Many things were... Piper didn't really know how to describe it. Odd? Weird? Generally blah? A fucking mess of indistinguishable emotions?

    Whatever it was, grief felt like that. The world was piling onto her shoulders, but rather than people turning away, they stopped to stare. They would give her condolences and advice and the ones with the most audacity would not-so-subtly give her information to a therapist. She fucking hated it.

    She'd always hated attention. In her mind it was like a two-in-one kit of being the daughter of anyone famous. "You get rich by being born and you have the most opportunities out of everyone else, but at a price!" said the perky salesman with a muffled speaker voice that lived in Piper's brain after watching infomercials and RuPaul's Drag Race at the same time at 2:12 a.m. "You walk outside to the paparazzi making money about the fact that you exist! Make a mistake? It will haunt you for the rest of your life and also, your dad's career depends on you being perfect. So good luck, and don't fuck it up!" It was a shit deal. Especially since everyone but her father seemed to look at her. She longed for his attention, but never got it. Millionaire actors were just like that, she supposed.

    Then she found out that she was the child of a goddess. What the fuck was one to do with that information? She hated attention, but being the child of a goddess was yet another shitty deal ("Be beautiful and have the powers people can only dream of having. But, no one but other demigods can know. Good luck, and don't fuck it up.") and she wanted nothing more than to shout to the world, LOOK AT ME AND LOOK AT THIS FUCKED UP SHIT. She was still working on what she'd actually say, since that didn't make much sense without context. But it didn't matter. No one would look at her anymore and since the scandal of Tristan McLean being broke, but then it turned out that millions of people had their money and shares stolen by Triumvirate Holdings had blown over. Then the Jake Steel franchise had come to a close. People stopped caring and no one would look at her. It was odd in that weird and generally blah way. She was grateful for it, of course. It's what she's always wanted. No more paparazzi (usually), and she could live her life. But she still couldn't tell anyone.

    And then Jason... And then Jason died. And everyone looked at her again. She didn't want to be looked at by anyone, not even her dad. But he was on top of her. "I understand how you feel," he says. "I'm here for you," he says. Piper didn't really care. She wanted to yell at everyone, LEAVE ME ALONE! That one was pretty self-explanatory. If she ever actually said that, her father's reputation would be tarnished and she'd be in every tabloid and magazine and anti-rich-actor Twitter page (X page? Is Threads actually Twitter/X now? Piper didn't know what the fuck was going on there.) No one would leave her the fuck alone.

    Whatever. It didn't matter. School was starting. Actually, it had started two months ago, but she had just moved to Tahlequah. It was weird to have a 100% new property made just for her and Tristan. The house wasn't fully unpacked yet, which didn't say much. In reality the furniture she did have was placed in a lovely array of grays and blacks and minimalism (just in case someone wants to do a celebrity house tour), but the majority of it has yet to be delivered. Thankfully, her dad said she could decorate her own room and the movie room, which meant she could have color. The movie room didn't have any furniture, and all Piper had in her room was a white bed frame, dresser, desk. Even so, it got her a bit happier. She even got a little nail kit and painted them. Just random multi-colored swirls, and they all looked good, other than her right pinkie. She fucked up her right pinkie, but who gives a fuck at this point?

    It hadn't taken long to do, and it was calming. She'd played Mitski and Taylor Swift on her JBL clip and felt nothing. Not that heavy sort of nothing, where it's invisible and weighs you down until you can't feel anything but that horrible and empty nothing. It was a comfortable nothing. It took her mind off of Jason and school.

    Ugh. School. How is it that Piper had been through two wars and witnessed so many people get hurt and die but school still manages to instill a distinct sense of dread deep into her bones?

    It's fine. It'll be a distraction. Something benign and unimportant that would still take up an unholy amount of time and effort. It was perfect. Why actually deal with your emotions when you can just gently place them in, like, a closet. Then it stays there and eventually you forget about it and when you look at it again after a year of not cleaning out said closet, you just kind of look at it and it doesn't matter anymore. Was it a good and productive plan that was helpful toward her crippling mental health? No. Did Piper McLean have every intention of executing these unhealthy coping mechanisms anyway? Absolutely.

    Due to the magic of asking Leo to make up a believable transcript and asking him to teach her geometry, she had the average schedule for a senior in high school. Amazing. Piper had no clue what that looked like, but she was told that she could change her classes if she does so within two weeks, according to the Sumpter Hills High School website.

    The school was the only one for the large neighborhood of Sumpter Hills. It was zoned for about 10 communities and was overpopulated. Because Sumpter Hills was poorer, the odds of there ever being an additional high school built was slim to none, though since the furthermost corners were now going to be with luxury properties, maybe there will be one made for those communities.

    It took 20 minutes for her to arrive to the campus at 7:00, which should be nationally recognized as way too fucking early in the morning. Piper triple checked that Katolis was stashed in her armrest box before going in. She'd received her schedule from a mildly angry man who seemed to hate his job and was sent to wander around the concrete and hope for the best. Lovely. Her favorite part was when the guy didn't tell her which building was the 100 building or the 300 building. It was simply brilliant.

    Nevertheless, she made it to the Student Government Association due to the power of squinting really hard and using the computer she found at the library (which seemed to be the only obvious building aside from the gym) to change the font to Open-Dyslexic and giving herself a mental reminder to try and get some sort of IEP. Piper didn't particularly want to be a part of this, but it was better than having something hellish for her first period. If she had to wake up that fucking early and do math–something she can't even do when she feels alive–Piper would have to commit multiple crimes.

    "Oh, you must be Piper!" said Mr. Callum when she showed up at his door two minutes late (look, she got there in the end so the timing doesn't matter). "How did you manage to get to my class late on your first day?" he said, all syrupy sweet. It reminded her of how some of the Athena kids talked about the Aphrodite cabin.

Despite Piper's newfound urge to punch her teacher, she explained. "My IEP hasn't been processed yet, so I can't read it. I had to use a computer and copy it. Then I got lost so I had to ask one of the cops–" Because schools just have resident cops now, apparently. "–where the class was."

Mr. Callum gasped. "The hospitality at the school is disgraceful." He turned to the class in the room he still had not allowed Piper to enter. She was tired and the way he was speaking to her sparked an innate need to punch his face. Gods, had she had breakfast? No, she had not. She should probably eat something; that might be beneficial to her current mentality. "Give me a moment, I'll get someone to give you a tour." He briefly cleared his throat. "Who wants an extra community service hour? Nachelle Arianny Lorena Silva Armas Lawrence–I love to say the whole name–I saw you first." He turned back to her. "You'll be in great hands." A girl squeezed through the doorway Callum was still blocking with a tight smile toward them as he closed it without letting Piper put her shit down.

Her soon-to-be-blind-rage toward Callum was instantly forgotten when she looked at who she assumed was Nachelle Arianny Lorena Silva Armas Lawrence. She had dark coily hair cut in a curly pixie with a small layer of defined curls forming the beginning of future bangs parted to the side. She had light tawny skin and a wide nose and lips. But what really made Piper stop was the freckles scattered all around her face, especially by her nose. They were the perfect little pathway to her deep, dark brown eyes. "Hi," said the girl, with a soft Houston accent.

Piper blinked and cleared her throat. "Hi. Are you Nachelle Ari–"

She put a hand up to stop Piper. "Just Shel. It's always been just Shel, he just loves to say the whole name." She rolled her eyes. "Doesn't even say it right."

"Is he always so punchable?"

"Yes."

"Lovely."

"I'd get out while you still can," Shel advised. "Oh, what's your name, by the way?"

"Oh, um, Piper."

"Nice to meet you. Can I see your schedule?"

Piper handed it to her with a muttered apology. "I have dyslexia and it's difficult to read it."

"Yeah and I'm sure the grainy ass font didn't help you much. You can put your stuff down, by the way. No one comes by here." Shel squinted down at the small slip of paper without the help of the flickering fluorescent light. She sighed. "I am so sorry for the both of us, but we need to go up to the third floor for your next class."

Piper shrugged. "Two flights isn't that bad."

Shel cast her a sympathetic look. "If you say so."

"Ominous."

She nodded. "Yeah, just wait until you're lugging that extra 30 pounds on your back and some freshmen are trying to push you up while the other freshmen are blocking the end of the stairway. I fucking hate freshmen."

"What did freshmen ever do to you?"

"Be 14. I mean, I still think being 14 was one of the worst parts of my life and I feel like that says something."

"Why is that?" Piper asked as they approached the stained concrete stairs decorated with what looked like old cat shit.

Shel gave her a confused glance. "What do you–Oh!" Her face morphed into a massive smile. "I forgot that you were new."

"We met five seconds ago."

"Uh, shush. It's fine," Shel scoffed. "Um... It's a secret. Well, it isn't, actually, but I would like to enjoy someone not making my entire existence about it. Sorry, I know it's annoying. You'll hear about it soon, though, with the way people talk about me."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," she said. "I mean, people don't really care about much of anything except fights and that one time someone almost jumped off the roof."

"So you're just a big deal here?" Piper asked, assuming the fact that someone tried to jump off a roof on school property was normal based on the way Shel had said it so casually.

"Ew. No." Shel ignored Piper's indulgent smile.

Despite Piper's urge to further probe, she changed the subject. "What exactly is my next class? And also, where are we?"

Shel blinked. "Wow, I'm an excellent tour guide."

"Truly."

"Well." Shel's accent was strong as she hung onto the word. "Welcome to the 200 staircase. Over there, we have a jolly rancher that has been there for the past year and still hasn't started to smell. On the right we have..." They looked down at the weird brown blob that resembled cat shit. "I actually don't know what that is."

"Animal shit?"

"I thought so, but we don't have any service animals here, and the rats can't produce shit that big. By the way, even though they say the mascot is a scorpion, the rat is the true mascot. We named him Remy."

"Like... the whole school decided on that?" Piper asked, not expecting the answer.

"Yes, actually."

She choked on her air. "I'm sorry?"

"There was a debate that was on the school news and Remy ended up being the name they decided on. It's student run, so we get fun things like that sometimes. Anyway," said Shel, not allowing Piper to process what she'd just heard, "we are going to your Chemistry class. You have Mr. Jones. He's good, I had him last year."

The rest of the tour was interesting. Piper saw some super cool things such as someone drawing a dick in one of the emptier halls, four girls coming out of the same bathroom stall smelling like vanilla flavored vape and hacking their guts out, a cheer and marching band practicing in the courtyard, and one of those cheerleaders and member of the marching band dry humping each other by the library! It was a truly riveting experience. 10/10 would recommend.

It was interesting to see just how different this school was in comparison to... well, literally every other form of schooling she'd ever done. Ever since Piper was little, her dad had money, and it was spent on sending her to top private schools in California. The uniforms were comfortable and the campus was as big as a community college and the students had parents that were lawyers, CEOs, reality stars, superstar actors and singers. Each of them would donate significant amounts of money to the school, along with the 40k tuition. The graduating class would brag about being a shoe-in at Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Princeton, MIT since their parents went to Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Princeton, MIT. It came with a distinct type of smugness that Piper never understood. Her father had never gone to college and had never truly instilled that desperate need to "continue the legacy." At least her time in the wilderness school, even before going to camp, wiped that distinct smugness out of her. And wilderness school hadn't, then Camp Half-Blood certainly had. If anything could make you feel distinctly un-special, it was... well, it was literally everything Piper experienced.

Still, going back to school in general was weird and the fact that some people seemed to take pride in school was even weirder. Shel would contentedly talk about how the football team sucked, and it sort of became the school's thing. The AP program was apparently pretty high for a school like this (Piper didn't really know what like this meant, but she went along with it). It was like New Rome. Her time there was brief, and she hated every moment in that heavily policed nightmare, but the people had their own culture and when they weren't being heavily policed, Piper had fun.

Another thing Piper noticed was that two flights of stairs were, indeed, that bad for Shel. "Are you okay?" she asked once they got to the top and back down for the third time, listening to Shel's heavy sigh.

"How is this not the slightest bit difficult for you?" Shel asked. "Like, I'm athletic-ish–"

"Athletic-ish?"

"I–Shut up. I work out and go hiking all the fucking time, and I'm still tired after that." Shel gave a breathy laugh. "How do you not care?"

There were a variety of possible answers Piper could have given. All of them absurd. "Just am." Ah yes, the perfect dodge. A round of applause for Piper McLean, everyone.

Thankfully, Shel dropped it. "Anyway, let me know if you have any questions and... Oh, do you have your student ID? Or the number?"

"Yeah, I have the number in my bag somewhere."

"Cool. Your teachers will either give you the links to buy textbooks or take you down to the library depending on what class. And..." Shel gave unenthusiastic jazz hands. "That marks the end of this riveting tour."

"Wow," Piper monotonously sang.

"Yeah, and I am so amazing, I managed to keep us out of Mr. Callum's presence for almost 45 minutes!"

Piper gasped. Wasting time works, kids! "And we didn't even skip, technically."

Shel gave a nod that plainly said I know, I'm just amazing. "Use the system to beat the system."

-

There are a few things Piper had forgotten about school. Like when the bell rings, it's a lawless land. Or how teachers can be the best people you ever meet, or the scum of the earth that make you wish for death. Oh, and most importantly, lunch.

    It was terrible to have to get across the courtyard. She was going to do a leisurely stroll to the benches littered around. Unfortunately, that was offensive to the high school population of group B lunch. The stairwells were cramped and the people behind her were trying to push her down the stairs. Because it was obviously her fault that the people in front of her were not moving. Eventually she made it to the bottom of the stairs and started to haul ass to one of the available benches but was interrupted by someone tapping her shoulder.

    She paused for a moment to look at him. He was tall and lean and wore the school's football jersey. It looked really tight on him, and must have been quite insulated since the shoulder pads and his brown hair were soaked. Parts of his sleeves were rolled up to reveal a stark farmer's tan differentiating between the slightly tanned light skin to ghostly pale. Piper was also able to deduce that while she could smell multiple attempts to cover the sweat up, the deodorant was not enough. Is it weird that she was still able to smell it? Granted, she was also able to smell that he was human. Monsters seemed to have an unnaturally perfect scent. Was it weird that she was able to deduce whether or not a monster was masquerading by scent alone? Probably, but Piper liked to think her time in the Aphrodite cabin just trained her nose. Because that's normal enough, right?

    "Hey," said the football player. "Look, I haven't seen you around here. What's your name?"

    "Piper."

    "Cool, I'm Nick. Sorry, I probably smell like shit." Oh, self-awareness. "Um, my friend thinks you're cute and sent me over here."

    Piper shuffled a bit. "Oh. Um. I–"

    Nick stopped paying attention to her and started muttering something while eyeing someone else. Piper instinctively followed his gaze to find Shel speed-walking for her life. "Hey. Hey!" Nick started to call. "Oh my God, what's her name? Um..." He let out a soft groan. "Wait, wait! Stop." Shel did not stop. "Hey, wait, uh... Cancer Girl!"

    Shel stopped dead in her tracks and slowly turned to face Nick. "The fuck did you just call me?" Oh. That's why she's famous here.

    "Sorry, I don't know your name."

    "No shit, but there are a lot of different ways to get my attention."

    "Like what?"

    Shel scoffed. "A tap on the goddamn shoulder? Describing my outfit? Honestly, anything other than fuckin' Cancer Girl."

    "Wait, but where's Zhade?"

    "Probably at her house,why?"

    "You're her friend, right?" Shel nodded. "You think she'd be into me?"

    Shel snorted. "I don't know, you can try." Nick let out a soft yes before leaving (read: doing a little goofy dance) Piper and Shel. "You need a place to sit?"

    "Yes. Thank you."

    Shel smiled. "It's nothing. My friend Zhade sits there too, if you're chill with meeting one new person since she's my only friend."

    Piper snorted. "Yeah that's fine. I thought Zhade was at her house."

    "Why tell the truth when you can lie and protect people from the football players." Shel's face morphed into mock disgust. "And not even the good football players. I mean, Nick's fine–actually, they'd be cute, but his friends? Horrid. And Nick just called me Cancer Girl. Fuckin' Cancer Girl." Piper was beginning to think she was actually disgusted with Nick. "I swear, the only reason that man hasn't lost all credibility is because he let me copy his calc homework yesterday."

    "That makes him credible?"

    "It makes me pass my class."

    Piper couldn't argue with that. If there was one thing she remembered with perfect clarity, it was the constant hustle to pass even the simplest of classes. Especially since her last class was pre-calc and she doesn't remember being more confused than when this teacher threw about fifty different trig identities at Piper. "You're in calc?"

    "Sadly, yes."

    "Damn."

    "Thanks, it's hell." Shel gestured to a pair of benches where a girl with brown skin and thick kinky curls dyed in a blond balayage was mock fainting.

    "Shut the fuck up," said the girl. "You spoke to someone?"

    "Go fuck yourself." Shel grinned. "This is Piper, she's new." She said it like it was a massive scandal.

    "Oh my God," said Zhade with a smile. "Welcome to hell! You'll hate it here!"

    "Wow, thank you." Piper sat on the bench and shoved her bag on the floor. Gods that thing was heavy. She already had pain on her sides from old wounds that never properly healed, and she was certain this bag was going to make it much worse. It's been like four hours and her lower back was already hurting. Can't wait to add that to her list of issues.

    Piper learned a few more things about school during lunch: Shel was smart. Like, freakishly smart. Zhade would spend the first half of lunch asking her to explain a few algebra theorems and rules that she didn't get and would take Shel's perfect Pinterest notes that she'd written Zhade in 30 seconds. When Piper had asked, "How did you do that so fast?" and Shel had just shrugged and said that she was used to rushing notes from the year before. Zhade had muttered something about there being no way these notes were messy, but Shel just shrugged again.

    Another thing is that phones are apparently a heinous crime in high schools, and these two girls were excellent criminals. They seemed to know exactly when the teachers made their rounds, which ones cared and which didn't. Piper didn't even know that they had been listening to music the whole time until Shel had taken out a skin toned ear bud muttering something about it being dead so fast. Zhade did the same with her AirPods, using her phone when she knew she was clear to ensure her thick curls covered her ear perfectly. It all happened in exactly 12 seconds, all the while someone across the courtyard was getting yelled at by a teacher for having it in their lunchbox.

    Piper also learned that it was concerning when someone doesn't bring or buy lunch. Or maybe Shel and Zhade just cared more than most. Or maybe they just had a fuck ton of food they wanted to get rid of. Piper wasn't really intending on eating anything, she wasn't hungry most of the time. But Shel had offered her some of her potato flautas, complete with an array of things to top it with. Zhade seemed to prefer the pico de gallo and crema, but Piper and Shel put everything on top. On Wednesday, Zhade offered some Nashville hot chicken, which Shel was practically on her knees begging for. Zhade felt really bad when Piper said she was vegetarian, which Piper brushed off. When Shel was actually crying over the spice of the chicken, but still went back for more, Piper decided she may have dodged a bullet. That didn't look healthy. Zhade gave Piper some fries while Shel interrogated her for the location of the hot chicken place, which Zhade didn't give her. On Thursday, Piper brought some zucchini patties she'd made from a box because she felt bad. Then Shel traded one of her entomatadas for two patties and Piper gave Zhade some chips for her fries.

    That day, Piper and Shel made their way up to the second floor, where they shared the same english class with Ms. Bates, a teacher that seemed to be universally acknowledged as the best in the school. Piper was inclined to agree with the sentiment. On her first day, Bates was the only teacher that didn't bombard her with work around things she'd never heard of and actually spent time trying to figure out what Piper did and didn't know. She'd always thought she was bad at, well, most things school. But, she'd somehow managed to bullshit her way to the advanced course and, according to Zhade, a class with Shel was impossible. Thankfully this was english 2 and less focused on writing five page essays on the use of the phrase "the blue door" and more about the history of english and child language acquisition. Ms. Bates had given the class a free day and went over the long syllabus with her. Then, by the next day, Piper could understand why people loved her.

    "I'm happy to have her," Shel had muttered in the midst of an unnecessarily long lecture, "The other class' teacher already got fired. When I had Euro last year and my teacher got fired, it was hell. Oh my god, and when I had it for English my freshmen year?" Shel shuddered. "Honestly, it's not as bad as it could be. She's nice to me and the class is pretty easy."

    On Wednesday, as they got to class a right as the bell rang, Piper knew that Shel seemed to be a favorite of Bates. The girl who'd arrived with them received an earful while they just slid toward the back of the class. Then Bates began going through a lecture about archaic and modern english. When she finished, another lecture began about the notetaking skills of the class, using Shel as an example of what to do (which didn't seem fair. Not everyone had the ability to create a fucking Pinerest board in five seconds). It was ironic that Shel's notes ended up always being the example as the course went on, seeing as she never wrote what the teacher wanted her to. Then, when Piper tried to write something similar, she'd get a lecture.

    By today, as Piper got the results of her first test, she could understand why Shel was the favorite. Piper had gotten a 64 while genuinely trying, and studying for the first time in a year. Meanwhile Shel had a 100, and had finished the test in, like, ten minutes.

    Out of all the things she'd forgotten about school, that sense of failure–over something that was so fucking trivial–was what hit her hardest.

    Thankfully, the day after the test was a free day, for whatever reason.

    Shel was scrolling through Instagram when she suddenly aggressively tapping on Piper's shoulder, right on an older scar that had sort-of healed. She could move her arms around just fine, but as soon as someone put pressure on it, a stabbing pain shot up her shoulders and into her neck.

    "Oh my god, I'm sorry," Shel said. Piper was guessing her expression said it all. "I didn't mean to hurt you, I'm so sorry."

    "Oh, no, you're fine. I have a shoulder... thing."

    "Okay, cool. I'm still sorry though."

    Piper snorted. "Why? I didn't tell you about it."

    Shel shrugged. "I mean, if it's anything like my shoulder, I probably just ruined your week by touchin' it wrong."

    "Touchin' it wrong?" Piper repeated in a really shitty rendition of Shel's accent.

    "I have a shoulder," Shel blinked too many times and tucked her hair behind her ear doing a great impression of Bella, "thing," she said in an excellent valley girl accent. But the Bella aspect felt like a personal attack.

    "How dare you compare me to Bella Swan."

    "You named my baby after the Loch Ness monster?" she whisper-screamed.

    Piper hid beneath her hands. "It's not what you think! I love Nessie, the literal infant." Piper felt warm when Shel giggled, then quickly covered her mouth before the teacher told them to shut up. She could feel her face getting hot and her insides squishing together. "What's your shoulder thing?" Piper blurted in a somehow desperate attempt to change the subject, which was so smooth. Piper deserved an award for that one.

    "My sarcoma was in my shoulder."

    "Oh. Cool," Piper said before her brain could comprehend the fact that cool is probably not how people should respond to that.

    Shel snorted. "Anyway, look." She showcased an Instagram DM of Nick once again asking if it was a good idea to ask Zhade out.

    "Why isn't he doing it?"

    "Exactly!" Shel threw her phone back in her pocket before anyone else could see and leaned in closer. "Mind you, this ain't even the first time he's done it. He asked me again when I was leaving yesterday and I told him it was weird to ask me, but I'm pretty sure Zhade would say yes."

    "Do you know why he isn't going for it?"

    Shel threw her hands up. "Literally could not tell you." Her annoyed expression quickly changed into eagerness. "Actually, on the topic, I don't think I have you on Insta, what's your handle?"

    Piper cleared her throat. "Oh. Um..." There were many things that would be difficult to explain. Why was it that when you searched her name, there was a verified account with thousands of followers and somehow dedicated fan accounts (she didn't know if she should find it cool that she has a fanbase or terrifying, so she decided on both)? Why did her private story have a variety of massive figures, such as Percy Jackson, the guy who got kidnapped with his mom and got in a fight with said kidnapper which made national television at age 12? Why don't you have a phone even though you are really, truly rich? "Hang on, let me get your phone, I have two."

    Shel handed off the phone and quickly shoved Piper's hands beneath the desk. "Girl, I need you to not get caught," she muttered.

    "Sorry," Piper mouthed, quickly finding her private account. "I'll add you back, but I don't have a phone so I'll do it on my computer at home."

    "Grounded?" Shel asked as Piper slid the phone back.

    "No," she said. "My old one broke. Like, she's dead. And I can't get a new one until my dad gets back from this eight month long... business trip." None of which technically a lie. Her old phone that she'd had in the Wilderness School had broken when she'd fallen off the Grand Canyon and its remains were probably still at the bottom. And she also did not actively have the ability to buy a brand new phone without her father, who'd only recently given her a card with an unreasonable $300 weekly limit for food and gas until he hired a new assistant and/or private chef, when it will go down to a still unreasonable $100 a week. Neither of which is enough to buy a brand new phone. And recently Tristan was casted on some new series where he strayed from his usual action roles and was instead playing the emotional and broke brother of his dead sister who now had to raise his nieces in Georgia, which is being filmed somewhere in the UK.

    "Damn, eight months? May as well fucking move there," Shel muttered, going back to writing and highlighting her psychology notes.

    Piper shrugged. "It's how it's always been."

    "That's shitty." And Piper couldn't help but agree.

-

Piper put her knife on her nightstand, collapsed onto her bed, and fought the urge to smother herself with the pillow. She had nothing to do, and that fact scared her.

    Usually there was always something. A monster to fight, a battle tactic to learn and refine, someone to train, homework to do, chores to do, a fight in her cabin she needed to resolve, a prank someone played on another cabin that she also needed to resolve. There was always something to do. Not today though.

    She wasn't sure why it made her feel uneasy, like something big was coming. There wasn't, she knew that. The biggest thing that could happen was a monster attack, and Piper knew how to take care of a decent amount of them. But the thought didn't help. She just rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, waiting for nothing.

    In moments like these, she missed having Jason. Even when they were pissed at each other, they'd sit and wait together. They both said nothing and they both understood and while they waited for nothing, they weren't alone. She wanted him there, right now. She wanted him with her all the time, even though they never stopped fighting and half the time she was mad at him or he was mad at her. Piper still loved him. She'd always wondered how she could still love him. She was the one to break it off and you don't love a dead person you broke up with and spent the majority of his last days with a subtle sense of hatred. You can't love someone after death when you felt like that while they were alive. She wished that she could go back and not hate him during those last few days. The worst part is, Jason could still be dead. Her only wish was to get out of her own guilt, despite how fucking selfish it was. How much of a terrible person did that make her? It didn't matter. At the end of the day, Piper didn't think she'd ever get over him. She'd always love him, no matter how egoistic that made her.

    She opened her computer, conveniently still on Instagram with a few new notifications. She had a friend request from... itzzhadegoyal and omg.a.shel. She'd forgotten about that. Piper added them back and looked at their most recent posts. Shel had a video of her wheezing and crying over a kid–he looked around 4 or 5–screaming "Holy shit!" at the top of his lungs. "What?" Shel has asked, still wheezing. "HOLY SHIT!" the child repeated, causing Shel to shriek with laughter. Zhade had a series of pictures and videos of her and Shel along with someone Piper assumed to be one of their parents or a sibling screaming to Chlöe in concert. They yelled the bridge of Pray It Away and the start of Have Mercy. Shel had fulani braids and Zhade's hair was in mini-twists when they shouted "Do you ever wonder, like who else is fucking your man?" along with Chlöe, followed by more screaming in the second video.

    Piper sighed, ignoring the unjustified envy that began to bubble up, and tossed her phone to the side. There was no need to get jealous. Maybe one day she'd be able to go to a concert that wasn't Austin's with her friends.

    Oh right, Piper had friends. Maybe they could help her!

    Right on cue, a wall of mist appeared by her bed, revealing the ever so lovely Leo Valdez frantically waving in what looked like a workshop of sorts. Piper screamed "HI" like an overexcited toddler as she turned on her humidifier and flashlight to keep the IM pricing down

    "Dude, you have school!" Leo said it like it was the coolest thing in the world. "What's normal school like?" Piper must have made a face since Leo burst into laughter. "Damn, that bad?"

    "No, it's not that bad," Piper said. "Just... weird. There were a lot of things I forgot that came back to me instantly. Like, I forgot that you had to stress about grades and once I got back here I'm starting to put pressure on myself."

    Leo snorted. "Why?"

    Piper shrugged. "Literally don't know. It has to be some sort of muscle memory thing but for your... brain. Is the brain a muscle?"

    "Why would I know that?"

    "I don't know, you just know everything."

    Leo bowed. "I do, this is the only exception."

    Piper gasped. "So can you do my pre-calc homework that I get tomorrow?"

    Leo looked absolutely giddy. "Can I really?"

    "Yeah, I don't really want to do it." Leo whooped. "I don't know how you get so excited about this type of stuff."

    "It's fun." Leo gasped. "Have you made any friends?" he sang.

    "I mean... I guess."

    "You guess? What does that mean?"

    Piper sighed and rolled onto her stomach, propping her face into her hands. "Like, I sit with them at lunch and we follow each other on Instagram, but I don't know if it's like an acquaintance thing or a friend thing, if that makes sense."

    Leo wheezed. "The fuck? That doesn't make any fucking sense, dude!"

    "I don't know," Piper groaned. "It might just be a rich people thing–"

    "She says as if she isn't rich."

    "I–first of all, dick, I am not rich, my..." Piper realized she needed to shut up. "Oh. Wow."

    "Yeah." Leo sighed like a disappointed parent. "You really did, in fact, just say that rich people shit."

    "Whatever. As I was saying, um, in my old private schools it was like that. You were only friends if they gave you their actual number or something. Instagram was more out of obligation–or at least it felt like an obligation."

    Leo slowly blinked. "That's so fucking weird."

    Piper nodded. "Yeah, thinking back that was kinda odd." She sighed. Everything was kinda odd now. She hadn't felt normal in ages. When had that started? She looked up at Leo, who seemed to have that same far out look she related to. He–Piper realized–was probably feeling the same way, maybe even worse. He never saw Jason again. "I... I feel weird," she said.

    Leo looked down at her, understanding clear in his solemn expression. "Yeah." He was perfectly still and Piper just wanted to give him a hug. "Me too."

    She didn't know how long they IM lasted. They alternated throwing in a drachma to continue the call, even if half the time they weren't talking. Piper had offhandedly mentioned her pinkie that she'd screwed up, which was a mistake. Leo had laughed "How do you have, like, detailed nail art on your other nails but that pinkie looked like it was just thrown into hell." She had no choice but to redo that one after receiving that level of disrespect. Leo ended up grabbing some materials and started to create "just a small robot" that would shoot a foam dart at people coming into his room (Piper didn't understand how anything was just a small robot, like... it was a fucking robot). Harley and Georgie volunteered to test the product, much to their delight, while Piper oiled her hair and cut off her split ends. By the time the IM stopped, it was almost 3am.

    She went back to her bed and expected to be riddled with her familiar restlessness as she tied her hair into a loose bun and buried herself in her assortment of pillows and blankets. But instead, as her head hit the pillow, she felt calm, content, and blissfully drowsy. When she awoke, she'd found herself to be greeted by the same weird and empty feeling but with the happy knowledge of someone in her corner. That thought prompted her to style her hair into a half updo and wear the makeup gifted from Lacy, the rings and earrings from Mitchell, and the vintage M&M's racing jacket from Valentina. The foundation was a perfect match, and the purple blush that Piper had been hesitant about had blended into her skin as a pretty pink and the primarily black and beige jacket had matched with Mitchell's silver jewelry. When she'd arrived at the school by bus, she was greeted by Shel and Zhade gasping and mock fainting when they saw her before falling into easy and carefree conversation.

    Maybe, she thought as she leaned against the concrete walls, it won't be as bad as I thought.

-

Shel quickly caught up with her on the way to lunch. "Piper," she said as she scrambled over. "Jesus, how do you walk so fast? It's not fair that you're tall," she muttered. "Hi. Do you want to get a milkshake at the most gourmet McDonalds in a three mile radius? But just with me since Zhade decided to leave with someone else."

    Piper gasped. "I would love to get a milkshake at the most gourmet McDonalds in a three mile radius!"

    The most gourmet McDonalds in a three mile radius was an older building that still had actual color with a bright red roof with neon yellow trims and a triple-window drive-through. What made it truly gourmet was the fact that the ice cream machine was not, in fact, broken. They parked back at the school, two chocolate milkshakes in hand and Shel connected her phone to the aux, a Beyonce song that they both instantly started to dance to played while Shel turned up the volume. She used an empty energy drink can as a mic while Shel used her milkshake to do supporting vocals. She didn't notice when Shel had stopped singing toward the end of the song and looked up at Piper with an expression she couldn't quite make out.

    "Holy shit," Shel whispered when the song ended, pausing the initial chords of Ain't Shit. "I didn't know you could sing! You got some fucking pipes!"

    She tried not to be alarmed by the warmth that spread through her chest when Shel complimented her, the same type of warmth that had left her blushing that morning. When Zhade complimented her outfit, she felt nothing but a twinge of confidence, but when Shel said something it felt...bigger. Now, with Zhade gone with someone else, she had no one to compare the heat that was rising in her face and her heart beating unusually fast. "Thanks," she said, instinctively looking down in an attempt to cover up the massive blush Piper was certain had painted her cheeks.

    Shel grinned and unpaused the song, quickly glancing to her window and wiping away some invisible hair from her face. Piper couldn't help but stare at the way the sun brought out a pool of colors into Shel's deep brown eyes and trace the large freckles that were sprinkled across her nose and cheeks. Shel pursed her lips and glanced back at Piper, who quickly looked to the front.

    When they got to the bridge they screamed the lyrics at the top of their lungs and the song transitioned into Shake It Off. Shel groaned and quickly skipped the song, along with the next Taylor Swift song, and the next. "You have a fucking vendetta against her?" Piper asked.

    "No, I just don't like her music." Shel was now attempting to manually pick a song. "Are you, like, a Swiftie or something?"

    "Okay, I am a casual enjoyer of her music."

    Shel put her phone down and raised her brows. "A 'casual enjoyer'?"

    "Yeah."

    Shel looked at Piper's eyes and snorted. "How did those mortgage payment concert tickets feel?"

    Piper scoffed. "I didn't even get to go!"

    "So you would have bought them?" Shel shrieked with laughter.

    "I–Listen. That's besides the point." Piper ignored Shel's incredibly rude cackles. "Um, is there no Taylor Swift song that you like?"

    "Actually, I really fuck with Cruel Summer," Shel said. "It's the only song I will actively choose to listen to." As proof of this claim, the song began to play and they screamed "I love you ain't that the worst thing you ever heard? He looks up grinning like a devil..."

    They began the two minute drive back to school when the song ended and they fell into a comfortable silence. It was nice for a moment, which only succeeded in making Piper anxious for whatever was to come. A monster might be just around the corner, and Katolis was in Piper's car. Shel would get hurt and another person she cared about would die on her watch. Rachel might email her when she got home, detailing a new prophecy and quest Piper had the honor of participating in. Something was going to happen, she knew it.

    She tried to brush the thought away, but it kept coming back as she got through her last few periods. Her instincts telling her to stay alert, something was coming. She practically sprinted to her car to get Katolis from the armrest box of her 2019 Nissan Maxima, holding it flat on her chest, using it as an anchor to remind herself to breathe. "You can't fight the monster if you fucking suffocate first," Piper whispered, closing her eyes. "You will not die from this bullshit. You did not make it this fucking far to die from this fucking bullshit." She took a deep breath, doing her best to ignore the lump forming in her throat. After a moment, she gently placed Katolis in her cup holder, her right hand holding steady onto the hilt as she drove home. It didn't take long for the car to start beeping. The car was almost out of gas, because of fucking course it was. Why wouldn't it be?

    She pulled into the gas station by her neighborhood, which was always seemingly devoid of people. It makes sense–or so she told herself. The area was still knee deep in construction with only three or four finished properties and this gas station was the only store (do they count as a store, Piper wondered?) nearby. And it was, what, like 3pm? People had jobs, they aren't coming home yet. Grab the knife and pump the damn gas.

    "Excuse me." Piper jumped at the syrupy sweet voice of the girl that had appeared behind her. She had porcelain skin, blue doe eyes, and long auburn hair which she twirled on her slender fingers. "I was wondering if you had any spare change?"

    Something's wrong. Something's wrong. Something's wrong.

    She took a second to look at the girl again. No fangs from what she saw when the girl was talking. The Mist didn't seem to be flickering by her face and torso. She was standing with her feet close together from the look of the maxi-skirt, not spread a bit too far the way an empousa would.

"Um, sure," Piper said, grabbing a ten. Maybe this was genuinely a girl who needed some extra cash for whatever reason. "That's all I have on me."

The girl smiled, sending chills down Piper's spine. "Not that type of change, baby." She giggled and her eyes flared while Piper reached for her knife. "Pay with your blood," the girl growled.

Piper didn't have time to react to the way it lunged at her, barely managing to duck out of the way and got scratched on the shoulder with talons she hadn't been able to notice.

When the girl turned, Piper watched as her face changed into something monstrous. The blue eyes narrowed to that of a snake's and her mouth expanded to reach her ears as the girl smiled, stretching its flesh while the legs transformed into a serpentine tail. A lamia.

Piper readied her knife, prepared for the lamia to lunge again when she whipped her tail knocking Piper over.

What is this? Piper asked herself as she turned, grabbing the tail. It caused a flicking reflex, sending Piper closer. She ran her knife along the sides of the tail. You should have killed her already. The lamia cried out in pain before slicing Piper's leg, leaving a three long gashes on her calf.

It took advantage of Piper's instinctive roll and jumped on top of Piper, her smile somehow reaching off her face as her mouth opened wider and wider, preparing to swallow Piper whole. Piper shoved her knife into the roof of its mouth, reveling in the inhuman scream before it erupted into dust.

She shoved the now bloodied ten into the machine and sped off to her house. How did she get hurt there? It was a fucking lamia. It's the fucking Buy For Less version of empousa. Besides, that lamia clearly had no fucking clue what it was doing, making it easy to kill. And yet Piper still managed to get hurt. Twice. Had she not stabbed, Piper would be dead. What the fuck happened? She couldn't even focus on the gods damned monster! How was she going out of her mind with worry about when she was going to be attacked, so much so that Piper could not tell you what she'd done for lunch anymore, but once the monster revealed itself, she got hurt instantly? There was being out of practice, and being plain fucking stupid and dumb and just... ugh Piper didn't want to think about it.

She limped to her bathroom and grabbed a bottle of saline, hoisting her leg into the sink since the tub was too far. She did her best to flush out the wound, debating whether she should pray or not. Apollo had still been AWOL and Piper wasn't sure if he'd ever made it back to Olympus or if he died or gave up or whatever and she also wasn't sure if she cared. Did that make her a bad person? Doesn't matter, she probably was. Also she was bleeding out and should probably take care of that. She opted to not pray and instead silently thanked Will Solace for his insistence on having first aid training. Piper grabbed the sutures she had stored and did her best to stitch herself up. She was never good at it, even when Will was guiding her hands she always managed to do something wrong. Still, she decided that any future infections would be an issue for future Piper to deal with and bandaged the scratches after pouring small amounts of nectar. She limped her way down to the kitchen and drank a few sips of nectar. Based on her previous wounds this one should be healed by noon tomorrow, she thought as if she was a professional.

The nectar quickly took effect, and Piper felt relief wash over her. She probably shouldn't go to school tomorrow. She should also probably sleep. The thought alone sent down the wave of exhaustion the adrenaline had kept at bay. She dragged herself to the couch (if something happened she did not want to have to clean blood off her sheets on top of everything else) and bundled herself in the variety of fluffy blankets in a nearby closet. When her head hit that rock hard throw pillow, she fell asleep in an instant.

-

The best part about not having an oracle was the lack of prophetic dreams. Piper awoke, feeling not rested at all, but still decent-ish. She thought to herself maybe I will actually go to school today. But it was almost 11 and school started at 7:30. Oh well.

She checked her wound. It had started to swell, which was a good sign, with small scars forming around the edges. Thank the gods she had nectar to spread on the wound, or else getting to this phase of healing would have taken a month. It still stung, but Piper could put her weight on it and walk without a noticeable limp. She rubbed a smaller amount of nectar on the wound and bandaged it again. She figured that another day would leave it decently healed.

She felt good enough to wander around the house a bit. Gods, she hadn't really been anywhere besides her room since she'd moved here, and after a while the white on gray got old. Actually, Piper kind of hated it and she wanted to do something with it. But the thought of going into that room made her instantly tired. The thought of doing anything, really, made her tired. She just wanted to go back to sleep.

The problem with nectar, however, was that it gave demigods energy. It was like a thousand espresso shots. So sleep wasn't an option.

She instead went upstairs, ignoring the twisting in her stomach demanding food, and grabbed her laptop from her room, ignoring the disgust at the light gray walls. Piper turned on her humidifier and called Leo, with no answer. Then Annabeth, but Piper then remembered she was supposed to be moving into her dorm in New Rome. That cut Percy off too. And in Camp Jupiter, the day starts at 8:00 on the dot, so Hazel and Frank were probably busy at 9 in California time. Jason might have answered if he was still here.

Nope, not thinking about it. Who else could she call?

No one. Piper didn't have many friends.

Wait, actually that's not true. She grabbed her laptop off her nightstand and opened Instagram, sending a message to Shel. Piper figured that it would take a while for her to respond since it was a school day, so shed–oop, nevermind. The response came instantly.

surfingaphrodite: hi i just woke up

omg.a.shel: honestly me if my parents didn't unleash the five year old on my ass

surfingaphrodite: how are you actively texting me while in class

omg.a.shel: some people have skill, others dont

omg.a.shel: like, i am messaging you and zhade at the same time. she's currently thirsting after a skater boy you have a picture with

surfingaphrodite: lmao what

omg.a.shel: shes the literal definition of messy i love her

omg.a.shel: like, man is actively kissing someone in the photo and she still has the audacity to thirst after the girl too

surfingaphrodite: lmao go to class

omg.a.shel: i am in class, im just not paying attentin rn

omg.a.shel: also you dmed me so this is technically your fault

surfingaphrodite: what class are you in

omg.a.shel: calc

surfingaphrodite: literally yesterday you were complaining about how you have a c in that class

omg.a.shel: true, but c's get degrees

surfingaphrodite: can't argue with that

omg.a.shel: besides, we just practiced basic derivatives and had a quiz i did in like 5 secs because basic deriving is my only skill in this class. and minimums and maximums with concavity and that shit

surfingaphrodite: what in the fuck is a concavity

omg.a.shel: you know how quadratics will look like u's and n's depending on the equation?

surfingaphrodite: yeah

Piper only vaguely recalled Leo talking about the topic for exactly 15 seconds before moving on to logarithms, which he apparently found to be much more interesting (it was not interesting. It was hell, actually, but she can now do these weird precalc logarithms with her eyes closed, so...)

omg.a.shel: that's essentially concavity on a very basic scale. if it's a u, it's concave up and if its an n its concave down, but in the functions we use, there will be like five different critical points we have to find

surfingaphrodite: damn and i'm here struggling with basic trig

omg.a.shel: NAH FUCK TRIG

surfingaphrodite: lmao

omg.a.shel: NO BECAUSE WHY MUST TRIG BE EVERYTHING IT IS? GIRL GO THE FUCK HOME NO ONE LIKES YOU

surfingaphrodite: i feel as if you have some negative feelings toward trig

omg.a.shel: i could find whoever invented trig and torture them, reveling in their screams, and watch in glee as the life slowly leaves their eyes 🥰🔪

surfingaphrodite: DOES IT GET THAT BAD

omg.a.shel: YES IT GETS THAT BAD

omg.a.shel: I FUCKING HATE TRIG IT'S MY BIGGEST ENEMY AND IT'S NEVER NOT IN MY MATH CLASS

surfingaphrodite: i'm so scared for that now

omg.a.shel: you should be

omg.a.shel: godspeed soldier 🫡

surfingaphrodite: 🫡

omg.a.shel: ok we are actually doing shit in this class now, i'll call you during lunch

surfingaphrodite: bye

omg.a.shel: byeee

Piper couldn't explain it, but talking to Shel was like talking to Leo. She felt some weird, invisible weight lift off her and she couldn't help but smile while they talked, even if it was about random, irrelevant topics. In some ways, she thought it was even better than talking to Leo. Throughout the exchange, Piper imagined the way that Shel would quietly react to each message. She could see the way her brow would slightly crease and how she'd quickly purse her lips to hide a smile. Piper supposed that was one of the benefits of being a child of Aphrodite, expressions were always easy to read. She could even pick up on the silent conversations between Shel and Zhade after knowing them for only a week.

She closed her laptop and rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. Now what would she do? Her stomach gently reminded her that food existed by screaming at her and twisting up her insides. But she didn't want to eat much.

She sighed and got out of her bed, looking down at her now-destroyed jeans and cami-top. Piper fished out a sticky note from somewhere in her desk drawers and wrote a note to herself to put these in her ask one of my siblings to fix clothes pile. It had been gradually growing since Malibu.

She showered and washed the grime out of her hair. Despite the fact that she had always wanted to go unnoticed, Piper always paid attention to her hair. It had always been her favorite feature, and she put the work into making it silky, soft, and shiny.

She massaged rosemary oil into her scalp and did a quick blowout. It was a relatively short ritual, but on days like this, it's proven to be necessary. There was something distinctly therapeutic about putting on a playlist that was primarily SZA songs, and doing her hair.

She brushed through her bangs singing along to the chorus of Drew Berrymore and, for the first time since yesterday, felt okay.

-

"I'm just saying," Zhade said as Piper made her way to her spot on before school began.

    It had been a week since being scratched and everything considered, it was healing nicely. Thankfully, she found her classes to be a nice distraction, despite the pressure she out on herself to do well. In school, Piper hardly thought about her wound or monsters.

Shel looked at something in Zhade's hidden phone. "Ew. No."

Zhade scoffed. "Well, you're gay so it doesn't count."

Shel rolled her eyes and waved to Piper as she leaned against the wall. "What are y'all doing Saturday?"

Zhade gasped. "The cookout?"

"Yeah."

She punched Shel's shoulder. "You don't even have to ask, I'm going." Shel stepped on Zhade's foot. "Fucking bitch! These shoes are new!"

"No the fuck they ain't," Shel scoffed. "I've worn those shoes myself."

"Bullshit, I bought them three days ago."

"That's bull, but whatever. Serves you right."

omg hi my singular violation bean

welcome to tangents with gabby

the nostalgia is hitting so hard rn

umm, idk what to say here. i just don't know how to keep going. also ignore every spelling mistake and general continuity error, this is still very first draft and very rough and no where near actual publishing material.

this is also almost 10,000 words so if you even got to this point... babe i fucking commend you holy fuck

idk what else to say since i totally don't talk to you every day and you totally have no idea what's going on in my life

so um

bye, i guess

love y'all (even though it's only you)