Piper stood in the changing room of a talent show. She sighed. She didn't know how Hazel and Annabeth got her to do this. Wait - she did know how, she just didn't understand why she gave in.
Two days earlier, both girls had walked up to her. 'Hey, Pipes, do you want to come to the beach with us?' Hazel asked, with a smile that was just a tat to wide. Piper immediately felt something was up, both nodded and came along anyway.
Annabeth walked on her right side, and Hazel on her left, like they didn't want her to walk away. The suspicion Piper felt grew, but she didn't think Hazel and Annabeth would do anything.
As soon as they entered the beach, she saw that a lot of people were standing on the Beach. She immediately recognised Martin - he was a friend of her father, and she knew that he ran a talent show. The group turned around, and looked at the group of three girls. They all started cheering, and held up a sign.
As soon as Piper read what the sign was saying, her mouth fell open. 'Does that really read 'you are entered into the Magical Talent Show?' 'Maybe,' Annabeth said. Piper shook her head. 'No. I am not doing it.'
'But Pipes, your voice is so pretty!' Hazel said. 'You like to sing karaoke wherever we go.' Piper shook her head wildly. 'No.' 'You can always sing that you don't want to get through, with some charmspeak,' Annabeth smooth-talked. Piper thought about that. She looked at the huge group in front of her. 'Okay, I will do the first round. She looked at her friends. And only the first rounds.'
And so, two days after that, Piper heard someone yell her name from a place close to the stage. She got up. She looked at her clothes. Well, at least she didn't look very bad. The make-up artists and clothing directors hadn't put layers upon layers of makeup and clothes realising Piper looked best when she was wearing something simple, even though 'simple' meant something else to make-up artists than it did to everybody else.
She was wearing a silver top that slipped of one shoulder, with long sleeves, and a pair of black shorts. She wore black dr. martins with silver shoelaces, and a nice black necklace. Her brown hair was braided, but the braid hung freely over her shoulder. She wore a basic layer of makeup, but one of the make-up artists had stuck a black star on her left cheek.
She walked through the hallway, realising that it would be made highly dramatic on the television. She arrived at were the woman was standing. She was wearing a lot of makeup, but her clothes were relatively plain. Piper had to give in that it even looked comfortable.
The woman lead her onto the stage. Piper heard her name being announced, and saw the jury in front of her. She knew all of them, but she almost screamed when she saw her dad. She quickly smiled over that, and waited until the woman stopped waffling and she could start singing.
After what felt like an hour, the lights dimmed and Piper started her song. It was something she had quickly written herself, with some not completely voluntary help from Annabeth and Hazel. It was a song in which she basically said that she didn't want to go further with this Talent show, and she put some slight charmspeak into her lyrics.
By the end, the entire jury got the hint and Piper didn't go through to the next round. When she walked out of the building, she saw that Hazel and Annabeth were both standing there. 'And? Did you like it?' Hazel asked. Piper shrugged. 'It was kind of fun, but...' before she could finish her sentence, her father walked out of the building.
He hugged his daughter. 'Pipes, why didn't you tell me that you were going to sing on the competition?' Piper hugged her father back. 'It was kind of on extremely short notice. How does that show do it?' Her father smiled. 'You sang very well. You really didn't want to go further, didn't you?' Mr. Mclean winked, and walked back into the building.
Piper looked at the closed door. 'You know, sometimes I wonder how much he really knows,' she told Annabeth and Hazel.