Leo POV

Okay, waking up to arguing isn't really the nicest way to be woken, especially if it's your girlfriend and a chick at the door.

Knowing that the argument was going to get heated, I rush downstairs in a frenzy to try and stop Calypso from doing anything stupid.

"DON'T HIT ME!" I yell, running in between the two. It was only then that I realised that it was Drew behind me. "Ew!" I yell, jumping behind Calypso for protection from the monster.

"Shut up, Leo!" I hear Piper yell, "What are you- What is she doing here?"

And that was how we woke the whole house up, all curious to see what the fuss was about.

"Well, are you or are you not going to let me in?" Drew says.

"We're not." Thalia hisses, "No way in he- Hey! Get out!"

Drew takes one step in, "Why?"

"Because this house is for the members of three bands, which you are obviously not a part of." Venus says, coming down the stairs, her silky gown flying behind her smoothly.

Drew looks to be in shock, "Venus, um, I was just- I'm their friend!"

Venus scoffs, Thalia rolls her eyes, Calypso steps back into me and I raise an eyebrow.

"Then why are they trying to get you to go away?" Venus asks Drew, who seems stumped.

"Um," She stutters, taking a step back with her sparkly pink roller bag.

Yes! Take a few more steps back and be gone with you! Shoo!

Everyone turns to me, with a 'What the heck, Leo?' look. It was then that I realised that I said that out loud.

"Precisely!" Calypso's lip curls, "We don't need you in here. Why are you even here?"

Drew snarls, "Because, I'm here for the winter. Getting a tan, and I just thought I'd drop by to see my favourite people."

"We hate you, and vice versa." Thalia deadpans, "We're not your favourite people."

Drew looks offended, "Well then, I'll just go." I think she's trying to get sympathy, because she then walks very slowly back, looking over her shoulder every now and then.

"Thank you! That's what we've been trying to get you to do this whole time!" Annabeth says, relieved.

"Honey, you ain't getting no sympathy here! Poof! Be gone with you!" I say, acting like a magician, I mean, I am pretty magical because she did leave after that.

"Who was that?" Asks Hazel, tucking her messy hair behind her ear.

"Drew." Calypso says scornfully, "She is so mean!"

"How?" Venus asks, "Why don't you all go to the lounge and I'll make some tea." She adds.

"She called me a slut." Piper says flatly, "And that's on a good day. If you don't mind I think I'm going to go to bed. We all have a big day tomorrow, with the announcements and all."

People were once again running around, nerves running very very high.

The room had that sort of a vibe, making us all feel pressured, and I sure didn't like it.

"I'm nervous." Caly says, once we're all dressed into nice, yet casual clothing. We weren't matching this time, thank the gods.

"Me too." I say to her, as she plays with my calloused hands, "But there's nothing we can do about it."

She sighs, just as the backstage hand comes and tells us all that it's starting and to be quiet.

"You're going up with the bands staying in the same mansion as you!" She calls out, "Along with your mentor, so say for example they said Apollo and Apollo's team they would all go on stage together. Make sense? Also, it is going to be like this for every second live show! Please remember for future reference."

Okay, so I would be going on with Venus, the girls and RR, the aronym for the jump jam group.

"Okay, do we all have our shoes." Luke says, looking at our feet and checking.

"You're purposely doing that." Percy says, scowling fiercely.

"Yes. Yes he is." Thalia says, obviously bored as her eyes skim across the walls.

"Okay, and we're all in this together." I say, my mind remembering High School Musical. I grin at everyone's eye rolls.

I never expected the audience to be so enthusiastic. I mean, we're not even on TV. It's the internet. But then again, the internet does amazing stuff.

My eyes scan over the large crowd that only seemed to get bigger as my eyes wandered.

I spotted an 'I HEART OUTCASTS' sign, and immediately feel the need to nudge Jason, standing next to me as Hermes talks with the judges. Jason looks where I am and grins.

"Now, on with the results!" Hermes announces, making the crowd scream.

"First team to go to round two is…" Cue loud, scary music that goes on way too long. "Ogygia!"

The group of teenage girls scream, Apollo joining in too, mimicking them for they are his team.

"Girls, any thoughts?" Hermes asks the too-hyper girls. No. No time for questions.

"Oh my gods! We did it!" I hold back a grin, and Paisley and I exchange glances from the inside Dora The Explorer joke.

The girls head backstage. The pressure is high, along with the nerves that this is giving me. I swear, much longer and I am going to pee. At least if I vomit, I'll have a little dignity left. If I pee, I'm going to be compared to an un-potty-trained two year old.

"Next going to the second round is…" Dun dun, dun dun, dun dun. I mean c'mon! Some of us haven't had dinner and we're starving here!

"4:12." The group that we've sort of become friends with sighs in relief and grins widely. "Team, any comment?"

"Um, no." One of them says, before they too head off stage.

The lists of the people go on and on, it seems. Roman Recruit was in already, given their golden ticket to the next round.

One of Venus's arms was around Piper's shoulder and the other around Percy. I could tell they were keeping straight faces, and were trying hard to do so, because her grip seemed tight.

"Individualz!" Hermes shouts into the mic, raising my attention as the girl's group huddle and stuff. I want to jump on their little circle, but I know I will get a scolding for doing it in font of such a big crowd.

"Thoughts, anyone?" Hermes asks them, holding the mic out.

Thalia seizes the mic, and says my thoughts, "I'm starving."

"Thalia that can mean so many things…" Annabeth winces, as most likely all our thoughts wander. Thalia grins as the audience roars.

"Okay girls," Hermes says, as Venus hugs them all before they leave the stage.

I mouth, "Great job." And a thumbs up to them as they go past.

"Now, with only one spot left in the second round, who will make it through? Apollo's whole team has been admitted, Juno with two of her teams and Venus with one." Hermes says dangerously, and the tension in the room tightens. You know, screw being able to cut it with a knife. It was so tense that you could probably cut it with anything. You know how when things are really tense, they break easily? Yeah, like that.

The scary music seemed louder and more pee-your-pants worthy. C'mon bladder! Stay strong!

"OUTCASTS!" My heart leaps and whatnot crazy stuff.

Percy does what I wanted to do, which was jump on everyone's back in joy.

"Boys, comments?" I snatch the mic away from Hermes and say:

"Few things…" I say, to which my band groans and Hermes raises an eyebrow, "Number one. Your scary music is way too long and scary. Two, person at the back with the I love you outcasts sign, I- well, we- love you too. Third, thank god this is over because I really need to go to the-" The microphone is taken away from me by Jason who glares.

"Sorry. He has no filter." Jason says, before grabbing my wrist and making us walk away backstage as the other two groups in Juno's team cry.

"Are you freaking kidding me, Leo?" is the first thing I hear when it's okay to speak backstage.

"What?" I shrug at Jason, not caring about his dirty look, "Anyways, I don't need to go pee anymore, and the world is at peace."

"Ew." Annabeth says, her lip curling in disgust.

"It's a natural thing!" I protest as Calypso backs away from under my arm.

"But we don't need to hear about it." She says.

The screen that shows what's going on onstage glistens, before flickering on.

"Okay, as a surprise that not even the contestants know," This can't be good, "Round two will be held here and now!"

What the actual –BLEEP.

"What do we do?" Percy says hurriedly, "We have what? Five minutes to do a song?"

Okay, that little surprise would leave lots of bands stumped, and a lot of them are. Their faces are blanker than a new sheet of paper, and probably whiter too.

The girls looked completely calm, Calypso declaring that she knew that they might do something like that, and hence the reason they have another song prepared.

That's my girlfriend, everyone! The one who prepared them another song! Woo!

"So, Walk The Moon?" Jason confirms. What? Did I miss something.

"Yep." Everyone else chimes, except me of course, because I don't know what I'm agreeing to. You know, always read the fine print kids. Don't agree to anything you don't have the full details to.

"Shut Up And Dance, Leo." Jason tells me, making me even more confused.

"Jay jay." I say, pinching one of his cheeks harshly, "I didn't say anything. If you want me to dance, you could just take away the Shut Up part."

"Leo, we're talking about the song by Walk The Moon called Shut Up And Dance." Nico says to me, raising an eyebrow, "Please refrain from dancing."

Ugh, what's wrong with my dancing skills? For all he knows I could be the world's best dancer. I should get a prize.

"Fine then." I say, rolling my eyes, "That works too I guess."

"Okay, so we already know our parts. We've performed it before at a gig." Luke says, "We know our vocals and our keys and notes and strings and stuff?"

We nod.

"Good, so we're set."

"Presenting… Individualz!"

We are currently squished up in the wing to watch the girls, who of course are before us today.

The lights centre on the stage, lighting up the girls faces. Calypso had taken over Paisley's post at the keyboard, while Paisley did her job as the singer today.

"I'm a princess cut from marbles, smoother than a storm. And the scars that mark my body, they're silver and gold." She sings, her eyes closed and the mic in her hands tightly, her grip like a vice.

"People talk to me, but nothing ever hits home. People talk to me, and all the voices just burn holes."

Soon, the song was over and the girls gathered in front of the judges, Hermes scurrying from the wing towards the blushing girls.

"Individualz everyone!" He says, as they scream and cheer. He stands next to the girls, who I feel nervous for.

"So, girls, did you like our surprise?" He asks, his face alight. Man, I will set your face alight if you pull something like that again!

"No!" Paisley says, her voice shaking.

"Absolutely not." Annabeth says, "A little warning next time would be nice?"

"But then it wouldn't be a surprise." Piper points out.

"Anyways, judges?" Hermes turns to the judges. Juno's face was blank, and bored seemingly. Apollo was smiling, and Venus looked like an over-excited fangirl who got told that One Direction was releasing a new song.

"I loved it." Apollo says, making the girls squish together in excitement, "The instruments were on point, and the vocals were awesome. I like how you stuck the kiwi on the vocals, because Lorde is kiwi herself."

"We didn't actually think of that." Thalia says, "She wouldn't shut up backstage, so we were like, "You wanna talk so much? You can be on vocals!" and she was okay with it. She didn't shut up, but meh. She was being productive this time."

"Venus?"

"I loved it, girls. You impress me every time. And I'm not just saying that because I'm your mentor."

"Juno?"

"It wasn't terrible."

And before I knew it, we were on stage.

"Oh don't you dare look back, just keep your eyes on me, I said, you're holding back, she said shut up and dance with me."

A/N

I don't own PJO, HOO, Shut Up And Dance or Yellow Flicker Beat. Rick Riordan, Walk The Moon and Lorde do.

I have a tan line in the shape of my tank top from going to rainbows end yesterday. And swim training has started, so... my life is over.

I love swimming but the coach is really harsh and is going to yell at me for not showing up towards the end of last term.

~KaleidoscopeColours