It all started the day Leo decided that Camp Half-Blood should have a musical four times a year. Once he got the idea, he was completely set on it. He went to Chiron and appealed to Mr. D (who, being the god of theatre, approved of the idea) and then, not a few weeks later, audition notices were posted for the musical 'Annie.' I, of course, didn't audition. I was planning to take a trip back to the Underworld a few days after rehearsals started, so I couldn't have been in the show, even if I had wanted to.

I should probably mention now that my name is Nico diAngelo. I'm a son of Hades and kind of a loner. Well, more than kind of. I tend to avoid people a lot. Particularly people with dark, wavy hair, sea green eyes, rippling muscles, and you know what, let's just say that I don't talk to people very often. Nowadays, I even especially try to avoid certain blonde-haired blue-eyed sons of Jupiter named Jason, simply out of annoyance since the guy keeps trying to get me to talk to him. Unfortunately, avoiding him doesn't seem to work very well.

"Hey, Nico!" I sighed and turned around to look at Jason, irritatedly.

"What do you want, Grace?" I asked. Jason shrugged.

"Just wondering if you were gonna audition for the musical."

"Do I look like I sing?" I rolled my eyes at him. "Are you trying out, then?"

"Nah." He waved a hand. "I know a bunch of people who are, though. Hazel, Reyna, Frank, Annabeth, Leo, Piper, Julia, Clarisse, and Thalia are all auditioning." I probably should have mentioned earlier that Chiron decided to involve both demigod camps in this whole 'musical' business. The two camps are going to switch off who hosts the thing. The first one will be Camp Half-blood, but the next will be Camp Jupiter. "So what do you think the musical after this is gonna be?" Jason asked, putting his hands in his pockets and looking at me. I shrugged.

"Probably something weird." Jason gave me a look.

"Do you really not like musicals?"

"Look, I've never really had any experience with musicals. I've never even seen one." In truth, as a kid, I had always been interested in seeing them but I never actually got to go, which was disappointing.

"Dude, we're totally gonna see everyone in Annie, okay?" Jason grinned at me.

"Sure, whatever," I grumbled.

"Alright, it's a date!" Jason laughed. I turned scarlet.

"Wait but-" I spluttered. "You… You have a girlfriend!" Jason merely smiled.

"I was joking, Nico," he said. I glared at him.

"It wasn't funny," I huffed, turning to face away from him. He chuckled.

"Whatever. See you around!" And with that, he walked away. Finally.

"Nico, Nico, Nico!"

It was a few days after auditions and I turned around to see my half-sister, Hazel, running up to me, looking very excited. "Nico, Nico!"

"What is it?" I asked. She grinned at me.

"I-I got the lead! In the play! I'm Annie!" She looked positively ecstatic. I gave her a small smile, which is more of a smile than I usually give.

"That's great, Hazel. Good job." She grabbed my hand.

"Oh, you've got to come see the cast list, it's great!" She dragged me over to the amphitheater where a bulletin board had been set up. On the board was a notice, presumably the cast list.

ANNIE CAST LIST

Annie - Hazel Levesque

Miss Hannigan - Reyna Ramirez-Arellano

Oliver Warbucks - Frank Zhang

Grace - Annabeth Chase

"Rooster" Hannigan - Leo Valdez

Lily St. Regis - Piper McLean

Molly - Julia

Pepper - Clarisse La Rue

Duffy - Thalia Grace

I looked at the people on the list before looking at the characters. I probably wouldn't recognise any of them, as this 'Annie' was a modern-ish musical… Wait a moment.

"Oliver Warbucks… Is he… He's not… Annie…" I turned to Hazel. "Hazel, in this musical, does Annie call Oliver Warbucks 'Daddy Warbucks'?" I asked. Hazel grinned at me.

"Oh Nico, I forgot you've probably read the Little Orphan Annie comics, too!" I stared in disbelief at the cast list.

"They made a musical of Little Orphan Annie?..." I remembered, as a kid growing up in the 1930s, the comic strip 'Little Orphan Annie' appeared in the newspaper every week. The main character was Annie, and there was a rich man that she called 'Daddy' Warbucks.

"When I was reading the script at auditions, I almost couldn't believe it! I actually knew this story! Well, some of it, anyways. It's changed a lot."

"It has?" I asked. Hazel nodded.

"You'll see when you come see the show. That is… Are you coming to the show?" I nodded.

"I'm going with Jason," I replied. She smiled.

"You two are becoming quite close aren't you?" I tensed at her words.

"We're not-"

"I'm glad to see you making friends… It makes me happy.." I sighed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever…" Anything to make my sister happy….

"Hey, Nico, I'm gonna go tell the others." She smiled. I smiled back a bit. She really did seem happy. I nodded at her before watching as she scampered off to tell the rest of our friends the good news. As I began to walk back to my cabin, I found myself actually looking forward to seeing the show in a few weeks.

A few weeks later, I shadow-traveled back to camp in a panic. It's difficult to tell what day it is in the Underworld, so I was worried I had missed the show. As I started walking quickly around, trying to find someone to ask what date it was, I heard someone calling my name.

"Nico!"

I turned around. Jason was waving at me and smiling. Seeing that he had gotten my attention, he trotted over to me. "Nico, you're back!" He grinned. "So we're still on for the show tomorrow?"

"The show is tomorrow?" I asked. Jason nodded. "Thank the gods," I said, relieved. "I was worried I had missed it.." Jason shook his head.

"Nope. It's tomorrow evening. It's gonna be awesome. I snuck a look at the set. It's pretty cool." He looked at me. "So, we're still going together, yeah?" I sighed and nodded.

"I guess, yeah. As friends."

"As friends," Jason agreed with a smile. He bit his lip as he looked at my face. "Jeez, you look tired. You should get some sleep. Shadow travel really wears you out, huh?" I nodded.

"Yeah… Yeah, I'll go to sleep… See you tomorrow, Jason."

"See you!" And with that, I walked back to my cabin before plopping down on my bed and immediately passing out.

The next evening, Jason found me in the dining pavilion after dinner.

"Ready to see the show?" he asked, with that stupid smile of his. I nodded. I was actually really looking forward to seeing Hazel in the show. I walked with Jason to the amphitheater, which they had renovated a bit to make it into a more modern stage. We took seats in the third row and were soon joined by none other than Percy Jackson. "Hey guys!" He sat down next to me. "Ready to see the show? I'm so excited, Annabeth's gonna be great!" He leaned on me a bit, causing me to scoot away from him, red-faced, and over more towards Jason. "I haven't seen you in a while, Nico," Percy said, looking at me. "How's the Underworld?"

"Oh, you know, a little dark, a little gloomy, and as always, full of dead people," I said, apathetically. Jason laughed. Percy grinned as well. He suddenly looked somewhere behind me.

"Oh shit, guys, look," he said, pointing. Jason and I looked around. To our surprise, we saw mine and Jason's dad walking into the theater.

"Holy shit," I said, watching my father walk towards a seat near the back. He didn't seem to notice me.

"I guess they came to see Hazel and Thalia, huh?" Jason said, watching his father. I nodded. The rest of the audience soon filled in and the lights went out as the overture began to play. The curtain went up to reveal the set, which right now was a few beds, all in a row. I noticed the people that seemed to be sleeping in the beds. Suddenly one of them sat up and started crying. I recognised them to be Julia. Two of the others sat up as well, looking annoyed. Clarisse and Thalia! They shouted at Julia to be quiet, before being told to shush themselves by another girl. They then started arguing with the other girl when a fourth girl stood up and shouted at them to stop fighting unless they wanted 'Ms. Hannigan' to come up there. I grinned at my sister on the stage. I never knew she was such a good actress. I sat back, watching as the show unfolded. I hoped that Percy didn't realised that I was leaning against him…

After the show, I waited with the rest of the audience outside the amphitheater to congratulate Hazel and the rest of the cast when they came out. I felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see my father standing there, smiling a bit.

"Nico, did you know Hazel was that talented?" he asked. I shook my head.

"She's an amazing singer…" I stated. My father nodded.

"Say, Nico, whatever the next musical is, I think you should try out. I've heard singing can be an outlet for things like anger, sadness, heartache… Things like that. Besides, I'm sure Hazel would like it too.." I looked up at him.

"You think so? But I don't know if I'd even be good at acting." I knew that I was an okay singer, but I had never tried acting before.

"Just try out. It won't hurt to do that." He smiled at me- actually smiled. It was nice to see my father looking at me with such a happy expression. I nodded. I didn't know whether or not I would actually audition, but I might as well humour my dad.

A little while later, I was walking back to my cabin, one particular song stuck in my head.

"Betcha' they're young, betcha' they're smart, bet they collect things like ashtrays and art. Betcha' they're good, why shouldn't they be? Their one mistake was giving up me… So maybe now it's time, or maybe when I wake, they'll be there calling me baby… Maybe…" I thought about my own parents. My mother died years ago… Gods, I miss her. I wish she was still around, to comfort me in times of trouble.. But then again, I don't know how she'd react to certain… things about me. Then there was my father. He was still alive, and he talked to me sometimes like just now after the show, but most of the time he was busy with the Underworld or with Persephone and over all, he didn't really seem to pay much attention to me. I wished I had different parents. Like, I wish I had a mom like Percy's. I had met Sally Jackson. She was so caring, and she would love Percy no matter who or what he was. That's what a mother should be like. I don't even know how mine would have reacted to stuff. But I could tell that if I were Sally's son, she would love me no matter what. I sighed. "So maybe now this prayer's the last one of its kind. Won't you please come get your baby… Maybe…"