Started on - December 24 2021

Piper's day started off well enough. Well, by her standards. She got up, wore her pants and ate her breakfast, like any other person. Her mom was on a tour and her dad was shooting a movie scene in Oklahoma, so Piper was alone for the next few days. Which wasn't necessarily bad by her standards either.

She got into her car and drove to the school. She was early, as usual. Her reasoning was that the less she was in that house, the less she would hurt, so she tried staying away as much as possible. She got her bio stuff and went into the class. She started texting Reyna. She too was early, but had US Government. Why she would choose that elective was beyond Piper. 

She and Reyna had a sort of complicated relationship. Until a year ago, they had been rivals. They were basically opposites for everything. Reyna was a very stubborn girl who liked governmental and social studies. She was extremely athletic and discipline. That contrasted to Piper, who definitely seemed more on the wild side. She was quieter and was more interested in emotional and communication studies. The two of them had clashed many times. Not to mention that Reyna was Piper's crush's ex. 

They smoothed things out when Annabeth introduced Reyna to their group. Piper decided she needed to make an effort to become friends with her. Reyna also ended up breaking up with Jason that year which definitely helped Piper's resolve to become her friends. They ended becoming really great friends and now Reyna was someone who Piper would definitely trust with her life. But that didn't mean she was going to tell Reyna about her life. Annabeth knew a bit, but she didn't know everything either. 

Anyways, Piper texted Reyna for a bit, but Annabeth still hadn't turned up. When she finally came up, late too, obviously Piper was a bit curious about how her friends who had NEVER been late, was late all of a sudden. She ended up with no answers and an Annabeth glare. From there, the day started to go down. 

Chem was as mind numbing as usual. She thought that her next subject would be good. After all, it was French, and she seemed to have an unusually good talent at speaking that language. Also, it was one of the few classes she had with Jason. Unfortunately, guys in French seemed to think that girls would like them better if they signed up for that class, so Piper had to constantly withstand guys hitting on her, and had to control the urge to K.O them into their textbooks.

But then she saw Jason lovingly hug Hazel Levesque. Piper liked Hazel, she seemed like the kind of girl she would be friends with, so she hung her head low and accepted it like a boss. The way Reyna taught her. But it did kind of hurt. 

Then during lunch, after Annabeth explained her story of running into Percy Jackson before school, which ignited this conversation:

Leo: Really Annie?! *Lmao

Piper: Leo, grow up. Annabeth, you know you can be late once in a while right?

Annabeth: I can't! It'll tarnish my record! Do you think Princeton accepts lazy students

Reyna: I thought the dude who started the LaZBoy franchise went to Princeton

Thalia: I thought Beyonce went to Princeton

Leo: Are you insulting the Queen B??!

Piper: I'm more of a Cardi B girl as a whole.

Thalia: Cardi B?...

Reyna: Whenever I think of her, I think of an American Girl Doll playing Sims 4

Annabeth: ...That is strangely specific

But moving on.

When she got to the locker room, she had fun expressing some of her outrage and disappointment in the world on Drew, who totally had it coming. Piper probably would have attacked her if Reyna hadn't held her back. Not to mention, she was one fight away from probation. If she fought once more, she would be stripped of her cheer captain duties. Piper liked cheer, so she didn't exactly want that to happen. 

When she got out of the locker room, she saw Coach Hedge scowling (no surprise there. That man always had a reason to scowl) and had a stubby foot hovering over a soccer ball. Piper inwardly groaned. Out off many sports, one of the ones she loathed was soccer. 

She joined the other students on the ground. Everyone was quiet and looked at Hedge, but that didn't stop him from blowing his shrill whistle. Piper winced.

"Listen up cupcakes!" the coach barked in his rough voice. "Today, we're playing soccer!"

"Really?" Leo muttered to Piper. "Never would've guessed." Piper smirked.

"Captains! Tanaka and McLean." Oh yes. This would be great.

"Tanaka has first pick." Coach said. 

Drew smiled and said "Jason." 

Oh well. Piper thought.

"Annabeth." The blonde girl got up and walked over to stand behind Piper.

"Matt."

"Reyna" Piper said next.

"Kelli."

"Percy." Annabeth shot her a dirty look. Piper shot her a "what? He's a good athlete..." look.

"Rachel"

"Frank."

"Luke."

"Leo."

"Nancy."

"Hazel." Piper said, recalling the girl in the locker room.

"Ethan."

"Thalia."

"...Octavian."

"Nico."

In the end, Piper decided her team was pretty strong. It had Annabeth, Reyna, Percy Jackson, Frank Zhang, Leo, Hazel Levesque, Thalia, Nico di Angelo, Calypso Nightshade, the Stoll twins, Connor and Travis, and Clarisse LaRue. 

Frank and Clarisse had a strong build; Thalia, Nico and Reyna and a strong, slim build; Connor, Travis and Leo were fast; Annabeth and Hazel were good at dribbling; and finally Piper, Calypso and Percy were pretty strong kickers.

"2 minutes to get team names! Come up with something intimidating!" Hedge yelled out. Piper turned to her team.

"Any ideas?"

"The Crushers?" Clarisse suggested. 

"Cliche." Travis said.

Leo's eyes lit up. "The Self Checkouts!" he suggested. There was a muttering. 

"Okay." Piper said, silencing everyone. "The Self Checkouts. I guess it is intimidating."

"Time up!" Hedge yelled again. "Tanaka! You're name?"

Drew looked smug as she said "The Grizzlies." Piper noticed some kids in Drew's team glaring at Drew, as if that wasn't the name they decided on, which was probably the truth. She heard Percy snicker and lean over to Frank and say "Do they think that this is basketball?"

Hedge wrote that down on his clipboard and turned to Piper. "McLean, what about you?"

"The Self Checkouts." She said, smiling a bit. Drew's team cracked a few smiles at that too. Hedge shook his head in utter disbelief before writing it down. 

"Alright! Grizzlies head to this side and Self Checkouts go to the other." Hedge said pointing to the ends of the field outside.

Piper walked with her team to the left end of the field. They all looked at her and Piper suddenly was struck with the horrible realization that she was expected to lead. 

"Um...ok...uh, Leo do you think you can be goalie?" she asked. She had seen Leo play soccer before, and he seemed to have two left feet. She decided that it would be better to keep him as goalie. Besides, he was good at diving and catching things. Leo saluted. 

"Okay, and for offense, let's go for Reyna, Nico, Percy and I. Then for defense, um, Frank, Clarisse and Thalia, and um, midfielders, right, uh,  Hazel and Annabeth? And then can Connor and Travis defend near the back with Leo? And Calypso...can you also join for offense and then switch to defense?"

Everyone nodded, satisfied with their tasks.

"And remember. This is just a game, so...have fun okay? I don't want us to get in fights with the other team, no matter how arrogant they act." She heard Clarisse sigh in disappointment. "But yeah, that doesn't mean hold back. Let's crush those teddy bears." Everyone seemed to like this and they cheered.

"Nice pep talk McLean." Travis said as he headed outside the gym to get to the field.

She was about to follow her team when she heard a voice, "Piper!" She turned around and her breath caught in her throat. It was Jason. He looked kind of nervous, fiddling with a coin, before putting it back in his pocket, only to yank it out again and fiddle with it once more.

"yeah?" she asked, her own voice soft in her ears. Get it together

"Um, Drew wouldn't say this, but I wanted to wish you, and your team, good luck." Jason flashed her a shy smile. Piper returned it with as much timidity. 

"Thank you." she was about to add more, but Annabeth called her.

"Yo Piper. You remember that there's a game about to go down?" She said, with her ponytail swishing around.

"Yeah. Coming." Piper said. She turned back to Jason and gave him a small wave before jogging over to Annabeth.

"Had a nice time?" Annabeth asked, smirking.

"Shuttup." Piper mumbled.

***

The AHS soccer pitch was a pretty nice place. The lawn keeper, Gary did a very nice job of mowing the lawn. Gary did not like kids or mowing lawns, but he was very organized and neat, so he did a pretty good job. Sometimes he wished that he just decided to become a banker instead of going into environmental care. But this story isn't about him.

Piper joined her team on the left side of the field. Everyone got into their respective positions. Piper went and stood in the middle of the field.

"Captains, shake hands." Hedge said, then thought. "Or don't, I don't care."  Drew and Piper walked away from each other when he added that.

"Rules, no hitting, kicking or any other physical hurt to the opponent. Smack talk is not prohibited. No whining when I say something. Refs will be me and Gary." Gary gave them an unenthusiastic wave. He didn't want to be here.

"Players ready? Start." Hedge blew his whistle for good measure. Piper kicked the ball from under Drew and the game began. She got control of the ball again and kicked it over to Nico, who kept dodging players with his thin frame. He barely ducked Matt Sloan before passing it to Percy. Percy moved over a little to the middle and faked shooting it into the goal post before kicking it over to Reyna who easily kicked it past Octavian, their spindly goalie.

Hedge confirmed the point and Calypso kicked over a sign that showed that the Self Checkouts scored a point.

Octavian threw the ball back into play. Matt, Luke and Jason got the ball over to their side of the field. Matt tried to kick it at Luke but Thalia intercepted it. She tried to pass it over to Annabeth, but Jason tackled it before it reached her. Thalia scowled and yelled "Betrayal!" to her brother. Jason smirked at her before kicking it back to Luke. Luke tried shooting it, but Connor dove and kicked it over to Travis and they both double teamed it back to Clarisse who power kicked it over the field and it landed next to Calypso, who kicked it to Percy, who shot it and got it in again. 

Drew glared at Piper (no surprise there) before Calypso flipped the pointboard to show

Team 1: 2  Team 2:0

The continued to play. Although the Self - Checkouts had a good start, the Grizzlies began to score more points. Jason kicked most of them in by distracting Leo. Looking back, Piper remembered that Leo had severe ADHD, and although that made his reflexes better than most, it also meant that he was more susceptible to be distracted now and then. Eventually, they were tied at 12 points.

Hedge blew his whistle. "We're stopping for today cupcakes! Get changed!"

Piper wiped a bit of sweat from her brow. She joined Thalia and Annabeth walking back inside. Soon, they were laughing about the funny things that happened during the game, like when Leo dove and did an unwilling split, eliciting a high pitched squeak. Or when Kelli tried kicking the ball, but not only missed, but tripped and fell onto her back. But the best was Octavian's face when Nico kicked the ball into the air and then roundhouse kicked it into the goal so hard it made an audible smack, narrowly missing Octavian's face. Now, that was impressive.

That went...well. Piper thought. For once, she looked forward to the next P.E. class.

Thank you for reading ⊂(・▽・⊂)

- Hani