Percy

"Um, thanks..." I took the compliment. I did all of the editing last night for whoever wanted me to do theirs. They were that bad. Not very accurate. It's not the dream life. It's a hell driven life. "I mean, it's not that good, but thanks anyways."

"No, seriously." Tyler insisted, like he was more confident in my writing than I was. "It's amazing. I didn't think anyone would take on something like that."

"Like what?"

He paused for a moment. He wasn't sure what he meant either. Well, he did. But he wasn't sure how to explain it.

"Like," he started off. "Having a back story and having it affect your story a lot as little as it was talked about. I mean, you didn't make it a paradise, happy go get it life. I cried for like ten minutes because of the chapter in Tartarus. The suicide one."

He stopped.

"Oh, also," Tyler added. "If you ever need anything, dude, I'm here."

We actually talked the entire hour and it was...

I had a major breakthrough when I walked out of class and I found Nico as fast as I could, knowing where his locker was. Which is where he was. And I scared the actual shit out of him. But I was excited. This was a big deal!

"My g—" Nico stopped before he slipped up and looked back at me. "Percy, it's 9:30 in the morning. You shouldn't have this much energy. I have ADHD and I don't have that much energy."

"Yeah, I normally don't." I assured my boyfriend. "But Nico! A magical thing happened in English today!"

"You didn't fail?"

I gave him a small glare.

"I'm not even failing English, you are." I corrected him. "That's your magical thing."

"Okay," the son of Hades admitted to that. "Then what happened?"

"I think I made a friend." I told him. "That doesn't go to camp with us."

He made a big deal out of it, too.

Tyler

Over the next few weeks I got to know Percy and he was actually a really cool guy, even hung out once. His mom is the sweetest person ever, his sister was adorable, and if Nico and Percy don't get married I will start a riot.

We were doing musical auditions and I was hanging out with some friends. Friends that I know because of plays and what not.

And I don't know how it got brought up, but I had said something about a thing that happened when I was at Percy's place.

Everyone reacted in a weird way. They sort of scoffed and laughed at me.

"You hang out with Jackson?" Micah asked me, amused by the idea. "You're gonna be a freak now, too? Or a loser?"

Everyone laughed.

"Hey," I defended my friend. "If you'd actually talk to him, he's a pretty cool guy. There's more to him than swimming. He's an actual person, you know? If he could sing, you wouldn't call him a loser."

Now, don't worry. I talked him into auditioning for the musical. And he showed up.

And let me explain: this musical, the main character is called Percy Jackson.

With voice was amazing, and he got the role as Percy. Which pissed off my friends. But he deserved it.

And two months went by. The night before opening night. Full dress rehursal and the whole deal. We were just about to start when somebody showed up, looking for Percy.

It wasn't a big deal, until the dude tried picking a fight with him.

Percy

Zeus was back and I was done with his pissy attitude.

"What do you want?" I asked him. "I'm busy."

"Make time." He ordered in a very rude manner. "You do know what this could do, don't you?"

"What?" I asked him.

"If the others find out about it and don't—"

I didn't realize that my story had stuck with Tyler as much as he said it did. I figured that he'd forgotten about it by now.

"You're really going to kill me?" I questioned the King of Gods. "Because if so, please, have no shame in doing so. Go big or go home. I don't care about what you think. I didn't write this. I auditioned and got a part just like I would any other musical. Are you going to execute me over that?"

I was pushing his buttons.

And this went back and forth for a few minutes before he tried to shove me and failed. And I shoved him back, harder. He almost tripped backwards.

"Fuck you," I told Zeus. "And everything you stand for. Don't let me see your face ever again."

Shoving my anger down my throat, we started practice once he was gone. The run through went smoothly, and it was good.

Afterwards, I was waiting for Nico to show up with the car and maybe ten minutes had gone by. People were starting to head out.

Tyler walked over to me.

"Hey, man," he remarked, still having a little eyeliner on. "You good? That dude kind of pissed you off earlier."

"Yeah," I reassured Tyler. "Him and I have always problems and he doesn't know what the words go away means so. Don't stress over it."

Micah walked over. And the only time I really ever talked to Micah was during practice for help or to help him or something. He seemed... He seemed okay. Kayla was with him. They're good friends. 

"Hey, Jackson," Kayla got my attention. "Micah's got a question for you."

I turned my attention to one of the best actors in Goode High School.

"And what's that?"

He stuttered at first, and I understood that paint. Anxiety man. It's terrible. I didn't talk to almost anyone here the first week of practice because I couldn't. I could do lines and what not. But that was it.

"I was uh, I know that it's..." Micah started before taking a breath and speaking really fast all at once. "So I know we don't know each other that well and that we only knew each other from the musical. But I was wondering because you're like really nice and hot and stuff if you maybe wanted to go out to dinner with me tonight as like a date or something?"