No Strings Attached (Sequel to Puppets)

Piper

Welcome back, loves!

Today is the day. Just below is the first chapter, but don't scroll yet.

IM SO EXCITED ASDFGHJKL AHHHHH I HOPE YOU ALL LIKE IT BC IM HELA PUMPED HECK YEAH

You may scroll now.

[1]//PIPER//

It was good to be back.

After a few long, chaotic weeks in England, Piper and the gang- well, most of them anyways- were back at Olympus Academy and ready to face the drama head on.

Okay, maybe not. Piper just kind of wanted to curl up like a cat underneath her fuzzy blanket and stay there watching Netflix for the rest of her life. But unfortunately, that wasn't possible. It was the first day back, and although classes didn't start until 8:15, she had gotten up at 6:30. She still had far too much excess energy from the plane the day prior.

She tugged on her running shoes and a hoodie- it was winter, after all- and set off running around campus. It was strange to see the places where everything went down the year before (technically, because New Years had passed.) She jogged past the lake, where Zoë Nightshade had drowned to death, as did Bianca Di Angelo- or so they thought. The latter could be alive based on a cryptic note they had gotten.

Of course, that was only one of many cryptic notes they had all gotten, especially over the last few weeks.

Piper, Reyna Ramirez-Arellano, Annabeth Chase, Bianca Di Angelo and Thalia Grace had been in a competition, and then Thalia bailed. Rachel Dare had killed Zoë and Bianca. Hazel Levesque got caught up in all the drama, as did Stephanie Jaminson, who died.

Everything was courtesy of L, aka Calypso Ogygia. Calypso had stalked and tortured the girls, and after she killed both herself and Steph, her plans still carried on in the form of her team- the L team, a group of random students with a certain vengeance. The girls were trapped in pre set plans until March.

They had tried to avoid the drama by going to England for the winter break, courtesy of Piper herself, as she was the daughter of actor Tristan McLean. Unfortunately, the drama only continued. From their original group, nine had arrived but only eight had returned, with the addition of someone that was watching over them behind scenes, someone they thought would never show up again until...

Stop thinking about that! Piper scolded herself mentally, focusing on the sound of her sneakers hitting the ground. She passed the forest next, where archery initiation had taken place the exact same night when Piper had uncovered Thalia's past and two girls died. Legend had it there was a cabin deep in the woods, but Piper didn't believe it.

Next, the side of the school where Piper had first met the late Steph Jaminson, after the younger girl has interrupted Piper when kissing her boyfriend Jason Grace.

Then, the front of the whole school. She remembered running excitedly up to the doors after being dropped off, and then laughing, trying to get her cool demeanour back before someone saw her on the first day of school. If only things were that simple.

She headed back to her dorm, running up the stairs. She was about to fling open the door when she heard faint crying. She slowly wedged the door opening, popping her head in. Thalia and Katie were still asleep, though Piper knew Katie's alarm was about to go off in two minutes. Silena was sitting on her bed, her back to the door, crying softly.

"Silena," Piper asked quietly and Silena's head shot up as she turned around quickly. "Are you alright?"

Silena looked terrified once she saw Piper for a split second, but suddenly her expression was calm. "Yeah. Just a bit, um, homesick." Silena answered and Piper could clearly tell it was a lie.