Full summary:
Freshman year - they made the band and called it The Big Three.
Sophomore year - their first song came out and it was an immediate hit. They rose in the ranks and became the number 1 hit band in the United States, and number 6 in the world. Their name is shortened to TB3 and t-shirts and posters go flying across the world. Their popularity soars to new heights.
Junior year - they head into class at Goode High as unknowns. Well, not unknowns. Percy Jackson, Thalia Grace and Nico di Angelo are known pretty well in the Junior class. They're not popular, but they're not unpopular. Sure, they're known as being pretty good with the guitar, or in Nico's case, the drums, but no one knows their backstory.
They live in a high-rise penthouse suite in New York City along with Percy's sister Abigail. The four cousins are a tight-knit group and they are filthy rich. But to Goode High's Junior class, the four of them are unmistakably other students just like them. Normal. Friendly. Struggling through high school with a B average.
But that's not the case at all. Percy, Thalia, Nico and The Big Three are one in the same. People wonder why The Big Three don't have their band members' names on their website. They wonder why they don't do interviews. Or why all of their tours are on the West Coast or abroad.
The thing is, they don't want to be recognized. They just want to be normal teenage high schoolers and hang out with their friends. But that's the thing. Not even their friends know who they are. Percy's best friend Grover, who he hangs out with all the time, doesn't know who he really is.
But when a new girl transfers to their school from the West Coast and wears a TB3 shirt on her first day, things-well, things get interesting.
All fit with high school drama and romance, TB3 find out that the notion of 'You can't keep a secret forever.' is actually true.
Ok, guys, here's my new story, The Big Three. I hope you enjoy it.
Here's Chapter One of The Big Three.
Disclaimer: Me? Rick Riordan? No way man.
Chapter One:
Percy POV
Summer break, Silena Beauregard's house, 2 am
The ten of us were sitting in the living room portion of Silena's mansion quietly watching a movie when Travis and Connor burst into the room and flashed on the lights.
"Travis!" Katie Gardner yelled. "Get out of the way!" He was standing in front of the seventy-inch plasma.
Before I go on, I should probably mention who all was there before you get confused. Silena, Beckendorf, Grover, Juniper and Rachel were crowded on the sofa. My sister Abby and I had the one love seat and our two cousins Thalia and Nico sat on the other. And of course Katie had the recliner to herself.
"No way," Travis replied. "This is way more important than your movie."
We all groaned. This was going to take a while. It always did when the Stolls were involved.
"Travis, what do you want?" Silena asked. She had smartly paused the movie.
In a dramatic move, like only he could do, Travis slowly pulled out what looked like a CD from his pocket.
"What is that?" Rachel asked.
"Take a look for yourself." Travis tossed the CD in her lap.
She picked it up. After a second, her face filled with recognition.
"No way!" She said. "This just came out this morning!"
"What is it?" Grover asked.
"The new TB3 album," she replied, tossing him the CD.
Immediately, Thalia, Nico and I shared a glance. And not just any glance. A nervous glance. This was not good. The three of us had assumed that we could get through this sleepover before any of our friends got ahold of our new album.
That's right. Our new album. The Big Three, or TB3 for short, was a band centered out of New York City. They were shrouded in mystery, but they were one of the most popular bands in the world. And yes, the three members that made up the band were Thalia, Nico and I.
We had just released our new album this morning, July 17th. It was our second album and twice the size of our first one. It was called Summer Break, which was another reason the release date was in July. The picture on the front of the album was Nico, Thalia and I on a beach. We were dressed like we had just spent a day there. Nico and I had our swim shorts and Thalia had her bikini. I had my recognizable flat-brimmed hat on backwards and all three of us had on sunglasses. All of our hands were empty.
Well, you can't tell that we had on sunglasses because we were so far in the distance, but trust me, we did.
On the back of the album was our symbol, and each of our twelve songs listed in order of appearance on the album.
I would keep telling you about Summer Break, but Connor noticed my glance.
"Hey, you ok Percy?" He asked. "You have that look on your face."
"It's just," I said. "How did you get that? It just came out today."
He looked at his brother and they shared a grin.
"Well, you see Percy," he said, "me and my brother here waited in line at the store to get this." He waved the CD, which had been returned to him, in the air.
"No way," Rachel said again. "How long were you guys waiting?"
"Well, we got there at, what was it bro?" Connor asked.
"8 pm sharp," Travis replied.
Other than the three of us and Abby, everyone gasped. There were a few 'No way's and 'You're lying.'
"Yeah, well we were hoping that we would be one of the first people in line-"
"Wait," Silena said. "You were hoping?"
"Yeah, when we got to the store, there had to be a line a half-mile long of teenage girls. It was crazy."
"Well, I wouldn't blame them," Juniper said.
Don't say it, I thought. Please don't say it.
But Juniper continued, "Their lead singer is so hot."
"And he has an amazing voice," Rachel added dreamily.
I sighed inwardly. Abby gave me a nudge in the side as if to say, 'It's ok.' Thalia was giving me a shy smile and Nico gave me a shrug as if to say, 'What did you expect?'
If you haven't figured it out yet, yeah, I'm the lead singer. I'm also lead guitar. Thalia is secondary singer and bass guitar and Nico is on the drums.
I thought that would be it, but then Rachel spoke up.
"Well, what are you standing there for, Stoll? Put the album in the speaker."
"Which speaker?" Connor asked, looking around.
"Oh, just give it to me," Silena said. She ripped the album out of Connor's hands and took out the CD from inside. Calmly, she pressed a button which opened the CD drive and placed the CD inside. She pushed the button again and the drive closed.
"Ok, now play," Silena said. She pressed the play button. The intro to the first song on the album, Fight, started. It was one of our better songs.
I was about to lay back and try to endure forty-nine minutes of suffering when Thalia saved me.
"Hey, does anybody want a drink? I'm heading there now." After ten people said 'Coke,' she turned towards me. "Ok fine. Percy come help me."
Very gratefully I rose out of my seat just as I started singing. I followed Thalia to the kitchen.
When we got there, I gave her a hug.
"Thanks Thals," I said. "I don't think I would have made it."
"No problem Perce. I don't think I would have made it either. And that isn't because of your horrible singing." Thalia liked to joke how my singing was 'horrible,' even though we both knew it wasn't. "Silena, Rachel and Juniper would have killed me with their 'He's so dreamy' comments. No offense."
"None taken. But I have to agree with you there. It's just too awkward, you know?"
"Yeah," she replied. "Especially when you're right in the room with them."
We continued to talk for the next five minutes when Nico came into the room.
"Hey," he said. "Great singing. The album turned out great."
"We already knew that," I replied.
"Yeah, but I never pass up an opportunity to make fun of you." I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, the Stolls are wondering where their drinks are." I looked at Thalia. "You totally forgot about them, didn't you?"
"Uh, yeah," I replied.
"Well, let's get these drinks done," Nico said. "Then let's grab Abby and we'll challenge you two-on-two in pool. Guys versus girls."
"Oh, you're on," Thalia said. She grabbed a whole pack of Cokes out of the refrigerator and headed out of the room.
When we got back to the living room, our third song on the album was playing, Family. You could hear me for the chorus: 'There's nothing like family, family.'
We passed out the Cokes and put the rest on the table. Thalia grabbed Abby and we headed to the back of the room, where a pool table was set up.
We were about to start when Thalia spoke, "Wait. This is my favorite part."
It was the end of the song: 'There's nothing like family, family. Oh yes, there's nothing like family.'
I had to agree. That had to be one of my favorite lines in the whole album.
"Ok," she continued. "On with the slaughtering. How does best of five sound to you guys? Trade off each shot with your partner sound good to you?"
Nico and I agreed and we set out on playing pool for the next three hours. Unfortunately for Nico and I, we lost 3 games to 1.
"Fine," I said. "You guys won. What do you want?" We had agreed that the winner would receive a prize.
"I get to drive home," Thalia said.
"No," Nico and I said immediately. Even Abby agreed with us.
"You said anything," she whined.
"Not that," I said. To be honest, Thalia was a horrible driver. And I wasn't risking her getting our Ferrari in a crash.
Oh, you didn't know we had a Ferrari? Well, now you do. It's just another perk of being part of the most popular band in the US. Although we tell our friends that our dads got it for us.
It seats four people, and it's always either Nico or me behind the wheel. Abby doesn't want to drive it and Thalia's just a bad driver. I mean, yeah, we do have a second one at home just in case the four of us aren't going to the same place, but I would rather have two working Ferraris and not be in the hospital, thank you very much.
"Fine." Thalia pouted. Luckily she didn't argue with us that much on this issue. "But we're touring in Italy before this summer's out."
I looked at Nico and Abby. Now that I could handle. They seemed to like the idea as well. It was Abby that spoke.
"Very well. I'll call your dad later today to set it up. Say six shows over ten days, come back a week before school starts?" I should mention that Abby was our manager, but we planned on eventually using her as a keyboardist for a future album. Actually, we had used her for one song on Summer Break and the song turned out great, so we decided to keep the keyboard as an option.
"Sounds great," I said. "Thalia? That win your approval?"
"Most definitely," she replied. "Nico?"
"I'm hooked."
We put the pool sticks away and joined our friends back at the couch. Travis had this idea of playing our album again and again, but after the fourth time, I could tell people were starting to bore of it, even if it was an amazing album. Also, I had suffered through enough torture as it was.
I walked up to the stereo and pressed the stop button. Immediate relief flooded through the room, that is, except for the Stoll brothers.
"Yo man, what are you doing?" Travis asked.
"Saving the sanity of the rest of us," I replied. I pressed the eject button and placed the CD back in its case. I tossed it back to him. "I think we're going to head out. Thanks for having us over, Silena."
"Oh, no problem Percy. You guys can come over anytime."
With that, the four of us headed out the door. We jumped in the Ferrari, top down, the girls in the back, Nico in the passenger seat and me driving.
Oh, did I forget to mention that it was a convertible too? Well now you know.
We were about to head out when the Stoll brothers came flying out the front door.
"Wanna race, Percy?" Connor asked, jangling the car keys in his hand.
I turned towards the front door. Silena was standing in the doorframe and she had a look on her face that said, 'Entertain them.' I turned back towards Connor.
"Sure man, but do you really think you can get your Camry past 80?"
"Oh shut up Percy. Just wait until we beat you," Travis said.
"Whatever you say Travis. Come on and get in your car. I have a place where we can race."
They quickly got in their car and followed me. I drove them to a road that is always deserted, but it was two-laned and there were traffic lights. Perfect spot to race. I pulled up around five hundred feet short of a light and motioned for the Stolls to pull up beside me.
"Ok, so we'll line up in front of this light. When it turns green, we go. There's another light about a mile up the road. It's a straight shot, so there's no way to cheat. First one to the other light wins. Sound good to you guys?"
"Yeah, let's go."
We inched up to the line. I turned to Abby, who had her iPhone out already, and it was pointed at me.
"Already have it under control bro," she said. "Got the rules and regulations on camera. I'll videotape as the Stolls start to fall back. It'll be posted on YouTube by tomorrow."
"Sweet," I said. I turned back to the light, which was still red.
Twenty seconds later, the light went green and I slammed into first gear. Five seconds later I was already in fifth gear and at 62 mph when Thalia shouted.
"Haha look at those fools now!"
I looked in my mirror and saw that they were already a good 80 feet behind me. I shifted into sixth gear and we passed the 100 mph mark.
I topped out at 145 as we shot through the light and I hit the brakes. We stopped a hundred feet behind the light. The Stolls were nowhere to be found. I looked over at Nico.
"Time?" I asked.
"32.45 seconds," he replied. "That's a new record." I gave him a high five.
Fifteen seconds later the Stolls finally came into view, the looks on their faces clear that they gave up.
They parked behind us and got out of their car.
"Dude, how fast were you going?" Connor asked me.
"I topped out at 145," I replied.
"That's sick. We had no chance bro."
"Yeah, but now we can say that we've raced a Ferrari," Travis said.
"And lost by twenty seconds," Nico added. "On a one mile course."
"Oh shut up di Angelo," Travis said. "I don't see you driving."
"Really? Hand me the keys, Percy."
"Ok, ok," I said. "That's enough." I turned towards the twins. "Did I earn your respect or not?"
"Most definitely," Connor said. "Do you think we could get a ride sometime?"
"Yeah, I'll hook you guys up during the school year."
"Ok sweet."
"Yeah, so we'll see you guys later."
"See you," they said.
We hopped back in our respective cars and headed back home.
A/N:
There you go. First chapter in the books. There's a slight mention of the band here, but this was more of a filler chapter. The real action starts in Chapter 2.
Ok, so if you know me, I always ask a Question of the Chapter each chapter that I post. Here's Chapter One's Question: What is your favorite type of music? For me, I'd say Rock/Alternative. Post your answers in the Review section, but also make sure to review the chapter as well.
Thanks!
-Percy Son of Neptune
