During the summers, when Piper's dad had a free day from his busy acting schedule, she used to watch Back to The Future with him a lot and if there is anything Piper knows about time travel, it's that you are not supposed to let your past know your identity, but looking at the current state of things, I guess the Fates are just letting that rule slide for now.
From the moment Hestia read the note inside one of the books that were given, everything just went downhill from there. The Fates did not only bring their future selves back to the past but brought in their past selves to meet their future selves. Everything was so confusing that Piper's head was starting to get a migraine just thinking about it.
"Everybody, quiet!" Piper's voice shook the entire room. Every single person, the Gods, future demigods, and past demigods, turned their heads to face her. She knew her charmspeak would come in handy and in this situation, they all definitely needed it.
Jason smiled at her thankfully, "Hi, you probably don't know me yet and you probably do not know what you are doing here." She charmspeaks the past demigods.
"So, I will cut to the chase. The eleven demigods standing beside me are from the future. The Fates sent us here to read, using the books you see with Lady Hestia now, about the Prophecy of the seven and their impending doom. I am sure some of you know about that. The Fates say this is to warn peope for what is to come. So, if everyone can please stop arguing and get this over with that will be great. Thanks." Piper didn't have time to catch her breath, but damn that felt so good to say. People looked at her shocked but grateful for the explanation. It's the least she could do, to be honest.
She looked over to her past self and wondered how innocent she was to everything. Heck, she doesn't even know if she knows she's a demigod. Piper wanted to go over to her and tell her to run as fast as she can out of here. But, she knows she can't do that.
After her whole speech, Percy broke the silence. "Uh, should we introduce ourselves again? Starting with the past ones?"
Everyone seemed to agree with the idea.
Past Annabeth went first. Then Percy, Thalia, Grover, the Stoll brothers, Clarrise, Drew, Will, Nico, and finally, Jake. The Romans followed suit, composed of Past Reyna, Frank, and Jason. And last but not the least, Past Piper and Leo.
Piper and her friends also introduced themselves for formalities.
"I guess the mess has settled. Shall we start with the reading? I can read the first chapter if you all don't mind." Hestia says with a smile on her face. Piper figured that despite this being a bad situation, Lady Hestia must be happy to have some sort of dysfunctional bonding time with family.
Everyone settled into one of the sofas and Piper chose to sit on the middle of the sofa that Jason and Leo shared. She clutched Jason's hand and smiled at him
Hestia flipped the page and began, for real.
The Lost Hero, Jason I
"Wait, are we going to read my thoughts out loud? Dear Gods." Jason reacted
"EVEN BEFORE HE GOT ELECTROCUTED, Jason was having a rotten day."
Everyone looked at future Jason and laughed while past Jason just looked embarrassed to get his thoughts out in the open like that.
"How does a son of Jupiter get electrocuted?" Percy says innocently, the others also started to wonder.
"Just wait till we get there, Perce." Jason groans
"He woke up in the backseat of a school bus, not sure where he was, holding hands with a girl he didn't know.
Everyone looked over at them, the Gods having that questioning face but thankfully, Jason replied "I think it will be explained in a few."
They seemed satisfied with that answer and Hestia continued. Piper already knew why and looked at Leo and Jason. The three of them just shared a look like Sigh, we're really gonna read about this huh?
That wasn't necessarily the rotten part. The girl was cute, but he couldn't figure out who she was or what he was doing there. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to think."
"Nice to know you found me cute then, sparky," Piper whispers beside him. She still felt a tinge of disappointment about how their relationship started, but we all move on from the past right?
"The bus rumbled along a bumpy road. Out the windows, desert rolled by under a bright blue sky. Jason was pretty sure he didn't live in the desert. He tried to think back … the last thing he remembered …"
The girl squeezed his hand. "Jason, you okay?"
Piper looked at the clasped hands of both her and Jason. She squeezed it just like what was described.
She wore faded jeans, hiking boots, and a fleece snowboarding jacket. Her chocolate brown hair was cut choppy and uneven, with thin strands braided down the sides. She wore no makeup like she was trying not to draw attention to herself, but it didn't work. She was seriously pretty. Her eyes seemed to change color like a kaleidoscope—brown, blue, and green.
From her peripheral view, she saw past Piper and past Jason whiplash so hard towards each other, just realizing that they were "dating." She noticed that there was a slight blush that appeared on both their cheeks. It was a cute sight to see, if not for the circumstance they were in.
"Looks like your younger selves pieced everything together," Leo commented while laughing. The Gods looked at him quizzically while Piper and Jason just snorted in response.
"I mean, we're not the densest, Valdez, younger selves or older selves"
Jason let go of her hand. "Um, I don't—"
"In the front of the bus, a teacher shouted, "All right, cupcakes, listen up!"
The guy was obviously a coach. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, so you could just see his beady eyes. He had a wispy goatee and a sour face like he'd eaten something moldy. His buff arms and chest pushed against a bright orange polo shirt. His nylon workout pants and Nikes were spotless white. A whistle hung from his neck, and a megaphone was clipped to his belt. He would've looked pretty scary if he hadn't been five feet zero. "
"Hey, it's coach!" Percy shouted excitedly. "I didn't know he appeared this early."
"Seaweed brain, we've heard this story a billion times in the Argo." Annabeth states as a matter of fact. Piper can sense that this was a usual dynamic between them both.
She observed that one of the satyrs that went with the past kids grimaced. What was his name grunner? Grover? Piper thought.
He muttered something under his breath which she thought was in the lines of "Too old...scaring the children...trauma..please retire." Whatever that was, it made past Percy and Annabeth laugh. A small chuckle escaped Piper's lips as well.
"When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called, "Stand up, Coach Hedge!"
"I heard that!" The coach scanned the bus for the offender. Then his eyes fixed on Jason, and his scowl deepened.
A jolt went down Jason's spine. He was sure the coach knew he didn't belong there. He was going to call Jason out, demanding to know what he was doing on the bus—and Jason wouldn't have a clue what to say."
"But Coach Hedge looked away and cleared his throat. "We'll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don't lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes cause any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way."
"Is this really how satyr's guide demigods?" Lady Athena questioningly asks which made the other Gods curious as well.
"Not all Satyr's are like that, Lady Athena, coach is just tough love sometimes," Leo says beside Piper.
"He picked up a baseball bat and made it look like he was hitting a homer.
Jason looked at the girl next to him. "Can he talk to us that way?"
She shrugged. "Always does. This is the Wilderness School. 'Where kids are the animals.'"
She said it like it was a joke they'd shared before."
"Oh my, Piper, did your dad really let you go to a school like that?" Aphrodite exclaimed. She sounded horrified as to how a daughter of Aphrodite could be in such a drastic place.
Piper didn't know how to explain it to her that she used the perks that her mom gave her to do something illegal. But hey, in Piper's defense she stole nothing. "I think it will be explained soon, mom."
"This is some kind of mistake," Jason said. "I'm not supposed to be here."
The boy in front of him turned and laughed. "Yeah, right, Jason. We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times. Piper didn't steal a BMW."
"And there's your explanation," Piper says to the whole group. Everyone looked at her like Is she really a daughter of Aphrodite? Her friends just laughed and smiled knowing the story behind that.
"We should recruit her in the Hermes cabin." The Stolls say to each other and she swears that nothing has changed between them, past or future.
She looked over to her mom and saw that she understood what happened and winked at her.
"The girl blushed. "I didn't steal that car, Leo!"
"Oh, I forgot, Piper. What was your story? You 'talked' the dealer into lending it to you?" He raised his eyebrows at Jason like, Can you believe her?"
"Dang, Piper, you're a natural at this," Conner Stoll shouted. She sighed and thought, Glad some things never change.
"Leo looked like a Latino Santa's elf, with curly black hair, pointy ears, a cheerful, babyish face, and a mischievous smile that told you right away this guy should not be trusted around matches or sharp objects. His long, nimble fingers wouldn't stop moving—drumming on the seat, sweeping his hair behind his ears, fiddling with the buttons of his army fatigue jacket. Either the kid was naturally hyper or he was hopped up on enough sugar and caffeine to give a heart attack to a water buffalo."
It was cute how spot-on Jason's thoughts are about Leo. She looked over to Leo's side of the couch to see him smiling and nodding along.
"I mean, Leo is always hyper, even for a demigod." She chuckles while Leo smiled despite looking like he didn't want the attention he got.
"Anyway," Leo said, "I hope you've got your worksheet, 'cause I used mine for spit wads days ago. Why are you looking at me like that? Somebody draws on my face again?"
Everyone groaned at Leo's antics
"What? don't look at me like that. It's not like you all haven't been tempted to." He said back.
Piper hit him for that comment
"I don't know you," Jason said.
Leo gave him a crocodile grin. "Sure. I'm not your best friend. I'm his evil clone."
"Ouch, that's rough buddy." Will Solace lightheartedly said from across the room which earned him some laughs from the other Gods and demigods. Nico even looked amused, which was the first time she actually saw a genuine smile plastered on his face.
She has speculation that something is going on between the two but, she promised she won't be that kind of aphrodite spawn.
"Leo Valdez!" Coach Hedge yelled from the front. "Problem back there?"
Leo winked at Jason. "Watch this." He turned to the front. "Sorry, Coach! I was having trouble hearing you. Could you use your megaphone, please?"
Coach Hedge grunted like he was pleased to have an excuse. He unclipped the megaphone from his belt and continued giving directions, but his voice came out like Darth Vader's. The kids cracked up. The coach tried again, but this time the megaphone blared: "The cow says moo!"
The kids howled, and the coach slammed down the megaphone. "Valdez!"
Everyone bursts out laughing while Leo stood up and bowed jokingly
"That was genius, I need to learn how to do that." Travis Stoll says
"Thank you, thank you. I use my gifts well." Leo replied back.
Hephaestus even snorted a little bit, looking at his son as if admiring what Leo had done despite it being a prank. Piper admits it was kind of a cute sight to see.
Young Leo even looked at his older self shocked that he has the guts to pull something like that off.
"Piper stifled a laugh. "My god, Leo. How did you do that?"
Leo slipped a tiny Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve. "I'm a special boy."
"Guys, seriously," Jason pleaded. "What am I doing here? Where are we going?"
"Dear Gods, Jason, you really got it bad huh?" Thalia says beside Will.
"Don't worry it gets so much worse," Jason says while glaring at Hera.
"Piper knit her eyebrows. "Jason, are you joking?"
"No! I have no idea—"
"Aw, yeah, he's joking," Leo said. "He's trying to get me back for that shaving cream on the Jell-O thing, aren't you?"
Jason stared at him blankly."
"No, I think he's serious." Piper tried to take his hand again, but he pulled it away."
"Piper kept her eyes on Jason like she couldn't decide whether to be hurt or worried. "Did you hit your head or something? You really don't know who we are?"
Jason shrugged helplessly. "It's worse than that. I don't know who I am."
Everyone was looking at Jason now as if asking to explain what they just heard.
Jason shrugged, "Yeah you heard it right, I got the bad case of amnesia."