Posting this early because I'm not going to have time or wifi on Jason's actual birthday, which is in two days, so yeah. I don't have much to say except sorry for the infrequent updates lately, I've been crazy busy.

"So..." Piper said, smiling at Jason. They were sitting together down by the lake, and while Percy and Annabeth were in the water, splashing each other and getting into "water fights", Jason and Piper had preferred to stay in the shade of a tree, a safe distance away from the splashing. "Your birthday is coming up."

"Yeah..." Jason answered slowly. He actually hadn't really thought of it until she mentioned it, and realized that it was in three days. Wow. That meant that it had been over a year since the Argo II set sail, and almost a year since the Seven had finished their quest.

"How are you wanting to celebrate it?" She asked.

"I don't really know." He shrugged, stretching out a little more and leaning onto the rough bark of the tree. "But I don't want a huge party. Just you... Maybe Percy and Annabeth..."

"That's it?" Piper teased. "You're so antisocial."

"I am very social." Jason smiled. "I'm just... More introverted."

"Right." She said. "You don't want a huge party. Got it."

Jason, however, got the sense that she probably was keeping something from him, most likely the fact that she was, as a matter of fact, going to throw a party. How he knew? Well, Piper wasn't very good at keeping secrets or lying, so basically anybody could've known.

Breakfast on the morning of July first was not, as Jason would put it, at all like it normally was. For one thing, Percy, Annabeth, Piper, Nico, and a few others were all crowded around the Poseidon table. Jason paused for a second and looked questioningly at Piper, who shrugged innocently and turned away. Then Percy and Piper nudged Annabeth, who rolled her eyes and got up. She walked towards Jason, putting on a huge, fake looking smile.

"Hey, Jason." She said, sounding overly cheerful. "I was just wondering if you... If you wanted to, um, go to... A... A bookstore."

"Annabeth, what's going o-" Percy walked over and cut him off.

"Yeah, Jason." He said, grinning hugely like something was up (which, you know, something probably was up). "You two go to... Wherever it is that she's going... Then come back here in a few hours."

"What?" Jason asked. "Why are we-"

"Let's go." Annabeth interjected, grabbing his arm and dragging him out.

"Annabeth, not to be rude or anything," he said, once she'd dragged him out of the mess hall. "But you and I... We aren't really friends or anything. What's going on?"

"Oh, I'm..." Annabeth's eyes darted around. "Well, I was wanting to go to a bookstore, but nobody else wanted to go. Plus, you're pretty strong, you can carry all of my books for me."

"You didn't bring any money." Jason pointed out. "I mean, you probably have drachmas, but you can't use golden drachmas at Barnes and Noble."

"You're right." She said. "Let's run back to the Athena cabin so I can grab some money."

"Ooh, a history of Greek Architecture, that's interesting." Annabeth said, pulling a book off of the shelf as she browsed. Jason had to suppress a yawn; as fascinating as Greek history and whatnot was, he had absolutely no interest in architecture. He wasn't about to say that in front of Annabeth, though. The girl might whip out her dagger, or judo flip him, or find some new creative way to hurt him or something. "Did you find anything interesting?"

"Uh, not really." Jason answered. Truthfully, he just did not want to engage in a conversation with Annabeth about a book, because that was known to last hours upon hours.

"You know what, I don't need any new books today." She decided, setting the ones she was holding back onto the shelf. "Do you want to go to Starbucks? It's right there."

Jason agreed, and the two demigods began walking over. When they entered, Annabeth pointed out one of the customers sitting by the window.

"I don't think that's a mortal..." She muttered, puzzled.

"Demigod?" Jason asked.

"No, I think it's some sort of monster." Annabeth whispered. "Empousa, maybe. Although, she doesn't really look like one."

"No," he agreed. "It looks more like a-" the two glanced at each other.

"Venti." They said together.

"What do we do?" Jason asked in a hushed voice. "Do we kill it? Do we leave it?"

"If we try to kill it now we'll make a big scene..." Annabeth pondered. "But if we leave it, it'll-"

Just then, the venti leapt out of the chair and flew towards them, blowing over multiple tables and styrofoam cups of coffee in the process.

"It'll do that?" Jason guessed.

"Yeah, we should get rid of it." She told him.

He reached for his sword, then realized that they were in a Starbucks.

"Crap." Jason muttered. "Crap crap crap."

"What?"

"My sword is in my cabin." He whispered. "What do we do? Do you have your dagger?"

Annabeth looked shocked. "Of course not! Why would you expect me to bring a dagger to Starbucks?"

"Why would you expect me to have a sword?" Jason took a deep breath. "Okay, we're going to have to find something to-"

"Zap it with lightning or something, stupid." Annabeth muttered through gritted teeth.

"I can't, it has more control over lightning than I do."

"Just do it!"

Jason used all of his willpower to summon a bolt of lightning, which did help weaken the venti enough. The bad news was that it also weakened him, too; Jason staggered backwards and leaned against the wall, exhausted.

It was Annabeth who saved the day. She grabbed a fork off of a random table and stabbed the monster with it. Surprisingly, it disintegrated. She looked over at Jason in surprise.

"I did not think that was actually going to work." She noted. "Hey, are you okay?"

Jason waved a hand, indicating that he was fine, even though he was still struggling to regain the ability to breathe and everything was aching.

Annabeth looked down at her watch.

"Okay, it's been a few hours, are you ready to head back to camp?"

"Yeah." Jason used the wall to support himself as he stood up shakily. "Um, do you, by any chance, have some ambrosia? Or nectar maybe?"

Even after a square of ambrosia, Jason still felt tired and shaky. He figured that it was just an after effect of having over exerted himself earlier, trying to summon the lightning, and it was nothing to worry about. Even so, he felt like he was going to drop any second now, and probably would've of Annabeth hadn't been supporting him as they walked. Jason opened the door to cabin one, and was met with burst of confetti to the face.

"What?" He muttered, brushing the confetti off of his face.

"SURPRISE!" A chorus of voices yelled.

"Happy birthday." Piper came up behind him and kissed him gently. "Wow, you look exhausted. What happened?"

"Long story." Jason answered, smiling wearily. Then he looked over at Annabeth. "So this is why you literally dragged me out of the mess hall this morning?"

"Yup." Annabeth chuckled, before running over to Percy.

"Seriously, you look really tired." Piper frowned. "What happened?"

"Long story short, there was a venti at Starbucks." Jason yawned. "I kind of overworked myself..."

"A venti at Starbucks." Piper laughed. "Funny. Remember when Leo said that it sounded like an evil espresso drink?" Jason laughed.

"Also, did we surprise you?" She asked.

"to be honest, you were all painstakingly obvious."

"yeah, shut up."

"This is like, the biggest party I've ever seen." He said, looking around. "I don't even know half of these people."

"You should see my dad's premiere parties, Sparky." Piper smiled, lacing her fingers with his. "Now, are you ready for some cake?"

Reviews are greatly appreciated. :)

also leave requests for stories and I'll get to them.