Piper Mclean

                       Third outfit.

******IMPORTANT CLARIFICATIONS!!! PLEASE READ:-THIS STORY HAS A LOT OF MAJOR FLAWS, BUT PEOPLE SEEM TO LIKE IT ANYWAYS SO IMMA GONNA GO AHEAD AND JUST WARN YOU:     -THIS STORY HOLDS LITTLE TO REALITY AS FAR AS THE GOVERNING SYSTEM OF ROME AND GREECE GOES. I REALIZE THAT MONARCHIES WERE NOT PART OF THEIR SYSTEM, BUT THEY ARE IN THIS STORY     -THIS STORY WAS WRITTEN BEFORE SOLANGELO AND NICO'S COMING OUT, SO THAT IS LACKING IN THIS STORY AS WELL.     -AGES ARE WACKADOODLE IN THIS STORY. THERE IS A SPECIFIC CHAPTER DEDICATED TO EXPLAINING THIS.     -I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO RESPOND NEGATIVELY TO EXCESSIVE CUSSING. IT IS JUST NOT SOMETHING I APPRECIATE.      -THANK YOU FOR READING THIS STORY. SORRY IT'S KIND OF WACKY. ENJOY ANYWAYS!**********

Piper sat in her chambers, trying to hold her head upright. Annabeth was brushing her hair. The sun was starting to set, and rays were peeking through her sheer curtains. A cool evening breeze drifted through her bedroom. Annabeth hummed a Grecian hymn under her breath.

"Do you have to tug so hard?" she complained. Annabeth chuckled and didn't answer. She set the brush down, and smoothed Piper's hair. Her fingers moved nimbly through Piper's waves, braiding it up into a fancy bun above Piper's head.

"Stand up and give us a twirl," Annabeth insisted. Piper rose from her seat, and Piper spun gracefully. Her elegant white gown fanned out around her and Annabeth cooed.

"You look beautiful. Let me add some final touches and we'll get you to that ball." Piper sat back down, and Annabeth began weaving pearls into her hair. Piper closed her eyes, drinking in these last few peaceful moments.

In a few minutes she would be attending a ball in celebration of her twenty-second birthday. All the nobility in the kingdom would be there to celebrate. Some would find that exhilarating. Piper found it dull and pretentious.

"You're all set," Annabeth. "Knock em, dead Pipes." Piper rolled her eyes.

Piper took her time walking the halls of the castle. She could already hear the commotion of the party. She couldn't delay for long. Her father would be cross if she missed too much of the celebration. She reached the top of the staircase into the grand ballroom. She glided down the stairs, as she had been coached to since she was nine years old, and when the crowd caught sight of her, they all shouted;

"All hail the Princess!" Which she found irritating, but she was smart enough not to say anything about it. The party was huge. It seemed that not only the nobility, but the entire kingdom, had come to celebrate. And though it cramped the ballroom, Piper was pleased. Perhaps her dad did listen to her rants about class equality after all.

She was mingling with the guests, making her rounds (also coached into her from the age of nine), when suddenly, a guard burst into the room, and everyone fell silent.

"There are soldiers at the gates!" he cried " The Romans are attacking!" This declaration sent everyone into a panic.

"Everyone, into the basement!" Piper's father instructed in a loud booming voice. "You'll be safe there!" Hundreds of people flooded into the basement. Piper was herding stragglers and preparing to follow them, when she remembered her friend, Hazel. She had gone outside for some air, and she hadn't came back.

Piper ran outside and searched the gardens for her friend. Shouts could be heard dangerously close by, and Piper's heart raced. Where was she?

"Piper!" Piper whirled around. Hazel was running towards her. Her skirt was torn, but it was impossible to tell whether that was from that night or not. As a maid, her clothes were usually in poor condition.

"Hazel! Are you alright?"

"I am now! What's going on? I was walking in the garden and like, a million arrows missed me by that much!" she held up her fingers with about a centimeter between them to illustrate her point.

"The Romans are attacking!" Piper explained. "Come on, we need to get inside!" Hazel wasted no time complying and we ran inside. The last of the party guests were entering the cellar. Piper pushed Hazel towards the entrance, and slipped inside. She was about to follow, when something crashed into her head. The world spun, and she could hear screams, as she was dragged away, more people flooding into the empty ballroom.

------------------------Dedicated to orli_flies_da_tardis--------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wake up." Someone whispered. " I said, wake up!" they said more aggressively, and Piper drowsily awoke. She was in a jail cell, on the floor. Her dress was in tatters, and grass stained, covered in dirt, and her hair could probably house a rat, but all she could think of was the guard with the purple eagle on the shoulder of his armor. The roman insignia.

" You're being escorted to trial preparation." he told Piper, unlocking the door, and seizing her arm, dragging her along the dark hallway. She stayed quiet. Besides the noises of the snoring prisoners, and the echoes of their feet, it was silent, very eerily so. A rat scurried in front of them, and the guard reached forward his foot and stepped on it, killing it, and kicking it aside. Piper gulped, and squeaked. They went up a flight of stairs, and she was left in a room. This room was stacked high with spools of fabric and thread, and looms, and bustling around was a lady in a blue gown, with dark hair. She didn't seem to notice Piper, so she squeaked something intelligent, like:

" Uh- hi?" she turned, and when she saw Piper, a look of sympathy flashed across her face.

"Oh, you must be the princess. What a lovely thing you are! But look at you, those nasty brutes tore you all up! Well, that's no matter, I'll get you fixed up for your trial with the king." She sifted through a few things, shaking her head. "That's the best I can do for you, I'm afraid." She gently pulled Piper to a stool, and sat her down on it. She combed through her hair, pulling out the leaves and sticks, then washed it, and combed it again. She pulled it into a simple bun. She fit Piper into a simple silver gown, and got her washed up. She looked at her with satisfaction.

"You are ready, but dear, let's get you something to eat from the kitchen. The chef's a darling, she'll let you have something, you look half starved. " She pulled Piper down a hallway, into a kitchen. Piper's first impression was that it smelled really good. Like baked bread, and spices, and all those lovely smells. Her second, was of the cook. She was a lovely girl, who couldn't have been more than twenty. Her silky, Carmel colored hair was tied up with a white rag. She smiled kindly.

"You must be Piper. Come, I just took some bread out of the oven." she gently took Piper aside and smiled at the other woman.

"Thank you Mellie. You know, you really should be off work with that baby on the way." Mellie gave her a disapproving look.

"Watch how loud you say that Calypso. If I took time off, people would get suspicious, and go snooping, and what would happen to me if the king found out that I'm having a baby with a Greek? It would be off with my head I tell you, off with my head." Calypso shook her head.

"Our country these days. always so strict about people." She set a few slices of warm bread and a bowl of soup in front of Piper, and she ate it slowly. "If only people could just make peace, all of our problems would be solved. I'm telling you, that's the way to do it." A bell rang outside, and Calypso flinched so hard she dropped the ladle in her hand. As she blushed and hurried to clean the mess she had made, Mellie laughed.

"You sit here giving me a hard time about falling in love with a Greek, when you're going around fancying an in-between. You know the king despises those more than the Greeks!" Calypso sighed dramatically as she ran water over the ladle, and neither Piper or Mellie missed the glance she stole out the window.

"I know, but I can't help it! There's this thing about him that just has me head over heels!" The bell rang again, louder this time, and Calypso's head turned fast enough to snap her neck. She ran to the window, standing on her tiptoes and leaning against the sink to peer over the high sill. "And there he is!"

Piper peered out he window over her shoulder, to see Leo, the traveling salesman who travels between Greece and Rome, peddling odds and ends from each. He was humorous and charming, and Piper remember sitting outside the palace and listening to him talk about all the far off places he had visited. She smiled at the vague memory of him speaking about a girl he had glimpsed through the window of the castle. He told Piper that she had the most beautiful caramel colored hair, held out of her face with a white handkerchief, and that he thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

Piper smiled knowingly to herself, as she watched Leo search the windows of the castle, his gaze finally landing on the kitchen window. A grin spread on his face as he caught a glimpse of Calypso. Calypso squeaked and ducked out of sight. Leo smiled contently to himself, turning his attention to a village peasant who was asking him about a product.

The door to the kitchen opened, and a boy about Piper's age, in tattered clothing gave the three women a half-smile.

"Calypso, Mellie, I'm afraid I will have to take this young lady from you. She is needed in the throne room for a hearing with the king." Mellie sighed sympathetically, and Calypso gave her a sideways look of agreement.

"I guess we all knew it was coming," she said, as she nodded for Piper to go with the boy.

"Take care, Percy. Good luck, Piper," she said as Piper was guided out the door. She was brought to two great big doors, and Percy bowed to her.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, princess. I hope to see you again." He knocked softly on the door, and waited patiently, it was opened, and he went in, leaving Piper alone.

After a minute, the doors opened, and she was let in. The throne room was huge, and she was escorted down a red carpet by two guards. At the front of the room, was a golden throne, and King Jupiter sat on it in royal robes. Beside him, on a pillow, a boy Piper's age with blonde hair and bright blue eyes sat, and right behind him, was Percy, who smiled and winked at her. A girl and a boy, both in roman togas stood on the other side of the king.

"Princess Piper of Greece," King Jupiter bellowed, and Piper curtsied, as Mellie had instructed her to do.

"You have been captured from your homeland, to be held captive, and have been assigned to be my son and heir's personal servant, and you will accept and accomplish any task he may give you, am I understood?" Piper nodded respectfully, ignoring the indignant pounding of her heart. "You will keep this task, until the dawn of the third day, when you will be executed. You are excused to my son's chambers to await further instruction. Percy will take you there." Some hearing that was, she thought. Despite how scared and sick to her stomach she was, she managed to curtsy and follow Percy out of the room. When the doors were closed, Percy lead her up three flights of stairs, and down a long a hallway, silently, until finally coming to a stop in front of a door. When they arrived, he opened the door, and left her there, frowning sympathetically as he exited.

Piper figured she may as well make herself useful. The room was tidy, though she did find it necessary to dust a little. When there was nothing left to do, she seated herself on the edge of the bed and waited patiently. Her mind wandered, and she thought about her friends, Luke, Annabeth, Rachel, and Hazel. How she would never see them again. Piper heard footsteps coming down the hall, and the door opened, revealing the boy from the Throne room. He closed the door, and stared at her for a bit. They sat in silence, before he sat on the bed next to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, much to Piper's surprise. She thought about it for a minute, before nodding.

"I knew the risks of being the princess." She replied. He frowned.

"And being executed?"

"There is no stopping it."

"Being my servant?"

"You don't make it hard." She gestured around his room with a smile, but he seemed displeased by her answers.

" You're not even upset that you are going to die, and you are spending your last days cleaning up for me?"

"Should I be?"

"Yes!"

"Do you want me to be?"

"Yes?"

"Than I will be."

"You're infuriating."

"I will try harder to be agreeable , sir."

"Don't call me sir."

"Your father's orders overpower yours, I'm afraid, sir."

"My father's a bum." He said.

"That isn't a very nice thing for a child to say about his father."

"Oh, be quiet." So she was. They sat in silence for a minute, before he excused himself, and left.

Piper smiled to herself.