Blood of Olympus FanFic {completed}

20: PIPER

CH 20-PIPER

The hot sun bore down on Piper, and she wished she had water as she plucked a particularly ripe grape. She wanted to make sure the wine they made would be the best wine in the world. Most of all, she wanted Dionysus to be impressed, to see that Piper McLean was a good person, whatever ... others in her family had done.

“You okay there, Pipes?” Leo yelled.

She turned, her cracked lips curving into an attempt at a smile, and showed him a thumbs up. He grinned, and resumed grape-picking.

Piper looked over at Jason, who was chatting with Frank. Piper wished someone would chat casually with her too. Just to save her the stress and pain. I mean, wasn’t Jason supposed to be HER boyfriend, not Frank’s?

“Hey,” a quiet voice said.

Piper knew who had spoken before turning around: that quiet, musical voice obviously belonged to Hazel.

“How did you know?” she exclaimed, her voice cracking.

Hazel stood on tiptoe, since Piper was a bit taller than her and hugged her. As Hazel patted her back, Piper felt safe letting her hidden tears trickle down her cheeks and melt into Hazel’s denim vest. She knew, for some reason, Hazel would keep this a secret. 

Hazel pulled away when Piper stopped crying, and surveyed her with a melancholy smile on her face.

“You know, Piper, if I’ve learnt one thing, it’s that keeping secrets isn’t good,” said Hazel.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we all did wonder why you were acting so weird earlier.” Hazel bent down, and threw a handful of grapes into her wicker basket.

“I wasn’t acting weird at all,” Piper lied.

Hazel gave her a you’re-not-fooling-me look, and picked three more grapes. “Piper, we’re all friends. You can trust us.”

“I know I can,” Piper answered, forcing herself to stay composed. 

Hazel waited for her to say something else.

“But Jason, he’s been so distant, like he doesn’t even care anymore!” she blurted out before she could stop herself and started sobbing.

Hazel grabbed her hand. “Guys, we’re going on the other side of the hedge!” she yelled back.

“Kay!” she heard Jason shout which made her sob even more.

Blinded by tears she let Hazel guide her to what she supposed must be the other side of the hedge. This was the real trust exercise.

They stopped under the shadow of a weeping willow, which was adequate for Piper’s feelings. Hazel handed her a Kleenex and she blew her nose.

“Thanks,” she said, feeling better as Hazel produced a water bottle. “Thanks Hazel, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Die, that’s what you’d do!” Hazel teased, sitting down on the cool ground next to Piper.

“Yeah,” Piper said. “Hazel, why does Jason act like he hates me?”

Hazel, whose features had been light and smiling a second ago morphed into a serious expression.

“Piper,” she said, taking Piper’s hands. “You have to understand... Jason is keeping secrets too.”

Piper was so outraged that she couldn’t even cry. “What do you mean? Has he told you about the secret?”

“Secret-s. Plurally,” said Hazel, “and no he hasn’t.”