Half-Blood High

Miss BAG

Piper POV

*****************

The stupid beauty pageant I had signed up for finally came around.

"Jason, do you think I should wear the pink sleeveless dress or the teal strapless dress?" I asked.

"Umm..." Jason scratched his head. As I showed him the pictures of the dresses on my phone. "I think...the teal one..."

"That's what I was thinking, too..." I muttered.

"Pipes, why are you even doing this?" Jason asked. "You may be a daughter of Aphrodite, but this isn't you."

"Are you kidding? This is exactly me; signing up for stupid things to prove myself to other people." I said.

"You don't have to prove yourself to anyone," Jason said, "you've proven yourself to me, and I love everything about you."

"Jason, if you loved me, then you wouldn't be against my decisions." I snapped, and I stormed off.

Finally the day of the school pageant arrived.

I hid behind the curtain in the teal dress, feeling like millipedes were using my stomach as a dance hall.

At least that rotten brat Chloe wasn't here...

Suddenly the door slammed open. And guess who was standing in the doorway.

"Chloe, what are you even doing here?" I snapped. "Didn't you get suspended?"

"My daddy made a little exception," she said, "I always win the beauty pageants, and there is no way I am losing this one, especially to a little Dumpster Girl like you."

Dumpster Girl. Drew used that term a lot against me. I could tolerate only one person calling me that, but two was unthinkable.

"I will win this pageant, and you will see that I represent the other Dumpster girls like me," I said.

"Hm," Chloe said, and she strutted away to change into her dress.

Finally the show started. And I was startled to see the host of the show: LEO?

"Hello ladiesandgentlemen, and welcome to this year's Miss BAG beauty pageant! I'm your host, Leo Valdez! Let's meet the contestants!" He said smoothly into the mic.

We were called out onstage.

"Here we have...Piper McLean!" Leo shoved the mic under my nose.

"I'm Piper, and I..." I had to name a hobby. I had no hobbies. I couldn't swordfight at Camp. The only thing I could do was charmspeak. Charmspeak. I couldn't say 'Charmspeak' itself, but I could say something really convincing...."I'm Piper and I love all of you!" I said, slathering on the Charmspeak like butter on toast.

The crowd cheered loudly for me. I hammed it up by blowing a kiss out to the audience. Some guy actually stood up and caught it, and that's when I realized that the boy was Jason. My heart fluttered; he had come to support me, even after I was rotten to him.

"Hear that, ladies and gentlemen? We certainly have an instant-favorite!" Leo said. "And next up we have..."

"Chloe Clayton, and my daddy loves me!" Chloe said, blowing a kiss to her dad in the stands.

I rolled my eyes as the crowd cheered.

Leo kept going down the line. Chloe sneered at me.

"Nice try, Dumpster Girl, but I wasn't affected by your little sweet phrase," she said.