(A/N: Well I finally updated this! I just got this motivation to do SOMETHING since I didn't want to draw/color and there was no one online and I was bored with my MySpace stuff. So here it is. Enjoy. Please review, no flames but constructive criticism is welcome- though I may or may not use that criticism, lolz who knows)



Chapter 2:

Light filtered in through Piper's window the next morning. She'd already begun to wake but was still disoriented when she remembered the date. Today was Sunday, the day after her grandmother's funeral and the anniversary of her father's death. Life was very cruel indeed. Piper had barely known either of them when Death snatched them from her. It just wasn't fair.

Piper sighed and sat up in her bed, stretching slightly before setting her feet to the floor and standing up. She looked at the time and could have smacked herself. She was going to be late for church! Piper hated going since she felt she could have preached the stupid sermons herself, but she went only because her father had been a devout Christian so she attended only to honor him. Piper took a quick shower and put on some nice clothes while she fixed her hair, brushed her teeth and raced down the stairs. Her mother was waiting for her in the car as she hopped in and they drove off.

One long hour later, Piper was home. Finally. She went up to her room and took out her laptop again. She'd been daydreaming in church(again) and came up with more ideas for chapters of her many stories. She kept these stories secret from her mother as most of them deal with witches and magic. Her mother flipped out a few years back when she wanted to be a witch for Halloween. Piper didn't get what the big deal was anyway, everyone knows that witches aren't real and neither is magic.

A little while later, Piper heard the sound of a big truck coming up their drive way. She looked out her window to see a truck with a U-haul trailer attached to it. These must be the things grandmother left to us in her will. Piper turned away and went downstairs as her mother opened the door.

"Just bring everything in here," her mother directed the men as they brought in boxes of things.

Piper noticed one box had a small sticker on it and recognized her grandmother's cramped handwriting on it. She curiously went over to it and inspected it. Piper was written on it, and due to the placement of the small sticker, it was amazing she even found it. Piper glanced up, seeing that her mother was too distracted with the men bringing in the boxes. This box isn't too heavy or big…and it is meant for me…I think… Piper figured that it probably was for her. Her grandmother had been into some New Age things and other things that a couple centuries back would have been called "witchcraft" even though it really wasn't. Her mother never approved of it which is one of the reasons why Piper had barely met Grandmother Meredith. This box probably had things it in that her grandmother knew Stacy wouldn't have approved of for Piper.

Piper sneakily arranged some of the boxes, making it look like she was only making more room for the others being brought in. Then, when her mother's back was turned, she picked up her box and crept upstairs. She slipped it under her bed to inspect it later and went downstairs to help her mother. They spent the next couple of hours going through the boxes. Piper politely listened to her mother's chatter and comments on the items she found, she even recited some good memories about some of them.

Stacy looked over at the clock. "Oh, Piper you need to go to bed. You have school tomorrow, remember? I'll finish up here."

Piper nodded, relieved and went back up stares. She closed the door and walked around the room, making it seem like she was getting ready for bed just in case her mother was listening. Finally she pulled the box out from under her bed and opened it. There wasn't much in there. Just some gemstones, some at the end of strings, candles, and something that looked like some sort of herb or incense. But what really caught her eye was the large, black, leather bound book at the bottom of the box. There was a silver dragon embossed on the front of the book in the center. The dragon look regal, reared on its hind legs, wings flared out, and jaws open in a silent roar.

Piper carefully picked up the book and slowly opened it. It was an old book, with crinkled yellowing pages. As she opened it, an envelope flittered out and slipped under her bed, but she didn't notice it. On the first two pages was a list of women with dates. The last name was her grandmothers, the last day was her death day but the first date…well it definitely wasn't her birthday. Piper did the math in her head, the first date would have been somewhere around the time Meredith was fifteen or sixteen. She would have been about my age…and these other women, I bet their my ancestors or something! She made a mental note to research it later. Even so, the number of women was enormous. It went back centuries and in the first few names, the lettering didn't even look like English, or any language she'd seen before.

Intrigued, Piper slowly browsed through the old book. There were pictures of strange creatures and text explaining them. There were some that looked like recipes, but it was for things that Piper had never heard of and some sounded completely worthless. And other things inside the book sounded suspiciously like spells, some for good and some for bad. "To Send A Soul To Hell" read one , then listed how to do it, another read "Calling A Spirit From Beyond", and "Summoning A Lost Witch". Piper's eyes widened slowly. Oh my god. Grandmother Meredith really did deal with witchcraft! And now she's given this crap to me? What the hell is going on? None of this stuff can really work. Piper shook her head and returned everything to the box, feeling uneasy. She pushed the box back under her bed, then changed into a pair of shorts and a baggy shirt. She crawled into bed, wondering why her grandmother gave her that stuff and what she should do with it. As she fell asleep, she once again dreamed of the two strange dragons, her pleading grandmother and the cloaked witches performing their spells.

*****

Piper walked into the school yard after getting out of her mother's car. She was a bit early so she'd have to hang around in the school yard until they opened the door to let the kids inside. She sat down at one of the tables under the shade of a tree. She saw Blade and his friends around the corner of the school smoking. At the other end of the school in a more field-like area, the schools track stars Hunter Jeanes and Artemis "Missy" Marshal had started a small game of soccer with some of their friends. Missy and Hunter were both Juniors, like Leiko. Piper looked around to see if any Sophomores she knew were around. She scowled slightly, seeing Vega Biancardi strutted into the school yard with her two clones Gina and Jenna on either side of her. Vega was tall, curvy, and blond. She had the looks that made every guy drool over her and she was the most popular girl of the Sophomore class, not to mention she ruled over Freshmen too and had quite a few influential friends in the Junior class too. Vega always wore expensive designer clothing, had perfectly styled hair and a bunch of wannabes following after her every single day. And since Gina and Jenna were her two main followers, they got most of the perks Vega had. Piper couldn't stand any of them, they were mean, stuck-up, rude, and pretty much the typical stereo-typed popular preppy girls. It was pathetic to see all those other kids crawling after them, sucking up for some attention.

The worst suck-up was definitely Jasper White. Jasper was a geeky guy: skinny, lanky, red-haired and freckled. He even had the glasses. He was pretty much a genius at school but had opted not to skip ahead a couple grades. He tried to hard to fit in with the popular crowd though, and Piper felt bad for him because the popular kids just laughed at him. He could do so much better than them, Piper thought, he's really a nice guy.

Vega and her wannabe's stopped in front of Piper's table. Vega cleared her throat and crossed her arms, obviously waiting for something. Piper blinked, obviously confused. Vega rolled her eyes. "You're in our spot, mute."

"Yeah, so move it," Gina and Jenna chorused. They crossed their arms and struck the same pose as Vega, mirroring her narrowed-eyed expression as well.

Piper sighed and gathered her stuff. She didn't really want to deal with them so it was better to just do as they say.

"Since when is this your spot? I don't see your names on it anywhere," another voice interrupted.

Piper turned her head to see Lieko, bright pink hair and all, standing behind her, arms crossed. Standing next to here was Ebony Moore, looking rather bored.

"We always sit here," Vega replied.

Leiko mocked concern. "Aw, how sad. Poor baby, I guess you won't be able to sit here today. Why don't you go cry to daddy about it so he'll buy it for you like he buys up everything else you want?"

Vega's eyes narrowed and she clenched her fists. Obvious frustration and disdain shone in her eyes, but Leiko was a Junior and Vega wasn't an idiot; everyone knew that no matter how popular you are in your class, you never pick fights with an upperclassmen, especially not one who has a black belt in karate. Vega whirled around and stormed off, her two wanna-be clones casting Piper dirty glares before following Vega with their noses in the air.

Leiko slid into the seat across from Piper. Piper smiled her thanks to Leiko and the pink-haired Japanese-American girl merely shrugged and replied, "No problem. I can't stand girls like that. I hate how they think they're better than everyone else and try to use their looks, money and parents to get what they want."

Piper nodded in agreement, those types of people made her pretty sick too. Isn't your family pretty rich, though, too? she wrote.

"Yeah, but we aren't all that superficial and stuff. My dad is actually kind of against having too many material items that have nothing to do with the family. The most expensive things we have are heirlooms pasted down through the generations. My father is very traditional in his beliefs. We still have no idea why he even agreed to leave Japan to come to this small town. My mom just asked him and…it happened. Personally, I like living here than in Tokyo- it was too crowded back there."

What about your brother?

"Ash? He doesn't care as long as he has his music and can be the smartest kid around. Before we moved here, he was the smartest kid in his age group in all of Japan."

So why is he only going to Community collage?

Leiko smirked a little bit and rolled her eyes. "Ash is really protective of me so he wants to stick around until he thinks I can finally be OK on my own- which will probably be when I'm 60."

Piper smiled in a silent laughter. She really liked how Leiko treated her normally, and not like an invalid. That was when she noticed Leiko staring at her in thought and made a "What?" gesture.

"You need a make-over," was the simple reply.

Piper's eyes widened and she shook her head, mouthing "Nooo!"

"Yes! You're always hiding behind your hair but your eyes are amazing, and so is your bone structure. You could look amazing if you would wear something other than jeans and a baggy sweatshirt every day. Why do you think those preppy bitches treat you like shit? Its because they know that you could look better than them if you tried and they hate it, so they treat you like crap so you'll keep up the whole 'I'm going to be invisible, I don't want to stand out' mentality."

But I do want to be "invisible". I don't like when people stare at me. I don't want to stand out- its bad enough that people make a big deal over me being mute and always give me pity looks or just stare at me like a freak show.

"You need a serious confidence boost. Where do you live? I'll come over after school." Leiko smiled, obviously not going to back down on her decision to give Piper a make-over.

Piper sighed, seeing there was no escape or a way to change Leiko's mind, so she ripped off a piece of paper and wrote her address on it. She passed it to Leiko who read it over and slipped it into her pocket.

"Cool. If you want, I could just drive you home after school."

You can drive?

Leiko laughed slightly. "Of course, silly! It's the only way I can get out of my brother driving me to school and then giving death glares to every good-looking guy around. I swear, Ash really needs a girlfriend."

The two girls laughed again(well…technically Piper wasn't laughing but it was close enough). The bell rang and they got up and went to their next classes. Of course, in the hallway, Piper found that she was headed straight towards Vega and her clones. Piper couldn't see much of a way around them, so she merely looked down and let her hair fall across her face, hoping that she could slip by them. A perfectly manicured hand with fresh bright pink nail polish came forward, knocking her books out of her arms, the body to whom the hand belong to deliberately knocking Piper to the ground. Piper fell forward and caught her self with her hands, looking up to see Vega smirking over her.

"Oops. Sorry," Vega said in a voice that implied she was anything but. She and her wanna-be followers turned away, laughing as they walked off.

Piper sat up and began collecting her school books, notebooks, binder and any loose papers. Unfortunately, some of them had been kicked away by the crowd of people. As she stood up with what she could find and looked for the others, she felt someone tap her shoulder and turned around to see Hunter Jeanes, one of the best athletes in school and definitely one of the hottest. He was also holding the rest of her papers and notebooks out to her.

"Are these yours?" he asked.

Piper nodded and took them back, looking down while she blushed furiously and mouthe a thank you. Hunter smiled, running a hand through his golden spikey hair, his dark blue eyes looking at her he replied, "No problem. See you around." He gave her a slight wave and walked off, not noticing that she had mouthed the words instead of speaking them. No doubt he thought that she mumbled the words out of embarrassment and they were lost among the loud roar of the throng of students around them. Piper hurried off to her class, still not believing that Hunter had looked at her, let alone that he'd spoken to her. He had never noticed her before, but then again who ever did? Lately it seemed that her luck was turning; for once one of her mother's boyfriends had a conscience, she had made a friend(thanks to Vega being a bitch), and Hunter Jeanes noticed her(thanks to Vega being a bitch)! And strangely, it was all after her grandmother died and left all that stupid witch craft stuff to her. I wonder if its… Piper shook her head, sitting down in her seat, Nah. I'm sure its all coincidence, or karma.


(A/N: Next chapter: Piper gets a make-over!! And someone might find that stuff she hid under her bed. I wonder if she's the only one who inherited freaky stuff from her grandmother? Find out whenever I get the motivation to actually write about it! Which very well could be today. Who really knows with me, :D)