Piper June.

It turned out that Piper’s father wasn’t going to go to her competition after all—but that was because he had a really important business meeting that he couldn't get out of. Thank goodness. Olivia wasn't coming either. Piper was actually kind of excited that he wasn't going to be in the crowd for once. There wasn’t going to be that much pressure for her to do well—even though she felt like she would anyway—because they weren’t going to be there.

Jude was, but that was because she was Piper’s ride and Quinn wasn’t really up for waking up that early to see his girlfriend’s best friend do "something stupid". As for Ezra? After Tuesday afternoon, he didn’t bring it up again, and Piper didn’t want to bring it up either for fear of sounding clingy. She figured that he probably forgot—which wouldn’t be that big of a deal because his world didn’t revolve around her.

She still kind of wished he'd come anyway.



Saturday morning came much too quickly.

Piper June struggled with her eyeliner pencil, trying hard not to poke herself in the eye. It was times like those that made her think that maybe having her real mom around wouldn’t be so bad. Piper hardly ever wore makeup or even put much effort into what she looked like, so she didn’t really know what she was doing. She set down the pencil, wiping the failed attempt off her eyes. She put on her glasses and walked to her closet, hands on her waist. No one would be looking at her eyes anyway. It was already eight and she had to be at the school in a half hour.

She'd have to call Maggie.

Over the last week, Maggie had paid a bit more attention to Piper—partly because she wanted to and partly because she knew about Ezra’s bet with Quinn. She wasn't exactly thrilled about it, but she still had a feeling that Piper would become part of their group soon, regardless of how she felt about it, so she might as well try to make her feel pretty welcome. And it was pretty obvious to everyone but Ezra that Piper actually liked him, so she was trying to bring her subtly to his attention by taking Piper June under her wing, sort of. Jude didn’t know about any of this (and neither did Piper, obviously). Everyone thought that Magdalyne was just being nice to Piper.

Piper dialed Maggie's number as she paced about her bedroom, biting her lip.

She didn't know what to do. What if Ezra came after all? But what if he didn't?

“Hello?” Maggie asked sleepily. She groaned a little. “Piper? Isn’t your competition thing today?”

“I need help.”

Maggie sighed, pulling some shoes on.

“Aren’t you ready?” she asked.

“I don't know what to wear, 'cause Ezra said that we're going skating today and I don't know if I'll get a chance to come back to grab something warm.” Piper looked through her hangers, trying to find something to wear. "I don't know what to do."

“Okay, okay,” Magdalyne laughed, pulling a sweater over her head. “I’ll be right over.”

“Thanks,” Piper said with a small smile.

It wasn't long before Maggie was knocking quietly at the back door downstairs. Piper opened the door for her and Maggie grinned, light brown hair piled on her head in a neat bun. She looked flawless, as per usual, bright green eyes shining behind thick black lashes. She held up her makeup case, a big pink box with Maggie written in it in glitter. Piper swallowed uneasily.

Maggie grabbed a glass of water and followed Piper upstairs.

"Sit. We need to teach you how to dress. Why do you have so many sweaters?"

"I like sweatshirts. What's wrong with all my sweaters?" Maggie frowned, shaking her head.

This simply would not do.

Maggie tossed a pink sweater with a white bow at Piper and a pair of leggings, shaking her head. She held up a pair of tennis shoes and boots, put the boots back in her closet. She looked at Piper expectantly.

“Get dressed. Jude’s going to be here any minute, and my aunt’s gonna be waking up soon.” Piper held the folded clothes to her chest, rocking back and forth slightly. Magdalyne fiddled around with her makeup case, pulling out bottles of foundation and concealer. She shot Piper a look, annoyed. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go. You're going to be late.”

“I kind of, uh…” Piper stammered, anxiously fidgeting.

“You're the shy type, huh? Okay.” Magdalyne rolled her eyes, hands on her hips. Everyone was pretty in their own different way. Maggie didn't know how anyone could think differently. How could people be self-conscious? Why? “Fine. I’ll wait outside, okay?” She shut the door quietly, leaving Piper alone for a few moments. Piper dressed quickly, almost falling over when she was tugging on her leggings. She couldn't let Maggie see the bruises and cuts and scrapes. She'd never let it go. Magdalyne came in as she was pulling on a woolly pair of socks. “Looking good, hot stuff.” Piper laughed, pulling on her shoes. Magdalyne started rubbing different foundations on Piper's hand, trying to find a shade that matched her. She looked up at her. “I think you should wear your contacts today.”

“Why?”

“You have nice eyes, Piper. What’s so wrong about showing them off every once in a while? If you win, you might be in the school paper. Just wear them. You'll thank me later.”

Piper huffily obliged, taking off her glasses and put in her contacts after a minute or two of struggle. Piper sat still as Maggie drew and poked and prodded at her face, almost afraid to look at herself in the mirror.

“That’s better. You can open your eyes now.” Maggie smiled and held up a mirror, grinning. "Don't you like it?"

Piper was mortified, to put it lightly. Her eyelids were smoky and almost glittery, courtesy Magdalyne's generous use of eye shadow. The hint of freckles that dusted her nose and cheeks were gone, covered by a smattering of pastel pink, leaving her in a seemingly perpetual blushing state. She was even wearing a dark shade of lip stain. Piper looked at Magdalyne, frowning slightly. She could hardly see herself behind all that makeup—and Magdalyne was supposedly being considerate of the fact that Piper wasn’t the biggest cosmetic fan.

“What’s wrong?”

“I look weird,” she murmured, grabbing a tissue from the box that rested on her desk, dabbing at her face in a vain attempt to get the make up off.

“What? You look fine.” Maggie three the tissue away and touched up her face, smiling. "I'll teach you how to put on makeup after your little date with Ezra."

"It's not a date."

"Right."

"It's not. We're friends, sort of. Friends don't date." The doorbell rang downstairs and Piper sighed, grabbing her bag off the floor. "Well, thanks anyway. I'll see you later." She walked Maggie out the back door and then went around to the front to meet Jude.

"Let's get this show on the road," Jude smiled, a bright smile on her face. “Are you wearing make up?” Jude asked after a couple of minutes, squinting at Piper.

"Just a little."

"Nervous?"

Piper shrugged. What if she didn’t win? What if she lost? She would let her parents down, especially her father. She didn't want to think about what would happen if she disappointed him. Her father spent hours and hours after dinner with her in the den, practicing and drilling. She couldn’t let him down and let all these hours of study go to waste. Not only that, but she feared the retribution that would come from a failure like that.

She sipped from her thermos slowly before answering.

“Not really.”



On Saturday morning, Ezra found himself in the auditorium with Jude, biting his lip as he looked at Piper. What was he doing? Why was he here? She was just a girl, like Jude and Maggie and every other girl he knew. Except she wasn't, except she was nicer and softer and sweeter and friendlier. And she blushed all the time, and stuttered, and her eyes were so pretty. Why was she so shy? There was something different about her, and Ezra was determined to get to the bottom of it.

Piper won. Of course she did. He didn't doubt it, but she had spent the whole week worrying that she wouldn't. Winning wasn't everything, but it seemed as though she was worried about something a lot bigger than losing.

“Come on,” Jude said, tugging at his arm. They made their way out as the students were given their trophies. “It's going to be a while. Everyone wants to take pictures.” She shoved her phone in her pocket and leaned against the wall of lockers, looking down at her shoes. Ezra looked around, feeling awkward. It wasn't that he didn't like Jude. She just didn't like him and he didn't know why. It wasn't like he had ever done anything to her. While they stood there, he tried to figure out why Piper was so hard on herself about winning. She went though the whole competition without breaking a sweat, almost bored. Why was she so concerned?

It wasn't long before the doors opened, and Piper walked up, holding her trophy with both hands.

“Sorry for the wait, I—” Piper began to say, stopping short when she saw him. He flashed her a crooked smile, not missing the tint on her cheeks. “H-Hi,” she spluttered, looking at him. “What, uh, what are you doing here?”

“I told you I was coming, didn’t I?” He laughed. "You did great. Congrats." He smiled at her brightly and she blushed, pushing some of her hair behind her ear.

Jude watched the exchange sullenly. Why was Ezra even here in the first place? He was up to something. She could feel it.

"Thanks," she replied, biting her lip. "I just didn't think you'd want to come."

“I guess I'm just full of surprises,” he said, shrugging. “So are you still coming today? I mean, I get it if you can't 'cause you’re probably busy or something and you might not want to go and that’s cool. I was just wondering."

“I don’t really see why not?” She shrugged and turned around to see if Jude would give her a ride, but Jude was walking down the hallway, talking to Quinn on the phone. She rolled her eyes. "I'll meet you there, I guess."

“If you need a ride, I could give you one. It's not a big deal.”

“You drive?” He nodded, spinning the key ring on his fingers. “Well…okay, I guess. Thanks. I just need to stop at my house first,” she said quietly, shrugging. They walked outside in a comfortable silence to the red car in the half empty parking lot, climbing inside. Believe it or not, Ezra kept his dad’s car pretty neat. He didn’t really like a messy car, because all that clutter just took up space. Piper sat quietly in the passenger seat, staring down the trophy in her hands.

P.J. FLEMING, GRADE 11, FIRST PLACE

Magdalyne was right—they were indeed going to take pictures of the winners. Piper was going to be in the school newspaper as well as the local one (page 12, Sunday edition). She knew her father would be scouring the pages and bragging about it to all his work friends and that he'd probably add the clipping to the scrapbook Olivia kept about her. Sometimes, Piper wondered if her mom ever saw something about her or even looked for things about her. She decided that she wouldn’t really mind if she did, but it would be kind of nice to know.

“June?”

“Hm?” She looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

“Are you hungry? Maybe we can catch a bite?” he asked hopefully.

“Yeah, sure,” she said disinterestedly, looking at her trophy.

“What’s wrong?”

Maybe Ezra wasn’t the smartest guy in the world, but he could be pretty intuitive sometimes. And it wasn't all that hard to read Piper, after all. She'd been acting kind of strange all week.

“Nothing, I’m just thinking.”

“About?”

“Nothing,” she answered, looking up. “It’s no big deal.”

“Sure?” She nodded.

“I’m fine,” she said, laughing lightly.

“What’s your family like?” he asked spontaneously when there were a few blocks away from her home. “You never talk about them, I'm just curious.” It was kind of weird that she never ever talked about them.

“They're pretty normal, I guess?” Ezra didn't need to know about them, and it wasn't like she was planning on letting him get that close to her anyway. “I don’t really know what you want to know.”

“What are their names?”

“Olivia and Paul.” After a beat, she said, “Olivia's my step-mother.”

“What happened to your mom?” he asked, glancing over at her.

“They got a divorce a few years ago.”

“Oh, god, June, I’m sorry, I didn’t—” he began to apologize, but she just shook her head, waving her hand dismissively. "I'm sorry."

“It’s okay. I'm over it.” Ezra slowed to a stop across the street from her house, turning off the car.

“Do you want me to come in?”

Olivia's car was in the driveway and she suppressed a groan, closing her eyes. Of course she'd be home. How could she have forgotten?

“If you want.” She knew Olivia was going to ask her a bunch of questions about him as soon as she came back. Great.

“Let’s go, then.”

She'd be in so much trouble if her dad found out she brought a boy over, even if he wasn't even going up to her room. She opened the door hesitantly, only to se Olivia half-asleep on the couch, hands in a bowl of popcorn and a documentary on the lives of jellyfish on mute on the TV.

“Mom…” Piper said quietly, embarrassed. “Mom.” She nudged her shoulder gently, trying to wake her up.

“Two grams of Novocain, stat!” Olivia exclaimed, waking with a start. She sat up, startled. She took a deep breath and looked up. “Oh, hi, Piper,” she said in relief. “How’d it go today?”

Piper showed Olivia her trophy, which prompted her to gush and grin brightly at her. Ezra was just standing awkwardly near the door, surprised to see a young looking woman with a small belly bump on the couch.

“Hey there,” Olivia said, looking at Ezra. “Who’s this?”

“That’s, uh, Ezra, my friend. We’re going skating today, if that's okay?”

“Oh,” Olivia replied, shooting Piper a knowing smile. “Yeah, sure. Knock yourself out. Are you going like that? Go put something warmer on and grab some money from my purse, ’kay?”

Piper tried not to run out of the living room.

She knew Olivia was probably going to ask Ezra a bunch of personal questions and scare him away or something and he’d just think she was a freak with a set of freaks for parents and he'd never want to talk to her ever again. She made herself calm down as she looked through her closet. She had to stop trying so hard. She pulled on an old pair of black leg warmers, exchanged her shoes for a pair of warm boots, and pulled on a scarf, a pair of black mittens, and a blue hat.

Piper walked into her parents' room carefully, looking for Olivia’s purse. After she figured out which purse Olivia kept her wallet in (it took her five long minutes), she had to figure out which wallet, which made her wonder why she had more than one. She shook her head and just grabbed a random twenty, shutting the wallet and hanging the purse back up on its' hook. She ran downstairs, hoping that Olivia hadn't been too nosy.

“Okay, thanks! Bye Mom. C’mon Ezra,” she murmured, taking his hand and almost dragging him out of the living room.

“Bye Piper!” Olivia exclaimed from the doorway, waving frantically at her. “Drive safe!”

She slipped into the passenger seat, blowing her bangs out of her eyes.

“What was that all about?” he asked as they drove down the street. “I liked her.”

“What?” Piper exclaimed, almost breathless as she laughed. “Really?”

He nodded.

"So we're holding hands now?"

She glanced down at her hand, and sure enough, she was holding his on the center console. She recoiled and folded her hands in her lap, laughing. She didn't want to be disappointed or even sad because it wasn't like he liked her anyway, but she was. Just a little.

"Oops."