Where Angels Fear To Tread

1.

Piper

Piper Crandall walked through the halls of Duchesne, she always thought it was very important the way one walked, so Piper always made sure her walk was like the walk down the runway, but maybe more scary. Piper was sixteen years old, or at least in this cycle.

Piper herself wasn't sure exactly how old she was, she had been sixteen years old many, many times. Piper was older than all the humans in schools, all the humans in the world, she often thought about that, and she thought of how long she would live on after all the Mortals were dead.

Though truly, Piper rarely thought about her Immortal status, or when she did, she just thought about how much better it was than being human. Piper really didn't have much time to do deep thinking, she had to keep up with her friends, who her friends were currently dating, if Piper hated anyone who they were dating, what kind of shoes they bought over the weekend, and if Piper thought any of them were ugly.

Piper Crandall had quiet a busy, shallow life, and Piper had been just fine with that. Well that was the before, now it wasn't so shallow or silly now. Not since Rio two years ago, not since their Regis went missing, not since Victoria died.

Being Immortal, Piper had no idea how to deal with death, how to accept that some one wasn't here anymore and you weren't ever going to see them again, Piper had no clue what to do.

Victoria and Piper had been friends for so long, and everyday Piper began to accept that she would never see Victoria in the hallway again, and they would never again giggle about boys from their English class, or go shopping Downtown, or watch bad movies and eat Ice cream together.

Victoria was gone and she wasn't ever coming back. Sure, Piper had other 'friends' but they were friends you say at lunch with, copied off their Math Homework and went out dancing with them sometimes, nothing too serious.

Piper had lost the one person she counted on for everything, and Piper wasn't good at dealing with losing stuff. Now Piper had Jaime and Willow, she had Lucy and Soos, but they weren't here real friends, Piper had been alone for nearly two weeks now and it was only getting worse.

Piper sat with Lucy Forbes and Katie Sheridan at Lunch that day, she had only begun to be friends with Katie this year, even though they had been going to Committee meetings together for almost two years now.

Katie was the classic Duchesne girl, tall blonde and bored, who wore tall strappy shoes and tight jeans, Piper wasn't sure she liked Katie yet. Lucy and Katie chatted animatedly together, sometimes stopping to ask Piper her take on the matter, which she would answer "Yes" or "No" it depended on the question.

Piper hadn't touched her food yet, she hadn't been hungry in days. Lucy had asked Piper if she had plans tonight, Piper said she didn't, so she was going to a party at Lucy's tonight. That was okay with Piper, Piper loved parties, she loved getting ready for parties, she loved hooking up at parties. But so did Victoria.

In fact, the last time Piper had seen Victoria was at a party, Jaime's party, the last time she had seen Victoria, Piper had been mad at her, and she couldn't take that back, not ever. And for what? Over a boy, was it something really that stupid?

Because Victoria was right, Bryce was a douche. Bond or not, Piper never wanted to speak with him again. Then Jaime Kip and Booze Langdon showed up at their table, talking loudly about something or another. "Hey Pip!" Jaime said taking a grape from her plate, Jaime always called her Pip, he used to call her Pippi Longstockings in Kindergarten, but he had gotten over that.

"Hey Jaime" Piper answered "Are we going to see you tonight" "Of course, wouldn't miss it" "Great" he said, and turned his attention back to Booze. Piper then heard a familiar inky laughter, the hair on her arms stood up on end, as she saw Bryce Cutting, covered head to toe in clay walk toward their table.

Jaime and Booze broke out in an appropriate chorus of "Oh, Shit man!" and Lucy and Katie just looked disgusted.

Then his dark eyes flickered over to her and he stopped grinning for a moment. He looked a little sad for a minute, which just made Piper angrier for some reason, they were bonded, Piper had discovered, and he didn't care.

Piper hadn't expected him to suddenly sweep her off her feet in a passionate declaration of his love for her, which never happened. She hadn't even expected them to start dating, however an acknowledgment that she existed would have sufficed, a simple "Hello" when they say each other in the hallway, but No, apparently that was just too much effort for Bryce Cutting.

No, instead, he would just mess around with every girl he saw. Piper got up, anger flaring inside her, she didn't want to look at him. "Hey, Man, just one minute" she heard Bryce say, but Piper just walked faster.

"I don't want to talk to you" Piper said fiercely, they were along in the halls, which Piper guessed was a good thing; she didn't wanted hundreds of spectators whispering about how she freaked out on Bryce Cutting.

"I know" he said calmly "I just wanted to say sorry" "You're sorry, oh, that's cute" "I didn't mean-I was an ass" "She wouldn't have gone with him if it wasn't for you" "You don't think I know that" "Well, do you?"

"Yes" "You don't know me" he said "And I don't want to" "I'm Sorry Piper, what else can I do?" "Just please, stay away from me, I was wrong about you" "Sorry?" he looked hopeful for a moment, and Piper didn't understand why.

"I shouldn't have defended you, I don't want anything to do with you" with those words Piper turned away.