Going Viral

Chapter 2

May 20th

He can't get her out of his head.

So maybe he had a few stalker-like tendencies. Sue him. He'd followed the #absoluteannabeth tag from the video to find her twitter profile and then her instagram. And then her Youtube channel.

Having finished the tour, Percy now had a lot of time on his hands to catch up with the world. Instead, he'd lost himself in this girl.

She had just over 1 million followers on Instagram and nearly twice as many subscribers to her Youtube. After doing some searching, he found that she already followed him and suddenly he felt more relaxed about following her and liking most of her photos.

Annabeth was pretty, he'd concluded as much from just seeing her video thumbnails. She had honey blonde hair, startling grey eyes, a sharp chin and a fair few freckles dusting her nose.

From all of his (extensive) research, Percy concluded many, many things.

She had a golden labrador. Her roommate, Piper, also had a Youtube channel and they often appeared in each others videos. She had a degree in mathematics and architecture from a very fancy university. She'd done lots of community theatre as a kid and loved performing but now she was reluctant to share that side of herself. Annabeth was a bit of a nerd and had named her dog after a Harry Potter character. Also he'd watched 52 of her videos and 8 of Piper's that she was featured in, and every single time she looked cute (Yes, even when they did the chubby bunny challenge and she had marshmallows and dribble falling out of her mouth).

It's endearing. She can scrunch her nose up and pout at him through a camera lens and he thinks he might be a little bit in love with her.

"Do you know her?" Grover asks, referring to the voice coming out of Percy's phone speakers. He's playing her cover of 'lightning skies' again.

Percy shakes his head and Grover frowns. "I've heard her sing this same song about 20 times today, Perce, it's not even 11am. Don't tell me you're obsessed with a fan."

He doesn't shake his head this time and Grover raises an eyebrow but keeps quiet, deciding instead to peer over Percy's shoulder at the open web browser.

The video is captioned 'lightning skies, the halfbloods - by annabeth chase'.

"That's a lot of views." Grover comments, clearly realising she wasn't just a fan of their band, she was famous in her own right.

Percy closes Youtube and grabs himself another pop tart. "She's a Youtuber. 2 million subs or something ridiculous."

Grover nods appreciatively and pats down a stray curl. He was wearing his smart jeans, the ones that aren't covered in grass stains, and a button-down shirt with a complimentary tie. Percy frowned. "Are you..? Why are you dressed like that?"

He lets out a small laugh and bites his lip. "That obvious that I made an effort?" Somehow Grover has the audacity to blush and whisper something Percy can't hear.

"What was that?"

"I've got a date with Juniper?"

Beaming, Percy pats Grover on the back. "Nice, G-Man, you finally ask her out?"

He's bright red by the time he finishes telling Percy his plans for the day. They'll be going for a walk round the nature reserve, Grover's packed a picnic and then they're going to the art history museum.

When Grover's left half an hour later and Percy loads up Youtube again, he feels weird. He's not lonely, it's not that. But he would enjoy some kind of company. He's not got a girlfriend like Grover (though Grover insists they're not dating yet) and maybe Percy's tempted to ring everyone in his contacts until he finds someone to spend the day with. He's tempted to get in touch with Annabeth, but that would be totally stalkerish and inappropriate.

Bingo! A new emotion! Percy picks up his guitar and strums.

He opens voice recorder on his phone and starts a recording knowing that he's going to need to listen back to this if he comes up with anything half decent.

The acoustic guitar feels strange in his hands after months of scoring his finger on an electric. It's comforting. Percy plucks a few familiar motifs and chords before putting a capo on the third fret and getting creative. He plays a soft melody, quite the contrast to the deafening tracks usually on his albums.

The Halfbloods didn't really consider themselves a rock bank, but the dramatic guitar riffs and uptempo drum patterns would suggest something like that. They'd done a few ballads before, one on each of their albums, but that wasn't really what they were about. Thalia threatened to throw up the first time Percy brought in some sappy lyric ideas but a few songs got the 'okay'. Their first album had ended with a ballad, it was supposed to be a bonus track, not one of their title songs, but the fans had adored it. 'Whisper' was somewhat of an ode to Nico's sister, Bianca, who had past away a few years prior. Percy had never met her but he knew the song meant a lot to Nico and he was honoured when he was asked to sing the lead vocals for it.

'Bake it Blue' was Percy's personal favorite ballad they'd done. It wasn't quite as emotionally taxing to sing but it always made him feel closer to his mom. Singing that on their first tour was something Percy had looked forward to every night and the fans went wild every time.

He thumbed the strings and played a soft melody.

Pretty girl with a pretty voice
Something tells me to make that choice
To help you see what you mean to me
Here's the words I hope to be

Kind and caring, I know you must be
Worth the loving, I hope you can see
Only been a week since I saw your face
Maybe I've found my place
Only a girl singing through a phone
Seems your voice could lead me home

Admittedly, the words would need work. But hey, something's better than nothing, right? He listened back to the audio recording before forwarding it to the group chat.

Thalia dam, already at it?

Thalia sounds sappy

Thalia not bad though

Nico who's the girl?

Percy wracked his brain for an answer that wouldn't make him sound like a psycho. 'I saw this girl on twitter and I've watched almost 100 hours of her footage and now I think I might be in love with her'? That wouldn't do, he'd never hear the end of it.

Percy just some girl i heard sing a cover of one of our songs

Nice one Percy, play it real cool.

Thalia didn't know you were one to write a song about a fan but ok

Nico its not bad though

Nico lyrics need tweaking

Nico whats the third chord you used?

He has to pick up the guitar to work it out because he has the memory of a goldfish.

Percy E

Nico make it c# minor

Nico for the angst

Immediately the songs sounds more nostalgic and Percy sends a voice memo of the verse for them to hear.

Thalia don't tell chiron we've got new stuff yet or he'll make us get to work

Thalia im enjoying my lie ins

Nico i like it though. needs work but maybe we can get another album out before feb after all