The Rhythms Of Life, a percy jackson and the olympians fanfic

A/N: Hi guys! So, has anyone seen that picture where Percy, Jason, Leo and Frank are in a band? Percy's totally rocking the electric guitar, Jason's singing super passionately, Leo's playing these electric drum things crazily, and Frank's on electric keyboard looking embarrassed? That's sort of what I'm basing this fic off of. There's also one of Annabeth, Piper, Hazel and another girl who I'll assume is Calypso. They're sitting on the couch while Annabeth plays guitar, and they're singing. I'm also adding that into the mix. So yeah, this is my shot at a Percy Jackson Band AU! I've been wanting to write this for a while. Without further ado, I present to you, The Rhythms of Life!

P.S., The parts in brackets during Percy's POV when the guys are playing is Jason, Leo and/or Frank singing back-up, and the underlined parts are all of them singing.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO.

Annabeth's POV

It was a warm August afternoon, and my best friends Piper McLean, Hazel Levesque and Calypso Atlas were over at my house. Summer for us tended to be pretty boring—me, Hazel and Calypso didn't have much money to spare for fancy vacations, and though Piper's dad was both rich and famous (which she absolutely hated people knowing, for lots of different reasons), he was always busy, and they never went on vacations.

I slid open my house's screen door and entered my backyard, guitar in hand. I plunked down onto the bright green grass with a sigh. Piper plucked pieces of grass from the ground, twirled them between her fingers, and then flung them back onto the ground. Hazel picked at her nails. Calypso fiddled with her hair, braiding sections and then taking it back out. I tuned my guitar quickly, and then started strumming some random tunes.

After a couple minutes, though, I grew bored along with the rest of my friends.

"So," said Piper unenthusiastically. "How's life?"

Calypso sighed. "Boring as hell," she noted. I nodded in agreement. Hazel shrugged her shoulders. I knew for a fact she wasn't agreeing only because Calypso had sworn, and Hazel was the type of innocent girl who preferred not to use profanity—but there was no way she wasn't bored too.

I wiped a bead of sweat off my forehead, tightening my ponytail. "What do you guys wanna do?" I asked lazily.

Piper rolled her eyes. "Well, considering we're here, outside, on a beautiful day, we should probably be doing something athletic."

Hazel sighed. "But I'm too lazy to do something athletic right now. I was up all night finishing this book. And plus, Annabeth has her guitar…"

Piper smiled. "Let's play a song then!"

I rolled my eyes and shifted around on the ground until I found a comfortable position to play in. Then I closed my eyes and started strumming my guitar.

"H-Hey H-Hey
H-H-Hey, H-Hey
Oooooooooooooo…"

I started singing Ready Or Not by Bridgit Mendler, a song me and my friends had loved when we were younger. Bridgit Mendler had been our idol as tweens. I opened my eyes. Everyone was grinning.

"I'm the kinda girl who doesn't say a word,
Who sits at the curb and waits for the world
But I'm about to break out, about to break out
I'm like a crook tonight."

I smiled at Hazel, and she sang the next part.

"I caught you staring at me and I was thinking clearly
And now I'm like a bee and I'm huntin' for the honey
And I'm kinda shy but you're super fly yeah
I could be your kryptonite…"

Piper took over and sang the next part. Singing was natural between the four of us—we could just do it. We'd always wanted to form a band, but we'd never really had the money to buy instruments, and it was incredibly hard to get started in the music business.

"Like ohh, ohh, ohh
Light my heart up baby like a matchstick
Ohh, ohh, ohh
And hit the gas quick;"

It was Calypso's turn to sing.

"Ready or not,
Here I come,
Where you at?
The night is young,
In the crowd, the music's loud but I will find you…"

I grinned as we all started to sing the next part of the chorus.

"Ready or not,
Here I come,
I like your face
Do you like my song?
Just sing it la la la la la la and I'll find you,
Ready or not-Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh,
Ready or not-Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh…"

The other girls stopped singing, which meant they were waiting for me to sing. I complied, all the while keeping up with the guitar.

"Hello my name is…" "Annabeth!" they all yelled, giggling.
"Nice to meet you
I think you're famous
Where have I seen you?
You'll be my William, I'll be your Kate
Livin' like a fairytale…"

"We could have a palace right next to Oprah
37 cars and a yacht down in Boca
Take me away wherever you say
Yeah we could be setting sail."

Sang Piper, a huge grin plastered on her face. A few years ago, Piper had been obsessed with Oprah. She wasn't anymore, though—and thank God, because it had started to get super annoying, especially when Piper had started using one of Oprah's catchphrases, "Own your power," literally all the time.

I'd be about to score a winning goal in a school soccer game, and Piper would cry out, "Own your power!" One time, Hazel was riding her horse Arion (who'd passed away a couple years ago), and right before Hazel had gone over a jump, Piper had yelled, "OWN YOUR POWER!"

Hazel fell off the horse and broke her arm. Piper never said "Own your power" again.

Hazel herself kept singing.

"Like ohh, ohh, ohh
Light my heart up baby like a matchstick
Ohh, ohh, ohh
And hit the gas quick;"

We all started singing the chorus in unison.

"Ready or not,
Here I come,
Where you at?
The night is young
In the crowd, the music's loud but I will find you

"Ready or not,
Here I come
I like your face
Do you like my song?
Just sing it la la la la la la and I'll find you,
Ready or not-Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh,
Ready or not, not-Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh…"

Piper started singing next; she usually sang the bridges in songs, because for whatever reason they were just almost always her favourite part.

"Ready or not here I come, here I come,
You're like a breath of fresh air in my lungs
You and me dance from the night to the dawn,
Ready or not here I come, boy it's on.

"Ready or not here I come, here I come,
You're like a breath of fresh air in my lungs
You and me dance from the night to the dawn,
Ready or not here I come, boy it's on…"

Calypso sang the next part— we sort of had this thing where Calypso always sang after the bridges. It cleared up a lot of confusion for us when we were singing songs we hadn't really practised. I sang back-up, because there were some extra parts in this section of the song.

"Ready or not,
Here I come
Where you at?
The night is young
In the crowd, the music's loud but I will find you;"

We all started singing, because there were so many different things happening at this point. I picked a part to sing and everyone else did, too. The song sort of just fell perfectly into place—like I said, we had something special between us.

"Ready or not,
Here I come
I like your face
Do you like my song?
Just sing it la la la la la la and I'll find you,

"Ready or not (ready or not, you're like a breath of fresh air in my lungs)
Ready or not (here I come!)
Ready or not (ready or not, woo!)
Ready or not
Ready or not, ready or not, boombada, boombada, boombada-"

Everyone stopped singing except for me. My voice—the magnificent (not really, but hey, whatever) voice of Annabeth Chase—rang out over the quiet yard.

"Ready or not."

We all started laughing as the song came to a close.

"Remember how much we used to like that song?" Hazel giggled.

"Hey, I still like it!" admitted Piper, laughing. Calypso and I nodded, laughing along.

It was amazing how much a single song could brighten the mood.

Percy's POV

"Yo!" yelled my best friend and bandmate, Jason Grace, as he opened the door to his house. He pulled me in for a guy hug, and we slapped each other roughly on the back. "Come on in, Leo and Frank are already in the garage."

I followed Jason through his house, and he opened a heavy door which led into his garage. Leo Valdez and Frank Zhang, our other bandmates, were positioned in front of their instruments of choice for the day. Since the four of us could virtually play any instrument (music was our only hobby‚ so we figured, might as well learn to play it all!), we decided on a daily basis who would play what and who would sing.

If you asked me to pick who was best at what, I'd say Jason's specialty was drums, Leo's was guitar, Frank's was keyboard and I was the best singer. But that didn't mean I liked to sing the most; it just meant I was the best singer out of the four of us. My favourite was definitely guitar—acoustic or electric, it didn't matter. I owned one of each, but since we always practised at Jason's house, we had one of each instrument here anyway.

"Hey Percy!" yelled Leo. He was sitting in front of the drums, looking all smug—he had some serious ADHD, more so than me and Jason (the three of us had ADHD, and we were going to make our band name something including that… But then Frank went and told us he didn't have ADHD, just lame old lactose-intolerance, so we had to change it), and when he played, he went wild on those drums, pounding on them crazily with the drumsticks. I prepared myself for a ginormous headache.

Frank, who was definitely the shiest person in our group, was sitting in front of the keyboard. That left only the electric guitar and, of course, the dreaded microphone. Between the four of us, it was always a war to try and not get the microphone—we all preferred playing over singing.

Jason and I slowly looked at each other. Then we broke into a mad dash, racing towards the electric guitar. I was a faster runner than Jason, though, and we all knew it. I beat him to the guitar, picking it up and crying, "Ha!" triumphantly. Jason slumped over to the microphone.

Then he suddenly perked up, looking over at me. "Can I pick the song?" he asked hopefully.

I rolled my eyes. "Go ahead, Sparky."

Jason glared at me. "Don't call me Sparky. And I choose Miss Jackson by Panic! At The Disco," he said with a smirk.

I face-palmed. How I didn't see that one coming, I had no clue. My last name was Jackson, and the guys always liked to tease me by making us play this song because it was sorta kinda about being in love with this elusive girl… Jason liked to joke it was about future me and my future wife. It was really embarrassing. I manned up, though, and smirked back at him. "Fine."

Leo was about to start singing the intro because his voice was the highest (the rest of us always sang back-up for the main singer of the day) but then Jason held his hand up. "Wait!" he turned to me with a smug smile on his face. "You owe me one, remember?"

I racked my brain for memories of "owing him one," and I finally found it. This crazed fangirl—our band was pretty popular, so we had a lot of supporters—had come up to me and started screaming and would not let go of me. For serious— I couldn't for the life of me pry her fingers off my arm. But then Jason had come to my aid. In a moment of gratitude, I'd said Thanks, man, I owe you one. I hadn't thought Jason would actually remember and get something back from me.

I looked at him pleadingly, but he crossed his arms and walked over to me. "Time for that favour, Jackson," he said sort of evilly. "You get to sing today. And remember, I already picked the song."

I was fuming. Now I had to actually sing lead for this stupid song. (Well, it wasn't a stupid song, in fact it was actually pretty good, but its meaning was stupid.)

"Fine," I said as nonchalantly as I could, narrowing my eyes at Jason. I went over to the couch to grab the extra guitar, though, because I still wanted to play even if I had to be lead singer.

"Plus," added Jason, turning back to me, "I'm filming this session so we can post some of it on the YouTube channel, and we all know you're the best singer." He jogged over to the camera positioned in front of us, pressed play, and hurried back.

We readied ourselves and I gave Leo a thumbs up. He started singing the intro.

"Climbing out the back door, didn't leave a mark
No one knows it's you Miss Jackson
Found another victim
But no one's gonna find Miss Jackson, Jackson, Jackson…"

We all started rocking our instruments. Leo went crazy on the drums, Jason played the chords on his guitar and I played the extra bits and the riff. Frank, a bit embarrassed, played a teeny bit of keyboard when there was a good opportunity, but the song didn't really have keyboard so he mostly just sang back-up.

"You put a sour little flavour in my mouth now
You move in circles hoping no one's gonna find out
But we're so lucky,
Kiss the ring and let 'em bow down
Looking for the time of your life (ain't always gonna find out)

A pretty picture but the scenery is so loud,
A face like heaven catching lighting in your nightgown,
But back away from the water, babe, you might drown-
The party isn't over tonight (lighting in your nightgown)

He-eyy
Where will you be waking up tomorrow morning?
He-eyy
Out the back door, Goddamn
But I love her anyway (eh-eh, eh-eh, ehh-eh)
I love her anyway (eh-eh, eh-eh, ehh-eh)
I love her anyway (eh-eh, eh-eh, ehh-eh)
Out the back door, Goddamn (eh-eh, eh-eh, ehh-eh)
But I love her anyway

Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Are you nasty?

Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Are you nasty?
Are you nasty?
I love her anyway

(Ohhhh)
Where will you be waking up tomorrow morning?
(Ohhhh)
Out the back door, Goddamn
But I love her anyway

Way down 'til the fire finally dies out
You've got 'em wrapped around your finger
Watch 'em fall down
There's something beautiful and tragic in the fall out
Let me say it one more time (Tragic in the fall out)

He-eyy
Where will you be waking up tomorrow morning?
He-eyy
Out the back door, Goddamn
But I love her anyway (eh-eh, eh-eh, ehh-eh)
I love her anyway (eh-eh, eh-eh, ehh-eh)
I love her anyway (eh-eh, eh-eh, ehh-eh)
Out the back door, Goddamn (eh-eh, eh-eh, ehh-eh)
But I love her anyway

Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Are you nasty?

Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Are you nasty?
Are you nasty?
I love her anyway

(Ohhhh)
Where will you be waking up tomorrow morning?
(Ohhhh)
Out the back door, Goddamn
But I love her any…"

Leo took over, singing the high part again. I had no clue how he managed to make his voice sound so much like the female one of the actual version, but he did, so hey, it worked for me.

"Climbing out the back door, didn't leave a mark
No one knows it's you Miss Jackson
Found another victim
But no one's gonna find Miss Jackson, Jackson, Jackson—"

After a slight pause on everyone's part, I started singing again, and Leo went back to his erratic drum-playing along with Jason on guitar and Frank…standing there.

"I love her anyway

Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Are you nasty?

Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Miss Jackson
Are you nasty?
Are you nasty?
I love her anyway

(Ohhhh)
Where will you be waking up tomorrow morning?
(Ohhhh)
Out the back door, Goddamn
But I love her anyway."

I finished with dignity and smirked at the camera before turning around to look at Leo. "You pick the next song," I suggested. Leo picked This Is War by Thirty Seconds To Mars. It was a bit more… Violent, per se, than I liked to sing, but I sang it anyway.

Next it was Frank's turn to pick, and he chose Come As You Are by Nirvana. The bigger Asian guy was a huge fan of Nirvana, so he almost always picked songs by them when it was his turn to choose. For once, I was happy with his slight obsession, because Come As You Are was a more mellow song after the near-screaming in the chorus of This Is War, but it was still good.

After Frank's pick it was finally my turn to choose a song. I wasn't in too much of an actual rock mood or whatever, so I picked a favourite of mine at the moment: Friction by Imagine Dragons (and that way poor Frank finally got the chance to play a teeny bit of keyboard). We'd done a bit of experimenting with the song and had found ways to play the more unusual sounds in it.

After that we played I'm So Sorry by Imagine Dragons, because Jason and Leo claimed they'd gotten in an ID mood and wanted to play it. (Frank got a chance to play a little more keyboard, too, so he didn't mind, and neither did I.)

Then Jason's mom and older sister Thalia came in and told us to shut up and leave (well, Thalia did; Ms. Grace just kindly suggested we packed up for the day).

When they left, Jason explained to us that Thalia pretty much hated any music that wasn't Green Day.

I said goodbye to the guys and then started my walk home, hands stuffed into my jean pockets and music blaring through my headphones. After listening to a 3 Doors Down song, 2 Heads by Coleman Hell came on. For some reason it was a song that'd really grown on me, but it wasn't really the type of song we'd play in the band. Maybe I could convince the guys to play it once or twice— after all, they'd made me play Miss Jackson a total of 13 times now (not counting the times I didn't sing lead).

As I rounded the corner, I heard the loud sound of girls laughing— I wondered who it was, if maybe it was someone I knew from school. I made a mental note to ask Jason, because if there were girls living down the street from him, he'd know who they were.

When I got home, my mom offered me a blue chocolate-chip cookie. It was a running joke between us to always eat blue food if we could, because my mom's ex-husband, Gabe Ugliano, had been super rude, super commanding and a super diva. He'd insisted there was no such thing as blue food, and since that day my mom had gone out of her way to prepare blue food.

I munched happily on some cookies before heading to my room where I played some acoustic guitar and avoided doing anything productive— so a typical afternoon for me.

I was kind of getting sick of these typical afternoons, though.

I made a mental note to do something fun tomorrow before throwing on my headphones and loosing myself in the music.

A/N: Feel free to look up those pictures I mentioned above so it gives you an idea of what the heck I'm talking about! Just type "percy jackson band au" into Google Images and they should come up. Also, I don't own Miss Jackson by Panic! At The Disco, any of the other songs or bands mentioned by Percy or his bandmates, or Ready Or Not by Bridgit Mendler. Idk why I put in that song, I don't love Bridgit Mendler, I just thought it'd be a good fit. Plus my sister was watching Disney channel and it came on and got stuck in my head, so yeah.

Let me know how that was! Hopefully there'll be an update soon! :)