Another school, another place where people would feel sorry for me. I picked up my timetable at the reception and went to my new class. After looking for the right room for 10 minutes I finally entered my Physics class. I was stared at by all my classmates, partly because I got lost and 10 minutes late, and partly because of my beach shorts and tan in this super rainy weather. When the teacher asked me to introduce myself I kept it as simple as possible.

"Hey I'm Will Solace. I moved to New York from Miami so that's why I look so tan."

The teacher clearly wasn't pleased by my introduction but silently appointed me to my seat. Next to me was a kid with Raven black hair, an pale olive complexion and ,when he turned his head to introduce himself, I saw his chocolate brown eyes with thick, full lashes. He was clearly smaller than me but almost everyone in the known universe is since I'm pretty tall. But even when you didn't compare him to me he was small, not only in length but also his frame was tiny and looked like he could easily be broken. Then he said: "Hey Will, I'm Nico Di Angelo I hope you won't die from boredom at this school." I smiled. "Hey and it can't be that bad." Then the teacher asked for attention and the lesson started.

Little did I know that a certain Angel would make this year very exciting.

Throughout the lesson I occasionally looked at Will. Well okay I paid more attention to Will then to the lesson, so when the teacher put a burner and some other materials on our table I had no clue what to do.

Will was my counterpart if it came to appearance. I had untidy, straight, raven black hair whereas Will had golden curls that lay neatly on his head. His tan skin made me look paler then I already was. He had sky blue eyes, a lot of freckles and a soft shade of pink lips.

"Do you know what we have to do?" I asked Will and he answered, clearly amused by my dumbfound expression: "We have to measure the temperature of the water as it is heating up until boiling point. Every 30 seconds we measure the temperature and we have to do that for 3 minutes. Then we turn of the water and try to calculate how much time it takes to warm the water from starting temperature to 375 K."

After an hour of experimenting with a temperature practical, (I hate double hours) the teacher stared to tell us about a project that we were going to do in pairs. For several days of 24 hours under different circumstances we had to see how much water we used and determine what caused major differences. "I'm pairing boy + boy and girl + girl for obvious reasons and because it might be nice to see if there are differences between the couples. Reading out names now." Jason leaned towards me and whispered:' I hope I'm in a group with you. That would be cool.'

"Percy Jackson and Frank Zhang, Annabeth Chase and Piper Mclean, Leo Valdez and Jason Grace, Hazel Levesque and Reyna Ramirez-Arellano, Connor and Travis Stoll, Lou Ellen and Katie Gardener, Will Solace and Nico Di Angelo,"

I didn't listen to the rest of the list as I turned to smile at Will friendly. The bell rang and Will asked me were room 207 was. I quickly glanced at my own timetable and saw that I had to be there too. "I've got the same class, philosophy, I'll show you."

"I've got the same class, philosophy, I'll show you." Nico didn't even know my story and was still kind to me. I was starting to dread the school a little less. Suddenly Nico was hugged by a girl with brown curls. I looked at him questionably and he answered my unspoken question. "This is Hazel my stepsister, she hugged me because she does that every morning to greet me but this morning I escaped but she always seems to catch me somehow." "You sound like you don't like hugs, who doesn't like hugs?" "Well I don't like them that much but I accept them from Hazel, Reyna and Jason." "Reyna, is that your girlfriend." "Neh I don't have girlfriends." I wondered what he meant by that. He had said it like he NEVER had a girlfriend.

*time skip to after school*

After school was over, Nico and I walked home. It turned out we lived a few streets apart, although Nico didn't know exactly where I lived. If he knew, he would know my story.

Since I had enrolled in school in the middle of the year, spring breaks was next week. Nico and I were going to work on our project that week at his place since his dad would be on a business trip all week. Hazel was apparently going on a vacation with some of her friends.

*Time skip to the Monday of spring break*

With a bag full of clothes I was standing at Nico's door and rang the bell. After 2 minutes, a lot of stumbling and muffled cussing the door was opened and there was Nico, shirtless and wearing black pyjama pants with... skulls on them. He looked at me through sleepy eyes and said: "What the hell are you doing he... Wait shit is it 12 already? My alarm didn't ring and I'm home alone. I'm sorry."

The rest of his words got lost in my laugh because of the way he looked and his rambling, it was just funny.

Holidays, the one moment when you don't have to get up extremely early for school and can stay in bed all day. I turned around one more time to fall back to sleep, when the bell rang. "Who is at the door so freaking early?" With a little bit of struggle (read as with a lot of struggling, cursing and walking into things) I managed to unlock the door. Will was standing on the front steps, and I suddenly realised that I wasn't wearing a shirt and my skull pyjamas and my hair probably looked like a birds nest. I said, embarrassed: "What the hell are you doing he... Wait shit is it 12 already? My alarm didn't ring and I'm home alone. I'm sorry." He started laughing and I started seeing the fun in it too.

Before I could prevent it Will was attacked by my dog Mrs. O'Leary. I shut the door and looked at Will ready to apologise for my extremely large dog, but I didn't have to. Will was lying on the floor and scratched the black dog on the head smiling. "I'm going to change real quickly and take a shower. Make yourself at home. I'll be back ASAP." "Before you take a shower you have to write down the number that's currently on the water meter because the experiment has started." Will's comment came just in time as I came past the cupboard where the water meter was located. I checked it. The plumber had replaced it only a week ago so it was on 1364 litres. I wrote it down, grabbed clean jeans and a shirt without really looking and went into the bathroom.

After turning on the shower and waiting for the water to get warm I got inside and started my routine. Normally I had 10 minutes of actually washing myself and 50 to 60 minutes of thinking and singing until I looked like a grandpa, as wrinkly as I was. I tried not to take too long but soon I was swept into the relaxing stream of water. Without even realising it, I started singing Young Volcanoes by Fall Out Boy which I had listened to yesterday.

'When Rome's in ruins

We are the lions

Free of the coliseums

In poisoned places

We are anti-venom

We're the beginning of the end

Tonight

The foxes hunt the hounds

It's all over now

Before it has begun

And we've already won

Only the last part didn't come from me but from the lounge where, and I mentally slapped myself, Will was waiting. I quickly dried of and put on my clothes. I then only realised what shirt I had taken. It was my gay pride t-shirt, black with a rainbow on it. Too late. I walked into the lounge where Will was sitting on the couch and reading one of my books, City of Heavenly Fire, that was lying on the table. When he noticed me he looked up and said with a smile: "You have a good voice AND music taste." Looking really embarrassed, I sat down next to him and said: "Do you like video games, we could play some Mario kart." "Yeah sure but I'm going to totally crush you at this." I picked up the controllers and set up the game. "You sound like Phil when you say that." "You're a Phan too? I love Dan and Phil." "Let's play the game."

Some games turned into gaming all day until I suddenly heard a weird grumbling noise. I first looked at Mrs. O'Leary concerned, then outside because it had been storming all day. Will chuckled and said: "Sorry I'm just kind of hungry I guess. Well I should be, because we've been playing for hours." "I'll make some food for you. Want anything to drink with it?' It was already getting dark and I looked out of the window, concerned, one more time. The storm was getting worse and my dad had warned me and had done some extra shopping so I could survive a week without going out to get groceries. I prepared two microwave pizzas and some coke (not the drug, the drink). When I walked back into the lounge I smiled at Will. "They're not as good as ordered pizza but I don't want to let the poor deliverer go out in this weather." I sat down on the couch handing him his glass. He turned the TV to comedy central, where an episode of Family Guy was playing. After watching about ten minutes the episode was suddenly interrupted. "We interrupt this programme to bring you a warning. Hurricane Sandy is about to hit New York City. We advise everyone to stay inside and close all windows, doors and be prepared for anything. Thank you for your attention."

Will and I exchanged a glance. Suddenly there was a loud BANG outside.

That was when the lights went out.

My first reaction was to scream. A loud, feminine scream came out of my mouth and a moment later I felt something warm brush my shoulder. Nico was next to me and put his hand on my shoulder, and asked concerned "Will, are you alright." "Yeah I'm fine. I just jumped from the sudden darkness. Do you have some light we can use?" A moment later I saw Nico's face, creepily lit by the torch of his phone and I could see a bit better. Nico was sitting close to me and a moment later Mrs. O'Leary howled and jumped on my lap. "What just happened?" I asked a little shaky. "I think the hurricane destroyed the electricity station and now the power is cut off. I think if we've got candles somewhere but I don't know if they're in the basement or the attic but we can look. I'll go to the attic because it's a mess and a maze up there. Could you go take a look in the basement? It's one big space at the bottom of those stairs." By now we had walked to a corridor where Nico opened a door to reveal a steep set of stairs going off into a black hole.

I swallowed, took my phone out and began descending it. When I looked back I saw Nico walk upstairs and disappear from my view. I swallowed again and took a deep breath. The darkness cannot hurt you. It's not going to happen again. Deep breaths, stay strong Will, do it for your mom, your brother, Nico. While I tried to calm myself down I saw the end of the staircase where a single door stood. I reached out to the handle and grabbed it. I pushed the door open but then my phone buzzed in my hand and died. So did my only light source.

I was already feeling the anxiety getting to me. My breathing swallowed, and horrible memories flashed in front of my eyes. Total darkness. A sudden scream. A face in the dark. Unbearable heat slowly growing towards my feet and up to my arms and face. Pain, hard and blinding. My brother's face as I tried to pull him free from under the debris. Tears streaming down my face and screaming for help as the fire licked my arms and torso.

I started to hyperventilate and saw my brother with his pleading eyes lying on the floor of the basement, begging me to help him. I knew it wasn't real but it felt real. The heat started consuming my face. A brick hit my brother in the face.

I screamed. Then the world went black.

Ugh, the attic looks really creepy without the lights on. As I looked for the box with torches and candles, my thoughts wandered to Will. In the time of a week we had become real great friends, I dare say even better friends then me and Jason. My thoughts seemed to always be about him.

I looked through box after box, to finally, in a small corner of the attic, find the box with torches, matches and candles. I picked the box up and started carrying it down the stairs. When I reached the bottom of the stairs and was standing in front of the stairs leading to the basement, I opened my mouth to call out for Will. Then a piercing scream filled the air. Will's scream. I don't know how I knew it was Will, but I knew it. I dropped the box, and ran down the stairs. The door was opened halfway and the room that I knew was beyond it, was a black void. I walked in and there, on the floor, lay Will. He was unconscious, clutching his phone in his hand. Carefully I lifted him of the floor, and carried him, bridal style, up the stairs and into the living room where I laid him down on the couch. Ever so careful I checked his head for any injuries. After finding none, except for a sore spot that would defiantly become a bruise.

I checked Wills breathing and pulse which were both fine. I decided to just wait for Will to wake up. In the time that he was unconscious, I started setting up candles all throughout the room. I tried to make as safe as possible.

After taking about ten minutes, 5 times burning my finger, 3 times getting candlewax over my hand and once even knocking down a candle, I finally managed to set all candles and the room was illuminated by 50 candles. I sat down on the floor next to Wills head.

His normally light pink lips were reddish pink in the candlelight. His hair looked like it was made of liquid gold and his skin looked soft and super tan. Under his white t-shirt I could see his abs. his legs, long and muscled, hang of the couch at the end. "Dang, you're HOT Will."

"Thank you." I almost fell over, I thought he was asleep.

I woke up to Nico walking around the room and lighting candles. I had to restrain the urge to laugh at him while he was struggling with the fire, because he didn't know I was awake yet.

I studied him in the light, noticing things I had noticed before but never paid attention too. Although he was skinny, he was muscular and the light made his hair look like the feathers of raven.

Nico turned around, and in a split second I decided that he shouldn't know that I was awake yet. I heard him sit down on the floor next to my head. Though I didn't see it I knew he was checking me out.

"Dang, you're HOT Will." Nico's voice was soft and it was obvious that he didn't realize that I had heard him.

"Thank you." He almost fell over. I chuckled lightly and sat up. I smiled at Nico who looked like he had seen a ghost. Then we burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry for passing out down there. I got a flashback and anxiety kind of overtook me." "What was the flashback about?" Nico asked. I thought for a moment if I would tell him the story nobody knew. My gut feeling told me I should and that I could trust the black haired boy staring at me concerned. Besides, he just told me, honestly, that I'm hot. "Okay, this is my story."

"When I was 10, so 8 years ago, my brother, mother, father and I lived in a house near New York City. One night it was thundering. I wasn't scared of the thunder and lighting and actually loved looking at it. I was sitting against my window, despite my mother's warning. My brother ran in and dragged me away from the window. Our house was in danger because it stood on the top of hill. After waiting an hour my mother decided it was finally safe to go to bed. It was still storming but the worst part had already past, or so we thought. My father was on a mission because he was part of the army.

In the middle of the night I woke up because I had too pee. I had always had a good nose. So when I walked to the bathroom and smelled the smell of fire and smoke, I started to worry. I followed the smell and it let me downstairs. When I came into the lounge, which was directly connected to my parents' room, there was a huge fire that was slowly eating away the furniture. Screaming for my mom, I tried to see through the smoke and flames with no result.

I ran back upstairs to my brother's room to warn him. I woke him up and started explaining what was wrong in a hurried tone. My brother told me to go to my room and open the large window that was close to the ground (as far as that's possible on the first floor) so we could jump out. He used his phone to call 911.

When I came to my room, the fire had reached it and my drawings and guitar were being consumed by it. I ran back upstairs to my brother to warn him when a part of the roof collapsed. A chunk of wood landed on my brother's legs and lower torso. He begged me to help him and screamed form the pain. I tried to lift the wood, but it was too heavy for a 10 year old.

The fire came closer and the smoke started to make breathing difficult so that my brother, who was also losing a lot of blood, passed out. Slowly the flames licked at my legs and arms as I tried to lift the wood and screamed for help.

The flames were burning my arms and legs, but now they were also burning my stomach and face. I passed out from the smoke then but the paramedics explained what had happened. After I fell unconscious, fire fighters found me and managed to get me out of the burning house. They hadn't been able to safe my mother and brother.

The cause of the fire was later explained to me, together with the causes of death of my brother and mother. Lighting had hit a tree in our backyard and set it on fire. This fire spread easily because of the drier fall leaves. Eventually they reached the bushes that stood against the house. My mother slept with earplugs so she hadn't heard the fire.

My mother died of too much smoke inhalation. She hadn't woken up from the fire until it had reached her room and she couldn't escape anymore.

Michael, my brother died because of the wood cutting off and damaging vital organs past curable. He was unconscious in the hospital for half a day, doctors trying everything to keep him alive, but with no success. He died a minute after my dad, who had been called back immediately, had arrived. Still to this day I have scars on my back from the fire and under the hair in my neck.

My dad and I moved after the funerals. We went to live in Miami and started a new life, trying to forget the old one. The reason I panicked and blacked out in your basement, was because the dark always brings me back to that night. Ever since that night I've worked out until I could lift double as much as an average kid my age. I feel it's my fault that my brother died because I was too weak to lift the wood."

By this time Will had started crying. In a sudden urge of confidence, I hugged him and rubbed his back. "That's horrible Will. And it's not your fault. I said that to myself to after my sister's death and it wasn't true."

Will pulled away from the hug and looked at me, the paths of tears on his cheeks glittering in the candles. "What are you talking about Nico?" Will's voice was soft and comforting. So I told the short version of the story.