Chapter Text
PIPER LOATHED MONDAYS. And, like every other teenager on the planet, it was because of school. Mondays had never sat right with Piper. The day always had to come after weekends, successfully ruining her mood, that, and Mrs. Crenshaw, her history teacher, who had it out for her since the day she had made a joke about Abraham Lincoln in class. Apparently, sarcasm wasn't tolerated in History class.
Mrs. Crenshaw had made her return overdue books to the library after every History class. At first, the punishment seemed simple enough, but that was before the history class's location was changed, making it farther from the library. Of course, Piper had friends who helped her, except for the days when they came late. Today was one such day.
She walked towards her locker, setting the books on the floor before putting in her combination.
"Hey, Piper." called someone behind her. She turned to see a smiling Travis Stoll, one of the friends from her third period English class.
"Hey, Travis. What's up?" she said with uncertainty. She and Travis didn't really talk outside of class, so it was a surprise that he was here.
"I need help." He said, brushing his hands through his hair.
When it came to Travis, help could only mean two things. It was either help with a prank or with school work. It couldn't have been the latter, because she and Travis only had English together, and it was a well-known fact that Travis was one of the best students in English. So, Piper went with the prank.
"What are you and Connor up to again?" she asked, crossing her arms. Connor was Travis's younger brother, whom Travis always pranked the school with. The only reason they hadn't been punished was that they were never caught in the act, and the fact that Travis and Connor were invaluable members of Goode's football team, the Gorgons. Football players had some sort of immunity in Goode.
"No, no, no. It's not a prank." He said, trying to reassure Piper. "I kind of need help with a girl," Travis said, scratching the back of his neck.
"A girl?" Piper asked, confused.
"It's Katie," he said now redder than before.
"Wait? Katie? As in Katie Gardner? The one you prank every week?"
"Yeah, that one."
"I knew it! You like Katie!"
"Shh, I never said that." He said, looking around them to make sure no one was listening.
"Well, you're not denying it either," Piper said, smirking.
"I'm... It's just..." Travis said, scratching the back of his head as he tried to come up with words.
"I still don't understand why you need my help."
"I... Oh no. She's coming this way."
Piper turned towards the direction Travis was facing, to see the subject of their discussion, Katie Gardener, walking towards them.
"Stoll! I know you have something planned!” she shouted at Travis, red-faced. “I'll figure it- Oh, hey Piper."
"Hey," Piper said, before turning to Travis expectantly. It was customary to see Katie get mad at something resulting in Travis countering everything she said with a cheesy pickup line. However, Travis was making no effort to speak and merely chose to stand there looking at Katie with his red face.
Katie must have noticed this because she started to match the red lockers in the hallway before muttering some excuse about someone calling her and scurrying away.
Once she was out of their line of sight, Travis groaned, resting his head on Piper's locker. "Real smooth, Stoll."
"Shut up, Piper."
"Why didn't you say anything? You made Katie very uncomfortable with your 'heart eyes.'"
"Those were not 'heart eyes,' and I don't know. I was fine until yesterday when Connor started to say something about me confessing my love to Katie on Valentine's. Now I'm a mess."
"You really need my help, don't you, Stoll?" Piper said, exasperated.
"Yes, please."
"Fine. But only because the whole school is tired of you two flirting and still being oblivious. Plus, they'd kill me if they found out that I refused to help you."
"Thanks. So, when do we start?"
"Tomorrow, after school, my place. I'll text you the address. But first, return these books to the library."
"Yes ma'am," Travis said, picking up the books. "Thanks again, McLean."
Piper watched as Travis turned down the corner and was replaced by one of her best friends, Jason Grace. The blue-eyed boy looked at Travis in confusion before looking back at her.
"Sorry I'm late. Mr. Brunner wanted to tell me something after Latin. And was that Travis with your books?"
"No problem, and yeah. I'm doing Travis a favour, and he's helping me too. Don't worry, it's not a prank," she added when he started to look scared.
"Oh…good. Then, Miss McLean, may I walk you to lunch?"
"Sure, Sparky," Piper said, smiling.
"Come on!" Jason said and grabbed her hand, pulling her with him.
The cafeteria was filled with several students, but only a few of them were eating. It was a well-known fact in Goode that the meatloaf they served on Mondays was anything except meat. Jason, still holding Piper's hand, walked to their table. Piper looked down to see that their hands had become interlocked at some point in Jason's dash to the cafeteria. Sitting on the table scribbling furiously on something was Leo, her long-time best friend and neighbour.
"Hey, Leo!" Jason said, sitting down and pulling Piper down to sit beside him.
"Hey, Leo said, then turned back to what he was writing.
"What's that?" Jason asked.
"My Physics assignment." He said before looking at Piper. "Hey, Beauty Queen, you have hands, right?"
"Wow, Leo, thanks for noticing." She deadpanned, rolling her eyes.
"Good," he said, passing a packed lunch to her. "Feed me."
Piper sighed, as she was used to this behaviour. Leo rarely knew that he had assignments, leaving him to rush to complete them. How he always got straight A's amazed her. She stood up and sat at the other side of the table, where Leo was and opened the lunch plate to find some pasta, probably cooked by Leo's older sister, Nyssa. "Open up."
Leo ate the food from the fork she was holding and chewed for a few seconds before looking at Jason.
"Don't worry, Superman, I'll return your girlfriend soon." He said, making Jason and Piper blush.
"She's not my- “
"We're not- Piper and Jason said simultaneously.
"Oh, too soon?" Leo said, looking at Piper, which resulted in her smacking him across the head.
It was times like this that Piper regretted telling Leo about her crush on Jason. She looked to the other side of the table at Jason, who was sporting a bright red blush.
This is so awkward.
"What's up, guys?" said a voice from behind her.
Thank goodness. Its Percy.
"Hey, Percy," Piper exclaimed, clearly glad that someone had relieved the tension.
Percy had his arm around his girlfriend, Annabeth. They sat at Jason's side and glanced at Leo.
"Homework, right?" Annabeth asked, used to Leo's behaviour by now.
"Yup." Piper sighed, giving Leo another forkful of pasta.
"How are you doing that?" Jason asked, pointing to Leo's note. "Don't you need a calculator for it?"
"Pfft. Jason, do I look like someone who uses a calculator?" Leo said, smirking.
Three other people approached the table, Hazel, Frank, and Nico, Piper's other friends. Nico sat down with a McDonalds Happy meal in one hand and opened it.
Leo looked up at Nico and scoffed, causing everyone to look at him.
"Is no one going to ask Nico where he gets these Happy Meals from?"
Piper chuckled. Since food in the school's cafeteria was usually horrible, she and her friends never ate it. They either brought food from their homes or went after school to a nearby restaurant. Nico, however, for some reason, always had a Happy Meal or a Big Mac.
"We don't care, Leo. Although I could go for a cheeseburger right about now." Percy said, looking at Nico expectantly.
"Nope," Nico said, taking a bite out of his burger.
"So, the Sweethearts dance is coming up. Who's everyone going with?" Hazel asked.
"Annabeth," Percy said, putting an arm around his girlfriend.
"Not you, Percy." Hazel groaned, and Percy made a face at her. What about you, Nico?"
"What about me?" he asked, taking another bite out of his burger.
"Hey, why don't you ask Will out?" Piper said smirking at the dark haired boy, causing him to choke.
"Water…" croaked Nico.
Jason reached into his backpack and brought out a bottle, "Its Gatorade, but…"
Nico grabbed the bottle, opened the top, and chugged the contents. Percy and Leo were chuckling, the latter now abandoning his Physics assignment.
Nico stopped to glare at them, before turning to Piper.
"Why would I ask him out?"
"Ask who out?" a voice interrupted, causing Nico to turn.
"Will…" he started. Percy and Leo were laughing more now, and Nico had started blushing.
Piper decided that it was time to step in. "So, Will, who are you taking to the dance?"
"Oh, Nico." He said, nonchalantly, before taking his seat beside the mentioned boy.
Percy and Leo stopped laughing, and like the rest of the table, looked at Will, clearly shocked. When had this happened?
"W-What? You didn't ask me." Nico said.
"I thought you'd just want to go with me." He said. "Don't you?"
"I-I do, but-"
"Cool." Will finished before asking Frank a question about their next class.
Nico covered his head with his sweatshirt's hood, no doubt blushing profusely, and put his head on the table.
Piper smirked. Who knew that Will was so confident?
…
"What if she doesn't like it?"
Piper stood up from her seat in the kitchen. Travis had come over after school, and they were discussing the perfect way for him to ask Katie to dance. Travis had to be a jittery mess, cancelling all the ideas she had proposed. She was tired of this.
She walked past him to the fridge, where she got a bottle of water. She drank before looking at Travis and sighing again.
"Okay, Stoll, first off, stop being so paranoid. She's going to like anything you do."
"How are you so sure?" he asked.
"Because, like anyone else in the school can see, Katie likes you."
"Ugh” Travis groaned. “Why am I so scared?"
"Maybe because before, you didn't have to worry about rejection, because you were joking. But now that you like Katie, it matters." Piper said, returning to her seat.
"You're probably right."
"Duh," Piper said, smiling.
"So, what am I going to do? I can't just go up to Katie and ask her, she'll think it's a prank."
"Why don't you start with asking her out on a date?" Piper asked.
"You think she'll want to go with me?"
"Yes. I'll handle it. Now go. I need my sleep." Piper said, leading him to the living room.
"How are you so good at this?" he asked.
"Dunno, it's just easy for me."
"While we're on the subject, who's your date to the dance?" Travis asked, smirking.
"I thought this was about your love life, not mine." Piper pointed out.
"Oh, come on. Can't we talk about this?"
"No.," she said, in a way that anyone would get that the conversation was over. But Travis wasn't anyone, so he asked:
"Why don't you ask Grace out?"
"Goodbye, Travis." She said, pushing him to the door.
"Wait! Piper! Don't push me out!" Travis said as he was locked out of the house.
Piper locked the door and sighed. Ignoring Travis' pounding on her door, she went up the stairs.
On her way to the room, she snuck a glance at her dad's bedroom. He was sat on his bed, working on something on his laptop, and talking with someone on his phone. From what she could deduce from the conversation, it was his travel agent. She waved at him, causing him to look up and wave back before returning to his work. Piper sighed and went to her room.
He just got back, she thought.
She jumped on her bed, and a ding came from her pocket. She pulled out the offending object, her phone and saw a text from Travis.
Travis: chicken.
Piper rolled her eyes and dropped her phone on her bed, staring at the ceiling and waiting for sleep to envelop her.