PIPER
The stupid beauty pageant I had signed up for finally came around.
"Jason, do you think I should wear the pink sleeveless dress or the teal strapless dress?" I asked.
"Umm..." Jason scratched his head. As I showed him the pictures of the dresses on my phone. "I think...the teal one..."
"That's what I was thinking, too..." I muttered.
"Pipes, why are you even doing this?" Jason asked. "You may be a daughter of Aphrodite, but this isn't you."
"Are you kidding? This is exactly me; signing up for stupid things to prove myself to other people." I said.
"You don't have to prove yourself to anyone," Jason said, "you've proven yourself to me, and I love everything about you."
"Jason, if you loved me, then you wouldn't be against my decisions." I snapped, and I stormed off.
Finally the day of the school pageant arrived.
I hid behind the curtain in the teal dress, feeling like millipedes were using my stomach as a dance hall.
At least that rotten brat Chloe wasn't here...
Suddenly the door slammed open. And guess who was standing in the doorway.
"Chloe, what are you even doing here?" I snapped. "Didn't you get suspended?"
"My daddy made a little exception," she said, "I always win the beauty pageants, and there is no way I am losing this one, especially to a little Dumpster Girl like you."
Dumpster Girl. Drew used that term a lot against me. I could tolerate only one person calling me that, but two was unthinkable.
"I will win this pageant, and you will see that I represent the other Dumpster girls like me," I said.
"Hm," Chloe said, and she strutted away to change into her dress.
Finally the show started. And I was startled to see the host of the show: LEO?
"Hello ladiesandgentlemen, and welcome to this year's Miss BAG beauty pageant! I'm your host, Leo Valdez! Let's meet the contestants!" He said smoothly into the mic.
We were called out onstage.
"Here we have...Piper McLean!" Leo shoved the mic under my nose.
"I'm Piper, and I..." I had to name a hobby. I had no hobbies. I couldn't swordfight at Camp. The only thing I could do was charmspeak. Charmspeak. I couldn't say 'Charmspeak' itself, but I could say something really convincing..."I'm Piper and I love all of you!" I said, slathering on the Charmspeak like butter on toast.
The crowd cheered loudly for me. I hammed it up by blowing a kiss out to the audience. Some guy actually stood up and caught it, and that's when I realized that the boy was Jason. My heart fluttered; he had come to support me, even after I was rotten to him.
"Hear that, ladies and gentlemen? We certainly have an instant-favorite!" Leo said. "And next up we have..."
"Chloe Clayton, and my daddy loves me!" Chloe said, blowing a kiss to her dad in the stands.
I rolled my eyes as the crowd cheered.
Leo kept going down the line. Chloe sneered at me.
"Nice try, Dumpster Girl, but I wasn't affected by your little sweet phrase," she said.
Did that mean she could detect Charmspeak? She screamed "mortal", but I wasn't so sure. Some mortals could see through the Mist...
"Next up is the...well, ah, the nerds chose this one, so...the Cosplay portion of the pageant. See how many characters you can recognize! We'll be right back!" Leo said.
Cosplay? Seriously, those nerds needed to get a hobby.
As I went backstage to change into a costume, I was surprised to see Annabeth in my dressing room.
"Hey Pipes," she said, "I just was wondering what you had in mind for the cosplay portion."
"What do you know about cosplay?" I asked.
"Piper, I live in the Athena cabin. Most people call it 'Nerd Central'. You don't know how many games of Dungeons and Dragons I've been sucked into. And technically, cosplay is just a modern word for dress-up." Annabeth explained. "Now...I think you would best be...Hermione Granger from 'Harry Potter'."
In a few minutes, my hair was a mass of brown bushy fluff and I was wearing a Hogwarts uniform. "What?"
"Haven't you ever read the series?" Annabeth asked.
"Well..." I hadn't really. In truth, I had actually been on set of the movies, but I'd never found time to read the books.
"Now get out there!" Annabeth pushed me into the hallway just as Chloe sashayed by.
"Wow Dumpster Girl, that is so lame," she said.
Annabeth came out of the dressing room.
"Another girl in the room? Wow Piper, I thought you had a boyfriend, but I guess not..." Chloe snickered.
"She's not...I'm not..." I stammered.
"Who are you supposed to be, Chloe? Princess Zelda or Princess Peach?" Annabeth asked.
"I'm not going as one of your lame nerd girls, Annabeth," Chloe said. "I'm going as Cinderella because, unlike you, Annie, I actually have a chance of finding a Prince Charming." She cackled as she walked away.
Annabeth had a gleam of death in her eyes. "I wanna kill her so bad...but she's mortal, and mortals aren't worth beating down."
Break was soon over. We were called out onstage to do a ten-second skit of acting out who our character was.
When I went up, I pointed a stick out into the crowd and yelled the only Harry Potter spell I actually remembered: "Expelliarmus!"
Luckily, I recognized one of the stagehands as a daughter of Hecate, goddess of magic. She winked at me and cast a spell from her fingertips, and the crowd was awed.
"Nice job, Beauty Queen," Leo said, giving me a thumbs-up.
Next was the talent portion. I had no talents, besides Charmspeak. I could speak fluent French if I tried. Maybe I could make up something with that...
I stumbled onto the stage in two-inch high platform heels and my pink dress. I straightened myself and said, "I am going to do something no one's ever done before: recite a Haiku in French. A Haiku is a poem with three verses, the first and last having five syllables, and the second verse having seven."
I cleared my throat. "Je suis le poisson." (I am the fish.)
"Je suis le poisson. J'aime nager dans la mer bleue. Je suis le poisson." I said. I didn't realize I had said: "I am the fish. I love to swim in the blue sea. I am the fish." It was hardly poetry, but I think I still won the crowd over.
"You call that talent?" Chloe sneered. "My dog poops with more talent than you."
"Give it up, Chloe; they love me." I said.
"No, they love me!" Chloe screamed.
She grabbed my shoulders and shoved me. I shoved her back. She shoved me out onto the stage, and I slammed into a girl playing the tuba.
Everyone laughed at me, and I was mortified. I ran backstage to cry.
I was surprised when Jason tapped me on the shoulder and kissed me on the forehead. "You'll be okay, Pipes. Come back strong."
"You're right Jason," I said. "I'm sorry I was so horribly mean to you earlier this week. I'm so sorry..."
"Don't be sorry, Pipes; I love you." He said. "Now get out there and win this."
Finally, we were all lined up out on the stage for the question portion. After this, the winner is chosen.
Leo pressed the mic to my face. "So Piper, if you could go anywhere for one day, where would you go?"
"Um, well, I think I would...go to Africa to help the starving children," I said, layering on the Charmspeak. It wasn't completely lying. I would go to Africa to help starving children.
"Wow, listen to that, ladies and gents. This girl's got a heart of pure gold for sure!" Leo clapped his hands, and the crowd did the same.
"Now Chloe, if you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?" Leo asked Chloe.
"I already have a million dollars, Leo. But I would donate it all to charity!" Chloe announced.
Yeah right, I thought, the National Chloe Clayton Charity...
"Alright judges, you've heard it here! Now let's begin the voting! Is there anything the contestants would like to say before we pick a winner?" Leo asked.
"I just want to say that my daddy will give all of you one hundred dollars if you vote for me!" Chloe said.
That was it. I snapped. "Chloe, that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. You only care about yourself, not other people. You think you can just buy your way through everything. Well, I'm here to say that you can't. And you may ask, 'Who are you to say something like that? You're poor as dirt.' Well, I'm here to announce that I am not poor and I am not rich. But my father is just as famous as your dad."
"And who could your dad possibly be? No one is as important as Albert Clayton," Chloe said.
"My dad is Tristan McLean." I said. "And I'm here to say that even though my dad is a famous movie star, I don't represent the rich kids. I represent everyone, from the cosplaying nerds to the nice rich kids, like my friend Rachel Dare. I know that money can't buy you happiness. I don't even care if you vote for me at all; I just want you to know that I won't represent myself. I represent everyone."
Jason stood up in the audience and clappped. Then, two other people applauded. Then five, seven, ten, fifteen...everybody stood up and applauded.
No Charmspeak was even involved in that speech; it was completely from the heart.
"Well, the judges have counted out the votes, and it is unanimous! The winner of the Miss BAG beauty pageant is...PIPER MCLEAN!" Leo announced.
Two stagehands came out with a sash, tiara, and a bouquet of roses.
Jason dashed onto the stage and scooped me up, holding me high on his shoulders.
"Piper! Piper! Piper!" Leo chanted.
"PIPER! PIPER! PIPER!" The audience chanted.
Chloe stamped her foot and stormed offstage, up to her father. "Daddy, didn't you vote for me?!"
"Sorry sweetie, but I voted for Piper. Now come along; you're grounded for a month. No private jet trips with your friends." Mr. Clayton said.
I laughed as Jason carried me offstage and out to the school field, where the rest of my friends were waiting for me. They were the ones I represented.