I don't own the Percy Jackson series.

Percy

I never wanted my life to be televised. I mean, sure it sounded pretty cool at first. I was happy that Annabeth got a regular feature because it meant the world could see how awesome she was. But I make enough mistakes as it is without a billion television cameras there to film me every second of every day. I thought that being on TV would make my friends happy, that it would be something we could enjoy together- but slowly, the bindings that held us together started to disintegrate harder than the Minotaur.

…

So, Annabeth and I had officially been dating for three months. After everything we'd been through together, I was pretty happy that we were alive. The fact that we were dating was just a huge, fun bonus for us considering we could be killed every time we live Camp Half-Blood. It's a happy gamble.

I was waiting outside Annabeth's physics class dreaming about the slice of pepperoni pizza I would soon be devouring when they approached me.

"Percy." Daphne, the female MTV exec that kind of reminded me of a grinning leach, smiled warmly at me as she approached. For once, the cameras were turned away from me. They were literally filming me all day at school from the moment I arrived to the moment I left hoping I would do something to make the final cut for the show, so it was a nice change to have them turned on the other students as they broke for lunch.

"Uh, hey." I raked a hand through my hair awkwardly, silently praying to Athena that Annabeth's class would finish soon.

"Sam and I have come up with an idea that we thing would spice this week's episode up a little. The ratings were decent but we think that we can improve them with a little more drama." Daphne explained, clutching a clipboard against her chest.

"Um…Okay?" I said intelligently. I wasn't really sure how this would involve me, but I was fairly sure I didn't want it to.

"We know that it's your anniversary with Annabeth and that she'll be coming out of class any second now." Daphne gestured to the glass window set into the door. Annabeth's teach was wrapping up the lesson. "We want you to stage an argument. Nothing too serious, just about how she's busy so you don't see much of her and you miss her."

"But, that's not true." I protested. I didn't want to get caught up in drama with Annabeth, even if it was fake.

"Nothing on reality television is true, honey." Daphne laughed lightly.

"I don't-"

"Before you refuse, you should think about Annabeth. With all the footage we've shot, we can portray her in any way that we choose to." Daphne's fake smile never left her face.

Now, I was sure that Daphne was threatening. I was also sure that Annabeth wouldn't care how the world saw her as long as she was being true to herself. So what if the world thought she was some sort of raging bitch? She wouldn't care. But I didn't want that for her, and I definitely didn't to be the reason that it happened. I card too much for her to be the reason that her worldwide reputation would be trashed.

"Okay." I sighed. "I guess I'll do it."

When Annabeth walked out of class a few seconds later, Daphne was out of sight.

"Hey Seaweed Brain." She greeted me with a peck on the lips, which just made me feel guilty about what I was about to do.

"Hey." I shrugged. I tried to subtly steer her away from the other students, but the wall of cameras kept us in the middle of the hallway.

"What's up?" Annabeth asked, her forehead creasing slightly.

"Nothing." I shrugged again, trying my best to look like I was sulking. I probably just looked constipated.

"Percy." Annabeth stopped and turned so that she was stood in front of me. "I know you. Something's up, and you need to tell me."

"I never get to see you anymore. You're so busy all the time." I sighed, unable to look her in the eye as I said it.

That definitely pissed her off. She folded her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes at me.

"What do you mean?"

"You're so busy all the time! You're on the volleyball team now, the debate team, pretty much every study club going, you're a math tutor and you've got the show going on. It just seems like you never have time for me anymore." I lied. Sure, Annabeth was a busy student- but I didn't care about that. Her activities made her happy, so that made me happy. Besides, she always saved up enough to lecture me and our friends, so her busy schedule was fine by me.

"Okay, no." Annabeth jabbed me in the chest with her pointer finger. "I hang out with you between classes, at lunch, most days after school and on the weekends. I go to all your swim meets, I moved to a brand new state for you. I can't possibly see what more you want from me, Percy!"

"Maybe nothing." I shrugged once more, going back to my sulky façade.

"And cut!" Daphne seemingly appeared out of nowhere. "Great work you two! Now, I know that it's your anniversary today. Congratulations! Be at the Karaoke Klub for seven o'clock tonight."

With that, she was gone, leaving me with a very confused and very angry looking Annabeth.

"What the hell?" She crossed her arms again and shot me a murderous glare.

"I'm so sorry." There wasn't any point in fighting with her for real, so I resorted to grovelling. "I didn't want to, but she threatened you. I'm sorry, Wise Girl."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at me and sighed heavily.

"Why didn't you just tell me that?" She asked.

"Because I knew that you wouldn't agree with it." I mumbled. Annabeth raised an eyebrow and shook her head.

"Idiot."

…

At seven o'clock, Annabeth and I arrived at the karaoke bar. Every Wednesday they had an under twenty-ones night, and it was a pretty popular stomping ground for the students at Goode. I hadn't really been here very often- singing isn't exactly my thing- but I knew that Piper, Katie and the Stoll brothers liked coming here sometimes. I had never really felt comfortable on stage, but that probably had something to do with the fact that I'm tone-death.

"Annabeth! There's my little star!" Sam rushed over to us as soon as we walked through the doors. A girl was on stage singing along very badly to Taylor Swift, and I could see our friends in the corner looking very uncomfortable about it.

"Hi." Annabeth smiled politely back as he yanked her forward, forcing her hand out of mine.

"The polls are in, sweetie." I followed behind them as Sam ushered Annabeth forward. "You're in a very close race with Connor and Travis to be the fan favourite!"

Sam slipped away as we got to the table, presumably so that the cameras could film Annabeth's arrival for the show.

"Hey, losers." She said as she sat down. I was about to sit down next to her when I got Sam's eye. He glared at me and gestured to the seat opposite to Annabeth's, next to Rachel. With a shrug, I sat down.

"Hey." I greeted her.

"Hey." She looked pretty uncomfortable, but not in the that-girl's-singing-is-making-me-want-to-stick-a-fork-in-the-toaster kind of way that the others looked.

"What's up?"

"I'm sorry." Rachel sighed and rested her forehead in her hands. "The producers told me I have to flirt with you and that Annabeth has to get jealous, or they'll axe all three of us from the show."

I swear to the Gods, Sam and Daphne were worse than a couple of hellhounds.

"It's cool, Rachel. We'll play along. Let me just let Annabeth know." I grinned at her reassuringly and leaned across the table to whisper in Annabeth's ear. There was no I was going to piss her off again properly- if you piss Annabeth off twice in one day, she takes no prisoners. I told her what was going on, and she nodded her head. Then, she laughed to make it look like I'd just been telling her something funny.

As soon as my back hit my seat again, Rachel's hand was on my arm. She ran her fingers up and down my bicep and shot me a sultry look.

"I don't think I've seen you today, Percy." Rachel said, and pouted slightly.

"No? Well, I'd remember if I'd seen you, RED." I grinned at her, feeling completely out of my comfort zone. As I faced Rachel, I could see Annabeth out of the corner of my eye pretending to glare at me.

"Well, maybe we should be seeing more of each other, then." Rachel said with a wink.

"I wouldn't disagree."

"Who's thirsty?" Annabeth snapped. "Maybe somebody could go get us some drinks. I mean, Rachel's looking pretty thirsty."

Thalia, who was seated to Annabeth's right, snorted.

"Yeah, I'm pretty thirsty. Travis?"

"Sorry, mine and Connor's song is next." He grinned. At that moment, the out of tune girl's song came to an end and their names were called.

"Wish us luck!" Connor said, and they jumped up onto the stage as we cheered for them.

"I'd like to dedicate this song my good friend Katie, who's in the audience tonight!" Travis declared once they were on the stage.

The music started to play, and it was a song that we all recognized. I heard Katie Gardner audibly groan as Travis started to sing.

Travis: I'm just a bachelor

I'm looking for a partner

Someone who knows how to ride

Without even falling off

Connor: Gotta be compatible

Takes me to my limits

Girl when I break you off

I promise that you won't want to get off

Both: If you're horny, let's do it

Ride it, my pony

My saddle's waiting

Come and jump on it

Looking at Katie, I'd never seen somebody look so embarrassed in my life. Rachel was running her hand over mine the whole way through the Stoll brothers' performance, as Annabeth pretended to look annoyed.

"Give it up for Connor and Travis everybody!" The announcer yelled once they had finished the song. "And now… Percy Jackson and Rachel Dare singing 'Summer Nights'!"

This had to have been set up by the producers, because nobody that knows me would ever willingly allow me to sing in front of people. I made my way begrudgingly up to the stage with Rachel. Annabeth was trying to look angry, but I could see the amused glint in her eye and he struggle to contain her smile. Great. She was laughing at me already.

Percy: Summer lovin', had me a blast
Rachel: Summer lovin', happened so fast
Percy: Met a girl crazy for me
Rachel: Met a boy cute as can be
Both: Summer days drifting away
To, uh oh, those summer nights

To credit Rachel, she could actually hold a tune without too much trouble. Me, on the other hand- well, let's just say that the only people in the audience that weren't cringing at my voice were my friends, and that's because they were too busy laughing. Annabeth was purple, and looked like she was about to pass out.

Gods, I hate this damn TV show.