Chapter Text
Jason groaned as his alarm clock began to shrill out across his room with increasing urgency. He debated on slamming the snooze button for what was probably about the seventh time in a row now, before deciding that no, he did have to go to school eventually, and half-rolled-half-stumbled out of his warm and loving bed into the cold air of his bedroom, fumbling to put his glasses on in the process.
He got dressed as quickly as was humanly possible so as to avoid any unnecessary contact with the frigid air surrounding him, and grabbed a protein bar from his kitchen side. He normally hated them, but hey, he had to eat something, and the fact that he was running late already meant that this was the best option available. He tied his shoelaces (double knots, since they always seemed to come undone), pocketed his car keys, and ran a hand through his blonde hair, pleased with the way it was growing out.
He was all too aware of the fact he was late, but that unfortunatue fact didn’t stop him from standing in front of the hallway mirror for a second – although it had been about... what was it? Three years? The freedom that he felt at not being forced to wear that awful private school uniform anymore never ceased to amaze him. God, just the memory of that purple blazer was enough to make him shudder. Even if Leo did think purple was Jason’s colour, he would still rather wake up every morning with a papercut than go back to that place.
He shook his head at himself and rushed outside, holding his schoolbag over his head as protection against the rain, and all but dived into his car. He checked the time, saw that, fuck, he really was late, and put the key in the ignition. Before he hightailed it out of his driveway, he noticed the little red dot thing above his messages that meant he had a new text.
LEO!! - hey superman, dont bohtre pckingn me up today, i got a swtee ride of my won
Me – hey so you do know autocorrect is a thing, right?
LEO!! - uh, yeha??
Me – why don't you... use it?
LEO!! - becuas then id have no falws or iusses and id be too epreftc and you wuold fall in love
Me – with who? you?
LEO!! - no, the raoocn taht ate yuor braekfsat. yes me
Me – ...you do know I'm straight, right?
LEO!! Is typing...
Jason rolled his eyes and put his phone back in his pocket, before finally resigning himself to the fact that he would most likely be getting a detention for tardiness. God, Hera would be so fucking mad. He could picture it now -
“Jason, would you mind letting me borrow you a second? We need to have a little talk.” That was how she got when she was really angry – she seemed almost... nice, but if you knew her, had lived with her, you could see what her tight-lipped smile was struggling to keep in check, what that fucking snakelike tongue had to say about him and how he really needed to “Focus just a little bit more on your education, sweetie,” and how she “Had been thinking a lot about just how much time you’ve been spending with your new friends.”
New friends, his ass. Did three years and counting mean “new” to her? No, of course not. She just couldn’t handle the fact that he was friends with people whose family didn’t own half of Britain or whatever. Even though Piper’s dad was literally one of the most famous movie stars of this goddamn century.
He laid his head on the dashboard, trying to calm his whirlwind of thoughts. Come on, Jason, he chastised himself. Pull yourself together. You’re just tired. He got out the car.
__________
“Mr. Grace, would you mind joining us on planet Earth?” the teacher scolded him, her arms crossed in front of her chest.
“Um, sorry,” he mumbled, lowering his eyes from where he had been staring out the window. In his defence, it was a gorgeous view – the rain from earlier had coated the world in a layer of fine mist the colour of a cloudy mirror in the morning sun, so that the tips of the trees in the car park were a hazy golden, and if he squinted slightly he could see the edges of the clouds glowing – every cloud has its silver lining, he thought to himself.
“Thank you,” his teacher snapped, turning back to the class. “Don’t forget, we have a test on Friday. Now, it’s nothing to worry about, just a little assessment to see how you’re all coping,” Yeah, right. Jason knew what that meant – the score he got would be going on his report card for his parents to see. “Piper darling, would you hand these out, please?” Piper rose from her seat at the front and took the revision sheets from the teacher’s hand.
As she reached Jason’s seat, she flashed a brief smile at him. “Meet in the library at lunch?” she whispered, sliding a sheet across his desk as he nodded. She beamed at him, fluttering her eyelashes slightly. “Great!” she responded.
Piper had been doing that a lot, recently – fluttering her eyelashes, giggling, twirling her hair around her finger in – he thought, although he could be wrong – Jason’s general direction. Now, he didn’t know much about love or whatever, but he was pretty sure she was doing something called flirting and he... really wasn’t sure how that made him feel. Did Piper like him? That was a weird thought. She was pretty – like, gorgeous – and boys were always after her – not that she noticed.
Honestly, thinking about it, he suddenly realized that a lot of boys talked about his best friend like that. Especially in the changing rooms after football, although those specific comments always made him feel a bit queasy. He’d said so a couple times – you know, “Hey, chill, man, she’s a girl. Not a cup of fucking coffee. Call her beautiful, not hot,” and had always been met with hysterical laughter. And called a simp, whatever that meant. Also gay? Not that anything was wrong with that, just – how did wanting to treat a girl nicely make him gay?
“Lesson’s over, blondie,” he was jolted out of his thoughts by Clarisse yelling from the classroom door. She rolled her eyes as he thanked her, embarrassment clouding his cheeks while he practically ran out the door to get to his next lesson. He really needed to start getting more sleep.
__________
“You made it!” Piper smiled as he walked into the library.
Leo scoffed, chucking a balled up piece of paper at her head. “Chill, beauty queen, he always does,” he closed (what looked like) maths jotter and looked up. “Seriously though man, you alright? You look kinda tired.”
Jason shrugged. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he responded. His traitorous body decided now would be a good time to yawn. Piper snorted.
“Fine, my ass. You need to get some good sleep,” she scolded.
“Yeah, I guess...” he sighed. “Man, I am so sick of the sound of my alarm clock,” he threw himself down on a chair dramatically, head landing in Piper’s lap. “I swear, if I have to hear that infernal beeping one more time, I’ m going to throw it out the window,” He quickly sat up again, noticing the blush on Piper’s cheeks and feeling decidedly uncomfortable.
“Dude, get a room,” Leo muttered.
Piper scowled at him. “I’m not a dude?”
“Dudette.” He amended, as Jason tried his best to smother his laughter.
“Hey, are we doing anything for Halloween this year?” He asked, changing the subject.
Piper thought for a minute. “Aren’t we too old for that now? Like, trick-or-treating?”
Leo looked at her, aghast. “Piper! Nobody’s too old for free candy!”
“True,” Jason agreed. “But people might not give any candy to a group of decrepit senior citizens like us,”
“We could just kidnap Percy’s sister and take her,” Leo countered.
Piper squinted at him. “...You literally have a younger brother of your own.”
“Oh yeah,” he remembered. “Sometimes I forget he’s my brother and not just a weird adorable child I adopted,”
“That’s... actually really sweet,” Jason said.
Leo looked away. “Yeah, well, don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation, you know.”
“As what?” Piper joked. “Santa’s little helper?”
“Yep,” he answered. “You guys better appreciate me while I’m here, because the second Mariah defrosts, I gotta be off to the North Pole,”
Jason snorted. “I’m pretty sure she’s already defrosted, dude.”
“Really? Not even the great Eve of the Hallows can hold her back anymore,” Leo sighed exaggeratedly. “Well, guess I better pack my bags then,”
“Speaking of packing bags, did anyone else hear about the History trip next week?” Piper asked.
“To that place... um, where was it...” Jason struggled.
“New York?” she supplied dryly.
He snapped his fingers. “Yeah, that was it! Why, are you going?”
“Maybe,” she replied.
Leo looked at her. “Do you even take History?”
She shook her head. “No, but I watched Hamilton once,” she told them. “I’m sure that counts.”
“...Right.”
“You guys should sign up too, it’ll be fun!”
“What, robbing Sephora with Connor and Travis?” Jason asked sceptically.
Leo shrugged. “Actually, that does sound pretty fun,” he admitted. Piper and Jason looked at him. “What?”
“Nothing,” Piper said.
Jason suddenly remembered the texts from that morning. “Leo, you said you had a...” he pulled out his phone, checking the exact wording. “Swtee ride. How exactly did you get to school?”
“Oh yeah!” his face lit up. “I finally finished my project – it’s a motorbike!”
“You... built a motorbike?” Piper said in disbelief. “By yourself?”
“Well, not entirely by myself... that girl, Nyssa, from my engineering class helped too, and I used a lot of YouTube videos as well...”
Jason just stared at his friend in awe. “Wow.”
“I mean... it was pretty simple if I’m honest,” Leo mumbled, who seemed embarrassed with the attention from Piper and Jason. “It was just a matter of –”
“Leo. You built a freakin’ motorbike. Don’t you dare play it down.” Piper glared at him sternly.
Leo nodded.
“Can we... see it?” Jason asked.
“Yeah! You guys should come over at some time and –”
The bell for the end of lunch rang. “Well, I guess I’m off then,” Jason sighed. “I’ve got History, what about you guys?”
“...You take History?”