Hey fangirls and fanboys of the world! I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long! I've been extremely busy lately! With school, homework, and sports I have been very busy! Well, enough blabber, here's the next chapter!

Mark of Athena

Chapter 3

Jason

I was the first person off the boat. The first people I saw were Hazel, Reyna, and two guys I didn't know. The two guys and Hazel had their arms around each other. Hazel was on the right. I'm guessing the guy in the middle was Percy Jackson by the way Annabeth and the older campers explained him. On the left was the other guy.

Oh gosh! I thought. Annabeth! What's she going to think? I turned around around and looked at her. Her eyes welled with tears and she ran back onto the ship. Poor Annabeth! Percy is with Hazel! I thought. Then, Percy did the last thing I thought he would do; he ran up the ramp.

"Annabeth!" he yelled. "Annabeth?"

I turned back to the crowd of Romans. "Hey guys! I'm back!" I said to them. They all cheered. I couldn't help but grin. Then Reyna caught my eye. The smile melted right off of my face. I plastered a smile on my face and waved half-heartedly at her. She did the same.

"Hey, Sparky. Is it good to be back?" Piper said, coming up from behind me.

"Uh, yeah," I lied. I needed to get some time alone to think over this whole Piper/Reyna thing. I really liked Piper, and we had a great eight months and all. But I knew Reyna for so much longer, and I would be lying if I said I didn't have any feelings for her. Still, so much has happened in the last eight months, and the more time I spend with Piper, the more I like her. Ugh! Love is so complicated!

"Jason, are you alright?" Piper asked like she didn't believe me.

"Yes, I'm fine," I said back.

She gave me a look that said she didn't believe me but dropped the subject and just said "Okay,"

She grabbed my hand and I swear, my heart started beating loud enough for the Camp Half-Blood campers to hear it. We walked down the ramp hand in hand and greeted all of the Romans that came up to us.

"Oh, hey, I'm going to go and get Percy and Annabeth. Be right back." Piper said and I watched her walk up the ramp to Argo II.

"Hello Jason. I see you are back and well. I was worried about you." Reyna said, making me take my eyes off Piper and face her.

"Hey Reyna. You really were worried about me?"

"Well duh! We were best friends! Of course I would be worried about you."

"Jason!" Hazel cried and ran over.

Thank the gods! I didn't think I could take a conversation with Reyna until I sorted some things out.

"Hazel!" I said with an equal amount of enthusiasm. "Gods, you've grown! How has life been here?"

"Pretty normal, I guess. Well, until Percy came, the fifth legion won war games, and I succeeded on my first quest ever!"

I hugged her. "That's great Hazel! I'm so proud of you!"

"Thanks! I missed you. How have been? Those Greeks treating you right?"

"Yeah, I'm great!"

"I got them!" Piper said, coming down the ramp once again. Gods, she looked beautiful. I couldn't help but stare at her.

"Jason, hi. I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

"Jason Grace, son of Jupiter." I said back.

Thalia came up behind Percy and punched him in the arm.

"That's for getting and not contacting us the first time you could." Then Thalia hugged him. "And this is for staying alive in the meantime."

"Ow," Percy said, rubbing his arm after Thalia let him out of the hug. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think? I'm here to save your sorry butt while you fight Gaea, Kelp Head." Thalia said jokingly.

"What if my butt doesn't need saving, Pinecone Face?" Percy said back in the same joking tone.

"Okay guys, let's stop calling each other names and introduce ourselves." Piper cut in.

"Hold on! There are a few other people on board I want you to meet." Annabeth said and ran aboard the ship.

"Oh, yeah." Hazel said as if she just thought of something. "Frank! Come here."

The other guy from earlier walked over.

"Yeah?" he answered after jogging over.

"We are doing introductions. We are just waiting for Annabeth to get back with some other people."

Suddenly, Annabeth had popped up again with Grover, Rachel, the Stoll brothers, Clarisse, and Leo.

"Ready," Annabeth said.

"PERRRRRRRRRRCY!" Grover yelled and tackled Percy in a goat hug.

"Hey man. I missed you!" Percy said once Grover released him from the goatly death grip.

"Percy!" Rachel yelled and Percy was once again tackled in a hug.

"Rachel!" he said. He could actually breathe during this hug.

"Okay, guys. We can get back to hugging Percy later. We have to introduce ourselves."

"As most of you already know, I'm Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

"I'm Jason Grace, son of Jupiter."

"Frank Zhang, son of Mars."

"Hazel Levesque, daughter o Pluto."

"Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite."

"Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"Reyna Becker (I don't know her last name so I just made one up.), daughter of Bellona."

"Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus," I heard a gasp from over where Frank and Hazel were standing but I didn't mention it.

"Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, but now lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis."

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Oracle of Delphi."

"Grover Underwood, satyr and finder of Pan."

"There will be a senate meeting in two hours. Please be in the principia by then. Please, Romans and Percy, give the Greeks a tour of the camp and show them to their bunks. Reyna said and walked off.

"Hey Jason," Percy said.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure,"

He led me away from the group and over to the side of the Argo II.

"In your absence, Reyna and the camp elected a new praetor, which happens to be me. So, as of right now, we are both praetors. The praetor's house is still yours, though. I just wanted you to know so you don't get confused."

"Thanks for telling me. I think I'm going to head there now. I'm pretty tired."

"'Kay man. I'll take care of the tours."

"Thanks."

I headed over to the praetor's house. Percy was a pretty cool guy. He would make a good friend and I could tell he really loved Annabeth. Maybe he could help me with my Reyna/Piper predicament.

I got to the praetor's house and opened the door. All of my old stuff was inside but the place still looked clean, like someone had came in here and cleaned everything while I was gone.

I went over and sat on the couch.

"Ugh! Love is so complicated!"