※Rewritten※

The conch had been blown from the pavilion. Dinner time.

I had completely forgotten about meeting Chiron after my solo training and instead spent the time with Leo. We sat around in the fields for a bit talking, after that, we walked around the camp, chatted with some people as we strolled through the endless sea of orange. It felt weird to talk to Leo as we milled about aimlessly, like we were immortal cause it felt like time speed up in the camp like earlier. I had not felt like this before. I never felt like the world around me was going faster than it ever had before. And yet, Leo and I, at least to me, the earth slowed.

It was like an acid trip. But the sound of the horn took me out of the existential thoughts we had been talking about for the past hour and a half. And for once, I was glad to stop talking. So as we reached the pavilion in silence, Leo left to go to his table and I walked to my table where Annabeth sat, slightly annoyed. "Hey, wise girl."

"Where were you? Chiron and I were waiting for half an hour for you!" Annabeth stared at me with her angry eyes. "And you better have a good explanation than 'I forgot'."

"Me and Leo were hanging out and I forgot," I took the empty plates from the harpies. "No, seriously, I did."

"My gods Percy," Annabeth grabbed her plate and goblet and waited for the food.

"Believe me, I did," I turned in my seat to look at her better. "I had truly forgot that you and Chiron needed me in the big house and I sat with Leo in the strawberry fields for a bit and then we walked around the camp till the conch, I swear."

Annabeth sighed and stabbed the food that appeared on the plate, waiting for us to go up and give an offering. "Okay, but I have to ask Leo if what you're saying is true."

"Why would I lie?"

"I don't know, ran out of excuses?"

"Although true, that's not why I didn't show up." I scraped my largest cut of brisket and dropped the fluffiest roll into the fire and said a prayer to my dad, hoping he could get me out of performing. "But why did Chiron call for me?"

Annabeth scraped some of her food into the fire. "Chiron told all the counselors about a talent show that Apollo is putting together, he wanted to tell us first before the other campers so we'd have a head start on planning and setting the place up."

Glad I wasn't there then, I thought to myself as I ate. My silence made her uncomfortable I could tell and she figured out why. Calculating my response to her statement, but she didn't continue the conversation about what the meeting was about. As much I didn't want this to bother me and annoy me so much, a small, tiny, piece of me was excited to perform. I felt conflicted. I want to perform but I didn't want to give Apollo the satisfaction of performing. Ugh, I'm confused.

Honestly, I didn't know that dinner had passed and everyone was moving to the amphitheater for dessert. S'mores, my favorite fire delicacy. I waited to the very end to grab my ingredients to make my famous double-decker s'more that is treasured by many among this camp. But tragedy struck as I was assembling the treat. My first s'more was consumed by the blonde I trusted. "Rude."

"It was begging for me to eat it," Annabeth smiled, chocolate and marshmallow around her mouth. " 'Eat me, Annabeth! Eat me!' "

I smiled and shook my head but continued to make the s'more. This time watching carefully for thieves, and my young mind tricked myself in believing that my s'more was safe. But when I completed the second half of my treat, I looked away to Annabeth, a triumphant face drawn on me as I looked to her. And in that small fraction of a second, while my head was turned away, Leo had graced my s'more and taken the first bite, ruining its purity made only for me.

"Leo!" I yelled and chased him after I saw the evidence on the plate and the culprit escaping as fast as his little legs could take him. The camp behind me laughed as Leo ran from my anger.

When we returned back to the amphitheater, Chiron was standing with Apollo in front of the fire. Leo was sopping wet and I had small scorch marks on my clothes, but nothing too severe. Many looked curiously at us, some didn't even know we came back, others were annoyed that we interrupted an important announcement. Chiron turned to us and smiled, chuckling at our state, "Well, glad to see you both came back. Now go and sit so Apollo can give his announcement."

I looked to Leo as we walked back to our spots, "You owe me a s'more."

"You can have mine," Leo smiled and sat next to Piper who was trying to keep her laughs in.

Apollo smiled brightly, his hands resting upon his sides as he looked to us. "Okay! Now that we're all here, I can begin." He picked up a large bingo-ball mixer from the table next to him. "Earlier, I had Chiron tell everyone to write their names on a paper and to put it in here without knowing what it was for, I will tell you." He put it down. "Camp Half-Blood will be hosting a talent show!"

Chatter erupted among the crowd. Opinions and wishful words were spoken the moment he announced it. Annabeth turned to me and whispered in my ear, "I hope I get picked."

"Why? What are you gonna do?" I asked.

"I wanna sing, but I don't know if I'll get picked, lots of people are here and they can do lots of cool tricks," She looked around at the other people our age who were already thinking of what they could do. "And I don't know if Camp Jupiter is involved in the show either, it would be cool, but the chances of my name getting pulled would decrease greatly."

"Yeah, cause that's like, almost a thousand people, right?"

"A rough estimate, not too far off, but yeah. It'll be a point-one percent for me to get chosen, but then as names are picked, my chances would increase because the name that was pulled wouldn't be pulled again and it would then lower the number of names inside the mixer—" She continued on rambling about probability. I didn't understand much after she had said that her chances are point-one percent, but I knew that if she rambled on about one particular subject, she really wanted it or was very interested in it. So I looked from Annabeth's grey eyes as she stared at her hands calculated the ratios and percentages in her head to Apollo who was looking at me. Nudging my head slightly to Annabeth, I tried to send the message that she wanted to be in the show. I hope he understood what I was trying to say cause he nodded and called for his attention again.

"Now, some of you are thinking 'I hope my name gets picked, but there are so many people!' I have a solution for that," He walked behind the table where paper signs were tapped to the edge of it facing us, four signs that read 'physical', 'musical', 'group', or 'powers.' Apollo gestured to the signs, "In front of me are four signs for the four different sections of the show, each one will have about ten to fifteen people performing. Groups are different, seven people groups max and everyone has to agree to perform for both camps, and on Olympus TV.

"The show will last four days, one for each section and the end of the fourth day for awards." He explained. "Now, when I pull your name, you tell me what section you want to be placed in. Ready?" The camp was eerily silent. No one spoke and everyone was leaning in their seats as Apollo spun the bingo machine, then he stopped, opened the little door, and grabbed a folded piece of paper. "The first person, Nyssa Barrera!"

Gasps were heard as people looked to the daughter of Hephaestus. She thought for a moment but sighed, "If we don't want to do it, can we decline?"

"Yeah, sure! If you don't want to do it, you don't have to," Apollo smiled and placed the name behind him into the fire and began the process again. "Malcolm Pace!"

"Physical, I think," He announced. "Would solving a fifty-by-fifty Rubik's cube be under Physical or powers?"

"Good question, I'd say powers." Apollo dropped his name into a small bowl above the 'power' sign. He kept calling names out and each of them were placed into their respective sections. The 'physical' and 'power' sections were filling up quickly with only about three groups signed up, not many people wanted to sign up for the 'musical' section, that is until he called out, "Annabeth Chase!"

She squeaked a little when Apollo called out her name, and with a moments silence she answered, "Musical!"

"Oooh! Our third person to say musical! Piper, Nico, you have some competition now," He dropped her name in the almost empty bowl. "Last name for tonight because I have to go do the same to the other camp, Percy Jackson!"

Everyone looked to me, I knew what they were all thinking, 'he's probably going to say physical or power! He has to!' But I sighed and ran hand fingers through my hair, "Musical." Many people looked shocked, but eventually, they looked away.

"Great!" He smiled. "Last piece of information before I go—"Apollo snapped his fingers and the table disappeared. "I am putting the Athena cabin, the Hephaestus cabin, and Chiron in charge of building and setting up the show. You have until next Wednesday to have everything built and ready to go. Bye!" And with a blinding flash, Apollo left the camp.  

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