Jasper

Piper's POV - Thesis

The first week of college went unusually well for me. I usually hung out with Percy and Annabeth after classes. On 20th evening we were doing homework on the bench in the apple orchard. The leaves of the apple trees were turning yellow. It was a marvelous sunset over red foliage of apple trees. I should have been feeling better but the persistent hollow feeling inside my stomach wont go.

"Annabeth, you know, Drew sent chocolates to my roommate this morning with a note saying, 'To my sweetums. Have a great day. Love, Drew'. It's getting out of hand", Percy said.

"Oh Lord, again? Why can't she leave poor Jason alone?", Annabeth said.

"Wait. You know Jason?", I asked. Jason was this tall blond guy in my class who was Leo's best friend. He always wore a T-shirt and jeans. His close-cropped blond hair was always in a perfect shape. His hypnotizing sky blue eyes made me want to drown in them. He had a cute little scar on his upper lip, his square shaped glasses gave him a nerdy but a hot look. He was the most popular guy in our batch and all the pretty girls had a crush on him. It was rumoured that even Drew, the most popular girl in the campus had asked him out. Now that Percy had confirmed it, my heart started feeling heavier.

"Yeah, he's my roommate and he sleeps like a log. Apart from that, hes good", Percy laughed. I smiled for a second and sighed sadly. Annabeth noticed me and said, "Don't worry Piper, he's still available. You will get him". I looked up expecting her to laugh at me, but her grey eyes were as serious as a storm. I went back to my homework.

The whole month of September went by but I couldn't gather the courage to tell Jason how I felt. How could I? A bunch of girls followed him everywhere he went. In the evening, he never came out of his dorm room due to 'Drew Problems' as Percy had said. Every time I caught his eye, I waved and looked away, blushing heavily. He was a brilliant student and always answered the questions Mr. Brunner asked. If only he talked to me.

"So, the classes for next two weeks are suspended", announced Mr. Brunner on 25th October. No one ooh-ed or whistled, even though it was a big holiday announcement. Such was our affection towards our French teacher. He usually spoke in English to make us understand stuff better. He was very fun in classes, always making jokes about French poets to lighten up our mood. "What do you think Bouhours favourite pick-up line was?", he asked us once,"it was, if you were a verb, you'd be plas-que-parfait."

"As homework, you need to write a thesis about 'The work of Alexandra Dumas and how it revolutionized French literature'. It is a compulsion as it contains 50 marks. So to make your work easy, I am going to form you into groups of three".

The downside of group projects was that I did not have any friends to form group with except that annoying guy Leo who always assumed I was flirting with him. It was a good thing that Mr. Brunner had assigned us groups instead of asking us to make them ourselves.

"Piper, Leo and Jason are a team", announced Mr. Brunner.

I might finally get a chance to talk to Jason about my feelings.

After the class got dismissed, I could see many girls giving me a you're-so-lucky look. Leo and Jason came up to my bench.

"So, er, we gotta do this together, right?", Jason said.

"Yeah I guess, I am going to the library after lunch to research some points.", I tried my best to suppress my smile.

"Good, I and Jason can browse the internet", Leo said.

"Oh okay then, we meet by the fountain at let's say 5?", Jason said, smiling.

"What about your so called Drew Problems", I made quotes in the air with each hand as I spoke the last two words.

Jason rolled his eyes and smiled, "Well, this thesis is more important than that."

"Aww, you'd look so adorable together. Drew'd probably think you're a couple and leave you alone, Jason", Leo smirked.

"Oh, shut up Leo", Jason and I said together.