"PIPER!"

Piper jumped and fell off the top bunk, crashing onto the floor with a groan. "What the heck, Jess?"

"Sorry." Jessica smiled sheepishly. She sat on her bed, the bottom bunk, her black hair falling over her shoulders. She was dressed in a baggy Mickey Mouse sweater and short denim shorts with black Converse sneakers. She was pretty, but didn't acknowledge it.

"Thanks for helping me up," Piper grumbled, pushing herself off the ground and pulling her hair out of the messed up ponytail she had slept in. Jess giggled.

"Well, I didn't wake you up for nothing. Let's go grab some breakfast, I hear they're running low on chocolate chip waffles so I'd really like to get a few before they run out, but Starbucks is open too, so maybe—"

"Jess?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Okay."

Piper quickly went into the bathroom and
changed into something she wouldn't normally wear: a white blouse, brown leather jacket with matching knee boots, dark blue skinny jeans, and dangly gold earrings.

Thanks to Jess, Piper's hair was now even and curled half the time. She even had a minor sense of fashion. Still, she refused to wear any makeup. Despite that, Piper couldn't believe what had gotten into her. She was getting closer and closer to an actual daughter of Aphrodite each
day, and she was actually pretty scared.

"Whoa, Piper, you're a knockout." Jess grinned at her, and Piper flinched. You're a knockout.

Jason had said that once.

Jason, the boy who left her for Reyna two years ago.

Piper shouldn't have been mad. Reyna was to Jason what Annabeth was to Percy.
Nevertheless, Piper thought that, as a daughter of Aphrodite, she was supposed to be the dumper, not the dumpee.

All right, now she was seriously scared.
"Piper?" Jess said. "You okay?"

Piper nodded her head, gulping. "Erm, yeah, I'm good."

Jess raised an eyebrow, but shouldered her bag and stood up, sticking her keys to the dorm into her pocket. Piper grabbed her bag and followed Jess out of their dorm, locking the door.

"Sooo... you meet anybody?"Jess asked as they walked out of their dorm building.

"... huh?"

"Like did you find a guy, or... "Jess said
awkwardly.

"No!" Piper said rather loudly, earning another raised eyebrow from Jess.

"Why so defensive?"

Piper sighed. "Well, you know that my last
relationship didn't go well, Jason ended up—"

"Hold up," Jess said, holding up a hand. "I
actually don't 'know'. Who's this Jason dude?"

Piper ran a hand through her hair and stared off. "It's complicated."

Jess stared at Piper, seemingly contemplated on something. Then her face brightened.

"Hey! Waffles!" She exclaimed perkily, grabbing Piper's wrist and pulling her the rest of the way to the cafeteria.

"Bipolar much..." Piper muttered, smiling as she shook her head.

While an overly-excited Jess ordered two chocolate chip waffles, Piper ditched her to go to the Starbucks they had on campus. She got an iced vanilla latte and a blueberry scone. She finished the latter immediately and sipped on her latte as
she walked out of Starbucks, putting on her
sunglasses.

Jess was waiting at the entrance of a cafeteria, a half-eaten waffle in her hand. She was glaring at Piper and tapping her foot angrily.

"Thanks for ditching me."

"Thanks for helping me up," Piper replied, smirking. Jess blinked, but the corners of her lips turned upward and she began to crack up with Piper.

Piper clutched her stomach as she brought her left wrist closer to her face, checking her watch. "Dang. I need to go check out my textbooks before class starts."

Jess nodded. "See ya."

"Bye." Piper walked off, her mahogany curls bouncing with each step. She was about halfway to the office when she
bumped into somebody.

"Oh gods, sorry!"

Hold up, gods?

Piper looked up. A familiar-looking boy with
messy blonde hair, striking blue eyes, and a little scar above his lip was holding out his hand.

Holy Hera.