Jason Grace could be described as very close to being perfect.
He was handsome, did the honourable thing all of the time, followed rules and routines, never went out of line and always, always tried his hardest. Which in everyone's opinion was what he was supposed to do. He was the son of Jupiter, of course he should set an example. People would always follow Jason, and Jason made sure he gave them good reasons to follow him.
So when Jason met Percy Jackson- a guy who broke almost all of the rules, was kind of lazy and didn't follow easily- and was told that he had to try to lead Percy in the quest of 7, he didn't know what to think.
Percy's way of doing things was so different from Jason's, and Jason had only known Percy for about a day. Now he was supposed to try to lead him?
So far Jason didn't think he was doing that great of a job.
It seemed like everyone was always looking to Percy for instructions now. Even Leo and Piper would always sort of glance at him whenever Jason told them to do something; like they were waiting for him to object and tell them to do something else.
Plus Percy was older by Jason by about a year, and even though Annabeth was slightly older then Percy he felt like it would always be either Percy or himself people would follow. He didn't know why, but that was the way things seemed to pan out with them.
People listened to Annabeth, heck everyone listened to Annabeth. It seemed like Annabeth was more like Percy's second in command though, and no matter what happened Jason didn't think that would change.
It was like at Camp Half- Blood. The people had accepted him, and made him feel welcome. He had even been captain of a team in a couple of capture the flag games.
But he wasn't Percy. Even while he had been there people would shoot him looks that just screamed 'Why aren't you Percy! Why aren't you our leader!' Everyone had warmed up to him, even Clarisse had been acting a lot friendlier at the end of those 8 months Jason had been there, but apart from Capture the Flag no one had ever looked at him to tell them what to do. They had always looked at Annabeth.
Except Piper and Leo on their quest; but even they had started to look at Annabeth instead of Jason.
Jason wasn't sure if this bothered him or not. He had always been looked at for help, it had always been up to him to solve all of the problems. Well him and Reyna- but even Reyna had followed him into battle when they stormed the Titan's castle.
But now the Romans had even accepted Percy. He had become Praetor and joined the Legionin just one week! He was the one who brought back the eagle and saved the Romans from Polybotes' army.
What bothered Jason most though, was how Reyna had accepted him. In just a week. He also thought that Reyna might've made a move on Percy, which made him even more uncomfortable.
Jason didn't think he owned Reyna or anything like that. No, it was just... it had taken Reyna months to be able to trust Jason. Then Percy Jackson comes along and Reyna trusts him completely and right away. At first Jason had supposed that maybe it had been because of the situation she had been in but now he wasn't so sure. It seemed like everyone was like that with Percy. And it bothered Jason.Now, on the Argo II, it wasn't just him people turned to. Frank, Hazel and Annabeth turned to Percy and that Jason could understand. Percy was closer to them. However whenever Piper and Leo looked at Percy to tell them the plan Jason had to say it hurt. Leo and Piper had known Jason longer, Piper was his girlfriend and Leo was his best friend, but they trusted Percy's judgement in situations better then his.
Even now Piper and Leo were hanging out with Percy in the armory on the ship, and Jason was in his bunk sulking.
It seemed like even Coach Hedge favored Percy. When he had found out Percy and Annabeth had spent the night together below decks yes he had been furious, yes he had almost smacked them with his club, but he hadn't acted like Jason had thought he would. It seemed he had let them off a little too easily to Jason; he hadn't expected him to lock them away for the rest of the quest or anything but Hedge seemed to have let it go faster then he usually would've. Maybe Hedge was sad that the couple didn't have much time together, but Jason didn't think he would hesitate to lock Jason and Piper in their cabins if they ever did something like that.
He just didn't get what was so great about Percy Jackson? It's not like he was perfect.
