Chapter Text
For the record, this wasn’t Percy’s idea.
It was Rachel’s actually. Or that is to say, it was Paul who sympathetically raised the issue of extra credit. It was Rachel who gleefully suggested the school’s yearly theater production.
See, with the truly astonishing amount of school that Percy missed (thanks, Hera), he’s already lost a year. Since he disappeared in October, not even Paul could argue in good conscience that the work he did counted for anything.
He’s repeating eleventh grade. And because he was kinda busy the year before that (thanks, Luke), Pre-Calculus fell to the wayside. Percy’s never been the best student - his expulsion record can attest to that - but with his recent… preoccupations, his grades had slipped even further.
It was Paul, who knew of Percy’s goal of attending New Rome University with Annabeth, who sat him down and explained that Percy had to do something to raise his grades.
“Normally, I’d assign an essay or research project,” Paul explained. “But I know that isn’t the best option for you.”
Yeah, no. Reading English was bad enough; writing English was even worse. Every sentence that Percy constructed failed to make it onto paper. He just had this block between his head and his pen - well, except for one pen. Annabeth had tentatively raised the possibility of a writing disability, but Percy shrugged it off. He wasn’t willing to look into it. He didn’t need another thing making him different from everyone else.
“Instead,” Paul continued, “I thought you’d appreciate a hands-on option. I’ve got a list of different clubs and extracurriculars that could count for credit. Think on it.”
Since Percy thought best through running his mouth, he brought it up with Rachel.
“So which of these would be the least painful?”
Rachel took the list he offered, scanning it. “Extra credit?” She guessed.
“Yeah. So?”
“Let me study all the options. Maybe I’ll even spit out a spooky rap about it.”
Rachel Elizabeth Dare was definitely his best friend at Goode High School. Percy had always been a bit of a lone wolf at school- or more like a bullied puppy, but whatever- but after disappearing and returning, he was held at an even greater distance from his peers. There must be some pretty wild rumors flying about his disappearance, because eyes and whispers follow him in the halls. He’s taken to wearing his wolf stare around Goode to prevent some of the more bold students from approaching him.
Technically, Rachel didn’t go to Goode anymore. She was a common enough face around campus, though, because after she graduated last year, she spearheaded an artistic environmental advocacy program for New York City’s high schools: Student Expressions for Earth Restoration, or SEER.
Percy would like to say she also came around so often because he was her best friend. In reality, it was likely because she and Paul got on like a house on fire.
This was also why she conveniently waited to tell Percy her suggestion of least painful extra credit activity until Paul was driving the two of them back to the Blofis-Jackson apartment.
“I think for extra credit you could participate in this year’s theater production,” Rachel said with the kind of grin that Percy didn’t like. It usually involved him doing something embarrassing.
Paul’s eyes met Percy’s in the review mirror. “That's a good idea… a great idea actually.” He grinned at Rachel in the front seat. She had beaten him to shotgun - not that Paul was any help in the matter.
His mom wasn’t any help either. When Percy told her, she immediately lit up. “Oh, Percy, you have to! I couldn’t think of anyone better for the role.”
The role she was talking about turned out to be the main one. Because, of course, the play was about the Odyssey. It was just Percy’s luck to be auditioning for a play that had some truly unfortunate parallels to his own life.
And auditioning he was. Because his last hope of stopping this madness, Annabeth, simply smirked at him when he brought it up.
“You know what I think?” She said as she sat beside him on the couch, working on her architecture portfolio while he whined about everyone ganging up on him. “I think it’s the perfect activity for extra credit.”
Percy really didn’t think so. He didn’t want the spotlight, he wasn’t a singer, and he didn’t even know if he could act.
Annabeth must have seen this on his face, because her teasing air dropped. “Just audition. They can always make you a boulder or something”. With her arm around him, she pulled his head onto her shoulder. Percy relaxed into her, feeling some of the apprehension about everything melt away as her fingers threaded into his hair.
“But for the record,” she murmured into his hair, “I think you’d do a great job at being Odysseus.”
High praise coming from Annabeth: she was a diehard Odysseus fan.
With everyone around him so confident (and him convinced by Annabeth), he decided to at least put a little effort in. Rachel had insisted on his audition song, The Infant and the Horse, out of that and two other songs - Just a Man or Monster.
“Trust me, I think it will be easiest for you. You already have the experience!”
Rachel then showed him the song to see his reaction. And she was right, if you counted leading one battle in Manhattan over two years ago as experience. But the song was catchy, he had to give her that. Once he learned the lyrics, he found himself singing them in the shower, tapping out the rhythm on his desk in class.
It was Piper who insisted on giving him tips on his performance before he auditioned. Since Percy didn’t know any other children of famous actors, it was hard to turn down a quick lesson in Cabin 3.
“Wow.” Piper had said after a moment of stunned silence following Percy’s performance. “I didn’t know you could sing like that, Percy.”
Percy had honestly replied that he wasn’t really a singer; the song was just good to sing to. Piper wasn’t convinced. “I think you’re just that good. But let’s go over some of your movement- you should act like you’re holding a sword.”
Piper helped him essentially choreograph the song, which wasn’t that hard. Percy had done enough sword-waving and shouting at fighters that mimicking the scene was easy.
Piper had tried to convince him to sing it in the amphitheater, “My dad says the performance doesn’t count until it’s in front of an audience.” Percy had embarrassed himself plenty at camp (they don’t talk about the archery contest), but he wasn’t eager to add to the list.
As per usual, he was the only one who thought that way, because there was quite a crowd in the stands before the campfire was to start. “What’s the occasion?”
“You, apparently,” Leo said around his tongue, stuck between his teeth as he tinkered with a phonograph, “Piper said you sing now.”
“I’ve always sung for sing-alongs.”
“Well yeah, but she says you have a solo act now. Musical theater? I pictured you more as a rock music man myself.”
“I am- I mean, yeah, I like rock. The musical is for school.” Percy course-corrected before he got sidetracked by Leo’s… Leo-ness. “What does this have to do with the campfire?”
“Oh! You’re singing for everyone.”
“First I’ve heard of it.” Percy had a bad feeling about this. He also knew that if it was Piper scheming against him, the crowd wasn’t likely to be dissuaded.
“You don’t have to, if you really don’t want to,” Piper said from behind him. She looked a little guilty, shuffling slightly as she sat down next to Leo. “I didn’t mean to set you up like this. I swear I just told Jason.”
“Yeah, and he told me.” Leo piped up. “I’ve been looking for an excuse to fix this.”
“I’m pretty sure you didn’t need to tell everyone I’m auditioning for a musical to fix that.”
“Oh, you’re auditioning? Piper made it seem like you were already cast.”
At Percy’s look, Piper had just smiled. “Aphrodite instinct. They’re gonna love you.”
He suddenly had very sweaty palms. He couldn’t recall ever being this nervous fighting monsters. Maybe in front of Annabeth, but sweaty palms and sword fighting really didn’t go together.
“Hey,” Piper said, probably out of concern for his sudden change in colour as the blood drained from his face. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I’m sure Leo didn’t mean for it to become this big of a deal.”
“But I didn’t- OW! No, I mean no! I didn’t!” Leo scooted away from Piper on the bench.
Piper was still smiling understandingly at Percy. “But I think you can do it. And I was serious about it being good practice.”
Piper - damn her - was really convincing, even without charmspeak.
Leo - who Percy was going to get back for this - pushed him onto the raised platform. He tried to remember Piper’s affirmations as he steadied his pulse. She thought he was good. And it was only the campers, many of whom had seen Percy embarrass himself in worse ways.
With excessive fanfare, Leo moved the arm of the phonograph onto the table. The now-familiar song began to play.
And so Percy sang. And the campers listened, most with wide eyes.
It was the Stoll Brothers who broke the amazed silence after the performance with a synchronized low whistle. Then there was clapping, then uproarious cheering as his friends rushed the stage.
All of that is to say: this is how Percy finds himself in the basement of the theater department, waiting for his turn to audition. Percy was less nervous than he would have expected. Maybe because he wasn’t as invested in the outcome; being a boulder would still get him that extra credit.
Clearly, not everyone felt that way, though. He lines up in a hallway with about three dozen other high schoolers, most of whom are sweating or rehearsing lyrics under their breath. There were a few who seemed to also be using the production for extra credit. Or as an excuse to get out of classes occasionally. Percy would be lying if that perk hadn’t crossed his mind.
Beside him is one of the less-sweaty-but-still-nervous students. She looks a little pale, but it might have been her dark, straight hair giving the impression. Or the fluorescent lighting. Actually, Percy is pretty sure he recognizes her. “Kiera, right?”
She seems a little surprised he was talking to her. “Yeah. You’re Percy - I think you sit beside me in History”.
He did, but he didn’t expect her to recognize him. He mostly tried very hard to keep his head down and stay off the teacher’s radar. “Yeah, I do. So, what made you audition?”
She seems a little embarrassed by the question. “I was pretty invested in following the creator as he made it- so when they announced it as the production this year, I figured I owed it to my past obsession to aim for a part.” Keira side-eyes him. “No offence, but this doesn’t really seem like your thing.”
“It’s not,” Percy admits. “It’s for extra credit.”
“From being held back?” Kiera asks, and then immediately looks mortified that she did.
Well, that was confirmation of at least a rumor about him going around. “No, I missed so much school that last year might as well not have happened.” And because he didn’t think Kiera was aiming for gossip, he added, “I’m trying to raise my GPA for university. And another essay would probably do me in at this point.”
Kiera laughs. “I feel that! So, is there any role you’re hoping to get?”
“No, but Mr. Blofis is making me audition for Odysseus”.
If Kiera knew about Percy repeating a year, she would know that Paul was Percy’s stepfather: it was an open secret at Goode. Percy didn’t consider it Paul’s fault (although it absolutely was). He just couldn’t stop talking about his incredibly talented, recently published wife, Sally Jackson. It only took a couple of students with ears (and eyes, to watch Paul and Percy driving home together) to put it together.
“Oh wow. No pressure then.”
“No, not really, actually. I don’t think anyone is expecting me to get the part. They just think my auditioning for it is funny.”
Kiera seems confused, if a little angry on his behalf. “Why would that be funny?”
Where to start? Oh, because I also fought Polyphemus - my half-brother, actually! Or even, probably because Poseidon is like, the one god who hasn’t tried to kill me.
Thankfully, Percy is spared from answering as Kiera was called into the audition room. “Good luck.”
Kiera just shook her head with a nervous smile. “No, it’s ‘break a leg’”
“Right. Break a leg.”
Percy is assuming she didn’t, because besides what sounded like a very impressive audition through the doors, he is called in after her with little fuss. As Kiera passes him, she gives him a slightly manic smile and a “break a leg!”
In the center of the room at a fold-out table, three older women sat. On the left, darkly lined eyes in a lined face stared at him sternly. Wrapped in dark, muted fabrics, her bindi was the brightest thing about her. On the right, an impish grin with a pixie cut greeted him. Her upturned nose made Percy think of the campers in Cabin 11.
The middle one, incredibly tall even in her seat with wild red-orange curls, introduces herself as Director Vivian, or “Director ViVi, please”, and asks Percy to do the same.
He did, and also stuttered slightly when introducing his audition song as prompted.
“Ah, yes. We haven’t cast Zeus yet, so you’ll have to sing to a backing track. If that’s alright?”
Percy wasn’t sure he knew what a backing track was. “Uh, sure.”
“Then just give us a nod when you’re ready.”
Turns out a backing track was the music, but without his part singing. From his nod to the final violin fade, Percy is hyperfocused. He registers the slight buzz from the stereo (how underfunded is the theater department?) playing the track, the flickers of the fluorescent lights, the linoleum smell, the blank-not-blank expressions of the women - like they were trying very hard not to give him any clues as to how he’s doing.
But he also doesn’t have time to think about it - he is busy singing and trying not to trip as he orders troops and gestures with a pretend Riptide. He might have felt silly if he wasn’t so focused on making it believable. It felt much more low-stakes than the actual battles he’d been in: it was pretty fun, actually.
Percy was having fun. It gave him hope that whatever role he ended up cast as, it would be the best way he had ever earned extra credit.
His last note rings out slightly in the high ceilings of the room, and after Zeus finished his bit about blood (what a D-bag), Percy awkwardly stands from where he was pretending to cradle a baby. He certainly had time to feel silly now.
The women stare at him a bit longer before the impish woman says, “Well, we may as well give him the script now.”
The stern woman looks over, a little aghast. “Tina!”
The impish woman - Tina - shrugs. “Say, you didn’t happen to practice Just a Man, did you?” She asked Percy.
“Uh-”
“Tina.” Director Vivian interrupts. “You’re not supposed to tell the students casting decisions before they’re announced.” She looks slightly exasperated, but not like she disagrees with Tina.
“Whatever happened to neutral feedback auditions? And discussion before decision?” Stern woman says lowly.
“Chinmaya, you can’t say you disagree.” Director Vivian says.
Stern woman, or Chinmaya, didn’t disagree. She hadn’t even looked too annoyed at being called out about it; she just eyed Percy with an assessing stare.
“Should I go now?” Percy isn’t entirely sure what this is about, but he doesn’t want to be here while the panel quarrelled. They weren’t quite as threatening as the Olympians, but any council deciding his fate gave him the heebee-jeebees.
“Sorry, dear. Yes, you can go. Thank you for the audition.” Director Vivian waves him out the door with a satisfied grin.
Percy hurries into the hallway, only to pause outside of the doorway as the next student to go in blocks his path.
“Dude, what the heck?” A kid with curly brown hair invades Percy’s personal space
“Uh…”
“That was awesome!” This close, the kid is practically vibrating with excitement. “Just what we heard from the hallway was wicked. How did they react?”
Percy wasn’t actually sure what their reaction was. Good, he hoped. “One of them mentioned giving me the script.”
“No way”. Another student scoffed. He was leaning against the wall, maybe 3rd in line. “They wouldn’t make casting decisions without seeing all the auditions. And there is no way they’d tell you at your audition.”
Percy wasn’t sure how theater stuff worked, but he hated being told he wasn’t telling the truth. Also, this kid looked slimy. An Octavian, if he were strawberry-blond and a couple of inches shorter. “That’s just what I heard.”
“Sure.” Not-Octavian rolled his eyes.
“If they were serious, then you deserve it!” Curly-haired kid interrupts, repeating, “That was awesome.”
“Thanks.” Percy almost wished he were back in the audition room. All of the students are staring at him now.
“Great job, Percy.” Kiera cheered from about halfway down the hall. “Eli, you’d better go in. Don’t keep Director Vivian waiting.”
Eli, with the curly brown hair, let out an “Oh, right!” As he slipped into the audition room, Kiera waved Percy over to her.
He hurried past the still-staring students. He was glad she waited for him. “I can’t wait to see the casting.” She told him giddily once he caught up.
Him too. But probably for a different reason: once the casting came out, Percy was sure this attention would all blow over.