kind · compassionate · flight · southern · secret identity · farm · trauma · team leader · heroine · friendship
The first rays of sun wash the rolling fields of Lowland County in gold as Piper descends from her bedroom window, her feet alighting without a sound on the worn boards of the farmhouse addition. The space thrums with the soft rustle of waking bodies. Most of her friends are still shaking off sleep, but Conrad is a familiar silhouette, shoulders curved in concentration over his cluttered workbench. Piper's smile is slow and private, drinking in the deep quiet of a morning earned.