Scars - A PJO/HOO Soulmates AU

25.

Then she left.

No matter how much Piper tried to not care, her emotions betrayed her. She had always wanted to use those fighting skills she had learned during training when she was younger.

It was a small, forgotten thing. Piper would hear adults whispering about how horrible the child maulings had been, and she would feel threatened. And then remember she was sent to a private karate academy with one of the best instructors on the planet.

When she was younger and mentioned Sensei Jet to the other kids at school, they laughed and called her a liar. Piper found that some people just won't accept if someone is better than them.

Annabeth and Leo had apparently been trained as well, they were as good as her. Though Leo preferred to make things rather than fight.

Piper remembered a time when she came home from class with a scraped knee and bruised jaw and ran into her mother's arms. Aphrodite held her while she cried and always told her one thing: "You'll endure it Piper, you always do."

Warmth coursed through her body from her mother's words. It was unusual to know that she just wanted her mother to love her, like other parents. There was a time when she did love her, more than anyone or anything else in the world.

Piper shook herself back into the present. It was a one time thing, her mother was just in a good mood.

It wouldn't happen again.

Piper sighed, and remembered that her mom gave her permission to invite her friends over. She grabbed her phone and went to their group chat, texting them the invite.

They all said yes except Annabeth, who said she was grounded by her parents for getting bad grades. Piper knew that was a lie, Annabeth's record was impeccable, but she didn't comment.

Annabeth didn't have to tell her about things she didn't want to. Piper would know, she'd been doing the same for years.

Calypso arrived first, and she took in everything. It was the first time she'd been to Piper's house, so she was oohing and ahhing over everything, and marvelling at the size of the rooms.

The rest of them came later, minus Annabeth.

"Piper," Leo said, running into the room waving his hands, "It's been so long! I missed you soooooooo much!"

Leo threw his arms around Piper and Piper almost fell backwards from the force. She rolled her eyes and patted Leo on the back.

"Calm down Repair Boy, I know I'm amazing," she said, earning an eye roll from Reyna, "But you just saw me less than an hour ago at school."

With that, Leo drew back with uncertainty in his eyes, "What do you mean Piper? I haven't seen you for years. You went missing a few years ago and we just found you now"

The look on his face was so convincing Piper almost believed that she was in a mystery movie, but their other friends looked bored. Which either meant: 1) He was kidding, or 2) Her friends didn't care about her.

She was glad to say that it was the first one. Leo broke character and started cackling with laughter.

"Oh!" Leo said, clutching his stomach, "You should've seen the look on your face! It was priceless"

Piper rolled her eyes, but she had to admit Leo was a good actor.

The others took it as their cue to start going outside. Most of their hangouts were outside. It was because before her mother didn't know when Piper called her friends over, unlike this time.