Disclaimer: I don't own any songs used or characters from PJO

Chapter 3: Tryouts and Dropouts

Percy POV

Me and the rest of the band were relaxing in the studio Grover had managed to rent out for the day so we could hold tryouts in a decent environment. Jason looked at his watch and said,

"How are every single one of them late?"

"I have no fucking clue."

Nico just huffed and said,

"Mother fuckers."

Just then the door to the studio opened, and five people walked in; four of them were muttering amongst themselves. Jason walked up to them and began introducing the band to them. I waved when he said my name and I got up,

"Alright you've met us, and I'm sorry to say this, but we only have one slot open. I know this will sound fucked up, but I only want to hear your name when you begin playing."

The five guys nodded in agreement and one guy said,

"Percy, can I go first?"

"Yeah sure man, what's your name?"

"Jared."

"Alright cool, well I'll give you a minute to set up the kit and let us know when you're ready and we'll start a recording of one of our songs. You can start playing once you figure out how you would play the song."

"Yeah sure sounds good."

Jared walked into the recording room and began tinkering with the drumset we had brought with us. After a few minutes, he gave us a thumbs up and Nico started one of the few songs we had written at the moment. Jared waited a few measures, then began playing a rather punk-rock style. Jason muttered,

"That's not the sound we want."

I replied,

"You're right. But we have four more people in line."

Jason nodded but didn't say anything. After about a minute of playing, Jared stopped and motioned for us to stop the music. Nico turned on the PA and asked,

"What's up?"

"No offense, but the music you guys play is a bit heavy for me. I can't play like that."

"No worries man, thanks for coming out."

Jared nodded and walked out of the studio. I called out to have the next person to come in and he introduced himself as Aaron and played similarly to Jared and had the same reaction. The second to last audition introduced herself,

"Hey, I'm Rachel. Sorry I was late. You guys have any idea who your last audition is?"

Jason and I looked at each other in confusion. Nico spoke up,

"Uhhhh… No. Should we?"

"Oh my god. You guys don't even know who all was auditioning?"

Jason got impatient and said,

"What's their fucking name?"

"Jesus, relax. No need to cuss. I'm not even gonna audition anymore. You guys need to know."

Rachel briskly turned and disappeared in a whirl of red, curly hair. The guys and I heard Rachel's voice and a guy's voice that was really familiar. Rachel exploded back into the recording studio dragging a guy wearing a, 'Another Reason to Forget' hoodie who looked like he wanted to shoot himself.

"I'd like to introduce, Thomas Alexander. He was the lead singer of the band 'Another Reason to Forget'."

I was shocked when she mentioned his name. Tom just nodded his head and said,

"Sup guys, long time no see."

Leo was the first to speak,

"Wassup fuckhead?"

Tom laughed and said,

"Leo! You haven't changed a fucking bit you curly-headed prick."

Rachel spoke up,

"I take offense to that."

The whole group of us started laughing our asses off. Tom caught his breath and said between chuckles,

"So, do I even have to audition at this point?"

Nico stopped laughing and said dead serious,

"Yes. Go set up."

Tom jokingly flipped him off and walked into the sound room and re-arranged the drumset. He gave us a thumbs-up when he was ready. Frank pressed play and Tom waited for a few measures and began playing. After only a few bars, I motioned to Frank to pause the music. I pressed the PA button but Leo grabbed my hand,

"Come on Perce, lets fuck with him?"

I raised an eyebrow,

"How do you want to go about doing that?"

Frank spoke up,

"Let's just keep talking like we are so we look like we're making a decision."

Jason, Grover and I shared a look and Nico said,

"You two are fucking assholes."

Leo and Frank high fived and said,

"Fuck yourself Nico."

I rolled my eyes and said through the mic,

"Well Tom, looks like you made the cut."

Tom's sarcastic voice played through the system,

"Oh wow, I was so worried. You guys were uh…. Making a decision for so long."

Tom started laughing and flipped us off. The six of us returned the favor and laughed with him. Tom left the recording studio and said,

"God, I've missed you fucks."

Annabeth POV

(3 months later)

"Ugh."

"Oh my god, Piper if you complain one more time I'm going to lose my shit."

"Oh shut your ass up Annie. You know that I'm god awful when it comes to biology."

"Yeah, but you don't need to verbally complain about every little problem. You could just ask for help."

Piper raised an eyebrow at me,

"Bitch, every time I ask for help you always say you're too busy."

I waved my hand at her,

"That's just a minor detail. Come on it can't be that hard."

Piper and I started on her homework. After like five minutes, I looked at her and said,

"Piper you know I love you but, this is pretty damn easy."

"Well, I'm not as smart as you."

"Obviously."

Piper just rolled her eyes at me. We sat and talked for a few minutes when I asked,

"Hey you want to go get some lunch?"

"Yeah sure, I'll text the rest of the girls to meet us there."

"Sounds great."

As Piper and I walked through the halls of our dormitory, I felt every guy' eyes in the hall glued to Piper and myself. Piper rolled her eyes and said,

"Damn pigs."

I saw an opportunity and I took it,

"But didn't you like when Jason stared at you like that?"

Piper started babbling incoherently, causing me to start laughing at her.

"Speaking of which, have you spoken to Jason since prom?"

"Not really, I feel like he forget about me; which sucks cause I still have feelings you know?"

I looked down and said,

"Yeah. I'm sorry for putting you all through that Pipes, Percy and I were drunk."

"We know Annie, none of us blame you for what happened. I can't speak for the rest of them, but I just wish the group hadn't split like it did."

I know Piper didn't mean to, but her words crushed me. She noticed and placed a hand on my shoulder and said,

"Come on Annie, let's go get lunch."

I just nodded and we continued walking in silence. Once we got to the cafeteria, I saw that Thalia and Camden seemed to be in an intense argument. As we got closer, I heard Thalia say,

"Cam, I will not try to make Annabeth do this. You and I both know college is too important to her."

Camden looked like she wanted to argue but she glanced at me and the both of them stopped talking. Once Piper and I got closer I spoke up,

"Convince me of what Thals?"

Camden and Thalia shared a look that made me even more curious. Calypso glanced at the two girls in question and then said,

"Thals and Cam have both come up with an idea, and most of us agreed on it."

"What is it then? And who's all going along with it?"

Thalia spoke up,

"Well Annie, Cam and I both realized that college isn't really working out for us right now. We wanted to form a band around the group of us; including you. And before you say anything; yes, we're gonna all have to at least partially dropout for now."

"Thalia, I can't just dropout of college. You of all people should know that my mother would kill me."

Camden came to Thalia's defense,

"Annabeth, you of all people can figure out a way to take all your courses online. Plus the staff love you, they'll work with you."

I thought about what they said for a minute or so. Thalia and Camden were staring intently at me, waiting for my response; the rest of the group just ate their food in mild indifference.

"You know what? Fuck it, why the hell not?"

Camden looked very surprised with my answer, but pleased that I had relented.

"Fuck yeah girl! Let's start planning immediately."

"Relaxes Thals, we can start after I actually eat today."

"Nope, if we wait until later you'll start overanalyzing the idea and back out. But for now we need a name and genre."

Hazel laughed at Thalia's enthusiasm and said,

"Well Thalia, we all know what you want to play."

"Well duh. I say punk rock. But I'll play anything aside from heavy metal; I can't stand that shit."

The group of us nodded in agreement. I said,

"So any other options for what type of music we'll play? Cause I'm down to play some punk rock."

Thalia hooted with laughter and reached to me for a high five. I laughed at her reaction and met her halfway. Thalia's eyes were beaming when she said,

"I knew you had a punk rocker in you Annie. So girls? Any other suggestions?"

Calypso spoke,

"Well I have a suggestion for our name if you guys want to hear it."

Piper said reassuringly,

"Come on girl, of course we want to hear it."

"I was thinking we could name the band Elysium. You know, like the Ancient Greek version of heaven?"

Hazel said excitedly,

"Oh that's awesome, I love it."

Hazel looked around the group of us and asked,

"Anyone have another suggestion?"

We all shook our heads and began planning what to do.

-1 Year Later-

Annabeth POV

"Annabeth! I need to show you something right now!"

"Cam, can't it wait? I'm trying to finish these lyrics so we can start trying to find a label."

"No it can't; and besides, it'll only take a second."

I rolled my eyes as Camden came and sat by me at my desk and pulled her phone out and opened Twitter.

"So you of all of us have realized that the guys we dated in high school have dropped off the social media radar. They've been completely ignoring us right? Well I've done some snooping on Jason's twitter, and the only tweets from the past six months have all just been two similar updates. They either say something about a show or thank the crowd for an awesome night."

"That does seem weird, what's your point though?"

"Well I finally got back in contact with Jason and asked what they've all been up too. He just replied with this link."

Camden opened the link, which brought her to a YouTube video.

Camden pressed play and I watched intently for anything I might miss. The video showed and overhead of a stage with what looked like an artistic rendition of the gates of hell as the backdrop. Six guys walked onto the stage from behind the backdrop and the crowd started chanting what I assumed was the band name. The camera angle suddenly shifted to a sort of drum camera and Leo jumped into the camera's view and flipped it off and started egging the crowd on. Then it shifted to a cell phone camera and the user pointed the camera towards the back of the stage and flipped to the front facing camera showing his face. My mouth fell wide open. I looked at Camden and said,

"Oh my god, that's all the guys. Even Tom."

"Right!? I'm kind of annoyed that they never bothered to tell us about it."

"Well I mean, we all did kind of break up over some really dumb shit and to be honest, our group isn't exactly guiltless in that. And besides you just refused to see Tom's massive crush on you."

"Oh no, I saw it Annabeth."

"So you saw it but didn't tell him anything?"

"Nope, didn't see the point."

"See the point in what?"

"Dating Tom; I mean come on. I had all the cutest guys in school running after me. Why would I have settled for him? Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy but just not my type. I'm more for quick flings."

"Damn that's cold."

"What can I say Annie? I'm a cold hearted bitch."

We laughed and I nodded in sarcastic agreement. Camden sat silently and watched me finish the lyrics for our last song of our first album called 'Love Like Rockets'. Camden sat watched me for a moment then spoke up,

"I think it should say 'the stars in your eyes.' not 'from your eyes.'"

I looked at the lyrics and saw that what she said made much better sense.

"Yet again, you prove why we keep you around."

We both laughed for a moment when Thalia burst through my door.

"Hey guys, I just got off the phone with Jason and he said that him and the guys formed a band."

Camden and I made eye contact and laughed our asses off.

"What're you two laughing at? This is big news."

Camden wiped the tears from her eyes and said,

"Thalia, you're like five minutes late. Annie and I already know. Jason sent us a video."

"Ugh, fuck you two. You never let me break the good shit. Anyway; alongside finding that out, Jason said he would have Tom talk to his old label and hook us up with a chance to impress them."

Camden ran up and high fived her. I nodded and said,

"Hell yeah girl, you let everyone else know?"

"Yeah they were all with me. The only catch is that we have to have an album done with at least 10 songs written for it."

"Well we have a five song EP and we have the album 'Love Like Rockets' that I just finished."

Camden spoke up,

"Well we better get recording then."

Thalia cut her off,

"Not exactly Cam, we could just go record with the label. We just need to know how to play the songs we've written."

"Well let's grab the rest of the girls and sign out the instruments we need."

Camden jumped out of the room and ran towards the music department while Thalia and I texted the rest of the band to head over there to start practicing. Once the texts were sent, Thalia and I starting running in the direction Camden ran. When we finally arrived, we saw that the whole band was waiting on us. Piper looked at her watch sarcastically and said,

"Hurry up Annie, we need all of us to be here so we can sign all the instruments out."

I just rolled my eyes in response. Once we signed all our gear out, we headed towards the music room we had signed out for us.

A/N: Holy shit, I live. It's been a long time I know, but I just had no urge to write any of my stories. Excuse any errors in this chapter as it came to me under a Monster induced creative burst. Thanks for reading and please review. Later guys