Hey guys, thanks so much to all of those who have continued to read this far, I appreciate all the support and reviews, so thanks! Please enjoy. Would also like to clarify that yes, the last chapter was a dream of Pipers. Hopefully the content will become clearer as the story progresses. Anyway...

Piper sat up in bed, the burnt toast smell still lingering in her room. Piper sat up and glanced around. She liked her room. She could have had anything she wanted inside it; however she had just chosen simple cream wallpaper, with pale blue birds decorating it, the same shade of blue as the feathers she wore in her braids. She had an old wooden desk in one corner, a simplistic bed, a bookshelf and a little table with her Mum's mirror.

Her dream slowly came back to her, she remembered the boy in the woods. Jason. It had to be Jason. She wondered if the woman kissing the baby really was her Mum. She tried hard to remember what the women had looked like, her hair. Face. Anything, but she couldn't remember quite place it. She slipped out into the frosty air and dressed quickly, in tattered jean and a hoodie, before padding downstairs to breakfast.

'Hi Pipes.'

'Hi Dad.'

'So, did you sleep well?'

'Ummm, great' Piper lied. What was she meant to say? That an unidentified boy who she hoped was her soul mate, and her dead Mother who her Father was clearly still grieving had populated her dreams, in creepy old woods? She didn't think so.

'Good, Good.'

'Hey, Dad?'

'Yeah.'

'How did you know that you loved Mum?'

He sighed. 'Gee, Pipes. I don't know when exactly. I just...did. I fell in love with her the minute I met her, I think. As soon as I laid eyes on her, I just sort of knew. That I loved her.'

'How did you meet her?'

'Well, I was visiting a museum. It was in the Ancient Greek section. We were standing beside an old statue of Aphrodite, it was quite funny really. Your Mum was much more beautiful then that old goddess. I was browsing, looking at some of the things, thinking of how much your Grandpa Tom would have liked some of it. I was actually there to do some research. For a movie I was working on at the time. It was about Greek mythology. I actually found the work quite fascinating...'

Piper rolled her eyes. Great. When her Dad got started on his acting career, it was hard to make him stop. 'Dad? Aphrodite? Museums?'

'Right, of course, back to Aphrodite. Your Mum was taking a tour of the museum. I remember her laughing, a sweet, musical sound of joy and love. She wanted a photo of her and her Greek self. I offered to take it for her. I remember standing there after she left, wondering if I could believe myself that somebody so incredibly beautiful could possibly exist. I soon figured out that yes. She did. And she was your Mother. My true love. Aphrodite.

I think I stood in front of that statue for hours after she left, until the worker told me that I had to leave. I asked him if there was anybody more beautiful than Aphrodite. He said that no, there wasn't. I can remember clearly smiling at him and agreeing. But we both meant different people. To this day, I still don't think that there is anyone that is more beautiful, not even the goddess, if she was alive.

Anyway, a few weeks after that, I met her again. I was walking through town, thinking about the movie. Then I noticed someone, down an alley. Crying. Your mother was sitting, alone, on the path. Tears running down her perfect face. She told me that she had just been dumped by her drunk boyfriend, and left there alone. With nowhere to go, she was lost and lonely. Actually, I almost missed what she said, I was so busy thanking the gods for letting me run into her again.'

He chuckled at that, and Piper resisted the urge to tell him to just keep on talking. She was finally getting some answers. 'I helped her out, took her home. Gave her something to eat and put her to bed. But when I woke up the next morning, she was gone.'

He sighed. 'She never was one for hanging around.' Tristan Mclean smiled softly, 'She came back. A few weeks later, she turned up on my doorstep with an apologetic look on her face. Told me she was sorry. I guess I was stupid enough to believe her. I let her in. We were happy together. For a while, I even believed that she loved me. Then you came along, a while after. I had a baby thrust on my hands. But we were together, at least. We had each other. We had a family. We were going to get married. After she left...'

He stammered out that last word. Piper guessed it was because he was still grieving for her Mother. He took a deep breath, and appeared to pull himself together. 'After she left, I raised you myself. Best thing I have ever done. You taught me how to love again Pipes.'

Piper had to smile. She wanted to hear more, but she was late for school already. And she refused her Dads offers for rides, preferring to walk. 'Thanks Dad got to go.'

'Right. Bye Pipes.'

'Bye Dad.'

As she was about to walk out the door, Piper paused. 'Hey Dad, do you still love her?'

'More than I should Pipes. Much, much more. So much more than she ever has or ever will, love me.'

Ok... 'I thought that she loved you, that you were happy together.'

'So did I Piper, so did I.' Tristan rose to his feet, heading towards the stairs. 'You should get going. Don't want to be late for school.' Piper stood at the open doorway, listening to her Dad stomp slowly upstairs, probably lost in his own thoughts.

Piper went to school as per usual. She took her seat up the back in her English class, her thoughts swirling. Shaking her head quickly, Piper settled down to her work on her assignment. They were writing answers to the question, 'What goes unnoticed?' Piper had been sorely tempted to write down 'me.' Unfortunately she didn't really think that the teachers would appreciate that. So far she had written:

The majority of things go unnoticed. The general population is not exactly very observant. To be noticed is to be seen. To be felt. Observed. Analysed. It is impossible, to notice absolutely everything, to see everybody. There is living proof on this planet that we live on, that anything can go unnoticed, if they wish too. If they do not yell out to the world everything...Being noticed is, in fact, completely overrated. To be noticed means to be judged. To be sorted. I have come to understand that people see only what they want to see. If somebody wants to believe that the grass is greener on the other side, then all they will see is how green that grass is. Even if it isn't nearly as green as they think it is. People get hurt easily in this world, purely because they do get noticed. They do get judged for what they are not. They get judged for what they are. Therefore I think that to be unnoticed, like practically everything that exists, is certainly a good thing to be. Smart, intelligent people do not bring attention to themselves. And by my careful observations, those people appear to be the happiest, the most free, the most independent. They understand the world, they understand where they stand. They know that they will be happier, much happier than those who do go noticed. Everything has a place, the hardest thing to do is find it, and learn to be happy with it. So, my answer to this question is simply, everything, only on rare occasions it is intentional, in most cases it is not. One of these days, everybody will die. It is inevitable. So what is the point of even wanting to be noticed at all?

Piper sat back and studied her work. It was probably too long, but to be honest, she didn't really care. She just packed up her things and went out to the sheds. She spent the usual sort of day, happily being invisible. She went to bed happy in the knowledge that she was happy with herself, even if everybody else either didn't like her, or didn't know she existed. Most were the second option, but Piper didn't care. Not one little bit. She was her. She was who she wanted to be, and nobody else mattered. She glanced out the window, up at the blackness of the sky, decorated with stars. 'I love you Mum,' she murmured, and the stars seemed to shine brighter than they had just before. Brighter for her. Brighter for her Mum. Brighter for life, and brighter for love. Piper's lips curled upwards. Maybe, she thought. Just maybe, her Mum was out there somewhere. Maybe she was thinking of Piper. Maybe she was in the stars, watching as Piper stared up at her, listening when Piper spoke to her. Maybe one day Piper would see her again. Maybe they would become friends in a whole new world, and there Piper would get the Mother she always dreamed of at last.

Maybe Jason would realise that Piper was the one for him, like Piper had realised that he was the one for her, so long ago. Maybe he would finally see that they were meant to be together. Piper was so sure of it, maybe he would be too. Maybe. Piper's smile grew rapidly across her face. After all, it didn't hurt to dream, did it?