Percy Jackson - The House of Hades

Chapter 6 - Jason

Jason awoke in a start when he heard the banging on his door. His eyes cracked open when he saw Leo poke his head inside, a wicked smile on his face.

" What now?" asked Jason, irritated. This is like, the 5th time Leo poked his head in. He is just too excited.

"We're descending into Greece now!" Leo said excitedly, still knocking on the door as if he weren't already awake.

Jason threw a pillow at him, hoping he would shut up for a moment. But unfortunately, Leo threw back and continued babbling. "And how much coffee did you have this morning?" wondered Jason, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"Just a cup," justified Leo. Jason cocked his head to the side, raising his eyebrow even farther. Leo shrugged helplessly. "Okay, maybe two... or three... But that's not the point. The point is that you need to get out of bed and take a shower and put on clean clothes. Be your cool self again for a second will ya? We've got some friends to save!"

Leo left Jason to pick up his thoughts. They were already in Greece? Only yesterday had they been fighting monsters in Rome. Only yesterday had Percy and Annabeth disappeared. Time flies when you're trying to stay alive, thought Jason as he sat up and walked to his bathroom.

After a five minute wake-up shower and putting on some jeans and his purple Camp Jupiter shirt, Jason went to the little lobby. He found Piper sitting at the table, by herself, staring at the table.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked from behind her. She jerked up, startled. Then she turned around and looked at Jason in the eye. She sniffled a little. Her eyes were watery. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" She definitely didn't sound that fine. Her voice was quivering with emotion, and Jason didn't know whether it was best to ask her or let the subject drop. Girls were so confusing.

He decided to drop it; he didn't want to push her with anything she probably didn't want to talk about (though Jason could already guess why). He summoned his own plate of eggs and bacon and dug into them. Piper gave him a weird glance, but otherwise did nothing.

A few minutes later, Frank and Hazel walked in, holding hands. Frank was wearing the same pair of pants that he had been wearing for the past few days, since his clothes were gone. Hazel had her hair back in a bushy bun. She was fiddling with a ruby the size of her fist. She had special powers that allows her to summon up jewelery. A power that only decendents of Pluto a.k.a. Hades would have.

"Where're Leo, Coach, and Nico?" asked Frank, a child of Mars, the god of war, taking a seat next to them.

Piper shrugged. Jason shook his head. "I'm not sure," he admitted, but as he was saying that, Coach and Leo walked in. Leo had used some grease to slick back his hair (to be honest, it looked weird on him), and Coach was munching happily on a can of already drunk Coke.

"Where's the death kid?" asked the satyr, swallowing a mouthful of aluminum. Hazel glared at him and Coach looked a little surprised by her reaction. "What? What did I say that was so wrong?"

"Just because Nico is the son of Hades doesn't make him the death kid," she shot at him, and Leo whistled in satisfaction. Frank had a grin on his face and patted his girlfriend's shoulder.

Hedge threw up his hands. "Uh, yeah it kind of does, kid," he answered, without even thinking what will happend next. In this case, Hedge is pretty much the stupidest satyr in the world.

"No. I'm the daughter of Pluto, and people don't go around calling me the 'death girl'."

"Well, at least, not to your face," murmured Leo. Jason knew he was just trying to be funny, but right then was not the appropriate of him. Hazel glared at him too. With a huff, she stormed upstairs to the deck. Frank was on her heels, like a puppy, trying to calm her down, and they were all left there, silent.