Most people didn't know this, but Dew Tanaka was pretty good at archery.
The only people at camp who were even aware of this fact were her cabin mates. They never said anything because they knew she'd just attribute this to her perfection and look down on them because they weren't as good as she was (she couldn't fault them for being right).
The way she saw it, the bow was the perfect weapon for her: long range so she was away from any combat that would mess up her clothes and hair, and deadly. It was the one camp activity that she actually enjoyed, secretly, of course. She had an image to keep up.
But archery was a double edge sword for her because whenever she picked up get her bow, she couldn't help think about the boy she lost so long ago, the only boy she ever loved. Lee Fletcher, the son of Apollo.
Every time she thought of him, her heart ached. She remembered the was his eyes sparkled and how his hair glowed in the sun; the way he laughed and made her laugh; all the time he would spend teaching her archery; his bravery; his kindness.
Drew remembered the day Lee died all too well. She remembered the chaos that surrounded her, the constant fighting she had to do to stay alive. She remembered the blow Lee took the head, the funeral after…
Sometimes at archery practice, she imagined that the bull's eye was everything that ever wronged her. Everything and everyone she hated. With her arrows, she cut down every one of her problems.
Lee. Her poor, sweet Lee. His untimely death at the hands of a giant.
Thwack!
Luke Castellan, the treacherous son of Hermes. The Battle of the Labyrinth, the second Titan War. The death of people she cared about, the people she loved. Everything was his fault.
Thwack!
Lee. Silena. Beckendorf. Their deaths were his fault.
Thwack!
Silena… Whenever Drew thought about Silena, she couldn't help but remember her betrayal. Silena was a spy for the Titan Army. Drew and she were best friends, but Silena had the nerve to look her in the eye after what happened to Lee when she was partially to blame.
Thwack!
Drew thought of the gods, who were the main cause to all of this misery. She thought of Aphrodite, the mother she barely knew, which reminded her of her father who didn't care much and a step mother who absolutely hated her.
Thwack!
Without meaning to, she thought about Piper McLean, Drew's half-sister who took over her cabin and turned their siblings against her. Sure, Drew was hard on them (Some would say an outright tyrant, but wasn't listening to those people), but she was trying to protect them.
Thwack!
Protecting them from going on stupid quest for ungrateful gods and getting themselves killed, like Silena and Beckendorf.
Thwack!
Protecting them from getting their hearts crushed, like she had when she lost Lee.
THWACK!
The target board flew backwards and got pinned to the wall. Drew was immediately shaken out of her thoughts.
Like most things, time got away from Drew (thank you, ADHD). She never noticed that each arrow she shot hit the previous one, splitting it down the center perfectly.
Drew reconstructed her mask of superiority and locked eyes with everyone in the room (who were all gawking, save for Piper, who just rolled her eyes) so that they could see. She couldn't help but feel a sense of self-satisfaction that fueled her (completely justifiable) vanity. Some would call that a negative trait; that vanity was her fatal flaw. But she didn't believe any of that.
She was, after all, pretty good at archery.
A.N.
WOW, this fic is all over the place…
This is something that I wrote up for the Percy Jackson 100 theme challenge, inspired by multiple head-cannons for Drew and my own ideas. Drew is vain so she doesn't have to deal with her insecurity.
I'm not too crazy about this, but I don't hate it. I've written worse fanfics. Muuuuuuuch worse. Laughably worse.
