Demigods singing {PjO/HoO fanfic}

Chapter 13

※Rewritten※

Braxton finished his end of contest speech, rambling on about how both camp leaders wanted to continue the talent show for many years. Deciding to also do it every other year because it took them a while to set everything up this summer. He also began to talk about what every camper, who had performed, learned something great or good about themselves and how it's not the place on the leaderboard that determines how great you are, but how you think of yourself. I think he watches too many chick-flick movies with his niece, an Aphrodite girl. Which I didn't know about till a few days ago and now it makes me wonder, how many demigods in the camps are connected by their mortals parents' side? Like Braxton and his niece and Annabeth and Magnus, how many others are demigods of different godly parentage but have the same mortal connection? It's a strange thought that never came to my mind before.

Either way, Braxton never seemed to stop talking and I was fairly certain that the crowd wanted him to a) vanish into midair, b) fall off a cliff so they won't hear him, or c) use everything they have to make him shut up. Good thing we were on our way to make him shut up. Behind the curtains, everyone but me were hiding so that the crowd doesn't notice them. Will was at the sound board ready to cut off Braxton when we needed to, Meg, the feisty daughter of Demeter, was at the lighting control panel waiting for Leo's signal to replace Braxton's place on stage with me.

The switch from Braxton to me somehow went off without a hitch. Leo made the signal and the lights and sound went off, Nico dragged Braxton off the stage to the back behind the curtain where the rest others were explaining what was going on. I couldn't hear what they were saying to him backstage, I just hoped that he wasn't too many about us pseudo-kidnap him off stage to make him be quiet.

When the lights came back on, it was just me center stage standing where Braxton just was and I swear the crowd looked relieved to have him disappear. "Good evening everyone." A chorus of responses replied. "I know that this is somewhat unplanned and a spur of the moment kind of thing, but I'd like to sing one last time for you all since you're all here."

Will connected the iPod Leo made for demigods—if Leo mass producers those, he could be the demigod version of Steve Jobs—and the music began to play from the speakers above the stage. It picked up and fell back down when it was time for me to begin the first verse, "I'm waking up at the start of the end of the world, but it's feeling just like every other morning before and I wonder what my life is gonna mean it's gone."

From behind the curtain, just as I finished the last line, Annabeth walks out and sings her verse. "The cars are moving like a half a mile an hour and I started staring at the passengers who're waving goodbye—" Annabeth turns to me from center stage in front of the curtains middle ready to spin out of the way for Nico to begin the chorus. "Can you tell me what was ever really special about me all this time?"

"But I believe the world is burning to the ground!" Nico jumped out from the curtains as Annabeth spun into my arms. And I think this is the third time, in all of history, that I've seen Nico wear a bright orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. He still wore his too-big-for-his-arms aviator jacket and his hair was a mess, but he wore the shirt. "Oh well, I guess we're gonna find out, let's see how far we've come!"

"Let's see how far we've come!" The three of us sing in unison. Smiling and dancing with each other like a group of toddlers. I turn to Nico and sing to him the next line, acting as though it's a simple conversation, "Well, I believe it all is coming to an end." He follows my lead and pretend to sing the next line as a response, "Oh well, I guess we're gonna pretend."