A/N: So this is one of my longer one-shots, because I feel like writing something long. Usually my one-shots are like, really short, but this time ya'll are lucky. Enjoy!
Jason
"...and then I was like, dude! Back off! You don't want to get rabies, do you?!"
We all laughed. Lunch was one of the only times of day that we could chill out without being yelled at by a teacher.
Me and my friends-which consisted of Percy Jackson, Leo Valdez, Nico di Angelo, the Stoll brothers, and a few others-were pretty much the only thing worth coming to school for. I didn't like education that much, and there were plenty of bullies here at Goode High. My friends made it all worth it, though.
Connor and Travis Stoll got into an intense arm wrestle, and I busied myself with my burrito, my eyes wandering around the cafeteria.
And that's when the doors opened.
In came a slender girl, with brown hair braided with feathers and astonishing kaleidoscope eyes. Instantly, half of the boys in the lunch room were staring at her like she was some hero, half of the girls were sneering at her in jealousy, and the other half of the girls were all waving for her to sit at their table.
Even Connor looked up, making him lose the arm wrestle.
"Who's that?" He asked.
"Piper McLean," Percy answered. "One of the most popular people here at Goode."
I snorted. "Who does she think she is, walking around like she's some sort of big shot?" I watched as she sat down by a group of girls, smiling at them.
"I don't know man, but she might just beat me for "Hottest Person in the School"," Leo said, staring at Piper with wide eyes.
"Come on guys, she's probably a snob. Lay off." I stared at them as they all stared at Piper.
"Yeah, guys, Jason's right. We have more important things to be talking about." Percy swallowed the last bite of his lunch. "Like the math test next period."
"Oh crud." I had completely forgotten about that.
After lunch, we headed to math. The teacher, Mr. Simmons, looked at us menacingly, holding a thick stack of papers.
We all took our seats in rows, and he silently passed out the test.
After I started it, it noticed that it wasn't too hard. I finished in a decent amount of time and walked up to turn it in. He snatched it from me with a scowl.
I turned around and started walking back to my seat, when I caught sight of Piper McLean, her face screwed up in concentration.
I smirked as I sat back down. She wasn't good at everything.
But when she stood up to turn her paper in, Mr. Simmons gave her a wide smile which she returned.
I caught sight of Percy rolling his eyes from across the room.
Over the next few days, I noticed that people were paying Piper way too much attention. Girls squealed whenever she came in the room, and teachers sucked up to her. In the hallways, I was shunted to the side as boys practically threw themselves in front of her.
"What is with that girl?!" I said to Nico one day during lunch. "It's like she's radiating some sort of evil...thing."
"I guess people just like her," he had shrugged.
Over the course of the week, she was the talk of the school. Whenever I walked around, that's all girls were gossiping about.
"Oh my gosh, where does she get the feathers for her hair?"
"Honestly, I just wish she would talk to me during lunch. But she's too busy with that Annabeth girl."
"I hope I get partnered up with her for science!"
And even the guys, too. During lunch, I overheard some conversations that made me want to retch.
"Do you think she'll go out with me of I give her flowers?"
"Okay. I'm going to go up to her after lunch and see what she's up to."
"Penelope McLean, won't you be mine?!"
Piper was just weird. Maybe her evil spell had worked on the rest of the school, but not on me.
I was immune.
Over the weekend, I was hoping the frenzy about her would go down, but it didn't. People were gossiping about her on every social media site. And Monday was practically a repeat of the previous week.
Teachers sucking up to her, people aka if her to go out with them, or its at their lunch table, or do their hair.
Honestly? I bet if she told someone to jump off a cliff, they would do it wholeheartedly.
I even bumped into her on the way to lunch accidentally. The heavy stack of books that were obscuring her face cascaded to the floor. Her face was pink from either breathing too hard, embarrassment, or both.
"Sorry," she whispered, bending down to pick up her books.
I sighed. Because I didn't want to be hated forever, and solely for that reason, I helped her pick up her books.
"Thank you," she said breathlessly after I handed her the rest of her books.
And that's when I realized that hadn't said a single thing that whole time, and probably looked infinitely stupid.
"Watch where you're going," I threw back at her coldly, walking towards the cafeteria. I expected her feelings to be hurt, but instead, when I turned the corner, I saw her staring at me in awe.
The next day, Piper was absent.
And it was like a dark cloud had passed over Goode High. Everyone seemed to be in a bad mood.
She was absent the rest of the week too, and I tried to feel happy about it, but something wasn't right.
On Saturday, after trying and failing to finish all of my homework, I decided to go for a bike ride to clear my mind.
It had rained yesterday, and the neighborhood was silent except for a few crickets. The sky was dull and darkish gray, and I could hear thunder clapping every now and then.
I rode around the neighborhood once, before going down the street towards the school.
The main building stood looming over me as I turned the corner. The creek flowing by the school was overflowing and full of rocks. And by the stream, I saw a person with a large gray hoodie, dark jeans, flip flops and brown hair, staring out into the distance.
I recognized it as McLean.
I was so transfixed that I didn't notice where I was going and my bike tripped over a rock, sending me crashing to the ground.
"Ow..." I slowly pushed myself up, trying to ignore the large scrape on the side of my face. Kicking my bike into the grass, I walked towards Piper.
As I got closer, I noticed she was crying.
"Hey-are you okay?" A voice said. It took me a few moments to realize it was mine.
She turned to look at me, and surprise lit up her features for a moment, before she sunk back into her sad look. "Yeah, I'm fine." She wiped her nose.
"You're crying."
She didn't seem to find any excuse for that, so she sighed.
"It's just-ever since I moved to Goode, people have been crowding around me so much, treating me like some sort of Queen. And they're kind of starting to harass me."
I was taken aback. "And...you don't like the attention?"
"Of course not! I'm afraid to walk home now, because people try to follow me! I asked my dad to disconnect my computer because people keep messaging me weird stuff! I was absent this week because I-I just need a break. From everything." She groaned and put her head in her hands. "It's hard to explain."
"No-I understand. I guess it can get pretty annoying sometimes."
She sniffled. "That's a first."
"Why are you here?"
"Some of my 'friends' drove me here to do something or other but they found this guy they liked and ditched me. And I live far away from the school and have no idea how to get home."
"I can ride you," I said automatically.
She looked up. "Really?"
"Sure. If you tell me where you live. Don't worry-I won't stalk you."
She let out a shaky breath. "Thanks." She tried to wipe her eyes but failed epicly, only making more water leak out of them.
"Hey-it's okay." Before I knew what was doing, I had given her a hug.
She returned it. "Thanks...um...?"
"Jason," I said. "Jason Grace."
A few moments later, she pulled away. "Do you know why I looked at you weirdly when you bumped into me that day?"
I grimaced. "Because I was extremely rude."
"No. Because you were one of the only people who ever talked to me so rudely. I actually liked it-it was a change from being idolized and stalked."
I found myself laughing. "Well, I was going to apologize, but..."
She laughed. "I like you, Jason."
"And you're not as bad as I first thought, Piper. Come on, I'll ride you home."
So I got onto my bike, and Piper sat behind me, backwards, directing me to her house.
It was pretty far away. By the time we reached it, fat droplets of water started falling from the sky.
"Bye, Jason," Piper said, smiling.
"Bye," I said waving.
She stuffed her hands in the pockets of her big hoodie, walking up to her front porch, when I blurted:
"Want to hang out tomorrow?"
She turned around. "Sure. Want to go to the mall? I think I need a costume to go incognito at school."
I laughed. "Pick you up at...noon?"
"Sounds good. See ya."
"Bye."
She opened her door with one last wave and disappeared inside.
On the ride back home, I threw my hands up in the air happily, while riding the bike.
And this time, I didn't fall.
A/N: I hope you liked! Please review if you did! Bie!
