Notes:

- In which we learn about the dangers of eating disorders

- Learning how to properly pickpocket a human without getting caught or looking suspicious

- Dealing with our fellow pyromaniacs

- Piper McLean -

It wasn't my idea to become anorexic or bulimic as ridiculous as it might sound. I was happy with my body. I was confident. It wasn't me. It was them. I was just the target. They made me like this. Not me.

It probably started around the end of grade nine. The anorexia, I mean. People would call me fat and a pig and basically anything they could. I hated myself after that. I needed to be skinny. I needed to be like the other girls.

They were perfect and I was not.

So I stopped eating. It wasn't very hard because it worked. And since it worked it motivated me. I watched as my weight dropped and I watched as my body became fragile. But it didn't really seem good enough, you know? So I figured why not shove a finger down my throat and speed up the weight loss process?

I think I kept this up for about a year and a half. Then my parents found out and I was sent here.

Do these actions make you feel better about yourself, Piper?

No, of course not. But that doesn't really matter, does it? It's not how I feel. It what others think. That's what society does. How society acts. So if me slowly killing myself pleases society, then I'm in the green.

Society's a cruel thing, isn't it?

- Day 1: Tuesday, May 11

- 11:46 AM

"Jason? It's me, Piper, can I come in?" Piper asked through the door of Jason's room. She remembered Leo saying that Jason had asked him to get Jason before lunch, so since Piper figured since Leo was off having some sort of schizophrenic episode she would be the one to get Jason.

Piper waited for Jason's reply, but none came. Instead the door opened and he looked out into the hall at her. She gave him a soft smile and he opened the door wider, silently offering if she wanted to come in.

Piper carefully entered the room, paying close attention that she didn't touch him. Physical contact was sometimes a trigger for Jason and it seemed like Piper was the only one who remembered.

She sat down on his bed and looked at the clock on his bedside table. After a few seconds of silence she spoke up. "You wanna come for lunch?"

Jason sat down across from Piper on Frank's bed. He took a few minutes to consider the answer, but Piper was patient and didn't stress Jason. Decisions were hard for him.

"I guess I'll come," he replied.

Piper smiled and rubbed her bony fingers on her thin legs. The jeans were loose, even though they were the smallest Piper could get. She didn't mind it though. She felt skinny and like the other girls.

The only difference was that the others girls weren't in a mental ward. And they looked healthy and pretty, where Piper was just sickly and unappealing. Her hair had grown extra thin and her head didn't seem proportionate for her body anymore. She was constantly tired and bags were always under her eyes.

Piper was not normal. And she certainly was no longer pretty.

Piper shoved the thoughts out of her head and stood up again. She smoothed out her shirt - which just hung around her body - and tilted a head towards the door. Jason's hands were shaking but he pressed them tightly to his legs to muffle the trembling.

"Has Frank come by the room yet?" Piper asked, looking over. She had seen the big teddy bear around 10:30 but only briefly. Since then no one has seen him. Piper had guessed he went back to his and Jason's room to change.

Jason shook his head. "No. Well, he might have. If he did I was probably too busy having an anxiety attack to notice. What did you have for breakfast?"

Piper was about to respond when another girl in the ward - Tanya - screamed and starting stomping her foot. Jason flinched and froze in the spot. He closed his eyes and breathed in deep breaths. His face was pale and Piper watched as a couple workers grabbed ahold of Tanya and held her while they tried to soothe her.

"Just go around them," Piper muttered to Jason. She let him go in front of her and Jason quickly went around, creating a wide berth and then entering the cafeteria. Piper frowned. She had been hoping to find Annabeth or Leo before going into the cafeteria. But she had been the one to drag Jason out of his room, so she figured she would have to let him do what he was comfortable with.

Which wasn't really a lot.

Piper opened the cafeteria doors and saw Jason already seated at a table in the corner with his head down on his arms. They were the only two in the cafeteria since lunch didn't start for another 12 minutes. She went over and pulled up a chair.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Jason was blushing deeply, looking embarrassed. He wiped his shaky palms on his jeans and laughed nervously. "I'm fine. I overreacted. Sorry. 'M fine." He didn't look or sound fine, but Piper knew better than to question him. So she turned the attention onto her.

"You asked me what we had for breakfast before. Well," she said, tapping her chin. "There were pancakes, fruit, granola, whipped cream and orange juice and milk. I just had a few slices of an orange though. Percy practically ate the whole food table."

"You need to eat more than a few slices of an orange," Jason said. He blushed even more and Piper wished he didn't feel so awkward speaking to her. But she could understand why he felt awkward telling her to eat more. She felt awkward just hearing it.

The two of them were silent for a long time. Neither feeling comfortable to speak.

- 12:15 PM

"Hey, Jason," Annabeth said, smiling as she sat down beside Percy; who was sitting beside Jason. Piper looked over at Jason. She'd glanced at him every time someone spoke to him. He didn't get anxiety from talking to people, but sometimes conversations took a wrong turn and things could get very bad very fast.

Piper looked at her plate and felt her stomach flip uneasily. There was no way she could eat all this. She shoved the food she wouldn't eat to the edge of her plate then poked at the remaining food. All it was was a small amount of salad. At least that she could handle.

Frank sat down at the table next and strangely enough, all seven of them were there. Piper looked at Annabeth - who was constantly straightening her plate and food - then at Percy - who was chewing on a finger nail and glancing around the cafeteria nervously.

Piper looks at her friends and asked, "So, how is everyone?" She was usually the one who started the conversations. Either her or Annabeth, Frank or Hazel. Jason, Percy and Leo were always silent unless they got on to a topic that they really enjoyed.

"I'm good, I guess," Hazel said. She shrugged her shoulders and looked over at Frank. He lifted his shoulders too and grumbled, "Same. What about you, Jason? I never got the chance to talk to you when I came to the room."

So Frank had been at the room. Jason had been having an anxiety attack.

Jason looked up, looking like a deer in the headlights. "What? Oh, um, yeah. I'm good. Percy?" The attention was suddenly dumped on Percy and Jason pushed his plate away, even though it was still full.

Percy finished chewing his food the said, "Yeah, I'm good. Life's just dandy." He glanced at Jason and Piper could tell he was concerned at the speed Jason pressed the conversation onto someone else. He did do that, but never that fast.

"Hey, Leo, what'd you do this morning after art? You just . . . Disappeared," Annabeth said. It wasn't uncommon for Leo to disappear in between activities. Normally he would wander off and then get stuck in a conversation with his imaginary friends and then no one would see him for hours.

Leo chewed on the inside of his cheek and hummed to himself. He seemed to be still trying to process what Annabeth had said. He was muttering senseless things to himself and making strange, snappy gestures with his hands.

"I don't really-no, you know. It's, um, it's a thing. Maybe it's the food. It's all in the food," Leo mumbled. He rocked back and forth. "I was busy. Very busy." The rest of them ate their food silently as they tried to make sense of what he was saying. His conversation kept springing around like a haywire rabbit.

Piper liked Leo. He had been the first one at the wards-way before any of the others came. Hazel said she came first after Leo and she said he'd been really funny when he took his medication.

About a week after Hazel, came Jason and Leo had taken a liking to the new guy. But Jason's first week at the wards had been really rough according to Hazel and he couldn't go a day without one, sometimes even two, anxiety attacks. Then Piper came after Annabeth (who had arrived after Jason) and apparently Jason's attacks started slowing down and he only had four a week maybe more maybe less. Usually more.

"Is Doctor McGuire going soft today?" Percy asked Frank; who had gone to the therapist that morning. Piper had a meeting with Dr. McGuire as well at the end of the day and she wasn't in the mood to be pried open.

"He's good today. I guess. Kind of like usual," Frank replied. He sent Percy a look, but the raven haired boy didn't see it. Piper read the look as 'jealousy', but she knew that Frank had a jealousy disorder so she didn't think much of it.

Leo's mutterings got louder and he fiddled with something in his pocket. Piper narrowed her eyes and was about to ask Leo what he had when he pulled it out and snapped a thumb across the top.

Hazel jumped away from Leo as a tiny flame appeared on top of the object. Piper's narrowed eyes widened to saucers and she cried out for a nurse as Leo lit his napkins on fire. Everyone at their table pushed back and the sound of their chairs screeching was painful in Piper's ears.

"Leo, where did you get that?!" Annabeth shrieked. The flames were illuminating in her stormy grey eyes and Percy was white as a ghost. Jason stayed on his chair, knuckles white as he gripped the seat. Frank grabbed Hazel's shirt and pulled her back from the burning table.

The world was muted, but Piper could see three men pulling Leo away, a woman patting out the flames with a fire blanket and someone else snatching up the discarded lighter from the floor. She watched the woman slip it into one of her pockets then move towards Percy-who was on the floor with his head pressed between his knees.

"Jason, are you okay?" Piper asked, tearing her eyes away from Percy's breakdown.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I might just go to my room for a bit. That's enough excitement for one day," he said in a forced light tone.

Thalia was suddenly by Jason's side, asking if he was alright. She held his head in her hands; a tactic Piper saw her use a lot when Jason got overly anxious or stressed, but he seemed fine surprisingly.

Piper let Thalia handle the situation and moved over to Annabeth, who was beside Percy, watching quietly. Piper swiftly dropped to the floor beside her friend and said, "Fire's a trigger?"

"I guess so," Annabeth said with a shrug.

Piper slid her eyes down to the floor on her left, right where the pocket the lighter was in was. She quickly checked to make sure the worker wasn't looking, but she was too busy trying to calm Percy down to notice as Piper slipped her hand into the pocket and pinched the lighter between her thumb and forefinger. She slowly pulled out of the pocket and wrapped her bony fingers around the cool object.

No one noticed.

Additional Notes:

- Shows great concern for Jason's anxiety

- Weight gone up by three pounds, still much more improvements to make

- Dr. Henry McGuire