Luke POV

"Nonononononono!" Percy complains, rapidly pressing the buttons on the controller. I grin maliciously and race past.

"Yes!" I cheer, passing the finishing line in the game! "Donkey Kong wins again! Sorry Princess Peach."

Percy does a really bad impression of a pout, making his bottom lip pout out and widening his eyes. I chuckle at him, as does everyone else.

"Percy, no offence, but you look weird." Paisley says. Percy looks at her as if hedidn't know she was there, watching us play a car game.

"Paisley Oceana Brown! You are not supposed to-"

"Percy." Paisley says giving him the 'duh' look, "It's Mario Cart. I'm not going to go into some sort of panic state from Mario Cart."

She rolls her eyes at her brother before disappearing into her room.

"My sister is strange." Percy says, fixing his pout and sitting up properly on the couch.

"That she is." Leo agrees. "Can I have a turn now?" he gestures to the controller in my hand. Deciding to be evil, I pretend to think.

"Oh, I dunno. Percy, what do you think?" I ask the raven haired boy. He grins too, catching my plan.

"Hmm." Percy pretends to think as well. I know he's pretending because, c'mon. He's Percy.

"Please?" Leo asks, taking on the pouty look that Percy couldn't pull off.

"Kidding." I say, chucking him the dark controller, "Princess Peach cannot win."

"Gotcha."

"Hey, do we have a band name yet?" Asks Leo.

"Nope." Says Nico, "At least I don't think so."

Leo was bringing up a good point. We were a band, but we didn't have a band name yet. What were we gonna do when we get to California next weekend without a band name? I bet all the other bands have a name, and we'd be the odd ones out.

Someone knocks gently on Percy's bedroom door. Sally pokes her head in, "Sorry to interrupt boys." She apologizes, "Percy, the swim meet got cancelled. There was already a booking for the pool for an entire school this weekend, and on Sunday there's another swim competition but for the younger kids, so..."

"Okay." Percy says, disappointed. I could tell he wanted to go to that swim meet, "Have you told Paisley?"

"No." Sally laughs, "She'd have our heads on a silver platter if she found out."

"Would not!" Came a reply, and Percy's face paled, "I'm not deaf!"

"I know!" Percy says, "Please don't kill us! It's not our fault."

"How mean do you think I am?" She says sadly. Percy doesn't seem to pick up on it. Sally shakes her head at Percy, telling him 'Don't reply'.

"Okay, that's all I wanted to say. I'm going out. Don't stay up too late." Sally says before exiting.

We begin to discuss band names, and settle on Jason's idea of 'Outcasts' because it makes us seem, as Leo likes to put it 'badass'. Also, not many people seem to like us, other than the 'mean girls' who portray the character's of Regina, Gretchen and Karen from the movie. Some are dumb, some are followers, some are plain mean, and others like Drew are all three. I'm glad Jason dumped her.

Back at school on Monday, I realized that being picked to be in the 'Battle Of Bands' made us all a topic of gossip. As I walked in, I immediately started hearing it all.

"Oh em gee, he's cute."

"I heard they were lip syncing."

"Gasp! He's apart of the boy band!"

And so it goes on. I was ready to punch someone. I swear, the amount of insults. Its like they only say these things because we're apart of the battle of bands. Seriously people, how shallow can you get?

"Do you hear it all too?" Asks Thalia, coming up to me.

My hands start shaking slightly. Her obsidian, shiny hair was down, and touched her shoulders and her eyes were like someone had put a bolt of lightning in them. They were that blue and that angry.

"Yeah." I tell her, "Its like they only want to like us because we're in the competition."

She sighs, "All I get is insults. 'They were totally lip syncing.' 'Who does she think she is?' 'OMG, what a loser alert.' I swear, the next person that trash talks me or my friends is going to get hit because I don't think I can take it much longer." Thalia says, walking beside me to class.

I felt sorry for her. Although I hated the comments, some were nice. All she got was hate, and lots of it.

"Sorry." I say to her, nudging her gently with my elbow.

"It's alright. Well, it isn't. But I guess we just have to dedal with it." She says toughly, sticking up her barrier again.

I wish I could make it stop. It was upsetting her. The insults were wearing down her brick wall. Every one like a new stone hitting it in attempt to make it fall.

- (A/N I'm getting boring with these lines. I need to start with the happy faces again)

At lunch, I was surprised when the Girls showed up at our table. Thalia sat next to me, making me happy. Piper in between Leo and Jason, Annabeth sat next to Percy and Paisley. Calypso sat on the other side of Leo, and Paisley sat Next to Nico who was sitting next to me.

They all seemed upset. They were all getting the hate.

"Whats up?" Percy asks them, wrapping an arm around Annabeth like I wish I could to Thalia. I wasn't physically unable to do it, but I had a feeling she would hit me if I tried.

"The Sky, Clouds, Atmosphere, the roof, the upper classes." Calypso lists off. How did I know one of them was going to say that.

"I meant why are you sitting with us?" Way to go Percy! Way to make them feel bad. "Not that I don't like you all sitting with us, just you don't normally."

"Apparently I'm a good for nothing Nerd, whose mother left because she didn't love me." Annabeth says spitefully.

"I'm a nobody who gets into everyone's business." Calypso says, "I think I'm all that."

"According to Drew and her little clique, My Mum committed suicide and so did my siblings because I'm a bitch and I deserved being abused."Paisley says, with tearful eyes.

That's harsh.

"My parents split because of me, and their separation was all my fault. Their 'ship' sank because of me." Piper's eyes were bottled with anger. She was ready to explode.

"I don't really think I want to start." Thalia says. I could feel the atmosphere around us thicken. Percy looked raged that people would say things like that. Leo looked stunned and sad. Jason looked taken back by what his ex said. Nico's eyebrows were raised as if he couldn't believe it either.

I was angry. I wanted to kill the people that said that about them. They didn't deserve it and it wasn't true. I also felt sad that they were receiving all this hate. At least my band was getting complimented all the while. The girls were just getting hit by insults.

"Also, I got called a slut." Piper says, her fist on the table clenched so tight it was paper white. I'm surprised her bones hadn't broken through the skin yet.

"You know that whatever they say isn't true, right?" Percy asks them, "They're just jealous that your friends with us and you're in the Battle with us."

They don't respond.

"We know that." Calypso says, "But that doesn't make it hurt any less."

I met all my band members eyes, and we made a hidden promise to make the girls feel as special as they deserved, and to shelter them from the incoming stones.

A/N

Sorry this took a while. I lost my notebook that had my plan in it and it was hard for me to write a Luke chapter.

Thalia POV next.

I was dragged into a car for a six hour drive to a ski field,only to find out the next day that the fields were shut for the duration of our stay so we piled in the car again for a sevenhour drive home. A waste of two days. I would be lying if I told you that I was productive and wrote more during the thirteen hours in the car. It wasn't pretty. My sister was crying. My brother was crying. It was messy, and took ages for them to stop with the attitude and pack their stuff. I guess its alright because my sister is 5 and the brother that was crying is 7.

~KaleidoscopeColours.

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