Hello everyone! So I think I'll explain a bit about how this story came to be so you don't all laugh your heads off when I tell you that this is ten drabbles based off the songs from Disney's Camp Rock 2. (Yes I know it sounds ridiculous.) I was babysitting my younger siblings today and they wanted to watch Camp Rock 2, so I decided to write a drabble for each song in the movie. So 'that's all that matters' is my attempt at combining fanfiction with Disney movies! Like with my iPod shuffle challenge story 'When Words Fail,' these drabbles were each written within the length of the song they are based on. Therefore, they are largely unedited. Please excuse excessive cheesiness and lack of sense-making, but I thought some, at least, were decent enough to share with the world :) I actually really hate some of them, but I also really love some of them, so why not post the whole set?
Enjoy, and my apologies for the long AN! Without further adieu, here is that's all that matters!
I disclaim.
i. brand new day
I'm gonna laugh through the summer with you.
Percy looked over the hill and saw the old van creaking up the driveway. Shouldering his backpack, he walked over to the Big House porch to say goodbye to Annabeth.
He couldn't believe he had already spent five summers at Camp Half-Blood. This one in particular had gone by so fast- it was a blur of endless training, sleepless nights, blood-spattered pavements, losing hope, regaining hope, cheers of victory, and goodbyes. Far too many goodbyes. He and Annabeth had yet to forget Luke, Ethan, Michael, Silena, Beckendorf, and all the other campers who had died to stop Kronos and save Olympus.
But then, before he could even take a breath, the war was over, and they had won. The weeks that followed were, without a doubt, the best of his life. He still viewed the summer as a blur- but this time, it was a blur of golden curls and grey eyes, afternoons spent in underwater bubbles, walking along sandy beaches with hands intertwined, being laughed at for his frequent stupidity- the best of times, laughing through the summer with the girl who'd been there for him through everything.
ii. fire
Got fire coming outta me.
There'd always been a fire inside of Leo, and he hated it. He hated it more than anything.
He remembered the first time that the fire had come out of him. He was only a little kid. He touched the picnic table outside of his mom's repair shop. It had caught the flame and burnt down, killing his mom and destroying her shop.
Needless to say, Leo hated his fire.
And then he arrived at camp and found out that it was a curse. It all made sense. The horrible flames that were always threatening to burst out of him- they were the product of an ancient curse. The last time someone like him had been around, an entire city burnt down.
He fought to control his fire, every day. But it was a constant battle. Nothing he could do would ever completely put it out.
iii. can't back down
We can't pretend it's not happening in our own backyard, our own home plate…don't walk away.
"Clarisse!" Silena yelled as she clambered off the Pegasus. "Clarisse, where are you?" She kicked off her platform shoes and ran through the camp yards to the Ares cabin.
"Clarisse, let me in!" The doorknob rattled for a bit until it opened to reveal a frizzy-haired, grim- faced Clarisse LaRue.
"Silena, what do you want," she said, exasperated.
"Clarisse, you need to listen to me and you need to listen now."
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't everbody be fighting?"
Silena glared at her best friend. "I could say the same to you."
Clarrise reluctantly let Silena in. "Go on. Tell me how Ares is lazy and irresponsible and how it's our duty to support the camp. Because you know what? I don't care. For years and years we've been right behind your backs, fighting and supporting you all, and we never get any appreciation. And don't you get it? The battle's already lost. It was lost the moment it begun and I'm not wasting my campers on a futile cause. I told Percy he could fight this war without Ares and I stand by that decision."
Silena collapsed down on a bunk. "Clarisse, don't you get it? It's not about glory or honor or which cabin is right. It's not even about whether or not we think we'll win, because guess what, we don't have that option. Clarrise, look at me!"
The daughter of Ares looked up to face her friend. "Sorry, go on?"
"Clarisse, Michael Yew is dead."
"He's- he's what?"
"Don't you see? Every second you waste here sitting around is a camper's life you could be saving. It doesn't matter if Michael was wrong about the chariot because he's dead, and if Ares had been supporting us maybe that wouldn't have happened- oh, Clari, I didn't mean that." Silena stopped when she saw her friend's tears. She put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "All I'm trying to say is that Ares can't sit here and pretend that a war's not happening right behind you, and we don't really have the option of deciding whether or not to fight back, because they're going to attack us no matter what-"
"Silena, listen-"
"No, you listen! I'm sick of people pushing me around. This is my camp, this is my home and my family and I will do whatever it takes to protect them and to convince you to do the same, and well, if it doesn't work-" Silena stood up and straightened her shoulders- "I know what I have to do. I'm not going to sit here and watch Ares back down because we can't. We can't back down."
She made her way toward the door.
"So goodbye, Clari. You've been a good friend."
For the rest of her life, Clarisse would regret letting her friend walk out the door.
iv. it's on
Just look at me, I put a gleam in your eye.
"So you just swing your sword around like this-" Percy swung Riptide around the younger camper's sword- "and then you've forced your opponent into a defensive position. All you have to do then is win."
The new Hermes campers applauded Percy's demonstration, no one noticing the older camper making her way through the training arena.
"Lots of big talk, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said. "Ready to put it to the test with a real opponent?" She unsheathed her dagger. "No offense, Noah," she said, patting the new Hermes kid Percy used as his example on the shoulder.
"You want me to fight you?" Percy laughed. Travis-or was it Connor?- wolf-whistled from the back of the bleachers. "My dear Wise Girl, you seem to forget that I'm invincible." He tossed his sword from hand to hand.
"Like that's ever stopped me before. I thrive on defeating the invincible."
"Then prove it!" Percy escorted her into the arena, with mock chivalry.
"Oh, it's on, Percy. Bring it on." The two began circling each other.
"Consider it brung!" Percy shouted.
"Um, Percy? I believe you mean 'brought.'" Annabeth smirked, twisting her dagger around Riptide. The Hermes campers laughed and applauded as the two dueled. The level of competition between the couple was unbelievable.
Of course, it ended with Percy pinned to the ground, Annabeth's bronze dagger at his throat, the gleam of victory shining in her grey eyes.
v. wouldn't change a thing
We're Venus and Mars, we're like different stars.
She was Aphrodite, Venus, goddess of love. He was Ares, Mars, god of war. She created beauty. He destroyed it. She was married. He was a player. She was vain. He was cocky. They were forbidden, they weren't supposed to work together.
But somehow, they did.
There was something special between them, something that not Hephaestus' or Zeus' or their children's protests, even could change. Perhaps it was magnetic- because after all, opposites attract. Perhaps it was a good thing- because after all, two negatives make a positive. It was certainly an attraction- no one could deny that.
Some may call it criminal. Some may call it creepy. Some may call it just plain wrong. But they called it love.
vi. heart and soul
Practice makes perfect but perfect's not working.
Annabeth was a daughter of Athena. She planned, plotted, and practiced everything, and her theories and plans worked for everything- except, of course, when it came to Percy Jackson.
She didn't know what it was about him that drove her so crazy. She would think of the perfect words to say- then forget them all the moment she looked in his green eyes. She would make plans, plotting out her next move, what she would say and do- and in he rushed like a tidal wave, destroying everything in his path and wiping her mind of all logical pursuits.
Then one night, when the stars were bright and the camp was quiet and the moment just seemed right, she gave him a blue birthday cake that resembled a chocolate brick, promised to never make things easy for him (he never had for her), and kissed him for all it was worth.
Maybe, Annabeth thought, love doesn't need to be perfect. All it needs is a little heart and soul.
vii. introducing me
There's a part of me that shows if we're close, gonna let you see everything.
"I was nine."
Piper looked up from her perch at the fireplace to see Leo Valdez looking down at here.
"Can I help you, Leo?"
He sat down beside her. "I was nine years old. Nine years old when I lost control of my fire. Nine years old when the flames from my hands set fire to my mom's repair shop. Nine years old when she died. Nine years old when I- when I killed her."
She looked up at him, and he could count the colors in her kaledascope eyes. "Why are you telling me this?" He saw a tear tracing down her cheek.
"Because-" Leo took a deep breath. "Because I care. Because sometimes you have to tell a story to hear a story, because sometimes you have to trust a person to make them trust you."
"I don't understand," Piper whispered.
"I want you to know I'm here for you, Piper, that you can trust me, with Jason and Reyna and New Rome and everything. I want you to know you can count on me. You can trust me, Beauty Queen, there's no catch. I'm all here. What you see is what you get, and what you see is a guy that cares about you and is worried about how you feel."
"Oh, Leo."
That was all she said. That was all she needed to say. Her head on his shoulder and the way she reached over and squeezed his hand was enough.
viii. tear it down
We're gonna tear it down, you can't stop us now.
"How could I trust you now, Luke? You've destroyed everything, Luke!" Annabeth screamed at him.
That's what I do, he thought bitterly, destroy things. He wished he could pinpoint when he had become such a monster. Maybe then he could explain to the girl he loved like a sister why he did it.
"Annabeth, please just listen to me-"
"No, Luke, I can't. I-I won't."
"Well, then go on. Yell at me and tell me what a horrible person I've become. Don't you think I already know the mess I've gotten myself into?"
"Luke, what..." she trailed off. He could see the tears streaming down her cheeks and wanted to kill himself for hurting her so badly.
"Luke, all I ever wanted was to get rid of the temporary. To build something lasting, something important- to build something permanent. You were part of that, and I trusted you. But-" she choked back another sob- "all you did was tear it down."
That's what I do, he thought again, rolling up his flag of surrender and wishing he could just die here and now. I tear things down.
ix. what we came here for
Making memories we can't forget.
Percy beamed as Chiron presented the bead of this summer. It was a trident- a trident for Poseidon. A trident for him. He couldn't have been happier.
It had been a long summer, and a scary one at times. But he had made it through, he had survived, and here he was, at the end of the year campfire, sitting between the two greatest friends anyone could ever ask for.
"Seaweed Brain, you're squeezing my hand really hard," he heard Annabeth hiss. He blushed when he realized sometime in the past moments he had grabbed her hand.
"Sorry," he whispered. "I'm just-"
"Just what?" Gods of Olympus, would she always be this difficult?
"I'm just happy we're friends." He smiled at her. She smiled back.
Then she punched him in the shoulder.
"Gods, Percy, when'd you get so sentimental?"
"It's a side effect of almost dying more than once in a single summer," Grover said, from Percy's other side. The three friends laughed.
Percy slid his trident bead onto his necklace and knew he would remember this night forever.
x. this is our song
This is our song, that's all that matters. We all belong, right here together.
This, Percy decided, as he walked into the mess hall to find an impromptu sixteenth birthday party for him, was what summer should be about. No quests, no fighting to the death, no final goodbyes. Just friends getting together and celebrating life.
"You surprised, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth came up to him, and he shyly placed his hand at her back. They were still getting used to the whole together thing.
"You bet. Most summers, I'd be fighting for my life around this time."
Annabeth laughed, and together the two wandered around the party, greeting various old friends and exchanging hugs and well-wishes for the next year. Percy saw Travis and Connor getting into some trouble by the fruit punch- he made a mental note not to drink it, Chris and Clarisse sitting by a bonfire hand-in-hand, and Grover and Juniper escaping for a private walk on the beach. He even saw Rachel standing shyly over in the corner- that is, until Nico di Angelo walked up to her with a piece of cake and a goofy smile on his face. Percy smiled and pulled Annabeth closer to him.
She was safe. They were all safe, safe and together and home.
He looked around the room, seeing so many familiar faces. His happiness was muted only by the fact that there were faces that were missing, Silena's and Beckendorf's and Michael's and so many more, that should have been there.
They had died to preserve this family, this home. And as Percy felt Annabeth lightly kiss his cheek, he realized that he would do the same without a second thought.
Camp Half-Blood was the first place he felt he truly belonged, and some things are worth fighting for. His family was one of them.