Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson characters at all.
Piper understood why nobody liked her. It was probably because of her silly looking braids or how she never wore those pink frilly dresses that her sister, Drew, or any of her friends wore. She was never bothered by it, for she thought it was not nice when kids were friends with someone just because of what they were wearing.
And besides, she had her own friends, her real friends, to care about. There was Percy Jackson, wearing a casual T-shirt and khaki's, was swinging his lunch box as if he would rather be anywhere than at school. Leo was similar to Percy. They both had that same bored look on their faces, and it was obvious that they hated school as much as she did because it was the first time that Piper ever saw Percy or Leo not smile at something.
And then there was Annabeth, with her long blond frizzy pigtails, was the only excited one out of the whole group to enter third grade. "Can you believe it this year? I heard we're finally going to learn long division! I mean, I already learned it over the summer, but practice can't hurt, am I right?"
"Yay," the remaining three said in unison. She never got why Annabeth loved going to school so much. Unless you counted having homework everyday (even on Fridays, mind you) and getting scolded by the teacher constantly for drawing in class while the teacher was talking.
And it felt like the summer went by too fast, for Piper. She would give anything for another day of break. But she figured that if she had to go back to that horrid place, she would rather go with her three most trusted friends.
So she hopped off the bus, ready for her first day of third grade, determined to make it the best day of her life. After they were settled down in their classes, the teacher thought it would be a good idea to separate the kids into different groups into different classes, so they could make friends. So naturally, Piper and the rest of her gang got separated. She knew she was not going to make any new friends, but she had to get that day over with, so she just continued on to her happy mood.
And it was going just fine, until Piper accidentally tripped her first through second grade arch-enemy Isabel. "Hey! What was that for?" she shouted.
Piper frowned and shrugged her shoulders while pouting her lips. She tried her best to look innocent (even though she really was; she didn't mean to trip Isabel) and not at all smug at what she had done. "Mr. Williams! Piper tripped me!" Piper rolled her eyes. Leave it to the number one tatter teller to get her in trouble on her first day of school. "She made me scrape my knee!"
The teacher, a somewhat tall man with black hair, walked up to Isabel with a deep frown on his face. "Is that true, Miss McLean? Did you trip her?"
"No, Mr. Williams," she shook her head, "it was only by accident. I didn't mean to, I swear."
"She's lying! Look, she's wearing those long pants and those big fat shoes-"
"They're called sneakers, Isabel."
"Yeah, whatever, sneakers, but they were totally big enough to trip me!"
"Yeah. Just look at her hair. What, did she forget to shower today or something?" Henry, a boy from another third grade class, spoke out loud.
"It looks like this bird in my backyard's nest. I always wondered where it got its branches from. Maybe they come pick to pick it out of that hair of yours! That would explain the feathers in your hair." The girl next to him shouted.
"And what is she hiding under those baggy pants of hers, anyway?"
"I'll bet she has chicken legs!"
"Wobble-worm!"
"Geek-burger!"
"Cheese brain!"
"Nerd-bomber!" (A/N: I'm sorry, I've been watching way too much Full House xD)
Piper frowned even more as the entire class burst out laughing. She wished Annabeth was here with her. She always knew what to say when kids bullied her like that. She felt like the third grade class joke.
The teacher spoke up before more kids could join in on their laughter. "Alright, kids, that's enough!" But surprisingly, the kids wouldn't stop. This was obviously a new teacher, if he couldn't even handle a couple of third graders.
Mr. Williams continued trying to go get the children to be quiet, but it wouldn't work. He eventually decided to go get the principal and left the room. Yes. Because you should leave a bunch of third graders alone in a room without an adult or teacher, Piper thought, annoyed.
Just when she was about to give up and punch every single laughing face in the room (although, even she had to admit. She didn't have the courage to do it, especially on the first day of school), another kid, one that Piper had never noticed before in her entire elementary years, spoke up. "Hey, stop it! That's not nice! How would you feel if other people called you that? It isn't nice to be teased!"
"Oh, look. Mr. Goldilocks is standing up for Ms. Bird's Nest! Isn't that sweet?" Isabel said with a mean smile on her face.
The rest of the class roared in laughter at Isabel's usage of naming their hair like that, and Piper turned to look at the kid who was trying to back her up and shook her head at him. She didn't want him to get teased just because she was. But even though he noticed her glare that she shot at him, he didn't seem to care. "What I think is sweet, Isabel, is if you close your big mouth! I mean, come on, you're in third grade and you're already wearing lip gloss! Did you think it was funny when people laughed at you when you fell off the swing last year?"
It was the first time Isabel lost her proud smile on her face. The rest of the class burst out laughing, remembering that day when it happened. The kid that stood up for her looked like he was about to say something else, but he never got the chance because the teacher came back, practically dragging the principal behind him.
"What happened between the two of you young ladies?" The tall principal said, bending down on his knees to look at them in the eye.
"Nothing, sir," Isabel said quietly, "nothing at all."
When the principal left and the teacher told them to get back to their classwork, the kid pulled her aside to talk. "Hey. I'm sorry that they did that to you. They were real jerks, huh?"
Piper nodded and smiled at the blond boy. "Thanks for backing me up like that."
"No problem," the boy smiled back at her. "And for the record...I think you look very pretty today," he said shyly.
"My name is Piper, by the way," she said, feeling a big smile stretch on her face.
"I'm Jason."
Piper smiled again; she was proud of herself. She finally had something exciting to tell Annabeth and the rest, now. Because maybe...just maybe, she may have just made a friend on the first day of school.
"You feeling okay?"
"Yeah...it's just that...it's already the second day of school and we're pounded with homework. If Mrs. Lewis gives us another essay by the end of this week, I'm going to kill somebody," Piper said truthfully which made Jason laugh.
It was the second day of school of eighth grade, and Piper already felt like collapsing. It was just one more year until high school and then...she'd never have to see Isabel again in her life. Ever since that third grade incident that happened so long ago, it was as if Isabel was out to get her. And she had no idea why.
Well, she did, but she would have thought that she would have gotten over it by now. It happened in kindergarten. They were eating their lunch, Piper happily chatting with her three friends, when she went to go get milk from her cubby since she had accidentally left it there. Her cubby was right next to Isabel's and she just so happened to be there as well, talking to her best friend, Drew, who also happened to be Piper's sister.
Anyways, once she had gotten the milk out of her cubby, she immediately noticed that something was wrong. She made sure that the milk wasn't facing her when she did this, and opened the milk container. She may have accidentally pointed it at Isabel who was right next to her, and the milk shot out and spilled all over Isabel and over her expensive-as-it-can-get-for-a-six-year-old dress, causing Drew to slightly stifle a laugh.
Isabel had hated Piper ever since.
But that obviously wasn't the reason now. Piper didn't know how she knew but she just did. Even Isabel wouldn't keep a grudge as stupid as that forever. It was something else, but Piper had no idea what it was.
"I know, right? I heard Mr. James was planning on making us do an entire PowerPoint about the history of genetics!" Jason exclaimed.
"Again? We did that for him last year!"
He shrugged, but his smile still remained on his face. Piper found herself smiling back at him. Over the past couple of years, she had been developing somewhat of a crush on Jason Grace. She didn't know why she did, but she assumed it was because he was always there for her. Like he always had her back for things. But she soon learned to get over it/hide it, when she figured that he probably didn't feel the same way for her and it was better for them to be just friends.
And besides. She was in eighth grade. Even though plenty of the kids in her school had already started dating by the time they were in sixth grade, she didn't want to rush into that relationship business. She wanted to live her life while she could.
She was interrupted from her thoughts, however, when a group of girls walked towards them. Isabel was nowhere in sight, and Piper was sort of thankful for that. But this was a new clique of girls that Piper wanted no part of. The head of them, which Piper immediately recognized as Kelli, the cheerleaders' captain, and strutted straight up to Jason, not even giving a second glance to Piper. "Hey, Jason!"
"Hi, Kelli," he said with a smile. Piper knew he was faking it, but she knew the only reason why he was pretending to look glad that he saw her, was because he was trying to be nice. Unlike Piper, even a real bitch like Kelli couldn't bring down Jason's day.
"So did you hear about the party Will Solace is throwing at his house? I heard it was going to be really fun!" she exclaimed perkily.
"Yeah, I've heard of it."
"So have you gotten a date yet?"
"Nope."
"Well, you're in luck," Kelli stated, and slipped her arm in Jason's, already claiming him.
"No, you didn't hear me fully," Jason said, gently pushing her arm away from him. "I don't have a date because I'm not going."
Her jaw literally dropped; obviously, she wasn't expecting Jason to turn her down like that. "Um, why?"
"Because...I'm going to the movies with Piper," he said with a smirk. It was Piper's turn to act surprised. What the hell? They never planned that! But she was too busy enjoying the look of envy Kelli was shooting her to say that bit of information out loud.
"You're going to the movies with her?"
"You bet."
Kelli shook her head as if she couldn't believe what he was saying. Eventually, she spoke. "Whatever. Tell me when you come to your senses. Then maybe I'll take you back." And her and the rest of her clique walked/stomped away.
"Why did you do that?" She asked Jason as soon as they were out of their sight.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you could have gone to a party, Jason. You could have had a girlfriend! Instead, you chose to hang out with me? To the movies?" she asked, incredulous.
"Eh. She's not worth it," then he swung an arm around Piper's shoulders and said teasingly, "I'm in the mood for a movie, anyways."
Piper shook her head in disbelief and shrugged off Jason's arm. "Okay, I know why I'm not dating anybody, but why do you refuse to? A bunch of pretty girls basically fall to your feet, wanting to go out with you. How come you always refuse them?" she asked, really wanting to know. It was strange. She'd always assumed that Jason was the type that actually wanted to go out with somebody. She never thought that he would refuse every girl he met.
She never got to think more of it, though, because Jason's smile dropped a little. "I'm waiting for another pretty girl to come around."
Another girl? How come she never heard of her? Piper raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? Who?"
He smiled again and opened his mouth to say something, when the bell rang, signaling it was time for them to go to the next class. They were leaving the room when Piper turned to Jason again. "You didn't answer my question, Grace," she said with a teasing smile.
He just smirked at her before turning away, going to his next class. "See you after school, Pipes!" He shouted, still not looking at her.
Piper smiled sadly. She couldn't help the small disappointment creeping into her stomach. She knew he would never like her that way, so why did she let herself feel like this? It was pointless.
"Yeah," she muttered to herself as she walked to her next period, which was Math. "See you."
Third day of school. Junior year of high school. The day she'd remember for her entire life. The day when she finally had the guts to stand up to her. It was a Friday night and Jason and Piper were out to go get some Chinese food, when Isabel had walked by them once again. She wrinkled her nose; she could still smell the reeking perfume that was coming from her.
She had been laughing at something Jason had said, when Piper, once again, snorted and accidentally spit out her dry noodles. And where did it land? On Isabel's shirt, of course. "What the hell, Piper?! Are you normally this bitch-like, or are you just acting?" she exclaimed, dabbing away the sauce on her shirt.
Piper shrugged, "I guess I just am this way. And cool it. It was just by accident."
"Is it always an accident?" Isabel glared at her.
She opened her mouth to retort back, but Jason spoke up instead. "It wasn't her fault that you just happened to walk this way, you know. She could have-"
"Can it, Lover Boy." She shot back at him.
Jason's eyes grew wide before Piper turned to look at him with a confused expression. "Lover Boy? What's she talking about, Jase?"
"Nothing. It was just-"
"A confession you had made to me in seventh grade."
Jason started to frown, which made Piper narrow her eyes in suspicion. What exactly had he been hiding from her? Best friends were supposed to tell each other everything, right? So why did he tell Isabel, of all people? Was that the person he was talking about in eighth grade? That "pretty girl", as he put it? "What are you talking about?" she asked again, this time directing the question to Isabel.
She smirked, "You see, Piper dear, in seventh grade when we were assigned to be partners in that English project, do you remember that?"
Piper rolled her eyes. "How can I forget?" It was that very same year, she was paired up with the most annoying kid in the world. Octavian. He was even more rude and annoying than Isabel, and that was saying a lot.
"Yes, well, I had been casually talking with Jason until I brought up the idea that we should go out."
"Uh huh. Your point?" she asked blankly.
"Surprisingly, he said no and when I asked him about it, he said that he was interested in someone else."
Piper raised an eyebrow. Okay, that explained why Isabel was acting so harshly towards Jason. "So? Why are you surprised by that?"
"Why are you not?"
Piper rolled her eyes again. "Are you done now?"
Isabel smiled tauntingly. "No. I'm just getting started. May I ask you a question, McQueasy?" Piper flinched. That nickname she had given her was based on a time not so long back ago, when they were at a pizza restaurant and someone may have accidentally placed chicken in her pizza, and she threw it all up, since she was a vegetarian. Isabel had been calling her that ever since.
"No," Piper said, annoyed.
"Why haven't you dated anybody? Is it because of your uneven ratty hair? Or is it because you choose to wear two-years-sneakers?" she asked, ignoring Piper.
"I'm glad you finally got the word right," Piper said sarcastically. "And I haven't dated anybody because I choose not to. It's rather stupid if you ask me. And why are you asking me this? Don't you have something better to do? Like go to the salon and bleach your nails or something?"
"I'm asking you this, Piper McLean," she said menacingly, that smile never leaving her face, "because I simply want to know."
"Well, you have your answer. So bye," and she turned to leave.
"I know you like him," Isabel called out once again, obviously wanting Piper to catch the bait. Piper stopped in her tracks, and Isabel's smile appeared once again.
"What are you talking about?" Piper asked turning to look at her.
Jason tugged on her sleeve. "Come on, Piper. She's not worth it." But she surprisingly shrugged him off.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Piper asked once more, now getting really pissed.
"Drew told me. You can stop hiding it," she said, looking at her manicured nails, as if stating a fact.
"I don't like anybody. Whatever Drew told you, she's lying. Tell her to go get a life," she told her. And then she turned her back to her once again.
"I'm not. I see the way you look at him. You want him. But you choose to ignore it because you're too afraid," Piper turned to her again, ready to snap back at her with another insult, but Isabel continued, "You're way too afraid of rejection."
"Come on, Piper," Jason ordered. When Piper turned to look at him, ready to tell him to back off and that it was her fight that was way overdue, she stopped short. His face...it wasn't like anything she had ever seen him make before. He looked...annoyed? But that was understandable. How could you talk to Isabel and not be annoyed? But why did his expression look surprising to her?
Was he...jealous? No, that couldn't be it. But at the same time, it did. Piper shook her head from such thoughts and looked indignantly at Isabel. "I'm not afraid."
Isabel smirked again, and she mentally slapped herself. "So you're finally admitting it then?"
Piper frowned. This was just way too much pressure. She didn't want to admit that she loved someone in front of the person that she loved! But she knew she couldn't show how much it hurt her. "So what if I am? I'm not afraid to admit it."
And then that's when she said it. The two words that made Piper think she was going to die right on the spot. "Prove it."
Piper just looked at her blankly. "Um, what?"
"You heard me. If you're not afraid, then prove it. Kiss him. Right now. Unless you're too coward to do it."
"Piper," Jason said, interrupting their conversation. "Look, Pipes, don't listen to her. She's just a piece of bull-crap. Don't listen to what she has to say!"
Piper turned to him and gave him a sad smile. She turned to walk up to him, and Jason let out a relieved smile, thinking that she was going to listen to him and ignore Isabel. That wasn't the case, though. She walked straight up to Jason, grabbed the collar of his shirt, and pulled on it until his lips smacked onto hers. Jason had frozen; no doubt in shock.
She wanted to cry out loud. It was obvious that he didn't feel the same way as she did, but it had to be done. She needed to stand up to Isabel once and for all, and if this is what she wanted, she would get it. She pushed Jason's body away from her and turned back to Isabel. "See? I told you."
And she figured it was worth it when she saw the shocked face she had on. Obviously, she wasn't expecting for her to do that. But she quickly replaced it with another mischievous smirk. "Yeah. Isn't unrequited love just so beautiful?" she faked a brushing of a tear off her face mockingly. And then she laughed, "too bad Jason doesn't feel the same way, by the look he has on."
Piper twisted her head to see his reaction to this, her face burning bright of what she had just done. Why? she thought, why me of all people?
But he didn't even seem to be listening to them. He was just staring at the ground in shock. "Um, Jason?" she asked tentatively. Was he okay? He seemed...dazed. Yep, definitely not okay.
His face shot up, his ears reddening slightly. "Yeah?"
Piper raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright?"
"Um...I think so," he looked back at Isabel who was looking at them with a wide smirk. "What just happened?" he asked Piper.
She frowned. This was going a lot worse than she thought. Isabel chuckled again. "What did I tell you, McQueasy? You're just too-"
She never got the chance to finish her sentence, however, because she was cut off when Piper felt a pair of strong hands attack her waist and twist her around to see the smug expression on Jason's face. And not even a second later, he kissed her. It was her turn to be frozen. What was going on? Did he...love her back?
Before she could comprehend her thoughts, he pulled away, his breath as jagged as hers. "I've been waiting for you to do that since third grade," he said smiling at her.
"But that's the year we met."
"I know." Piper turned her head to see if Isabel was still standing there. And she was. She was gaping at him with her eyes wide open as realization finally struck her.
"It was her?! You were interested in Piper McQueasy?" she exclaimed.
Piper frowned again. She would never get Isabel. Isabel walked away, muttering a few curses under her breath. They were now alone. Piper stepped away from Jason. "She's gone now. You can stop acting."
"Acting?" then he frowned, "wait. Were you acting?"
Piper looked down and replied, "No. But I know you were." Great. She couldn't believe this was actually happening to her.
The next thing he did, surprised her. He laughed. "I wasn't acting. I thought you were acting. Piper..." he wrapped his arms around her waist securely and waited for her eyes to meet up to his striking blue ones. Eventually, they did and he continued, "you have no idea how I feel about you, do you? Ever since I met you, I knew you were special. I just couldn't explain to you because I thought you were going to reject me. I've always known that you didn't like dating, I just never knew why."
Piper looked down again, not believing what he was saying, but he took one hand from her waist and pushed up her chin, forcing her to look at him. "Remember that day you asked me what pretty girl I was interested in? And remember when I was finally going to confess to you, but that stupid bell rang so I never got the chance? That was you, Pipes. It was the only way I could tell you how I felt about you, but without you fully knowing. Pipes...I freaking love you. I never thought you would ever..."
"But why do you want me? There are so many other pretty girls out there for you. One of them could actually deserve you," she said, still refusing to believe him. This was all one big fib, right? She was sort of expecting a bunch of people to jump out of the nearby bushes and yell, "April Fools'!" even though it was nowhere near April, and Jason couldn't be that cruel to trick her like that.
"Yeah, sure, they're pretty I guess," he answered truthfully, and Piper felt the crushing feeling in her stomach again as he pushed back another piece of chocolate-colored hair out of her eyes. "But you're just...more. You're a different kind of pretty, Piper. You're beautiful."
Piper smiled. So he really meant it, huh? As if reading her thoughts, he said, "I mean it, Pipes. Someone was bound to say it sometime. I'm just glad I'm the one who got to say it first. You know how-"
"Just shut up and kiss me, Jason," she said, cutting him off. Really, it wasn't like him to say cheesy stuff like that, but she figured if he said that, then he wasn't lying.
He smirked and obliged immediately, his arms bringing her body closer once more. She deepened the kiss, and brought one hand out of his hair to rest it on his jaw before bringing his face even closer to hers. Judging by the long-full moan he made from the back of his throat, he didn't seem to mind. And for once in her life, she felt rather smug. Especially after he had chosen her out of all people.
And besides, if Jason believed she was beautiful, then so could she.
A/N: I apologize for the huge amount of cheesiness that was in here. I felt like they were kind of OOC, but I already wrote it and I don't feel like changing it, so there. I was going to say something else important, but I forgot...oh yeah. Review, please!
Till next time,
Penguin