Chapter 5

Rewritten


 Today was Friday, the first day of the show and the physical performances were waiting inside the tent I had performed in yesterday. The sun had set half an hour ago but the camp sounded just as loud as it did during the day, if not louder. Families from camp Jupiter had traveled here for a fun time, nymphs, naiads, satyrs, and fawns were enjoying the show from the little picnic area near the stage for those who didn't want seats. TV production cameras pointed down at the stage at the top of the amphitheater seats, a sticker in silver and gold colors read 'Olympus TV'. Even though I wasn't performing until tomorrow, those camera's felt intimidating. The judges table still sat empty. No one had even moved a chair or a pen on the desk. Strange.

But I couldn't focus on that. Those of us who chose the musical performance, or in my case forced, had taken refuge in the Apollo cabin getting as much practice as we could for tomorrow. There were about ten of us, Annabeth stood by herself in a corner reading over her music sheet making sure she had memorized the words by heart. Piper and Jason were practicing their songs together by the percussion instruments, a wall of marimbas locking them in and prevent any interruptions. Hazel smiled and played her song to Frank and Reyna on the little ukulele a daughter of Apollo lent her, it was decorated in beautifully blended acrylic flowers and little birds, perfect for Hazel. Nico sulked to Will on a table packed with buckets of paint and various medical equipment, which an argument could be for being sanitary.

I, on the other hand, was not in the Apollo cabin (even though I should be). Instead, I was passing out programs with the little kids because they wanted to help and Chiron couldn't say no to them. But honestly, who could?

A surprising amount of people showed up, which was a bit concerning. It made me think, if there were this many people today imagine tomorrow. I have to perform tomorrow!

"Percy," A little hand grabbed the edge of my shirt and tugged. "I need to pee."

"Okay, let's go," I put the pamphlets in the basket full of them and took the little girl to the restrooms, luckily, they weren't far. Just on the other side of the lake and I could make us go over it in no time. So when we reached the edge of the lake, I pick up the daughter of Iris and had the water make us 'fly' over the water.

"Percyyyy!" She cried. "I have to go!"

"I'm going, I'm going!" The moment we reached the other side of the lake, I started to sprint to the girl's bathroom, hoping not to get peed on. I could see the words on the side of the building a few feet in front of me. "Okay, we're here. Do you need help or can you do it by yourself?" Please say you can do it by yourself, please say you can do it by yourself.

"I can do it by myself." She smiled. "But can you undo my button?" I undid the little button and she ran into the building. It was weird helping little girls use the restroom, and frankly, I did not want to help again. But if Estelle needs help when she gets older then I'll suck it up and help cause that's what big brother's do!

After a bit I heard the sink run and a little song echoing in the empty bathroom, then it turned off and the little girl walked out again with her hands wet. "I'm done!" I took her hands and dried them off before walking back to our station at the front of camp to welcome the guests. What I did not expect when we returned was the gods themselves. Minor and major of everything came and for once, they were excited to run up to their children and embrace them. The little kids gladly clinging onto their mothers and fathers. Irene, the daughter of Iris, let go of my hand the moment she saw her mother, "Mama!"

I scanned the crowd of gods to search for my own parent. It shouldn't be that hard to find a deeply tanned, black-haired, fisherman with green eyes, right? Right? Surprisingly, it was. Even though I was taller than most in the crowd, it was hard to look for him. I saw Zeus and Hera towards the end of the crowd, Aphrodite was hanging onto Ares as they walked to the seats, Apollo gladly welcomed the other gods to the show he has been working on. They all smiled happily and found seats in the massive crowd. And as the group of deities dwindled, I had still yet to find my dad. Deciding that I should give up and look later, I wrangled up all the running children and brought them back to passing out pamphlets.

We had run out of pamphlets.

All the gods, when they came in, had grabbed one from the baskets. That's cool I guess but what am I going to do with the kids now? Looking at the mass of hyper children, I asked, "You guys want to watch the show, now? It's going to start soon." I was meet with a collective "Yeah!" so I lead them to the seats so they can run in and find their siblings or parents.

Smiling I told Chiron we had finished our jobs and he let me go to enjoy the rest of the night however I pleased. Time to visit Annabeth. Despite the show starting in fifteen minutes, people were still walking around making it very hard to get anywhere. Eventually, I reached the end of the large group at the edge of the backstage tent. I poked my head in and wished everyone good luck. They all thanked me and went back to practicing one last time. Jeez, that's going to be me tomorrow in front of the entire crowd. In front of all the gods. In front of three unknown judges. In front of my dad. I don't think I'm ready for that.

"Percy," My head whipped up from staring at the ground to look for who called me. Even though I was far enough from the stage, it was hard to see. The only thing I knew for absolute certainty was the lake a yard or so next to me. "Over here."

To my right, standing with his wife and son, was my dad. He came in his usual fisherman attire, donning his fanciest Hawaiian shirt and cleanest crocs. Amphitrite was behind him with Triton, she wore a light blue summer dress that had little coral designs scattered everywhere, Triton wore a simple pair of jeans and a casual button-up shirt. Amphitrite tapped Poseidon's shoulder, "Triton and I will go and get us some seats."

She still didn't like me. My dad patted her hand before she left, "I'll be there soon."

"Hey Dad," I said sheepishly, still nervous to talk to him even if I have talked to him many times before.

"Hello son," He smiled. "So, did Apollo put you in this?"

"Yeah, he's making me sing."

"Do you want to sing?"

"No, but kinda," I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. "I don't know."

He chuckled and walked up next to me, giving me a hug. "It's nice to see you again, Percy."

I smiled and hugged him back. "Are you gonna be here tomorrow?"

"I will, you perform tomorrow, right?" I nodded. "Good, I have a seat reserved in the higher section of the seats so I could see better, but I don't know if Amphitrite and triton will come."

"Doesn't matter," I said.

"Sorry to cut this short, but I know Amphitrite is waiting for me," He ruffled my hair, making it messier than it already was. "I'll see you soon, Percy."

"See you soon," I smiled and continued on my way to the Apollo cabin. When I crossed the lake for the third time that night, I turned around to look at the stage. It was like being at a concert. A huge crowd patiently waiting in front of the brightly lit stage, a long line at a concessions table behind the theatre selling food and drinks, Nectar and Ambrosia for the gods, and was that a betting station? Were people making bets of who would win? I knew immediately who would make a stall like that, the Stolls.

Glad to see they were doing something that wouldn't destroy the stage or make a mess, but it did remind me of the Weasly twins from Harry Potter. What? Annabeth read me the books one day and they were good.

I knocked on the cabin door. There were people in there, quiet and speaking in hushed voices, but they were in there. "Guys, it's Percy." Almost immediately did the door open and I was pulled inside, the outside world locked behind me in a flash. "What the heck, man? That hurt my arm."

"Sorry, Perce," Jason apologized. "We needed to make sure you weren't someone else."

"Why?" I straightened my shirt and rubbed my shoulder, the hard jerk really hurt.

"Will came up with the great idea that we sing a group song at the end of the show after awards," Nico grumbled as he picked off the glue on his hand, or I think it was glue, could actually be his skin.

"Oh, neat!" I smiled. "What song?"

Reyna spoke form the couch, "We don't know. They were just trying to figure it out when you knocked on the door."

"I was thinking of a giant group song, ya'know?" Hazel said. "Like each person sings a verse of a song and then at the end we all sing as a big group, that would be a good idea."

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, but the question of what song still hangs in the air. We name different upbeat songs but it always came down to the same thing that made it not work, is it a good song that the camp will like? Almost every song was declined when Will asked that question and every time we all came into a collective mumble of "Yeah you're right."

"How about 'Let's see how far we've come'?" Leo said from the window. Half of his body was inside the cabin the other half hung outside, one arm rested on the table right under the window and the other arm kept his head propped up. "I think that would be a good song to jam to but, that's just my opinion."

We looked to Leo as he yelped franticly looking for the person behind him to slapped his butt, a lightbulb went off and we knew that that was the song we were going to sing.



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