A/N: Another raaaaandom oneshot. Once again, for pjo_fic_battle's summer contest thing, for the prompt Piper & Rachel (gen), being rich&famous isn't it's all cracked up to be. It was fun. I liked it.
Disclaimer: Nope.
Piper thinks that the Camp's Oracle is kind of weird.
She has frizzy red hair, a very freckled face, and a wild grin that just symbolizes trouble. Piper would normally be scared of people like her, but she considers all that's happened in the past few weeks, and she realizes that this girl is nothing to be scared of at all. In fact, Piper has found herself more than a few times hanging out with Rachel, talking and eating satyr-grown strawberries.
"And that is how you do it," Rachel says as she gestures over to the satyr playing a small tune. Piper watches in wonder at how the strawberry vines curl and grow to notes the creature plays. Nearby, a newly ripened strawberry appears, and with a grin Piper's companion snatches it up and sinks her teeth into it, making an appreciative noise.
"But… How?" Piper questions. There are still so many things about this place that surprises her, even though she's been bunking in the Aphrodite cabin for weeks now. The fact that a half-goat man can grow strawberries with a reed pipe mystifies her. For all she knew, the Camp could be shipping out strawberries for money, and all those strawberries that she used to eat with her dad were grown by goat-men.
At the thought of her father, Piper's amazed expression diminishes into a slightly yearning look, and Rachel notices. The redhead shifts towards Piper and faces her, and as Piper stares into Rachel's eyes, she sees the little flecks of gold in her green irises.
"What's up, Piper?" she asks casually. Rachel offers her a strawberry, and Piper takes it slowly.
Piper shrugs as she raises the strawberry to her mouth, letting it rest on her lips as she talks. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking about my father."
Rachel's eyebrow quirks. "Do you miss him?"
Piper struggles on that. She remembers the days when they would spend the day out on the beach, and she remembers having picnics of whatever he had brought at the time: gourmet tuna sandwiches, thirty dollar potato salad, and once- caviar. She remembers just taking the first bite of the tuna sandwich, and then her dad having to go attend to 'business,' leaving her on the beach by herself with too many tuna sandwiches. Those times made her angry, because she wanted to be with her dad, not the guy who had fish eggs and ten servants at the snap of his fingers. She didn't miss that man at all.
Piper also remembers the times where it was just her dad and her on a Saturday morning, both clad in their pajamas watching Saturday morning cartoons. They'd eat store bought stuff, like Fruity Pebbles, and they'd sit until late afternoon laughing- genuinely laughing. That man that she ate Fruity Pebbles with was the dad she missed.
She thinks for too long, because her silence makes Rachel lean forward and flick her forehead to get her out of her trance. "Hello? Earth to Piper? You miss your dad or what? I know I don't miss my dad."
"What? Why?" Piper asks. Camp Half-Blood's oracle is a mystery to her, really. Piper's natural curiosity kicks in.
Rachel shrugs. "Me and my dad haven't really been close. We've had a rough history… for a few years he tried to get me to go to an all-girls academy, when I just wanted to pursue the arts," at this, Rachel's expression gets a little bitter. "But, for him being all understanding about me traveling around during the Titan War, I agreed, and now I'm stuck at this god-awful boarding school with a bunch of whiny chicks."
Piper giggles a bit, because it sounds a lot like her stay in the Aphrodite cabin. "That stinks," she says. "I'm taking it your dad's rich or something?"
Rachel nods. "Of course. What about your dad?"
Piper shifts a little. "Well, I do miss him. But he's a famous actor, so it's usually all business for him. I miss the old days where we would just hang out and stuff."
"Oh," Rachel says intelligently, and then she picks another strawberry. "Well, I guess you've got it bad. But you know, that means you're kinda-sorta famous too."
Piper shrugs. "Yeah, I mean, people know who I am."
"If I wasn't who I was- let's say I was a daughter of Aphrodite or something- I would say that being kinda-sorta famous is really cool."
Piper snorts. "Please, being famous isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'd rather just be rich or something."
Rachel grins- that grin that Piper says is the symbol of trouble. "Well, I can tell you that being rich isn't all it's cracked up to be either."
The two girls grin and grab a strawberry. They're more alike than they thought.
A/N: Shitty ending, but oh well. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Leave a review and let me know!(: Thanks for reading!
