MANDATORY! (not really but you know)

Bleep. Blep. Bloop. Ship name time! So I thought about ship names for Reyna and Markus. (I just realized- I never really explained why Markus is suddenly alive and a thing. Since Percabeth and Jasper are/were actually canon, Reyna doesn't have a canon relationship. So, bam- Markus. There was also another reason why, but that has to wait... Tee- hee!)

So, being the lazy person I am, I pulled up a ship name generator. I can sense all the hate coming off some people, and this is before I've posted it. But I liked:

~Rekus

~Reykus

~Markeyna

~Mareyna

for ship names for Reyna and Markus. And now, you should really vote on which one you like- OR make a suggestion of your own(!)- so I don't have to make a decision on my own and it turn out to be really, really stupid. Thanks!

SHOUT OOOOOOOOUUUUUUUTTTSS!:

Another story shout out! Guys (and girls), if you haven't read this one, you absolutely have to. It's called Beautiful, by Forfun100. It's a high school drama AU, and it's incredibly moving. Like, I literally started crying when Annabeth- wait. You'll just have to read.

Disclaimer: I can't think of anything good right now. I don't own PJO/HoO or the characters exception of Markus.

Reyna's P.O.V

"No, stop it! Stop it! NO!" I walked out of my small room to see what was wrong. My teddy, Sophia, was clutched in my four year old arms as I peeked around the corner wall by the stairs that showed a full view of our tiny living room. Daddy was pressing Hylla against the wall and loving her. I always asked why she screamed, and why she didn't like it. I thought that love was supposed to be a good thing. She told me that it wasn't love. Love was supposed to be nice. But Daddy said that it was nice.

"Stop it! No, you're hurting me!" Hylla cried and tried to hit him away.

"Shut up!" He took a long drink from the bottle in his hand and kissed her. She screamed again and hit him away. He said a bad word and hit her across the face. She was knocked to the ground and I felt really mad.

"Stop it, Papa- You're hurting her!" They both turned over to me. Hylla shook her head with wide eyes.

"Reyna," she warned me. "Go back to our room."

"Shut up, bitch." Papa hit her again and she shouted.

"No!" I went down the stairs to check on her, but she started pushing me away.

"Get out, you deaf shit!" Papa said. That made me feel really bad. I started crying, but he didn't care.

"Shut up! Get back in your room, or I'll knock the shit out of you!"

"Papa, you're making me sad!" I cradled Sophia closer to my chest as my father leaned down in my face.

"Did I hurt your feelings, Reyna?"

"Yes, Papa." I started feeling a little better. He would say sorry. He loved me, right? That's why he let me and Hylla eat his left overs. That's why he let us have our own room and clean water and a place to live. Instead of a nicer look in his eyes, the turned darker as he slapped me across the face. I squealed as I hit the ground.

"Well, that's how life is!" He slowly smiled, which made me even more scared. "I could teach you how life is, like I teach Hylla." He started getting closer to me, and I started inching away. If Hylla didn't really like it, then I didn't want him to touch me.

"No!" Hylla screamed again, her pretty much naked body trying to shield mine. "Don't do this, Julian! She's young- she knows nothing!" She tried to kiss him again, but he threw her aside. She cried and cried as he got closer to me, and I cried with her. I was scared. I didn't want him to kiss me. He hurt Hylla. I don't want him to love me.

"Please don't, Papa. I'm scared!"

"Don't be, Reyna! Your sister isn't worthy of love. You've been a good girl. You're worthy of affection. You deserve it!" I deserved it?

"Reyna..." Hylla muttered. "Don't... listen... it hurts... don't let him..." He turned around.

"Shut up, you whore!" He hit her with the bottle in his hand and she slumped again to the ground.

"No!" I cried out. "Hylla!" I looked back up to my father with tears flooding my eyes. "You're mean."

He looked back to me slowly with a snarl on his face. "I'm mean? You think I'm mean?" He grabbed my tiny face with his hand, pulling me to face him. His toxic breath, drowned with alcohol, made me try to squirm away.

"Listen to me, you deaf shit! I've raised you and fed you while your mother left you to go to America. I've kept you alive! Now you'll repay me by KEEPING YOUR FUCKING MOUTH SHUT!" He put down his bottle and hit me. Hard. My vision started to get fuzzy, but I vaguely saw Hylla standing up again, trying to hit him away from me. Sophia was on the floor beside me, and as I reached for her, my father stepped on her and tore up her stitching. I gasped. She was the only thing I had. The only except...

"You used to be better than this!" She screamed. "You used to be kind and loving! Until you left for Iraq. Now you take out your bouts of insanity on us!" He hit her across the face and she fell, beat up and both physically and mentally exhausted.

"Stop it, Julian!" I yelled. I ran up to him and started hitting him with my little fists, not knowing what to do except get him away from Hylla. I remember what Mama told me: if you're in danger, scream for help. So I screamed. I screamed until my throat was raw. I didn't have to fake it much. He hit me and hit me. He ripped off my white nightgown and raked his belt across my back. And I screamed.

Eventually, though it was probably only five minutes later, there was banging on the door.

Papa cursed. "Fuck it, you deaf shit!" He scowled, then smiled very scarily, and I felt like I was in one of those horror movies. "Maybe deaf would suit you better." He picked up his bottle and swung. I tried to scream again, but my hoarse throat refused. I hid my face in my hands, but I was never hit. A crash sounded in front of me as my older sister fell to the ground.

"HYLLA!" I bent over her to see if she was breathing. She had jumped in front of me at the perfect time. A small trickle of blood leaked from the side of her head as the door was busted down and the police swarmed in.

Julian looked for an out, but saw none. He scowled at me and hissed, but never laid his hands on me. He was handcuffed and forced out of the house. A small lady came up to me while I was trying to wake up Hylla.

"Sweetie?" She asked softly. I turned around to see her and I tried to help up Hylla.

"Are you here to help us?" I heard yelling outside. Papa looked like he was trying to get away. It looked like they were hurting him.

"Papa?"

"Papa?" I blinked opened my eyes.

"What?" Markus asked. We were in an empty classroom that Markus had dragged me into. While I was having my little flashback, he had jammed a desk in front of the door and turned on the lights. The teacher had walked out per Markus' request.

"Rey, what's wrong?" I didn't realize I was crying until he had wiped a tear off my cheek. "What happened in there?"

Oh, yeah. I had beat up Drew. Oops. I tried to clear my mind from that horrible night and focus on the person in front of me. Markus was looking at me, concerned. His face scrunched up really cute when he did that. The area between his eyebrows creased and the playful twinkle in his gorgeous eyes dimmed just enough to change the emotion- oh my God. What the hell am I doing right now?

"Um... I... I don't know. I don't know what came over-" my voice broke. My hand flew up the my mouth as I cleared my throat and took in a deep breath. I closed my eyes, shaking my head. He didn't know. He wouldn't understand, would he? How terrible he was- is. How I can't stand to visit him. How I can't stand to even think about that name. I looked back at Markus.

"It's hard to explain. It's a really, really long story. A story we don't have time for."

He smiled a little. "I have time. I don't need lunch anyways. No use following Jason to break up with Drew." Wait, what? Jason and Drew?! Oh, lord. Piper knew, didn't she? The dick couldn't wait until she was back, could he? He needed a default until she showed up. If I wasn't so upset, then I'd be full on pissed again.

"... and I don't have the emotional strength for it." He sighed and took my hand. I softly gasped.

"It's okay, Rey. You can tell me anything. I'm here for you." I wound up telling him everything. How my father beat me. How he raped Hylla and was about to do the same to me. How he broke a bottle of whiskey on my eight year old sister's head and put her in a coma she still hasn't woken up from. How he's in a jail somewhere in Virginia so he couldn't get to me or my sister again easily, at least for the next 15 years. How I had to testify in court. How I was four, and I had to watch it all happen. I had to let it all happen.

I was crying so hard I was getting a headache while he rubbed my hand and never said a thing. When I was finished, we were both silent for a few awkward minutes. I finally was able to stop crying, but he was still silent. I didn't blame him- I would be extremely surprised if all of that was thrown in my face, too. I looked down to our intertwined hands and studied the way his thumb traced circles on the back of my hand. I haven't been able to get this close to him without backing up and making a smart remark or something like that. The girls only knew the summed up version, but now, he knew it all. I had told him the entire thing.

"Wow," was all he said for another minute. He looked me up and down and shook his head. "I, uh, can't believe that something like- like that could, uh, ever happen to someone... to anyone. Oh my God." He sighed as I took in a deep breath.

"Well, shit." His eyes grew. "Oh, man. Sorry! Too soon?" I laughed at his expression.

"It's fine. Well, I guess not. But it's only history, nothing more. It's made me who I am today. I just have to try to convince myself that that's a good person, and I'm the best I could possibly-" I was silenced my a small kiss.

"You're beautiful, intelligent, and incredibly strong." He said when he pulled away. "I just don't want to believe that something so traumatic would make you who you are."

... did he just kiss me? No, but really. Was I just kissed by Markus? Like, lip to lip contact? My blood was racing and I thought I was going to faint. Was that normal? I mean, honestly, when a super cute and super sweet guy kisses you for the first time... oh my God. That was my first kiss. Oh. My. God. My first kiss was with Markus McLean and he was... asking me something?

"What?" He laughed and I turned beet red. I nervously pushed an invisible strand of hair behind my ear. "Sorry- I didn't hear you. I was just, kind of surprised and-" Again I was shut up, but this time I pulled him closer to me, wrapping my arms around his neck. I pulled away and smiled up at him. He smirked and looped his arms around my waist.

"So, why did you do it?"

"Hm?"

"Why did you kiss me?" I specified. "Because I was babbling and you needed to shut me up, or because you pitied me, or what?" he looked up like he was thinking hard.

"Well," he started. "You were getting kind of annoying talking about how you had to force yourself to believe you were a good person. And of course, I pity you. No one should ever have to be put through what you went through. And there might be another reason."

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

He hesitated a while before he muttered to himself, "Holy crap, I didn't think I'd do it like this." I tilted my head to the side a bit.

"Do what?" He was still quiet. "Markus, you're scaring me." He looked at me, smiled, and took a deep breath. All while I was extremely nervous that he was going to tell me he had a secret girlfriend.

"Reyna, I've liked you ever since I met you." I gasped. He what?! "Piper and I had just moved from California, and you were the shy girl who hated us. For some reason, that made me like you, and I wanted to know you. Luckily, Piper proved you wrong and you became best friends within the first day. You introduced her to Annabeth and Hazel, which introduced me to the guys. How random and awesome it turned out was beyond me, but we all knew each other and... well, I figured out I had a crush on you freshman year. I think I fell in love with you sophomore year. The guys said that they didn't know how you hadn't figured out that I liked you. I was that bad. But I'm human, so sue me. I've been planning it for a while, but then you went away and got a record deal and now you're famous. I didn't think you were coming back. But before I loose you again, I need to ask you..."

I waited. Honestly, he was taking forever. He could've taken longer but we'd already be married with three kids named Alexis, James, and Raquel aged 20, 17, and 13, living in a New York mansion with our loving puppy named Jorge. Wait, what?

He took a deep breath. "Reyna, will you be my girlfriend?" ... don't scream, don't scream, don't scream. Breathe. Was I dreaming? Yeah. It was one of those really intense dreams, right? The kind you have before or after something important or embarrassing happened where everything seems real and you can hear and smell stuff, but it's really just you talking in your sleep and your friends waving his shirt in your face and responding to you and recording the whole thing to torture you with when you wake up and forever after that and you're actually making out with a fish from Costco? Ah, memories. Sorry, Hazel, but the timing couldn't have been more perfect!

But seriously? I was being too extra about this. So I decided to test it the trusty, old- fashioned way. I grabbed a chunk of flesh on my arm and twisted it.

"Fuck!" I yelled. Yep, it was very real!

"Why did you do that?" Markus asked, grabbing my left arm and examining it. A large, red spot faded into existence, but I could care less. I turned his face back to mine with a twinkle in my eyes and a huge grin.

"Yes. Oh my God, yes!" He smiled and cheered as I laughed, and I discovered something in those 20 short minutes- I really liked kissing him.

We gave Mr. Dionysus his classroom back, which he made clear to never 'steal' again- even though Markus had asked and gotten consent from the same person. The poor, old drunk. We walked out hand in hand to find our friends and get to our next class. We had fourth period together, which made me relieved. I honestly felt like I'd get depressed if I wasn't by him for the next thirty minutes. And now I sounded like one of those needy, over the top girlfriends that are literally non-functional without their boyfriends. I tried to rid myself of those thoughts, but nothing could wipe off the love sick grin off my face.

"Why are you smiling like that?" He asked. "Don't get me wrong, you're even more beautiful when you smile." I rolled my eyes. No matter how cute it was and he was, his ass-kissery was going to get annoying. "But it's wider and brighter than I've seen it in a while. Did I do this?"

I leaned my head on his shoulder. "Maybe. I just can't believe that I can tell you that I love you whenever I want." He hugged me around the waist and kissed the top of my head.

"Oh. My. GOD!" I jumped away from him as Annabeth and Hazel stormed up to us.

"You know, I don't think I can be mad at you for ditching us when I hear you say something utterly romantic and see Markus McLean hug and kiss you." Annabeth crossed her arms and pursed her lips.

"Well," Markus started, pulling me back over to him. "I figured that's how a guy tells his gorgeous girlfriend he loves her." The stupid, sappy smile washed back on my face.

"WHAT?!" Piper had marched over and joined my crusade of friends. They all looked like power kegs about to explode. They swarmed him, knocking me away and threatening him.

"How'd you do it?"

"Why now? Why not earlier?"

"Were you waiting for her to get back?"

"Is it because she's popular now?"

"I swear, Markus, if you break her heart, I'll break your ass and let you explain to Dad why you're in the hospital!"

He managed to shake them off. "Okay, okay! Shit, girls are scarier than I thought!" Piper shrugged.

"The longer into this, the more you'll learn."

Hazel patted his back. "A protection plan comes with the girlfriend." His eyes grew and shot over to me. I put my hands up in surrender.

"I don't really have control over them, and I never told you that it'd be a piece of cake." I grabbed onto his arm. "But I'll make sure they don't hit you too hard." We started towards the class. "I'm Latina- that's my job." The girls laughed as Markus groaned. We reached the door and the girls went inside.

"Wait!" I let the door close behind them and turned to Markus. "When are we going to tell everybody? I mean, with everything that happened and is still happening, maybe we should keep this kind of hidden right now. You know?" I don't know why I was whispering. The halls were deserted and the door was closed, but with my short experience with fame, the paparazzi will always- I mean always- find you.

"Yeah, I know." He whispered back. "But eventually, you know I'll have to meet your mom." My face scrunched up.

"You've already met my mom."

"Not as your boyfriend."

Even though he smirked, a sharp pain erupted in my stomach as I flashed back to that phone call. I pulled up a smile.

"I know. In good time."

He kissed my cheek. "In good time." He held the door open for me and we headed into the last class of the day. I looked for our friends to find them sitting on opposite sides of the riser- like seats. He shrugged at me and went to sit by the guys as I moved towards the girls. I sat down and ignored Hazel's suggestive gestures and Piper and Annabeth's giggles.

"Welcome!" Sounded in the huge classroom. Five figures dressed in white appeared on the large stage used for teaching. The quintet started a jazzy chorus.

"Welcome," the middle one, Mrs. Calliope, repeated, "to a brand new semester of Advanced Music!" (Oh, yeah. If you don't know what instrument you wanted to play but you good musically, you do Advanced Music.)

"We hope that you all had a wonderful break!" Said Ms. Clio.

"We don't have much of a lesson plan today," Mrs. Euterpe started.

"So we're going to do a small worksheet for a daily grade." Mrs. Polyhymnia finished. The class groaned. We rarely did anything that wasn't to our interest.

"Well, if you complain, I guess we won't give you the rest of the time for whatever you want and make you watch a documentary instead." Ms. Terpsichore lightly threatened. They ended the chorus and passed out the papers. Once we got our copy, we filled it out within a minute and a half. It was only ten questions, and they were super easy.

"All the practice and sound proofed rooms are open, so you may go in there if you please."

"And no drugs, tobacco or alcohol allowed!" Ms. Clio seemingly looked at a few people, then the sisters went back into their offices. We all looked at each other, then sprinted down to turn in the papers to get the best sound room. We ran down a hall to the right of the stage to a door on the left. I took out the key that was jammed in the handle, hurried the girls in, and locked it. Hazel turned on the light to the small room, which held a small keyboard and two different kinds of guitars.

"Wow." Annabeth said. "Feels like forever since we've been in here."

"Yeah, it really does." Piper agreed. "What are we gonna work on?"

"Why not everything?" I asked, pulling out our song book. They shrugged as I opened it up to a random page.

"Looks like we're starting with Wings!" I said.

"Perfect!" Piper exclaimed. "Love this one." We were finishing warming up when a tap at the door startled us. I turned to see the boys waving stupidly in the window. We giggled and I unlocked the door, letting them in.

"Hello, ladies!" Percy called. "Welcome back to hell- I mean, school. Now, sing for me, because I'm bored as shit and my phone died." Annabeth and Piper giggled as Hazel rolled her eyes and messed up his hair. Frank hugged me, giving me a stiff 'welcome back.' I looked at him with my head tilted, and he lightened up.

"Hey, it's the crazy one." Jason came in and looked at me. I crossed my arms and looked him up and down.

"Calm down, Jase. She has a good reason." Markus came in behind him and clapped him on his shoulder. Smiling, he hugged be from behind and set his chin on my shoulder. A grin faded onto my face as I leaned my head against his. The girls melted.

"AWWWWWW!" They leaned against each other and sniffed as the boys yelled at us to get a room.

"I need this!" Annabeth said. "Why are y'all so perfect less than twenty- four hours of being together? In less than a single hour of being together?"

"Because we're meant to be?" I answered.

"Ugh, shut up! You're not making me feel any better." I smiled and shrugged.

"All right, let's sing." Piper announced. "Finish this crappy day and move on." She and Jason were eyeing each other pretty intensely, and I knew that I wasn't the only one who noticed. I pulled away from Markus' warmth and joined the girls. Hazel pulled up the song on her computer and hit play. We sang for a while, editing the songs and just chatting with the guys. It felt nice to be able to just sit down and talk with them instead of trying desperately to avoid anything that has to do with them. When the bell rang, we grabbed all of our things and headed to the main doors, making sure to lock up the practice room behind us. Piper suddenly gasped and yanked her phone out of her pocket.

"What is it, Pipes?" Markus asked. She held up a finger as she dialed a number.

"Yeah, hey! Are you taking us to the shoot?... Yeah, perfect! No, yeah." She looked up at Jason. "I have a surprise for you. Okay? Okay, yeah, bye!" She hung up and smiled. "I'm about to make someone really happy." She readjusted her backpack and trotted out the door, leaving us to follow in confusion. Once we walked out of the huge double doors, we saw a limo waiting out front for us. I rolled my eyes. Always trying to show us off, Leo and... oh my God.

Piper walked up to the window and motioned out. Thalia stepped out of the car in a long sleeved white shirt tucked into black flared pants with a bow. She put her black sunglasses on her head as she talked to Piper, who pointed up towards us. Thalia put her hands up to her mouth and slowly started walking towards us. I heard someone suck in a breath beside me, and turned to see Jason staring at her, wide eyed. The boys were confused, but Annabeth put a hand on his arm and smiled at him, nodding her head at his sister. He started forward and met her in a hug, spinning her around and laughing. For a few minutes, they just stayed there in their embrace.

"H- how?" He finally managed to ask. She laughed through a few joyful tears.

"I'm their manager. I've come to bring them to their photo shoot, and I run into you. And I can't believe how tall you've gotten! You're taller than me, and you're graduating. Jason... I can't believe it!" This moment was so sweet and sentimental, the girls and I couldn't help but make a joke out of it.

"Wait. Is that Thalia Grace... crying?" Hazel asked.

"Are you serious? She has actual emotions?" Annabeth asked, overly astounded.

"I know, right?" I agreed. "I thought she was only capable of deathly annoyance!"

"Ugh, shut up, you hoes." That made everyone laugh. Thalia wiped her eyes gently. "All right- get in the car! Marianne is going to be pissed if we're late." She let go of Jason and started walking towards the car.

"Wait," Annabeth called. "You were just reunited with Jason after three years of not seeing each other because your job that's taken you anywhere but closer to him and his busy schedule, and now you're saying 'let's go?' Does that make any sense to anyone?"

"Yes it does, if eight people get in the car so Marianne doesn't kill me! So get your lazy asses in the car!" I shook my head. Oh, Thalia. I slid in, saying a hello to George.

"Hello, Miss Reyna. How was your first day back?" I looked at the girls.

"Um, I'd rather not say?" He nodded in the rear view mirror.

"I figured it might be a little hard. I didn't expect your friends coming, so I didn't get them any milkshakes-"

"Ugh, my favorite George, I don't know how to repay you for your incredible-ness." Hazel greedily grabbed a chocolate peppermint shake and slurped it. I picked up my vanilla shake and sipped it as Jason and Thalia talked. George smiled at us and rolled up the window, separating him from us.

The 20 minute ride wasn't filled with that much conversation. A few questions were exchanged, but most of it was awe at the limo.

"What are you shooting for again?" Frank asked me.

"The cover for Introduction." I got a few confused looks. "That's the title of our debut EP."

My cheeks tinged with a bit of pink when I talked about our huge success in a short amount of time. In some ways, it felt to me as if we cheated. Most people have to work their way to get these things for years and years. Sure, we've been writing for years, but we got an entire life time worth of success for some people in one night. If you thought about it... no, nope. Was not even going to go there. I needed all the positive things I could get my hands on for the shoot so I don't freak out and loose it. Okay- I have an amazing vanilla milkshake in my hands. I am working with Apollo Solace, but that's just fate. It's what was meant to happen! And I also have a boyfriend, which was still really weird to admit. But it was fine, because I didn't have to understand it all right now. I just had to trust that the best was yet to come. No matter where my past held me, my future was approaching, and that's what I would focus on. The coming future.

And boy, was it coming.

I wanted to have Reyna's dad in here because he isn't present in the books, and when the book mentioned him, it said that he really wasn't all that great of a person after he came back from Iraq. I don't think Julian raped his daughters, but I just wanted to be cruel and say that that was why he isn't present in her life and the story. And sorry that the Reyna/Markus thing happened so early- I have terribly cruel plans for them. And boy, is the future coming...

BTW, I was having extremely great ideas- other than the Reyna/Markus plans- while writing this entire chapter. My name, age and location are classified because of reasons that are approaching in the coming chapters. Sorry in advance for your possible pain. Oops. *evilly cackles in the background* I've actually always wanted to try that... it's on my 'Ridiculous but Awesome Things to Do at the Perfect Time' bucket list.

And finally, did anyone catch that Hamilton reference? (The song is Right Hand Man, in case you were confused)

And you should totally give me a review and tell me what you think about Possibly Noticed so far! Thanks for reading! Trying by best not to sound super cheesy!

~TheKeeperGeek