All's Fair In Love And War

The Basement

"This is so irritating!"

Nico paced in front of the rest of us as we sat on the couch. None of the others in the band had protested when he'd dragged me and Will into their meeting to try and figure out who could he the new bass guitarist.

"We'll figure it out sooner or later, Neeks, don't freak out." Jason said, his arm around Piper.

"Well we need to find someone, our tour starts as soon as this TV thing ends, we need to think about it!" He insisted.

"Nico, stop panicking, we can figure this out." Hazel said. 

"But what if we don't? Thalia couldn't have picked a worse time to do that, why did she have to do it now?"

"When else would she have done it?" Piper pointed out. "After our tour we're scheduled for that team-building thing, and after that we have the family vacation thing with you guys and your mortal parents."

Nico threw his hands up in the air. "You know what I mean!"

"Neeks, calm down and come here." Will pulled him off to the side and began to speak quietly with him.

"Have we talked to any of the contestants? Maybe some of them play guitar." Hazel said.

"I think it would have said so in their biographies that their friends sent in, wouldn't it?" Leo argued.

"We can still try."

"I dunno, Haz, seems like you're barking up the wrong tree with this."

"How do you know? Did you try it yet?"

"Alright, stop fighting!" Piper exclaimed. "We can easily answer that."

"How?" Leo asked.

"I'll ask my mom. Hold on." Piper left the room. We heard her feet pounding in the hallway going left, then silence for a while.

"Nope." Her head poked through the door. She entered the room again and flopped on the couch, breathing hard. "She said none of the contestants have any guitar talents. We're back to square one."

We sat in silence for a few moments, Will and a calmed down Nico joining us. 

Jason finally sighed. "Well if no one has any ideas, then we might as well finish this up."

Leo hopped to his feet. "Good, I'm hungry."

"What a surprise." Piper replied with a grin.

I rolled my eyes at them and stood. "Well I dunno why I was here, but if I can help, tell me."

"Thanks, Reyna." Hazel said.

I pushed the door open and walked down the hallway, heading right towards my room.

About halfway down the corridor, I heard the rather familiar sound of a guitar strumming, along with a voice that was amazingly gorgeous.

Before I knew what I was doing, I'd stopped and turned, starting down one of the stairwells in the house. Only one thing was going through my head. 

Where is that singing coming from?

I walked through parts of the house I didn't even know there were. The singing gradually got louder as I went.

Suddenly it stopped. I heard a few quiet sounds, ones that could probably be heard when someone puts an instrument away, like the snapping of latches.

I frowned, not able to place which room it was coming from now. If there was someone who could play bass guitar down here, they could help the band.

"Hello?"

All noises stopped.

I tried again. "Who's there? I won't get you in trouble or anything if you aren't supposed to be down here, I promise."

Still no answer. Deciding to figure out who it was on my own, I turned down the hallway and began to open doors, walking into each room to investigate if there was anyone there. 

As it turned out, the rooms were actually practice rooms for various instruments, so I only had to see if there were any guitars in the room before moving on. I also checked any closets in each room before continuing.

Finally I hit the jackpot. Opening one of the doors revealed a room full of guitars. Electric, acoustic, bass, multi-neck and a rainbow of colors assaulted my eyes.

Entering the room, I began to check for people. There were several guitar stands that were big enough to hide grown men, a teenager would have been much easier to conceal.

As I stepped out of the room, I had the last minute thought to check behind the door.

No one was there.

I closed the door with a frown and checked the hallway again. There were only four more rooms.

The next room held only a grand piano. I scowled and turned away to check the last three.

As I opened the second last door, the room before it revealing another piano, I heard hinges squeak, followed by sprinting footsteps.

Turning, I only caught a glimpse of dark jeans going around the corner at the end of the hall.

"Hey!" I ran after them, pushing as fast as I could.

By the time I had reached the end of the hall, they were gone. I had no clue which turns they had taken.

[A/N someone's keeping secrets!]