Sometimes, Piper Hart really hated men. It was a hatred that started when she was young. Her father was always such a pathetic loser in her eyes and her brother was just an annoying nuisance. Sure, he helped her sometimes, but he annoyed her most of the time. He also annoyed her whenever he'd bring Goddamn Jasper Dunlop into her home and he'd stink up their bathroom, sit on their couch, and breathe their damn air. She learned to tolerate him over the years but she never learned to like him. Even Henry's boss, Ray — who was now her boss — was annoying and that caused her to realize how annoying Captain Man was once she found out who he really was. Not only was he old as hell, he was annoying about it and swore he was young and hip when he was anything but. There were so many men in her life and she deeply loathed all of them so much.

This moment wasn't much different. Now 19, Piper had a little bit more experience with boys and it only made her dislike of men even deeper. So many of them her age were all the same - they were unbearably horny, they tried so hard to be cool by smoking things they couldn't handle, they hit on any girl who looked their way, and they didn't know a single thing about loyalty. She and Billy soon broke up when she started at Florida state because he couldn't handle the distance and her on again off again best friend Marla also gave him a handjob in the backseat of his car. She was so young at college that none of the guys at school paid any attention to her, and those who did were swiftly ignored because it was a massive red flag. She briefly dated a guy from a coffee shop who was her age when she was 16 but that ended when he cheated on her with a girl who was willing to blow him. When she graduated at 18 and returned to Swellview to work with Ray, Schwoz, and the Danger Force kids, she reconnected with Jackson Bartell who was even cuter than he was when they were kids. He hadn't changed much physically besides getting taller and having shorter hair, while she changed a lot.

She'd lost much of her baby fat and while her face was still full, it wasn't round and plump like it was when she was 14. She grew her hair out again past her shoulders but kept it a lighter blonde shade. Her cheeks had sunken in more and her cheekbones were much more defined and present, her jawline was also much more defined. Her eyes were still big and youthful but the faint presence of dark eyeliner helped to give them a more sultry shape that complimented her face well and made her crystal blue eyes pop. She had fully naturally pouty lips that she once hated but quickly became proud of when she saw how much girls were paying to get lip injections to mimic a feature that she had naturally. Her fashion sense was still trendy as shown by the white lace cropped cami top that she wore underneath an open cream white cardigan, the form-fitting cami showing off her svelte frame and how much she had blossomed over the years into a busty young woman who could fill out the cups of the top. The hemline stopped right above her navel on her toned stomach that showed a hint of abdominal definition and donned a gold and diamond heart shaped piece of jewelry, a piercing she got when she was only 16 after effectively lying about her age. Black leather pants decorated with a bunch of zippers and buttons hugged her round hips and went down her slim legs, ending at a pair of white and black combat boots. She was still short, now standing at 5'0 instead of her previous 4'10, so that was another personal win for her. While she changed a lot physically, she changed a little emotionally and mentally as well.

She was still social media obsessed - she had to be. As she had gotten older and gotten more comfortable with her body, she found herself showing off her new curvier figure and earning more followers on EnvyGram, TwitFlash, and ClikClok, and more followers on those platforms meant she was getting money and even some brand deals. She also still had quite the temper but she managed to keep it cool after learning and utilizing her JAM techniques and also growing a little more mature over time. College also humbled her a lot, especially when she was a sophomore and snapped at a girl who was much older than her and slapped her so hard that it made her head spin. It taught her to maybe pick fights less and only pick them with people she could handle, like Ray. She also had to do so much work while in school that it left very little time for her to argue with people. She saved all of that for fighting people in comments and on Twitflash and for one-upping Jana Tetrazzini as much as she could.

Jackson hadn't changed much, and while Piper initially thought that it was a good thing and she wouldn't have to learn more about him, she found out that it was both a lie and not a good thing. It was a lie in the sense that he had changed in her mind, even if this was what he always was - she was never around him long enough to see it before. In her mind, he was a cute and mature guy who she was having fun getting to know before meeting Billy and liking him more. She never learned much more about him so it was almost ridiculous of her to think that she truly knew him. It was also not a good thing because he was immature and childish, he still behaved like the 13 year old cutie she knew five years ago. He talked about stupid shows and movies that she didn't care about, he said stupid little catchphrases, and he wouldn't stop trying to subtly touch her boobs. At first, she thought it was kind of cute, but she quickly grew tired of it. She was still young and she wasn't ready to have sex yet, but so many guys her age wanted mainly that and she wasn't going to give that to them. Not even Jackson. She sighed as she thought back to just a few days ago, Monday when she found out he was no different from all the other boys she knew.

"Stupid cute boy asking me to get his stupid Yotally Togurt frozen yogurt," Piper angrily muttered to herself as she climbed out of her car and grabbed the white paper bag. She slammed the door shut and locked the car before making her way over to the door and knocking. She was in a mood that night. Ray had already annoyed her at work that day and just when she was about to either head home and get some sleep or hang out with Jackson, he texted her asking for Yotally Togurt. And of course, she had to be a good girlfriend and do it, because she wanted her boyfriend to be happy. Her stupid annoying boyfriend. Her scowl quickly disappeared when the door opened and Jackson's mother appeared, and Piper had to fight the urge to call her a bitch when the woman rolled her eyes.

"What do you want?" the woman spat with such venom that it sent chills down the teenager's spine.

"I'm here to see Jackson! Is he here, Mrs. Bartell?" she asked with a sweet smile that disguised her desire to punch the woman in the throat.

"No!" She attempted to close the door in her face when a hand suddenly grabbed it and yanked the door back open.

"Mom, cut it out," Jackson said with a sigh. He smiled at Piper and waved her inside despite his mother's hate filled glare. The young blonde simply smiled at her boyfriend and walked inside the warm house, ignoring the cold and evil woman behind her as she followed Jackson to the basement. She never knew why his mom hated her so much. The one time she asked, she just called her a worthless slut who wasn't good enough for her sweet boy. Piper wanted to tell her that her sweet boy was a stupid pervert who once asked if he could borrow her panties so he could jerk off with them, but she simply kept her mouth shut and gave her a friendly smile.

"Just put the froyo down on the table, I'm gonna go take a piss," Jackson told her as he went to the bathroom and disappeared behind the wooden door. The blonde rolled her blue eyes and walked over to the small couch that sat in the middle of the finished basement, plopping the bag down on the coffee table next to Jackson's phone. She sat down and crossed her legs as she grabbed her phone and prepared to idly scroll through TwitFlash when Jackson's phone suddenly lit up.

"Hey, you've got a text!" she called out and grabbed his phone.

"What's it say?" he asked from the bathroom. She put in his passcode and pressed the notification, gasping and almost dropping the phone when she saw what came up. A buxom redhead with fake breasts larger than her head and her legs open wide to show off her most intimate bits laid there in a photo. Underneath was a text that read "Come and get it." with a winking emoji. Right above it was a blue textbox with a message saying how horny the sender was and how badly he wanted to screw her. The contact name read "Brandi", and she looked like a damn Brandi. Cheap and easy. Piper almost felt sick to her stomach yet she couldn't look away as she scrolled through the texts. Hundreds, if not thousands, of messages between the two including nude photos and explicit videos. He had been cheating on her, and he had been doing so for so long.

"Piper?" he called as he left the bathroom and walked over to her on the couch. "What does the text say?" With tears welling in her blue eyes, Piper shot up from the couch and her hand quickly met his cheek with a hard and loud slap. The force of it made Jackson's face turn and his body almost fell over before he quickly caught himself and cupped the assaulted flesh with his palm. "Ow! What the fuck!"

"Yeah, what the fuck!" she screeched, "You're fucking cheating on me with some bimbo named Brandi?!" His deep blue eyes were filled with confusion as his eyebrows knitted together.

"Huh? How can I cheat on someone I'm not dating?!" he questioned and she was now also confused. She tossed his phone onto the couch and took a step back as her hands raised in utter disbelief. She raked her brain to figure out what the hell that meant but every possible theory just left her more confused.

"Jackson…what?! I'm your girlfriend!" she clarified and he tilted his head to the side like a puppy hearing a strange noise.

"No…no you're not…" She felt all the air leaving her lungs and all the blood being drained from her body. Her stomach began to twist into confused and anxious knots while her hands began to tremble.

"Y-yes, I am! We've been dating for four months!"

"What? I…" he trailed off before scoffing and scratching his scalp. "Piper, I thought we were just friends and we were vibing. You know…talking." Talking. Piper knew what that meant. Talking was the stage before dating, before an official relationship. It was the stage where you just hung out with a person and got to know them. It was the step before vibing that would eventually lead to real dating. In Piper's mind, they were long past talking, long past vibing. In her mind, he was her boyfriend. She felt so incredibly stupid.

"I don't…I don't get it…I thought you liked me," she said, her voice now softer and shaking as she fought back the urge to cry.

"I mean, I did…I do! But…" Jackson trailed off as he looked away from her and tried to find the words to say. When he found them, he licked his lips and looked at her, "You don't want to fool around. You won't even let me see a boob or touch my dick. So, that told me that we were just friends." And there it was. Piper's face fell from heartbroken to an eerie neutral as the information hit her. Sex. The only difference between her and that Brandi was sex. The only thing that came between her and all the other boys she dated was sex. That's all they ever cared about. Jackson quickly grew nervous as the blonde just stood there and looked at him. He looked around the basement quickly then looked at her again and wondered if he should do or say something.

"Pip—" he started but was quickly cut off when she held up a hand. She silently walked over to his sports memorabilia display. It donned jerseys, trading cards, baseball gloves, and his own MVP trophies in a large clear and gold trimmed case. Next to it lay some wooden and metal baseball bats. She never paid much attention to them except at that moment. She grabbed a metal bat and suddenly swung it, shattering the glass. Jackson's eyes doubled in size as his jaw fell open.

"Piper!"

"Shut up!" she hollered and swung the bat again, hitting the small glass displays that held the baseballs. "You want sex so badly, Jackson?! I'll give you a rush better than any orgasm!" She went over to the large 50 inch TV on the wall and swung the bat again, hitting the screen repeatedly until she was sure it was broken. She then hit his brand new PS5 that she bought him. The metal swings of the bat and the sounds of it hitting and breaking precious items filled the room along with the sounds of his shouts and pleads for her to stop. Hearing all of the commotions, his mother ran downstairs to the basement and gasped at the destruction.

"What is going on?!" she hollered and grabbed Piper's attention. The young blonde looked at the woman then her distraught son before she tossed the bat towards him, not hitting him as he quickly dodged it.

"Fuck you, Jackson Bartell! Fuck you and fuck your stupid bitch of a mother! I dealt with this stupid cuntbag for four months and I wasn't even your girlfriend because I wouldn't let you stick your micro dick in me?! Fuck you!" she screamed and stormed over to the couch to grab her bag and phone. She also grabbed the froyo that she bought and stormed past the shocked Bartells. As she neared the steps, she heard his mother finally speak.

"What did you call me?" she asked through gritted teeth. Now no longer obligated to have respect for the wretched woman, Piper turned with a satisfied smile and began to walk towards her.

"Oh? I called you a stupid bitch," she repeated with a sugary sweet tone and sweet smile to match. As she walked towards her, she took the frozen yogurt out of the bag and opened the container. "You're a bitch, a cunt, a skunkbag, a cuntbag, a skank, a creature, and a vile nasty worthless piece of shit useless excuse for a human being!" She dumped the frozen yogurt onto her head and huffed loudly as the woman stood there completely stunned. Piper quickly turned on her heels and left the Bartell residence and got in her car. As she drove away from the house and headed to her own, she finally broke down into heartbroken tears. Because as mad as she was, as feisty as she was, she was still completely devastated.

Now it was Friday evening and she was still heartbroken and felt so stupid. How could she have spent four months with a guy and not realize that only she thought they were dating? She rubbed his feet, she helped him when he was sick, she bought him things like that damn PS5, and she did her best to cook and bake for him. She even dealt with his horrible mother. But what hurts worse was that he didn't see everything they did as a relationship just because she didn't want to have sex with him. Nothing she did matter since she didn't open her legs for him. She was ready to have sex, she was open to losing her virginity, but she just wanted to find someone to be ready with. Jackson didn't make her feel ready, so she didn't care that he exposed all the damage that she did on social media and called her a crazy bitch. She was just sad that he wasn't what she thought he was or what she wanted him to be.

"Piper! Piper! Kid! Piper!" The blonde rolled her eyes and finally turned around to face the annoying old man calling her name nonstop.

"What?!" she snapped. Ray frowned and folded his beefy arms over his broad chest.

"I've been calling you for like three minutes straight! Didn't you hear me?" he asked with annoyance dripping from his voice. She rolled her eyes once again and turned back to her phone.

"I did, I was ignoring you." Frustration washed its way through Ray's entire body. His face grew tight and he bore his teeth as his arms and hands twitched to wrap around the girl's neck and just choke the life out of her. But he definitely couldn't do that so he just settled for making choking gestures behind her back and just picturing the look on her face as he cut off her airway. She rolled her eyes but didn't look away from her phone as she scrolled through TwitFlash. She spoke again, "Stop imagining yourself choking me."

"You know," Ray started through gritted teeth, "working with you just makes me miss Charlotte even more!" She looked at the time on her phone and turned her chair around so she was facing her angry boss again.

"Then hire her back! Oh, that's right, she's in California enjoying her life and has forgotten about your old butt. It's 5 pm, I'm off the clock!" she announced happily as she stood up. She walked past her flustered boss and made her way towards the exit.

"But- but you've barely done anything today!"

"Off the clock!" she repeated before leaving the school and ignoring Ray's loud frustrated scream. There was something rather enjoyable about messing with Ray and pissing him off so much, especially because she could do it so easily. He missed Henry and Charlotte, and she wasn't anything like either of them, so it was easy to frustrate him much like she did when she was younger. It was something she did to entertain herself during a boring workday of tracking crimes for the kids to fight.

She got into her car and started her drive home. She sighed to herself as she knew what would happen when she got there. Her mom would ask her how work was, her dad would ask if Ray had forgiven him for destroying his man caves - he hasn't - they would ask if Henry texted her, they'd have dinner, and then she'd either isolate herself in her bedroom or go out to hang with her girls. Jackson was part of that but now he and that Brandi chick who had the nerve to mention her on EnvyGram was blocked and she was moving on. The routine with her parents was the same one they had since she returned to Swellview. She had been home for a year and she could see how badly her parents missed not only her but Henry as well. They had a major case of empty nest syndrome so when she returned, they latched onto her and made their lives all about her. A younger Piper Hart would've loved all the attention but now it was almost suffocating, and she resented Henry for abandoning them and causing it to happen.

As she turned onto her street, she noticed something different. Every day she would drive past the Page residence and it would always look the same. Big, white, an immaculately cut lawn and shrubbery, and still with no cars on the street and all the lights off. But this time, lights were on in the upstairs windows and there was a car parked outside on the street. Maybe Miss Bolton had some guests over or something. A part of her wanted to stop by and see how she was doing, but she decided against it and just drove down the street until she reached her house. She took in a deep breath as she parked and climbed out of the car, ready for the barrage of questions. Fishing her keys out of her bag, she approached the front door and unlocked it before entering the Hart home.

For the first time in a year, Piper's parents didn't realize she was home. The blue eyed young woman blinked in surprise when instead of a warm greeting, she was welcomed by a completely different scene. Her mother was in the kitchen cooking up a storm and running back and forth between the refrigerator and the built-in bar. She'd look inside the fridge then run over to the bar to hurriedly scribble something down on a notepad then rush over to the stove and stir something. Her father had on his weird favorite pair of hot slacks (which used to be hers, and she was still pissed that he stole them from her) and stood in the living room dancing to some old disco music. To say that Piper was confused would be a gross understatement. She closed the door after standing there in shock for a bit and caught her father's attention.

"Piper! Hey!" Jake greeted his daughter and danced over to her. She backed away from him a little.

"What's going on…?" she asked hesitantly.

"Henry's coming home!" he said over the music and she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. There was no way she heard him correctly.

"What?"

"Henry's coming home!" Kris called from the kitchen. "He got my letter and texted me today! He's gonna come home for Thanksgiving!" She left the kitchen and danced her way into the living room as Jake quickly joined her. The two of them danced happily as their daughter watched them in a mix of embarrassment and confusion.

"We have to get more groceries to make more food for next week, but he's gonna be home on Monday!" Jake explained as he turned his back to his wife and bent over a little to shake his behind. She whooped excitedly and made smacking gestures as she danced and Piper had seen enough.

"Right… I'm going to my room, call me when dinner's ready," she said slowly before quickly rushing up the stairs. She went to her room and tossed her things down, unable to keep herself from laughing at the weirdness she just saw. And she slowly began to process what was happening. Henry was coming home. At least this meant her parents would get off her back a little. And deep down, a part of her was excited to see her brother again.

A/N: Thank you for reading! We've finally met 19 year old Piper, she's someone I really look forward to writing and developing. I hope you enjoyed it and feel free to share your thoughts!