Hey everyone! It's Mindrider. Here is another story that I'm starting about what happens when Apollo decides he wants to start a singing competition at Camp Half-Blood. Read on!

Introduction

"Campers!" Chiron banged a fork against a water glass. "Listen please!"

The loud lunchtime chatter decreased to a quiet murmur as the centaur continued clanking the utensil against the glass. Once everyone was quiet, he motioned for a man to come up next to him. The guy looked to be in his lower twenties, or even higher teens. His smile was big and bright and his blonde hair made him look like the stereotypical surfer dude. A few kids woof whistled as he stepped up next to Chiron. Chiron ignored them, motioning for another man, Mr. D, to talk.

"Children." The wine god began, his voice sounding tired and bored. "I have a very special announcement so I need you shut up." The room quieted a bit more and Dionysus continued. "As you all know, today is a very special day, blah blah blah, the Hunters of Artemis are going to be visiting for a week or two until Artemis finishes her, 'Goddess of the Hunt Stuff,' yada yada yada…" He yawned. "Anyway, instead of playing capture the flag like we normally do, we are going to be doing something different; partly because Apollo wants us to, and partly because you wimps always lose."

There was a murmur of depressed agreement and the Hunters all high fived.

"Please listen to the wonderful Apollo." Mr. D finished sarcastically, stepping back next to Chiron.

The blonde man stepped up, a cheesy grin plastered on his face. All of the Apollo campers clapped and he waved to them, making the 'rock out' sign with his fingers. "Hello Camp Half-Blood!" he called out happily, shaking about half of the kids out of a daze. Dionysus rolled his purple eyes, behind him.

"I came here today to tell you about a new competition that we will have going on this week."

Whispers went around, wondering if it was going to be sword fighting, or hand to hand combat, or archery, or math… Math?

Apollo continued, "I'm sure you all will have a blast competing against your friends in the awesomest contest of them all…"

Kids leaned forward in their seats, excited to hear what they would be competing in."

"And that is," he paused for dramatic effect, "A singing and songwriting contest!" He beamed with pride for his great idea.

Everyone but the Apollo kids groaned.

"I hate singing."

"This might be okay."

"I suck at writing."

"I'm excited!"

"Does everyone have to be in it?"

Apollo sighed. "Come on kids, it will be fun. Just keep an open mind, okay? At the campfire after dinner tonight, I'll explain all of the rules" he smiled again. "See you kids tonight!"

With that, people began to throw their trash away and go to their next activity.

"Well this sounds… interesting." said Annabeth as she, Percy, and a few others headed to sword practice in the arena.

"If by interesting you mean terrible." said Percy. "Babe, you know I can't sing."

She laughed, grabbing his hand. "Believe me, I know."

He swatted at her curly blonde ponytail, and Clarisse rolled her eyes. "Lovesick morons." she growled.

Chris just smiled, following in step next to her. "Are you looking forward to this contest?" he asked.

She smiled then nodded. "Yeah, it will be awesome to see everyone make a fool out of themselves… Especially Percy." she laughed, a vision of him tripping and falling off the stage appeared in her head.

"What about when you have to sing?" Chris asked.

She snorted. "Oh, I'm not singing." laughing she said, "Maybe when hippocampi fly." she rolled her eyes.

Chris started to ask how she was going to get away with that, but decided against it, in fear of the answer.

Meanwhile, behind them, Nico was walking along with his, sort of, friend, Will Solace.

"What do you think about all this?" Nico asked dragging his sword, making various lines in the dirt.

"I'm psyched!" Will exclaimed. "You?"

Nico shrugged. "I don't know. I don't sing often anymore. I was in chorus at Westover Hall, and my sister said I was good, but I mean, she was my sister. She wasn't allowed to tell me I stunk."

Will nodded. A weird picture of Nico slamming a guitar down, belting out the lyrics to some Nickelback song, appeared in his head.

In only a few minutes, they arrived at the arena. The entire time they were supposed to be practicing, however, everyone was thinking about this new singing contest and how it would work, what they would have to sing, and what the winner would get. Because, Zeus knows, when a contest is organized by a god, the prize is often pretty darn awesome.

The campers finished dinner just as the sun was setting. Nearly everyone was either nervous or excited to get to the campfire to find out more about this contest. They gathered around the large fire pit, sitting on the benches. The flames were a bright red color, portraying the campers' moods. When everyone had arrived, Chiron stepped up to the front

"Campers, I would like you to direct your attention to Lord Apollo. Please give him your best attention. He will be explaining the events of the next week to you all." he gave everyone a nod and a look that basically said, 'look good, this gives an impression of me.' There was a quiet round of applause as Apollo stepped up to where Chiron had been before. Clearing his throat, he began.

"Hello again children!" he called, smiling again, his bright teeth lighting up the dark a little more. "As I told you before, this week will be one full of music, songwriting and happiness." he laughed and the Apollo kids cheered. "Now listen up, because I'm going to explain the rules once and only once;" everyone went completely quiet. "There we go." said Apollo. "Starting tomorrow, we will have performances on the stage, starting precisely after lunch. Your schedules have been shortened appropriately, and I have them right," he pointed to the ground next to him and a stack of papers appeared. "Here." he finished. "Every night, beginning with tonight, I will choose ten students at random – out of a hat, of course, hiding from me is useless – and they will choose a slip of paper. On that slip of paper will be a song name. The camper will have until after lunch the next day, to come up with a performance using that song. They must, not only set the stage up the way they want, but they need to come up with their own lyrics having something to do with themselves. A child of Hermes might talk about stealing from a candy store, a child of Ares might talk about beating the guts out of something, I might talk about being awesome." he grinned. "Once everybody has performed, we will each cast in a vote, not for ourselves, I might add," a few Apollo kids scowled, "And a winner will be chosen! And, I know you've all been wondering, 'What's the prize?' Well, sorry, I can't tell you." Everyone groaned. "I'll tell you this, though, it's something pretty awesome!"

People began to whisper back and forth, shooting guesses at what the prize would be.

"Quiet down everyone!" Apollo exclaimed. "I know you're excited, but you need to quiet down."

The room slowly got quiet again as people turned their attention back to the sun god.

"There we go." he said with, yet, another smile. "Now, if the young man in the front would just pass me my hat, then we can get going with this competition!"

There was a round of applause as the hat was passed forward, holding inside the names of every single one of the campers at Camp Half-Blood. Campers crossed their fingers as he stuck his godly hand into the hat. Slowly pulling out a piece of paper, the camp held its breath.

"Meredith Notrustey please come on up!"

A girl from the Hermes cabin made her way up to the front, blushing a deep red as all of her brothers and sisters cheered.

"Norman Reed!" Apollo called. "Jesse Flowers! Wade Singner! Timmy Wells!"

Children of Ares, Demeter, Apollo, and Aphrodite all stepped forward. Percy stared at them blankly, caught in a daze, as more names were called. He had just begun a tired yawn when suddenly he heard it:

"Perseus Jackson!"

He jolted upright. "Wha?"

"Go!" Annabeth nudged him, smiling.

Percy stumbled around the benches up to the front. He could hear his friends clapping but for some reason he couldn't process what was going on. He stood next to the nine other contestants, still in shock. Eventually Apollo finished calling kids.

"These are your contestants, Camp Half-Blood!" he exclaimed.

The place erupted with clapping, cheering, and laughing as Apollo motioned to the ten people standing up by the fire. As the clapping died down, Apollo grabbed yet another hat from a child in the audience. He held it out to the contestants. "Now you each must pick a song from the hat and by tomorrow after lunch, you must have completely new lyrics written and a great idea of how to perform it. And remember, kiddos," he looked each of them in the eye for a moment. "Your friends and enemies out here will be judging you on your performance. Even the gods will have a vote in which kid will win Half-Blood Idol and get the ultimate prize!"

The cheering continued as Percy stuck his hand into the hat and pulled out a slip of paper.

"Please don't be Miley Cyrus." he whispered under his breath. Opening the folded paper, he sighed.

"Well, I could've gotten worse."

Haha! So now I've got you curious! What song did Percy get? I'll give you a hint: Today is July 5, 2011 and this song has been on the 'top ten songs' chart on iTunes for like, weeks. It's constantly being played on the radio, and it's called… Jk! You know I wouldn't tell you that! It begins with an, 'R' is all you're getting out of me! See if you can guess what it is, I'll tell you if you're right!