I said that I might not update this week. But I did. Cause I wanted to. Life is a pile of dog poop right now, and I don't feel like scooping it up.
Disclaimer: I don't own In the Heights, Lin does. While I'm here: I also don't own Percy Jackson, only Rick and Annabeth do.
Chapter 31 - Lin Is a Freaking Genius
The first thing Percy saw when he walked back into school after break was a huge walking ad for the musical In The Heights.
Some kid, probably a freshman, was running through the hall with 50 million posters taped to his face, shirt, pant, and more. He would just throw the poster into people's faces as he ran by. Percy would know, one hit him right in his face.
It was a really unorthodox technique, but Percy had to admit that it worked. He folded the paper and tucked it into his pocket as he walked into class.
The poster was forgotten until lunch, when Will brought up the topic of auditions.
Percy walked up to the lunch table and sat down, waving at all the people he hadn't seen over break. Which was pretty much only Frank and Will.
Percy noticed Frank wasn't really into the conversation at the table, picking at his food sullenly. He caught Franks eye and raised an eyebrow to ask what was wrong. Frank just shrugged and mouthed 'nothing' before looking back down at his plate.
Percy narrowed his eyes, and stared at Frank for a moment before letting it go. If Frank didn't want to tell him what's up, he didn't have to.
"-itions? Percy?"
Percy looked up, "Huh?"
Thalia rolled her eyes, "He wasn't paying attention Will, start again."
Will groaned, ever the drama queen, "Again?! I already had to restart twice just for you, you know?"
Thalia waved her hand dismissively, and Will huffed, but started speaking anyway.
"So Percy, apparently the school is putting on another musical. In The Heights by Lin Manuel Miranda? Ever heard of it?"
Percy nodded. He actually loved In The Heights. Benny was the most relatable character for him, for obvious reasons.
Will continued, "Ever since last year's production of Heathers didn't go very well, my dad has been paranoid in choosing people to play parts."
Percy furrowed his brows, "I thought your dad was the doctor?"
"He is," Will said, "Part time. And the rest of the time, he is the theatre supervisor."
"Wow," Percy said, impressed.
He could barely do his homework on time, and there Mr. Apollo was, balancing two jobs at once. One of them being a doctor job too.
"Continuing," Will cut through Percy's thoughts, "Do you want to audition?"
Percy almost choked on his blue mac'n cheese.
"Me?" he asked incredulously, "No way man, if I sing, it'll probably cause an avalanche."
Hazel piped up from the seat beside Will, "That's not true! I've heard you sing before, and you sound really nice."
"Hazel, you never say anything mean to anyone," Percy sighed, "And that's great, but my voice isn't that good."
Nico spoke up, with a mouth full of fries, "I agree to that."
Hazel shot Nico a withering glare, and he shut up. Nico would never be caught dead saying it out loud, but he thought Percy wasn't a half bad singer either.
Will shrugged, "You don't have to be a great singer, just not so bad. What do you say?"
Suddenly, everyone at the table was staring at Percy. Even Jason, who had been scribbling some fire escape route onto a notepad, was awaiting an answer.
Percy meant to say no really, but then he thought, why not?
"Sure," he said, and Will broke out into a smile.
"Yes!," he said, pumping his fist, "Four down, two to go. Frank and Nico, I will convert you to theatrism!"
Percy counted the people around the table. Not including Will, there were six people. Which means that Thalia, Hazel, and Jason already said yes.
"Thalia?" he gasped, "You're auditioning?"
Thalia blushed and looked down, mumbling something about Reyna wanting to audition too. Percy smirked at her, he was never gonna let her live this down. Then again... she could do the same thing for him.
Percy tried to forget that image, and tuned in on Will persuading Nico to audition as well. Oh, this is going to be good.
"Pleeaaaaseeeee Neeks?" Will asked, pleading to Nico, "For me?"
Nico rolled his eyes, "I already told you Will, I don't do musicals. I don't even know what musical it is."
"Why," Will asked the sky, "Does no one pay attention at this table!"
"It's because he was too busy staring at you," Jason told Will, not looking up from his notepad, "To pay attention to anything you said."
Will and Nico both blushed red, and Percy tried to hide a smile. He was happy for his cousin. Now if only he could trust the soulmate system like they did...
"It's In The Heights," Will told Nico, looking at the verge of giving up asking him, when Nico perked up.
"Did you say In The Heights?" Nico asked, and a smile made its way onto Will's face.
Long story short, Will was able to convince Nico to try out for a part after a ton of begging, promises to buy Happy Meals, and the recipe for Sally's blue cookies. (Percy had to deny him that. The recipe was only between him and his mom.)
"Fine," Nico relented, "I'll do it. Only for you, and for the fact that Lin is a freaking genius."
Will cheered and pecked Nico on the cheek, causing the smaller boy to turn red again. Then, Will continued on his quest to conquer the table with his theatre geekness. There was only one more person to ask: Frank.
Percy had seen out of the corner of his eye, Hazel trying to cheer Frank up many times during the lunch period. She only managed to get a half-smile out of him. Hazel locked eyes with Percy and shrugged helplessly.
So far, they were the only ones to notice Frank's demeanor. The rest of the table was blissfully unaware, but it wasn't their fault. Frank wasn't much of a talker in the group anyway, opting to talk only to Percy and Hazel mostly, with the exception of Nico sometimes.
"What about you Frank?" Will asked Frank, and Frank just lifted a shoulder in a 'whatever' gesture.
Will tilted his head to the side, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Frank answered, "Just a bit tired."
Will nodded, but Percy saw right through it. Something happened. Probably with his dad. He remembered Frank mentioning his father with his disappearing acts, but always was assured that he would be back.
Maybe he didn't. Percy didn't want to invade Frank's privacy, so he let the shitty excuse slide.
"Are you gonna do it Frank?"
Frank shrugged, "I might. But I probably won't. I have never listened to that musical before."
Everyone continued on with other lunchtime chatter after that, as if the conversation never happened. At another table a bit away, a similar discussion was taking place with different people.
Piper stabbed her carrots and broke them into tiny bits, then looked at her friends, who seemed bored. Annabeth wasn't here, having to be on bedrest until Friday, and it was boring without her. They still talked, but missing Thalia and Annabeth made the table seem empty.
She glanced at Leo and Calypso, who were undoubtedly holding hands under the table and sending admiring looks when they thought the other wasn't looking. Piper smiled. She remembered her reaction when she found out.
At first, she had yelled at Leo. Apparently, he's had his tattoo for months?!
And he never told his friends. Then he actually finds his soulmate and it's literally so crazy. Only three-ish months since getting the tattoo and he already found who it belongs to. Conveniently, it happened to be his neighbor.
Piper almost hugged the air out of Leo after lecturing him on the importance of informing her about stuff she needs to know. She also did the same for Calypso, who struggled much less.
Now she looked at the couple and wondered when her soulmate would get the guts to find her.
"Hey," Reyna said, scaring the bejeezus out of Piper, "Are you guys gonna try out for that musical?"
Piper could see Calypso physically light up, "Oh absolutely! I would love to try out for Vanessa. Oh, Leo, you could be Usnavi!"
Leo grinned at her, "Maybe I could."
Piper rolled her eyes affectionately at them and turned to Reyna, "I want to. I guess it matters who I want to play."
Reyna nodded, "I kind of want to be Carla, but I probably would never come close to making it into the list."
"Don't say that! Your voice is great! It's better than Leo's anyway."
Leo gasped in indignation, and Calypso and Reyna started cracking up. Yeah, Annabeth was really missing some quality conversation content.
Piper got the feeling that someone was looking at them, and turned around. She caught the gaze of someone with sea-green eyes. Percy waved at her and pointed at the empty seat next to Piper.
Oh. He was wondering where Annabeth was.
Piper waved back and mimicked a sleeping position and Percy's mouth formed an "o". He gave her a thumbs up and turned back to his friends.
Piper thought it was cute, and Annabeth was lucky to have such a caring soulmate. If a certain blonde boy was Piper's soulmate, she could die happy.
~~~~~~~~~~
After lunch, Percy had math. And math was horrible.
The teacher actually expected them to pay attention today, and taught them math that had too many numbers. There were even letters!
Percy thought that dyslexia wouldn't matter when it came to math until the stupid curriculum had to include letters as well.
He put his head on the table and groaned into his hands. This was hopeless. Percy couldn't do math or anything else for that matter. And school loved to rub it in his face over and over again.
Percy felt a tap on his shoulder and he looked up tiredly. A girl with caramel-colored hair and almond shaped eyes was looking at him concerned. He recognized her from somewhere, but he couldn't place where...
"Are you okay?" she asked him.
Percy sighed, and nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just... math is horrible. And I don't have Annabeth to text for help."
The girl tilted her head to a side, and that's when Percy recognized her. Hazel introduced her before, during gym once. Her name was Calypso, Percy thought.
"Annabeth?"
"Mhm," Percy mumbled, "She would've helped me with this shit that teachers don't want to teach me."
"Do you have dyslexia?" Calypso asked, "I'm Calypso by the way."
"Percy," he held his hand out, and she took it, "And yeah, I have dyslexia."
"Oh," Calypso said, "Leo has dyslexia. I think Piper and Annabeth do too. I sit with Annabeth at lunch."
Percy was about to respond when he noticed gold lettering on Calypso's elbow, and he was surprised. Not by the fact that she found her soulmate, but who it was.
"Leo is your soulmate?" Percy asked, pointing to Calypso's elbow.
"Yeah," Calypso affirmed, blushing lightly, "We found out on Thanksgiving."
Percy's eyebrows raised, "That's really cool. Congrats!"
"Thanks."
Weirdly enough, math wasn't half bad with Calypso in it. Percy found he could talk easily with her, like he could with Leo. Not as open as he would be with family or Annabeth, but close enough.
Like him, she was also a new kid in this school. They were similar in a lot of ways, but different too.
Math finished, and Percy said bye to Calypso, walking to his next class.
He passed a couple of friends along the way and waved to them.
It suddenly occurred to him that he had made so many more friends in these couple of months that he came back compared to five whole years in Greece. That made him smile.
The time he spent away made Percy realize how much he actually missed the city's familiar aura. Greece was beautiful, but it was never and would never be home. New York was his home.
It was always home.
-Blossom ;)