Silver Arrows - A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

5 - Aaron Goes Nuclear

Confusion had swept over their faces.
'Doing what?' Daisy stared at me with her bright blue eyes, seething like I'd insulted her.
'You know... hang out with me, give me presents, teach me how to shoot. I mean, none of you really want to, do you?'

Kayla swallowed. 'Well... when you came to camp, we had a little meeting and figured that, since the Muses have always helped Apollo, it would be nice if we were on good terms.'
So it was out of a sense of duty. That made sense.
'But we do like you now!' burst out Will. 'Your songs are pretty good, and you shot Drew during capture-the-flag and helped us win!'
'Wait, hold on...'
'Don't feel bad, she had it coming.'
'How did you know I write songs?'

I had suspected for a while that someone was moving my music around.
Melody sighed. 'It was Hermes cabin, I swear! They wanted to see if you had any good loot, but then they found that it was all just music notation. One of them gave it to us to see if we could play it, and we kind of read it... and kept it...'
I rolled my eyes and put on the sunglasses. 'Thanks anyway.'

Most of them had walked away, satisfied, but a few hung around.
'Did we make you feel bad?' Kayla looked sheepish.
'No, not really. Can we just... not bring this up again?'
'Fine, fine.'
'I could tell you didn't want to coach me on archery. You thought I was completely and utterly terrible.'
'Was it that obvious?'
'As obvious as the fact that Daisy doesn't like me.'

The sentence came out my mouth before I could stop it. At home, Daisy was like a joke - for example, my parents called people a "Daisy" if they were trying (and failing) to hide the fact that they hated someone. But I'd grown used to that kind of thing, so I didn't stop to think that Daisy was right behind me.
'What?'
An awkward silence. Kayla stared at me, eyes wide.
'Um, it's okay, we don't... Don't worry about...'
Daisy glared at me and stormed off, blonde hair flicking from side to side. No one said anything. No one even moved for at least thirty seconds.

The next day was capture-the-flag. Unfortunately, I was on the blue team with Nike and Ares cabins, meaning that strategising largely consisted of everyone telling one another to go in defence.
'We're a lot faster than you! You need speed to attack!'
'Pfft. I could outrun you any day.'
As usual, I was suggesting ideas to no one in particular, because no one would listen.
'Well, we could just put the stealthiest people in attack and get them to take the flag. Then the people who draw attention to themselves would be in defence, and that might be good for intimidation..?'

A son of Nike with wavy blonde hair had turned to me. 'That's good. Alia, listen to her.'
But EVERYONE stared at me, except for two Hermes kids who were fighting one another.
'Okay, who's good at direct attacks?'
All the Nike and Ares hands went up.
'Um, who's good at stealth attacks?'
The same hands went up, along with the Hermes kids.

I rolled my eyes. 'EVERYONE, please choose ONE. Stealth left, direct right.'
'Wait, your left or...?
'MY LEFT.'
I folded my arms, and they all shuffled into position. I pointed to the left group.
'You guys are in attack. Athena's cabin is great at defence, so be as quiet as possible. Don't let them even know you're there. Don't try and fight them unless you're sure they've seen you.'
The defence side grudgingly took their places equidistant from the flag, which was wedged between two low-hanging branches. I followed the attacking party towards the river, which was the boundary between each team's territory. We split up and hid, which was a good move, since the Apollo kids came charging past not long after. I walked deeper into the forest, sliding on my sunglasses - they helped to see in the shadowy forest. Then I heard a sneeze.

In books, when someone sneezes, it's written as "achoo!" In real life, it's usually more of a snort. This, however, was definitely an "achoo."
I whirled around and pointed my sword at Daisy. She already had an arrow nocked in her bow, but she immediately fired it upwards, into the sky. She drew her axe and lunged at me, and I blocked. I was worried - I knew that Daisy was a lot stronger than me, and just as fast.

Daisy had been brutal. I was trying as hard as I could to block all of her strikes, but eventually she disarmed me and pinned me against the base of a tree that was split down the middle. Neither of us moved for around thirty seconds, but eventually I choked out a sentence.
'What the heck is wrong?'
'You. You were badmouthing me to the whole cabin! They all think that I hate you.'
'I didn't... I wasn't... I just thought it was odd that you weren't trying to help me. But that's okay, because...'
'Because you're right. None of us like you. I'm just the only person who's going to get the chance to admit it.'
My jaw dropped. 'N-no killing. That's against the rules...'

She smirked. 'I'm not going to kill you, idiot. But you have to leave. Don't come back next summer. In the meantime, I'm not letting you do anything. You're staying here for the whole game. I signaled my boyfriend Aaron with my arrow, and he'll take over from me while I help Red Team get the flag.'
Aaron. The Aphrodite boy with huge arms - he was definitely stronger than me. This wasn't fair. I kicked Daisy, and while she was still stunned, shoved her off and grabbed my sword. I aimed my first blow at her head, but she blocked it. I didn't give her a chance to strike back. I was too angry, too hyped on adrenaline. Daisy managed to block every strike, but she tripped over a log and dropped her axe. I narrowed my eyes and pointed the end of my sword at her.
'You're not getting the flag.'

'HEY!'
At the worst possible time, Aaron showed up. And he looked furious.
'Help...' croaked Daisy. All too late, I realised the problem - that now Daisy looked like the victim, and Aaron would never believe me if I said otherwise. She'd manipulated him.
Aaron charged at me, and I waited too long to dodge. He hit me with his shield and knocked me over, then cut my arm with his knife. In the corner of my eye, I could see Daisy fleeing. I silently cursed her, but then Aaron tried to stab me again. I rolled out the way and tried to get up, but he just shoved me over again. I prepared myself for the next blow, but it didn't come. He put his foot on my back, pinning me down, and started to yell at me.

'What were you DOING? You were going to kill her, weren't you?'
'N-no...'
'But you were hurting her! You were being cruel.'
'She... um, said something really horrible.'
'So you attacked her?'
'She attacked me first!'

I felt like a young child, trying to explain myself to countless teachers and parents who didn't know how cruel Kyle was.
Then someone yelled 'STOP!'