JASON

Jason leant casually back on his chair, pretending to listen to Octavian drone on and on. He would look up and nod his head occasionally. Anyone watching would be fooled to think that Octavian's speech was the most fascinating thing you could ever listen to.

In actual fact, Jason's mind was a million miles away. From arriving at the camp, to arguing with Thalia, to talking to Piper and preparing for war games tonight, it had been one heck of a day.

He was never really sure what to think about Thalia. They had never been much of a family. When he was born he lived with Thalia and his alcoholic mother. When Thalia was 9, she ran away (with some Luke guy who came knocking at the door) leaving a 7-year-old Jason behind. He resented the fact she didn't stay not only for his mother but for him as well. Weren't they supposed to be a family?

Looking back, Jason knew that Thalia leaving was the best thing for her. Their mother died in a car crash when Jason was 10. He had been visiting Camp Jupiter since he was 7 so when his mother died, he joined the camp to live there permanently.

Being only 10 when he joined put him at a big disadvantage, for Camp Jupiter only accepted campers aged 13 and up. Demigods younger than that could visit but not stay. Jason assumed they had let him stay when he was 10 because of his father Jupiter. He was the only known camper with Jupiter for his dad and as he joined younger, he was more experienced then most of the campers at Camp Jupiter now.

His thoughts turned towards Piper, the beautiful girl he had seen before. Her beauty wasn't dressed up and she didn't have to try and look pretty. She was natural which was the thing Jason liked most about her.

For a child of Venus (A/N: Jason's thinks of the Roman gods names, not the Greek) she fought well, unlike many of her siblings. He saw her fight, whilst Reyna had taken over shouting instructions to the Camp Jupiter fighters in the boxing ring. There were at least 200 campers to instruct so Jason didn't feel too guilty for taking a break.

She was fighting an Earthborn hologram, spinning round and fiercely twirling her dagger. She was shouting instructions to the hologram so that it was getting confused so she could dodge past. Charmspeak, that's what she could do. As she wasn't facing a real monster, the hologram started to flicker so she quickly stabs it where its knee would be and dives past to the other side of the ring. Jason was impressed. She had been faster then most of the kids from Camp Jupiter.

He met her after his conversation with Thalia before. He had walked off furious when he had accidently bumped into her.

'Watch where you're going!" snapped a voice. Jason looked up and saw he had bumped into a girl with choppy brown hair. She was sprawled out on the floor, her dagger flung from her grasp.

Jason hastily retrieved the dagger and offered her his hand to help her get up. She shook her head and stood up, shaking her head in annoyance.

"I'm sorry," Jason apologized. "Here's your dagger."

She smiled and gratefully took her dagger. "I'm sorry too, I wasn't thinking about where I was looking either." She looked up and Jason looked at her in surprise. She was the beautiful girl he had seen in the hall before!

"I'm Jason." He offered her a smile.

She grinned back, making his heart leap. "Piper."

"You were the girl fighting the Earthborn hologram before!" Jason exclaimed before he could stop himself.

But Piper just nodded. "Yep, but its nothing against the real thing is it? I can't believe some of my siblings just stood there and screamed!"

"Is your mum Venus?" asked Jason curiously. "Sorry, but you sure don't act like a Venus kid."

Piper nodded her head again. "Actually Aphrodite's my mum but I just can't stand make-up and stuff."

Jason laughed, "You mean you don't care if you're shoes match with your outfit or something?"

"Pretty much. My siblings don't understand how I'm related to them either." Piper joked, casually tossing the dagger from her hands.

"Want to see something neat?" Jason asked.

Piper shrugged, "Sure. What is it?"

Jason took the dagger off her and tossed it high in the air.

"What are you doing!" Piper yelled at him. "You can't just throw it away!"

Jason caught the dagger and twirled it around in his fingers. 'All part of the special effect, hey I caught it left-handed as well!"

Piper rolled her eyes and Jason couldn't help but notice how cute that was. She shook her head but she was smiling as she did so.

'What camp are you from anyway?" she asked.

'Camp Jupiter,' Jason answered absentmindedly, "What about you?"

"Camp Half Blood,'

Jason looked up. "Does a guy named Leo go there?"

"Leo? Yeah he does – he's my best mate there." Piper said. "How come you know Leo?"

"I met him before," Jason said. "Something about an IRIS message, a table named Budford and he needed his tool belt which had his hammer in it. Something like that anyways."

"Sounds like Leo. He wanted to check on his dragon or something I reckon."

"The guy has a dragon?" Jason asked in surprise.

"You could say that. Well, it's made of metal but it flies and Leo has some weird speaking ability towards it."

Jason shook his head. "So unfair. I want a dragon!"

Piper smirked. "If that's what you want to ask for your birthday present." She joked.

Jason looked down at his battered converse. "Yeah, whatever." He looked up smiling. "The biggest animal our camp has is an elephant."

Piper tried to suppress a laugh. "Because what camp wouldn't be complete without an elephant?"

In the distance, they could then hear the faint voices shrieking. Jason tried to make sense of the shrieks. War? Competition? Tonight?

Piper broke the silence. "So war games tonight then Sparky?"

"Obviously my camp will win- wait Sparky? What's that?" Jason asked confused.

Piper began walking away. "We'll see about you're camp beating my camp!"

"What's Sparky?" Jason called after her retreating figure.

She turned around, with a grin on her face. "You'll find out." And with that she jogged off towards the blonde girl, whom Jason had seen talking to Reyna before.

Jason walked thoughtfully towards Reyna, who was arguing with Octavian.

He and Reyna had decided to let Octavian have his little meeting of him rant about the other camps. Which was why Jason was swinging on his chair, thinking about Piper. He didn't even know her last name! I need to find it out, he decided.

"… right Jason?" finished Octavian. Jason glanced around to see everyone from Camp Jupiter looking at him.

"Oh yeah, right" answered Jason, having no idea what he was agreeing too.

Octavian gave that sneaky, sly smile that Jason over the years hated so much. "We will show those camps how a proper game is played! We are Senātus Populusque Rōmānus!"

"Senātus Populusque Rōmānus!" cheered Camp Jupiter and Jason joined in half-heartedly.

His may have been remembering speaking to Piper but now he was planning tactics. As leader of this camp and a child of Jupiter, he was going to make sure Camp Jupiter will win these war games. Losing was not an option to a group of Romans.

A/N: I wasn't really sure where to go with this chapter! Tell me what you think!

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