Hi peoples! I have had a lot of time to work on this, so this chapter is longer than the sad, short ones I've been posting lately. Yay!

Anyways, read and review (not that anyone ever does, hint hint)! I can count the number of chapters left on my fingers! :(

OH! One more thing! I just got a Quotev account-under the same name as this one- and I am planning on writing some original stories after this one. (Ideas on Chapter 17: Bob the Blob) The first one will be- drumroll please- 'Welcome to Reality'! I have even started with pictures for the main characters. I'm drawing them this time, so they will be permanent, unlike this story (sorry!) This has got to be the longest pre-story thingy I have written. I'll stop now.

Enjoy! I don't own PJo (Do I have to put that every time? In every fanfic I've read so far, they have it... I don't really know what I'm doing)

Piper POV

She found out. She found out about the party. She found out about the party, and now she's going to take me shopping. What have I done to deserve this? What was going to be about an hour's worth shopping trip is now going to take all day.

How did I find out that she knew, you ask? I was happily sleeping around 8:30 am, when she just barged in! At 8:30 am! I still had, like, 3 hours left to sleep! (My job doesn't start until Thursday. Today is Monday)

"Piiiper, darling! Today is a big, big, day!" (Don't you just hate it when they say that?) "It's time to go shopping for the ball! Don't worry, honey. It's going to be a short trip this time, because we only need to get you a perfect dress, shoes, jewelry, makeup, make a hair appointment…blah…blah…"(I kinda zoned out here) "Oh! And I just got a text from Charlotte. It's going to be a masquerade, because of course, that's the most glamorous thing ever! Am I right? So we need to get you a mask, too!"

I groaned and stuffed my pillow on my head. She just kept on talking. "I was thinking pink for you. Pink with sparkles, and roses, OH! And ribbons! What do you think, honey? Is pink a good color for you?"

I shot up in bed. "NO! Mom, WHY? WHY would you automatically think PINK would look good on me? That's the LAST color I would wear! PLEASE leave so I can sleep at least-" I looked back at the clock. She had been talking for almost 45 minutes. "An hour!"

She clucked her tongue. "Sorry, sweetie! I've got an appointment with Joe at 5:00. We need to get started right now. So why don't you go shower, and I'll get your clothes laid out on your bed!"

Reluctantly, I pulled myself towards the bathroom and turned on the shower while she busied herself in my drawers. I could hear her mumbling to herself, "Why hasn't she color-coded everything yet? She's been here for a whole day already! And these clothes! I know for certain that she has better taste." I had a bad feeling about what she was going to pick out.

Ten minutes later, I was walking into my suspiciously quiet and empty room in my bathrobe while wrapping my hair in a towel. On my bed was my lacy (pink) tank top, my denim jacket, my white jeans, and my black boots. It appeared that my mom had left, with only a faint scent of her perfume still here. These clothes were actually pretty normal for her.

I changed into the clothes, put my usual mascara and lip gloss on, and decided my hair was impossibly curly when it was wet. So, I just left it there. It didn't look that bad… probably.

I barely remembered to grab my purse as I walked out the door. I was still half-asleep. Does she really expect me to do this? I would've walked straight past the cab if she hadn't grabbed my arm. What's sad is that if some random stranger grabbed my arm, I wouldn't have realized what was going on until they were already driving away with me in the backseat.

I wish I slept on the ride to her favorite formal store, but I couldn't tune out her never-ending chatter. The driver put in headphones after five minutes, and she didn't even notice that she was basically talking to herself - not that she didn't do that anyways.

Once we arrived, I was mostly awake. It still startled me, though, that as soon as we walked in, there was all of a sudden a coffee in my hand and I was being kissed on both cheeks by Sherry, the lady who worked here. "Pleased to meet you, Ms. Mclean," she said with a slight French accent. "Now, let's see. Hm… I think pink would be great for her," she said to my mom while she grabbed my arms and stared at me.

I shook my head frantically. "No! No pink, please."

She stepped back and stood by my mom, while they both looked at me and talked like I wasn't even there. "I think light blue would look great," Sherry was saying, "It would bring out her eyes."

"Yes," my mom replied, "but don't you think yellow would look good with her hair?"

"Yellow? Not neon yellow, right? That color doesn't look good on anyone!"

"Exactly. I was thinking more of a pale yellow."

I was fed up with everything. And I was still tired. I stormed over to the racks of dresses, looked for something that wasn't pink, and grabbed it. Stomping over to my mom, I shoved it in her hands. "There. We are finished." I just wanted it to be over.

She held up the dress, and wordlessly handed it to Sherry. She walked up to me and held it in front of me. "Perfect," she breathed. "You have a wonderful eye, Ms. Mclean! It's the right size and everything!"

Shocked and slightly weirded out, I took the dress from her and turned it around.

(A/N: I tried to post the picture of the dress, but it wouldn't let me. It just had a lot of numbers. A lot. It was probably illegal or something. So, use your imagination! Though, it will probably not be as pretty as the real thing.)

I found myself looking at the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. It was a mermaid dress; Dark red, with white designs around as an umpire waist, opened up mid-thigh to reveal white, lacy fabric underneath. The whole thing was just breathtaking. "Wow." (A/N: I saw this dress in a different story, and it almost made me cry J )

"How much?" my mom asked. "This is the one. I just know it." She paid for it, and we were out of there. The whole thing had only taken ten minutes. At the next store, I found some white high-heeled strappy sandals, white chandelier earrings, and a delicate white necklace with tiny white flowers dangling from it.

I lucked out in the end, and my mom agreed to call Hans the hair person. And of course, she has to get the mask imported from Italy. She has 'connections' with a whole lot of people, being a world-famous designer.

So, as soon as I got home I immediately jumped on my bed and fell back asleep, the dress hanging on my doorknob.