LET BOWIE MAKE IT KNOWN THAT SHE DID NOT DO EXTRACTIONS. she was much more content to stay at camp halfblood all year round. with the whole ruthie situation, she was not going to be desperate to leave camp again anytime soon.
when she got back to camp with clarisse, they both immediately headed for the ares cabin so they could change into dry clothes. bowie hated to admit it, but she actually missed the horrendous fluorescent orange camp halfblood tops. and that was saying something, she hated the standard t - shirt for campers to wear, it was way too ugly.
afterwards, she headed outside to find ethan. and he wasn't hard to find, he was talking to someone that bowie recognised as a son of demeter who'd only been at camp for about a month or two ( if she remembered correctly, his name was viktor. he had made his own way to camp halfblood, without the help of his mortal or godly parent, or even a satyr ).
"ethan!" she called his name out.
he instantly recognised her voice and looked over at her, "bowie!" he said, "where have you been?" he asked as she reached him.
"got adopted, its all cool now though." she said, looking at the son of demeter, "hey, uh. . . it's viktor, right?"
viktor nodded and spoke with a slight russian accent, "yes, you are bowie, correct? it is very nice to meet you, ethan talks about you alot." he nudged ethan with his elbow and ethan's cheeks flushed red.
"well, I'm glad ethan made a new friend while I was away. I'd hate for him to be lonely." bowie said, "it's very nice to meet you viktor."
bowie and ethan's little duo became a trio when viktor tagged along with them. the boy was quite loud, she noticed and talked alot. he was a relatively new demigod so she couldn't blame him for being like an excited puppy. he seemed pretty powerful too. at one point, bowie made a comment about how she was hungry for an apple and viktor snapped his fingers and an apple popped out of the ground, just like that. it normally took alot of training for children of demeter to tap into abilities like that, but viktor did it with such ease.
the day passed by in a blur. bowie got back to training and spent a few hours with her brand new weapon, an axe which she liked the weight and feel of. it was good for throwing and chopping, so she decided it would do her well for a while, until she got bored and switched weapons again.
then it was dinner. she sat at the ares table, as always and ate along with her cabin mates, laughing and joking around. her and sherman yang got into an arm wrestle at one point, which she won. obviously. and clarisse kept the attention away from bowie enough so that no one noticed or questioned her avoidance of meat that night. and no one questioned the claw marks on her and clarisse, so dinner was pretty easy for both girls to get through.
when it got to the campfire, bowie sat between ethan and viktor. viktor was happily singing along to the music, yellow flowers sprouting at his feet. ethan and bowie were sitting so close their shoulders were brushed against eachother. a bit later on into the night, after viktor had fallen asleep on bowie's shoulder, her and ethan held hands. their fingers had found eqchother and slotted into the gaps between. she felt her cheeks flush and tried to force the feeling down, reminding herself about the fact she was going to have to be in love with apollo, not ethan.
overall, getting back to camp was nice. she supposed she would be able to call viktor a friend soon. and her and ethan held hands! that was the first time they'd ever done that, and it had masses of butterflies taking flight inside her stomach and heart.
she then decided she'd probably never end up going back to ruthie. this was her home, not an apartment in the city. she hoped ruthie wouldn't waste time searching for her ----- ruthie was never going to find bowie. the daughter of ares was sure of that.
though her plan of never leaving camp again was very quickly spoiled. and it had started like this:
whe was starting to get sleepy to the point where keeping her eyes open was a struggle and her blinks started to get really long. her head lolled to the side and ended up resting on ethan's shoulder. he didn't make an attempt to shake her off so she kept it there. she hoped ethan wouldn't fall asleep, because he'd have nowhere to put his head ----- viktor had his head on bowie, bowie had her head on ethan.
bowie then heard talking so cracked one eye open to see a satyr standing infront of them. he was looking down at her nervously.
"go away," ethan snarled at the satyr, "can't you see she's trying to sleep?"
"no, its fine. I'm awake now." bowie lifted her head up off ethans shoulder, "what's up. . . uh. . ." she snapped her fingers, hoping this satyr's name would come to her.
"alder ----- it's alder." he said.
"yeah, I knew that." bowie replied, not really fooling anyone, 'so, what do you need, alder?"
"he needs to go away and let you sleep." ethan grumbled, crossing his arms.
bowie patted his hand, "ethan, be nice. alder, what's wrong?" she asked politely because she was too tired to be mean to this poor satyr.
"uh, grover contacted me and ----- "
bowie blinked, "who?"
alder looked at bowie like she was stupid, "the satyr. you've seen him loads of times, how do you not know ----- you know what, forget it." alder shook his head, "grover contacted me saying him and chiron need backup with a demigod. chiron suggested you because you're a good fighter."
"well, chiron thought wrong." bowie crossed her arms, being mindful of the sleeping viktor beside her, "I burnt my hand and I can't fight anymore." it was a lame excuse, but it was the first thing that came to mind.
alder looked to her hand, "your hand is fine."
"no, it's burnt." bowie quickly reached out towards the campfire but was stopped by ethan pulled her back and forcing her to sit back down. "kill yourself." she said to him.
ethan rolled his eyes, "don't go and burn yourself. just go get this kid, it'll take barely any time."
bowie hesitated. she supposed she would be relatively okay. if she didn't gave another encounter like her and clarisse did earlier. though, she wouldn't complain if there was a bit of fighting involved ----- that always made things a little bit more interesting, after all.
"alright,' she decided, "I'll go rescue this dumb kid. when do I leave?"
now that she agreed, alder seemed much more happy, "tomorrow."
"I guess I can work with that." she said, not overly thrilled about leaving camp when she had just got back but she supposed she couldn't be picky.
alder nodded and turned to leave but bowie had just one more question she needed to ask -----
"by the way, what's the name of this kid?"
"percy jackson."
The rest of the time at the campfire flew by. Soon, Bowie was saying goodnight to Ethan, giving him a lingering hug and watching as he walked to the Hermes cabin.
The campfire ended shortly after alder left. Bowie woke up viktor, who stood up and almost fell over if it wasn't for ethan having quick reflexes and catching him by the back of his t - shirt. viktor slumped against bowie a bit, yawning and complaining about how tired he was. the three headed back to their separate cabins. ethan, being in cabin eleven, was the first to go ----- though not without a big hug from bowie.
then bowie walked all the way to her cabin. though, she didn't trust viktor to not fall asleep before he reached his so she walked to the demeter cabin, which was only next door to the ares cabin. she made sure viktor got inside before saying bye and heading back to her cabin.
she was way too tired to engage in any type of conversation with her siblings. so she quickly changed into her pajamas, got into bed and fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
though, she did wish she hadn't fallen asleep in the first place.
bowie was used to slightly weird dreams, it was a natural thing that came with being a demigod. but this was a weird dream, to say the least ----- it was of michael yew.
now, if she was being completely honest, the boy had kind of. . . well, slipped from her mind. they met when they were seven, hung out a few times and then they hadn't seen eachother since they were probably nine. and of all the things her dreams could show her ----- why show her the boy she made friends with years ago? it just didn't make sense.
here she was, standing in the deep end of a pool, water up to her shoulders and lapping gently at her skin. she could almost feel the warmth of the pool seeping into her bones.
michael was in the shallow end. he looked pretty similiar to what she remembered of him. he had grown taller, but not by much. he was probably about four foot three or four. his hair seemed to have darkened in colour as he grew up as it was a much darker blonde than what bowie remembered it being, and it was much curlier. his eyes were still that same cornflower blue that they had always been.
she saw a glint of silver from his wrist ----- his silver sun necklace. bowie looked down at her own wrist, she was wearing her one too. she was surprised he'd kept it on, even after all these years.
michael dipped down into the water. Bowie decided to follow his actions and went down aswell. she blinked, trying to get used to the feeling of being underwater. she had to remind herself not to breathe ----- she hadn't swum in a while. she moved through the water, trying to catch a glimpse of michael but it was like he had vanished into thin air.
she surfaced and looked around, her hair spread out in the water and darkened in colour. she couldn't see michael anymore. he wasn't under the water or above it and he wasn't at the side of the pool.
"michael?" she called out, standing up. her water started dripping down her back. she looked down to see she was wearing her orange camp halfblood t - shirt and the jeans that were always too tight and scratched at her skin. that was weird, she'd changed out of them before going to sleep, so why was she wearing them again? "michael?"
michael then appeared infront of her, "it's you again." he said, then spoke the name she went by a long time ago.
bowie winced, "uh, actually. its bowie now. so. . . how've you been?"
"this is the third time we've done this. . . bowie." he spoke her new name hesitantly, like it was a foreign language he'd just started to learn.
the girl frowned, "what do you mean?"
"you tell me to 'beware the empousa' and then you drop down into the water and disappear. I wake up and then the dream repeats the next night." michael spoke, his voice reverberating off the walls of the swimming pool. "what do you want now?"
"an empousa. . . ?" she tried to remember what an empousa was but she couldn't. "well, I can't remember what an empousa is, if I'm being completely honest. but, I suppose you should be wary of it." her gaze slipped down to his bracelet with the silver sun.
"I hate these dreams. the ones with the weird cryptic messages or when I see real people in them." michael said, his voice low. "I sometimes think there's something wrong with me ----- I'm defective."
bowie shook her head, "alot of people are. . . different, michael." she fiddled with her own bracelet. the pool water started to drain. Bowie took it as a sign their time was almost up. "goodbye, michael. its nice to see you again, if only for a few minutes." she looked around the pool again, "I wonder why we meet in a pool though."
michael's voice became more distant. "its the last place that we ever saw eachother."
and bowie woke up.
she looked around the Ares cabin, everyone else was asleep. through the black curtains she could see sunlight starting to creep in. she wondered why she had dreamt of michael, of all people. she hadn't seen him in years. but she wasn't complaining.
she got out of her bed quietly, feet tapping against the wooden floorboards as she opened one of the drawers under her bed. she pulled out some clothes and headed to the singular bathroom the entire cabin shared. she always wondered why they had one bathroom. the Ares kids were known for their fiery tempers, especially since none of them were morning people.
( it wasn't fun in the morning. having six kids fight over who got to use the bathroom first and arguing about people taking too long or using up all the hot water )
she got dressed into some clothes ( not her camp halfblood ones since she needed to blend in ). no one was awake by the time she got out of the bathroom. she preferred it that way.
she headed outside and found argus relatively easy.
"uh, hey, argus." she said and some of his eyes blinked at her. "can you take me to where chiron is, please?" she asked, because politeness could get you pretty far in life.
YANCY ACADEMY. Bowie looked up at the school that she was supposed to go to. it was an academy, which meant it was a private school probably full of stuck up brats who thought they were amazing because mummy and daddy had loads of money.
she supposed, if she wanted to fit in, she had to pretend to be rich like all these other kids. vomit. she didn't want to stand out too much, she'd end up attracting the attention of monsters.
she had gotten her dorm number and was in a dorm to herself. she preferred to be alone anyway so that was better for her. now she had to find Grover and this percy jackson kid. she hoped it wouldn't take too long to find either of them ----- she didn't want to be outside of camp halfblood for longer than necessary.
luckily she found Grover and percy quickly.
unluckily, she had to pretend to be grover's friend.
the school day had just started and she was walking through the halls of yancy academy, trying to find out where to go ----- apparently there was a school trip today. she then caught sight of two boys walked together ----- one had dark skin and dreadlocks, and the other looked to be Indian.
one of them, the Indian one, noticed her pretty quick. he started moving towards her at a fast pace ( well, as fast as he could on crutches ) and pulled her into a hug. bowie tensed up and almost shoved him to the ground.
"I'm going to gut you,." she said in a low tone to the boy, who she assumed was grover. "I don't do hugs with people I'm not close with."
grover swallowed, "no hugging ----- got it." he whispered back, before letting go of her. "percy!" he called out to the boy he'd been walking with, "this is bowie."
"hey, I'm bowie." she nodded, "friends with grover."
percy gave her a funny, confused look, "grovers never mentioned you before."
bowie raised an unimpressed eyebrow and shot grover a look, "really? how rude of him, I thought were were really good friends."
grover seemed a bit confused on how to reply to her, "sorry. . . ?" he said, though it came out more a question than apology.
"good, you should be." the red headed girl said.
percy got defensive of grover, "hey! don't speak to grover like that."
bowie looked at percy for a long moment, "sorry." she said, trying to sound as sincere as possible and probably failing ----- but to her, it was the effort that counted.
"well, uh, let's go get on the coach!" grover said.
the three headed to board the yellow school bus that was waiting outside.
they managed to get seats together. bowie didn't exactly want to go on some school trip to gods knew where in new york, but she supposed she had to put up with it. she caught sight of chiron ----- he was in a wheel chair, with thinning hair and a scruffy beard with a frayed tweed jacket.
in all honest, bowie was a bit. . . nervous to be on this school trip. now, while she hadn't actually attended school for a few years, the years that she had spent in school never went well. being a child of ares, she had a power which could let her manipulate people when they were really angry. now, she didn't do any of this intentionally but on a few school trips, fights had started near her for no reason.
one time it was Daniel and Susie arguing because Daniel was talking to bowie and Susie got jealous. Bowie got annoyed and told them both to "shut the hell up and stop being such dumbasses!" that actually got her expelled, though she was pretty sure it's because her headteacher had some hatred against her.
another time, she'd pushed into a teacher ( on purpose, but that detail wasn't important ). the teacher spilt coffee on herself, started screaming at bowie which got another teacher involved who went to defend bowie. bowie got annoyed and started insulting them both because she didn't actually like either teacher. the teachers then started fighting eachother and eyewitnesses ( AKA, Jeremy who hated bowie because she rejected him ) said she started the entire fight, on purpose.
so bowie had to try not to get anymore fights started on this trip, otherwise she'd be screwed. being expelled on the first day of joining this school would probably be the quickest she's been expelled from a school before.
There was a girl on the bus with them, who was called bobofit and she. . .well, she started to get on bowie's nerves. now, bowie knew she wasn't a nice person herself and could be a bitch to alot of people, but she wasn't bad enough that she was a massive bully.
this nancy bobofit was definitely a bully. she was so bad and annoying, it made bowie ashamed to have red hair.
Nancy kept hitting grover in the back of the head with chunks and wads of peanut butter and ketchup sandwich, which was getting stuck in his curly brown hair.
"I'm going to kill her." percy mumbled.
bowie nodded, "I'll cheer you on, give you extra motivation."
"it's okay, percy" grover said, "I like peanut butter." he dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.
percy began to get up, "thats it."
grover had to pull him back into his seat, "you're already on probation." grover reminded percy, "you know who'll get blamed if anything happens on this trip."
"Nancy will just, like, starve to death." bowie added, "if she loses all her lunch now, she'll have nothing to eat later."
percy seemed a bit more at ease with the addition of bowie's comment. she supposed percy wasn't too bad. from what she could tell, he was pretty loyal to his friends. she could appreciate him for that.
They soon got of the bus and chiron ( or Mr Brunner as he was being called ) led the museum tour.
He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding them through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black and orange pottery.
He gathered everyone around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling them how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about their age. he continued to talk by telling them about the carvings on the side.
most people were talking to eachother. percy kept telling people to shut up but the other teacher ( grover said her name was Mrs Dodds ) kept giving him the evil eye. Mrs Dodds immediately set bowie on edge ----- she looked. . . just, offputting. and she kept watching bowie like she was going to devour the daughter of ares.
Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and Percy turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"
it seemed to come out louder than he intended it to, because the whole group laughed and Chiron stopped telling his story.
"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"
Percy's entire face went red, "no, sir." he said.
Chiron pointed to one of the pictures on the stele, "perhaps you can tell us what this picture represents?" he asked.
"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" Percy said, seeming pretty sure with himself.
Chiron nodded, "yes,.and he did this because. . . ?"
"Well . . . Kronos was the king god, and ----- "
"God?" Chiron asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Titan," Percy corrected himself. "And . . . he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters ----- "
"ewww!" one of the girls complained.
bowie turned around, "shut up and let him finish talking." she snapped, "otherwise I'll punch you so hard you'll throw up."
Percy gave bowie a little appreciative nod, "and so there was this big fight between the gods and the titans, and the gods won."
There were some snickers from the group.
Behind them, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"
"And why, Mr. Jackson," Chiron said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"
"Busted," Grover muttered, feeling pleased at the fact Chiron heard Nancy.
"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.
"shut up, underwood." Nancy hissed at grover, her face turning redder than her hair. she then cast a glance at bowie, "your hair is ugly." she said, as it seemed that was the best insult she could come up with.
bowie looked at her blankly, "we have the same coloured hair, dumbass."
luckily, it was now time for lunch. everyone headed outside. Chiron held Percy back to talk to him and bowie and grover went on ahead.
"does he know that he's a demigod yet?" bowie asked grover as they found a spot to sit down in, right by a nice fountain. "do you have any idea who his parent could be?"
grover shook his head, "I'm not sure, but his scent is really strong. like. . ." he looked around cautiously before leaning in a bit closer and speaking quieter, "it's like he's a child of the big three."
bowie swallowed, "thats not possible though. I mean, the oath and. . ." she trailed off, thinking about how it was common knowledge at camp halfblood that zeus had broken the oath, "well. . . it is a possibility. but let's hope its not true."
Percy came outside and joined them.
"hey, if you were a child of a god, who would your parent be?" bowie asked, looking at all the other kids, "I reckon Nancy would be a kid of hermes ----- thievery and all that." she said as Nancy tried to pickpocket something from a lady's purse. "Nancy!" she called out, her lips twisting up into a grin, "what're you pickpocketing there?"
at the mention of pickpocketing, the lady turned around and gasped as she saw Nancy and quickly moved away. Nancy looked at bowie and scowled.
"detention?" grover asked percy.
"Nah," Percy said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean ----- I'm not a genius."
Instead of going to comfort percy, grover just asked, "can I have your apple?"
bowie snorted as she opened her lunch and took out a carton of apple juice. "so, why has Mrs dodds got something against you, percy?" she asked.
percy got out his sandwich, shrugging his shoulders. "dunno ----- she hates me and loves Nancy." just as he was about to unwrap his sandwich, Nancy appeared with her friends and dumped her half - eaten sandwich in grovers lap.
"speak of the devil and she shall appear." bowie muttered under her breath.
"Oops." She grinned at them with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.
Percy grit his teeth, his jaw clenching. and then suddenly, it was like the water reached out and grabbed her and pulled her into the fountain.
"percy pushed me!" Nancy screamed out, looking like she was going to start crying.
"did you see ----- "
"the water -----
"like it grabbed her ----- "
people were whispering and looking at percy in shock.
bowie swallowed anxiously, "oh, gods. don't tell me that means. . ." she trailed off and shared a concerned look with grover. "there's no way his dad is. . . that god." she whispered, feeling a sick feeling swirl around in her stomach, trying to claw its way up into her throat.
Mrs Dodds started fussing over Nancy: making sure she was alright, promising to buy her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, asking if she needed anything else, etc. Then she turned to percy, bowie and grover. she had this triumphant fire in her eyes. "now, honey ----- "
percy looked down at his trainers, "I know," he grumbled, "a whole month erasing textbooks."
Mrs dodds shook her head, "no. come with me." she said.
"wait!" grover yelped, quickly getting to his feet, "it was me. I pushed her."
bowie looked Mrs Dodds dead in the eye, "it was me. I pushed her in ----- guilty of pushing Nancy Bobofit into that fountain everyone!" she said, proudly.
Mrs Dodds stared both of them down, "I don't think so." she said, "honey," she looked back at percy, "come on."
Percy followed after her, looking absolutely miserable. he gave bowie and grover a little smile ----- he appreciated their efforts to get him out of trouble.
Grover immediately started fretting, "oh, gods!" he cried out, "percy's gonna be in so much trouble! I know that there's something off about Mrs Dodds. . . I thinks she's a monster. poor percy." he let out a bleat, though luckily no one overheard him.
"calm down, he'll be fine." she glanced at where Chiron had been a moment ago, to see he had vanished. "she can't be that bad of a monster, can she?"
SPOILER ALERT, MRS DODDS COULD BE A BAD MONSTER ----- A VERY BAD MONSTER. in other words, she was a kindly one. which, well, that wasn't exactly ideal. but it confirmed one thing for chiron, bowie and grover; percy was the child of a very powerful god. for a kindly one themself to come after him, yeah, that was very bad news.
one of the words that got thrown around sometimes at camp was gaslighter ----- as teenagers, they obviously used words that other normal teenagers used. a gaslighter is a person who uses psychological methods to manipulate someone into questioning their own sanity or powers of reasoning.
and everyone was majorly gaslighting percy right now. After he had killed Mrs Dodds, the mist had gone to make everyone believe that Mrs Dodds never existed ----- and instead they had a teacher called miss kerr. and everytime percy mentioned Mrs Dodds, grover and bowie looked at him like he was insane.
basically, grover and bowie had become professional gaslighters. because percy had started to believe he was slightly crazy and just was imagining Mrs Dodds existence. but that still didn't change the fact that he was probably going to be in alot of danger now.
percy ended up getting expelled from yancy and had to head back home. grover had quickly booked him and bowie tickets for the same bus as percy so they could keep an eye on him. bowie ended up listening to music for a bit of the bus ride until the bus broke down and everyone had to get out.
They were on a stretch of country road. On the side of the highway they were on, was nothing but maple trees and litter being thrown out of windows from passing cars. on the other side of the highway, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with the afternoon heat, was an old - fashioned fruit stand. the stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and
apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice.
there weren't any customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting.
All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.
bowie felt her blood run cold and her heart speed up ----- she knew exactly who these three old women were. and they were staring directly at them.
"grover?" percy said, "hey, man ----- "
"percy, tell me they aren't looking at you. they are, aren't they?" he asked, voice trembling. that completely confirmed what bowie thought.
these old ladies were the fates. and that string they were holding, that was the string of someone's life.
"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?" Percy joked.
"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all." Grover said.
The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. Grover's breath hitched. Bowie wanted to desperately look away, but she just couldn't. it was like her brain had forgotten how to turn her head.
she could barely breathe anymore, she dug her nails into her palms, feeling tears spring up into her eyes and she could feel them go down her cheeks and she could taste salt in her mouth. this was not happening. she felt herself draw blood from how deep her nails dug into her flesh. she could barely concentrate on anything happening.
please, no, was all she could think. please do not cut the string.
if they cut the string, she knew who it would be aimed for ----- her. she knew her chances of dying were higher than most demigods because of all the business with apollo but if the fates cut that string, she was pretty sure it would mean she would die ----- just like that, it would be completely set in stone.
she tried to shake herself out of the miserable thoughts but once she started, they wouldn't stop. she felt a hand on her shoulder and another one wrap around her wrist. she was with people, wasn't she? were they trying to calm her?
then it came, flashes of horrible imagery ----- of hyacinthus, who became a corpse in apollo's arms, daphne who had grown weary of running and bark and leaves began to fill her throat, of cassandra who didn't deserve anything that happened to her. then it was all bowie.
bowie dying in apollo's arms, her brain bleeding out of her skull.
bowie becoming a tree, choking on the feeling of sharp twigs in her throat.
bowie being punished for absolutely nothing.
bowie dying in a hundred different and horrendous ways ----- all more brutal and grotesque than the last. she had to do something, she couldn't continue thinking about this.
she had to ground herself somehow.
when her and clarisse had been heading back to camp in the pouring rain, bowie had gotten too into her head too. something. . . something had happened and bowie felt so small and helpless ----- so useless and frail.
sometimes, when she thought about something negative, it would become this horrific downwards spiral of all these unsightly, nauseating intrusive thoughts. and once they started, it took alot to get them to stop.
clarisse had helped her ground herself, by reminding her of a movie night in the ares cabin. bowie was about eleven when this happened, and clarisse would've been twelve.
it was a simple memory, of them and their other half siblings watching a film together ----- bowie's pretty sure it was a spiderman film. just that memory alone shook her out of her thoughts.
but it didn't seem it would work again. she tried remembering the taste of the popcorn, the smell of the deserts they snuck into the cabin. she tried to remember the film.
it wasn't working.
she was so deep into her thoughts, she wasn't sure what could stop them now.
"bowie! bowie!"
someone was calling for her, she could hear them. but who was it? the voice sounded so familiar.
"bowie!"
she was with people right now, wasn't she? the bus broke down, they were on the side of the highway. there was a fruit stall, and maple trees. it was a hot day in May. why was she here? that's right, she was there to bring a demigod to camp halfblood ----- his name was percy. and there was a satyr too, grover.
"bowie!"
she opened her eyes and she could see grover and percy staring at her worriedly. percy was the one who put his hand on her shoulder and grover was the one who had his hand curled around her wrist.
"sorry." she choked out, reaching up and wiping at her tears, "I, uh. . . I zoned out." her eyes flicked away and she stared down at her shoes. she didn't really want to meet their eyes right now.
percy hesitated before grabbing hold of her hand, "well, you're okay now, right?" he asked, gently.
bowie nodded ----- she didn't trust herself to speak that much at the moment.
they went back onto the bus, it had been fixed now.
"grover?" percy asked, "is. . . is there something you aren't telling me?"
grover hesitated, "percy. . . what did you see back at the fruit stand?" he asked.
"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like . . . Mrs. Dodds, are they?"
"Just tell me what you saw."
"The middle one. . . she took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn." percy said.
bowie tensed up a bit, squeezing percy's hand tightly. it hurt him, but he wasn't going to complain. he just squeezed back.
"you saw her snip the cord." grover said slowly.
"Yeah. So?" percy was really clueless as to what was happening.
"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."
"What last time?" percy asked, frowning.
"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth." Grover muttered. bowie patted his head and gave him a small smile to try and reassure him.
"Grover," Percy said slowly, his voice shaking a bit, "What are you talking about?" he looked at bowie, "is this why you went all panicky?" he frowned.
bowie bit down on her tongue so hard she felt that coppery taste of blood fill her mouth.
"percy, let me walk you home from the bus station ----- promise me." grover said, voice borderlining on desperation at this point.
"Is this like a superstition or something?" Percy asked, looking between grover and bowie.
neither of them replied.
"grover, bowie," percy said cautiously, "that. . . that snipping of the yarn. does it mean that somebody is. . . that someone's going to die?" he asked wearily.
bowie looked away and let out a weak little nod, and percy felt his throat tighten and squeeze ----- that was not good.
AUTHORS NOTE . . .
-----ik grover was on the verge of tears when bowie threatened him after that hug💀😭#justiceforgrover
-----poor bowie getting stressed abt seeing the fates :((
-----anyways!! next chapter will be from the perspective of percy