the half-blood club

~ III ~

Ｓａｔｕｒｄａｙ／ / ７．３０ ａｍ ／／Ｍａｎｈａｔｔａｎ／／Ｎｅｗ Ｙｏｒｋ／／Ｈａｌｆ Ｂｌｏｏｄ Ｈｉｇｈ

***

𝐉𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 winced, as Coach Hedge circled the table, saliva spraying the plethora of students, yelling at them, in sentences that were mostly built of the phrase 'DIE!'. The eccentric gym teacher swung his baseball bat as he spoke, narrowly missing the side of Leo Valdez's head.

"Watch your fucking bat coach!"

"Don't mess with the goat Valdez, you'll get the horns."

Leo responded in what Jason could only presume was a handful of insults in spanish.

"Look, I don't know what the hell you cupcakes did this time, but I honestly don't give a dam. Some of you clearly don't belong here," he sent Jason, along with Annabeth, a pointed look, "but that still ain't my problem. According to Principal Chiron, you lot have to write an 1000 word essay - no Jackson, you can't repeat the same word 1000 times - about who you are. The eight hours should also give you enough time to think about what you did to fuck up. I think there's paper in this room somewhere, try not to fall asleep or you'll die, don't close the door, hand in your phones, don't make babies, you know the regular.. now, don't mind me, I'll just be looking through Deputy D's office. "

The Coach sauntered away, hands filled with his bat and a tray of some pristine and some tattered phones.

"Isn't that some violation of rights? I'm pretty sure that's private property, Chase, you're smart, right? Is there a rule in that American's rights thing you've probably read?"

Annabeth only responded with a scoff, before returning to whatever stack of papers she was collecting in front of her.

Jason took this time to gaze over the girl that had spoken, the brown haired beauty beside him.

Piper McLean was an enigma to him. Even back when they were the closest of friends, in middle school, he was still learning something new about her everyday. It was clear to him that she was no longer the tomboyish girl who used to chop her own hair with garfield scissors, have scratches on her knees from skating, painted things on random walls, go tree climbing daily, stay up late to dance on her roof, played pranks on him with the help of Leo. Once upon a time, the three of them had labelled themselves the 'three amigos', they thought they were inseparable. It didn't take very much for them to separate. He had heard enough complaints from his friends to know that in high school, Leo ran around the the school recklessly causing havoc. He knew Piper tried to change herself, became the girl people always expected her to be, the girl she never wanted to be - she became a character from a hollywood movie, flaunting her riches and followed by boys, that's what people said about her anyway. He didn't know this girl she was now nearly as well, but Jason Grace was fascinated all the same.

It wasn't like he never noticed her, that would be an impossible task for him, but it had been years since they had held civil conversation. He understood why though, he knew it was his fault, for different reasons than Piper and Leo thought. It were those early weeks where Jason was beginning to drift away slowly, when everything began to change. When Piper got her first boyfriend of many. He wasn't surprised, anyone as stunning as her was bound to be in a relationship. Except, he'd always thought that relationship would be with him. He distanced himself more after that, leaving Leo isolated, leaving Piper to pursue whatever romances and relationships she wanted and leaving himself suffering from unrequited love.

Fortunately for him, as Piper hadn't yet noticed his lingering eyes, he was knocked out of his trance by a sharp flick on the head from his sister.