Anyway, here's a chapter I think you'll enjoy 'cause it's long(er). Enjoy!

Starring Piper McLean

Piper only stuck around for five minutes.

Her father had thrown a huge celebrity party at their house, and hadn't invited any kids. And he had somehow forgotten his daughter's request to invite people she idolized, like Hannah Montana. All there were were forty-year-old TV stars of adult dramas with plots that no one knew of including the director and spontaneous kissing in every episode.

Technically she had been allowed to mingle with everyone else because the only alcoholic beverages being served was closely monitored wine, but Piper didn't want to do that. But she also didn't want to be rude to her father. She politely greeted people who asked for her name in a cutesy-cutesy-baby voice and tried not to get upset when they asked her if she wanted candy. She wasn't two-freaking-years-old. But then again, all kids must look the same age to them. As you get older, age doesn't matter because everyone looks the same due to the surprising amount of cosmetics they use.

At one point a man approached her and asked if she knew who he was. Piper had no clue, but replied politely, "No, sir, but I'm sure that whatever you do you do wonderfully."

The man beamed and gave her a lollipop he conceived from nowhere.

There was also that lady who carried the same amount of pride as an evil stepmother. She sat down on the couch beside her, sitting completely rigid, while Piper played with her doll self-consciously. "How old are you, child?" the lady asked suddenly.

"Nine," Piper replied.

"Ugh," the lady said in disgust. Piper turned.

"Why 'ugh'?" she asked, her kaleidoscope eyes glinting reproachfully.

The woman didn't reply for a moment. "When I was your age, I attended parties like this as a guest, not as the daughter of the host. I sat up straight, was polite to my elders, and did not play with dolls."

"Well, maybe I do sit up straight, am polite to my elders, and attend parties as a guest, but you just judged me too quickly because I still play with Sally," Piper mouthed back.

The lady glanced at her and didn't speak for a moment. "You are a pretty girl," she admitted, thinking. "Perhaps with a bit of teaching we could find you some manners…"

"Judger!" Piper yelled. "You judge!" Then she jumped off the couch to find her father.

He was chatting with some friends near the fireplace. "Daddy!" she shouted, pulling on his shirt. "There was some lady and she was mean to me! She judged me because of Sally!" She held up her doll for Tristan to see.

"That's nice, sweetie," he said, turning back to his guests. "So anyway, as I was saying…"

Piper pouted and walked away. The music playing was old-people themed and she didn't recognize any singer. Meaning no Selena Gomez. Sighing, she climbed down the stairs to the basement so that she could have some peace and quiet.

She played with Sally for a while, pretending that she was a normal girl who didn't have to deal with all this nonsense, until she heard footsteps approaching. Scowling, she stood her ground, but then she heard it was a man and a woman that they seemed to be arguing about something serious. Piper did not want to be caught in the middle of that, so she searched for somewhere to hide. There was only the clothes dryer. Frowning, she opened the circular door and crawled inside, closing it behind her. The space was cramped, but she was small enough to fit.

The woman and the man's argument took new levels when they began to swear at each other. Piper plugged her ears with her fingers and ran the most obnoxious and repeating song she knew through her head to block out the noise. She prayed they'd finish soon and go back upstairs so that she could finish playing.

But they didn't. They stayed and yelled and swore and cussed at each other. This went on for nearly ten minutes. After a while the woman demanded something from the man and he went quiet, whispering something. Piper couldn't hear what it was, but by the sounds coming afterwards she concluded they were kissing. Just like those TV dramas she had mentioned earlier. The kiss lasted like, five minutes, and Piper was so desperate she even turned to Barney songs to play in her head.

Then the couple finally went upstairs, when their friends met them on the staircase and they began to chat about stuff. Piper wanted to scream. Her legs were growing stiff and Sally's face was squished against the dryer wall so bad her perfect ski-slope nose would most definitely not be so perfect and ski-slope-y anymore.

But the adults kept talking and talking… and Piper couldn't escape it now. If she just suddenly popped out of the clothes dryer, the fight-then-spontaneously-kiss couple would know she had been (unintentionally) spying on their argument and be super embarrassed, and then Piper would feel guilty. And that was if she didn't create heart attacks on the spot.

So she put up with it and stayed. Eventually people came and went, and soon the party traveled to the basement. She heard adults talking and laughing and occasionally shouting. Soon the sounds of music and chatter and all those normal things blended together and she began to doze off…

-o-O-o-

Piper woke to screaming.

She forgot where she was and tried to get up, only resulting in bumping her head in the small space. A maid was staring at her, a basket of wet clothes lying on its side at her feet. She'd obviously dropped it when she saw Piper sleeping there.

The maid helped her out. Piper stretched her arms and legs as the girl ranted to her. "What were you doing in there? Why on earth did you go in there? How did you get in there? Did someone force you there?"

So Piper had to tell the story, and the maid was not pleased. So then she called down Piper's father and she had to retell the story, head bowed down in shame. She was grounded and sent to her room for the rest of the day.

"Using the clothes dryer as a hiding place," the maid muttered to Tristan as Piper walked away. "Kids, right?"

Them kids. *shakes head in disgust* Wait a minute. I'm a kid...

Review! And I don't own HoO, remember! If I did, I wouldn't be so troll and hand out free copies of the House of Hades sooner!