Double Life? Make it Triple

Chapter 8

A/N

So, my computer's about to die, but I thought I'd get something up because I'm getting more into this story at the moment, which means I need to post as much as possible so I don't lose interest. Anyway, this is basically just gonna confirm anything which I think you guys already knew, but yeah, if you didn't guess then here it is. Remember, I love ideas and reviews and that stuff, and if I know people are reading this, I'll probably be more likely to update, so there's your motivation. As for my last question, yeah I liked it, obviously, because I'm a total PJO nut.

Enjoy!

I was currently at Piper's house, well, if you could call it a house. It was more like a mansion, with old-fashioned Greek style pillars out the front and gardens all around it. The perks of being a movie star's daughter.

"So, what's up with your life, Pipes?" I asked, flipping another page of my book absentmindedly. "It seems all we ever talk about nowadays is me."

Piper sent me a look as she threw her dirty jacket into her second wardrobe. "That's because you're actually interesting."

"Please," I scoffed. "I've had enough 'interesting' in my life to last me for eternity."

"Well," she began hesitantly. "There is one update." I put down my book and propped myself up on my elbows. I was truly interested in Piper's life, because while it may not be exactly normal with her parents, it was the life of a teenage girl. I was curious on what I was missing out on.

"Tell me!" I tended to get a bit excited.

"Okay. So, I like this guy."

I leaned forward slightly, kicking my legs in the air. "So who's the lucky guy? Do I know him?" She flashed a wry grin.

"Yeah. Pretty well. See, it's not just some random guy." I waited for her to spill silently. "It's Jason."

"Oh my gods Piper, that's amazing!" I exclaimed. "You'd make a great couple." They really would. Leo and I would always talk about it in our spare time. He'd wanted to make bets, but I didn't want to get mixed up in a deal with him. He'd probably find some way to scam me even if I won.

"Yeah, well, it's not like he's interested. He's always telling me about this girl named Reyna, and I think he likes her." I'd heard him mention her once or twice, but nothing serious. He was most likely trying to make Piper jealous, if he really did like her, which I thought he might. I relayed this to her.

"Maybe. But honestly, I don't really wanna talk about my love life. Do you have a secret boyfriend I don't know about?" She accused, pointing a finger at me. I raised my palms in surrender.

"What, you think I'm hiding a relationship with all the other stuff going on? I don't think so."

She sighed. "What a shame. You deserve someone good after Luke, Annie. Someone who's going to treat you well."

I smiled faintly. "Yeah, well. Anyone wanting the death threat hanging over their head can hit me up any time. But romance and going on proper dates...that's a little out of my league, Piper. I'm not exactly girlfriend material."

"You never know, Annie. You never know."

I sighed dramatically. "Can we please not use that name? I'll guilt trip you," I added threateningly.

"Whatever. I've actually got something I've been wanting to show you, if you wanna take a look," she offered. My curiosity was piqued.

"What is it?" I asked. She gestured for me to sit next to her with one hand and pulled out a notebook with the other. It looked reasonably old, with tattered corners and a faded red cover. I examined the ripped pages doubtfully.

"This is where I try to pick out who in school might be in gangs." I stared at her in disbelief. She actually had a journal dedicated to that stuff? Just how much spare time did she have? At my incredulous look, she grinned and elaborated. "You know me, I'm curious. Also, if any of them get on your bad side I can expose them," she added sheepishly.

"Well, who'd you get?"

She opened the book up and pointed at each person respectively. "That's Valentina Diaz, probable Half-Blood. That's one of Silena's friends. Chris, you already know. There's also a girl named Phoebe, dude named Castor, and I think Thalia might be-"

"Wait, Thalia?" We were reasonably close. She was blonde, with piercing blue eyes. She was away at the moment for a family vacation.

Piper nodded uneasily. "I think so. But...there's someone else you might wanna look into." I waited for her to continue. "You remember that fight in sixth grade you had with Peter? How he bullied you and then you beat him up in the bathroom?"

I rolled my eyes. "Does he ever let me forget? What about it?"

"Well, he managed to get some good hits on you, even thought it was your fifth or sixth year in the gang, plus he didn't want anyone else to witness it, right? Like he was scared people might see him fighting?"

"Well, yeah he didn't want people seeing us fight. We both would've gotten expelled."

"OR he didn't want people knowing just how well he could fight," Piper countered.

"Are you trying to tell me," I began. "That Peter, Peter Johnson, is in a gang?" Something clicked at the back of my mind, but I didn't try and explore it.

"Annabeth, he also tries very hard to put up a show of his personality. Like he's acting, maybe trying to hide something."

"You're very into this theory, aren't you?" At her serious look, I relented. "Alright, so maybe he's in a gang. So what? If he wanted to settle anything with me, he would have done it by now-" On the outside, I froze, but my thought process continued to whir. "Oh, he knew. He must've known. And that's why..." I trailed off, locking eyes with Piper.

"PJ, Annabeth. They have the same initials."

"Looks like Jason and Leo won't be doing the forfeit. Jason might be sad, actually."

I couldn't believe I'd overlooked it before. Now I thought about it, it was so obvious. Plus, Peter had insulted me when I was in Annabeth Chase mode, and Percy had known me as Carter when he saw me earlier.

Peter Johnson was Percy Jackson.

And my life was surely about to get a hell of a lot worse. Although, it was a pretty good piece of blackmail. Too bad he probably knew about me too.

I yawned as I munched on a waffle. "You're a seriously good cook, Pipes." Her eyes rolled.

"Don't go around telling Leo and Jason that. I don't need them at my house, too."

I flapped a hand. "Whatever. We're meeting up with them later, anyway." We'd planned to go to the mall, since we hadn't had the chance to hang out as a group in forever. The boys would also be good bag carriers. I heard a knock at the door and glanced at my watch. "Seriously? It's only...eleven? Jeez, how long did we sleep in?"

She shrugged. "I think last nights revelation stunned you into sleep."

"Hmm," I mumbled, pouring on more syrup absentmindedly. "I just can't believe I didn't see it earlier. It was so obvious."

"He had a very good disguise, which means he must really not want to be recognized," Piper paused. "Huh. That's some pretty good blackmail."

"On the other hand, he probably knows who I am as well, which means he can hold that over my head."

Piper lifted her fork, twirling it thoughtfully before meeting my gaze. "I suppose you'll have to work out a deal."

"Yeah," I muttered under my breath. "That'll go down well."

"Hey, another shop that doesn't sell clothes. That means we don't have to go in there, right?" Leo asked anxiously, glancing at the four bags already on his arms. "Because I don't think I-" That's when I spotted him across the food court. I felt my eyes narrow, and I tapped Piper's shoulder.

"Look who's at the mall." Jason followed my finger, and raised his eyebrows at me in confusion.

"Peter? Why do you care?" Quietly, I shared my realization with him. His fists tightened at his sides. I held up a hand.

"Don't pick a fight with him, he'll beat your ass into next year. Don't argue, you know it's true," I added when he started to protest. "Besides, he hasn't seen us, so maybe-" Just then, he glanced over and flashed me a smirk. Did he know I knew? Did he think I suspected? How could he? "I'm going over there."

"What?" Piper exclaimed. "You can't!"

"Uh, I really don't think that's a good idea," Leo put in nervously.

Jason just shrugged. "You already know what I think."

"Guys, it's the middle of a mall. What's he gonna do?" I said, and eased myself away from them. Peter stopped walking when he saw me approaching and flashed a jaunty wave. Okay, that was a dead giveaway.

I came to a halt in front of him. "What game do you think you're playing?" I demanded. He grinned innocently.

"None right now, I'm at the mall." I shoved him, and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Show me who you really are."

He gestured around us. "In the middle of a crowd of people? Besides, I think you already know," he added with a wink. I nearly stomped a foot in frustration. "But if you really wanna know, I'm gonna need to see something from you too, Blondie." He'd dropped the whole Peter act altogether, which slightly surprised me.

"No way-fine. You know what, you have a deal."

He lowered his voice. "How about we go somewhere more...private?"

I arched an eyebrow. "You can't pull anything here, Jackson, so don't even try."

"Oh, you'd be surprised, Chase. Flirting can be anything these days." I felt my jaw drop.

"Are you really going to threaten me-"

"I didn't think it was threatening. But come on, I promise I won't murder you," he paused for a second. "Well, not today, anyway. If you die, I want people watching."

"What kind of sick bastard are you?" I hissed at him as he grabbed my hand and pulled me along behind him. "And let...go...of me!" I tried to break free, but his grip was too tight.

"Not on my watch, Annie," he said playfully, but with a darker undertone. "Or I might just have to call up some friends who owe me favours."

I didn't like the sound of that, so I stayed silent. He shoved me into one of the disabled bathrooms. "So, how are we gonna do this?" I put a hand on my hip and stared him down, narrowing my eyes.

"I'm not negotiating with you, you'll just twist everything and not honour your end of the bargain."

He nodded. "Excellent, if you're not going to argue, that means what I say goes. So, I'll have your wig and contacts, please," he said expectantly, holding out his hand. I was tempted to snap his wrist. "The contacts, at least." I decided he already knew who I was, and my normal eyes were apparently pretty scary, so I obliged, slipping their case back in my pocket. It's not like it was hard evidence, either. Plenty of other people had grey eyes. Maybe that'd help him open up.

"Well, it really is you. That also means it was you eavesdropping on my conversation yesterday," he chided.

"It was my phone," I growled, then it hit me. "Is that how you figured out who I was? Because I was eavesdropping?"

He shrugged. "Among other things. So, now that we're here, anything you feel like doing?" He asked suggestively. I narrowed my eyes, and zeroed my deadly grey gaze on him.

"Not with you," I said harshly, before pushing past him to open the door.

"Don't you care about people seeing you?"

I yanked the door open. It was only my eyes, anyway. "Good. Maybe it'll scare them off."

But obviously he wasn't satisfied with that, and he gripped my arm. "Uh, uh, uh. We're not done here yet."

So I put my question out into the open. "You know, I realized that you beating me up was revenge for sixth grade. Why did you wait that long? Besides, how'd you know it was me back then?" He gave me a smirk which was slightly sheepish. That was probably the first humbling thing I'd seen from him. Then he ruined it by leaning closer to me, so I could feel his breath on my face.

"Oh, I only found out a few days ago, when a certain...informant of mine overheard it at a café. Careless, Chase," he tsked, shaking his head in fake disappointment. I glared at him.

"So you just beat up some random girl because she wouldn't kiss you? Talk about desperate," I said quietly, a smirk gracing my lips.

"I'll have you know that I'm very popular with the ladies." He looked me over. "Well, most ladies."

I tilted my head. "You mean when you're not being a d**k?"

"Sure," he replied, his jaw tightening slightly.

"Oh, good," I said. "I thought you actually meant people liked you."

His look of confusion made me snort. "What do you mean?" Was this guy serious?

"Are you really that dumb, Seaweed Brain?" I asked, bringing back the old nickname. "You're never not a d**k, which means-" His eyes narrowed and he cut me off.

"Whatever, Chase. And you're really bringing back that stupid nickname?" I was getting under his skin. Good. People get angry, they get sloppy. Messy. Time to put him on the defensive, for once. I figured he wasn't just going to reveal that he was still Jackson, because even though he knew that I knew, he still had his disguise on. Stepping forward, I backed him up against the wall, making sure I could still get to the door for my quick escape. I placed my hands on either side of him, and leaned in close to him.

"So, Jackson, I have three words for you," I whispered.

He arched an eyebrow. "And what would they be, Wise Girl?" Bringing back his original and creative nickname, was he? I winked, ripped the wig off his head and sprinted to the door, making sure his hair was black and confirming my hunch, though I doubted the Peter I knew would say half the things in our conversation. "Later, Seaweed Brain!"

I could hear his shouts behind me, and I ducked into a nearby shop. I watched in amusement as he ran out into the food court, and looked around furiously. I texted the others, and they agreed to meet me in the Adidas store. I was perched behind a couple of mannequins so I stayed out of sight, and when Piper put a hand on my shoulder and asked what was up, I stared out of the shop window and smiled.

"I just outsmarted Percy Jackson."

Hey, so the question of the chapter is this, because I have literally nothing better to ask: Greek or Roman?

Now, we've got that outta the way, if you feel like reviewing, cool, it might help me update faster! And that brings this chapter to a close.

HV