All That Still Matters

"Oh my God," Piper Lawrence spoke slowly as she watched her cousin, Daphne Monahan, walk towards her. "What did you do?" she questioned, reaching out and grabbing Daphne's normally red-colored hair which she had now dyed blonde.

"I thought a change was in order," Daphne shrugged her shoulders, not thinking it was a big deal at all.

"A change?" Piper questioned. "Daph, you look like a completely different person! I'm not saying it looks bad, I'm just still in shock," she quickly added. "Has Louie seen it yet?"

"Yeah, he saw me this morning," Daphne nodded her head. "He pretty much had the same reaction as you did," she laughed.

"So you pretty much just woke up and decided you wanted a change?" Piper asked, still trying to wrap her mind around Daphne's drastic change.

"Yeah, pretty much," Daphne replied. "I just thought I'd try a new look for if I do get to go to the Olympics. Maybe the new look will want them to choose me," she smiled. She was still waiting for the United States to announce which women were going to the Olympics for snowboarding half pipe, which was only two weeks away. She had been training exceptionally hard for them, much in part to Piper, who had been coaching her along the way.

"Daph, I don't think changing your hair color is going to make them want to choose you more. Instead, the fact that you're amazing will make them choose you," Piper told her.

Daphne just smiled at her before saying, "So are you up for heading to the pipe and watching me do a few runs? I need to land that Double Crippler."

"Sure," Piper nodded her head as she followed Daphne outside. "Though, maybe we should get Louie to help you out. I mean, he is the reason you landed the backside 900," she recalled with a smile on her face.

"Are you trying to pawn me off?" Daphne turned her head to look at Piper, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, please, like you'd complain being pawned off to your boyfriend," Piper rolled her eyes as the two women continued their trek. They finally reached the top of the pipe a little while later to see a group gathered at the top. Daphne didn't see Louie anywhere, but she did see Shaun White's long-time girlfriend, Joanna, who she and Piper had become pretty good friends with over the past few months, and she made her way over to her.

"What's going on?" she asked, seeing the young woman with her hands clasped together, nervously bouncing on her toes.

Joanna turned to look at Daphne. "The guys are having this stupid battle. They're doing crazy tricks and seeing if they can duplicate each other's. All I know is one of them is going to get killed. Shaun just finished up his turn," she told her, pointing towards the end of the pipe, where Shaun now stood, unbuckling his snowboard from his boots.

"Please tell me my boyfriend is not a part of all of this," Daphne begged.

"No," Joanna shook her head, briefly taking her eyes off of Shaun. "It's down between Shaun and Mason at this point. But, if Mason tries this, he's going to kill himself. Shaun just completed his McTwist. There's no way Mason's going to be able to do that."

Daphne looked around frantically, trying to find someone who could talk Mason out of doing this. She saw Louie standing off towards the side, and she pushed her way through the crowd to get to him. "Get Mason to stop this," she ordered Louie.

"I can't," Louie told her, shaking his head. "I've already tried to talk him out of it, but he's determined to do it. No one's going to be able to talk him out of it."

"So, we're just going to sit back and watch him crash and burn?" Daphne questioned, and Louie shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what to do about it. Daphne spun around, grabbing Piper's arm. "You have to talk Mason out of doing this!"

"Daph, I can't talk Mason out of doing anything. In case you forgot, I'm no longer his girlfriend. We broke up," she reminded her, not that Daphne needed reminded. Mason and Piper seemed to break up all the time, only to get back together a couple of weeks later. This last break up was different, though, and Daphne wasn't sure their relationship would ever recover from it.

"Piper, please," Daphne begged, wondering why she was the only one concerned about Mason's well being. "Just try."

Piper rolled her eyes, but made her way over to Mason anyways. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to get him to not do this, but she knew she'd never forgive herself if she didn't try. She had overheard Joanna say that Mason was going to have to try a McTwist, and she knew Mason would injure himself if he did try it. Why was he even doing it anyways? What was worth risking his life for?

"Mason," she called out, gripping his upper arm to get his attention, knowing he couldn’t hear her with his earphones in and his iPod turned all the way up. He turned around, and it was obvious by his facial expression that he was a little surprised to see Piper standing there. He took the headphones out, looking at her expectantly. "Can we talk for a minute?"

"Piper, I'm a little busy here," Mason said with a laugh, motioning towards the half pipe.

"Please," she said, making him know that she wasn't really giving him a choice in this, and he nodded his head, following her to a more secluded place, while everyone around them stared at them. "What are you doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Piper questioned, sounding like a mother questioning her child. "Mason, what are you thinking doing this ridiculous game or whatever the hell it is?"

"Piper, lighten up, we're just having fun," Mason told her.

"No, you're going to get yourself killed. You can't do a McTwist," she told him, and she saw his demeanor change with her last sentence, and everything became a whole lot clearer for her. "Mase, I don’t know if you're trying to prove to yourself or to everyone here that you're a good snowboarder, but you don't have to. We all know how good you are," she told him. He hadn't had too impressive of a year, and he hadn't even been close to making the Olympic team, and she knew that had been weighing in his mind, and she wondered if that's what brought on this challenge today.

"You don’t know what you're talking about," Mason told her, and Piper knew she had struck a nerve when she realized his infectious smile had disappeared off his face.

"Mase," she said, grabbing onto his arm as he headed towards the half pipe once again. "Please don’t do this," she was practically begging at this point. When he didn't say anything but walked towards the pipe instead, Piper simply shook her head, walking back towards Daphne. "I tried," she told her, shrugging her shoulders as she walked away.

"You know," Daphne said, turning towards Louie. "I wish I knew what happened between those two."

"Me, too," Louie nodded his head in agreement as he saw Mason put his snowboard down. "But, whatever did happen between the two of them, Mase still loves her. He still listens to her," he said, motioning towards him as he told everyone he conceded the competition, and they all began to separate, realizing there wasn't anything to watch any longer. "So, Barbie, what are you doing up here?" Louie asked.

"Really, Barbie?" Daphne questioned at Louie's new nickname for her. "I may now have blonde hair, but that in no way makes me Barbie," she told him, putting her hands on her hips

"No, but it does make me think you're the head cheerleader in high school, and I'm trying to figure out how to get you in the backseat of my car so I can have my way with you," he smirked, causing Daphne to smack him lightly in the chest.

"Does my hair look that bad?" she asked him, reaching up and touching it.

"No," Louie shook his head. "But, I've got to give you a hard time," he explained. "Anyways, what are you up to right now?"

"I actually came here to try to work on that Double Crippler of mine, but then that whole thing between Shaun and Mason got me all distracted," she explained.

"You need some help with that Double Crippler?"

"Are you offering?"

"Yeah, I am," Louie smiled. "So, what's getting you all messed up with this?" he asked, preparing to help her get this trick down. Daphne was attempting the trick for the tenth time when Piper suddenly ran towards the half pipe, causing Daphne to stop what she was doing.

"Piper, what's wrong?" Daphne asked, unstrapping her boots from her snowboard and making her way over to Piper with Louie following her.

"They announced the female U.S. snowboarding Olympic team," Piper rushed out.

"What?" Daphne asked. "Did I…did I make it?" she asked, somewhat hesitantly.

Piper couldn't keep the grin off of her face when she told, "Yeah, you did!"

"Oh my God!" Daphne screamed, spinning around and engulfing Louie in a hug, who picked her up and spun her around. "Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!" she continued exclaiming. "We're going to the Olympics!"