Chapter Text
A week after Percy’s performance at the ski resort, it was time for him to return for another semester at Olympus High School in New York. Sitting on the bus, Percy couldn’t help but let his thoughts drift to the girl that he had met on New Year’s. He and his family weren’t able to stay around the resort the next day, so Percy hadn’t seen the blonde girl since they exchanged their phone numbers. He thought that maybe he should send her a message, but he also didn’t want her to feel weird or awkward.
Percy decided that he would text her after school just as the school bus stopped and opened its doors. Percy hiked up his backpack and exited the bus only to be assaulted by his best friend Grover practically jumping on his back.
“Percy,” he screamed with an almost goat-like bleat in Percy’s ear, “How you doing, man?”
“Hey G-man,” Percy smiled as Grover sidled up next to him and threw one of his crutched arms over Percy’s shoulder, leaning heavily on the other, “Hey guys, happy new year.”
“Yeah, it’s going to be a happy Pegasus new year man,” Grover hyped, “because, in two weeks, we’re going to the state championships, with you leading us to infinity and beyond.”
The whole swim team had accumulated around the two boys, and Grover’s exclamation started a loud chorus of the team’s standard ‘what team’ shout as they entered the school. They had barely made it through the entry doors when Silena Beauregard and her twin brother Mitchell waked in front of them, causing all the swim kids to part like the red sea. As soon as Silena was through the group of swimmers, Beckendorf, one of the biggest guys on the team, said, “the ice princess has returned from the North Pole.”
“you know she spent the holidays the way she always does,” Grover smirked.
“How’s that?” Percy asked, trying to hold in the laughter already trying to escape.
“Shopping for mirrors.”
All of the members of the swim team laughed and cheered as they made their way toward their lockers. They kept talking and catching up on their winter breaks, some of the members of the group started to trickle off toward their homerooms.
“So Percy, do anything interesting over your trip?” Grover asked, making Percy jump slightly.
“Uh- interesting? Like what?”
“Come on, man, don’t tell me you went out there and just swam and snowboarded.”
Percy considered telling his best friend and brother about the singing but quickly decided that it would be a bad idea and just shrugged.
“I don’t know what to tell you, man. I guess I’m just a boring person.”
Grover gave him a suspicious look but didn’t press the issue. Percy finished collecting all of the necessary items from his locker just as the five-minute warning bell rang. He and Grover made their way to their homeroom, which unfortunately was with the overly dramatic theater teacher, Mr. D.
Percy walked in and high fived one of the guys before sitting on his desk facing the back of the classroom. Percy started telling the story of the New Year’s Eve party, but he had to alter all of the details to keep the singing out of the story.
“So, do you remember the night before?” His friend, Chris, asked him.
“No, not at all,” Percy answered, rather convincingly he thought, “All I remember is, like, pink jelly. I-“
Percy stopped mid-sentence as an oddly familiar blonde ponytail passed right by his desk and went to sit in the back of the classroom. He leaned over to try and get a better look at the new girl only to find himself face to face with none other than Silena Beauregard.
“Hi, Percy,” she giggled.
“Hi,” Percy said shortly, still distracted by the blonde girl that was now sifting through her backpack in the back. If only he could get a look at her face-
The bell rang, letting the class know that it was time for homeroom to begin. Mr. D stood up from his giant upholstered chair and placed a can of diet coke on the end table that sits in front of the little teaching stage he built for himself.
“I trust you all had pleasant holidays.” He began, “Check the sign-up sheets in the lobby for new activities, Mr. Johnson.”
The name was wrong, but Percy knew that Mr. D was talking to him and quickly sat down in his seat properly. The teacher wasn’t necessarily bad, but he could never seem to remember any students' names except for his few favorites, which didn’t include Percy. Mr. D continued his beginning announcements as if he hadn’t just scolded Percy.
“Especially our winter musicale. We will have singles auditions-“
Mr. D trailed off in the back of Percy’s mind as his thoughts drifted to the blonde girl. He had to figure out if that was who he thought it was.
“There is also a final sign-up sheet for next week’s scholastic decathlon competition. Chem club president Jennifer Warren can answer all of your questions about that.”
“Actually, Mr. D,” the girl interrupted, “It’s Juniper Woods.”
Percy rolled his eyes as Juniper attempted to get Mr. D to acknowledge her actual name and pulled out his phone. He opened his contacts and was greeted with the name Annabeth. His finger traced around the call button as he pondered whether he should or shouldn’t, but his impulse won out quickly enough as he pushed the button. Almost immediately, a phone in the back of the classroom started ringing. Percy looked up in shock.
“Ah the cell phone menace had returned to our crucible of learning,” Mr. D sighed as he grabbed the cell phone can and walked over to Silena and Mitchell who had been shamelessly texting the whole time, “Silena and Mitchell cell phones, and I will see you in detention.”
Silena and Mitchell tried to protest but were quickly silenced by Mr. D walking away. He made his way over to the blonde girl in the back- no, he made his way over to Annabeth, who had just gotten her phone out of her bag.
“We have a zero-tolerance for cell phones in class, so we will get to know each other in detention. Cell phone.”
Annabeth sheepishly put her phone into the cell phone can.
“Welcome to Olympus High Ms. Carlisle. Mr. Johnson, I see you have your phone involved. So we will see you in detention as well.”
Percy closed his phone in dejection and dropped it into the can, looking down at his desk and not even bothering to correct Mr. D.
“Um, that’s not exactly a possibility Mr. D, your honor,” Grover stuttered from behind Percy, “see because we have swim practice and Percy-“
“That will be 15 minutes for you too, Mr. Underwear. Count them.”
Juniper let out a sharp laugh at Grover’s misfortune and immediately covered her mouth. She knew that she had made a mistake.
“Jessabelle Worchester, 15 minutes.”
“Mr. D it’s-“
“shall the carnage continue? Holidays are over, people; way over! Now, any more comments, questions?”
No one in the class was brave enough to look Mr. D in the eye or even breathe in fear of more detentions being dished out. In the back of the classroom, though, Chris Rodriquez raised his hand.
“Yes, Crusty?”
“How was your holiday Mr. D?”
The whole class groaned, but before Mr. D could answer, the release bell rang, allowing them all to escape the classroom. Percy gathered his things and bolted out the door only to stop by the wall just outside and lean against it.
Grover came out and gave him a fist bump and promised to see him in detention. Percy stayed by the door until the blonde ponytail glided out of the door. He ran to catch up with Annabeth, who was moving fast and gently touched her elbow, getting her to turn around. Her eyes widened in shock as she realized who had stopped her.
“I don’t-“ She started.
“Believe it.” Percy finished, too excited to see her to let her finish her sentence.
“Well me-“
“Either, but how-“
“My mom’s architecture firm transferred her here to New York. I can’t believe you live here. I looked for you at the lodge on New Year’s Day.”
The two began walking side by side. Percy lowered his voice as they passed by several members of his swim team in the hallway.
“I know we had to leave first thing.”
“Why are you whispering?”
“What?” realizing how stupid he must sound whispering in a loud high school hallway, Percy raised his voice again, “Oh, my friends know about the snowboarding, but I haven’t quite told them about the singing thing.”
“Too much for them to handle?” Annabeth asked incredulously, not entirely paying attention to the conversation as she kept looking at the schedule in her hands.
“No it was cool,” Percy reassured quickly, “But my friends- it’s not what I do. That was sort of like a different person-“
Annabeth cut across Percy to make her way down the main hallway, Percy pivoted to continue walking with her.
“So anyway,” he began again, “welcome to Olympus High.”
The two approached the main lobby where the sign-up sheet for the school’s Spring musical was set up. There weren’t many names on the sheet yet, but it had only been up for a day or two.
“Oh and now you’ve met Mr. D so I bet you just can’t wait to sign up for that,” Percy gestured letting the sarcasm seep deep into the tone of his voice.
“I won’t be signing up for anything for a while,” she laughed, “but if you sign up, I would consider coming to the show.”
Percy laughed humorlessly and said, “Yeah that’s completely impossible.”
“What’s impossible, Percy?” Silena Beauregard said as she emerged from behind the sign-up sheet’s half-wall, “I wouldn’t think impossible is even in your vocabulary. It’s so nice of you to show our new classmate around.”
Silena pulled out a pink sharpie form her bag and stood in front of the sign-up sheet. She scrawled her name in the space for the pairs auditions, hardly leaving any room for anyone else in the box. She turned to look back toward Percy and Annabeth as she capped the marker.
“Oh, were you going to sign up too?” She asked with faux innocence, “My brother and I have starred in all the school’s productions and we really welcome newcomers. There are a lot of supporting roles in the show, so I’m sure we could find something for you.”
“Oh no,” Annabeth said quickly, “I was just looking at the bulletin boards before class. There’s a lot going on at this school.”
Annabeth began to walk away, presumably to her next class. She looked at Silena’s signature on the board with a smirk on her face.
“Nice penmanship,” she remarked before glancing back at Percy, winking, and walking away.
Percy watched her go with a stupid smile on his face and turned to walk to his class but was stopped by Silena.
“So, Percy, I missed you during vacation. What’d you do?”
“You know, swimming, snowboarding, more swimming.” Percy laughed uncomfortably.
“When’s the big swim meet?”
“It’s in two weeks.”
“Wow, you are so dedicated. Just like me. I hope you’ll come watch me in the musical. Promise?”
Percy didn’t want to make a promise he knew he wouldn’t keep, so he just nodded in a non-committal sort of way. It must have been enough for Silena, though, as she waved at him and sauntered away to who-knows-where.
Percy went to his next class, which passed by uneventfully before he made his way to the team’s free period swim practice. Percy lead the team in their stretches while Grover sat next to him filling out the schedule of heats for the day’s training. Being the team manager, Grover was always doing all of the paperwork and prep for the team’s practices and workouts.
“So, dude,” Percy started while throwing his arms back and forth across his chest and back to stretch his shoulders, “you know that school musical thing? Is it true that you get extra credit just for auditioning?”
“Who cares?” Grover said off-handedly, still writing out the plans for the day.
“You know, it’s always good to get extra credit for college.” Percy tried to keep his answer cool and aloof. It was a fair reason that he gave, Percy had a hard time keeping his grades high enough to stay on the swim team, extra credit would definitely help him more than it would hurt him.
“Seriously?” Grover looked up from his paperwork to stare Percy in the eyes, “you think Michael Phelps or Ryan Lochte ever auditioned for their school musical?”
“Maybe.”
“Percy, listen. The music in those shows is hip hop, ok, or rock, or anything essential to culture. It’s all show tunes. It’s costumes and makeup. It’s frightening.”
“Yeah, I know,” Percy tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice at the lack of support from his best friend, “I just thought it might be a good laugh, you know. Silena’s kind of cute, too.”
“Yeah so is a hellhound,” Grover scoffed, “just don’t pet it.”
Percy sighed as Grover stood up and handed him the clipboard to him. Percy gave it a quick look over before turning to the rest of the team and blew the whistle that he held around his neck.
“Alright Pegasi, mount up. We’re running 50m freestyle marathon.” Percy called out to the team before taking his place at the end of the line, “Coach said to kick high and turn fast. Watch for the ropes and keep your eyes on the wall. Don’t be afraid to stay under longer to gain more distance.”
As Percy instructed his team, they took turns diving in and completing their 50m. He watched as they followed his instructions, correcting them where they needed it. He couldn’t seem to keep him mind in the moment, though.
‘Come on, Percy” he thought to himself, ‘you have to get your head in the pool.’ Percy shook his head and started shouting instructions at the team again. When it came his time to dive in and swim his 50m he plunged and felt a sense of calm wash over him. He was a natural swimmer, so he didn’t need to think about the movements much. His mind ended up wandering back to Annabeth and New Year’s Eve and the sign-up sheet for the musical. ‘why am I feeling so wrong?’ he thought, ‘my head’s in the pool but it feels like my heart is stuck in the song. She makes it feel right.’ Percy pulled himself out of the pool and didn’t even high five Grover on his way back to the clipboard. Percy looked at the board in his hand and tried to get his head back to where it needed to be. Practice finished up easily, but Percy still couldn’t pull his mind off of Annabeth and the musical sign-ups. What if-?