Piper was exhausted. She had not even bothered to look around her room before she fell face-first into her huge and comfy bed......ouch.....she didn't realise that the underwire of her big dress would hurt.

She rolled out of bed, only to fall into the couch adjoining it. She groaned and pushed herself up, heading towards the wide door in front of the bed.

Right in front was a fireplace and on either side of it were two doors. She opened the one on her right, which led to an extraordinarily big walk-in closet. The walls were lined with everything from simple casual gowns to grand evening gowns of all the most expensive materials. In the middle was a gigantic rack, the bottom two drawer of which had footwear and the rest, jewelry.

Piper picked out a simple gown and headed to the bathroom to get changed.

She pulled her hair into a ponytail as she walked up to her window overlooking the gardens. The temptation to lean out was too strong and that's exactly what she did.

She took in the view, Queen Athena really spiced this place up, she thought. The gardens seemed to stretch out for miles, with beautiful topiaries of owls and statues of naked men and women all aligned.

It was completely unlike her mothers castle. The pallas itself had a minimilistic and a somewhat traditional style ,with hints of gold highlighting the while buliding. Her mothers castle,was the complete opposite. One it was filled with potraits of Queen Aphrodite and was grand ,with jewels practically spilling out of every fountain.

She pushed aside her thoughts of home, and decided to focus on the Choosing. . All the people she'd met seemed so nice, shereally wanted to get to know more of them before the campfire that evening, no matter how tired she was.

She heard some voices ,snapping out of her thoughts as she looked down.

Piper wasn't really shocked to see her sister, Drew Tanaka, already trying to seduce guys. She was falling all over a blond haired man with an athletic build. Jason, she realised She'd seen him leading the procession earlier and he seemed nice enough.Now she was really mad at Drew.Couldn't her sister leave her poor victims alone for atleast a couple of hours?.

She felt much better when Jason saw her and pleaded with his eyes. Piper laughed, grabbing her bag full of stuff Silena had given her, as her went to save him.

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Jason was raised to be a gentleman and being one includes not being rude to a lady. If not for his education, he would have gladly just pushed Drew off of him and walked away. Too bad, he had rules to follow.

He squirmed in his seat, desparately looking for his escape. Almost immediately, Jason saw it walking straight towards him.

Piper McLean had a rather huge bag with her, her choppy brown hair bouncing as she walked. She flashed a smile at him and .....fell.

Jason was delighted. She was such a great actress. If he hadn't known better, he'd have thought she actually fell and not fake- tripped.

Piper was sprawled on the ground, groaning and clutching her knee as if hurt. Everything in her bag spilled out and adorned the floor, most of them were...shoes and some weird looking circle boxes.

Drew whirled around and glared at Piper ,she hoisted herself off of Jason and flashed him a sweet smile, that made Jason want to shudder, then stalked away.

He grinned as he rushed towards Piper.

"Thank you so much!! That was literal torture", he said with a grateful smile on his face as he helped Piper gather her things.

"She's like that with all good looking guys."

"I think I have to warn the rest about this lingering danger, then", he laughed. "And did you call me good looking?"

"Oh shut up", Piper blushed and looked at Jason. "That scar, where did you get it?", she asked, trying change the topic.

This time, Jason blushed.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to pry", she quickly apologized.

"No it's not that. I tried to eat a stapler when I was around 2. It's still kinda embarrassing."

"Glad to know you survived", Piper commented with a laugh.

"Oh that was nothing. Father told me Heracles once wanted to try lightning."

"You Zeus kids really have a knack for dangerous dinner, don't you?"

Jason laughed. "I guess you can say that."

"Um...I should go get ready for the campfire." she said ,getting up from her knees and swinging her newly re-stocked bag on her shoulders

"You still have to get dressed?!", Jason exclaimed, looking truly dumbfounded.

"I don't think Mother will approve of me going in a gown this simple, Jason", Piper teased, gesturing to her yellow gown.

"Oh right. Aphrodite. See you later then." he said , getting up. "Though I don't think you need a fancy gown to make you look pretty."

"Bye" Piper said quickly as she jogged back to her room, hoping Jason didn't see her blushing face.

"See you around, Piper!" he yelled from behind her.

Piper did not turn back to look ,but her smile grew even wider.

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Drew was waiting in her room, like a predator waiting for prey. As soon as Piper walked in, she pounced.

"Hello Piper" Drew said,dragging out her name in a harsh manner. " You see I don't like being upstaged especially by a little runt like you.
He is never going to like you darling, no one ever will" she promised with a sly smile.

"You see I've got my eyes on all of these handsome brutes, and I'll do anything for the one I choose, but if you even THINK of trying to sabotage me , you little runt ,you'll pay", she said before taking a quick step towards Piper, slapping her hard across her face .

"They're mine, he's mine. Who's ever gonna love you , dear sister"

When Piper didn't reply, she went on. "Jason Grace is mine. You hear me ? He is mine."

"Really Drew, didn't you see how uncomfortable he was? He said it was torture, you know. He won't like you, Drew, much less, choose you. So give up already."

Piper knew exactly what was coming, but she couldn't help herself. She just had to say it. It always felt good saying such things to her. But alas , there were consequences.

Drew was fuming as she looked around Piper's room, she slowly walked closer to Piper,raising her hand.

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Annabeth signed as she heard a knock on the door. She really did not like being interrupted while reading. Putting her book down, she pushed herself up and proceded to open the door.

In front of her stood a girl she'd never seen before. She had a round and blunt nose, blunt chin, and a toothy smile, though the jawline was almost non-existent. Her black hair was done up in a ponytail and she wore a simple white dress.

"Hello, Lady Annabeth. I'm Sarah. I will be your assistant for the entire duration of the Choosing. Every morning and before events, I will come and help you."

"Hey there, Sarah. But I don't really need any help right now", Annabeth replied politely. Behind Sarah, she noticed a girl in a huge pink dress storm past. Must be one of the Aphrodite kids, she thought, remembering the Aphrodite girls from the parrade.

"But Miss, you've got to attend the campfire tonight. Queen Aphrodite has insisted that the girls must wear gowns and makeup to all gatherings."

Annabeth's heart dropped. She was so engrossed in her book, that she'd completely forgotten about the campfire!

To make it worse, the author had just thrown her favourite couple into Hell. Literal Hell. She did not want to stop now, but it seemed she had no choice.

She groaned and left the door open to let Sarah in.

"What would you like to wear, Miss?", Sarah asked.

"I'm sure Miss Circe sent you here with something in mind. So just show me that dress",

Annabeth replied quickly, referring to the head dresser for the girls, who chose their dresses and makeup ,getting the servants to do it for her when she was busy.

"Excuse me one moment, Miss. I'll go retrieve your dress."

Sarah walked into Annabeth's closet and after a minute, returned with a gown of grey silk, trimmed with lace and adorned with pearls here and there.

She took the dress from the shorter girls hand and headed into the bathroom.

'This was going to be fun' ,she thought.

Hope you liked it !! Stay tuned.
---S&D