Percy's Pov:

I looked down at the girl in front of me, sitting on the bench in the heart of Times Square, looking like a statue. No seriously, they weren't that different. Those stony grey eyes piercing through my ocean blue ones, those perfectly sculptured plump lips, the haughty air she held around her, wrapped around her finger , like the billions of young men she had mesmerized around the globe, and the fucking precision of the angle at which her chin should be pointed which makes me fight my dying urge to take hold of it sharply and return it to a less self-righteous angle. The only thing which didn't seem to fit in the picture of the perfect victim of Medusa was her hair. It was different from how she used to tie it at school. It seems more...strategical now. If for gods' sake hair can be called strategical. I'm being dumb I know, but hey, who wouldn't when you've got your childhood as well as adulthood rival sneering at you? On top of that, she's Annabeth Chase. 

Fricking Annabeth Chase.

I do the next best thing instead of walking home and devouring the blue cookies Mom had promised would be waiting for me when I got home after today's crew meet.

I smile at her. Yup, I smile at Annabeth Chase. Cause, why not?

Oh boy, how I loved to see her ever practiced sneer falter.

"Why are you here?"Annabeth asked, her voice like nails on a blackboard. God, it wasn't that bad. But yeah, the irritation made it.

"For top of the class student, you can be quite dumb sometimes, you know that right Annie? Long time no see by the way! How's Luke?"I smile again. But this time, my smile is evil. Cruel. Luke Castellan, her first love dumped her. Dumped her in front of the whole world to see, at the premiere of the movie they had worked in together.

That's a bit harsh to be honest ,even for the she-devil in front of me . But who cares? 

Annabeth's eyes swirl wildly, threats dancing around those dilated irises .If she thinks that she can support her dear mother in every public business argument she had with my father, and get away with it, she hasn't really seen me. I grow dangerous when my parents are involved. Even if they're not together anymore. 

I shift back to reality by the subdued tone of her voice waking me up.

"I can't believe that they chose a good-for-nothing doofus like you to play the lead. You won't be able to stand a chance with me here on this set, Jackson." Annabeth quite visibly rolled her eyes.

Annoyed, I was start to ravel again, when a mop of sandy hair caught my eye. 

My mind, much to my delight, calmed down to see Jason Grace walking upto us. A wide grin greeted me , then Ms. High Queen sitting on her throne. They knew each other?

I couldn't really wonder how because my grin widened as a scruffy guy with unruly brown curls practically hopped upto us. Leo Dam Valdez. Oh boy, this shoot's gonna be a blast. 

Jason's girlfriend, Piper McLean, waved at me excitedly , with her free hand as the other was wrapped around Jason's arm and I copied her move, already been friends with her on the set of another movie a year or so back. Piper, to my astonishment, squeals on seeing Chase and almost tramps over Jason to pounce upon her and wrap her in a tight hug. Oh right. They're buddies.

My gods .I swear, girls can sometimes be so-

"Percy!"Leo screeched as he landed on top of me, my rear end hitting the snow on the ground. Jason starts laughing hysterically as he joins us on the ground. I can hear the girls laughing at us. Well, boys can sometimes..ok always, be 'so-' too.

"Get up y'all. The guards don't really look like they're going to be serving hot chocolate soon," a calm voice calls out to us from above. No no ,not God. 

The devil reincarnate(2.0 because Chase is first in line of course). And that's in a good way.

I smile warmly at our director, Nico DiAngelo. He looks at me and stifles his laughter at my state and then grows serious again. A few years younger than most of us, but somehow way older than we can imagine .Now now ,don't be rude to him, we all have that mature person in a group ,don't we?

Well fortunately putting aside all the coldness and subtlety seeping from Nico when he's in his non-comfort zone, Nico can very well be called my brother. Cousin, technically. But I'm way past technicalities nowadays. When I first got a call from Nico about this role in his movie, he threatened me. He actually threatened me that he would forget the existence of blue cookies in his life if I did not swarm my ass here to New York impromptu. He knows me too well. Clever boy .Very clever.

We stood up, shrugging off snow off our shoulders, when Nico looked at all of us with a dead pan stare. 

"I think that most of you know each other. But in case you don't, let me give you just a brief intro to the names of the cast and the roles they have agreed to play. Some of the cast aren't here yet, but let us get started because you all need to go sight-seeing tomorrow early in the morning   ,to be more aware of the aesthetic and the setting in which we're going to film because the main aesthetic and draw point of the whole film is going to be the sheer modern beauty of New York."

He stopped to catch a breath to act as humanly as possible to a fresh set of actors. I winked at him, and smiled encouragingly. However inhuman, everyone can do with a little confidence. He rolled his eyes playfully and smiled, before turning back to all of us.

"Now , I would like you to meet my assistants - Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque. Just for a little intro, Hazel is my sister and well, if Frank doesn't annoy me too much, then he's my brother-in-law." Only Nico could keep on a straight face while saying that. He didn't even bother to look at them as they quite visibly reddened when suddenly put in the limelight. We all laughed at them and somebody(most probably Leo) whistled and wished them congratulations.

"Ok ok people, calm down. Now for the roles. Hazel , would you please read out the respective roles and the cast names and check if the main crew is present today? Frank,just check up with Hazel and distribute the scripts if they're present here."

Frank and Hazel got to work immediately.

A blonde girl with braided hair comes running to us and I realize that Leo knows her because he offers her water from his bottle. Or maybe he's just being Leo. I decide that I'll think about it later

Hazel smoothed out a piece of paper and took out a pen from her pocket as she began ticking off our names , one by one.

Annabeth Chase as Aelin Whitethorn 

Percy Jackson as Cardan Greenwood

Jason Grace as Dominic Adams

Piper McLean as Serena Williams

Leo Valdez as Conrad Ford

Calypso as Brooke Hamilton

Hazel Levesque 

Frank Zhang

Nico DiAngelo

Hazel concluded , a satisfied smile on her face. But then she frowned.

"Nico, the antagonists are not yet here. Should I keep their names on the list ?"Hazel looked over at Nico, the final decision maker.

Nico had hardly started to say something when a car stopped in front of them abruptly. A black Mercedes. My eyes followed the lining of the car from the hood to the door which opened shorty and out stepped...

Fucking god.

Why is this slowly becoming a 'Let's torture Percy' mission?

I groan and glare at Nico, who tries extremely hard not to meet my gaze.

Hazel cleared her throat, clearly signaling the fact that she knew the situation I was in. 
"And um..I suppose that should be our antagonists, Rachel Elizabeth Dare and Luke Castellan. They play the roles of Kate Hayward and Cole Walters. Please collect your respective scripts from Frank here."

Rachel Elizabeth Dare as Kate Hayward

Luke Castellan as Cole Walters

I looked over at Chase and when our eyes met, we agreed. We agreed on the only thing we have ever agreed upon. 

We're screwed.