Chapter 5: Meet and Greet

Piper was worried. She wasn't the type of girl who'd fret over a broken heel, chipped nail polish, torn dresses or broken ankle, chapped lips or torn muscles, but with the situation at hand being worried was more than justified. The list of thing she was worried about kept on increasing with the first ten topics being:

She was being hired.

Annabeth had been acting different.

Someone was hiring her.

Annabeth wasn't the same.

She was being hired by someone.

Annabeth was hurt.

She was going to work at someone's place….. yet again.

Annabeth was distant.

Someone expected her to work for them.

She was worried about Annabeth.

So basically the list was like an active passive exercise of the sentences: Someone was hiring her and Annabeth had been distant recently. Both the reasons seemed to be valid enough for her to be worried.

The fact that someone was hiring her made her want to throw up. Also, the fact Annabeth was being hired with her, which usually consoled her, made her feel down as if a tight fist was sitting at the bottom of her stomach. The girl was in no position to work. Also she was acting different. She had never been the touchy-feely one with anyone but her, but now it was as if a simple handshake with anyone she wasn't acquainted with made her snappy and uneasy when she first woke up. She surely was warming up and that made her distant.

All these thoughts swirled around in her mind as she left her dormitory which was a little overrated if you ask her. All it had was ten beds which not to mention were very uncomfortable, a tube light, one fan and five rundown cabinets along with a dingy bathroom. That was it. She wasn't really fond of that room even after spending majority of her small, miserable life in it.

"Piper. Wait up." Annabeth came up behind her. "I've been calling you for five minutes. You fine?"

"Yeah" Piper said. "You aren't allowed to be out of bed, Ms. Annabeth." She didn't know her Annabeth's last name. Even she herself didn't know about it.

Annabeth shook her head smiling. It was strange. One moment, Piper is going psycho thinking about her being distant, not to mention sick and the other moment, the girl herself is catching up with her looking all cheerful and chivalrous.

"Are you fine? You don't have a concussion. Do you?" Piper asked not really joking but she wasn't joking either. "Please say you didn't bang your head somewhere. The present injuries are more than enough."

"Shut up, Pipes." The blonde said.

"But seriously, what happened?"

At this question, the playful smile on her lips disappeared and she led her friend to the dining hall.

"I'm sorry" She said out of the blue.

"What for?" Piper asked her. She had a way with words whether it be charmspeaking- as Annabeth called it or deciphering undertones but this sudden apology confused her. If anyone had to apologize, it should've been her – for not being there…for leaving her there with a lunatic; Annabeth shouldn't be apologizing.

"For being distant. I know you been worried out of your mind the past four days and I've been making it worse. Friends?" She ranted/ asked raising her hand for a handshake.

Instead of taking her hand, the former engulfed her in a huge hug. Annabeth stiffened for the fraction of a second soon relaxing in the embrace. She still was afraid of excessive physical contact but this was Piper. And that explained it all.

xx-xx

"Percy, are you sure you want to do this. It's pretty dangerous." Jason asked as they sneaked in the orphanage.

"Is that the great fighter, Jason Grace speaking?" Percy asked hitting the soft spot.

"Go ahead." Jason said making his friend smirk in response.

They were sneaking in the orphanage to find the girl Percy's mom had hired. They hadn't got any particular reason. It was just plain curiosity.

"What's the plan Percy?" he asked as they stood at the back entrance of the mustard coloured building. They could have gone in saying that they were nobles, then the whole scenario of sneaking in could've been avoided but again if their parents came to know of it, they'd be in knee deep trouble.

"I don't have one." His cousin replied nonchalantly. Jason sighed.

"What are you going to do then?" he asked

"It's pretty simple. Go inside, see the girl who is being hired, flirt with her if she is pretty, look for any other cute chicks, come out alive. All in a day's time." Percy said. That guy was so very organised. "Let's go in."

"Yeah."

They entered the worn down building through the back doors entering a small kitchen garden. They then entered the hallways. Both of them were wearing hoods and sunglasses to conceal their identity. The attire surely earned them loads of amused stares if nothing else. They had decided on telling the girls that they were nobles roaming the place if anyone bothered to ask them but were not meeting the authorities as they were sure to ask them their identity which would certainly have them grounded for a minimum two months.

"The girl is pretty." Percy pointed out to a girl who was wearing a light dress. She had dark skin, high cheekbones and kaleidoscopic eyes which reflected the sunlight. She was a bit too skinny, if you ask him but that only added to the look.

"No kidding." Jason said as he looked at the girl in front of him. "Want to go?" he asked Percy.

"Yep." The guy said as they approached the girl who was walking out from what looked like a dormitory.

"Annie, apology accepted." She shouted out to someone inside the room.

"Don't call me Annie, Pipes" Came the reply.

Girls here have sweet voices. Percy thought.

Stupid ADHD. He was getting distracted. He had go up to the girl, ask her if any of her friends had been hired recently, flirt a little and look for the hired one.

"Hey" he said as they approached the girl. She gave them a strange look. "What do you want?" she snapped.

Talk about courtesy.

"Calm down, lady. We wanted to ask whether any of you have been hired recently?" Percy said in a purposefully deep voice.

The girl took a step back before giving them another strange look. He couldn't blame her though. After all it didn't happen every day that two guys with masked faces come up and ask you whether any of your friends has been hired by someone.

The girl, pipes raised an eyebrow but said "I am."

The boys looked at each other and shared a smile.

"Who are you?" she asked them.

"We're looking for a servant." Jason said.

"Nobles?"

"Yeah" Percy said instantly regretting it seeing the look on her face change from curiosity to disgust and disdain. She started walking away but Jason grabbed her wrist.

"What?" She snapped.

"You're pretty, Pipes." He blurted out.

"It's Piper."

"Want to hang out?" Percy asked trying lighten the mood in his idiotic way. Piper looked at him, her face a mix of shock and disgust.

Big mistake.

"She doesn't have to." The same voice, Annie he speculated answered.

The girl came out from the dormitory and to say Percy was surprised was an understatement. The girl was even more beautiful than her friend with honey-blonde hair curled like that of a princess and stormy grey/silver eyes. She had a bandaged wrist and her white dress had a small red spot just above the waist which looked suspiciously like blood. Her high cheekbones gave her a regal look which made Percy want to apologize to her.

"And you are you?" he asked in the smoothest possible voice.

"None of your concern. But I wanted to make it clear that my friend will never hang out with some supercilious (look it up), pompous (look it up), imperious (look it up), overweening (look it up) and idiotic (you should know this one) noble." The blonde said making Piper smirk.

"Extremely courteous, aren't you?" Jason asked her raising an eyebrow leaving Percy to speculate the meaning of the extravagantly large words the blonde used.

"You can say that." The girl said as she and her friend walked off in the other direction leaving both the teenagers in the hallway with open mouths and a definitely better vocabulary.