I'm glad so many people like my one-shots and everything. It's the best feeling ever to read new reviews. Love ya!
As Piper got older, her follow cabin mates began to seriously wonder why she never cared about her looks. They knew, of course, that she wasn't one to care about that, she was a tomboy, and a whole other list of reasons why, but how could she never care? It was only human to feel insecure, yet she never showed it.
"I think she does," Lacey said one afternoon, while Piper was away with Jason and Leo. "But she shows her concern secretly."
Drew huffed. "She should just secretly disappear. She should care about how she looks. It's misrepresenting our mother otherwise."
Mitchell threw a heart shaped pillow at his sister. "Don't be stupid. She has confidence. That's what it is."
Lacy nodded, eating fat-free Greek yogurt. "True, but I wonder what made it so hard-core and strong."
Mitchell shrugged his shoulders. "That is where the true mystery lies."
It was later that night, at dinner, that Lacey got around to asking Piper about her unwavering confidence.
Piper looked down at her plate of salad, blushing ever so slightly. She speared a carrot. "It's not that interesting of a story."
Lacey groaned softly. "Please? Let me the story."
Giving into Lacey's puppy face, Piper began to tell the story.
It was my fourteenth birthday, but Dad was called into work, so there I sat in his dressing room, wishing I was not alone. After about an hour of waiting, I sighed, leaving the set. I walked around town, looking for something to do, when I saw a commercial for Dad's new movie. I was so distracted by it, I didn't notice where I was going and fell in a puddle of mud. No biggie, I thought, buying a new shirt from the thrift store.
As I was looking around for the shirt, I was still covered in mud, my knees scrapped a little, but not too bad. Hair was sticking out in odd places and was annoyingly hanging in my eyes. I felt and thought I looked disgusting. I walked right by a family of a mom and her daughter, who was about six years old. As I walked by, I heard the little girl say, 'I wanna look like her when I'm older.'
"That's why I never worry about my looks as much as you think. I think about that little girl who thought I was so pretty when I was a mess. It wasn't that she said I looked good. It was that she honestly meant it, without even knowing me, seeing me for who I was—a normal girl without makeup, having a bad day. Not the child of a celebrity or as the daughter of Aphrodite."
Lacey's eyes watered up slightly as she did a mini fangirl dance in her seat. "That is so sweet, I might cry, but I don't want to ruin my mascara."
Piper rolled her eyes affectionately, smiling. "This is why it was my secret."