Finding Yourself

Prologue

The Long Road Ahead

The crowd was deafening. Constant cheers rose above the chlorine stink and no one noticed the star athlete poking his head out of the changing room doors long enough to bask in the glory. The grin reached from either side of his cheeks and the light danced in his eyes. Nearly everyone was there to see him, he had been the underdog through the whole competition, the dark horse that no one had seen coming. But now here he was, Perseus Jackson, in the New York metropolitan area semi-finals. Percy had never dreamed he would have made it this far, but after the New York Triathlon last summer when he came second place, his name went up in lights.

And now here he was, ready to win his first race and head to the finals in California. He had come so far and Percy knew he had earned it all.

"You ready?" Percy heard his coach behind him, but refused to turn and look. He was in the zone. He was mentally preparing himself to win this race. There was no losing; his coach had taught him that. The goal was to win and Percy never backed away.

Stretching out his leg muscles-hands on hips and lunging forward-Percy took his place at the entrance to the pool. In popped his ear buds and waited until his coach gave him a shove, signalling his name had been called.

When you go through life
So sure of where you're headin'
And you wind up lost
And it's the best thing that could have happened
'Cause sometimes when you lose your way
It's really just as well
Because you find yourself
Yeah, that's when you find yourself

The lyrics didn't make much sense to him, but he trusted his mothers judgement in pre-race playlists. It was a tradition that the two had developed ever since Percy had started out doing junior races back when he first learnt to swim (not that it took much learning, he was like an actual duck to water), Sally Jackson would always pick out a list of songs that Percy would listen to straight after his coaches pep talk. He liked thinking that his mother was trying to tell him something with the songs, but more recently they had become a lot harder to decipher. And deciphering song lyrics was not what he was there for.

A cocky grin played on the young boys face. The adoring crowd were using the best of their lungs to scream his name, cheering him on. Percy drank in the sight. This was what he lived for. Thousands of people encouraging him to do his greatest. And he was, after all, the greatest. He was just about to prove it.

Percy dropped his iPod onto the bench behind him, his jacket and pants quickly followed. The hearts of girls all across the center exploded at the sight of his chest. He had worked out for years to get it that well toned, and he was glad to have something to show for it. His arms and legs were just as muscular, but every girl loved a good six pack-and Percy used it to his advantage. At eighteen years of age, he was no stranger to the female species.

Before Percy could let his mind on what girl he was planning on picking up after the race, the air horn blasted and the swimmers were off. Percy dived a second later into the water, but as soon as his body was submerged he was already ahead of the other competitors. Percy could never put his finger on it, but as soon as he touched water he became faster, stronger. He got the feeling that he could win any race as long as he was under the influence of water. There was no way to explain how at home Percy had always found himself at home when all he had to do was simply dive in.

The podium should have been higher off the ground, Percy found himself too close to second and third place for his liking. Though he smiled as if nothing was wrong, he knew he should have had his own podium, high above the rest, proving just how worthy he was.

Naturally, he had come first place. There had never been a doubt in his extra-large head that he was going to place otherwise. The other competitors had nothing on him. Percy was a born winner, was his coach liked to often remind him. His mother on the other hand was not so fond of the arrogance her son was gaining because his coach kept pushing him in that direction.

Percy spotted his mother in the front row of the nearest crowd. Sally Jackson was a small woman with hair that was starting to grey and eyes that held a novel full of memories, but she still managed to plaster the same genuine smile on her face at her sons latest achievement. Wrapped around her shoulder was the arm of her fiancé, Paul Blofis. He was beaming just as wide. Paul had only been in Percy's life for four years, but he treated Percy as if he was his own flesh and blood. Ever since his parents had split when he was young, Percy had craved the attention that Paul always seemed to bring with him. While his parents were more interested in 'what was best for Percy', Paul was more interested in him as a person.

The interviewers called his name and the cameramen were aiming at him from all angles. It took a long while, but he managed to get around nearly all of them. Percy liked getting as much coverage as he could. It helped to build his reputation, which was all Percy really cared about. The fame. The fortune he could live without, but to have everyone know his name, his face. To be recognized on the street. To have paparazzi hiding in his bushes. That was Percy's personal life goal. To everyone else he was just some nobody who was finally getting his shot at becoming a somebody.

If he had his own way, Percy would have finished every single interview with everyone who wanted one, but his coach steered him away before he got the chance.

"The Little Swimmers coach wants you to make a quick appear-"

"No."

"Percy." Percy noted the stern tone to his coach's voice. It was the same tone that told him that he was not getting out of this one.

"I hate kids," the swimming star mumbled, grinding his teeth together.

"I don't care what you hate, they are your sponsors and you will treat them as such." The coach never took any of Percy's shit. Percy knew what buttons to press, but the coach knew how to resist. If Percy wanted to make it big, he had to have someone pushing him; that was how the coach saw it, at least.

The duo made their way back to the locker room, Percy playing with his jacket zip. His still damp skin was rubbing against the material and he wanted nothing more than to go home and relax before heading out that night to celebrate. Fake IDs came in handy every once in a while.

The locker room was as crowded as the stands had been just an hour earlier. The shrill screams of children echoed off the hollow walls and vibrated through Percy's chest. It took everything he had to not start dry heaving there and then.

"IT'S PERCY JACKSON!" A small redhead called from Percy's right and all eyes instantly turned to him. The buzz in the room quickly grew and Percy was suddenly surrounded by people half his size. He plastered a smile on his face all the same, but it was not as real as it could have been. It wasn't that Percy hated children- well, it was. He had just never found a real use for the snot-nosed, pint-sized brats. Children were pretty pointless to him.

All of the young swimmers looked up to him (literally and figuratively). They all aimed to be as great as Percy Jackson, who was now heading to the California Finals in Los Angeles. Exposition Park was Percy's last stop before stardom, which was what all of the children thrived to have when they become as great as Percy Jackson. After all, Percy started out as a one of The Little Swimmer's group. The only reason he got his big break was from a scouting agent who had attended one of his trial races during a practice when he was eight. Ten years later and the rest is history.

"Why don't you all settle down and Percy can talk to you for a bit, huh?" One of The Little Swimmer's trainers suggested. The buzz didn't drop, it simply moved to the group of children who crowded on the benches around the room. Percy sucked in a large breath, taking a small running start to jump onto the single bench in the middle of the locker room, spinning around taking in all of the kids. Mainly he was just buying himself some time.

"Uh...Hey, guys." He gave a small wave. "I'm going to California, yay." He gave a small fist pump. The children cheered. "And one day you guys could be heading there too, how cool is that? You just gotta keep on swimming and...and keep on doing that...Yeah!"

"YEAH!" The kids echoed back. Percy wasn't sure what was going on, but he felt that was enough of a speech for one day. He jumped down from the bench and signed a few swimming caps before finally convincing his coach to let him leave.

Percy was all set to head back to his penthouse on the Upper East side. He headed outside, twirling his keys round his fingers and the constant smile on his face. Of course he was going to win the Finals in LA next week, he wasn't even worried. He hadn't even looked up who had won the other semi-finals, Percy didn't particularly care who he was up against. Losing wasn't in his itinerary for his trip to California.

"Percy!" The image of the swimmer receiving the first place trophy that filled Percy's head was all too quickly dissolved when he heard his coach calling him back towards the building. "Last minute meeting, get your ass back here."

Every fiber of Percy's being groaned in unison. He did not want another meeting. Meetings were boring and long and he never got a proper input. Everyone thought they knew what was best for him, bt never asked what he wanted. Though, the only thing Percy truly wanted was to win, and everyone did know that. This was going to be his first proper meeting about the Finals. It was briefly mentioned in previous meetings, but it was if no one believed he would have won. Now, after proving everyone wrong, it was time to settle down and talk through everything that was coming up over the next few weeks.

But all the same, Percy re-locked his Bentley and turned back towards the sports center. The coach held the door open and led Percy back towards the pool area, turning right just before and pushing open the door to an almost empty room. There was one long, wooden table stretched down the middle surrounded by a couple dozen plastic desk chairs. There were only four other people in the room; one judge, two sponsors and Sally Jackson.

"Where's Paul?" Percy asked, taking the seat beside his mother. He wasn't intimidated by anyone in the room, no matter how big or important they were in his world.

"He had papers to grade," Sally replied with a smile. Paul was a High school teacher, and had been Percy's teacher for most of his High school experience too. But since graduating from Goode High school three weeks ago, shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Percy had nothing but freedom in mind. He didn't plan on heading to college, Percy was trying to pursue a career in what he loved most: anything aquatic. It wasn't proving to be doing too well, and Sally was concerned for her son, but Percy was determined to give this lifestyle a chance. He knew it was a risk from the start, but he was not giving up.

The meeting dragged on from there. Percy was not included as all the 'grown-ups' rambled on about what was best for him, as they usually did. Percy wasn't really interested. He didn't care where his appearances would be or what chat shows he needed to be on. It was always arranged before he got a chance to say what he wanted to do, anyway. That was until the issue of getting him to California came up.

"I'll drive him down," his coach insisted. "Give me some time to talk with the boy."

"Hold on a second," Percy butted in at last. "I can drive myself down."

"You've never driven that far before, Percy," Sally quickly jumped in. "It's a forty hour drive at the best. You can't drive down on your own."

"Well, we're out-of-pocket," huffed one of the sponsors. "We can't afford to buy him a plane ticket, so he'll have to drive down."

"I'll drive him down," the coach insisted.

"Dad!" Percy whined in a stern way, as if Poseidon was an embarrassing parent. "I can drive myself, I'll be fine."

It took a lot of arguing, but the following morning Percy left at 8AM and started his drive. His parents were not happy with his decision, neither believed he should have gone by himself. He didn't really have a plan, just to keep driving until he arrived with as few stops as possible in between. The coach and his mother and step-father would be following in their own cars a few days later, giving him a chance to be by himself. Percy hadn't been this excited since he learnt he had made the semi-finals.

It was during the second day-after he had made a quick stop at a Bed and Breakfast the night before in St. Louis after a fifteen hour drive, only stopping for a Burger King and restroom breaks-that Percy discovered a problem. It was coming up to the eleventh hour of driving when the car made the first strange noise. Percy passed it off as a fluke, one-off car thing; he wasn't big on cars like other young men his age. If it didn't happen in a body of water, Percy wasn't interested.

However, as the sun set another hour later, and Percy was starting to get a little wary, that was in the brakes failed. There wasn't any lights on the back road he had found himself driving along, he didn't know what was in front of him any further than his headlights. So as he slammed his foot down on the breaks, but the car refused to stop, Percy was at a loss. He kept his foot off the accelerator, but the car didn't seem to be slowing down fast enough as he had done nearly one hundred miles an hour down an empty dirt road.

Percy clutched the wheel, trying to keep control, but something was right with the vehicle. It was starting to slow, but not fast enough as a small, sleepy town approached. Percy turned the wheel to stop the car from driving head first into a white picket fence, but the car was still going too fast and he ended up slamming into a different fence instead, running it over until the car slammed into the side of a building Percy couldn't identify. The air bag popped up and Percy's head fell into it.

Groaning, the teenager lifted his head, rubbing the back of his neck and unbuckling his belt. He managed to wedge open his car door, hitting it against the fence that was jammed between the vehicle and the wall of the building. Percy tumbled out, taking a moment to search his surroundings. No one was around, his car was a wreck. He pulled out his Blackberry and waved it in the air, but no bars were coming through.

"Hey!" A distant voice called out. It was gruff and deep, but Percy couldn't see anyone around. The voice called out to him again and this time Percy was able to identify a direction. He squinted his sea green eyes and saw a figure heading towards him. "So you're the one making all the noise." He didn't look to be much older than Percy, but he had a mature air about him that made Percy want to instantly rebel.

"Sorry about that, I lost control of the car and-"

"Don't worry about apologizing to me. It's Thalia you might want to save that for, she won't take the news of a stranger driving into the side of her beloved café too well," the stranger continued to talk in good spirits. "I'm Grover, by the way."

"Percy. Percy Jackson."

A/N: What a good start to a story.

I'm quite...happy? with the way that turned out :D

Well, hi there! I'm Chloe and I'll be your author for the rest of this story. We may or may not have met before! Don't worry, you'll get used to my babbling in no time...

This is my first PJO multi-chapter fic! Maddi has wanted me to write one for ages and I finally got an idea, so...here we are!

It is based off Cars! The idea came to me when I was watching it with my four year old cousin. It is one of my favourite films and I put my own little twist on it, featuring the cast of PJO and HoO! So, we'll see how well this goes, huh?

Also, the song is Find Yourself by Brad Paisley. It's one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite singers from one of my favourite films. And yes, this story is based off it! Yay!

I really hope you enjoyed the prologue and I'll see you when I get the next chapter done!

Thanks for reading, please review (:

Love, ChloeRhiannonX