Aphrodite's Playlist of Love for Nico di Angelo

in honor (and obsession) of the Percy Jackson series, i've been writing a story about his cousin, Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. i don't own them, true, but its more like a fanfiction. my friend, Alexis, told me i should post a little here, so, here it is:

We were both young when I first saw you…
-Love Story, Taylor Swift

Fourteen-year-old Nico di Angelo was not one to fall in love.
But, what son of Hades, what son of Death, what Ghost King would?
But the moment Callie, fourteen-year-old daughter of Apollo walked into Camp Half-Blood with her coppery hair, her big black-blue eyes, her pale, lily-like skin, her sweet smile, Nico di Angelo felt a pang in his chest.
Nice di Angelo wasn’t one to be nice to people. He silently glared while he sat alone at the Hades table in the dining hall. His dark clothes and skull ring seemed to give an air of despair and death that made no one want to be near him. His general rebel-like attitude and emo-like ways made something like a force-field around him that repelled friends. His black eyes with a single star shining in each were usually narrowed, sending daggers towards others. The grass died under his feet.
But, with his pale olive cheeks flushing a faint pink, he went over and introduced himself. She had smiled widely, sweetly, looking into his eyes, not stereotyping him, not glancing nervously at his skull ring or his lip ring or at his dark clothes. Smiling. At him.
Nico smiled back at her, hands in the pockets of his black sweatshirt: “I think you’ll like it here.”
All the Apollo campers, only about six boys, came to see their new cabin mate. The Demeter cabin came, too. Those two cabins were tight. Nico guessed it was because Apollo was the sun god and Demeter needed sun to grow their stuff. (The Demeter cabin absolutely despised Nico, what with him killing the grass with every step.)
When Brandon, fifteen-year-old son of Demeter, saw that pretty Callie was the new Apollo camper, a devious smile crossed his lips and his blue eyes lit up.
That guy made Nico’s smile fade. He nervously pulled his silver lip ring (a birthday present from Percy!) into his mouth.
Everyone introduced themselves to Callie, hugs and high-fives and smiles were shared, but she kept glancing at Nico from the corner of her eyes.
“You’ll like it here,” Brandon wrapped his big arm around her small shoulders as he led her away.
She glanced back at Nico as she answered, “Yeah, I think I will…”


No one sits with him, he doesn’t fit in.
But we feel like we do when we make fun of him.
‘Cause you want to belong, do you go along?
&his pain is the price paid for you to belong.
-Hero, Superchick

Callie looked at Nico, sitting all alone on the side of the sword arena. She tilted her head to the side, studying the first person to welcome her to camp.
“Callie, what are you doing? Staring at di Angelo?” Brandon sounded appalled.
“Why is he all alone?” she bit her lip.
“He’s the son of Hades. He has no friends. He’s a freak- always wearing black and glaring and he has that stupid lip ring. He talks to ghosts. No one even wants him here, anyway. He belongs with the dead,” the blonde boy explained.
She took a step towards Nico, smiling, “Well, maybe he just needs a friend.”
Brandon grabbed her arm, “Don’t go over to him, Okay?”
She frowned, but nodded.
------
At dinner, Nico found someone sitting beside him. He turned.
“Hi.” He was staring into the smiling face of Callie, with her big azure eyes and pink-tinted cheeks.
Did she not know that the cabins couldn’t sit together?
“Hey,” Nico turned back to his food.
“I thought that, since you’re always sitting alone, I’d sit with you. If it’s okay, of course. I don’t want you to think I’m annoying,” she blushed, realizing he might not want her there.
“Nah, its fine. As long as Mr. D doesn’t strangle you with grape vines for switching tables,” he chuckled to himself.
“Um, if you don’t mind me asking, and you don’t have to answer…why doesn’t anyone ever…y’know, talk to you or anything?”
Nico’s cheeks flared: “People Talk To Me!”
Everyone got quiet and turned to look, to stare at Nico and his outburst. He put his head down on his arms, muttering curses to himself.
“I’m sorry, Nico. I-” he cut her off.
“You…know my name?” he looked up at her, surprised.
She giggled, smiling again: “Of course! You’re the first person I met when I came to camp! You came up and introduced yourself, duh!”
“Oh,” he ran a hand through his thick black hair. “Right.”
An awkward silence surrounded them. Nico pulled his lip ring into his mouth, a nervous habit. “Hiding your lip ring much?” Callie laughed.
He looked at her with wide, surprised eyes, “Oh. Sorry, nervous habit. And girls don’t usually like seeing it.”
She smiled: “I like it.”
“You do?” he raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” she nodded, giggling, touching his cold, cold hand, “It’s different.”
Brandon came storming over, “What the hell are you doing, Callie?!”
“I’m sitting with my new friend, Nico,” she smiled. “That’s obvious.”
“I warned you. I specifically told you not to get mixed up with him,” the blonde boy stomped his foot. “Gods, you’re insane!”
A mischievous light lit up in her eyes, like a fire had sparked. Nico’s eyebrows rose. “Excuse me?” she stood. “I’m what?”
“Crazy. Insane. Off your rocker. He’s a son of the dead, a son of darkness,” Brandon said. Then, he slyly smiled and tucked a coppery curl behind her ear: “And you’re a daughter of light, of life.”
Opposites attract, Nico thought.
“Just…come and sit with us, Callie…” Brandon tugged on her hand. “Please?”
She looked back at Nico as the blonde boy pulled her backed to their table, hoping to catch the Ghost King’s eye.
But he had already turned away.

soooo?

Perfect Chemistry/ Rules of Attraction

Perfect Chemistry

Enter Alex Fuentes, member of the Latino Blood gang, and senior at Fairfeild High. He's the man of the house, watching over his two little brothers, Carlos (10th grade) and Louis (Middle School), and their Mama.

Enter Brittany Ellis, member (and captain) of the Pom Squad, and senior at Fairfeild High. She's the most "perfect girl in the world," or that's the image everyone sees.

But when these two very different people are paired up in Ms. Peterson's chemistry class, the solar system of Fairfeild begins to unravel. Secrets are spilled, games are played, bets are made.

"Love is more than just a game for two," comes into play here as player Alex and winner Brittany are thrust together and find themselves growing closer, something they never expected.

As to not give too much away, let's just say the experience of their senior year will be branded into them forever.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Rules of Attraction (the sequel to Perfect Chemistry)

"If you loved Alex Fuentes, wait until you meet his brother Carlos..."

Enter Carlos Fuentes, a senior who is being forced to move back to America from Mexico to live with his reformed brother Alex. This boy wants nothing more than to rejoin his gang back in Mexico, or show Alex that he's the most B.A. person in the world and doesn't give a frying duck what anyone thinks. ("Last time I checked, our papa was dead. I don't have to answer to you.")

Enter Kiara Westford, a shy senior who stutters and is ready to show everyone the girl she can be. She wants nothing more than to fix up her car and have fun this year with Tuck, her gay best friend. ("Tuck know this year I'm determined to show my confident side- the side I've never shown the kids at school.")

What neither of them bargained for was Carlos being forced to move in with Kiara's family for the year. And they definitely didn't expect to be attracted to each other.

Carlos believes the word amor - or the English equivalent, love- isn't in his vocabulary. Kiara believes that Carlos has a side he doesn't want to show anyone, that he inherited the shield Alex used to keep up once his big brother let it go.

Kiara knows who Carlos is. She's seen both sides- the B.A. Carlos, who flirts with Madison, the school slut, and goes to R.E.A.C.H. meetings for possession of drugs. AND the sweet Carlos who plays soccer and G.I. Joe with her six-year-old brother and actually enjoys himself.

To not give too much away, I'll just say that El Diablo, or The Devil makes some complications for these two. But they might just find a way out.

"Kiara:
I start to walk out of the room, but i hear him start to panic and his breathing gets labored. He reaches out to me, 'Don't go. Please.'
I sit next to him on the bed, wondering if he's afraid of being abandoned. He slings his arm around my thigh and rests his forehead against my knee. 'I have to protect you,' he says softly."

The Last Song

"When there's no light to break up the dark, that's when I- I look at you." (When i Look at You, Miley Cyrus)

This book is about a girl named Ronnie who has gone on the wrong track in life. She shoplifts, ignores curfew, fights with her mom...oh, and she despises her father, Steve miller.
But, being sent to live with him for the summer changes all that. After finding potential friends to be creeps, her and her father start getting along and she forgives him for leaving. And she meets him.
Will.
The graceful, easygoing boy who first crashes into her, spilling soda down her shirt.
They develop a relationship as she develops one also with her father.
Then, tradgey strikes.
Add a bunch of secrets, twists and turns, and the eventual shocking truth, and you get the few chapters that made me cry for three hours straight, macara running down my face.
Once again, Nicholas Sparks writes an amzing coming-of-age tale that doesn't just pull on your heartstrings- it yanks as hard a sit can on them.

This is now my FAVORITE book. Its funny, depressing, romantic, shocking, everything and more. You have to read it.

I can't wait to see the movie!

(also check out True Believer by Nick Sparks. It's interesting!)

Dear John

"Dear John,
Tell me everything. Write it all down. That way, we'll be with each other all the time, even if we're not with each other at all." -Dear John Movie Trailer.

From the bestselling author Nicholas Sparks, who happens to be my writing idol, comes the heart warming story of John Tyree and Savannah Lynn Curits.

"I miss you so much it hurts." -Dear John Movie Trailer.

Dear John is a wonderful story that makes you laugh, cry, smile, and seriously try to hold back your tears so that your makeup won't run.
John Tyree is an "army grunt" who, on leave, meets the beautiful Savannah Lynn. They fall in love. They vow to wait for each other when he has to go back.

"I'm going to marry you one day, you know."
"Is that a promise?"
"If you want it to be."
"Well, then you have to promise that you'll come back for me when you get out of the army. I can't marry you if you're not around." -Dear John, the book.

Letters. They can keep people together, even half a world away.
Even so, Savannah and John go through a lot. And, slowly, slowly, they drift apart, like a glacier riding the currents slowly, slowly, through the rough, touch ice.

"A lot can happen in twelve months, John..." -Dear John Movie Trailer

They change.
Even with all the changes, they're still in love with each other.

"But tonight you're here with me." -Dear John Movie Trailer

You seriously have to read this book. It has been on my to read list since forever, along with The Last Song, but I've just gotten it. and just finished.

Dear John is one of those books that sticks with you. It swirls through your mind.

"It's a full moon here tonight, which makes me think of you, half a world away."

Along For The Ride

"Let me guess," he said, "You want to learn to ride a bike, and it can't wait until morining."

Auden's social life has been...microscopic. Less than microscopic. Invisible.
And now that she's out of High School, she's beginning to think that she missed out on a lot.

Living with her dad and her step-mom, Heidi, and their new little baby, Thisbe, for the summer ins't exactly ideal, but whatever. It has to be done. No choice. It's either that or staying with her mom and her visiting college students. ew. :(

But then she meets Eli, the secretive,mysertious boy who rides a bike at the end of the boardwalk when no one's watching. They embark on her "quest" every night to try and do things she missed in her past years. "Like riding a bike?"

As she and Eli open up to each other, Auden opens up to the world and people. She stops sterotyping. A new place, a new Auden. A better Auden.

Though her mother isn't happy, Auden and Eli teach eachother a lot.

"Failing sucks. But its better than the alternative."
"Which is?"
"Not even trying." Now he did look at me, staright on. "Life's short, you know?"

----

We all luh-v Sarah Dessen's books (The Truth ABout Forever, Just LIsten, This Lullaby, etc) and this novel is no exception. Check it out! ;)

Romeo and Juliet

"what light through yonder window breaks?"
"Romeo, romeo, wherefore art thou, romeo?"

We started watching Romeo + JUliet in English class a couple days ago, which made me super jazzed because i love that play and know it by heart. i understand all the words and the true tradegy of the story.
But, i found some of my classmates couldn't understand. " 'Wherefore art thou, romeo?' " one said. "WHy can't she just say 'where the are you, dude?' "
i couldn't help but smile at that. We would've said that. Because Romeo & JUliet isn't from our time. The play takes you back into another world entirely.

The play revolves around this feud between the CApulets and the Montauges- "It has to do with hate, but more with love." They men of the families act like gang members. They brawl in the street and distrub the peace.
Then, you find lovesick , fifteen-year-old Romeo Montauge, the only son of the head of the Montauges, who yearns to be loved like his heart loves. He speaks of peace and love.
Then, you meet lovely, inncoent, thirteen-year-old Juliet Capulet, who is but a stranger to the world. As she is her father's only child, he loves her very much and keeps her inside the Capulet walls. She finds she will be wed to Count Paris, a man whom she had never met. "Can you like Paris?" "I...i look to like."
When these famour star-crossed lovers meet at a party, they fall madly in love.
They go through many trials to be together, and, in the end, they finally are.
"For never was there a tale of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo."

Check it out!

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Now, when we were all forced to read "Tom Sawyer" in middle school, i thought 'Oh, great, we get to read a book about some dumb hillbilly who paid a bunch of stupid kids to do his work for him...' And, while most people found themselves hating every second of the story, i found myself drawn in. The story of Tom Sawyer worked its way into my brain and twisted around and around. How could one about-twelve-year-old kid be so brave? I wore my hair in braids to be like Bekcy Thatcher and sometimes unconisously found myself speaking like a Southern Belle.
I was so engrossed that I made my mom buy me the sequal to Tom's adventure- "Huckleberry Finn," the tale of Tom's best friend and partner in crime.

Thirteen-year-old Huck is taken in by the Widow Douglas and eventually stolen back by his drunken father, Pap. Now, old Pap Finn wants Huck's money he found with Tom. And he wants it bad.
So HUck, naturally, runs away. Until he meets Jim, the Widow's sister, Mrs. Watson's runaway slave. He didn't want to be "sold down the river," so he and Huck run away together. (These kids seem to do a lot of running away, huh?)
HUck and Jim make their way down the river and meet "all kinds of folks"- from two conmen that wish nothing mroe than to get as much money as possible to Tom Sawyer's very own Aunt Sally who mistakes Huck for Tom and Tom for Sid.
With his trusty ally Tom back at his side, Huck Finn plans to help Jim escape prison, but not before a whole lot of trouble and more of Tom's elaborate schemes.
In the end, back to "learning to be civilized like other folks," Huck wonders how that'll work out. After all, look what happened the last time!

Though this book was a bit hard to read because of the different dialects, my seventh-grade brain found a way to process it. My friends eventually made my sign a contract to drop Tom Sawyer the day after my birthday and find something else. Little do they know I sneak bits of these books into everyday conversation with them and still read the books before bed. ;)
if you think you're up to the challenge, pick this book up right away. Huck Finn awaits.

"I never seen anybody but lied, one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt POlly- Tom's Aunt Polly, she is- and Mary, and the Widow Douglas, is all told about in that [Tom's] book- which is mostly a true book; with some stretchers, as i said before."