soulmates ⋮ heroes of olympus au

four.

"Plus you just told us in haiku form," Travis Stoll chimed in with a snicker. "You do know that everyone despises your haikus, right?"

Mr. Apollo raised an eyebrow, grinning at all his disgruntled students in front of him. "Why do you think I keep doing them?"

He began to explain the auditions coming up that next Wednesday, and when Mr. Apollo asked who in the choir was going to audition, at least three quarters of the room raised their hands. Jason couldn't help but notice Piper raise her hand hesitantly in the air out of the corner of the eye, and he had to fight back a grin.

If today was any indication as to what was to come, then Jason had the feeling that he was going to have a really good school year.

☼

The end of the school day finally came. Jason found himself sitting on a bench outside the library with his best friends sitting next to him or on the ground nearby. His laptop sat open on his lap, and while Jason was trying his best to begin typing his essay for his English class, he kept thinking about the upcoming musical and how Piper was finally going to be auditioning for it.

This, of course, didn't go unnoticed by a certain curly-haired boy

"Jason..." Leo began with a smirk after we had been sitting on the benches outside the school library for about five minutes or so. "You have an oddly happy expression on your face, considering that we just had our first day of school."

With a sheepish look on his face, Jason ducked his head to try and prevent the guys from seeing his reddening cheeks. "I talked to Piper today."

"Oh here we go," Nico groaned, looking up from his Stephen King novel to roll his eyes at Jason. "He's not going to shut up about this for the next week."

Jason shot the black-haired boy a glare. "Very funny. She sat down next to me in Pre-Calc–"

"Willingly?"

"Shut up, Percy. We talked about the musical for a bit, and I found out she's trying out this year."

Wiggling his eyebrows, Leo lightly nudged Jason in the shoulder, his smirk only seeming to grow. "Maybe she'll get to be your love interest." Jason shoved him back hard in his shoulder and Leo winced in pain as he began to rub his upper arm. "Dude, that hurt!"

Jason stuck his tongue out at him. "Sucks to be you."

"While I always enjoy seeing Jason being mercilessly teased about Piper," Percy began as he picked his dark blue backpack off the floor. "I need to get a book from the library."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "You read?"

After giving him the middle finger, Percy pushed open the door to the library, leaving the three other boys sitting outside. A few seconds had passed before Leo turned to Jason with another question. "Any idea where Frank is?"

"Football practice," Nico informed us. "Probably going to be stuck on that field until November."

"That sounds absolutely horrible," Leo replied with a scrunched up look of disgust on his face. "I wonder sometimes why he likes football so much. No sport could convince me to stay out on a freezing cold field for hours on end."

"Amen to that," Nico muttered. A cold chill flew through the hallway and Nico shivered, pulling his oversized aviator jacket tighter across his small frame.

Not wanting to focus on his essay, Jason's gaze turned to look through the large library windows. Sitting at a table with her best friends, he saw Piper tapping her pencil while listening to music through one earbud while laughing at something that Rachel Dare said. He also noticed Percy leaning against a library shelf, smirking down at a girl with long, curly blonde hair that he recognized as Annabeth Chase. She appeared to be arguing with him, trying to grab a book that Percy was holding high above his head.

Before his friends could notice his staring, Jason decided to turn away from the window and begin talking about the upcoming musical auditions. "Is it crazy for me to want to go for Marius."

Quickly shaking his head, Nico replied, "I don't think so. Isn't he like one of the leads?"

"Yeah, that's kind of the problem."

"Dude, you always see you're going to do shit and you usually end up doing way better than you think," Leo chimed in, smiling reassuringly at the nervous-looking boy. "You'll be fine."

Feeling his glasses slip down his nose, Jason pushed them upwards, trying to make sure they didn't fall onto the floor and crack. He's already replaced his lenses three times in the past year alone because of how often he knocked or dropped them. "I hope so. I know I can sing the notes well, but the other tenors in the choir are insanely good as well."

Before any of the boys could respond, they heard the door open beside. All three of their heads turned to see Percy walking through the library door. Jason couldn't help but notice how flushed Percy's face was and the grin that was inching its way onto his face, but he wasn't sure what was causing Percy to look that way. "You alright, Jackson?"

Percy pivoted around on the heel of his foot and began walking backwards. "Perfect," he told them beaming before turning back around again and running down the hallway.

The trio stared at him for a few seconds before turning back to each other with equally confused expressions. "That's weird," Leo eventually remarked. "I've never seen him that excited about the library before."

Jason looked back at Annabeth who was now sitting at a table with her friends, looking normal in appearance but her cheeks had that same red tint as was so clearly present on Percy's face.

"I don't think Percy was grinning about the library."

☼