Hope you liked Chapter 1! The beginning of this Chapter is a flashback btw :)

As usual, don't own the characters.

Jason whooped in excitement after getting off the phone. He grinned at his bandmates, Percy, Chris and Nico. "Guess who made it past round one!" The boys pumped their fists in excitement.

Chris smiled, "Awesome! And Calypso, Rachel and Piper and Reyna also made it." Jason proposed they all go home and tidy up, then head out to a restaurant to celebrate. The boys nodded and dispersed.

Percy flopped onto his bed at stared up at the ceiling in giddy happiness. He had already showered and was just waiting for Jason to pick him up. Rolling over, he snatched a piece of paper off his nightstand and bracing a textbook (that he had never read) behind it, he began scribbling a letter.

Dear Wise Girl,

We made it past round one today! I'm so excited! Jason's song Sky Full of Stars was such a hit with the ladies. I think it played a big role in us winning. That and my good looks of course. Do you enjoy music? I think you do. Maybe you even play piano like me. Tomorrow is the last round one battle, so we'll be watching that! And after that, sixty teams will have dropped to six. Then the six will become three and then, I might be walking out with five million dollars. That's more than enough to help get mom's book published and pay for collage. And once I finish collage and get a job, I'll come and find you okay?

Love,

Seaweed Brain

Percy jumped out of bed and shoved the letter into a bursting folder in his closet. He would never tell anyone about it, but almost every week, or whenever something really good or really bad happened, he would write a letter to Wise Girl. Blushing slightly, Percy thought about how his friends would laugh at how he seemed in love with an imaginary girl. Well, not entirely imaginary. Percy thought back to when he was six yers old and living in the slums of New York. There was little girl on his block; he remembered how he was poking around a pond in the park and she had startled him. Tumbling into the water, Percy spit out the muddy pond water in shock. She had curly blond hair and stormy grey eyes that were looking at him curiously.

"Watcha doing?"

Percy scowled. "Swimming."

The girl rolled her eyes. "That water is dirty, you must have a brain of seaweed to think you should swim in that." Percy stared blankly at the girl. What kind of six year old talked like that? She stuck out her hand, and when Percy just continued staring dumbly at her, she sighed in exasperation. "Take my hand, Seaweed Brain."

Percy clambered out of the pond by himself, shaking the dead plant matter from his clothes. "I'm fine…uh Wise Girl" he snapped.

The girl laughed. "Good insult." Percy stormed home in anger as she watched with amusement.

They became best friends after that.

Percy hated how Gale would hit his mother. He vowed that as soon as he was big enough, he would protect his mother. But she took matters into her own hands. "Percy, we're moving." Percy stared at his mother in shock. She was hurriedly packing his clothes into a small suitcase. "I've been saving up, and stealing from Gale. I managed to get in touch with your father's brother finally, and convinced him that I was Poseidon's secret mistress." At those words, her mouth twisted bitterly, but she shook her head, "He was guilty enough to secure me a job and a small apartment in the city. Of course, he left it up to me to get there myself, but it's something, Percy!" She snapped the lid of the suitcase closed, and turned her shining eyes on Percy. "We're finally getting out of here!"

Percy felt guilty about ruining his mother's happiness, but he cried "What about Wise Girl?" Sally groaned quietly and ran a tired hand across her face.

"We can't bring her with us, Percy," Sally said gently. Percy's face fell.

"Can I say goodbye at least?" Sally nodded, and she and Percy hurried from the house. Percy taking one last glance at his mother's personal hell, at the empty beer bottles and dirty newspapers littering the floor, before the door slammed shut.

Wise Girl took it remarkably well. She stood outside the shack she shared with her mother with her hands on her hips as her Seaweed Brain explained. The eight year old girl turned her head slightly so Percy wouldn't see the glistening tears in her eyes. She was so happy that Percy would be escaping the slums, but she thought about how he would make new friends and forget about her and her heart broke. Percy pulled her close in a hug and whispered in her ear, "I'll come back and get you."

Wise Girl smiled then, and lightly punched him. "I won't be waiting or anything." Percy grinned and pulled tightly against him again and ran to join his mother.

Five years later, Percy convinced his uncle to give him and mom and his stepfather some money to go back to the slums. Percy bounced up and down in the seat of Paul's Pirus, as they drove the two hours into the slums. He had the adoption papers in his hand, hoping that Wise Girl's mother would let them adopt her. Sally assured Percy that if she was in Wise Girl's mother's position, she would do anything to let Percy have a better life. Sally was working on getting a job opportunity for Wise Girl's mother too.

A happy ending, Percy thought, vibrating in the car. He thought about how he would introduce Wise Girl to his cousins Jason and Nico and how she would get along with Reyna who was just as tough and sarcastic as Wise Girl. He stroked the box of letters he had wrote for Wise Girl in their five years of separation, hoping she'd like them. Initially his mother had suggested doing it to help with his dyslexia, but Percy came to love writing to his best friend, even if she couldn't read them yet. When they pulled up to the shack, Percy didn't even wait for Paul to turn off the ignition, he was out and knocking on Wise Girl's door, wondering if she would recognize him.

A woman with grey hair and bloodshot eyes opened the door. Percy jumped back in alarm, until he realized this was Wise Girl's mother. Her breath stank of alcohol and she squinted suspiciously at him. This wasn't the beautiful, silver eyed woman Percy remembered from his childhood. "Uh is Wise Girl home?" he asked stupidly. "I mean is your daughter home?" He corrected.

The woman cackled bitterly and spat at his feet. "She ran away from home three years ago. Probably dead somewhere on the streets." She slammed the door in Percy's face, not staying around to watch his dreams crumble into dust.

Sally instantly ran to her son, embracing him comfortingly as tears trickled down his face, adoption papers getting crumpled in his hand.

Even now that Percy was eighteen, he still wrote letters to Wise Girl, and missed her a lot. His chest tightened for a moment, and then he perked up, hearing Jason's car rumble up his driveway. He grabbed a jacket and sprinted downstairs, his resolve to find Wise Girl still stronger than steel.

Nico hung back as Percy, Jason and Chris chatted with some of the contestants for the last round one. He wasn't a very social person, even moreso after… Nico shook his head. Now was not that time to go down that dark path. He glanced down at the program for tonight, idly wondering which would be the last team joining the group of six going into semifinals.

He was jerked out of his thoughts by the sound of a large, wheezing bus entering the parking lot. Everyone froze in astonishment as the graffiti covered school bus rolled into several parking stalls and shuddered to a stop. The windows were blacked out and there was a prominent "SAVE THE EARTH" plastered along the side of the bus. The first person out of the bus was a tall African-American guy, his arms were heavily muscled and he glanced around coolly at gawking spectators. Next, a broad shouldered Asian guy helped a petite brown haired girl with luminous green eyes down the steps. A girl built like a rugby player and a scowl to match, followed. Stumbling down the steps, a goateed boy with a limp bickered with a girl wearing a "Death to Barbie" T-shirt who had electric blue eyes and a matching streak in her hair. An elfish looking Latino hopped out of car, winking at the girls in the crowd, and a tall blonde girl, hair tied up messily in a ponytail slapped the back of his head gently. She turned and held out her hand to the last boy coming out of the bus. He looked a bit like Jason, Nico thought, but his movements were slower, gentler. The boy ran a hand through his wavy blonde hair, as his eyes flickered across the crowd, then he pulled the blonde haired girl closer to him, wrapping his arms tightly around her, like he was trying to protect her, but the way the girl twisted around to pat his check comfortingly, Nico wasn't sure who was protecting who.

Nico turned to Percy, and saw that his cousin was staring at the boy murderously. "Dude, what's wrong?" Percy shook his head, and glanced down at his feet. Nico glanced back at the pair, but they had already broken apart, the boy grabbing a guitar and the girl unloading what looked like a keyboard from the bus. Shrugging, Nico turned and followed Jason into the concert hall.

Travis and Conner hurried into the concert hall. Conner scowled at his brother. "I can't believe we're late because you waited around the flower shop for three hours."

Travis flushed, "I was worried something had happened to Katie." Connor rolled his eyes at his lovesick brother. Ever since Travis had travelled to the slums of New York to pick up some not-so-legal video games, he had completely fallen head-over-heels for the pretty flower shop girl.

Travis had walked into Demeter's Flower Shop because he thought that this was where he was supposed to meet the guy smuggling in early releases of Assassin's Creed III, but he somehow ended up leaving with three bouquets of flowers, a harsh scolding from the girl behind the counter about "over privileged, ungrateful city boys" and a crush the size of the country.

"She was probably taking the day off to hang with her boyfriend." Connor regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. Travis snarled at him, and turned to leave the concert hall. Grabbing Travis's arm, Connor groaned, "I'm sorry, okay. She probably was taking care of her mom."

Travis nodded stiffly, and pushed past his brother, flopping down in the seat beside Chris.

Percy watched each group perform with a slight disinterested air. He was waiting for the blonde girl to take the stage. Like everyone else, he was captivated by the busload of kids. There were whispers about the kids throughout the hall, about how they were from the slums of New York. How they were all orphans and were the only team in the history of the battle to come from the slums. When the blond girl had walked off the bus, Percy had instantly thought "Wise Girl." It couldn't be a coincidence. The curly blonde hair, the grey eyes, the intelligent way she took everything in. He blushed in the darkness slightly, thinking about how beautiful she had become. That blush turned into a simmering anger as he remembered how the other boy and hugged his Wise Girl. Percy wanted to slam his head repeatedly against the seat in front of him. He was so in love with her, and she probably didn't even remember him. He didn't even know her, not really. He only had the memories of when they were seven years old! And yet, he felt like he had known her for forever. Gods he was so pathetic. As Dionysus announced the end of the contest, Percy wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion. He glanced down at the program and saw that the band Half-bloods had yet to perform, what happened?

Then the scrawny Latino boy was screaming from the fifth row, and everyone stopped in surprise. Some people muttered, "Obnoxious slum kids," and Percy bristled indignantly. He hated people who stereotyped. Then his breath was stolen as the Half-bloods took the stage and Wise Girl began playing the piano. Percy's heart started beating a bit faster. She played the piano like him?

The Half-bloods were amazing; Percy didn't think he'd ever heard anything so pure and raw in his life. In a time when music was all about partying and sex, this song felt like throwing open the windows in a stagnant room for the first time in years. He tore his eyes away from Wise Girl for a moment to watch the lead singer. The punk-looking girl had her eyes closed and she seemed lost in the music. She reminded him of Jason when he was working on writing a new song.

Percy stood and cheered with everyone else as the Half-bloods left the stage. Jason whistled, "Damn, they're good." Percy looked at his little submission paper, Half-bloods checked off.

"Yeah."

Beckendorf backed out of the parking lot, shouting at everyone to shut up for half a minute so he didn't run over any of the concert guests. The energy was off the charts in the bus. Thalia was perched on the one of the beds in the bus, giggling as Leo imitated some of the city people. The school bus was something that Grover had scavenged years ago; it was how he had met Beckendorf, and all the spare money that the kids made went into retrofitting the bus. It had two rows of seats in the front and the rest of the seats had been changed into four queen-sized beds. The back of the bus housed a small dinner table and two benches that could fit their entire crew of nine. The audio system was perfect and there were Christmas lights embedded in the roof.

Beckendorf drove down the street aimlessly, keeping an eye out for a quiet recreation centre. When he spotted one, he pulled into the parking lot, turning behind the building to keep away from view of the main road. The kids filed outside the bus and looked it over. Frank pointed at a window on the second floor. "From the position of that window, and the fact that its frosted glass, I'd say girl's bathroom. Leo can easily scale that with Clarisse's and my help, and then disable the security system inside the recreational centre. Then, he can let the rest of us in, so we can all get cleaned up."

As Leo went to work, the rest of the group waited in the bus. Then, Beckendorf's phone rang and everyone hushed. Thalia tensed in apprehension as Beckendorf answered the phone. But, as soon as he said, "That's great!" Katie squealed in excitement. Beckendorf, unable to keep the grin from spreading across his face, motioned for Frank to pass him some paper and pen. He jotted down a few notes and thanked the person the other end. Just as he hung up, everyone erupted into excitement. "I was going to scare you all and say we didn't make it, but I just couldn't keep a straight face," Beckendorf laughed. Clarisse clapped Thalia on the back and pulled a bottle of cheap champagne from the mini fridge in the back of the bus. Sipping the cheap alcohol, Thalia gazed lightheadedly at the twinkling lights. They were one step closer.

Leo popped his head into the bus, "Did I miss anything?"

Please review! And for all those Percabeth fans... Will and Annabeth aren't dating, you'll see more of their backstory later. I just really like the character of Will & I like writing about a jealous Percy ;)