Jealous Jason

Chapter 22

Jason P.O.V.

Hippie Zeus is creepy.

I'm seriously starting to hate him staring at me all the time. Why can't I renovate this cabin? Wait, why can't I? I can, right? I mean, I'm Jason Grace! Of course I can!

Piper is currently spying on Percy and Benjy to make sure nothing goes wrong. Which, of course it won't. What could go wrong? But she's just there to know how it went, I guess. So she can tell me all the juicy details.

I don't even know why we're doing this. I get that Piper wants Annabeth on our side, and they're friends, but, like, big deal. Loyalty is a fatal flaw, after all. And Piper shouldn't have any flaws.

Speaking of Piper, I hear her coming. I shiver, giddy with anticipation of the juicy breakup. Hey, I'm no Aphrodite kid, but when it's Annabeth getting her heart broken, that I can handle.

"Jason! We've-" Piper starts, but I interrupt.

"Piper! Was it good! Did Annabeth cry? Did Percy run away?" I fire my questions at her.

"It-" She croaks.

"What? What happened, Pipes? What HAPPENED?" I bounce up and down. I need to know.

"No, Jason, it- it didn't work." She manages to get out.

I stop. Up until now, I've been basically bouncing up and down, giddy with energy. My ADHD was getting the better of me. But now, I can feel my pulse beneath my neck, the cold of the marble, the quiet outside. It all just stopped.

"What- what do you mean it didn't work." I state.

"Benjy betrayed us!" Piper covers.

"WHAT?" I jump up, grabbing her collar. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE BETRAYED US? IT WAS YOUR JOB TO CHARMSPEAK HIM! WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"I don't know!" Piper manages. "Jason, stop! You're choking me!"

"No! I'm not stopping! What did you do? Did you not charmspeak him enough? Did you charmspeak Gaea to sleep but you can't do some stupid nine year old? What is wrong with you, Pipes?" I yell.

"Jason- stop- OW!" She shouts.

"Piper. This is important. What. Exactly. Did. Benjy. Say." I mutter, deadly serious. I knew I shouldn't have trusted her.

"He said- he said- he said, 'How would you feel if I told you I saw Annabeth kissing another guy? How would you feel if I told you Piper told me to tell you that?' " Piper chokes out. I let her go, elated. She slumps to the floor and coughs.

"Piper, sorry, and you're a genius!" I exclaim. The plan wasn't ruined! I knew Piper was just being a drama queen.

"What- what do you mean?" She whimpers.

"Okay, okay, get this. Think about what he said. You could interpret it how you interpreted it, with him betraying us, or... He could have just been saying that you told him to tell Percy about how he saw Annabeth kissing someone else!" I exclaim. This is great!

"So you're saying... He meant that I gave him advice to tell Percy what he 'saw'?" Piper said, her face lighting up. "He didn't call us out as liars? He just said I gave him advice to tell Percy?"

"YES!" I shout. "We don't look like bad guys anymore! We look like the heroes who told him to not keep what he 'saw' a secret!"

"One problem." Piper holds a finger up. "We don't know which version Annabeth and Percy interpreted."

"Easy fix! We go talk to them tomorrow morning!" I grin. I can't believe Piper's bad news might actually be good news after all. They might have broken up already. Or they could have interpreted it the way Piper first interpreted it. In which case, we fix that!

"Okay, so at breakfast. We tell them what 'happened' " Piper plans.

"And what happened?" I ask, playing along.

"Benjy saw Annabeth kissing another dude, so he came to me, the head Aphrodite counselor! I told him to be open about it and tell Annabeth's boyfriend!" Piper squeals.

"Ya got it, Pipes!" I hold my hand out for a high five. "Now go back to your cabin and sleep. We got a busy morning!"

She runs off quickly, to not get caught by the harpies. Which makes me think of Percy and Annabeth, and how they're probably both asleep in the Poseidon cabin. Why do they get special rules, and we don't? Why can they sleep in the same cabin? I should be able to stay with Piper as long as I want!

Sometimes life just isn't fair.

And on that happy note, I'ma go sleep. And yeah... My username is now... Apparently... Different. My friend changed it as a joke (and almost accidentally deleted my entire account) and honestly, I kinda like it. So, we're keeping it!

7-17-21