Piper June.

Piper June was usually alone in the morning. Olivia and Paul both left relatively early and worked only a few blocks away from each other.

She followed a simple schedule that never really changed, and she kind of liked it that way.

Her alarm would go off and wake her up at 5:45, except on Saturdays and Sundays, when she'd sleep in to about 8:00. She would take a quick shower. Depending on how much damage her father had done that was still visible, she left her hair down or pulled it to the side. In any event, her blonde locks dried pretty quickly and she never did anything to it anyway. She’d start getting dressed and examine some more herself in the full length mirror on the back of her door, poking at the fading bruises scattered around her body. That took up another five minutes.

After making her bed, she gathered her things for school, made her lunch, and waited for Jude in her living room like she did every other day.

The day in question, the day everything changed (for better or for worse), she was wearing a thick sweatshirt, a pair of black jeans, and her tennis shoes, despite the slight warmth outside. Jude usually showed up by herself, because her older sister, Magdalyne, usually got a ride from her touchy-feely boyfriend, Clark Kennedy, the school's most popular senior. That morning, Jude decided to play detective and figure out how much damage Piper's dad had done the night before.

“So, lemme see,” Jude said as she watched Piper finish packing her lunch.

“No. It’s really not that bad. I'll be fine.”

“PJ! Stop being so stubborn. Where is it?”

“It's fine. I'm okay. Can we just go?” Piper asked, grabbing her coat off a chair. Jude wanted to put an end to Piper's pain, but by not opening her mouth and screaming Piper's secret out at the top of her lungs, she was, in a sense, contributing to it. She knew that, but she couldn’t betray her friend’s confidence like that.

Piper felt like it was going to be a good day, because even though her father had yet to do any serious damage, there had been days where she simply couldn’t get out of bed. Jude would skip school those days and stay with her. When they arrived, they found a spot not too far from the school.

They always arrived at least ten minutes early. Jude would drag Piper to her group of friends, and she’d stick out like a sore thumb because she didn't have anything in common with any of them but Jude. Since she wasn't exactly the most social girl, it wasn't like she could just strike up a conversation with a bunch of strangers. She didn't even understand how she was friends with Jude at all. Jude, however, wanted to encourage her to try making more friends. It was just hard for Piper to talk to people she didn't know, and Jude didn't seem to understand that.

As soon as the doors opened, Piper was practically pulling Jude to their locker. That particular morning, she was so eager and anxious to retrieve her things that she didn’t see where she was going and bumped into someone accidentally.

“Watch it, freak,” the boy hissed, glaring down at Piper. She mumbled an apology, wincing because he had hit her bruise dead on when she ran into him.

“Excuse me, Cleary? Who are you calling a freak? Why don’t you just pick on someone your own size?” Jude asked, shoving him away.

“Mind your own business.”

“Why don't you make me, huh? I mean, you're so big and bad, aren't you?”

“How cute,” he cooed, mock smiling and putting a hand to his heart as if he were touched.

“What'd you say to me?” she challenged, raising an eyebrow.

“You heard me.”

During all of this, Piper June was quietly trying to plead with Jude to just let it go. She wasn't a big fan of confrontation, but Jude didn't care and ignored her quiet protests. She pulled at the edge of her shirt, trying to drag her away before she swung at him. Jude had a bit of a bad temper, and it could get really out of hand sometimes, especially around Quinn.

“Say it again, I freaking dare you, Quinn!”

“Quinn!” someone yelled, coming in between them. It was Ezra, who, when he reached his lanky friend, pulled him close, arm on his shoulder as he shot him a look. “Nothing to see here, folks,” he said to the crowd of on lookers, shooting them all a look. “What’s goin’ on?” he inquired, clicking his gum.

“Your boyfriend doesn't know how to talk to people. C’mon, PJ,” Jude replied dismissively, dragging Piper June, who was sort of behind her, along. Jude shot a dirty look at Quinn.

“Hi, June,” Ezra greeted with a small smile. She could have melted right there, but instead, her cheeks inflamed and she mumbled a good morning. Ezra had such a bright smile, she thought to herself, trying to keep her blush under control.

“C’mon,” Jude insisted, itching to get out of there before she gave Quinn what was coming to him. Had Piper not been there, she would've probably swung at him or something. He had been getting on her nerves for the last month, and if he kept it up, somebody was going to end up getting hurt. She wasn’t that fond of Ezra either, to be honest. He was just your average, no good stoner kid.

“Cool it, Jude. The late bell doesn't ring for another five minutes. Can’t you see I’m trying to hold a conversation here?” he asked her. “Anyway, we're still meeting up at the library, right?” She nodded, holding her things tightly to her chest. “See you later then. Bye.”

“C-Catch you later,” she mumbled, walking away with Jude. She rolled her eyes. Could she get any more awkward?

“Ugh!” Jude exclaimed as she dialed the combination to open their locker. “I can’t stand them!”

“Ezra seems pretty nice to me…” Piper trailed off, looking down at her shoes. "He's kind of nice."

“He’s an idiot.”

“I don't think so,” Piper said. “And besides the occasional poke at your sexuality, what has Quinn ever done to you?”

“He's still an ass. It doesn't matter. He's irrelevant anyway,” she laughed, shaking her head. She moved out of the way to let Piper get her things. “So, are we still on for Friday?”

“You know it,” Piper replied with a grin.

Every single weekend without fail, Piper slept over Jude’s or vice versa. Their nights were usually full of gossiping, baking, and watching movies. Piper found it to be the only time during the week where she felt somewhat okay. It was also one of the few things her father didn’t stop her from doing. He thought the Presley’s were a nice family, and therefore had no reason to prevent Piper from staying over there or Jude staying with Piper. He thought that Piper should at least have one good friend. That weekend, it was Jude’s turn to sleep over.

“I’ll bring the movies, yeah?”

Piper nodded, shutting the locker. It’d be a long morning for Piper—it always was. First, she had AP English, followed by Honors American History III, Honors Spanish III, and AP Chemistry. The students at her school were only allowed two AP courses a year, so she made sure that they were her for her favorite subjects. Seeing as she didn’t talk with most of the people in her morning classes, she was at perfect liberty to be distracted by her social faux pas with Ezra and mull of it as she chewed on the cap of her pen. She felt like such a child.

She then had Visual Arts, which she spent trying to draw a candle that sat on her desk to no avail.

At least there was lunch... but lunch meant sitting in the crowded cafeteria with Jude and hearing her complain about how much she hated everyone. Piper enjoyed Jude's company, but sometimes Jude could be a little vicious. That day, of all days, Magdalyne and Clark decided to grace the two girls with their overbearing presence, instead of sitting with their normal table, which included Ezra, Quinn, and a few other popular kids.

“So you should come tonight,” Magdalyne says, looking at Jude. Jude looked up from her soup, looking at her older sister with small frown.

“Um, no thank you. I'd rather not.”

Magdalyne narrowed her eyes at her.

“It’s a free freaking pass to one of the craziest parties ever and you don’t want to go? Seriously?” Magdalyne looked at her sister curiously, frowning. "You sure?"

“Yeah. Sorry, Maggie. I have plans tonight.”

“And I’m assuming you don’t want to come either?” she asked, for once acknowledging Piper.

“Huh? I…uh…no, Maggie. Thank you, though.” She gave her a small smile. Magdalyne rolled her eyes and turned to her boyfriend.

Maggie made Piper nervous. A small part of Piper wanted to be like Maggie, because everybody knew Maggie and everybody liked Maggie. Magdalyne Presley was Rosewood High's it girl. She had the nice car, the nice clothes, the nice boyfriend, the pretty face and charming personality. Everyone wanted to be Maggie Presley, but the only person who could be Maggie Presley was Maggie Presley. She was like what Kathleen would have been had she not died, except Kathleen probably wouldn't drink or do drugs. A small part of Piper wanted to be like her, but she knew that couldn't ever happen.

“Figures.”

“We have better things to do than go to go to your stupid party,” Jude said, prompting a nod from Piper. Piper knew that parties were dangerous. Well, at least, she knew that Jude said they were dangerous. She had never actually been to a real party so it wasn't like she would know. But Jude had, and she had no reason to lie to her.

Overall, Piper had a nice week. Her parents hadn't been around all too much. She could have some peace and quiet for once, which should have been the highlight of her whole week. Believe it or not, tutoring Ezra was. It felt like she had someone else besides Jude to talk to. It felt kind of nice to have something to actually look forward to.

For once, she had bigger things to think about than how to be like Kathleen or Magdalyne.



It was a Friday.

Ezra was—like always—heading to The Cross after school, but that wasn't going to be for another four or five hours at least. He watched as Piper read her book blankly, biting her lip as she turned the pages. He wondered briefly what she was like outside of school. She couldn't possibly be the same, could she?

“Can I ask you something?” Piper folded over the corner of the page she was reading and shut her book. She glanced at his notebook. Nothing looked blatantly wrong, so she picked up her book again.

“You’re doing fine,” she mumbled, going back to her story. "Just keep going."

“It's not that. It's a real question.” She shut her book with a sigh, hoping he’d hurry up—she was finally getting to the good part.

“Go ahead,” she prompted, setting her book down on the table.

“What do you do after school?” His curiosity was probably the thing she liked the most about him. He was always asking questions, like he wanted to know everything about everything or something.

“Study.”

“No, I meant, like, during the weekend.”

“Study,” she replied again, as if it were obvious. How else was she going to keep her grades so high?

“Seriously?”

“Well…um, Jude comes over sometimes and we do stuff. I don't know,” she said with a shrug, unsure where he was going and slightly embarrassed at his reaction.

“Like what?”

“We usually just h-hang out and watch some TV…o-or movies…or whatever. It's never anything serious,” she stammered, nervous. He made her nervous. Why did he make her nervous? Other people didn't make her as nervous as he did and it didn't make any sense.

“That’s cute.”

“What is?” she queried, anxious. Was he calling her cute? Was he flirting? She didn't know what to do. It wasn't like she had experience when it came to guys.

“You stutter sometimes.” He laughed, shaking his head. Piper didn't understand him. He seemed like a complicated kind of guy and it bothered her that she wanted to know more about him. He wore rosaries on occasion. He usually wore a ring on his thumb and those rather popular saints’ bracelets on his left wrist. There were the slight traces of bags under his eyes, but they were so faint, you weren’t sure if they were there or if you were just seeing things. Was he religious or not, and if so, why? So many questions were on the tip of her tongue, but she just couldn’t ask. “I don’t know, I think it’s kind of cute. Anyway,” he sighed dismissively, “so you don’t go to any parties or anything…?”

She shook her head, trying to not blush.

He thinks I'm kind of cute.

“Ever?” Ezra didn't understand how people like Piper did it. Did she never have fun?

“Not really… no,” was her uneasy reply.

The only time she ever even went near a party was when Jude asked her to come with her to pick up her sister because she decided to get plastered or smashed out of her pretty little mind. Piper didn't mind, but she didn't really like being around that kind of thing.

“Hm.” He shrugged and went back to the work in front of him. She went back to reading about the deluded and creepy murderer in her book. “Remind me to take you with me one of these days, then.”



Piper sighed, playing with her two braids. They were in Piper's kitchen, waiting for the microwave to finish popping the popcorn. Jude bit on her nails, looking at Piper.

“So, how are things going with your lover?” she giggled, watching as Piper looked up at her with a face drained of all color. She stopped playing with the ribbons tying her braids together, looking at her best friend with doe eyes.

“I have a lover?”

Jude was under the impression that Piper liked Ezra. Piper would deny it with her dying breath, swearing up and down that they were friends and only friends. As much as Jude didn’t like Ezra or his best friend, she would have to at least try to get along with him for Piper's sake.

“Ezra,” Jude said, trying not to cringe.

“We're okay, I guess? We're just friends. You know that.” Jude watched as Piper’s usually pale cheeks hinted red and her pallid hands reached up to pat her face fervently. "I'm pretty sure he doesn't like me like that anyway and he probably has a girlfriend, so..."

“Aw,” she cooed, laughing. It was one of the few times she had seen Piper display any sort of romantic interest in someone, and like any best friend, she was kind of excited and just a little bit nosy. “It’s so cute.”

“What is?! Nothing's cute! There’s nothing going on!” The microwave beeped dully three times then, getting the girls' attention. "We're just friends."

“Sure.”

“Shut up,” she mumbled, cheeks turning another shade of pinkish red. “Just drop it, okay?” She searched for bowls, back to Jude so she wouldn’t have to see her ruby cheeks. "I'm allowed to have friends that are boys, aren't I? Why does there have to be anything else to it?"

“You like him,” she teased.

“I do not.” She grabbed the scalding hot bag of fluffy, buttered corn kernels, slightly burning her fingertips. “Ow… and in any case—ugh!—he doesn’t like me anyway. Ow!” She poured a little into her bowl gingerly, wincing as she passed it to Jude.

“So you do like him! Hah!” Jude exclaimed victoriously. She winked at Piper suggestively, wriggling her eyebrows.

“You’re so crude.” Jude grinned at the Piper, who just frowned, knitting her eyebrows together.

“Look, there’s nothing wrong with having a little crush on somebody. It's perfectly normal,” she cooed, dipping her hands into the bowl closest to her, a striped red and yellow one. "It means you're a teenage girl with feelings. You're normal. Congratulations."

“Ugh.” Piper held her face in her delicate hands, groaning. “Do they go away?” she asked innocently, peeking at Jude through her fingers. Jude laughed, nodding her head. She was about to speak, but her phone cut her off.

“Hello?” Maggie was on the other end of the call, sounding confused. “You called me. What do you want?”

“I need a ride home.” She hiccupped, giggling, and Jude could hear shouting and loud music in the background. Of course Magdalyne was at a party. What else could Jude expect from her? Jude glanced at Piper, rolling her eyes. Piper shrugged, starting to eat some of the popcorn.

“And you can't find one on your own because...?”

“Because I can't. So, like, can you come get me? Please? Clark is doing something with the guys and he can't give me a ride. Please?”

“Where are you?”

“I'm at the Cross. Duh. Can you like, hurry? I'm feeling sick.” Magdalyne sighed and hung up. Jude put her phone down on the table, glancing at Piper with a frown.

“Do you want me to come with me to get Maggie?”

Piper June nodded, shrugging. She loosened her braids a little and went upstairs with Jude to change out of her pajamas. What was the worse thing that could happen?



Ezra downed yet another shot of whatever he could find (he eventually learned to stop keeping track) and threw himself back into the throng of dancing teenagers. He was flying higher than a kite, drunk as a sailor and as warm as can be. He felt good. He was happy because he didn't have to deal with his dad or anyone and just be. It was a night that he enjoyed—he enjoyed most outings to The Cross—but a night that he wouldn’t forget either. Quinn called out to him as the song came to its' end and another one began.

“Dude!” he yelled over the loud music. “Come outside with me? I need a smoke.”

Ezra shrugged, walking through the crowd of kids with his lanky friend. A couple of girls grabbed at him, stuffing phone numbers and the like wherever they could. He didn’t really enjoy the hands swarming him like he was a piece of meat on display in a butcher shop on a muggy summer day. He felt free as they finally made their way out, throwing the scraps of paper away and watching as they stuck to the damp floor. There was a dripping noise somewhere, rhythmic and unchanging. It was always there, no matter what.

It was another of his few solaces.

He threw his flat carton of cigarettes at Quinn—he only had two left and was trying to ration them out but figured it was no use—and watched as his friend stuck one of them between his lips. Ezra reached around his pocket for his flask, frowning a bit when it came up empty. He lit up the last cigarette, throwing the carton down on the floor and hearing the subway in the distance. The music and screaming teenagers were muffled by the stone wall. There were other places to hide out at The Cross, but by that point in the evening, they were most likely filled with teenagers fooling around.

He looked down the dimly lit tunnel, seeing a girl throwing up not too far away. This sight didn’t really faze him, he saw it often enough. Was it Maggie? He didn't doubt it.

“So,” Quinn began, blowing smoke out of his nose. “How quickly can you get with someone?”

“Hm? What do you mean?” he asked, flicking his cigarette.

“No, no, I mean, how fast do you think you can hook up with someone?” Ezra knit his eyebrows, peering at his skinny friend.

“Why?”

“Curious.”

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

“Meow?” They both cracked up with laughter, the latter snorting a little. “Anyway, how fast?”

“A couple hours? A week? I don’t know.”

“How long was it with Jenny?”

“Jenny couldn't keep her legs shut so it wasn't that hard,” he replied, blowing smoke out of his nose. "Most girls put out pretty fast when they get the chance. I can't help it if they want me. What am I supposed to do? Say no? Who wouldn't want a piece of this, huh?"

“You're so full of yourself. How about you put your money where your mouth is?”

“Okay. Why not? I'm Ezra Finnely. I’d want me.” Quinn rolled his eyes at his friend. “Face it, I'm amazing. So who’s the lucky girl?” he asked, flicking his cigarette.

“Um… next one we see? No matter who it is.”

“What if it’s your girlfriend or something?” Quinn narrowed his eyes.

“Think you’re funny, do you?”

“No, I just think you have really low standards,” he shrugged, taking a drag and blowing it out of his mouth slowly. Ezra was painfully honest. It was just how he was. If Quinn couldn't take it, that'd be a surprise. They'd been best friends for a long time, and it wasn't like Quinn was the nicest guy in the world either. It was a back-and-forth sort of thing. Quinn stood there, fuming, waiting for someone—preferably someone considered undesirable—to pass by, just to shut Ezra up. There were faint footsteps, running almost.

They settled on the conditions of the bet, which were simple. They'd start it at $1,000. Every month that went by and he had yet to seal the deal, he'd lose $100.

“Magdalyne!” a girl yelled, and soon the two boys saw two girls crowded around the girl who was occupied in not throwing up her entire digestive system and its respective organs. They spoke quietly, and Quinn grinned.

“I’ll be fair—I’ll pick one of those. Maggie is dating Clark, and I'm pretty sure that if you tried to put the moves on her, he'd pound your face in.” Ezra simply glared at his friend. "What? It's the truth, man." Ezra sighed, deciding to give it no mind. All he had to do was get in, get out, avoid her, done. It was his life’s work. So he stood there and snuffed out his cigarette with his foot, blowing the rest of the smoke out his nose. “Her,” Quinn said, pointing to a pale blonde who was busy fiddling with her short nails, biting the nail on her thumb and talking to Jude and Magdalyne. She seemed completely and totally immersed in her own world. “What’s her name? Penelope…? Percy…?” It wasn’t until Ezra caught a glimpse of her face that he knew her name. "Something weird, with a P."

“Piper,” he said quietly, jaw slack. He watched as Piper held Magdalyne ’s coat and handbag carefully, trying to not drop it. Magdalyne said something he didn’t quite catch and Piper shook her head, slight smile on her face.

“Yeah, Piper. I knew it was something weird.” Ezra stood there, shocked that Quinn picked her instead of Jude and that Piper was even hanging around somewhere like that. “Hey, Maggie,” Quinn said with a slight nod.

“Oh, hi Quinn!” Maggie gushed, waving and hiccupping. “I haven't seen you in, like, forever. You’ve met Piper, right?” Her words were slightly slurred as she slung an arm around Piper. Piper went slightly rigid—mostly because Magdalyne hit an old bruise unknowingly. Quinn nodded.

“Hey, June.” Piper looked at Ezra, unsure how much more she could be embarrassed.

“H-Hi.” She waved slightly, corners of her mouth picking up slightly.

“C’mon,” Magdalyne urged. “Catch you later, losers.”