Well, this turned out longer than I expected when I first started this chapter, but its still short, so, oh well! XD
Enjoy, and please request prompts if you want to see more of me! :))
Piper McLean did not need a guy. Out of anyone, she shouldn't be worked up at all over what her stupid sister said.
Which is why she wasn't.
In fact, she seemed to be the most comfortable and casual a girl who just broke up with one of her best friends could be.
And as of her other best friend? The one her sister told her she was in love with?
She shouldn't, couldn't, wouldn't fall in love with another one of her best friends.
Honestly, she and Leo were even closer than her and Jason, which would make it even weirder if she developed a crush.
So she just wouldn't.
As Jason and Leo's laughing died down and started dozing off, Piper fell asleep with a smile on her face and only happy thoughts of her fixed friendships in the back of her mind.
The next morning, Piper got up earlier than both the boys, only to see three red wisps in the air, one coming out of each of their chests, one right over her heart. She didn't see them perfectly since her eyes were blurry, but she could see Jason's drifting up, while Leo's swayed to the side. As she stood up, the red line followed, still connected to her heart.
Whether this was a prank, a mess they forgot to clean up, or her morning eyes playing tricks with her, Piper couldn't tell. When she tried to wipe it off and her hand passed through, she figured it was just a trick of the light and decided to not dwell on it for long and shrugged it off.
Changing from her pajamas to another camp shirt, shorts, and a thin jacket, Piper fixed the feathers always in her hair and decided to check on her other friends and breakfast before the boys woke up.
She started the walk back to the cabins, when she fan into Lacy, her other half sister, who was wandering around with her friends.
Immediately, Piper noticed the red streaks around each girl once again. Like Jason's, the red.. things, (Piper ran out of things to call them), drifted upward and faded away.
Confused, she called, "Hey! Lacy! What's up with everyone and the red... strings?"
She couldn't find the words, but the wisps did seem like strings.
Lacy's expression changed from curious, to confused, to delighted within the next few seconds.
"The Red Strings of Fate! Piper, you can see the Red Strings of Fate! Aphrodite must've given it to you as a gift! It'll probably go away within a day, but, wow. Seems like some mothers have favorites.."
Red Strings Of Fate? What? Piper thought she'd heard about something like that before, but she didn't understand what they were, and what that had to do with everyone having them.
"Excuse me, what? What are the red strings exactly?"
"Oh, well, two peopl-" Lacy was cut off by one of her friends dragging her back, leaving Piper to ponder.
Still confused, she kept walking back to camp. Annabeth probably knew what these so called Red Strings Of Fate were. Trying to ignore all the red strings drifting around her face, Piper found Annabeth in the crowd, with Percy.
She was about to ask about what Lacy meant, when she realized something. Something she hadn't realized in her rushing around, but was so obvious now.
As Piper saw that Annabeth's red string and Percy's red string were connected, she realized the obvious.
It was literally in the name! she scolded herself in her head.
The red string literally connected people whose fates were intertwined, connected, meant to cross. Or, more specifically, meant to be. As in, meant to be together. As in, literally, soul mates.
Suddenly, the world around her flashed, and Piper was bathed in so much pink, that she felt the need to barf, like her first time seeing the Aphrodite cabin, except maybe 10 times worse. Yeah, THAT bad.
"Well done Piper Mclean, I see you have figured out my gift for the day," A calm, soothing, beautiful voice sung, "and they say Aphrodite children are dumb!" The goddes giggled.
"Mother?" Piper turned to see a beautiful woman, so flawless she had to be the love godess.
"Why, of course! Your love life's been quite the bedtime story lately, hasn't it? I couldn't resist but interfere! Honestly, if I wanted to, I could've just let you and your soul mate both realize your feelings at the same time, let you kiss, date, get married, have kids, lead a somewhat normal life, and grow old together, but that wouldn't have been any fun, now would it? Sometimes its more about the chase, right?"
Piper rolled her eyes internally, though she knew it could've caused problems if she dared do it outwardly as well.
"Anywhoo, since you've proven yourself to solve it this far..I'm going to see how long it'll take for you to remember earlier this morning..."
Piper frowned. What about this morning? If this whole red strings thing is about her messed up love life... What? That she and Jason weren't connected? She looked down at her string again. That her string glowed almost as bright as the infamous Percabeth's?
Her eyes widened as she remembered how she tried to move around and shake the string off, as Leo's "randomly" swayed.
Before she could say anything, though, she was back in the crowd of campers, and Annabeth was in front of her now, instead of her mother.
"Come on, Piper! Jason's leaving any minute, and Leo just figured out how to activate the fireworks display!"
"Leo's just figured it out?"
Annabeth's eyes twinkled, as if she knew what Piper was thinking. "Yeah, now come on!"
Annabeth jogged ahead, yelling, "you too Seaweed Brain!" as Piper whispered to herself.
"I think I just figured it out too."