𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐈𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄° ! jason grace

𝐯𝐢𝐢. 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐌𝐄? 𝐄𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐘𝐎𝐔.

After everyone had cleaned up, Coach Hedge took the helm and the demigods gathered below for dinner.

Jason had to remind Cress to close her mouth when staring at Coach Hedge, who was drastically different from her satyr friend, Grover Underwood.

Coach Hedge was stout and somewhat muscular, with shaggy brown fur covering his goat-like legs. His upper body was stocky, with powerful arms and broad shoulders. He looked older for a satyr, with a wild, curly beard and pair of sharp, intense eyes that darted and scanned each demigods face.

It was the first time they'd all sat down together, just the eight of them.

A feeling of uneasiness fell over Cress, as if she was being reminded that there was another prophecy, and she was part of it.

This is real life.

Everyone must of felt it too, the tension blanketing the mess hall like an electrical storm brewing, which was totally possible, considering that Percy and Jason were in the room together.

Jason made a move to sit at the head of the table, but Cress touched his chest briefly, giving him a subtle shake of her head.

Percy shied away from the head of the table like it would give him a disease, gratefully letting his girlfriend take charge. After the last war, Percy didn't want any more responsibility than he already had.

The crew compared notes on what had happened in Salt Lake City, but even Leo's ridiculous story about how he tricked Narcissus wasn't enough to cheer up the group.

"So where to now?" Leo asked with a mouthful of pizza. "I did a quick repair job to get us out of the lake, but there's still a lot of damage. We should really put down again and fix things right before we head across the Atlantic."

"I'll help," Cress volunteered, which gained her confused looks from everyone but Percabeth. "What? I have infallible visual acuity."

When that didn't clear anything up, given the fact that Frank was staring at her like she had three heads, she tried to explain further. "I'm a perfectionist. I can see things more clearly than everyone else."

(Truly, the gift from her mother was only because Aphrodite liked to see the complete details of her makeup looks, in order to reach supreme divinity and perfection. She never deemed it extremely helpful before because it just allowed for her to scrutinize her own flaws under a better light, but maybe she could learn to do good with it.)

"What?" Cress questioned, narrowing her eyes at Leo's slack jaw and everyone else's raised eyebrows. She really hoped she didn't have to do the whole I'm more than just a pretty face act with them, of all people. 

Leo shrugged with an easy grin, kicking his feet up next to his plate of pizza. He leaned back comfortably. "Nothing. Just didn't think you'd want to get your hands dirty, that's all. But I guess you're just full of surprises, Kim."

She leaned over and swiped a finger full of blue whipped cream from Percy's blue piece of pie with a smug flourish. "I'm multi-talented." She could hear a soft snort come from her right, where Jason sat with a hand covering his snicker.

"We need to put some distance between us and Camp Jupiter," Percy suggested, side-eyeing the Aphrodite girl as he shielded his pie from her invasion. "Frank spotted some eagles over Salt Lake City. We figure the Romans aren't far behind us."

That didn't improve the mood around the table. Piper hesitated, but then conceded to her guilted thoughts. "I don't suppose we should go back and try to reason with the Romans? Maybe—maybe I didn't try hard enough with the charmspeak."