Hey, guys. I know there are a lot of Goode High stories out there, but since the Roman camp is so underrepresented, I decided to change things up a bit. Not sure how long this is one is going to be, but look for lots of updates in the future. Mostly Jiper, some Jeyna, Percabeth, Frazel, and a bunch of other non-canon pairings that may or may not manifest into anything...we'll see. Enjoy.
Piper was in trouble. Big trouble.
She got in trouble a lot, sure, but she wasn't a bad kid by any stretch. Bad things just seemed to happen to her, and when those bad things happened, she was always in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Take Piper's latest "stunt" for instance; Jane, her father's evil assistant, claimed she'd stolen half of the jewelry inventory at Tiffany's. That wasn't necessarily true. It only looked that way from Jane's point of view.
Piper was really just trying to buy something nice for Jane's birthday. Since Jane was a shallow and materialistic person, Piper under the impression that a fancy, expensive piece of jewelry would actually make Jane like her, or at least give her a shred of respect. Piper was just about to leave when the clerk simply offered her a large bag full of all of the jewelry she'd looked at, free of charge.
Piper had to admit that it did seem kind of sketchy, but she thanked the clerk anyway and walked out of the store. Then, the alarms went off, the mall security came, and it went downhill from there. Now, Jane hated her more than ever for "tarnishing the public image" of her perfect father. This time, the courts said that Piper would have to undergo "serious disciplinary measures and scheduled therapy" or get arrested and put in jail for six months.
Today was Piper's intervention meeting. There was Jane, sitting next to Tristan, her arms folded, her furrowed eyebrows making her eyes look even more severe than usual. Then, there was Tristan McLean himself, who was shooting his daughter apologetic stares, even though Piper wasn't sure he meant them anymore. Finally, there was the new addition; Sally Jackson, a behavioral specialist from New York who dealt with specialized cases. Piper didn't like being referred to as a specialized case.
"Piper, I honestly don't know what to do with you anymore," Jane said, tapping her perfectly manicured nails against the glossy desk. "We've tried boarding school after boarding school, specialist after specialist. We're getting the same results. Maybe we ought to just throw you in jail. Maybe that'll knock some sense into you."
"Jane," Sally said severely, darting her bright blue eyes over to Tristan's assistant, "I think you should leave. There's no reason for you to make Piper more uncomfortable. It also isn't fair for you to condemn her repeatedly like this. In fact, I believe your unkind speech may be contributing to the problems that Piper is experiencing."
Jane disregarded Sally and turned her attention to Tristan. "Mr. McLean, I need to make arrangements for your daughter. It is very important that I am in this evaluation. Will you please explain that to Ms. Jackson?"
Tristan sighed. "Jane, maybe you could give us a few minutes alone. I'll let you know when I'm ready for you."
Jane looked angry but left anyway, closing the door forcefully behind her. As soon as the clicking of her heels diminished into silence, Sally let out a sigh of relief. "I thought I was going to have to fight her. That would have really sucked. I'd hate to get this new suit wrinkled."
Piper cracked a smile. She'd only known Sally for about five minutes, but she liked her already.
"What can we do?" Tristan asked. His voice was pleading. "We just want to do what's best for everyone, especially Piper."
Sally thought for a moment. "Well, I know my son's girlfriend lives in San Francisco. They have a very nice family, and she attends a great public school. His cousin attends that school as well. Her stepmother is my colleague, and if I can get in contact with her, she might be willing to take Piper in for a school year. Maybe a change of scenery would help her."
Tristan frowned. "I don't know. I wouldn't want to just push all of our problems onto another family like that." Piper felt offended. She knew she was the problem, but her dad was acting like she barely existed.
"I assure you, Mr. McLean, it would be no problem for them at all. Piper would even have a sisterly figure in her life, something I think would be good for her ongoing development. But, we can discuss other options. Like you said, you want to do what's best for everyone. However, in my professional opinion, I think this would be best."
Tristan nodded. "I trust your professional opinion, then. Please let me know if you can get in touch with your colleague."
As Sally left, Piper couldn't help but wonder if this time, things will really change or if she'd just screw everything up again. This was her last chance. If she blew it, things would really get bad.