Blood of Olympus FanFic {completed}

29: PIPER

CH 28-PIPER

"Don't turn around!" Helen's voice was urgent, and Piper had to close her eyes and scrunch her fists together to stop herself from rushing to Frank's side.

"Wh-what's wrong?" she stammered.

"Nothing." Helen's voice was slightly strained. "It's part of the process. Don't turn around."

"Why would you care?" Piper's voice sounded bitter.

Silence. Piper could just hear the sound of Helen's fingers tapping some rock.

"Okay," Helen said. "You can turn around. He's morphing back. It'll take about three hours."

"Three hours! What?" Piper wailed. "I have a quest to complete, Helen! Three hours is valuable time!"

"Well, sorry," Helen said, raising herself to her model's 5'11 height. Which was about four inches taller than Piper. "I'm, uh, doing you a favor you know."

She took her iPhone out of her leather purse, and tapped something on the screen. "Sorry to be rude, I'm just texting Paris."

"Oh, not at all," Piper said in the most sarcastic tone she could muster. "Please, go ahead and text your boyfriend while I'm stranded on an island without mine and stuck with a quest I don't know about."

Helen looked up from her iPhone screen. Her beautiful green eyes met Piper's. And, in a quick mouvement, Helen had stuffed the phone into her purse, and placed her delicate arms around Piper's shoulder.

It felt nice. Helen smelled like cream and plants. It felt like being hugged by Annabeth or Hazel. 

"It's okay." Piper was surprised how throaty Helen's voice sounded. "We'll get them back, someday."

"Yeah." Her own voice caught in her throat, and before she knew it tears streamed down her cheeks. To her surprise, Helen was crying too. 

Piper had expected Helen to cry elegantly, but she sniffled just as loudly as Piper, and again Piper realized how Helen was just a girl barely a year older than her.

Suddenly, Helen pulled away and looked at Piper, and both of them broke into hysterical laughter, clutching at each other and the tears rolling down their faces were now tears of laughter.

"Gods, I don't know when I've laughed this much. Ever," Helen gasped, as she rolled around the floor, her beautiful features puffy and reddened. But Piper found Helen more stunning than she'd ever been when she was laughing.

"You never laughed?" Piper asked.

"Nah. When the Trojan war had happened, it was a week after my sixteenth birthday. I didn't have much occasion for fun after that."

"Wow," Piper said, amazed. She couldn't imagine what Helen had gone through at just her age.

"Let's not talk about that," Helen said suddenly, kicking off her platform heels. "Let's just have fun."

"My qu-"

"Who cares about your quest. I have stuff to do too. And I'm tired of doing what people tell me to. Let's take a day off." Helen stated, examining her silver-painted nails.

Piper thought about it. A day off did sound nice, but she had stuff to do. Seeing her indecison, Helen stepped in.

"Compromise. Three hours off. Just until your friend morphs back into his human form. Then, you do your quest."

Piper thought about it. "Okay," she decided. "Why not?"

"Oh, my Gods! Yay! I have a friend!" Helen threw herself into Piper's arms, and Piper hugged her back feeling elated and bright.