The Beginning of the End (J. Grace)

XIV: April fools! (No, but seriously, this did happen)

Jason's PoV:

Well... that was eventful.

Neither of them spoke about that moment to anyone and just pretended that it had never happened. But it had. And Jason didn't regret it at all; not one bit.

However much they pretended that it never happened, the looks that they would sometimes give each other would say otherwise. He was still slightly in awe that she had kissed him. That he had kissed back. That it had happened at all.

No one needs to know. Yeah, no one is going to know. How would they know? Well, unless a poor employee saw, or someone else whom they know just came in... yeah, that's unlikely.

Anyway, quite some time had passed since that day: it was -arguably- going to be one of the most terrifying days at camp for him, Leo and Piper. April fool's day.

The three had decided to set up a prank to get the entire camp before any of the Hermes kids could get in there before them. He seriously didn't want to be covered in neon slime again... or anything to happen, really. He knows how creative Elara and her siblings are.

"I'm sure it'll work, right?" Piper looked over uncertainly to Leo who had just finished setting up the mechanism.

"Of course it will!" He cried, grinning like a madman.

That was the moment Jason decided that it was going to fail, although, he was just going to pretend that he didn't have that certain, sinking suspicion.

"Yeah, I'm sure." He followed along, glancing over his shoulder to see some campers coming up to the mess hall. Hecate kids, he suspected.

"Hey!" Elara was suddenly behind them, grinning that troublemaker smile and jumping onto Piper's back like a playful puppy.

"Lara! Gods of Olympus!" The daughter of Aphrodite clasped her hand to her chest, eyes widening (which had turned a dark blue colour with chestnut brown around the edges) and burst out laughing. "You scared the life out of me!"

"Gotta keep you on alert, Dove." She got off her friend's back and winked at her, then turned back to the boys, narrowing her eyes at the sight of Leo's grease-covered hands. "What're you doing?"

"I just came out of Bunker Nine! Give me a break! That ship's not gonna build itself!" He defended and covered up at the same time. Well... it wasn't actually a lie.

She shook her head, still grinning. "I can help you; you know?" She offered. "Beckendorf used to teach me a ton of stuff. He was Luke's best friend, so I spent a lot of time with him too."

"Seriously? Hell yeah, I'd like some help!" His eyes gleamed with excitement. "Gods, why didn't you tell me that sooner!"

"Sorry." She apologised and started walking into the now-filling mess hall. We're allowed to sit wherever we want at breakfast, which was so nice for Jason since there's no one else from his cabin at camp.

"Sure." He teased, rolling his eyes and she punched him in the arm; not forcefully, but still.

"Are you guys coming in or not?" She called over her shoulder, walking up to get food and expertly leaping over every pressure point that could set off the prank.

"You said it would work!" Piper whisper-shouted to the other two as they reluctantly followed her in, knowing that there was no escape and that they would now also have to suffer from their prank.

"Lara!"

Jason's head whipped up at the sound of Ellis calling her name. It's not like they're dating or anything, but... he still... it's just... ugh, forget it.