Piper McLean

"My dad's Cherokee. Not Hualapai. 'Course you'd need a few brain cells to know the difference, Isabel."

- Piper talking to Isabel

Piper McLean is one of the main characters in The Heroes of Olympus. Piper is the demigod daughter of Aphrodite and a Hollywood movie star of Cherokee descent, Tristan McLean. Later, when Piper had told Drew, Piper found Drew's posters of him ripped up and in the trash. Almost no one knew about the fact that Tristan McLean was Piper's dad. Piper claimed she did not like to play the, "famous dad card." She is the new counselor of the Aphrodite Cabin after she challenges Drew to a battle. According to the shared memories of Piper and Leo, she has been Jason's girlfriend for some weeks at the beginning of the story, although Coach Hedge, their satyr and protector states that this is the first time he's seen Jason, who is apparently her "boyfriend". Despite finding out that her relationship wasn't real, she decides that she still likes Jason, but is unsure whether he likes her back.

History
Piper has always had the ability to charmspeak and is seen as a powerful one after defeating Medea, although she didn't know it until she came to Camp Half-Blood. She would sometimes accidentally use this ability to unwittingly get people to "give" her things, such as when she talked a car dealer into giving her a BMW for free. This caused her to be sent to the Wilderness School for delinquent kids where she met Leo and Jason.

Family
"...if those girls found out the truth about her dad, they'd all be bowing down to her screaming, 'We're not worthy!'."

- Leo

Piper's father is Tristan McLean, a well known actor with a powerful position and is of Cherokee descent. Her father is always at work and busy. Piper wants to feel recognized by him which is why she gets in trouble and "steals" things with her charmspeaking.

Her mother is Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty.

Piper also has a grandfather called Grandpa Tom. He was the one who named Piper. He named her that because she had a beautiful voice even when she cried as a baby.

Appearance
"Beautiful. Piper, you ... you're a knockout."

- Jason's reaction when Aphrodite claims Piper.

Piper is a gorgeous girl of Cherokee decent. At first, she has chocolate brown hair that is cut choppy and uneven, and got teased because of this by Drew. Her eyes change color like a kaleidoscope going from brown, to blue and green. She wears faded jeans, a snowboarding jacket and hiking boots. She often uses her beauty and charismatic voice to distract enemies. Her skin color is mixed with Native American and white. After being claimed by Aphrodite, Piper appeared even more beautiful, due to Aphrodite's blessing. Piper's hair had turned thick, long, and lush, braided with gold ribbons so it fell across one shoulder. She wore a beautiful white sleeveless Greek dress that went down to her ankles and a low V-neck, perfect makeup, delicate gold armbands on her biceps, a necklace of amber, coral, and gold flowers on her chest. Piper said "The V neck was so low it was embarrassing." Unfortunately, when Aphrodite claimed her, this meant she had to lose her snowboarding jacket, and obtain magical makeup and hairdo, which Piper was not pleased about. Later during her quest, after her mother "fixed" her up again, she was dressed in a turquoise dress with black leggings and black boots, as well as her snowboarding jacket, which she said "went surprisingly well with the outfit".

Personality
Piper is cute and lovable but also dangerous. She is very caring and loving towards Jason and is frightened, sad and angry at anything that may pose a threat to her bond with him, such as when Drew claims that Piper needs to break his heart as an initiation into the cabin. She is greatly saddened by the possibility that her first relationship with Jason was a Mist-induced illusion and breaks down in tears when Annabeth asks her what Jason's last name is (which she doesn't know). She also likes to touch Jason in very kind and loving ways such as holding his hand, leaning against his chest, resting her head on his leg, wrapping her arms around him and having his arms around her, probably since they were together in her Mist-manipulated memories. These memories are much sharper to Piper because she is a daughter of Aphrodite, so she can sense possibilities.

Compared to the other children of Aphrodite, Piper is much more aggressive and down to earth, not constantly focused on herself or her looks. When claimed by Aphrodite, she complains that she can't get rid of her makeup or her new hairstyle and finds it to be annoying to say the least. Before she was claimed by Aphrodite, Piper expressed that she wanted to be the daughter of Athena, Artemis or any other goddess that wasn't Aphrodite, and she also thought Aphrodite cabin had been a "life-sized dollhouse" where supermodels went to die, and when she was claimed, she didn't fit in at all, and still doesn't. Rachel, the Oracle of Delphi, thinks even Annabeth wants Piper to be a child of Athena. Aphrodite herself also said that she was much smarter than most of her other children. She also seems to be a tomboy. Piper hates make-up, dresses and popular girls.

Piper also does not like it when Drew bullies the other Aphrodite children. She feels that Drew is running her cabin like a dictatorship and she doesn't truly understand what love is. Piper is not afraid to stand up to Drew, and because they can both use the charmspeak ability, Drew cannot control her like she does with the other campers. After Piper returns from her quest, she challenges Drew for her position as cabin leader because Drew has never been on a quest and thus, Piper is able to take the leadership role.

The Lost Hero
Piper appears the first time in the bus driving towards the Grand Canyon, holding hands with Jason. She's the first to realize something is wrong with him, and is devastated when she finds Jason doesn't remember him. This is because Hera erased his memory, as well as Percy Jackson's. Shortly afterward she is torn away by Dylan, who declares her his partner for the school work.

As a strong storm starts, Piper and Dylan help the others to leave the sky-walk, until only she, Dylan, Leo, Jason and Coach Hedge are left. As Piper loses control of the door, which suddenly seems to be magically locked, Dylan reveals to be a anemoi thuellai (Roman form ventus), a storm son of Typhon, and battles the four of them along with his fellow venti (plural form of ventus). Piper tries to fight the Venti along Jason with Hedge's baseball bat as a weapon but when she hits Dylan to prevent him from taking Jason, she is thrown off the skywalk by Dylan. Jason jumps after her and saves her, stopping in midair before flying back up safely to the skywalk.

Dylan takes Hedge away after Hedge saved Leo. The three are picked up by a chariot, driven by Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena, and Butch, Son of Iris. Soon after they crash land in a lake at Camp Half-Blood, Annabeth gives her a tour of the camp and helps her pick out her weapon (a dagger previously owned by Helen of Troy) called Katoptris (Ancient Greek for: Looking glass) that has the ability to show much more than the users' reflection when looked at. Later that night when Jason is picking the two others to come on his quest, after he picks Leo, Piper says she has to go too while trying to compete with Drew to be on the quest. She was then claimed by Aphrodite. Later she becomes friends with two of her half-siblings, Lacy and Mitchell, in the Aphrodite cabin and learns how to use her ability of charmspeak.

The next day, Piper, Jason, and Leo take Leo's new "pet dragon", Festus, and begin their quest. They arrive in Quebec and they visit Boreas and they meet his children including Khione (goddess of snow) and the Boreads. While she is sleeping, they fall off the dragon and they crashland into a supposedly abandoned car factory in Detroit. But they don't know that cyclopes live there. Jason and Piper are held captive, but Leo rescues them and they find out he has fire abilities. After they escape, they stop to rest but they meet Medea, a sorceress and charmspeaker, who nearly causes Jason and Leo to turn against each other, but Piper gets them out of the trance and they fight Medea. They also find Coach Hedge and the storm spirits to trade with Aeolus. As they escape, the building explodes.

Soon, Festus crash lands again and they fall in front of a mansion. Inside they meet king Midas and Jason helps them escape after Leo and Piper get turned to gold, by calling down lightning. After they get turn back to normal they run into Lycaon (the first werewolf) and the rest of his pack, but the Hunters save them. Thalia Grace, Artemis' lieutenant and Jason's sister leads them to Aeolus's palace before getting separated when the ice vapor bridge melts. They meet Mellie the aura and they meet Aeolus who, in the end, tries to kill them on the order of Gaea. When they escaped, winds shot them to California. They confront the giant Enceladus to rescue Piper's dad, Tristan McLean, and to the wolf house to rescue Hera. They find out that Khione has been spying on them and they plan to help the rise of Porphyrion, the giant king. Leo battles against her and he turns out to until Porphrion rises and Jason keeps him occupied while Leo tries to cut Hera free. Piper lulls Gaea to sleep; showing her amazing skills in charmspeaking.

After, Piper, Jason and Leo return home to Camp Half-Blood. The morning after their quest Piper challenges Drew to a duel to be head councellor but Drew grudgingly backs down for she does not wish to fight Piper. Later Piper video chats with Coach Hedge, Mellie and her dad who remembers nothing of his ordeal (because Aphrodite told Piper to give her dad a potion that erases recent memories) and thinks Piper is in a special school. Then Piper shares a moment with Jason before heading into the woods with Jason, Leo, Chiron and the Hephaestus cabin as Leo shows them Bunker 9. As the book draws to an end Piper hears Jason say that it is most likely that Percy Jackson is at the Roman camp and doesn't even remember who he is.

Abilities

 * Has the power of charmspeaking, allowing her to influence others with her opinion. Her voice is so powerful, she can even charmspeak powerful Gods/Goddesses/Titans/Titanesses (she had lulled Gaea back to sleep), and even souls (she stopped Jason's soul from going to the Underworld). She has also proved her charmspeaking ability to be stronger than that of Medea and Khione.
 * As a child of Aphrodite, Piper is fluent in French due to it being the "language of love."
 * She can attract the opposite gender when they walk by.
 * She may also have magical control over clothes, makeup, and jewelry like the other Aphrodite kids.
 * Minor degree of love magic.
 * May have the ability to change her physical features because Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty.

Weapons/Items
Piper uses the ancient greek cerominal knife/dagger called Katoptris. Given to Helen of Troy as a wedding gift from Meneluas Helen of Troy's firt husband. The dagger seems to show a scene of something that has importance to whoever looks at their reflection in the blade. Katoptris is a greek word meaning "Looking Glass".

Romance
She is attracted to Jason Grace. This first happened under the influence of the Mist but soon blossomed into more pronounced feelings from both of them over the course of Jason's quest. She announces to the Aphrodite cabin that Jason is hers alone and that no one else could pursue his affections. Piper deeply cares for Jason, so much that she stated (to herself) that she'd be willing to let go of him if he really does have someone at the Roman Camp Half-Blood if it means Jason being happy. She stated that for now, she was content in simply being by his side.

Trivia

 * Leo calls her "Beauty Queen" the same way Percy calls Annabeth Wise Girl.
 * Leo also once referred to her as "Pipes", which she also did not like, but apparently prefers it when her Dad calls her so. Leo notices that Piper 'does not like any of the names he makes up for her'.
 * She calls Jason 'Sparky' in the same way that Annabeth calls Percy 'Seaweed Brain'.
 * Piper was the first Head Counselor to be promoted, who had other siblings, in less than 5 days. She is also the first half-blood in both series to challenge another for the right to become Head Counselor.
 * Piper is a vegetarian.
 * Piper dislikes the term Half-blood due to her being called one for years, as other kids made fun of her for being half-Native American and half-white.
 * There is somewhat an inconsistency in Piper's clothing in the American cover of The Lost Hero. She appears to still be wearing the dress Aphrodite gave her when she was claimed while she already changed it prior to riding Festus and going to Boreas castle in Quebec.