Hey guys. This is my new story about Jason and Piper from the Heroes of Olympus series. I've had this idea for a while and it's in an alternate universe (no demigod trouble), so we'll see where this takes me :). Reviews are appreciated. And much to my despair, I do not own Heroes of Olympus, nor any of the amazing characters. It's all Uncle Rick's!

Chapter 1:

Jason looked at Reyna and he couldn't process what he was hearing.

"Jason? I said… Well, I'm really sorry," Reyna said with sympathy evident in her brown eyes.

It was a crisp, Tuesday afternoon in the fall and Jason and Reyna were at their usual hangout spot, which was a local park. He sat on the swing, slowly rocking himself back and forth, trying to understand why Reyna, his best friend and now ex-girlfriend, wanted to end their relationship after only going out for one summer.

"Can I ask why?" Jason said.

Reyna sighed. "I don't know. At first I thought I'd be happier being your girlfriend, but I feel like we're only going out because that's what people expected of us."

That's true, Jason thought, everyone did expect us to get together. Jason had known Reyna since they were toddlers. For as long as he could remember, Jason and Reyna had done everything together: took their first swimming lessons together, went to the same kindergarten class, rode their bikes together until Reyna got a car for her 16th birthday, cut their first classes together—and even got disciplined together when they got caught by their parents. By the time they reached high school, he heard the hushed whispers from his friends. They were wondering when Jason Grace, their school's famed quarterback, and Reyna Ramirez, the captain of the women's soccer team and class president, were finally going to date. Initially, he didn't want to date her, being afraid of driving a notch in their friendship. But after years of insistence and convincing from others, Jason supposed it was only natural of him to start dating his best friend.

"And besides," Reyna continued wistfully, interrupting Jason's thoughts. "I don't feel like we're together because we love each other…"

Jason snapped his head up to look at Reyna. "I do love you, Reyna."

She laughed, but with a trace of sadness. "I know you do Jason, and I love you too. But… we're not in love with each other. Do you understand me?"

Jason kept rocking back and forth on the swing, not wanting to meet Reyna's eyes. If he had to be honest to himself like Reyna was with herself, he supposed she was right. It had been a wonderful three months with Reyna. He had enjoyed kissing her, holding her hand, taking her on dates, and he did find her really attractive. For a little bit, he thought all seemed great. But when he really thought about it, he knew he didn't feel any sparks when they were together. And well, weren't there supposed to be sparks or some magic or some out-of-this-world experience with the girl you love?

Reyna got up from the slide she was sitting on and crossed over to Jason. She put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. "I really hope we can stay best friends still." Jason heard the sincerity and fear of rejection mixed together in her request.

"Of course Rey," Jason said, taking her hand and holding it tight for the final time.

They stayed like this for another few minutes in silence, both of them coming to terms with their situation. Finally, Reyna broke away. "Hey Jase, sorry, but I have to go now. I'm having relatives over tonight and I should be home. Did you want a ride home?"

He shook his head and tried to smile at her. He didn't feel like riding in the same car with her at the moment, even though his house was a bit far. At the same time, he also didn't want to ruin the last non-awkward bits of friendship with her by rejecting her polite offer. Even if she was his ex-girlfriend, he still didn't want to lose her forever. "Don't worry about me. I can walk home. Thanks though Reyna."

She smiled lightly and before he could protest, she pecked a quick kiss on his cheek. Jason watched her walk away to her car and within a few minutes, he was all by himself at the park.

Jason sighed. He stared up at the sky, wishing he could be someone else right now. Recalling what Reyna said, he was slowly coming to grips that they weren't together anymore. Being with her, and especially their break-up, had made it more obvious that they weren't meant for each other. However, it still didn't mean that he wasn't hurt. There were some genuine feelings of happiness he had with Reyna over the summer and a very small part of him still secretly wondered that if they were to stay together longer, would he had loved her in that way eventually? He would never know now.

Once Jason felt the cold, oncoming evening air, he got up and started walking home, feeling more exhausted than he should be at only 6 pm. All around him, some couples were jogging on the streets, people were walking their dogs, and some kids were getting ready to go back inside their houses after an afternoon of play. Despite living in New Rome—a respectable-sized, bustling city—his neighborhood was actually quite large and could be teeming with activity during peak hours. Now everything was settling down, and no one knew that walking down the street, someone named Jason Grace was heartbroken. He thought about what his mom and dad would say when they found out he wasn't dating Reyna anymore. His mom of course was ecstatic when she found out that her son was dating Reyna; both moms were really close. Plus, his mom was the type of woman who lavished on appearances and reputation. Hearing the "power couple" break up would probably disappoint her, Jason guessed. As much as he loved his mom, she was naively superficial, and he now dreaded going home even more since he knew he had to break the news to his mom eventually. Jason also wondered what his dad would say, who was currently working in Seattle for business. He presumed his dad might not care one way or another, since he rarely saw him in the first place. Being Zeus Grace, one of the country's top aircraft designers (and millionaire), made him highly unavailable to even his own family. Jason was used to it and the attention that came from it, but still, he wished his dad were around more often to be there like any other father—like his other best friend's parents. Jason figured the only one that probably would have understood him was his sister Thalia, but she was in college now and the last time they spoke, she already had tons of assignments to do so a visit from her wasn't an option. Although they bickered a lot when she still lived in the house and they didn't see each other as much as they used to, she was still the person that Jason could always rely on no matter what. Missing her more than ever, he decided he would probably call her some time tomorrow.

He kept walking home with his mind in a daze. In fact, he didn't know that someone was calling him from behind.

"Hey! Excuse me!"

The hooded girl ran after him. "Hey, wait up! For the love of Olympus HEY!"

Jason was still thinking about Reyna when someone crashed into him and both he and the stranger fell to the ground. Jason groaned. Who the hell ran into him? "What the—"

"Oh FINALLY I've got your attention! And would you kindly please get off of me?" the girl mumbled from underneath him.

Confused, he stood up and peered at the girl still sprawled on the sidewalk. He knew he'd seen this girl before… Oh yeah, at school, Jason thought, seeing her trademark hood.

He watched her recollect herself as she took off her hood. It took all of his willpower not to gasp out loud.

Jason had never seen this girl up close before; just random glimpses of her walking down the hallway or across the campus plaza. A few times he might have also seen her at parties. Even then, he had only really seen her with her hood up as if to not attract attention. But seeing her up close for the first time revealed, Jason was literally at a loss for words. Her choppy hair, which looked like it was cut by a five-year-old and held up in a loose ponytail, was a luscious, deep chocolate brown. She wore simple dark blue jeans, sneakers, and a relatively oversized light blue snowboarding jacket that went well with her fair slightly-coppered skin. But the one feature that he recognized the most were her eyes. Unlike Reyna, where they were a deep shade of brown, he literally couldn't tell what color this girl's eyes were. It seemed that for one second it was brown, but then it turned green, and then to blue. She wore no make-up, and Jason knew she would never need it. Jason could even catch a whiff of her perfume, which smelled like fresh strawberries and raspberries. Finally forming one coherent thought, the first thing that came to mind was how pretty she was. No, Jason thought, not pretty. This girl was seriously beautiful.

"Yeah don't worry. I'm okay, thanks for asking," the girl said as she got up and brushed off some dirt. "I've been calling after you for five minutes you know. You must've been really deep in thought. Sorry to break such concentration."

For some reason, Jason couldn't find his words. Like an idiot, he kept staring at her eyes, trying to pinpoint what color they exactly were.

The girl raised her eyebrows and waved her hand in front of his face. "It's kind of weird that you're staring, but I'll take it as a compliment and assume you think I look nice," she giggled. "I kind of need the ego boost right now… Unless you're looking at my pimple. Then that would suck and I'd crawl under a rock."

Her words seemed to snap him out of his trance. "Er, um, s-sorry. I'm being rude."

"Nah, it's okay. I should be sorry! I totally ran you over when I tripped over that colossal crack (Jason glanced and it looked like a hairline crack)! But hey, you're Jason Grace right?"

"Yeah I am," he answered.

The girl's eyes brightened considerably at his response, which to him made her seem that much more striking. "Oh really huh? YES! Well, Jason Grace, my name is Piper McLean!" At this, she made a Superman-like pose that made Jason smile, despite the earlier events of the day and the overall weirdness of the situation. "You might've seen me around school… Ah, this may sound loony since we just practically met, but I have a favor to ask you."

Jason didn't really know what to say to this. "Um, okay?"

"Alright, well here's the thing. Do you know Dylan Miller?"

In a heartbeat, Jason knew who she was talking about. Dylan Miller was basically the "bad ass" of Goode High School (or so he likes to call himself). This guy always got into fights and cut class just to smoke cigarettes—and other things—in the school parking lot. Jason had even encountered him once a year ago, overhearing how Dylan didn't like "preppy little fairy jocks" like Jason Grace and his best friend Leo Valdez. Jason went up to him and told him to back off, which Dylan sniffed at and left. But what Dylan was probably most famous for was his status as a playboy. He had a reputation of having a new girlfriend every couple of months, and he always boasted about how many girls he slept with and left heartbroken. Jason was always disgusted by this, but for the most part, he simply ignored him since he didn't want to deal with people like that. "Yeah I heard of him. Why do you ask?"

Piper slumped her shoulders and started kicking at the concrete, not really looking him in the eye. For a minute, Jason heard her take a few deep breaths, as if trying to quell some emotions. She looked up at him then, her kaleidoscopic eyes glistening. "Well, this is embarrassing, but um, I actually dated Dylan for about six months. He broke up with me a few days ago."

"Oh," was all Jason could say. Even though he was really tired and wanted to go home, he found himself glued to the spot and sympathizing with her; they were both dumpees after all.

"I know. I told you it was super-mega-ultra-embarrassing."

"But I heard that he was dating Drew Tanaka?"

There was another stretch of awkward silence. Piper looked at him expectedly, waiting for Jason to get the hint. Suddenly, he put two and two together. "Oh. I see."

She sighed and started fiddling with her ponytail. "Yeah. I was really stupid. I should have known that he was cheating on me. He told me that he wanted to keep our relationship on the down low since he knew I don't really like being in the public eye much, and of course it was easy for me to agree. But now I see it was just an excuse. I just didn't want to believe all those nasty rumors, you know? He was my first boyfriend. Even my best friends tried warning me, and telling me that they were really suspicious of him… Finally, I ended up catching the bastard making out with Drew at his house."

Jason stood there, feeling his anger rise a little. He didn't know who Piper really was, but he knew he hated two-timing assholes like Dylan.

"AND he was the one that dumped me! Ahh!" She threw up her hands in frustration and shame.

"Well for what it's worth," Jason tried to comfort her. "He's an idiot for giving you up."

Piper flushed red and punched him jokingly on the arm. "Aw, well thank you. I really appreciate that. But ah… anyway, so here's what I'm asking. Word on the street is that Dylan still thinks that I would just come crawling back to him. He's literally bragging to all his friends that I would run back into his arms in a week if he wanted me! Such a jerk considering he has Drew—but I want to show him that I don't care about him anymore. That I'm totally over him and that I will never, EVER get back with him again. And to do that, I need a boyfriend! And Jason Grace, you just happen to be the best candidate!

He was quiet. "So… you want me to be your boyfriend?"

"Yes, I want you and me to pretend that we're dating! I mean you're good-looking, I heard you're super friendly—hey, you didn't get mad me when I plowed you into the sidewalk! Sorry again by the way. Let's see… you're pretty well-known, considering you're the star quarterback and all so for sure gossip is going to spread and eventually get to Dylan. AND I remember Dylan telling me how he hated preppy little fairy—"

"Yeah I know," he interrupted.

Piper started twiddling her thumbs and smiled nervously. "So, will you help me then?"

Jason thought about it for a moment. Although he really wanted to help her exact revenge on Dylan Miller, Jason was definitely in no condition to jump into another relationship, albeit a fake one. He had just been dumped for Olympus' sakes! And deep down, he still missed Reyna. What he wanted to do now was just relax for a while and remain single; wait for the right girl to come into his life. At the same time though, he also felt a miniscule attraction to this Piper McLean girl, which was ridiculous since he just met her literally ten minutes ago.

"Hmm… your silence isn't really a good sign," Piper said thoughtfully as she stared at him intently. "I'm not surprised though, since you have no idea who I am. Tell you what, I'll give you 'til Friday night to answer. Here's my number!" Piper took out a pen from her jacket pocket and scrawled her information on his hand. "Hey seriously though, if you don't want to do this, it's okay. Thanks for listening to me vent right now anyways; it kind of felt good. But if you do decide to help me, you'll officially be the coolest person ever!"

She flashed a fantastic smile that made Jason's heart skip a beat… or two, or hell, three. "Well Sparky, give it some thought!"

"Sparky—"

"I hope to hear from you! Later!"

With those last words, she jogged away, before Jason could ask her what she meant by "Sparky" or even at least say goodbye. What a weird girl.

A gust of wind made Jason shiver a little, reminding him how late it had gotten. The sun had already set, with only the orange glow tinting the sky and the streetlights blinking on. He hurried home, wanting to get this day over with and get some sleep. He went inside his house, careful not to stick around to talk to his mother after he greeted her. They didn't need two heartbroken people under the roof.

As soon as Jason walked through the bedroom door, his cellphone rang. Supreme Commander of Awesomeness, it said; in other words, Leo.

Jason flopped on the bed and answered. "Hello?"

"Dude, is it true that you and Reyna broke up?" Jason could hear some clinking and hammering coming from the other end of the phone. Of course Leo would be in his garage tinkering with some projects. That kid could never sit still.

He sighed, covering his face with his pillow. "Yeah," Jason muffled through the material. News travels fast apparently. He could just imagine how his friends were going to be like tomorrow.

"And… Are you okay?"

Jason didn't know if he really wanted to talk. He had never really been one to speak his feelings or show his emotions, learning from his dad that it was important to keep a straight and commanding presence. But Leo was his other best friend besides Reyna. Like Reyna, Leo had also known him since diapers, and were much closer. They were on the football team together for Goode High School; Jason being the quarterback and Leo being his handy wide receiver. They did a lot of things together as well—mainly pranks, complimentary of Leo. While Jason felt he was more on the serious side, Leo was more of a joker, which worked out great since Jason needed to loosen up more and Leo needed to focus sometimes. Jason also frequented Leo's house a lot, appreciating how his parents treated Jason like family. In fact, Jason considered Leo to have the ideal family, in which Leo was very close to both his parents.

If there was one person he could talk to besides Reyna or Thalia, it was definitely Leo. And Jason knew that Leo was trying to be there for him right now in his own quirky way. "Yeah I'm okay, thanks. A little sad, but I don't think Reyna and I were meant to be together anyways."

"What makes you say that?" Leo asked.

"We really just see each other as friends. It had been pretty nice being her boyfriend and all, but when we talked about it, I guess I realized that she wasn't the one for me either."

Leo thought about his friend's words. "Hmm, I see. If that's really how you feel, then what can you do right? Well, I'm sure you'll find the right girl someday then bro. Plus I can be your wingman again!"

Jason's thoughts immediately drifted to the girl he met earlier, Piper McLean, though he didn't know why. Jason removed the pillow from his head and looked at his hand, which still had her number on it. "Mmm… maybe, yeah."

Being Jason's best friend had its perks, and Leo immediately picked up on Jason's passive response. "Did something else happen today? Man! I didn't even get to hook you up!"

Jason blinked. Leo knows me too well. Not finding any way to deny it, he just answered honestly. "Yeah, actually something did happen after Reyna broke up with me." Jason told Leo the event that happened with Piper. "Pretty crazy right? Why would I do that when I just got out of a relationship, a pretty sad one at that?"

He expected Leo to agree with him, but Leo was actually uncharacteristically quiet on the other end. A few moments later, Leo said, "I don't know. Actually… I think you should go for it."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Hell yeah, I mean, what have you got to lose? This Piper girl seems pretty cool and according to your way-too-detailed description, she's the hottest thing to have graced planet Earth haha. I'll admit, Piper does seem a little bit weird, but I could understand why she'd feel pissed off about Dylan. I hate that guy."

Of course Leo hates that guy, Jason remembered.Dylan used to bully Leo when they were little kids. However, Leo grew into his age and Dylan found it harder and harder to make fun of someone that was half a foot taller and could easily punch his teeth in if he wanted to.

"And besides, it already sounds like you have a crush on her."

Jason felt himself his cheeks flaming. "I do not! I just got dumped by Reyna! I'm not really in the mood to like someone else already."

"Heh, whether you're in the 'mood' or not, love just strikes whenever and wherever. Or at least that's what I told this pretty girl in my English class before she walked away… and talked to her friends while glancing and pointing at me… and then proceeding to laugh at me… BUT, anyways, whatever you say 'Sparky.' But hey, I gotta go. My dad's calling me and he wants me to help him fix the Corvette before he calls it a night. Just think about this Piper girl okay? I think it'd be a good opportunity for you. You never know."

"Yeah, okay. Goodnight and uh, thanks man."

Before finally settling into bed, Jason got up to switch off the lights. For the next hour, he kept tossing and turning, thinking about his break-up with Reyna and finally Piper McLean. He lifted up his hand and examined it, even though he couldn't see those seven digits that he had subconsciously memorized already.

Soon enough, his eyes started to feel heavy. Before he drifted off to sleep, the last thought he had in his head was a pair of kaleidoscopic eyes.