A/N: Wheee, new chapter already! Break from all the unhappy shit for a while.

Song: 'Last Night' – Good Charlotte.

A few weeks after the Juno incident, Smithy came up with an idea to brighten the legion up. He had all of the centurions help him out with his idea. So, Jason forced himself up and out of his bed before sunrise so that he could meet Smithy, Fiona and the others in the principia. Harrison crept out with him.

"Too tired," Harrison yawned.

"But not too tired for jellybeans," Jason said, spotting the packet poking out of Harrison's jean pockets.

"Healthy, nutritious breakfast," Harrison grinned, popping the jellybean packet open. Jason held out his hand and Harrison emptied out half the packet into his palm. They crossed the empty camp, eating jellybeans as they went.

The mess hall was empty save for Fiona, Reyna and Calvin. Fiona was half-asleep and pushing her pancakes around her plate distastefully. Reyna and Calvin were talking to each other in undertones. Reyna glanced up and waved at Jason when he entered; Fiona managed a small smile and Calving ignored him completely.

Harrison and Jason sat down at their usual seats at the back of the hall. An aurae blasted through the doors of the kitchen and deposited a plate of waffles in front of Jason and a bowl of cornflakes before Harrison, along with two glasses of orange juice and a tall stack of toast. The duo wolfed their breakfast as the other centurions filed in one-by-one.

Smithy was the last to arrive. He strode across the hall, planted a kiss on Fiona's cheek and waved his hand to the centurions, indicating they should gather around.

"Camp morale has been down lately," Smithy said, sitting on top of the table crisscross applesauce. "Wit' the war an' Mount Othrys an' Heidi…"

Everyone glanced down.

"We need ta boost morale. My idea is a series o' events. Things like dances an' music an' games."

"That's not a bad idea," Jessie, the legacy of Nerio from Fourth, said, crossing her muscled arms over her chest. "A morale boost is what everyone needs, including us."

"So, what's the plan?" Calvin asked.

"We have more than enough money ta buy the things we need," Smithy said. "Stereos, CDs, DVDs, TVs."

"Are we going now?" Jason asked.

"Yes," Fiona nodded. She dug into the pocket of her combat trousers and pulled out three sets of keys. "We have three vans. We'll go in groups of four. We're only going into the city, and try not to go too far. We'll rendezvous at the edge of the valley at 10 o' clock, at the latest."

"So," Smithy said, clapping his hands together, "Who knows how to drive?"

Jason ended up in a van with Smithy, Reyna and Rebecca, a daughter of Ceres from the Second. Smithy sat behind the wheel with Jason riding shotgun and the girls in the back. Smithy turned on the radio as they set off and tuned into one of the worst stations ever. Some kind of country folk music started playing and Jason smacked his head into the dashboard.

"Why?" he asked as Smithy sang along.

"You love it," Smithy grinned.

"I hate you."

"Love you too, Sparky."

"What shop are we going to?" Reyna asked, leaning between the two seats.

"Electronics store first," Smithy said.

"Quick question: how is all this stuff going to work in a camp where there are no electrical outlets?" Rebecca asked, eyebrows raised.

"The Vulcan kids 'ave come up wit' a way ta power any electronic devices," Smithy said. "Ron showed me. It's a little disc o' some sort. They put 'em in the device an' it runs the device for years without fail."

"If all else fails, we can just hook Jason up to them by his ears," Reyna said, earning herself laughs from Smithy and Rebecca and a glare from Jason.

They drove the rest of the journey to the electronics store in silence. The other two vans had pulled away a while back, heading off down two separate roads to get CDs and DVDs and whatever else they saw appropriate.

The electronics store was practically empty when they entered, shivering from the cold and brushing stray flakes of snow from their hair. Two customers stood at the back, arguing whether or not to get a 40 inch or 50 inch plasma TV. The clerk sat behind the till, chewing on her gum and flicking through what looked like a male porno magazine.

"What's the best thing to get?" Rebecca asked, running her hand along a sleek, silver DVD player.

"A projector, a screen and a competent DVD player," Jason said. "That's the best thing to get."

"We'll need a relatively big one," Smithy said, leading them over to the projection screens. "A hundred inches should be good, righ'?"

"Yeah, should be."

"Okay then." Smithy lifted up the square-shaped tube holding the projection screen and hefted it onto his shoulder. Jason picked out a small, silver projector that came with a stand while Reyna and Rebecca chose the DVD player. They piled their items onto the counter, and the price of all three came to $200.

"Good thing I'm loaded," Smithy grinned at Jason, pulling out a battered old wallet.

But Jason's eyes were fixated on the TV screen on the wall behind the counter. The channel displayed was CNN, and the blonde reporter was halfway through a report on illegal hunters in Louisiana. Three blurred pictures were displayed on screen: a big girl with brown hair and a large nose; a thin girl with large lips and a scar across her left eyebrow and a girl with a freckled face and blue dip-dyed hair.

"Last seen outside New Orleans," the reporter was saying. "The three girls – unnamed so far – are wanted for illegal hunting. It is believed they are part of a larger group and have hunting animals. All three girls are armed and are believed to be wearing silver camouflage clothes."

Jason stared at the freckled girl. He'd seen her before. He was sure of it. He just couldn't remember where…

The memory came at him so fast he almost stumbled. The girl, smiling down at him and singing a lullaby in Greek. She protected him from a drunken woman wielding a smashed bottle. She comforted him when he received his scar after trying to eat a stapler.

The girl on the TV was his sister. It was Thalia.

"You okay, Sparky?" Smithy asked with a frown. "You've gone pale."

"I-I'm fine."

Out in the parking lot, they loaded their items into the back of the van and clambered back in. Jason turned the heating up as high as it would go. Outside the van, the wind picked up and the snowfall thickened. Smithy turned the windscreen wipers on.

"I hope Fiona picks out some good films," Reyna sighed, staring out of the back windows at the snow.

"I heard her mention Harry Potter and the Goonies and a few Disney films," Rebecca said. "Oh, Calvin said he was getting Spice Girls to take the piss."

"I'll murder him," Smithy muttered.

"You can't say much, Captain Dolly Parsons," Jason mumbled as said singer warbled out '9 till 5' on the radio.

"Don' be dissin' Miss Parsons, Sparky."

"Dude, seriously?"

"Her music is in righ' now!"

"Yeah, for grannies."

"You can' say much Mister Jesse McCartney."

"Dude, Jesse McCartney is manlier than Dolly Parsons."

"Guys, you are seriously having this conversation?" Reyna asked.

"Yes, it's a very serious matter!"

"Celine Dion is better than Jesse McCartney and Dolly Parsons," Rebecca chirped.

"No, no, no!" Smithy and Jason chanted as one. Soon, the three of them were shouting different reasons as to why their favourite singers were the best while Reyna buried her head in her hands.

Back at camp, they found they were the first group to come back from their little shopping spree. They waited for ten minutes while the other two groups showed up. Smithy, Fiona and Calvin drove the vans back to the garage at the edge of New Rome while Jason and the others carried their items to the mess hall, which was mercifully empty. Smithy came back with Ron and two other Vulcan kids in tow.

Setting up the projector and the screen didn't take long. A sign was put on the door to the mess hall to say that all activities were cancelled and that no one could enter the hall until after the mustering that night. There was a bit of whinging when people found out there would be no war games, but everyone was anxious to find out why the centurions and praetors were being secretive and why no one was allowed inside the mess hall.

Fiona had indeed picked up the first five Harry Potter films. Jason had read the books in Latin while growing up. Most of the kids at camp had. A lot of them were hard-core Harry Potter fans that had posters above their beds and kept battered yet precious copies of the books. Even though Fiona had bought The Lion King, Mulan, The Goonies and The Lord of the Flies, Jason knew Harry Potter would win the vote.

The stereos were installed around camp, one in every dorm room. Of course, all the Romans were excited about that. Wherever Jason went, he could hear all kinds of music, ranging from punk to pop to R&B. His own dorm playing Michael Jackson all day long. When he walked in at lunchtime, he found Ethan, Bobby and Jackson having a dance-off to Thriller, which ended when Ethan slipped on one of Yvonne's sandals and crashed in Bobby, who happened to be standing right near the door. The two of them tumbled out of the door and down the stairs outside. They spent the rest of the day until the mustering in the infirmary.

At the mustering, Jason noticed how small the Romans' numbers were getting. A few weeks before, their numbers had been 200 strong. Now, they were only 120, at the most. Jason noticed how many of his friends were missing, Paloma included. It made him upset to know that they hated their life at camp so much they joined the people who wanted to destroy the world.

"Your turn to do the register," Harrison said, handing Jason the scroll of parchment with the names of all 35 remaining members of the cohort. Only five of their number had left; the least amount of all cohorts. The Third was missing half of their members, and the Fourth only had ten members left, including their centurions.

Jason went down the list, receiving calls of "Present!" as he read out the names. Every time someone didn't answer, he resisted the urge to sigh and just carried on. He'd just reached Yvonne's name when the inevitable happened: his voice broke.

One second, his voice was perfectly fine. The next, it was a high pitched squeak that made everyone in the legion laugh and made Jason want to crawl into a hole and die. There were only five names left on the parchment, but he shoved it at Harrison and made him read them out. His face was burning badly. He could see Octavian pointing and whispering something to Calvin, who sniggered.

His embarrassment followed him all the way to the mess hall. Ethan pushed through the crowds and slung an arm around Jason's shoulders, pulling Jason's head down into a headlock and giving him a noogie.

"I called it," he cackled. "I freaking called it! Remember?"

Jason managed a small smile. Of course he remembered. His seventh birthday – the day he received Ivlivs – was the day that Ethan had gleefully said that, one day, his voice would break and it would be extremely embarrassing for him. Ethan hadn't been wrong.

"You're gonna be screwed these next few days, you know?" Ethan said, letting Jason out of the headlock. " I've never seen Octavian and Calvin so happy. Gits."

"Forget 'em," Jason said, looking over his shoulder at Octavian, who sneered.

"Still not over him putting graffiti on my mom's temple," Ethan grumbled as Harrison fell into step alongside the duo. "He's an asshole who deserves to get kicked out of the camp for what he did. I'm surprised Fiona and Smithy didn't."

"We're low on numbers," Harrison said, pulling off his helmet and running a hand through his brown hair. "And we need an augur. We can't go charging into a war low on numbers and without an augur."

"I don't give one," Ethan muttered, glaring at Octavian over his shoulder. "I'd rather he was gone. But…" He sighed through his nose. "I guess I can wait until after the war. Then, I'm knocking ten shades of shit outta him and no one can say a gods damn word about it."

"I'll vouch for you," Jason said.

The mood was lightened when they entered the mess hall and found the projector and DVD player set up. After a quick vote, Jason found that his earlier assumption was correct: the legion decided they wanted to watch the third Harry Potter film. Aurae blasted through the hall and deposited food onto the tables as people took their seats. Jason sat with his friends at the back, as usual, but Reyna ran over and slid down in the couch next to him, holding a large glass bowl of jellybeans.

"These are your favourite, aren't they?" she asked with a smile, offering him the bowl.

"Yeah, thanks," he grinned, scooping out a handful.

"They're my favourite too," Reyna smiled, popping a yellow jellybean into her mouth. "So… Your voice broke, huh?"

Jason groaned. "Don't make fun of me, please."

"I won't, I won't." She sifted through the jellybeans until she found another yellow one. "It was funny in the moment."

"Octavian isn't thinking along the same lines as you." Jason glared at the back of the augur's head.

"He's an idiot and a bully." Reyna glared at him as well, before sighing and eating another yellow jellybean. "I don't even think he has the 'sight' he claims to have, because he's a pretty crappy augur."

"Have you got a thing for yellow jellybeans?" Jason blurted out as Reyna ate a fourth.

She shrugged. "Yeah, I kinda do. Lemon is my favourite flavour, and yellow is my favourite colour. What's your favourite?"

"Flavour or colour?"

"Both."

He thought for a moment. "Purple for colour… and Tutti-Frutti ones for flavour."

"I knew it'd be purple."

"What?"

"Jason Grace, the loyal legionnaire and the star of the camp. You've been here your whole life and worn a purple shirt pretty much every day. You've been surrounded by purple flags and togas. Of course it'd be purple."

Jason shifted. "Why is yours yellow?"

Reyna thought for a moment. She popped two jellybeans – one yellow, one white – into her mouth before she answered. "Because it's the colour of the sun. And I love the sun and summer and heat. Reminds me of home, of the island…"

"What island?"

Reyna froze, before she glared down at the bowl. "None of your business."

"But-"

"None of your business, Sparky."

They fell into silence and focused on the movie, which had only just begun. They watched in silence until the part where Harry blew up his aunt, when everyone started to laugh, Jason and Reyna included. They were laughing too much they didn't notice Octavian sneak up and stand right behind their couch until he leaned down and said, in a high-pitched voice, "Having fun, are we?"

Reyna glared at the augur. "Get lost, scarecrow."

Octavian tutted and placed his hands on his hips. "That's no way to talk to the augur of New Rome."

"So-called," Reyna muttered.

"Repeat that? I couldn't quite hear you."

"I said 'so-called', since you're the worst augur this camp has ever seen."

Octavian went from white to red to purple in a matter of seconds. "I'd watch your tone, Reyna. I know who you are. And about the island you were living on before you arrived here."

Reyna's face drained of colour.

"That's enough," Jason growled at Octavian.

"And I know about the ghost you saw in Charleston, as well," Octavian carried on. Reyna was going green. "I know everything. And I can expose the fact that you worked on Cir-"

"Stop!" Reyna said before she shoved the bowl of jellybeans at Jason, jumped up and ran from the hall. Jason watched her go, before he turned his glare on Octavian.

"You're a dick," he said, before he stood and walked after Reyna.

For some strange reason, he took the bowl of jellybeans with him. He had a feeling he'd need them.

A/N: Rate, review, favourite, do your thing!