"Did they buy your story?" He question slowly and clearly through his phone.
"Yes, boss." Rachel answered. "They did."
"Well done. Linger around there and feed me any more information you found out." The Boss said curtly.
"I will."
"Good bye." and the boss hung up.
"Silena Beaugard and Beckendorf." Piper grinned. "That's relatively simple."
"Why?" Jason asked.
"Beckendorf's death is one simple one." Piper continued, smiling for some reason. "It's so cute! I mean, his girlfriend is about to get killed and he jumps in to rescue her -sacrificing his own life."
"Right. Yeah? Tell me more." Jason urged her. It was the first time he heard the story and it's lovely hearing Piper's voice after she has been spending so much time with Cat.
"So basically after the Shooting, me and Lacy were talking." It took Jason a while to process who this 'Lacy' was but he quickly remembered that Piper mentioned a certain 'Lacy' who went to a college in Milan to be a fashion designer and decided not to ask. "Isn't it romantic having a boyfriend who love you so much he'd kill himself to save you?"
"Yeah." Jason muttered. "Very romantic." He couldn't help but think that the line was directed to him. It's not really a secret anymore that he has a small crush on Piper. The use of the word 'boyfriend' seems like even Piper thinks it's time for him to ask her out.
"I know right? Like in Titanic movie, Jack died so Rose can go to New York and well, be alive. And that's exactly what Beckendorf did! He died from love!"
"Died from love?" Jason laughed. "Woah, hold your horses." He never really believed in love himself. He never saw much power in love and honestly, how can somebody die from love? Plus, Jason thought Jack died because Rose couldn't shift her butt over offering some space to her so called lover. Or, she was really selfish and they couldn't take turns being in the freezing water. Some lover she was.
"Jason, my mom used to tell me that love and war always go together. They are the peak of human emotion! Evil and good, beauty and ugliness." (AN: I actually love Aphrodite in the story and this is one of my favorite quotes from her) Piper sighed. "She's right! The Shooting is like war, but a one-sided war. A surprise attack and there goes Beckendorf and Silena, the it couple at that time. They were so cute together, perfect, a match made in heaven. When Beckendorf saw the bullets going for the girl he loved so much, the only thing he could do was stop her from getting killed. If you remember the circumstances at that time, things were pretty rough. Beckendorf is a simple man, I know him. He's not Annabeth, he doesn't think of a complicated way to get him and Silena out of trouble. Time was short so he did the only thing he could do. He jumped in front of Silena and save her life."
"Uh," Jason piped up awkwardly in the middle of Piper's long speech. He supposed it was a romantic one but again, he's not that type of person. "You do realize Silena dies-"
"Sh…" Piper waved her hands to silence him. "You're ruining the moment here."
"Oh okay."
There was a moment of silence in between us and Jason guessed that Piper was close to Beckendorf and Silena so he decided to let the moment slide. If his best friends died from something as tragic as the Shooting and if he could remember it, he'll definitely want a few minutes to himself to have a mini tribute to them in his mind.
"So anyway," Piper finally glanced at him. "Where were we again?"
"Um..I was reminding you that Silena also-"
"Now that is where their romance met it's twisted, tragic fate!" Piper announced loudly covering Jason's voice. "All of the greatest romances eventually do, but that's what makes them flawless! Have you read the story about the Trojan War? Probably more than 2000 years ago? It used to be my favorite bedtime story and my mom loved telling me it before I sleep. My mom is a huge fan of these stories and I have to say, I kind of am as well. So long story short, this prince of Troy named Paris and this woman Helen was in love. The problem was Helen is already married, against her will to the king of Sparta, King Menelaus."
Piper froze. "Okay, that sounds wrong. Since my dad was in that king of Sparta movie and stuff but trust me, it's uh another king."
"Yeah?" Jason prompted her. He thought the story sounded familiar, maybe Piper told him before but he liked how Piper is telling it.
"Besides, Helen is the most beautiful woman in the world. King Menelaus won't lose her for anything. So, Paris smuggled Helen back to Troy. Of course his dad got mad at everything but once he saw the beauty of Helen, he decided to let her stay. She was gorgeous, stunning, such a prized possession." Piper continued. "When King Menelaus realized that his beloved wife was gone, he rounded up all the kings in Greece to fight Troy. I mean, there's another story behind this which explained why the kings decided all to help him fight Troy but it's too long. Let's just pretend they were nice people, that story's not even important enough because I can illustrate my point without it."
"Okay." Jason looked uncertainly.
"Troy was a hard place to fight. They had these great walls built around the city, rumored to be built by only the gods. After 10 years of war, Greece and Troy were still fighting. One day Greece might be winning but the other, Troy would be. Both sides had lost plenty of their best warriors. Then of course, the classic story of where Odysseus placed the wooden horse outside of Troy's gates actually filled with greek soldiers inside comes in and the Trojans bought it into the city thinking it'll stop the greeks from returning to Greece. Troy was destroyed during the night and Helen went back to Sparta after Paris is killed." (AN: I know some people might say Helen was forced to go with Paris but I don't think that would be what Aphrodite would tell her daughters.) Piper paused. "Paris risked the war and everything just for their love."
Jason frowned. What kind of a bedtime story is this? The ending isn't particularly happy if you're not a fan of the greeks which he is pretty sure Piper isn't. However, this wasn't his only question. He had millions of them swarming in his mind. "Isn't there another guy, Achilles or something in the war?" Jason decided to ask.
Piper rolled her eyes. "Yeah! But he's really not that important. I mean, he is, okay? Without him, the war won't have been won but he kinda plays no parts in the love story so we tend to skip by him. The point of this story is love is tragic. Paris had to put everything in stakes for his love. Jack had to die because he loved Rose. History repeats itself. Beckendorf is the 21st century Paris, or Jack."
Isn't the Trojan War a myth and the whole Jack and Rose situation a movie that never really happened? Jason shrugged. Sometimes, Piper have to slow down so he could keep in pace with whatever's going on in her mind.
"You seem pretty lost there." Piper said, smiling at her friend. "Here's another example. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Another one of my favorite bedtime stories."
Jason winced. He knew this story, who doesn't? And something is seriously wrong with Aphrodite for even allowing these stories to be told by bedtime.
"You're probably really familiar with the story so I'm just going to skip to the main point. Romeo and Juliet practically died to be together. This is how much they love each other! It's the power of love! Love can make people do crazy things."
Okay, Jason was pretty sure Romeo and Juliet is fiction but decided not to say anything. Sure, he loved hearing Piper talk but he does not need any other examples of a love story. What is Piper going to pull in next? A medieval couple? Somebody from the Notebook or some other chick flick movies? "Got it! So ah, the power of love, wow." He found himself rambling but stopped. What is he talking about? The power of love? Bullshit, he never believed in it himself.
Jason never had much faith as other people. He isn't the type who could just believe in something without evidence. He needs hard-core facts to proof something. Love is something that doesn't provide these facts to believe it. It's abstract and he found it hard.
Piper looked at him and murmured softly. "Sorry, was that too much? I tend to get overboard about things like love."
"No, it's alright!" Jason had a feeling where he knew he couldn't let Piper be sad.
"If it's alright, can I ask you a question."
He had a bad feeling of this but at the same time, he wanted to please her. "Sure, shoot away."
"Do you believe in love?" Piper asked.
"No," Jason admitted truthfully. "I'm sorry, I know you do. I just…don't. I need to be in somebody like Beckendorf's footsteps and actually experience it first."
"I understand." Piper smiled sympathetically. "but I hope you'll know love one day. I have a feeling it's going to play a huge part in your life."
"It's 2013 bitches!" Leo yelled running around the mall.
"Yeah, it's been 2013 for like a week." A stranger walked past him and muttered.
"I don't know who that boy is." Hazel chanted, wincing at the attention Leo was attracting.
Frank nudged her. "Let's go."
"But we can't exactly..leave him." Hazel protested.
"True." Frank nodded grimly. "But I don't want to appear to know who he is either."
"Yo! Check out this hot stuff." Leo grinned at some girls who walked passed gesturing at himself. "Single and ready to go to the Valentines Day dance with one of you."
"Piss off." One of the girls laughed as the others looked at her as if saying 'seriously?' and walked away.
"Leo," Hazel hissed. "We're suppose to be finding information about Lee Fletcher and he works at the music store on the 2nd floor before he died. We are suppose to be going up to the store now to ask the boss casual questions. We don't do whatever you doing."
"Sorry, Haz." Leo shrugged. "It's the mall."
"Now that's the reason why we don't bring Leo to malls." Frank muttered. "I get why we never bring him to malls now."
"Okay guys!" Leo ran back to his friends as everybody stared at him. "I'm done embarrassing you guys!"
"Oh god why." Frank covered his face with his large hands and inched away.
"So let's head on with the task." Leo cheered.
"So do you want to look at Ethan or Luke first?" Percy asked eating another slice of pizza. "Personally I think we should go with Luke. He's probably easier since you have some uh..connections with him." He couldn't help the level of jealousy which rose when he mentioned Luke.
Percy remembered that time before the shooting, everybody had a crush on Luke, including Annabeth and he suspects she still has feeling for Luke. Luke was the hottest, most popular guy in school and of course, he was single. He was also pretty close to Annabeth which made many girls jealous but truthfully, Percy couldn't see how they could have been dating. Luke was a senior and they were only freshmen. There was a 3 year difference between them but he still didn't like how she flirted with him previously.
"Um..what connections?" Annabeth asked innocently.
Percy laughed trying not to sound bitter. "You, Luke, what connections? You guys are like best friend! Nobody is closer than you guys!"
"No." Annabeth murmured softly. "There was someone else closer."
"Who?" Percy asked. "I'm pretty sure-"
"Jason's older sister, Thalia Grace." Annabeth replied coldly.
"Dad?" Jason looked at his dad who is looking through some documents. "Did you know Silena Beaugard or Charles Beckendorf?"
Zeus Grace gave a hearty laugh. "Weren't they your friends before they died? You'd probably know them better than I do but yeah, I know them. I know their parents better if it helps."
"I'm just trying to get to know them better." Jason realized how awkward it sounded, asking his parent about his own friends. "You know, trying to get a better glimpse of what I don't remember."
"Well, you were always complaining about how they were such a couple and you are going to gag if argue who loves who better." Zeus chuckled. "When they came over for a party your sister hosted you guys were yelling at them to get a room."
"DAD! You were not suppose to be sneaking around during the party!" Thalia yelled as she came down the stairs.
"I'm sorry but it's interesting to see what you teens call a party now. I remember the good old days when I-"
"Shut up." Thalia grumbled. "Jason, if you want to know more about your old classmates you don't ask a parent. You're pathetic."
"Son, you wanted to know more about Silena didn't you?" Zeus had the familiar glint in his eye where he often does when he disapprove something. "Well she is a-"
"Dad, enough." Thalia interrupted. "He doesn't need to learn about Silena and Beckendorf off you."
"Can somebody just tell me what's going on?" Jason asked timidly. Honestly, he'd never get anything by how the amount of times they argue.
"If you want to know the truth about them, come with me." Thalia dragged her brother off to her room.
"Hey! I have the truth! Thalia, you tell lies!" Zeus protested but was ignored but his daughter as Jason was pulled inside her room helplessly.
"Dad thinks that Silena is a slut." Thalia's eyes gleamed dangerously as if she dared Jason to disagree.
"Okay." Jason nodded. "Why?"
"Because she was really pretty. Seriously, she could be in the same league as Megan Fox. A lot of guys like her."
"That's not the definition of a slut." Jason frowned. "That's being popular."
"Exactly!" Thalia agreed angrily. "And she was faithful to Beckendorf! They loved each other!"
"I can tell that." Jason smiled. "Piper told me the same thing."
Thalia glanced at her brother and a sly smile slowly crept onto her face. "Piper, ooh! Did you ask her out already? Did she give you that huge lecture about love Sil use to give us? I swear, it's like a thing they have."
"Uh, no? but yeah for the lecture. It's not exactly about love but we were talking about Silena and Beckendorf when she gave me all these examples to do with the Trojan War, Titanic and stuff which all led to love."
Thalia laughed. "The Trojan War. Classic. Why were you even talking about them?"
Jason felt like he shouldn't be telling her about finding the shooter as it should be Annabeth's job but she is really close to her and he couldn't stand Thalia's electric blue stare. "Annabeth. She told me and Piper to find more about the deaths of Silena and Beckendorf." He whispered. "We want to find the shooter."
Thalia frowned. "That girl has some explaining to do to her best friend."
AN: First chapter of 2013! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Ugh, school starts on January 7th but I'll try to update as soon as possible!
~Kisses, Emily