Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and other characters from the books. All rights belong to author Rick Riordan

Jason's POV

Well, after school we went back to the house. Well, planned to, but I had to deal with some "fans" on the way out.

"Ohhh! Jason!" I hear a bubbly female voice say.

I turned to see a girl that must have been new. Or she just never said anything until now.

"How's it going, Jason?" she asked. She looked a little bit like Drew, back at camp, but this girl was less pretty. Don't tell Piper I said that.

"Um... I'm going to meet my friends and go home," I tell her.

"Here, let me walk with you to your car."

"That's okay! I remember that I forgot something in my locker!" I quickly say and run back into the school to get a random item from my locker.

I was running down the hall not looking where I was going when I ran into something, or someone. It was the guy from lunch today. What was his name? Josh? Jake? Justin, that's it!

"Watch where your going punk!" he shouts at me then shoves me away, still on the floor.

"Why don;t you watch what you say!" I say.

"Excuse me? Did I hear you right?'

"Yeah I told you to watch what you say!"

Probably no the best thing to say to the captain of the football team, but I tend to just shout things out at random.

"That's it! C'mere kid!" he says as he grabs me and holds me in a headlock.

He takes me into the bathroom that he came out of and proceeds to throw me into a stall, head first, like a sack of potatoes.

"Aren't you Jackson's friend? Like his sidekick right?" he asks with humor in his voice.

"Yeah," I calmly say as I try to get out of the stall.

"Oh no you don't! I'm not done with you! Ya see, I found out that Jackson is very loyal," he explained. "I plan to use that against him, and your going to help."

Justin proceeded to punch me in the face so hard that one of my teeth got chipped. My entire lower lip was covered in blood in about five seconds.

I was about to fight back when I remembered what Chiron and Reyna had said at camp: Never take out your anger on Mortals. Even when they threaten you first, they are not worth it.

I thought about it for a moment, and decided not to fight back. Justin was already out of the bathroom, so I didn't have to worry about him. The Fates must love to prove me wrong though.

"Well? You going to fight back?" he asked arms crossed.

"Nah, you're not worth it," I stated.

"Why you little-" he cut himself off when he remembered something. "Crap! I gotta get to practice! Coach is going to kill me!"

He turned and bolted down the hall to the door that lead in the direction of the football team.

I just simply walked back to meet them at the car. Surprise! They were all waiting on me and Piper and Thalia looked really angry. I debated bolting down the street or flying back home, but they had seen me.

"Jason Grace!" Thalia yelled. "Why are you so LATE!"

"Um... ran into some trouble?" I stupidly said. I realized my lip was still bleeding from when Justin hit me. Mentally, I face palmed at that comment.

"The truth, Jason! Now!" Piper nearly busted my ears with that yell. The others were just waiting in the cars. Leo was grinning at me, and Percy and Annabeth weren't talking, so I guess they finished an argument.

"Well there was this girl-" I started then got cut off by Piper.

"What girl!" Piper screamed.

"Um... I don't know her name, but I had to get an excuse to get away from her, so I told her I forgot something in my locker and went back inside. When I got inside, I ran into Justin, the guy from lunch. We got into a fight after I said that he should watch what he says. I got this bloody lip, and that brings us up to now," I said quickly.

"Jason, you realize that now you and Percy have gotten into fights with Justin," Thalia sighed. "Just get in the car, we're discussing it at the house.

I got into the car and kept my mouth shut the whole way. I didn't know Percy got into it with Justin after lunch. As far as I knew, Percy didn't lay a hand on that guy after he left.

Percy's POV ( in the parking lot after school)

"Perseus Jackson! What in Hades happpened to you after lunch!" Annabeth screamed at me.

"Um.. a lot happened. There were like four more periods, then the fight with Justin, then-" I was cut off by Annabeth.

"WHAT! YOU FOUGHT JUSTIN!" she yelled. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!"

"He came up to me and started it!" I protested. "I didn't want to fight him, and I didn't. He did all the punching!"

"So you let him use you as a punching bag?" Thalia asked.

I nodded.

"Percy," Annabeth sighed. "You had a bloody lip! For gods sake, Percy, why did you not fight back?"

"I don't fight mortals," I mumbled.

Annabeth literally screamed, she was that mad. "Tell me, Percy, why did you choose to listen to Chiron for once?"

"Killing mortals is frowned upon," I said. Now she is mad that I listened?

"Whatever... Percy, you're grounded from kisses for the rest of the weekend," she stated simply.

My jaw dropped.

"That's not fair!" I said.

"Neither is you letting that jerk beat you up, but if you like it so much you might as well let him keep doing it," Thalia pointed out.

"Stay out of this," I grumbled.

"Oh you want some, Percy?" Thalia challenged.

I ignored her and got into the car. Annabeth and the others followed, but I didn't dare say a word to Annabeth.

I saw Jason come up with a bloody mouth a little while after. I had a pretty good idea who gave it to him. I noticed Piper and Thalia yell at him. Then he said some stuff and they got in the car and we started over to the house.

Later the next day, Eric, Noah, and Halle came by our house. Annabeth wasn't talking to me. And the rest of the gang was acting different around me and Jason. The only people that didn't notice anything were Noah, Halle, and Eric.

I stopped Jason and told him we need to talk. We went into his room to talk and sat at his desk with a bunch of books and a sword sitting on it.

"What's up, Percy?" he started after a minute of awkward silence.

"You notice everyone acting kind of distant today and yesterday?" I asked.

"Yeah, they were mad that I didn't fight back against Justin in the halls; I hear you got the same lecture about defense?"

"Yep, Annabeth wont even talk to me much less kiss me, I'm going crazy."

"I hear ya. Piper wont show any affection to me. I'm lucky if I can get her to say 'Hi'."

"Girls." we both said.

"Am I interrupting something?" Leo asked.

"Nah, just some talking between the two most powerful demigods out there," I said. "But by all means, tell us why your here."

"Annabeth sent me to gather you two and come to the living room to discuss the plan."

"Well that can wait a little while longer," Jason stated firmly.

"I'll tell them you said that," Leo said.

"Wait! Don't tell them that, just tell them we will be there in a few minutes," I say grabbing Leo's arm before he can get out the door.

He grinned at us, "I can do that," and then he was gone.

"We better get out there before we get in more trouble," Jason said.

I nodded.

When we got to te living room, Annabeth and Piper were looking closely at a map of the school and copies of Skyalr's and Justin's schedules.

"Well what about if we do it after lunch?" Thalia said.

"That could work, but a lot of teachers might notice it," Eric said. He knows a lot about how the teachers react to different situations. His neighborhood friends would always complain of tell him about incidents at school.

"What about in the morning?" Annabeth asked.

"That could work," Halle said, "but you would need to do it sometime after he showers after football."

"They have football in the morning before school?" Nico asked.
"Not important," Thalia said.

"So," Annabeth started in her strategy voice, "if we do it after his shower, then we can embarrass him in first period. Which, is with Mr. Blofis. And most of us are in that class."

"Great, but what about Skylar?" Eric asked, clearly anxious to get back at her.

I cleared my throat. Everyone turned to look at us.

"Glad you could join us," Piper said.

We knew better than to reply so we sat down on the couch.

"What are you guys going to do to Justin?" Jason asked.

"Well, maybe if you were on-time, you would know," Annabeth said.

"So you mean you wont tell us?" I asked.

"Yes," Annabeth said.

Eric and Halle exchanged looks with Noah.

"Have you guys been fighting?" they asked,

"Don't worry about it," Thalia said. "They'll get over it soon."

"Back to getting Skylar back..." Leo said, anxious to prank a person.

"Right so we will have the Stolls distract the gym teacher," Piper started.

"When they are gone, Thalia and I will fill Skylar's shampoo bottle with bright orange hair dye," Annabeth continued.

"Then Leo will take pictures of her and broadcast it during lunch, all over the school. Everyone with a phone will receive an image of Skylar." Thalia finished.

"Um... what about us?" I asked, motioning to me and Jason.

"What about you?" Annabeth sneered. "You didn't bother showing up when we came up with the idea, so we didn't give you a part."

"But that wont get her off my back!" I protested.

"She's been a pain for all of us! Not just you!" Annabeth yelled.

"Well I want to get her off my back too! So give me a part!"

"Fine!" Annabeth thought about it for a moment. "I got it!"

"No way!" I protested.

"C'mon, Seaweed Brain! You have to do it if you want her to get off your back!" Annabeth said.

"But I don't want to pretend that I like her! She is annoying enough when I ignore her, now your telling me I have to pretend to like her?"

"It's psychology, Percy. She'll let her guard down long enough for us to hatch the plan. Then at lunch, you come back to being my Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said, gripping my hand.

"All right, fine! I'll do it,"I mumble.

"Great, not we just wait until Monday to get those two back," Thalia said.

"Who wants hamburgers!"Leo shouted as he went to the fridge.

"Leo, I don't eat meat," Piper said.

"You too?" Halle asked.

"All right! I'll make some tofu burgers for you two beauty queens. Everyone else gets burgers and fries!" he shouted from the backyard patio.

I pulled Annabeth to a private room to talk. She reluctantly followed.

"Annabeth, I'm sorry." I started. "I shouldn't have said anything bad to you, you were right, again."

"What was that? I'm right?" Annabeth joked putting her hand to her ear. "Did you just call the daughter of Athena right?"

I smiled at that and went to kiss her, but she held up her hand.

"No kisses until Monday," she firmly stated.

"But-" she cut me off.

"No 'buts', Percy. That is your punishment for not listening to me and actually listening to something Chiron told you."

"Fine,"I pouted.

We went out to meet everyone in the dining room. I was happy that Annabeth and I weren't fighting anymore, but I am dreading having to go to school Monday. If I want to get rid of Skylar, I have to pretend to fight with Annabeth and go to Skylar for comfort. This is going to be a long week.