his father took the night shift on Wednesdays.

"Ciao, Arachidi," his father said, drying his hands on a dish towel. "How was school?" he asked in Italian.

Nico wrinkled his nose at the nickname. It meant "peanut". He had never been able to figure out why his father called him that. He only knew it was something that his mother had called him.

"Good," he responded. He climbed up on a stool and placed his Mythomagic bag on the floor next to him. His father put a plate with a chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk in front of him. Chocolate chip cookies were the only things that his father could cook. "I made a new friend!" Nico said, dipping his cookie into his milk.

Hades chuckled. "Really? What's your friend's name?"

"Thalia. I taught her how to play Mythomagic! She's really fun."

"Do you have a crush on her?" Bianca teased.

Nico wrinkled his nose. "Ew, no. Yuck. She's just my friend."

Hades laughed again and went back to the dishes. "You should invite her over."

Nico's face brightened. "Okay! You'll really like her."

"I'm sure," his father responded. "But first you should do your homework." He looked up at Bianca. "Both of you."

"I'm not the one who never does his homework," Bianca said, looking at her little brother.

Nico groaned. "It's stupid."

Hades chuckled. "Homework in kindergarten is stupid, but you still have to do it."

Nico huffed, jumped off the stool, and walked into the hall to get his bag.

When he picked up the bag, he winced. His right wrist still hurt from Bryce bending it. It was bruised, too. That would be fun to have to explain to his father.

But slinging his bag over his shoulder, he thought of Thalia. For the first time since the first day of school, he was excited to go back.

I've been talking about this for a few weeks, and I'm so excited to finally be getting it out there. I haven't started the next chapter, but I'm hoping to be able to post it on Monday.

For those of you who haven't read any of my stories before, hi, I'm Jez. Welcome. I warn you that my stories aren't always happy, if you want proof just go read Love, Tears, and Suicide (or just the title, it sort of says it all) or The Sadness of Mistakes.

If you don't have an account on here and you can't follow this story, I upload on Mondays. Except now, of course, which is a Wednesday. And sometimes I upload on Tuesdays if I can't get to the library on Monday. My parents don't want me to have an account and they monitor my wifi at home, so I have to upload at the library. So on holidays I can't upload. If that's the case then I will upload at the next possible moment.

I try to upload every Monday, that doesn't always happen because I am in high school, and soon I'll have a job, too.

I also have another story going on, it's called Along the Way, it's an AU Thalico story. It's much more romantic than this one is. It's a crime story, basically Thalia and Nico dated in high school, had a nasty break up, and now Nico is a detective and Thalia's missing and he's the one who has to find her.

After I upload this I'm going to upload a long one-shot called Terrible, another Thalico AU. Set in high school, Thalia and Nico have hated each other for years until they get assigned a project and things get…complicated. Completely cliché, I love it so much.

So yeah! I love the idea of Nico being from Italy and not being able to speak English fluently. This story isn't going to be romantic, probably. It's more of an angsty depressing type of thing. It includes insanity, too, which is always good.

I looked up Mythomagic and wasn't able to find any good rules for it, so I made up my own. It's pretty basic. I know the books say that the rules are really complicated and I'm sure I could come up with some better and more complicated rules if I tried.

I hope you liked the first chapter, and come back on Monday for the second! Hopefully.

I've seen authors on FanFiction say that they take requests, I think I'd like to try it. So if you have any requests just PM me, I can't promise to do it but I'll definitely get back to you on it. Thanks!

People who have read Roses On Your Grave or Along the Way know this, but for those of you who don't I always do a Quote of the Week. It's something that I've heard somewhere that sounds really weird when you say it by itself. Usually it sounds pretty funny in context, too.

Quote of the Week: "Sweetie, no one else puts black powder on their Christmas list." My brother was the only one who turned in his Christmas list (no idea why, it's still the middle of November) and he wanted to know how Mom knew it was his. He's a ten year old boy. It shows sometimes. Or all the time.

Go read Terrible and review!