Piper McLean

"Being a hero doesn't mean you're invincible; it means you're brave enough to stand up and do what's needed."

- Piper to Jason

Piper McLean is a Greek demigod daughter of Aphrodite and Tristan McLean and is currently the head counselor of the Aphrodite cabin, after challenging and defeating Drew Tanaka who became head counselor of the Aphrodite cabin after the former counselor died in war.

History
Piper got her name from her Grandpa Tom, who noted her strong voice, and hoped that she would one day learn all of the great Cherokee songs, including the Song of the Snakes. As opposed to many other children of Aphrodite, Piper was never very focused on her natural beauty and has a somewhat tomboyish style. At one point, she helped her actor father research Greek Mythology (for a role her father was about to take on) and learned quite a bit of information that she found interesting. Her father would also tell her old Cherokee stories he heard from Grandpa Tom. From time to time, Piper and her father would play a game called "Any Three Questions," in which Piper would ask her father any three questions of her choice and he had to answer them without lying. Her main intention was to find out more about her mother who apparently left after she was born. However, Piper wasn't able to learn much about her mother. She later recalls how her father had driven Piper past a meat-processing plant in Chino when she was little. The smell had been enough to turn Piper into a vegetarian. Ever since, just the thought of cows made her ill. As Asclepius would later reveal, Piper had broken her arm when she was six after falling off a horse.

In addition, Piper has always had the ability to charmspeak and uses it (not knowingly) to gain her father's attention by "borrowing" things from salesmen, for example a lawnmower or a car, causing her to get into trouble with the law when the people report her for stealing. At one point, she talked a car dealer into giving her a BMW and drove it away from the lot. She only stole items because she wanted attention from her father, who she believed wasn't spending enough time with her. The dealer pressed charges for theft after Piper took the BMW and realized that he had been tricked, but her father's assistant, Jane, made a deal for her to be sent to Wilderness School instead of going to jail. The school is a place for delinquent kids, but it was here that she meet Leo Valdez, and the two formed a friendship, she even trusted him with the truth that her father is the movie star Tristan McLean, something that she keeps a secret to most people.

Piper and Leo's back-story is a rare one, since they are the only two known demigods who meet and befriended each other before they even knew they were demigods.

Mist History
Leo Valdez and Piper were both given false memories of Jason Grace before he arrived at the Wilderness School. In these memories, Jason, Leo, and Piper had been friends for about three months after Jason first arrived. Piper tried to get closer to him and the two eventually watched shooting stars from the school's roof, and shared a kiss. They began dating a few weeks before the events of The Lost Hero. This reality was proved to be fake when Annabeth asked Piper some basic things about Jason she doesn't know, for example his last name.

The Lost Hero
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" ! To see this text, hit the "Expand" link to the right. Piper appears the first time in the Wilderness School bus driving towards the Grand Canyon on a field trip, holding hands with Jason, who she claims to be her boyfriend but the memories she had with Jason were false. She's the first to realize something (Leo at first believes Jason was playing a prank on them) is wrong with him, and is devastated when she finds out that Jason doesn't remember her. This is because Hera erased his memory, as well as Percy Jackson's and it is later revealed she used the mist to try and trick Piper. Shortly afterward she is torn away by Dylan, who declares her his partner for the school work, but keeps flirting with her the whole while.

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 spirit and a child of the storm giant Typhon, and battles the four of them along with his fellow venti (plural form of ventus). Piper tries to fight the venti with Jason using Hedge's baseball bat as a weapon, but when she hits Dylan to prevent him from taking Jason, she is thrown off the sky-walk. Jason jumps after her and saves her, stopping in midair and catching her before flying back up safely to the sky walk.



Dylan takes Hedge away after Hedge saved Leo in the battle. 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 Piper 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 user's reflection when looked at, such as depictions of the near future. Later that night when Jason is picking 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, much to Drew's chagrin. Later she becomes friends with two of her half-siblings, Lacy and Mitchell, and learns how to use her ability to charmspeak. However, Drew, the head of the cabin, keeps everyone under her thumb with her own ability to charmspeak and makes Piper so mad that when asked who her father was, Piper admits he is Tristan McLean without thinking a about it. When the other members ask if it is true and she becomes the center of attention in the cabin, Drew tells everyone that it is a lie, but rips his poster off the wall a short time later. Piper claimed she did not like to play the "famous dad card," and felt bad and regretted what she did after using it against Drew.

The next day, Piper, Jason, and Leo take Leo's new "pet mechanical dragon," Festus, and begin their quest. They arrive in Quebec and they meet Boreas and his children, including Khione (goddess of snow) and the Boreads (immortal children of Boreas),where they get on a bad note with them. Later, while Piper is sleeping, they fall off the dragon and they crash land into a supposedly abandoned car factory in Detroit, which turned out to be the residence of three grown Cyclopes. 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 then they meet Medea, a sorceress and charmspeaker, who nearly causes Jason and Leo to turn against each other, however 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 his son Lit. Jason helps himself and his two friends 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's lieutenant and Jason's sister leads them to Aeolus's palace before getting separated when the ice vapor bridge melts after Leo gets too excited about a theory he formed about Jason's appearance and Percy's disappearance. They meet Mellie the aura, who has a huge crush on Coach Hedge and who ends up marrying him and having his son whom they named Chuck. The trio 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. They manage to defeat the giant, but her father is mentally broken and Piper is forced to give him a potion that Aphrodite had given her, one that will erase all his short term memories. Piper then allows the medical team to take her father away while she charmspeaks a pilot into letting them borrow their helicopter to travel 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 Khione and he turns out to until Porphyrion 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 their quest is completed, Piper, Jason, and Leo return home to Camp Half-Blood. The next morning, Piper challenges Drew to a duel to be head counselor, 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 and thinks Piper is in a special school. Then Piper shares a moment with Jason, in which she accepts that she loves Jason, but she doesn't know if he feels the same way. Later, she heads 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, called Camp Jupiter.

Leo Valdez and the Quest for Buford
Two months after the events of The Lost Hero, Piper and Jason are summoned by Leo Valdez to aid him in recovering Buford, the walking cabinet who wandered off carrying the syncopater for the Argo II. Without the syncopater, the ship will blow up within an hour, taking Cabin 9 and a significant portion of Camp Half-Blood with it.

They then set off to recover the object, but their path is complicated by the appearance of Maenads, cousins of the naiads and dangerous followers of Dionysus. Piper utilizes her charmspeak to confuse and delay the Maenads until the appropriate moment where Leo develops a trap to capture all of them in one sweep which frees him to install the syncopater on the Argo II and prevent its imminent explosion.
 * }

The Son of Neptune
Piper makes a brief appearance in a dream of Percy Jackson along with Jason Grace and Leo Valdez as they construct the Argo II though Percy at that time was unsure who she was. Later, her voice is heard calling Leo a "repair boy" when he asks her what his title is during a video message to Camp Jupiter, asking them not to blast them out of the sky. By the end of the book, she sets out to meet the rest of the seven demigods at Camp Jupiter.

Earlier in the book when Polybotes and the Giant Army are marching toward Camp Jupiter, Ma Gasket is shown to have reformed and joined the army. She complains that the purple and orange ones destroyed her home and she wants revenge against Piper, Leo, and Jason. While the name Jason sounds familiar to Percy, Hazel, and Frank, they don't know who Leo and Piper are.

Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes
Right after finishing his narration of this book, Percy reveals that after the events of The Blood of Olympus, he, Piper, and the rest of the Seven started the tradition of monthly Argo II reunion parties, and he is quite worried about being late to the current one.

Between the Series
Several days after the death of Gaea and Leo's death and resurrection, a parchment scroll with a holographic message, sent from the resurrected Leo, came fluttering into Camp Half-Blood on the wind. Piper and Jason, while angry at Leo for his long absence, are extremely relieved to learn that he is alive, and both of them spend most of September searching for Leo, Festus, and Calypso.

Eventually, however, Chiron persuades them to resume their school year, and so Piper and Jason depart to a school in Los Angeles (where her father Tristan McLean now lives), taking Gleeson Hedge, Mellie, and Chuck along with them.

The Hidden Oracle
Piper is not present at Camp Half-Blood when the human Apollo and Meg McCaffrey arrive, so Nico di Angelo explains where she and the rest of the Seven are now, while showing Leo's holographic message. In the story, it is noted that Jason and Piper are together in Los Angeles, studying after an unsuccessful search for Leo.

The Dark Prophecy
Leo mentions Piper when commenting on Emmie's tofu enchiladas. Lityerses mentioned her when confronting Apollo and Calypso at the Indianapolis Zoo.

Personality
Piper McLean is a calm, but rebellious spirit. Always loyal and protective of her friends. She is not afraid to stand up for her family and friends. Piper has always followed her heart and her guts, which does her well in Blood of Olympus. Piper is also a leader, as she is counselor of Aphrodite cabin. Her disagreement with the rite of passage and Drew's tortures on her siblings show that, unlike most of Aphrodite kids, she doesn't care about looks as much as the personality and shows children of Aphrodite aren't cowards and gossip-aholics like a lot of people from the other cabins think. She stands for her believes and fights to right the wrongs in her cabin.

Piper was very caring and loving towards her ex-boyfriend 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. She also seems to have a soft spot for her friend Leo Valdez.

Compared to the other children of Aphrodite, Piper is much more aggressive and down to earth and is also somewhat tomboyish, not constantly focused on herself or her looks. She has a funny sense of humor, and laid-back most of the time. 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, Hecate, Artemis (before realizing she was a maiden goddess), or any 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. Piper hates make-up, skirts, magazines, dresses and popular girls. She said that if she started a craving for fashion magazines, she would complain to her mother. She also has no care of her looks at all.

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. At the end of The Blood of Olympus, Drew seems to not mind Piper's position of leadership as she can spend more time gossiping and doing in-cabin makeovers.

She appears to be more perceptive of others' feelings compared to the rest of the members of the Argo II. Out of the seven demigods, Piper is the most compassionate and understanding one.

Like everybody on the Argo II, she had an insecurity with her own identity. As seen in The House of Hades, hers appeared to be that she felt useless and not a hero at all without her friends. This was exploited by Khione as she attacked the ship. Though those thoughts have likely stopped after she found confidence during that same confrontation.

Appearance
In The Lost Hero, Piper was first described to be a very beautiful girl of Native American (Cherokee) descent, with chocolate-brown hair that was cut choppy and unevenly, and had thin strands braided down on the sides. Her eyes seemed to change color like a kaleidoscope, going from brown to blue to green, and she was dressed in a fleece snowboarding jacket, faded jeans, and hiking boots. Though she wore no makeup, and she had facial imperfections (such as pimples, namely one at the base of her nose, which had been there for some time), she was still so beautiful that she drew attention even when trying not do.

After Piper was claimed and subsequently blessed by Aphrodite, she temporarily became the most gorgeous girl in Camp Half-Blood: her hair turned lush and long, braided with gold ribbons down one side so it fell across her shoulder, and she wore perfect makeup that made her lips cherry-red and brought out all the different colors in her eyes. Her skin also became perfect, she was adorned in a beautiful, sleeveless, ankle-length white gown with an embarrassingly low V-neck, and her biceps were circled by delicate gold armbands, while an intricate necklace of amber, coral, and gold flowers glittered on her chest. Her pimple also disappeared too. However, Piper still preferred her old look. Jason Grace even exclaimed that she was "beautiful" and "a knockout" in front of the whole camp, and though Aphrodite's blessing faded later on, he thought that she looked more beautiful without makeup and her hair back in its old choppy style, and it seemed that her facial imperfections had still permanently vanished.

In The Blood of Olympus, when Piper used her charmspeak to its full potential, Leo observed that her smile was "so warm it would've melted the Boreads".

However, despite her stunning beauty and her parentage, Piper is described as having a relatively simple, tomboyish style most of the time.

Abilities
General Abilities= As one of the seven, Piper is definitely an extremely powerful demigod whose powers develop rapidly throughout the series.
 * ADHD: Like most demigods, Piper possesses inborn supernatural battle reflexes and senses that she uses to analyze the fighting style of her opponent.


 * Dyslexia: Piper's brain is hard-wired for reading Ancient Greek instead of modern languages.


 * Fighting Skills: As shown in The Lost Hero, despite her lack of any real training, Piper was already a decent knife-fighter, being able to defeat dozens of monsters though she charmspoke them first, and in The House of Hades, she started to learn how to fight with a sword under Hazel and started improving rapidly. By The Blood of Olympus, Piper's skills had improved to the point that she single-handedly defeated an entire flock of "demon chicken ladies" while on guard duty, which implies that she is a prodigious swordswoman. During the final battle with the Giants, Piper also held her own against the Giantess, Periboia, in an intense fencing duel, and ultimately defeated her with Aphrodite's help.


 * Knowledge of Greek Mythology: As seen in The Lost Hero, through her previous research on the subject for a movie role her father played, Piper had an extensive knowledge of Greek mythology allowing her to know ways to defeat different ancient Greek characters.


 * Singing: While Piper's father had always told her that she had a good singing voice, she was too self-conscious and shy about ever singing in front of anyone, not even participating in campfire sing-alongs. However, when Piper finally did sing in front of her friends and Kekrops in The Blood of Olympus, her words "filled the mess hall", greatly impressing Jason and Leo. Piper could also weave Charmspeak into her singing.


 * Superhuman Strength: As a demigod, Piper possessed physical strength greater than an average human's - she easily threw a fifty-pound shield at Medea, making the latter topple on a table full of potions.


 * Superhuman Agility: As a demigod, Piper is more agile than the average mortal - she was able to weave herself through a thick group of Giants to haul herself up to Achelous' neck.


 * Superhuman Durability: As a demigod, Piper is more durable than a regular human being, as shown by how she only suffered a broken ankle when she fell dozens of feet from the sky.


 * Superhuman Reflexes: As a demigod, Piper's reflexes are greater than the average mortal, as shown by her being able to dodge an axe thrown by the Giant, Mimas, even when she did not see it.


 * Willpower: As shown in The Lost Hero, Piper possessed tremendous willpower that enabled her to effectively resist charmspeak from both Drew and Medea who were both powerful charmspeakers.


 * -|Demigod Abilities=
 * Amokinesis: As a daughter of Aphrodite, Piper has a level of control over the emotions of love, lust, etc., but on a much smaller scale than her mother. As seen in The House of Hades, she was able to use the power of love to melt Khione's ice and permanently start up Festus.
 * Emotion Reading: As a daughter of Aphrodite, Piper is extremely good at reading people's emotions. In The Lost Hero, even without really knowing how she did it, she was able to translate the expressions on Annabeth's and Chiron's faces into a real conversation by just reading them even though she didn't know them very well yet.
 * Charmspeak: Piper has the power of charmspeak, which allowed her to influence others with enhanced vocal persuasiveness. At first, this ability was described to be unreliable and tiring but after the encounter with Khione in The House of Hades, this ability gradually became increasingly powerful as the series progressed, to the extent where it could even affect certain deities even though some others were completely resistant to her charmspeak. As of the The House of Hades, Piper's skills in charmspeaking had evolved to the point where she was even able to awaken Festus after finally understanding her abilities. In The Blood of Olympus, she used her charmspeak to make a fully-powered Gaea herself fall back to her slumber, though she stated that it would not have lasted long.
 * Beauty: Regardless of how she looked and what she wore, Piper was able to radiate beauty, which sometimes prevented enemies from willingly attacking her even as she charged them head-on. She could also attract the opposite sex when she walked by, and she might have the ability to change her physical features - Jason once mentioned that her eyes "constantly change color, like a kaleidoscope going from brown to blue to green a bit like Aphrodite."
 * French fluency: As a child of Aphrodite, Piper is noted in The Lost Hero to be able to speak French fluently due to it being the "language of love."

Weapons/Items

 * Katoptris: Piper is the wielder of an Ancient Greek ceremonial dagger called Katoptris. It was given to Helen of Troy as a wedding gift from Menelaus, Helen's first husband. The dagger seems to show a scene of something that has importance to whoever looks at their reflection in the blade (for example it showed her dad captured by giants in The Lost Hero). Katoptris is a Greek word meaning "looking glass." In The Blood of Olympus, after Gaea and the Giants' defeat, the dagger's visions have stopped completely.
 * Horn of Plenty: In The Mark of Athena, Piper receives the Horn of Plenty after cutting off the horn of the River god Achelous. It allows her summon food and water if she has enough will and concentration. It powers also seem to increase if multiple people focus at the same time. In The Blood of Olympus, her Horn is sacrificed to Deimos and Phobos, the twin gods of fear and terror.
 * Sword: In The House of Hades, Piper also picks up Zethes’s sword after he was defeated, and Hazel starts to teach her how to use it. But it was lost in The Blood of Olympus.
 * Blowgun: During their journey for The Oracle of Erythaea, Piper uses a blowgun given to her by her grandfather. It was destroyed during her fight with Medea.

Jason Grace
Piper's former love interest is Jason Grace. This first happened under the influence of the Mist (Hera/Juno placed false memories) but soon more pronounced feeling blossomed 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 should dare pursue his affections. Piper said she would catapult Drew over the Long Island Sound if she touched Jason. She stated that for now, she was content in simply being at his side. She could see possibilities with her having a true relationship with Jason. However, she is unaware that Jason is starting to remember a girl named Reyna, someone that Jason feels is very important but can't remember why. In The Son of Neptune, Reyna exposes a strong relationship or feeling for Jason, suggesting a rivalry between the two might occur. In The Demigod Diaries, Leo also remarks Jason and Piper are dating, showing that they seemed to have finally gotten together. They even share a kiss when they are battling the maenads in the woods of Camp Half-Blood. In The Mark of Athena, Annabeth states that Jason and Piper are dating confirming their relationship has continued for the past six months. Piper becomes somewhat jealous every time Jason mentions Reyna although she softens up to her at the end of The Blood Of Olympus, but their relationship remains intact. In The Blood of Olympus, Jason admits that while dating the daughter of the goddess of love, he is always afraid of doing something unromantic and angering her mother.

At the end of The Blood of Olympus, he kisses her passionately under the stars. He reminds her of their first kiss, which was really just a trick of the Mist, but has now finally come true. He tells her that they're starting over, and that was their first kiss. They then rest there, and Piper says that, for once, she feels like it is it possible to start over.

It is revealed that months prior to the events of The Burning Maze, Piper broke up with Jason despite the fact many believe that it was Jason who broke up with Piper. The reason for their break up is due to the fact that Piper believes that their relationship was pushed on them by Juno and Aphrodite. Despite this, it is shown throughout The Burning Maze that she still had feelings for Jason, which she herself admits but managed to not act on them. Sadly, this is short-lived when Jason sacrifices himself to allow Apollo, Meg and Piper time to escape from the third Triumvirate Holdings emperor, Caligula, which devastates Piper and causes her to shake in anger. Once the gang is on shore, they find Jason's body, the color of blank parchment and covered in slime, brought to them by Tempest. A heartbroken Piper demands Apollo to save him, but Apollo says death is not in his hands. Piper then asks Meg to save him based on a Cherokee myth that plants save. However, Meg too fails. She desperately tries to resort to use the Physician Cure or the Doors of Death but Apollo tells her that none will work. The death of Jason causes Piper to initially be enraged at Apollo for what his quest had caused them, causing her to act coldly and angrily at him, even screaming that he get out of her sight. She also took pleasure killing Medea for her part in Jason's death and having to retell Jason's death caused her to break down on Leo.

Rivals
Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano = When Piper first met Reyna in The Mark of Athena, she initially prepared to hate her for liking Jason, but came to admire her for not showing her feelings at all, having total control of herself, and acting silently considerate. She is constantly afraid that Jason still has feelings for her, although Jason claims he never did have romantic feelings for Reyna, even in his 'previous' life. Reyna was unpleasantly surprised, and additionally jealous of Piper when Jason introduced Piper as his girlfriend. Annabeth mentioned that Reyna was trying to hide her pain and anger inside when talking with her. Piper was also uneasy when Jason asked Piper to talk to Reyna and when he talked about his and Reyna's quest together. Jason seemed entirely oblivious to both.

During The Blood of Olympus, however, the two grow closer, as Reyna begins to address Piper, not Jason (having successfully moved on from her feelings for the son of Jupiter). The two, along with Annabeth and Hazel, become inseparable, as they help the camps get along after Gaea's defeat. The three other girls valued Piper's skills as a go-between to smooth over any conflicts. Shortly before leaving Camp Half-Blood, Reyna speaks to Piper, asking her about something the latter's mother, Aphrodite had once told her in Charleston, about no demigod ever being destined to "heal her heart", something that Reyna had never spoken about to anyone before. Piper cheers her up, saying that it need not be a demigod that heals Reyna's heart, hinting at the possibility of her future soul mate being a mortal or a god instead, and in the meantime, promises to always be there for Reyna as a friend. Reyna says that Piper has a way with words, even without Charmspeak, they shake hands, with Reyna claiming that she has a feeling that they'll meet again soon. Drew and Piper dislike each other from the get-go, because they both like Jason, Piper's current boyfriend. Drew flirted with Jason constantly during The Lost Hero, making Piper jealous. Piper also disliked Drew as head of the Aphrodite cabin, for being cruel and unkind to Piper and her cabinmates, and for supporting things that were unkind. Drew, on her part, is unimpressed and harshly critical of Piper's tomboyish style, and is horrified after Aphrodite claims the latter shortly thereafter. At the end of The Lost Hero, Piper challenges Drew to a fight to become head of the Aphrodite cabin. Out of fear, Drew steps down anyway. By The Blood of Olympus, however, Drew seems to not mind Piper's position of leadership, as she can spend more time gossiping and doing in-cabin makeovers as a result.
 * -|Drew Tanaka =

Friends
Leo Valdez= Piper and Leo have been friends for a long time, meeting at the Wilderness School shortly before The Lost Hero. Piper trusts him enough to tell him the truth about her father, Tristan McLean, who is a famous movie star. Leo knows enough about her to know that she doesn't like when people fight her battles for her. When he was given fake memories by the Mist about Jason Grace, he had feelings of become a third wheel to Jason and Piper, something that begins to happen again when Jason and Piper start getting close all over again. Despite Piper being very beautiful, Leo never flirts with her or asks her out, acting more like a brother who looks out for her. In The Mark of Athena, Piper gives him a sisterly kiss on the cheek after he returns safe and sound from Camp Fish-Blood, showing that she really does care for him, even if the two sometimes tease each other. She also isn't upset at Leo for shooting down on Camp Jupiter, and sticks up for him, since she claims that Leo for her is "like the annoying little brother [she] never had", promising to always stick up for him. In The House of Hades, when Leo returns from Calypso's island, Piper is one of the first ones to hug and kiss him, showing a very strong friendship between them. Leo was also the one of the first to praise Piper's unexpectedly beautiful singing in The Blood of Olympus.

After Leo's death in The Blood of Olympus, Piper is devastated, and several days later, she and Jason do their best to remember all of the cheerful memories associated with Leo and stay up all night on the roof of Cabin 1 in the process. Part of her is still hopeful that Leo has somehow survived, despite all odds.

Piper and Leo's back-story is a rare one, since they are the only two known demigods who meet and befriended each other before they even knew they were demigods. Piper states that when she initially met Percy Jackson, she was initially not overly impressed by him when compared to boyfriend Jason Grace, however she seems to have gained more appreciation for him over time. Their relationship is not shown in depth in The Mark of Athena, which simply implies that Piper sees kinship with all the members of the Prophecy of the Seven. Piper and Percy get along reasonably well, with Piper technically saving his life twice (as well as Jason's). The instances are charmspeaking Jason and Percy into not killing each other and Piper, Jason, and Percy combining their powers into Piper's Horn of Plenty to save them in tainted waters when Jason and Percy's powers where useless. She seems to think he is a bit reckless and rebellious but has no complaints having either Jason or Percy being the "leader" of the Prophecy of the Seven. Later she admits she feels guilty for letting Blackjack knock Percy on the head. She also seems worried when Percy almost drowns in the tainted water along with her and Jason. She is shown to trust him enough to use her Katroptris just because he asked her to despite her overall reluctance in ever using it. She once notices that he smells like the ocean. Percy is shown to trust Piper enough to use his life-force along with hers and Jason's on the Horn of Plenty despite his concerns of the water killing them faster.
 * -|Percy Jackson=

In The Blood of Olympus, Piper notes that Percy can be scary many times, even when he doesn't want to, and wonders what could he do If he actually wants to be intimidating. She later witnesses Percy and Annabeth kiss in Greece, and she approves of Percy, confirming that he is indeed a great boyfriend for her friend Annabeth. Piper and Annabeth get along very well. Piper also mentioned in The Lost Hero that Annabeth would make a cool friend in better times. It is also stated that Piper hoped that Athena would claim Piper, as then they could be in the same cabin. It is said in the The House of Hades that Hazel and Piper shared some tears about Annabeth. When Annabeth returns from Tartarus, Piper is the first one to tearfully hug her.
 * -|Annabeth Chase=

In The Blood of Olympus, Piper and Annabeth, manage to take down the Giant Mimas together. Afterwards, Annabeth took to looking to Piper for advice at times, since their experience with Mimas had taught them how to tackle problems together from two different sides, with Annabeth seeing the logical thing, the tactical move, while Piper has gut reactions that are anything but logical. As a result, both of them either solved the problem twice as fast, or they hopelessly confused each other. Piper and Annabeth, along with Reyna and Hazel become inseparable, as they help the camps get along after Gaea's defeat. The three other girls valued Piper's skills as a go-between to smooth over any conflicts. Piper and Hazel first meet in The Mark of Athena, and seemed to be on good terms. Hazel encouraged Piper to coerce the Eidolons to leave, and Piper comforted Hazel after Jason and Leo accidentally insulted her by questioning Nico's loyalties.
 * -|Hazel Levesque=

In The House of Hades, both are the only girls left on board the Argo II, which allows them to bond and become good friends. Hazel would constantly train Piper in swordsmanship (with great success), while Piper would attempt to help Hazel control the Mist by telling her about Charmspeak. They also enjoy laughing about the bad habits of the boys, and had a number of good private talks, while also sharing tears about Annabeth. Both of them also rush to hug Leo right after he returns from Ogygia.

Hazel is impressed at how skilled a swordsperson Piper has become by The Blood of Olympus. In The Blood of Olympus, Piper stated if it wasn't for her being a demigod she wouldn't have "met her two best friends Hazel and Annabeth Chase". At Leo's insistence, Hazel doesn't reveal his suicidal plan to Piper, and magically tricks the latter into believing that she has the actual Physician's Cure. After Leo's death, Hazel breaks down crying and reveals the truth to Piper, who initially looks furious, but her rage quickly dissipates by the time Hazel is done explaining, since Piper admits that staying mad at her was hard when Hazel was crying, and the plan sounded like the exact thing that Leo would have done. In the several days after that, Piper and Hazel, along with Annabeth and Reyna become inseparable, as they help the camps get along after Gaea's defeat. The three other girls valued Piper's skills as a go-between to smooth over any conflicts. The evening after Hazel leaves, Piper already misses her, claiming that the camp now feels somewhat empty without her and the other Romans.

As mentioned in Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes, Hazel and Piper have remained in contact during the year after Gaea and the Giants' defeat, with both of them attending monthly Argo II reunion parties. Piper and Frank first meet in The Mark of Athena, and though not much interaction between them was seen, they seem to be on good terms. During the battle with Gaea's forces in The House of Hades, Piper is very impressed at Frank's fighting under Mars' Blessing, and calls it "completely terrifying, but amazing."
 * -|Frank Zhang=

In The Blood of Olympus, Piper and Frank go to Pylos, in order to meet the latter's distant relatives. She admits to liking the fact that he has remained sweet and soft-spoken after his transformation, since he would have otherwise been a scary guy. She comforts Frank after the latter's relatives treat him coldly, claiming that they must be idiots, if they're unable to see how great of a person Frank is. Overall, Piper can't help liking him, since he was a kind and considerate boyfriend for Hazel,and was also the one to step up and take Jason's place as Praetor, taking a huge responsibility off of her boyfriend's shoulders, leaving him free to spend more time with Piper. At Leo's insistence, Frank doesn't reveal his suicidal plan to Piper. After Leo's death, Frank breaks down crying and reveals the truth to Piper, who initially looks furious, but her rage quickly dissipates by the time Frank is done explaining, since she admits that staying mad at him was hard when Frank was crying, and the plan sounded like exact thing that Leo would have done. The evening after Frank leaves, Piper already misses him, claiming that the camp now feels somewhat empty without him and the other Romans.

As mentioned in Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes, Frank and Piper have remained in contact during the year after Gaea and the Giants' defeat, with both of them attending monthly Argo II reunion parties. Nico and Piper first meet in The Mark of Athena, after he is rescued. Though no formal interaction is seen between them at that point, Nico is definitely thankful to Piper for personally dragging him to safety after he fell out of the Bronze Jar during Jason and Percy's battle with the Giant twins. Like her friends, Piper is very much intimidated by the gloomy son of Hades, though she seems to try to be friendly with him throughout The House of Hades, making sure that he's all right when Nico suddenly staggers inside of the Necromanteion. Though they aren't close, Piper goes out of her way to personally ask Zeus about Nico's well-being after the Giants' defeat in The Blood of Olympus, hoping that he, Reyna, and Hedge are alive and all right after the completion of their dangerous quest to Camp Half-Blood.
 * -|Nico di Angelo=

Nico, on his part, despite his brooding and gloomy exterior, did in fact greatly appreciate Piper's prominent role in saving him in Rome, and the fact that she and the others welcomed him aboard their ship. While Nico had never up to that point allowed himself the luxury of friends (due to his immense fear of somehow exposing his homosexuality), he feels like the crew of the Argo II was as close as he'd ever come, so even though he wasn't particularly close with any of them, the idea of any one of them (including Piper) dying (as his father Hades had predicted would imminently happen) made Nico feel empty — like he was back in the Giants' Bronze Jar, alone in the dark, subsisting only on sour pomegranate seeds.

Interestingly, several things that both Nico and Piper have in common are them both fluently speaking a Romance language (Italian and French respectively), both of them having a close relationship with Hazel, and both of them finally becoming close friends with Reyna near the end of the series, with the latter sharing secrets with them that she'd never told anyone about before.

Family
Tristan McLean = "Besides, if those girls found out the truth about her dad, they’d be all bowing down to her and screaming, ‘We’re not worthy!’"

- Leo about Piper's dad

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. The two share a moment during The Lost Hero, where he explained that while he does love her, he tried to keep her away from him so she wouldn't be drawn into his crazy celebrity life. From then on, Piper is more understanding of her dad and accepts that he may not have as much time for her as she would like. Her mother is Aphrodite, who is as known as the goddess of love and beauty. When Piper meet her mom in her dream, the two seemed to act on good terms with each other and she thinks her mother is beautiful. In The Mark of Athena she admits feeling a little hurt that her mother paid almost no attention to her when Hazel, Annabeth and Piper meet up with Aphrodite/Venus. Aphrodite also states that she's trying to make their love life "interesting," but in other words, it just means she's making it hard, as Piper thinks. In The House of Hades, Piper is able to defeat Khione when she remembers how great and powerful her really mother is, which motivates and enhances Piper's powers to the point that she uses the love of her heart to melt Khione's ice. Thomas McLean (A.K.A Grandpa Tom) = Piper also had a grandfather called Grandpa Tom. He was the one who named Piper. He named her that because she had a loud, strong voice. Lacy is a young girl in the Aphrodite cabin. She helps Piper by building up a collection of clothes for Piper before she leaves on her quest. She is exuberant when Piper takes Drew's place at the end of The Lost Hero. Another cabin-mate of Piper. He also helped Piper when she first arrived, and not in trouble with Drew after saying that Piper didn't seem so bad at all. Mitchell, like Lacy was exuberant when Piper took over the cabin from Drew at the end of the The Lost Hero.
 * -| Aphrodite =
 * -|Lacy =
 * -|Mitchell =

Etymology
Piper is an Old English name meaning "pipe player," a possible reference to her ability to charmspeak and the story of the pied piper. According to her Grandpa Tom, he named her that as she had high vocal voice when she was a baby, also saying that one day she was going to play the biggest tune of them all. Piper is also a synonym for a squab, particularly that of a dove or pigeon. Interestingly Piper's mother is called "Lady of Doves."

McLean is a Scottish or Irish surname that is a variant of the name "McLain", which is rooted in the Gaelic "Mac Gille Eáin" meaning "son of the servant of John".

Trivia

 * She got her name because her grandfather thought she would one day master all the Cherokee songs, including the snake song. Her father liked the idea and named her Piper.
 * Percy, Piper, and Annabeth are the only demigods of the Seven whose mortal parents are alive.
 * She sometimes calls Jason "Sparky."
 * Piper was the first Head Counselor to be promoted, who had other siblings, in less than five 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.
 * Her cornucopia is able to channel her emotions and depending on their power, spill out more or less food.
 * 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.
 * Piper's role in The Lost Hero is vaguely similar to Hazel's in The Son of Neptune, as they both have a crush on a member of the quest, as well as possessing a dark secret. However, Piper is much more open about her crush than Hazel.
 * 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.
 * Unlike the rest of Aphrodite’s (known) daughters, Piper is a tomboy.
 * It is thought that her charmspeak saved Jason's life when he saw Hera's divine form. The actual reason this worked, though, was that Thanatos (Death) was chained at the time. This was revealed in The Son of Neptune.
 * She is called the "Mediator", by her mother Aphrodite, for when the two sides of demigods, Greek and Roman, will meet, she will have to mediate them, since she has the ability of charmspeak.
 * She is the only one of the new main characters to have her mortal parent still alive.
 * She is also the only new main character with a mortal father.
 * Drew calls her the Dumpster Queen (for her lack of form and her simple clothes, the very things Jason likes about her) and Miss Movie Star (for when she says her father is Tristan McLean).
 * At one point, she was interested in being a Hunter of Artemis, but she lost all interest after learning she'd have to swear off boys.
 * Before receiving the blessing of Aphrodite, Piper had a pimple on the base of her nose that had been there for so long, she began to call it Bob. However, Bob disappears after her claiming.
 * In her official portrait, an image of Enceladus is reflected in her dagger.
 * Piper's first chapter in The Lost Hero is the first time in both series we don't hear from a child of the Big Three.
 * Also, Piper is the first girl to have a point of view in either series.
 * Piper is the only character whose face you can't see clearly in her official portrait, as she is shown from the back. You can see part of her face in her knife however.
 * In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods when he is reflecting on a story, Percy mentions that he now understands what made Piper a vegetarian.
 * In The Burning Maze, it is revealed that Piper has a cousin from Tahlequah who is a blowpipe champion.