Jason couldn't stop his hands from shaking as they made their way back upstairs. Well, he supposed they were Percy's hands, really but he didn't want to think too hard about that. Percy was weirdly skinny for someone who ate so much and Jason tried to get his hair to lie flat but it resisted with a valiant effort.
"Do you even own a hairbrush?" he grumbled as Percy's black locks tumbled into his eyes. Again.
He saw his own shoulders – now in Percy's control – shrug. He took that as a no.
Daylight broke through the open doorway at the top of the steps and Jason could hear Piper laughing at something Hazel must have just said. Piper. How on earth was he going to explain this to her? He didn't even want to think about how she would react. A pat of him wanted to use Percy's power over the ocean to summon a wave large enough to carry him away. Or maybe a huge dolphin; that would be pretty cool. He had no idea what he could even do in this body and it scared him a little.
The second deck of the huge was where most of the rooms were located. They passed the door to the training room. Piper was leaning against it, holding her sword with a new kind of confidence that she' developed after training with Hazel almost every day. She stood up a little taller and held her shoulders back like she was finally done hiding in the background. She looked beautiful even though her braid had come loose during the training, and the shorter strands of her dark brown hair had slipped out of the plait. Their relationship had been rocky and it had been hard to really see each other when there was so much more left to do, but Jason had no doubt that there was no one else in the world he would rather be with when things got tough. He was so focused on the vibrant green of her eyes in that moment that it actually took him a beat to realise they weren't actually fixed on him.
She was looking at Percy with a smile so bright that he almost felt jealous. But Jason was nothing if not rational and he shook his head clear of the thoughts. Piper didn't know what was going on – and neither did Hazel, for that matter.
"Hey," Piper grinned, taking a step towards Percy. She frowned when he took a little step back so her hand, which would have come to rest on his arm – the one marked with Jason's SPQR tattoo – hung awkwardly in the air.
"Um, Piper –" Percy began but Annabeth cut him off by placing a hand on his shoulder. Jason's shoulder. Jason realised how weird that must look to Piper and his worst fears were confirmed when he looked at how quickly her eyes began to lose their green, turning a duller brown.
"Is everything okay?" she asked slowly. Next to her, Hazel shifted uncomfortably.
"It's probably better to explain it to everyone at once," Annabeth replied wearily. "Meeting in the Mess Hall. Now."
Nobody was foolish enough to wait for Annabeth to ask twice. As lovely as she was, she could be scary sometimes and no one wanted to get on her bad side. A puzzled Hazel volunteered to go get Frank and Leo and Piper, looking a little wounded, followed behind Annabeth and Percy. Jason wanted to say something to her but he didn't know what good it would do right now. She would find out soon enough.
Within minutes, the seven demigods were all settled into the mess hall. Images of Camp Half-Blood were displayed on the walls and, for once, Jason didn't find himself getting distracted by them. The first thing Percy did was head over to the snack cart and pick up a packet of sour gummy sweets. Jason shuddered; he hated sour candy. What was the point of having candy if you were going to make it sour? It made no sense.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Piper narrow her eyes and he felt a twinge of happiness that she'd even noticed something so small as the fact that Jason would never pick up sour candy. He pressed his lips together to hide a smile and realised that he was, in fact, pursing Percy's lips and that thought was so weird that he immediately stopped doing it.
"What's the big emergency?" Leo asked, plopping into the low, red armchair that was his favourite. "Did Jason forget that there is actually decent candy on this ship?"
"Hey," Percy said with a slow, easy smile that would have looked right at home on his own face but looked downright creepy on Jason's, "There is no such thing as indecent candy, ok?"
"Percy," Annabeth sighed, "Can you, like, try to be a bit more…not you right now? Please?"
Percy stuffed a green candy shaped like a lime in his mouth in response which was definitely a thing only he would do. Realising his mistake, he took maybe half a second to breathe before putting the next sweet in his mouth. At least he tried, Jason thought.
"Whoa, this is seriously weird," Frank said, his eyes bulging at seeing Jason's body slouching low in his seat. Usually, Jason sat up straight like a soldier even when no one was looking. "Are you okay, Jason?"
"That's what we actually wanted to talk to you about," Annabeth said. She sounded tired. "Something crazy and impossible just happened."
"Crazy?" Leo gasped, pressing a hand against his chest in mock surprise. "Impossible? Happening to us? Unheard of! Sound the alarms!"
"Leo!" Hazel chastised and Leo sat back in his seat again.
Annabeth gave him a sharp look and continued talking. "Well, while you guys were enjoying your break or training or whatever, Jason was alone and I – uh – was with Percy in the stables. We were just…going about own business when the weirdest thing happened."
"What?" Piper asked. She was leaning forward in her chair. She was addressing Annabeth but her eyes were fixed on Percy – or, as she believed, Jason. "What happened to Jason?"
"Nothing happened to just Jason," Percy replied, rolling his eyes.
"We switched bodies," Jason blurted out. He realised that he had been totally silent, lost in his own thoughts, since coming back up from the stables.
"You what?" Piper demanded, looking at him in disbelief. She looked like she was waiting for him to say 'Psyche!' and admit he was just joking. Considering that he looked like Percy right then, he didn't really blame her.
"It wasn't intentional," Jason said carefully. Percy's New York accent felt weird in his mouth. "I was polishing my sword in my room, alone. One minute I was on my bed and then – bam! Out of nowhere, I'm down in the stables with Annabeth. In Percy's body."
"No need to sound so disgusted," Percy mumbled. Jason saw Annabeth try to suppress a smirk. "And it's not like being in your body is such a breeze. When was the last time you ate?"
"Breakfast!" Jason replies, exasperated, "I mean, I have a stomach, you know. Not a bottomless pit where one should be."
"Boys!" Annabeth stepped in again. "Focus, please?"
"So, wait, wait," Frank interjected, shaking his head slowly, "What you're saying is Percy and Jason just switched bodies? For no reason?"
Leo laughed, "This is brilliant! It's like Freaky Friday without the fortune cookies."
"Brilliant?" Piper echoed, sounding a little panicked. "We have to fix this!"
She looked at Jason for the first time since they had come up. For some reason, this made him happy. Percy Jackson was such a hero that people usually found it impossible to keep their eyes off him. Jason felt a little better to know Piper's eyes found him first. He smiled at her reassuringly but he knew she would only be able to see Percy's face.
"The problem is we don't know how," Annabeth explained. "I mean, we wouldn't be here talking about it if we were. Trust me, Piper, I want all this to go away as much as you." She shot Jason a quick glance and he felt a little bad for her; it seemed like her boyfriend was always being taken away from her just when she got him back.
"So what's your plan?" Hazel asked. She had been pretty quiet but it was clear from her surprised expression that she'd been listening and also thought Percy and Jason were telling the truth.
"Well, there's no need for us all to do something," Annabeth said, sitting up straight in her in her chair. Her tone was practical, strategic. She was on familiar territory, finally. "Leo, you're probably best manning the ship. There must be some sort of god or monster behind this and if we're attacked, you know the defence system better than anyone else. Frank, we could use a second pair of eye up on deck for the same reason. You're the most equipped of all of us to adapt to fight off any monster. And Hazel, we'll need someone to stand guard outside the library door."
"The library?" Leo interrupted, "I forgot we even had one of those. And I built this ship!"
Annabeth glared at Leo so murderously that he actually shrank back in his seat. "Piper, Jason, Percy and I are best doing the research. Anyway, the library is our best bet to find out about who could have done something like this. And if we find out who could be behind it, we can find out how to take them down, too, hopefully."
"If anyone can find out the right information, you can, Wise Girl," Percy said encouragingly, laying a hand on Annabeth's arm. He withdrew it quickly when he realised that it was really Jason's hand and both Annabeth and Piper was looking at him really weirdly.
"Let's not waste any time," Piper said, standing up. Jason saw she was trying really hard not to look at him. He wanted to hold her hand and tell her it would be alright but since he wasn't exactly in his own body, it would probably only make things worse. "We should get started right away."
"You're right," Annabeth replied, following Piper and standing up. "To the library."