soulmates ⋮ heroes of olympus au

seventeen.

J a s o n

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Putting on a musical had always been a stressful process. Jason knew this all too well after years of acting productions with Goode High. But, even with all that experience Jason had never been part of a musical that was running so – well, behind.

They were a good month into the rehearsal process, and they had only just started rehearsing the end of Act 1. This sounded good on paper, but with only six weeks to go until opening night and the entire second act to get through, everyone in the cast was already beginning to feel the pressure.

"And once again I am greeted with the infamous Drew glare," Piper announced while sitting down in a seat between Jason and Gwen, not seeming to care in the slightest how Drew's glare darkened even more upon hearing her name. "Does that ever get tiring for her? Like does her forehead constantly hurt from glaring?"

"How can someone's face hurt from glaring?" Jason asked with a small amused laugh. "Is that even possible?"

Piper thought about his question for a moment. "Well if you did it for prolonged periods of time on a daily basis like Drew, then yes."

"You would think she would've gotten over not getting cast as Cosette by now," Gwen muttered quietly. "But nope."

"That's Drew Tanaka for you, everyone," Jason joked as he spread his arms out in a sweeping motion. "Hasn't changed since elementary school and likely never will."

The two girls laughed loudly, even when Mr. Apollo walked on stage and began to announce the plan for the day, which was to run through the end of Act 1 from 'In My Life' to 'One Day More'. "Okay, Piper, Lee, Jason, and Gwen...I want you in the wings to get ready for your entrance."

Jason nodded and made his way backstage with Gwen. Piper took her place in the wings across the stage, ready for her entrance for her solo song. From the other side of the stage, Jason gave her the thumbs up. Piper silently laughed and gave him a thumbs up in response.

The music came to a start and Piper made her way on stage before beginning to sing 'In My Life'. As she sang, Jason could barely keep his eyes off her, so enraptured by how pretty she sounded and looked up on that stage that he could barely think about anything else.

Unfortunately for Jason, Gwen definitely seemed to notice this.

"So...are you ever going to ask out Piper or are you just going to keep giving her heart eyes for the rest of high school?" Gwen muttered under her breath, likely so the rest of the cast members around them couldn't hear.

"How do you know that?" Jason hissed, horrified. "I'm not that obvious, right?"

"It's been painfully obvious since the ninth grade. I think the entire choir and theatre program knows by this point."

"Oh God," Jason groaned as he hid his burning face in his hands. "Please don't tell me Piper knows."

"Trust me," Gwen winked. "Piper is just as oblivious as you are about your feelings for each other. Now let's go. It's almost our cue."

Even as Jason was out on stage, singing his heart out as Marius about how much his character loved Cosette, Gwen's words couldn't seem to leave his mind. Piper is just as oblivious as you are. Jason had no idea what she meant by that, but when it came to Piper, Jason was never really sure about anything.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jason noticed Piper hiding in the wings, watching him with a wide grin on her face. Unfortunately, seeing her distracted him so much that when Jason was spinning Gwen around, he stumbled over himself and nearly fell flat across the stage. This caused practically the entire cast to burst into giggles both backstage and in the audience.

"Jason, stop staring at Piper!" Mr. Apollo called out from the audience. "You're not supposed to be staring at her lovingly until 'A Heart Full of Love'!"

The cast's laughter grew at this, and Jason's face began to burn out of a combination of the practically blinding stage lights and the fact he was just so embarrassed. When Jason braved a look at Piper, she appeared to be giggling, but had her hand on her forehead and was staring in shock at the blonde-haired boy.

Thanks for that, Mr. Apollo. Now Piper was probably too embarrassed to be around him, and now Jason had even less of a chance than he did before.

"I can't believe Mr. Apollo did that," Jason muttered the moment he got off stage, hiding under the bench seat that him and Gwen had been sitting on. "That was mortifying. I hope a sandbag falls from the rafters and kills me."

"Well, it was kind of your fault it happened in the first place. You were staring at her and you tripped," Gwen responded, peeking her head under the bench that Jason was crouched under so she could get a better look at him. "Are you going to get out from under there?"

"Not until I get over my shame."

Gwen kicked him in the side. "You're such a drama queen."

Jason heard someone else approach the bench, and to his horror, he heard Piper ask, "Why is Jason hiding under a bench?"

"He's hiding in shame," Gwen explained, and Jason could hear her trying to fight back laughter. "Jason's a little baby."

As Piper and Gwen began to giggle, Jason poked his head out from underneath. "You two are incredibly rude. I'm reporting guys for harassment and bullying."

"Oh don't get your panties in a twist." Piper held out her hand to Jason and pulled him out from under the bench. The two held hands for a split-second too long, and Piper dropped his hand quickly, chuckling awkwardly. "Apollo wants some more roses or something like that. Can you come into the props room and help me find some?"

Jason nodded and followed Piper to the props room, but as he walked over with her, his cheeks began to burn as he remembered the almost scandalous reputation the props closet had in the drama department. Gwen definitely seemed to remember this, as when he happened to turn his head back around, Jason saw the brown-haired girl winking exaggeratingly while wiggling her eyebrows.

"Where do you think he keeps the fake roses?" Jason asked in an attempt to distract himself as Piper closed the door behind her, beginning to shift through the boxes of props.

"How should I know?" She called out from the back of the room. "I'm still all new to theater. That's why I asked you to help."

Jason chuckled and spotted a cardboard box nearby that seemed promising. There were green stems with leaves attached to it poking out of the cracks in the top, so Jason decided to take a chance and open it up. "This looks promis– nope never mind these are vines."

"Hey, I found a bunch of roses!"

He found Piper in the back, sifting through a huge cardboard box. Jason came up behind her and reached over her shoulder to pick a few of the roses out of the box. As Piper looked back at him and two locked eyes, Jason couldn't help but realize how incredibly close the two were.

Feeling his face begin to burn up, Jason took a sudden interest in his shoelaces. "I–uhm," Jason stammered. "Should I move?"

She shook her head, and to Jason's shock, slowly started leaning in. Jason did the same, his heart beating a million miles an hour as he began to wonder was this seriously happening right now?

"Jason! Piper!" Mr. Apollo yelled outside the room. "Have you two found the roses yet?"

Piper quickly jumped backwards as if she had snapped out of some sort of trance. "We should get back..." She trailed off quietly. "Mr. Apollo's expecting us."

"Yeah...yeah..." Jason muttered, scratching the back of his neck. "We should get back."

The pair made their way back to the auditorium in an almost awkward silence, the roses piled in their arms. Jason wanted to talk to her about whatever had just happened – because he wasn't entirely too sure himself – but the words couldn't seem to come out of his mouth. And as he sat down in the auditorium again, Jason couldn't help but wonder what might've happened if Mr. Apollo hadn't interrupted them.

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