Camp Jupiter: War Games

Piper "Menuet" McLean

Nyssa

Cohort 1, Defense

"Please tell me you play the euphonium, we're missing...well, we don't have any."

Words: 1,039

So...this is for the Camp Jupiter: War Games forum. My goal is to do all eleven prompts from the October 2020 thread, which are band prompts, eleven, one for each musical instrument in the standard concert band, and each one with one character. My next is 'Euphonium', with Piper McLean, and this is "Menuet", so here it is.

Menuet

"Please tell me you play the euphonium," says the harried looking girl who meets her at the front door. She's wearing a name tag that says Gwen upside down on her shirt, "we're missing...well, we don't have any." Piper curses under her breath. Drew sure picked a terrible time to tell her favorite instrument section that they weren't supposed to come. Sometimes she feels like the only dedicated euphonium player at Olympus High...which she probably is.

"I do, actually," she says, and the girl- Gwen- brightens up.

"Oh, thank god," she sighs. "Sorry, it's just we kind of need euphoniums, and well, it's better to have one than none, right?" she's older than Piper is, probably an Olympus High alumni. Piper pities her task- it can't be easy to be coordinating the efforts of a hundred high school students for their band showcase.

"Well, I mean...I'm only in one of the bands," Piper says guiltily. "Drew and the others will probably show up..." but they won't. Piper's near late and Drew holds power over them all even though she was bumped down to second chair. Mitchell and Lacey, if they go, will get a verbal bashing from her the next day for going to the 'optional' band showcase. Piper will be made to look in the wrong.

She hates being in the euphonium section sometimes- she's in Wind Ensemble, the only one, but they all have to go to some pointless all-ensembles-practice on Monday's and Thursdays, where she's the first euphonium and Drew's second, so. Tomorrow, Drew will gripe and grouse.

Gwen gives her a half smile. "I hope so. Good luck!" she's rather cheery for the boring job she's been saddled with and Piper appreciates that, so she gives Gwen a smile in return and walks inside.

"Hey, Pipes," Jason smiles. Whatever they're off relationship is- she knows he's her boyfriend now. Now that Reyna and him are broken up for good (and have been for a few months.) "Where are Drew and the others?" she groans.

"Off in Lalaland. If any of them come I'll give you ten dollars."

"So, Annabeth, where'd you go to middle school?" Annabeth, the newcomer that was Thalia's and Luke's old friend, is interesting- cute and princess-y with a hard edge in her eyes- the windows to her soul. Piper wants to know her better.

"Uh, one of the public schools in Olympia," she answers vaguely. "I lived there with my mom since I was seven." Olympus High is in Olympia, but not in the same place. Piper doesn't press.

"That's cool." she shrugs. "Do you like it here?"

Annabeth gives her a half smile- a little bit like, I know what you're trying to do- but she responds. "It's better than Pennsylvania." Piper's never been to Pennsylvania, but she has been to California and West Virginia, even though those aren't really the same- after all, California isn't even on the same side of the United States that Pennsylvania is on.

"Guys! We still haven't given Annabethie a name!" Annabeth rolls her eyes, staring at her peanut butter sandwich and humming a tune. It's nice, if not a little annoying, but no one's going to tell her to stop- not when Leo is drumming his fingers on the side of the table and Percy and Nico are doing a duet of whiny voices. Annabeth doesn't object to the nickname, as she likes it better than Annie, but her body language shows her annoyance.

"What's that song?" Thalia mumbles, leaning against the wall with a hat over her eyes trying to 'catch up on my beauty rest'.

"It's Mozart-" Annabeth tells her- "the Queen of the Night-" Piper cuts her off. Annabeth blows a hair out of her eyes and huffs.

"Aria. That's perfect! Aria, you're officially part of our group- the Allegra."

"Isn't that a medication?" Annabeth asks her laughingly.

"Shut up and be happy." Piper scowls.

"I don't get how some people can do so many extracurricular activities at one time," Jason says. Piper eyes him for a moment- he's still dating Reyna at the moment and it makes her a little jealous, especially after everything they'd been through, but Jason doesn't notice. "I mean, there's Annabeth, for one thing- she's on, like, chess, and debate, and Mathletes and the science fair or something, right? How do you do it?"

"Don't talk bad about my girlfriend Grace," Percy says and loops his arm around Annabeth. Jason opened his mouth to retort but Annabeth beat him to it.

"I'm not your girlfriend Jackson." she shot back as she stared at her copy of Pride and Prejudice. Piper leaned over and stared at the words but couldn't make sense of them.

"You tell 'em babe." Annabeth scowled and shrugged Percy's arm off her shoulder and Piper caught Thalia rolling her eyes as if she was above it all. Piper grinned.

"What are you looking at?" Thalia asked her snippily.

"Nothing," Piper said airily. "What are you looking at?"

"That's what I said," Thalia said, reaching over and taking one of Piper's fries off her plate, Piper yelping in protest. "Do be a lamb, Menuet, and get me a chocolate milk."

"I'm not your slave!" Thalia blew her a raspberry.

"Percy, get me a chocolate milk." Percy quailed under her gaze.

"Fine," he sulked.

Piper laughed.