victorious | jason grace ||| discontinued

t h r e e

JASON

As soon as Jason saw the house, he knew he was a dead man.

"Here we are!" Drew said cheerfully. "The big house, camp headquarters.

It didn't look threatening, just a four-story manor painted baby blue with white trim. The wraparound porch had lounge chairs, a card table, and an empty wheelchair. Wind chimes shaped like nymphs turned into trees as they spun. Jason could imagine old people coming here for summer vacation, sitting on the porch and sipping prune juice while they watched the sunset. Still, the windows seemed to glare down at him like angry eyes. The wide-open doorway looked ready to swallow him. On the highest gable, a bronze eagle weathervane spun in the wind and pointed straight in his direction, as if telling him to turn around.

Every molecule in Jason's body told him he was on enemy ground.

"I am not supposed to be here," he said.

He could feel Taylor's gaze piercing through his back. When he caught her eye, she just looked away. She seemed to be studying him wearily, and whenever he looked at her, she seemed to be holding onto her chain tightly, as if preparing herself for a fight.

Drew circled her arm through his, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Oh, please. You're perfect here, sweetie. Believe me, I've seen a lot of heroes."

Drew smelled like Christmas- a strange combination of pine and nutmeg. Jason wondered if she always smelled like that, or if it was some kind of special perfume for the holidays. Her pink eyeliner was really distracting. Every time she blinked, he felt compelled to look at her. Maybe that was the point, to show off her warm brown eyes. She was pretty. No doubt about that. But she made Jason feel uncomfortable; just like Piper did.

He slipped his arm away as gently as he could, aware of Taylor's amused eye watching his interaction.

"Look, I appreciate-"

"Is it that girl?" Drew pouted. "Oh, please, tell me you are not dating the Dumpster Queen."

"You mean Piper? Um..."

Jason wasn't sure how to answer. He was sure he'd ever seen Piper before today and he felt guilty that she thought he was her girlfriend. He knew he shouldn't be in this place. He shouldn't befriend these people and certainly shouldn't date one of them. Still... Piper had been holding his hand when he had woken up on that bus. She believed she was his girlfriend. But that wasn't right. He didn't even know his own story, he couldn't play with her emotions like that. To make matters worse, when he'd caught Taylor in midair and they'd held each other face-to-face, he had gotten his first chance to really look at her, and what immediately came to mind was the word beautiful. Of course, Piper was pretty too, but Taylor had a different kind of beauty to her; it was hard to explain.

She had white hair with brown highlights, and her eye was the type of blue that could be mistaken as grey. She was short and reached up to his chin, but she was probably as strong as Jason was. When he was around Piper, he felt uncomfortable. He felt like she still saw him as her boyfriend, even though he had told her he had no memories and didn't know who she was. With Taylor, however, he didn't feel uncomfortable. He knew she had no memories of him, so he knew she didn't expect anything of him, unlike Piper and Leo.

Drew rolled her eyes.

"Let me help you decide, sweetie. You can do better. A guy with your looks and obvious talent?"

Taylor laughed at this, but covered it as a cough when she saw the glare he sent her, though her eyes were still alight with amusement.

Drew was looking above his head, even though she was talking to him.