I really should stop publishing new stories, you know...

In this story there will be eight narrators. Four of them - Percy, Annabeth, Nico, and Hazel - are featured in this chapter, and in the next one you'll get the other four - Jason, Frank, Piper, and Grover. I have evil plans for every single one of them. MUAHAHA.

But, umm... I really have nothing else to say here. Normally I completely abuse the AN privileges by making them stupidly long and full of random junk, but not today! :D


The Announcement.

Percy Jackson sat in the back of his seventh-hour classroom, lazily watching a fly buzz around the room. He'd long since given up on watching the clock; it appeared to have been stuck somewhere around 1:45.

He had no place in this class, anyway. Drama class. It was a punishment, although no one put it like that. They said it was an opportunity - an opportunity to do something productive and "straighten up" a bit. It was dumb. Percy refused to put it any other way. But this was better than the alternative, which involved a nasty word called expulsion. If he got expelled from another school, his mom would probably have a coronary.

And that was one thing he couldn't have. To stomp all over his mom's heart like that… well, Percy had some problems, but that wasn't one of them. His mom was one of the only good things he had, and he wasn't stupid enough to give that up.

So that was his punishment. Auditioning for the fall play at his school. And it was a musical, of all things! Percy Jackson did not sing. Not even in the shower.

Okay, maybe in the shower.

But not in an actual play! What kind of guy did they take him to be?

"Percy, are you paying attention?" Mr. Brunner, the teacher, asked suddenly, jerking Percy back to what was actually happening in class. "Pass those papers back!"

Percy grabbed the stack of papers that he hadn't realized were sitting on his desk, took the one on top, and gave the rest of the pile to the kid behind him. Nick? Was that his name? Percy didn't know, or even care much. He wasn't here to make friends. He was here to work off his punishment, and that was it.

He tried to scan the sheet, but his dyslexia was inevitably acting up, and the words were just about as readable as his stepfather's sloppy handwriting.

Mr. Brunner gave him the information he wanted to know when he told the class, "The musical, as you've just seen on your sheet, is Les Miserables. Auditions are tomorrow morning at nine, I expect you all to be there. Remember, just because you don't get the lead role doesn't mean you aren't good enough to be here; even a chorus boy is of the same importance as Jean Valjean himself."

It was about then that Percy tuned out, and instead started thinking about how his life was going to be for the next few months.

Miserable sounded about right.


Annabeth Chase pulled out her planner and jotted down the time that was on the audition sheet - 9:00 A.M. She closed the book and put it back into her backpack, for once not listening to Mr. Brunner as he lectured on the importance of everyone to the show. She was reading the sheet, frowning a bit as she did.

Annabeth had participated in both of the school plays the previous year… as a set worker. Not as an actor on stage. She so much preferred helping design, and eventually build, the sets. Architecture was second nature to Annabeth Chase. It was her passion. Some might even say it was her life. A quick look in any of her school notebooks could tell you that much, every page filled with dimensions and blueprints and drafts.

That was the reason she took drama as a class in the first place, to be on the set crew. Unfortunately, the class required every student to audition as an actor at least once, to give them all sufficient acting experience. As Annabeth was a junior, she figured that this would be the year for that. She definitely wanted to be on the set senior year, seeing as the seniors were the set managers, the most important people in designing any set necessary for the play.

She wondered how this would turn out. She had a decent enough voice. It wasn't great, but it didn't sound like a cat that got thrown into a trash compactor. Would she really be good enough for this? Or would the more seasoned actors look down on her for her complete and utter lack of experience?

Aside from all that, she'd still be extremely glad when this whole thing was over so she could get back where she belonged: behind the scenes.


Nico di Angelo was uncomfortably shifting in his seat as Mr. Brunner continued to talk. His gaze kept drifting over to the clock, quite against his conscious will. For once, he didn't want class to be over.

That was mainly because he knew he was really going to be in for it once it did.

Nico loved acting, he really did. It was one of his favorite things to do, and although he'd never admit it, he still smiled at the memories of playing castle or astronauts or cowboys and Indians with his sister Bianca, back when he was only about five.

Oh, and back when Bianca was actually alive.

That was the core of the problem. Bianca had - after so many years, he still hated saying this word, even in his thoughts - died in a car accident when he was six and she was nine.

Nico had been in the car. He'd survived, obviously. So had both his parents. The car that had hit theirs had T-boned the side that Bianca had been sitting on, and she'd died on impact. Nico's only comfort was that she hadn't felt any pain.

Pain. That was a word Nico could honestly say he was familiar with. He'd become a little obsessed with it last year, his freshman year. Done some things he was pretty ashamed of now. Left some scars, figurative and literal. If he'd rolled up his sleeves you would have been able to see fading gashes across his arms. He'd hung out with the group of kids who liked to wear black and hang out behind the school building. Yeah, cliched as it sounds, they actually did that. And Nico, like a fool, had followed right along.

And then he'd left them. You didn't just leave the group. They didn't take kindly to that. But Nico hadn't really had much of a choice. He'd seen how he went wrong. He'd realized there was more to life than making yourself feel like you were in control. Because sometimes, you can't be in control. Nico had discovered that in a way he still didn't think possible… but that was a completely different subject.

Acting was his secret passion. Once he'd decided to turn his life around, it was one of the first things he'd decided to do. Even now, he kept reading through the list of main roles, trying to decide which one he wanted to play. He knew the other kids in the class wondered if he should really be there, and he didn't blame them. Kids like him weren't the outgoing type, and that was to put it loosely.

Tomorrow he'd show them, though. Them and the ones he'd left, too. He didn't belong with them anymore. He knew it, and soon enough they would too.


Hazel Levesque was having a bad day. It had all started that morning when, like an idiot, she'd left her math homework just sitting on the kitchen counter, along with her lunch. So she'd been homework-less, lunch-less, and luck-less all day.

During gym, they were doing fitness tests, and Hazel went up to the locker room to find someone had stolen her gym shorts so she'd had to borrow her friend Samantha's. Now, Hazel was a short girl. She was also rather skinny, and hadn't quite gotten much of a figure yet, so compared to all the other freshman girls, she was tiny.

Which meant that Samantha's shorts were way too big for Hazel. She shuddered at the memory of trying to do pull-ups in front of everyone, feeling her shorts slipping down, and praying that they wouldn't fall off entirely. The second she got off the pull-up bar, her hands flew to the waistband of Sam's shorts to pull them up higher.

Now she was sitting in drama class, staring at the audition information sheet. She was sure - just so sure - that her rotten luck would hold through tomorrow's auditions, and she wouldn't get a part. She hoped beyond hope it wouldn't, but still she was sure it would.

Sam poked her with a pencil. "Can you give me a ride tomorrow morning?" she whispered. "My parents need to go to my brother's football game."

"Sure thing," Hazel whispered back, not able to stifle the twinge of jealousy that she felt when Sam asked about auditions. Sam was a great singer, Hazel knew. She had natural talent and could almost blow you away with her voice. She was even part of an all-state choir that held practices every Wednesday and Sunday. She'd get a part for sure.

"Thanks," Sam said. "I just can't wait until I can drive myself next year, then my parents will only have to chauffeur Mark around."

"Samantha and Hazel, unless you would like to share with the rest of the class, then please remain silent," Mr. Brunner said.

"Oh, that's fine," Sam replied. Then, raising her voice a bit, she said, "I was just telling Hazel about how my wonderful brother Mark is a real pain in the rear end." Most of the class smirked, and a few people snickered. Sam had that effect on people. She could say the dumbest things and still get people to laugh. Charisma, Hazel thought. She wished she had a little more of it. She'd kind of hoped hanging out with Sam would make some of it rub off on her, but so far she hadn't had much luck.

The bell rang, and Mr. Brunner dismissed the class, telling them to remember to bring snacks for tomorrow so they wouldn't have to act on an empty stomach. Hazel grabbed her bag and left right away, Sam soon catching up with her.

"This is going to be a fun play, I think," she said, sounding slightly out of breath.

"Yeah," Hazel agreed, not adding what she was thinking: If I get to be in it at all.


Next chapter: Auditions. Have any guesses as to who will play which parts? Leave a review if you do!