Sweet and Corny:

A/N: This was originally a one shot and I still see it as one. The only reason it's been split is to make it look less huge than it really is. As it was written as one shot, all parts will most likely be short and the space between chapter will be somewhat long. My initial idea is to post a new part every week or so and there will be eight of them all refereeing to classic country songs. This is my first attempt at a non-camp PJatO fanfic so I hope I can make things work out.

Act 1:

The Devil Went Down to Georgia (and decided to pay me a visit after that)

Katie:

I had very good expectations for my first day of school thatautumn, I really did. I was a senior, I was alive(which is a major pro on this list since I could have easily died last summer during the final battle against the titans) and, on top of it all, I had woken up to realize I was having an amazing hair day. I didn't even have to blow it dry or anything in the morning; it just laid down flatly over my shoulders like a beautiful chocolate brown frame for my cheeks. I simply knew I was about to face a wonderful first day of school.

I couldn't me more wrong though. And that was clear the second I walked into Garden City High that morning:

"Hey, Katie, you're looking nice today."

Ok, maybe it wasn´t exactly on the first second since the day sort of started out just fine with Beau Higgins greeting me as soon as he climbed out of his truck and saw me.

"Oh, hey, Beau." I answered him warily.

You see, Beau is one of those guys that are so handsome, they could make a rainbow feel insecure; it's not a very manly metaphor but it'll work for now. He and I have been close friends since middle school and, ever since that first time I lent him my eraser, I have known that I shall one day Mrs. Beau Higgins. I'm not trying to overreact here but this is my last chance so I have made my mind and, by the end of this senior year, Beau and I will finally become an item.

This, of course, if I somehow manage to gather the courage to tell him about my feelings.

It's not like I never had any chances; we've had next door lockers ever since we were 14 and he's always nice to me; he knows my whole family (well, except for the people on my mother's side, for obvious reasons) and he's always very gentle towards me.

Also, it's not like our whole town is, you know, big or anything so we all know details about each other's life and guess what? Beau is always mentioned by everyone as one, nice, hard working young man and none of his ex-girlfriends seem to have anything bad to say about him either – not that he has had that many girlfriends; he's an old fashioned romantic.

"You look tanned, as usual. Did you have fun at camp?" He asked me with his glorious smile. Beau is one of those big, tall, bulky guys that at first can make you a little scared and even come out as a little too serious but he´s actually very sweet and outgoing. A real gentleman, if you ask me.

"Oh" I answered him while trying to look charming as I balanced my notebooks and heavy textbooks. "Camp was…normal." Ok, that was a bit of an understatement. "We just did regular camping stuff, ya know? Bonfires, singing…" Fight for our lives against mythological beasts; I completed in my head. "That sort of thing." I shrugged.

"Hm." He seemed to consider what would be an appropriate answer for what I had just said –he always takes people's feelings very seriously. "Can't say I understand what you mean, I've never been to summer camp before. I have camped, of course…" He added as if he was apologizing for something. "But I like the woods, you know? I've never been anywhere near a beach camp." I felt my heart melting at this:

"I love the woods!" This came out a little too passionately for my taste but whenever someone declares their love towards nature, I just feel all fuzzy inside, especially when it's Beau. "I only go to a beach summer camp because my father makes me!" And, of course, because I have to keep my body trained for monster attacks but, hey, I didn't need to tell him that.

Beau smiled at me and, without offering; he just grabbed my heavy textbooks and said:

"C'mon, I'll walk you to your locker."

This conversation lasted exactly two minutes and fifteen seconds and was, possibly the only good two minutes and fifteen seconds of that day – besides the few seconds that took me to realize my hair was looking great earlier that morning, of course. Walking side by side with Beau as he told me about his own summer vacation made me smile from ear to ear and I could feel my heart pumping blood in my chest so fast I was having trouble speaking:

"Aren't you getting old for camp, though?" He asked me as we reached our hallway. "I heard something about these big city camps forbidding some older teenagers to go back and stuff like that…"

"Hm, yes…" I scratched the back of my head. In a town so small such as Garden City, keeping secrets can be the hardest thing to do – keeping a secret as big as mine and for so long is nearly impossible; I had to work very, very hard to keep my camp slash demigod slash secret identity slash monster snack life as a separated thing from my normal day to day life and, as if that wasn't enough, I have always tried to exceed myself on said normal life what means I have always done my best and not once complained about having to work too hard; I'm leader of the student's board, I'm the school's teenage counselor, I'm head of the school paper (though, obviously, I can't exactly write any good texts) and I'm also on the cheerleading squad and in most of the school's social groups and clubs as well as the homecoming dance and parade committee and I'm a straight A student –I didn't use to be 'till I found out the reason why I had trouble at school, but once I figured out the source of my trouble, I started working my way around it – that´s what I am: a hard worker. And I work very well:

"Well, I'm a counselor now so, it's like a job and all that."

"Oh, I see." He answered dully and, that, ladies and gentlemen was the end of all good things and the start of my living hell because, as soon as Beau said this, he checked the paper they had given us at the entrance and said: "Well, we are here; this is your locker."

"Thanks!" I answered cheerfully as I grabbed my books again and tried the new locker combination. As I was still organizing my belongings, I noticed Beau walking away and asked way too desperately to sound cool:

"Where are you going, pal?" I even called him "pal" – gigantic proof of just how not cool I sounded. He turned back on his heels and pulled his backpack a little higher on his back, beaming sheepishly at me for no reason – though I do suspect he felt sorry for how stupid I was acting:

"Hm, I…They've changed my locker."

"What!" I snapped as my jaw dropped. No, no this couldn't be happening. I had such good hair for this day – it should be a sign of good things, not of locker changing.

"Yeah…" He bit his lower lip very uncomfortably. "They got me a locker next to Mary's.

"M…Mary?" The reason I stuttered is because, as in any small town of the United States, there were tons of Maries everywhere around and even though our town hardly reached the scale of 200 inhabitants, I still knew at least eight Maries around our age. "M…Mary who?" The reason I kept stuttering, however, was because there was only one who represented any danger to my perfect senior year plans.

"Mary Sue." That one.

You see, I'm not even joking about her name: she really is named Mary Sue – and she is all the things you'd expect from someone with this name. Perfect grades, cheerleader, kind, nice, funny…And she has perfect hair everyday! Mary Sue didn't represent a threat because I thought she'd go for Beau, nor did she hate me and would say bad things about me to Beau the problem was that Mary Sue…ugh!

Ok, remember how I said I've always tried to exceed myself in life? ThatI'm always studying and working hard and being professional and engaged socially because that's what I do? Well, those things made me gain a certain reputation as "perfect" and "flawless" around some and, if I ever got admirers, it was all due to this effort and, if I was ever to get Beau's attention it'd be thanks to it as well.

Now, if Beau ever gets to have a close friendship with Mary Sue, then it's the end of the line for me and you know why?

Imagine yourself married and aging, sitting peacefully on the porch of your house as your grandchildren play – now, play in your heads the memories of your high school years, the way you met your wife, the day you two shared your first kiss, the day you proposed, your wedding, your honeymoon…Imagine the perfect girl, the one you'd want by your side forever…Did you do it?

Now imagine the same thing again but add a mythological blood thirsty beast for each especial moment you picture in your head.

Can you see Mary's clear advantage on me here? Can you see why I was terribly doomed and why my life had just been ruined and, most of all, can you understand why I suddenly felt as if thirty nine of the most vicious specimens of bees had just stung me in the heart and how I could feel nothing but numbness all over and a stinging pain in my chest?

"Oh, great! I heard Mary is…pretty clean." Well, I had to fake a smile anyway because I don't think Beau would take me bursting into tears as a normal thing.

"Yeah, I've heard about that too…" He said chuckling and, with a final wave, he turned around the hallway corner not without saying "See you at English?" before disappearing completely. I just nodded and waved 'till he was completely out of sight.

Then I stuck my head inside my new locker and yelled my guts out.

Luckily for me, it was still too early and the hallway was empty – or so I thought because, as I still had my head between my books and gym clothes, I heard the slamming sounds of the two lockers' doors from both my left and right being opened. I immediately stopped screaming (as said before, I have a reputation to keep) and took my head out to take a look at my new neighbors.

Life was no longer perfect, I knew that already; I also knew that I had a bad, bad year ahead of me and I was honestly facing the possibility of having lost all of my chances of telling Beau just how I felt and, at that exact moment I felt like, no matter how bad my situation was, compared to what I was already facing; it couldn't get that much worse.

I was certain of how naïve I had been when the two metallic doors slammed shut and, for a second I believed I was seeing double 'cause I had right next to each side of me two faces that were very similar to each other.

Faces with matching evil smirks and perfectly white teeth, two sets of curly brown hair that went with two pairs of brown eyes that shone with malice right along with curvy raised eyebrows and, as if I still believed I was having a nightmare (most likely stroke induced) – the two people standing next to me said in unison with perfectly harmonized voices:

"Hey there, neighbor!"

It was official: my good hair day was a sign of the Apocalypse.

Travis:

Hello, I'm Travis Stoll and I am, most certainly, a bad person.

The main reason I can say that for sure is because I happen to take other people's pain as my favorite sort of entertainment. Not all people of course; mostly people I hate – however, I do enjoy it three times harder when I happen to be the cause of their pain what, I suppose, kind of does turn me into, well, evil.

"W…w…" This unarticulated attempt at speaking came from Katie Gardner – my long time summer camp friend (and I'm using the term "friend" here rather loosely) - who seemed to be undergoing some sort of aneurysm as she processed the idea of having both Connor and me standing there. "W…what…." Finally; one complete word! She's getting better at this!

You see, as I said before, I'm not a good person and this, I'm afraid, means that, out of things, I enjoy causing people trouble the most. And, of all people, Katie is the one I enjoy causing trouble to the most therefore…

"W…what…are..?" Katie wasn't even moving. Ever since she had noticed my brother's face and mine, she had stood static, her hands on her locker, her eyebrows raised, not blinking and with her jaw hanging as if she had just spotted two old nuns giving people lap dances on the street. Sure, she was shaking a lot, but I'm pretty sure shivering doesn't exactly count as moving.

"Hey there, Katie! Did you miss us?" Connor, my younger and less attractive brother said with a smirk. He's a bad person as well.

"Wha…" She started to mumble again and I sighed impatiently.

Regardless how much I was enjoying her agony (and that was a lot) there was just so much confusion a guy could take.

"You want to know why Connor and I are here." I said rolling my eyes as I crossed my arms and she nodded in silence. Her knuckles were turning white and it was actually pretty cute how overly worked up she was getting – it made me want to make her even more miserable.

"Well, we've grown tired of big city life and we decided to move here."

Connor had to grab her because she started to lose balance and I think she blacked out for a second or two.

"He's kidding, he's kidding." My brother told her as he waved a hand in front of her. Katie regained balance and once her face turned pink again instead of pale white she grabbed my shirt's collar and said with a maniac voice that made me sincerely miss her startled self of just a few seconds ago.

"What are you two doing here, Travis Stoll?" She enjoys calling me by my complete name; I think she finds it more threatening or something. She should know better than threaten me – if anything, it only makes me more eager to annoy her.

"Oh, great, your brain is working again." I commented lightly and she pulled me closer a giant scowl on her face.

"Why are you two trying to ruin my life?" She asked again even more dangerously.

"Sheesh." I sighed. "Someone forgot their happy pills this morning. C'mon, Katie, do you honestly believe Connor and I would come all the way from Long Island to this minuscule town in South Dakota just to get a few laughs out of your face?"

She just kept her eyes at me, eyebrows raised.

"Ok, I don't blame you." I admitted shrugging. "But it's not the case; this time, at least.

Chiron sent us on some jobs around the country this autumn, ya know? Find some demigods; check if they're really determined, if there aren't any monsters trying to eat innocent kids…This whole "determine your kid right now" Percy asked for is sort of giving some new kids a hard time."

"So you guys are here looking for demigods?" She asked for the first time with some real interest but I waved her off with a big smile:

"Of course not! Have you seen your town at all, Katie? This place hardly showed up on our GPS! We are here because we were around and we've finished our job and we know you live here so…"

Katie's jaw dropped again in pure despair. You know how some people almost get killed while climbing mountains but they keep doing it anyway? I understand them completely now.

It's all about the view you get at the top; it makes it all worth it.

Just like Katie shocked expression at that moment – who cares if Connor and I had gotten lost three times on our way to that lame town, or how we hadn't seen not one good bathroom in months – Katie's catatonic response was worth it all.

"So you are here to destroy my life!"

The two of us smirked at her and tried our most sheepish look ever:

"Now, now, Katie, don't be silly – who says we are here because of you? What if we happen to have a secret admiration for small towns, corn and people named Dwayne or Mandy May?"

We had to dodge the backpack she threw at us.

Truth is I couldn't exactly tell why we were here for real yet. I wasn't really sure just when I had decided it would be a good idea to see Katie or as to why I had considered seeing her in the first place – it was all very confusing to me still. All I did remember was mentioning it to Connor and how he had agreed that we should go to South Dakota soon – just like that. And now, there we were.

Katie finally let go of my shirt and proceeded to heel all the way towards a bench where she laid down and closed her eyes.

"Uh…What is she doing?" Connor whispered in my ear and I shrugged:

"No idea." I answered him and then, in a louder voice, I asked Katie: "Are you ok?"

"Your voices are still here." She told us in a much more controlled tone – even though there was still somewhat of a desperation feeling to it. "But I know this is just a nightmare and like every other nightmare I have ever had, I'll just close my eyes and go to sleep while dreaming and, when I wake up here, I'll also wake up in real life and you guys will be gone."

Connor and I exchanged glances.

Then we pinched her.

"Ouch!" She yelled while sitting down and rubbing her arm, her eyes popping open in surprise.

"I know it's hard to believe, but we are not a fruit of your teenage fantasies, Katie. We are real." Connor said with a smile.

"I'm going to puke." She answered him, holding her head between her hands.

I think the reason I enjoy making fun of Katie so much is because she's just so serious all the time, I know I'll always get the best reactions from her – it's hard for a person like me not to try and do awful things when I know Katie will react so bad to basically everything I tell her.

"Why?" She asked and I'm not sure the question was directed to me and Connor or to the gods in Olympus so I decided it was better to not say anything:

"Do you really want me to believe that you guys simply decided you wanted to do some sort of exchange student experience in South Dakota of all places and that you have no personal reasons at all to do it?"

Once again, Connor and I exchanged glances and I answered:

"South Dakota is a cool place, Katie. There's Mount Rushmore and…" Well, basically that's all South Dakota has, really. Someone told me they used to call it "The Sunshine State" but I don't think it's wise to believe them. I looked at Connor for help but all he did was shrug and pout his lips. I'm telling you, younger siblings are just as useful as a rotten potato salad sometimes. "Uh…and the Corn Palace! I can't wait to meet the Corn Palace!"

"The Corn Palace?" Katie asked and she sounded like she didn't believe a word I was saying but can we really blame her?

"Hey, Katie!" We were all interrupted by a cheery voice coming from the other end of the corridor. "Where have you been?" A fair haired girl ran towards us with a smiling face and greeted us politely turning to Katie. "I've been looking for you all over! Say goodbye to your friends, we have a club meeting in five minutes!"

How could someone possibly be that agitated so early in the morning? Just to hear the girl speak was getting me tired.

"So who are your friends?" The girl asked Katie who was now looking much like a zombie. I think that seeing one of her friends in the same room that we were in made her finally realize that we were there for real and she was now coping with reality. "No, wait, don't tell me!" She raised a hand to prevent Katie from speaking which wasn't necessary at all in the first place. "I think I've heard something about new students while I was at home room."

Katie snapped out of her trance:

"New students?" She asked. "No, no. That doesn't make sense. Connor and Travis are just passing by and…" Her eyes tripped towards our faces and, with smirks that went from ear to ear we showed her our backpacks.

"Janice…" She whispered to the girl who had been talking to us. "Could you please take me to the school nurse?"

As we watched Janice help Katie to the nurse's room, Connor turned his face to me and said:

"You're a bad person, dude."

"I know…"I said smirking. "Did you see how cute she looked when she almost fainted?"

"You're so weird."

A/N: Slow beginning but this story is intended to have a romantic vibe rather than a funny one though I hope this gets hilarious at some point xD!