The Deuteragonist Never Wins Chapter 1: Aeschylus Didn't Go to High School, a percy jackson and the olympians fanfic

a/n: originally this was going to be within a single oneshot but i flaked and split it into short multiple chapters, so maybe once i finish i'll just compile everything into one big file. also i decided i had a plot with developable characters after all so haha x10

There was no greater joyous relief than not being in Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano's line of fire on the day she decided the world was her enemy.

Jason and Thalia Grace lounged languidly on the terrycloth brown sofa in the Student Council office as Reyna, swathed in curses from three different languages, swept the floor in pure, unadulterated anger.

"This is the first meeting, for gods' sakes," she said, and Jason, who's only known her for forever, liked to call this her KILL KILL KILL voice—only, the acronym's always been a bit problematic, so he's kept it to himself. "Do they not realize that this is going to be a reflection of the rest of the school year? I understand if Annabeth and Percy racked up on extracurricular activities, but this should be on top of their priorities. And don't even say a word about 'senioritis', Thalia, you're here, aren't you? I might have expected this from at least one of us, but the sophomores too? Hazel and Frank should not be this late! Is Frank in archery? Thalia's captain! There isn't any practice! This is ridiculous. No one is answering their phones and unless they're dead in a ditch somewhere, they can be on paperwork duty for the rest of the year."

"They'll be here," Jason said, more because of wishful thinking than the actual phone screen in front of him claiming, be there before 4 I swear.

It was 4:23.

Although this was not the first time a student council meeting after school had gone awry (refer: the year prior when Luke Castellan had been Student Body President and Charles Beckendorf and Selina Beauregard had insisted on adding locks to the walk-in storage closet within the room for purposes rendered "classified"), but this was also the first time a pair of juniors took the title of Student Body president and vice-president. Annabeth and Percy, who everyone was sure to win, had been on Student Council since they were sophomores. At the end of the last school year, the winning votes came in. And, with their names conquering the ballots, they were supposed to accept their leadership roles. Instead, they gave a stunningly blasé speech along the lines of We have decided to sideline for our last high school year and We will still support Olympus High as always and We plant to select next year's President and Vice as Reyna Ramirez Arellano and Jason Grace, the sophomore class' previous leaders, because we trust that they will be responsible and righteous in their leadership and Yeah, Mr. D, we can really do this; Annabeth read the school guidelines, rules, and regulations. In your face! and We'll really miss you, Class of 2014, except you, Luke, thank the gods you're leaving and Next year is going to be a blast, we promise.

The problem with a promise is that you can't make another promise to not break one.

Senior year was substantially busy enough, so Annabeth's and Percy's chosen roles as class presidents rather than school presidents was still questionable. Once, teeming with worry and feeling nauseous, Jason asked Percy why they hadn't just backed out of Student Council completely.

"Haven't you ever heard of ruling from the shadows?" he had countered.

Jason did not think this was a very clinically sane answer, but let it go because Percy Jackson was not a very clinically sane boy.

On the other hand, the rest of the student council seemed to make sense. As no freshmen were allowed to serve council, the sophomore class presidents were the youngest around. Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang kept to themselves mostly, and didn't always mesh as easily as with the other upperclassmen (they seemed to like Percy though). Jason thought they were dating. But they did their job just as efficiently as Reyna, which said a lot, and were obviously elected for a reason. They did everything right.

Usually, how it went at Olympus, the seven positions of Student Council were two sophomore class presidents, two junior class presidents, one student as school secretary (which had been Thalia winning every consecutive year since she was legible due to no one wanting to run against her), and the two senior class presidents that shared responsibility over their class and the school. This year had been complicated enough, and though it could have been worse,—Annabeth's rule bending was flawless, of course—settling in as school and class presidents took the cake for Uncoolest Job Ever. The work, as Jason predicted, would be back-aching, but he and Reyna were still planning to juggle fall and winter sports into the mess.

He could understand how frustrated Reyna felt when it seemed like no one was putting in the same effort.

A fraction of relief filled Jason when he heard the door knob turn, expecting a windblown Percy, but it flew right back out when it slammed open to a presence completely unrelated to student council.

"Squeeze yourselves!"

A Latino boy, whose most pronounced factors were his ears and curly hair, sped swiftly through the lounge and into the other door (no lock! Beckendorf and Selina had the right idea) leading to the tiny storage room where the drama club stashed their more fragile props. Confused and a little shocked, Jason looked to Reyna who looked to Thalia who looked to the door propped open and the boy still rummaging loudly inside.

"Hey! You idiot, don't just barge in like that!" A girl's voice thundered after him. The girl herself lumbered in the room, pretty, flushed, and, well, pretty. On anyone else the black pants and bruised, white parka would have been overkill in September, but on her it looked like she stepped out of this season's edition of Teen Vogue.

She spotted the three of them just staring, all varying degrees of what the hell, and grimaced. Addressing them with eyebrows furrowed in worry, she said, "I am so sorry for him. I take the leash off for one second…um, we're part of the school party planning committee, getting stuff ready for homecoming, so, like, we're not robbers or anything."

The first thing Jason noticed was that she had a slick, velvety voice that dipped and sprung around the room seamlessly, and he wouldn't have minded if she kept talking forever. The second was her eyes, a collage of different colors blended so that pinpointing its exact color was impossible.

Now this—this was trouble in its rawest form.

Panicking, Jason started to say, Hey, what are you doing here? You could have just asked to come in. My name's—"Jason."

Damn.

The girl, not knowing what to do with this new and unfamiliar information, raised an eyebrow, arms crossed. Jason's heart skipped multiple beats.

"My name," he offered awkwardly.

"Oh." She nodded slightly in understanding, then grinned as if this was what she had been searching for from the beginning. There were little dimples mirrored on both sides of her mouth. "Piper. We were just leaving. Sorry for the bother."

"It's no problem," Jason said, a little too quickly to be nonchalant. He unconsciously began rubbing the sides of his sneakers against each other. At the corner of his eyes, he saw Thalia glance at him amusedly. Don't, Jason would have said, had he been gifted with ESP. Not a word.

Piper whirled towards the back room, the beads that clung to her braids swinging. She raised volume, yelling, "Leo, I swear to every single god in this vicinity, if you break something—"

"Yeah, that's likely!"

She cringed and turned back to Jason. "He's a moron, and I'm sorry."

"Yo, BQ," a new voice called out from the hallway. It was deep and scratchy, and Jason's brain racked from the familiarity. "Valdez get the goods yet?"

"No," Piper replied, her tone dragged out an underlying 'don't call me that', which impressed Jason only because he's lived with Thalia long enough to identify that much annoyance through monosyllables. "There were still people here."

"Oops." The person, revealed to be a boy the same age as Jason, had a similar build to his and darker hair. He smiled to reveal Colgate-worthy canines. "We've been caught. Abort mission?"

Piper only rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Dylan, this wasn't supposed to be covert. We don't even know if the stuff is here. And if we don't find it, Drew will have to deal without them for now."

"Okay," Dylan said, charmingly throwing a salute. "But she'd throw a fit."

"Looking forward to it," said Piper. She glanced back to the back room where 'Leo' was still attempting to make harmony with cardboard boxes, then seemed to remember she had company. "Right, sorry, this is Dylan. He's part of the committee, too."

"Unfortunately. I mean, it's not unfortunate being with you, BQ." Jason tried to stop the bubble of disappointment rising below his chest as Dylan's arm slung itself around Piper, familiar and casual, as if it had been done it times and times before. Suddenly, the name and the face made a match to a title—a varsity member of the school's football team. He even sported the bright, hideous Olympian orangey-purple jersey. Last year, he sat behind Jason in Latin and bugged him for pens all throughout first semester. From that point on, Jason had already decided he sternly disliked running backs.

"Stop calling me that," grumbled Piper.

Dylan Ventus gave Jason and the girls a once-over before serving a curt nod. "You guys juniors, too?"

Reyna and Jason made slight motions of agreement, but Thalia looked thoroughly harassed.

"Senior," she corrected, frowning as if it was someone else's fault she looked perpetually younger than she really was. Honestly, Jason could buy a house if he had been collecting a quarter every time someone mistook him for being oldest. But, even hypothetically, Thalia would probably bulldoze it down.

"Wait," said Piper suddenly, glassy eyes widening. "You two are our President and VP, right? Are we interrupting something? I'm so sorry."

Reyna smiled tightly, all business and professional-like. "Yes. Normally we would mind being intruded during a student council meeting, but we're missing quite a few members right now, so we don't mind you checking for needed items as we wait."

Also read as: I'm already stressed no one's here yet, but yes, of course, feel free to barge in like it's nobody's business and be loud and intrusive all you like.

Also read as: I have to be civil and nice but I am pissed as hell.