Book Cult (New and Improved)

Piper IX

"Piper IX," Aphrodite began, trying not to make it too obvious that she was worried.

Piper dreamed about her last day with her dad.

The goddess of love smiled sadly.

They were on the beach near Big Sur, taking a break from surfing. The morning had been so perfect, Piper knew something had to go wrong soon-

"Welcome to my world." Leo grumbled, watching Annabeth add the finishing touches to their Lego building. "It's a pretty crappy place."

a rabid horde of paparazzi, or maybe a great white shark attack. No way her luck could hold.

..."Nice job out there, Pipes." He gave her the smile he was famous for: perfect teeth, dimpled chin, a twinkle in his dark eyes that always made grown women scream and ask him to sign their bodies in permanent marker. (Seriously, Piper thought, get a life.)

"My thoughts exactly." Artemis muttered.

A few hunters nodded in agreement.

"Can't say I blame them." the goddess of love sighed. He is a handsome guy, after all.

His close-cropped black hair gleamed with salt water. 

Aphrodite suppressed the urge to sigh dreamily.

"You're getting better at hanging ten."

Piper flushed with pride, though she suspected Dad was just being nice. She still spent most her time wiping out. It took special talent to run over yourself with a surfboard.

Leo laughed at the mental image.

"It just takes practice." Percy said. 

"Says the guy who can control water." Thalia playfully rolled her eyes.

...Piper would've given up surfing long time ago except it let her spend time with him. There weren't many ways she could do that.

Aphrodite frowned. 

...She took the sandwich, though her stomach was too upset to eat. She always asked for PB&J. Piper was a vegetarian, for one thing. She had been ever since they'd driven past that slaughterhouse in Chino and the smell had made her insides want to come outside.

Imagining the smell, Grover gagged.

"I wouldn't be surprised if more people quit eating meat just by smelling a slaughterhouse." Grover said, his face gaining a green tint.

But it was more than that. PB&J was simple food, like a regular kid would have for lunch. Sometimes she pretended her dad had actually made it for her, not a personal chef from France who liked to wrap the sandwich in gold leaf paper with a light-up sparkler instead of a toothpick.

Aphrodite gave the book a sympathetic look.

"He couldn't even do that for her." Annabeth said with a scowl. She couldn't help but think of her own father.

"Maybe he didn't know that was how she felt." Aphrodite couldn't help but say. I'm sure if she just tells him how she feels, it'll work out.

Couldn't anything be simple? That's why she turned down the fancy clothes. Dad always offered, the designer shoes, the trips to the salon.

Drew, combing her hair with her fingers, rolled her eyes. What a waste of money.

She cut her own hair with a pair of plastic Garfield safety scissors, deliberately making it uneven.