If you recognize it, it's not mine. Except Stella, she's all mine. Major Bella and Edward bashing!
Greek is bold italics; mental conversations with Gods is italics.
October
The Cullens had been gone a month. A month without my second family, and a month that Bella has been catatonic. Charlie had called Renee around the first to come take Bella back to Florida with her, but Bella had thrown a bratty temper tantrum of epic proportions.
She had flung her clothes around her room and screamed that she wouldn't go and that we couldn't make her. After they conceded, she had started eating again, going to school, and working, but she never noticed her surroundings. Charlie and I could be out of the house until midnight, and she never even commented, never even noticed. This was how Bella chose to react to this trial in the curse, so there was nothing I could do about it for Charlie. I had managed to convince him to allow himself to have fun, and he started going fishing again, much to my relief. I had also managed to talk him into dressing up for Halloween, and he ended up going as Superman, while I joked around by going as a Greek Goddess.
November
Bella had been in her zombie state for about a month now, and Charlie's concern was rising again. It had started getting too cold to fish, so he was home now on the weekends. I tried as best as I could to distract him, knowing that there was nothing he could do to snap Bella out of it, since he had already tried everything.
I took care of him the best I could while he worried about his daughter pretty much being a moving, breathing shell, but sometimes, I would still catch him looking at Bella with despair. It killed me to know that he was in so much pain over her state, and it made me hate her that much more for not even bothering to look beyond her own depression to see what she was doing to Charlie. I had made a fantastic Thanksgiving meal to try to cheer him up, and even invited the Blacks to join us, something that had helped a little.
He acted like his old self again as he and Billy watched the football game, while I cooked and tried to keep Jacob from eating everything before dinner. Bella had even managed to join us, though she kept silent, and had her eyes fixed on her plate the entire meal. Charlie had even gotten desperate enough to ask me if the Cullens had asked about Bella, but I informed him that we never really talked about her. I had hated to see his disappointment at that.
December
It had been an interesting month. The start of it had been nothing unusual: Bella being a lifeless zombie, as was her new norm. Charlie had worried about her, noticing that she had lost weight now that she only ate enough not to die of starvation. I had continued to take care of Charlie, and resent Bella more each day for what she was putting him though, and tried to make more food at each meal so he could try to get her to eat more than the bare minimum, only to fail.
I had managed to convince him to decorate for Christmas, to put some cheer into the house since Black Hole Bella sucked up every bit of happiness. We had gone out that day after my winning argument and got a tree, before decorating every inch of the downstairs. Sadly, he got upset again when Bella didn't even take notice of the work we had put into giving the house some festive cheer.
Then, just after the start of winter break, I had gotten a demigod dream about Grover needing help somewhere. Chiron had called the next morning to tell me that Grover needed backup, having found two powerful demigods in Maine. After explaining to Charlie that it was an emergency situation, and I would not leave him hanging for Christmas, I had gone to help. When I got there, I found that I had arrived just barely too late. Annabeth had been kidnapped by the manticore, just after momma Artemis and her hunt got there. I had gone back to Camp with a saddened Percy, Thalia, and Grover, along with the hunters and the new demigod Nico, in the sun chariot with daddy Apollo. I had tried to kill him upon arrival to Camp for letting Thalia drive though.
A few days later, and after a game of Capture the Flag with the campers versing the hunters, a quest was issued to rescue momma Artemis, who had been kidnapped as well. The Lieutenant of the hunt, Zoe Nightshade had asked me to go with the quest, since she was one of my mothers. The quest had gone horribly, as we were attacked in the Smithsonian by a Titan called 'The General', we had gotten a ride west from daddy Apollo, only to lose Bianca, Nico's sister and newest member of the hunt in daddy Hephaestus' junkyard. Then, upon arriving in the Garden of the Hesperides, Zoe had been injured by Laden, the dragon guarding the tree of golden apples. Percy had taken the weight of Atlas' burden of holding up the sky from momma Artemis, who had taken it from Annabeth so she could fight.
Atlas, also known as The General, had struck Zoe before ending up back under the sky, and we had left the garden after a quick confrontation with Luke, thanks to Annabeth's father. When we had gotten back to the main land of San Francisco, it had been discovered that Atlas' blow to Zoe had been the killing blow, and she had died in momma Artemis' arms. She had been honored for her millennia of service to the hunt by being placed in the stars as a constellation, and we had gone back to Olympus for the winter solstice meeting.
Thalia had ended up joining the hunt to take Zoe's place as Lieutenant, leaving Percy to be the child of the prophecy. Before we left, I had been informed that my grandmother, Rhea would be on Olympus for Christmas, and I was welcome to celebrate with them. I had told them that I would only accept if Charlie could be invited as well. They had agreed, much to my shock, and Charlie would be allowed, and even welcomed on Olympus for Christmas. I had returned to Forks the next day, and had told Charlie of the invitation to join my family on Olympus three days later.
He seemed to know how big an honor it was for an average mortal to be invited to the home of the Gods, so he accepted, saddened by the knowledge that Bella probably wouldn't even notice the date, much less his absence. So, three days later on Christmas morning, we loaded up in my Mustang, me with a sack of gifts that I had gotten for my family, and Charlie nervous as hell about spending the holiday with a bunch of gods and goddesses. I was nervous as well, since it would be my first time meeting my grandmother, but I was also excited. Thankfully, the day had gone well, with my grandmother fawning over me, and Charlie got along great with my parents even without my help. I was glad to see that they all loved their gifts, including Rhea, or grandmother as she insisted I call her, though hers was kind of generic.
I had gotten her a little aluminum sign that said: 'You can't scare me, I have grandkids'. I had been relieved to see that she had a sense of humor since she started laughing after reading the sign. By the time Charlie and I had left, her contact information had gone into my new phone, since daddy Hermes decided to upgrade the magic phone that I had. I had also informed her about the Cullen house in Forks, and how they allowed me to use it as a meeting place, and she had eagerly said that she couldn't wait to see me more. When we got back home, Bella hadn't even left her room, much to Charlie's dismay.
January
New Years was interesting. Charlie had been dumb enough to ask daddy Hephaestus to do the fireworks for the start of the year. Needless to say, our show was awesome enough to make a professional cry, and Charlie was already planning for my birthday, hoping I would return to Forks for the big day. I did plan to celebrate in Forks of course, but I planned on doing so after I reclaimed my birthright.
The rest of the month managed to pass in relative peace, if you excluded Bella's nightmares. Her waking in the middle of the night screaming had started sometime back in October, but she never talked about her dreams. Poor Charlie looked like hell after a few months of dealing with all of Bella's problems, and I was positive I couldn't really hate her any more than I did for everything she had done to Charlie, and even Renee, who was also worried about her. Only conversations with the Cullens could manage to keep me calm, and prevent me from ranting about Bella's self-centered attitude.
It disgusted me that she was so wrapped up in her own little pity party that she couldn't see what she was doing to those around her. Finally, one day at breakfast, Charlie broke though. Bella had been playing with her cereal, something my inner momma Demeter had detested, when Charlie's fist came down on the table. "That's it, Bella! I'm sending you home." He said, finally having enough. "I am home." Her dead voice responded, and I rolled my eyes, putting my bowl in the sink. "I'm off, I don't want to deal with this bullshit. Remember, I'm spending the night with Angela tonight so we can study for our French test." I told Charlie, who nodded.
I made my way to the door and grabbed my backpack and overnight bag, since I'd be going straight to Angela's after school, and headed out. When I got to school, I parked in my usual space, before heading over to where Angela was waiting for me. "Hey, Angel Cakes!" I greeted. She smiled at me, giving me a gentle hug in greeting as I reached her. "Hey, Stella. How is your morning going?" She asked. "Eh, it's alright. Charlie finally snapped, so the self-centered brat will either be pacing her stuff, or snapping out of it by tomorrow. Personally, I hope for the former, since I can't stand seeing Charlie like this." I told her as I walked in the direction of trig, not wanting to be late for class. "See you at lunch, yeah?" I asked, gaining a nod of agreement before I walked into class.
The day seemed to speed by, and I soon found myself sitting at the usual table for lunch. I was soon joined by Angela, Mike, Eric, Jessica, and Angela's boyfriend, Ben. Angela and I had been discussing plans for our sleepover/study session tonight when Jessica sat down and interrupted our conversation. "You will never believe what happened in trig." She stated, causing me and Angela to share a look.
Angela looked to Jessica with mild interest, while I gave her a bored look. "Varner finally decided to stop trying to tell us that we would use trig in daily life?" I suggested. Angela giggled, while the boys laughed and Jessica glared at me mildly. "No, if he didn't say that in your class with him, I doubt I'd get that lucky. Anyway, Bella actually asked me to have a girl's night with her in Port Angeles tonight. We're apparently going to see 'Dead End'." She stated. At hearing her news, my head hit the table. "For crying out loud, she's only doing this to get Charlie off her back. I had hoped she'd go with the option of moving to Florida." I moaned. "What do you mean?" Jessica's voice asked, tinged with confusion.
I raised my head slowly to look at her, before sighing. "Charlie finally snapped this morning and told her that he wanted to send her to Renee since he doesn't know how to deal with her anymore. I left before her pointless argument could start, but apparently, she promised to go out." I told her. Jessica looked irritated now. "So, she's just using me, or something?" She asked. I didn't care if she meant it rhetorically, I nodded anyway. "I may despise her now for what she's put Charlie through, but I do know that you're the first person that pops into her selfish little mind when she wants to avoid Charlie. She probably told him she'd go out with you tonight, and then thought about ditching before realizing that Charlie would eventually run into your mom, pushing her to follow through with it. Let me guess, she asked about a movie that's been out of the theater for months?" I asked.
They all stared at me as Jessica nodded. I snorted in response, rolling my eyes and shoving a bite of my salad into my mouth. Finishing the bite, I spoke again, this time showing my irritation. "Yeah, go figure. The self-centered bitch is only doing it so that Charlie will hear that she actually went out with you. You said you were going to see 'Dead End', right?" I asked. When Jessica nodded again, I just knew a gleam entered my eyes. "I saw that with Charlie last weekend. I bet you twenty bucks that she's going to run out of the theater the second she sees the couple in the beginning." I told her.
She stared at me for a few minutes before nodding slowly. "Alright, I'll take that bet. But tell me, did the movie scare you, because my dad said it was terrifying." She said, and I laughed. "Jess, I don't scare easy, and neither does Charlie. The movie was fine to us, but I guess to someone who scares easily, it would be pretty terrifying. Bella probably won't react though, unless she snaps out of it long enough to realize what she resembles now." I said. "so what should I do about this then?" She asked, and I was surprised that she did. Jessica wasn't the one to ask for advice unless it was on clothes. "Just act normal, don't let her know that you're aware she's only doing this to shut Charlie up. I'll be over at Angela's tonight studying for the French test, so you can reach me there to let me know if you owe me twenty bucks or not." I told her.
Alright, here's the new chapter! Sorry that I didn't get it up a few days ago, I had planned on doing that, but I just got too busy. My grandma had appointments, I had to do my Christmas shopping, my grandma had another appointment, a friend passed away, we had to run errands today, and now I'm finally updating after one in the morning here in Utah. Hope you liked the chapter, I'll probably post the next one in a little bit. Love ya, read and review.
