A crumpled up piece of paper landed in the trash. A sigh. More scribbling. A groan. Another piece of paper came sailing through the room, right into the trash, which was close to overflowing with paper. Percy Jackson threw down his pencil in frustration and ran his fingers through his hair. How the hell was he supposed to come up with a halfway acceptable résumé when he couldn't even spell the name of his school correctly?

His eyes wondered to his watch for the umpteenth time, but it seemed to be ticking slower than ever. At three, he was meeting with friends, and it was two fifteen… two sixteen, to be exact. Due the next day, Monday, were the applications for the tenth grade two-week internships that everyone had to do. Included in that was the place you wanted to work at (actually you needed a choice of five), a résumé, and a short paragraph explaining why you wanted to do your internship there.

Percy was sure he could get the internship at Poseidon Marine Industries any time he wanted- the director was, after all, his biological father.

So why did his stupid school have to make him do this?

.

Nico took a sip of his McDonalds coke (the Happy Meal was safely stored in his backpack) as he walked down the beach of Montauk. He was supposed to be in the city at the time, filling out some application for some internship he didn't care about. Lucky for him, he wasn't. Actually, he had dropped out of school the moment he turned sixteen, but his friends didn't know that. They though he was away on a family vacation with his father and step mother.

As if Hades and Persephone would ever take him on a vacation, he snorted. Being the illegitimate son of Hades, the top manager of every night club in New York City, had its perks. His dad gave him enough money to shut up but otherwise didn't really care what his son did. It was their deal: Hades had bought him an apartment (and a small cottage in Montauk) and a motorcycle and sent a check every month, if Nico said nothing about being his son.

Nico had been more than happy to oblige. Hades was a dark and powerful man, feared by most and avoided by all, but who had never had a scandal involving him. A scandal would ruin the man completely.

Nico's phone was buzzing: text message. Wait, no, two text messages.

From: Percy

Message: Yo Nico you still meeting us 3? Ik you're still pissed cuz of B leaving but hav a little fun k?

Nico rolled his eyes and looked at the next message.

From: Ethan

Message: Idiot where are you?

Frowning, Nico started typing a reply.

To: Ethan

Message: Almost there, Ethan. Is RED there already?

A few seconds after he sent the text, his phone vibrated again.

From: Ethan

Message: were all here waiting. Pls hurry up nico, its sooo awk w/only red here!

A small chuckle left Nico's lips as he practically heard Ethan's desperateness through the text.

Nico and Ethan had never really hung out when Nico was still in school. Ethan had always been a loner, until he started hanging out with Luke and the Kronos Gang. Long story. In the end, the gang had escalated and Ethan had left just before it self-destructed. He had been even more of an outcast then, and Nico had felt sorry for him.

The two of them had started hanging out more and found they had a lot in common. Who also started hanging out with them was Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She had been a separate friend of Percy's in the beginning, but had felt more and more like a third wheel when Percy and Annabeth had started dating, and the jealousy between her and Annabeth had been unbearable.

So she started hanging out with Nico for two reasons: one, because she actually liked him as a person and friend, and two, it pissed off her super rich daddy.

"Yo Nico!" a shout interrupted Nico's thoughts and he looked up to see the figure of his half Asian friend standing on the porch of the tiny cottage, waving. Nico grinned.

.

If there was something that Thalia absolutely did not tolerate, it was the police accusing her of spray-painting a hippo. As crazy as that sounded, it had been done, at the Central Park Zoo. Unfortunately for her, there was a can of purple spray paint in her backpack when the police came (she had been spraying in an alley behind a store, not in the zoo), but the police refused to believe her.

And now they were making her see a shrink because they thought that the behavior of the uber-famous actress was going crazy after the suicide of her boyfriend, Luke, late last summer. She still shuddered, remembering the past five years when the Kronos Gang had gone too far.

"Miss Grace, did you even hear anything of what I just said?" the officer exclaimed in exasperation. Thalia shrugged and shook her head.

"Sorry, I was too busy thinking about how mentally unstable I am due to my boyfriend's suicide about seven months ago."

"Sarcasm is not appreciated, Miss Grace."

"Yeah, and neither are you! Look, I didn't spray paint a hippo, though I'd gladly name some people who would. I don't need to see a shrink because of Luke- I already did that after it happened and I'm completely fine. The only thing you can hold against me is having a can of purple spray paint in my backpack. Now, if you don't mind, I have to fill out an internship app, otherwise I won't be able to pass tenth grade, okay?"

.

Yes, everything seemed to be fine. The lives of Percy Jackson and all those involved in the Kronos Thing were going back to normal, it seemed. But what exactly happened those years?

So my attempt at AU. Review, yes? Oh yeah, disclaimer for this chapter and the rest to come:

I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians/ Heroes of Olympus.

There I said it.

Review?

Pretty please… :)