Chapter 10: Spooky Season
This one is not as long as de last one, since it's just the day after their date and them buying Halloween costumes. Probably like 4k words max.
Chapter 10: Spooky Season
When Percy dropped Artemis off that night she had felt giddy. The spirit of a typical American schoolgirl overtook her as her mind raced. The 'boy of her dreams' sped away in his blue pickup and she was left standing in the driveway with the memories of her first date.
They had not gotten very far, just making out. Artemis did not want to take it any further and thankfully Percy had not tried - a half hour makeout session was enough for him. After a while more staring at the stars Percy decided to get her back home before midnight, unsure if her dad would be strict on that.
The drive home was upbeat. Percy had a permanent grin attached to his face while Artemis smiled - which was the closest she usually got to a grin. "I fought the law and the… law won. I fought the law and the… law won!" Percy sang along with the Bobby Fuller Four, making his date appreciate just how good of a singing voice he had.
When she walked back in the house she luckily found the door was unlocked waiting for her. It wasn't like they really needed to lock their doors out here anyway. They were a good few miles outta town and they still had neighbors, so there were better opportunities for robbers out there.
Still, if she was home alone, Artemis was damn sure to lock that door. Phoebe and Zoe had shown her enough horror movies to put that fear into her. She didn't particularly fancy a home invasion and murder.
Horror movies. That was a great date idea for her and Percy. Them just staying up all night watching slasher flicks cuddled up in blankets with popcorn and chips. That sounded fun.
Holy hell. Not even three steps in the door and she was already planning their next date. What's next? She starts putting on makeup and wearing skanky clothing?
When she stepped into the living room she froze and inwardly groaned as she saw her mother was still up watching tv. The woman turned the volume down and looked at her. "So how was it?" She asked.
A hundred yards away another guy was dealing with the same problem. He parked the truck and got out, trying not to make too much noise as he saw all the lights in the house were off. Not wanting to wake his family he snuck to the front door and used his key to open it and creep inside.
He didn't take the chance of turning on any lights, rather he made a beeline for the toilet. The bathroom trip was absolutely wonderful, and after deciding to let it mellow he snuck back across to his room.
The room was pitch black - no shit - and so once the door was shut he turned on his light and finally had a moment to breathe. Now that he had touched down at home base Percy took his sweet time getting ready for bed. He replaced his jeans with a pair of boxers but kept his shirt - it would go in the wash and he would have a shower in the morning either way so what was the point?
With his redressing done he yawned loudly and turned the light off, not before getting a glimpse of where his bed was so he didn't miss it. The teen climbed into bed and took a minute or two to settle in, shuffling around and moving the blankets up to his chin and whatnot.
Just when he thought he was snug as a bug in a rug and ready to doze off he heard a slight creaking as his door opened. The noise made him snap around to get a look, and the door creaked again before he heard the sound of it clicking into place as it was shut.
There was another small click noise and the entire room lit up as the lights were turned on once more, and Percy had to rub his eyes before they adjusted well enough to see his twin sister Aphrodite standing there excitedly.
"You're back! How was it? Tell me everything!" She urged, rushing over to his bed in her pajamas. Percy laughed and fended her off. "Woah there! Back it up!" He laughed while Aph pouted in front of him, just wanting to hear the juicy details.
Aph stomped as quietly as she could. "C'mon! You can't leave me hanging all night. Tell me!" She whispered, walking back over. Percy lay back down on his pillow and sighed. "Do I have to?"
Aph vehemently nodded and jumped up onto the bed, and Percy was reluctantly forced to pull open the blanket for her and move aside. His twin settled in and looked at him expectantly as he lay on his back.
"So what'd you do?" She began, which was a pretty easy question for her brother. "Well I picked her up, took her to the diner, then we saw a movie and did some stargazing." He summed up.
Aph scoffed. "Stargazing, suuuure." She rolled her eyes as Percy turned his head to her. She gave him a knowing smirk while he kept the deadpan look of ignorance. As they stared at each other for nearly thirty seconds that straight face cracked into a smile, then it broke into a grin.
"Okay, maybe we did a lil' making out too but I swear that's all-" He was cut off by his twin sister trying to squeal while maintaining the lowest volume possible, resulting in an inaudible crow that cracked and for just a split second shattered his eardrums.
"You made out?! Y'know that's her first kiss right? She told me the other day!" She excitedly informed him, to which Percy laughed and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I know. She didn't wanna go any further than that though, and I was cool wit' that."
Aph nodded and then stood up. She rushed over to the lightswitch and flicked it for before bouncing back to the bed in the dark and hopping in.
Faintly in the darkness Percy could see her get comfy in bed before turning to him. "Tell me everything."
Piper clearly couldn't keep her mouth shut, since by the time they got to school the next day it seemed like everybody knew about their date. Then again, Orion could also have had a hand in rumor-mongering.
Nonetheless, when Artemis walked through the halls before classes she was subject to many stares and becoming the topic of hushed discussions. Her thought process was to say loudly 'what the fuck are you all staring at?', but instinct triumphed over pride in this scenario and she put her head down and marched to her locker.
Apollo trailed not far behind her since they had nearby lockers, and he walked closer to talk quietly to her. "I think they know you went on a date with Percy." He whispered. Okay, whispered was an exaggeration.
Almost immediately a couple girls a few doors down overheard and a conversation started up between them, prompting Artemis to glare at her twin. The boy gave a lopsided grin and shrugged. "Sorry. I'll be quieter next time." He promised, and all Artemis could think was we'll see about that.
Artemis and Percy shared a class first anyway - biology - along with Hela and Aph. Apollo took chemistry, so it sucked to be him, but that was his mistake. Speaking of chemistry, Artemis and Percy were quick to pair up this time for the practical, and Hela and Aph were perfectly happy to go with each other.
They were dissecting some animal, and Percy was holding it open for her while she grabbed the things they needed. As she combed through the animal's organs and entrails, her new boyfriend looked up at her. "I don't think Piper was able to keep a secret." He joked, referencing how everyone in the school seemed to know.
Artemis shrugged. "Did we really expect her to? She doesn't seem like the type to be able to do that."
Percy nodded his head to the side as he leaned on the bench for support, since standing in one place holding a dead animal's stomach open was such hard work. "Fair enough."
Still unsure about how this relationship stuff worked, she paused her scavenging for a moment. "So… does that mean we're dating now? Or do we have to go on more dates?" She asked for clarification.
Percy rolled his eyes as he tried to find a way to rest his elbows and still keep the animal in place. "You sound mighty excited." He said sarcastically, making Artemis blush heavily.
"No~ I mean, yeah, I am but… I don't know how this stuff works. Isn't it called a one night stand if it's just… one night?" She asked like a confused child.
Percy had to stifle his laughter at that. "Don't go calling us that to other people. For it to be a one night stand I think it kinda implies we had, y'know, S-E-X." He whispered the last part after dramatically looking around and leaning in.
Artemis' cheeks were on fire as she tried to hide it by pretending to focus on the practical. They were in relative science for a moment as they wrote observations down in their books. When she had finished she put her pen down and looked up at Percy. "So are we dating, then?"
Percy shrugged. "I'm down, but it's up to you." He let her make the decision while he pried open the animal to get the next batch of stuff they needed.
Artemis smiled at him and began fishing through again. "Cool."
When school finished that day Artemis, Hela and Aph were quick to find and regroup with Percy and Apollo. They found them at Apollo's locker getting his stuff, which was conveniently right next to Artemis'.
"Hey guys, so what now?" Apollo asked, zipping up his bag while Artemis opened her locker up to get her things.
Aph checked her watch impatiently. "I promised mom I'd take Casey costume-shopping today, which means Percy will have to come since he's the one with the truck. Y'all wanna tag along?" She invited, balancing on her toes.
"Got nothin' better to do." Artemis said as she closed her locker. Aphrodite just gave her that sweet look a parent gives a child when they're being shown the picture they drew at school today.
"Ooh, nice try Arty. Perce told me last night how you agreed to get money from your dad for a costume. I know you've got at least twenty bucks in that bag." She said knowingly.
Apollo raised an eyebrow at his twin sister but ultimately went with it. A costume would be nice anyway, especially if he wasn't paying for it.
Percy checked the time again and nudged Aph. "You guys go pick her up while Aph and I get our stuff. Meet y'all at the truck." He gestured his thumb down the hall, while Hela and the twins agreed. The other set of twins rushed off to their twin lockers which were right next to each other's just as Artemis and Apollo's were.
It pissed Artemis off how people thought he was older just because he was taller, bigger and his name came before hers in attendance.
Since Hela knew where Casey normally waited, she led the twins out of the school. The street was very busy at this time of day, being that it housed two schools, aka the entire population of children of Elis Springs, and as school was out all were rushing to get home as fast as possible and away from the nightmare.
Artemis jogged a bit to catch up with Apollo and Hela as she'd fallen behind making sure her phone and wallet were secure in her pockets. "How does she get home usually? We didn't take her the past couple days." She pointed out to Hela, who was checking both ways for an opportunity to cross.
They found it and jogged over to the elementary side of the street. "Sally or Poseidon will pick her up normally, but if they can't they'll text us all to get her. She sits over on the fence waiting either way." She said, pointing over to the side where a stone fence stood surrounding the school property. On one of the pillars about four feet high sat a little girl, virtually a toddler.
Casey had just finished a long and hard day at kindergarten and was waiting for her sissies and buvvy to pick her up like mommy said they'd do. She sat on the fence and swung her legs absentmindedly, gripping her backpack tight and she looked every which way for them.
"Hey, Missy." Hela greeted from beside her, walking up with both hands on the straps of her bag. She saw her new neighbors Artemis and Apollo walking behind her and briefly wondered where Percy and Aphy were.
Casey smiled at her older sister, lifting her arms a bit so Hela could grab a hold of her and get her down. "Hi." She greeted, wrapping her arms around Hela's legs. The toddler turned to Apollo and Artemis and waved, leaving the twins to smile and wave back.
She grabbed onto the hand Hela held out, looking around for Percy and Aph. "Where's Percy and Aphy?" She asked, seeming perplexed. Hela squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"They gone to get the truck, 'kay?" She explained in her best little-kid voice, and Casey nodded as she began to look around for them once more. She couldn't see the truck, just a lot of people, and it made her wonder what they were gonna do that afternoon.
"What we doing?" She looked back up at her big sissy. She tugged on Hela's hand while she spoke as if she didn't already have everyone's full undivided attention.
This time it was surprisingly Apollo who explained it to her, despite the fact he'd only been told about this five minutes before. "We're gonna go get you a Halloween costume. What do you wanna be?" He asked, seemingly good with kids.
Casey thought about it for a moment, still clutched firmly onto Hela's hand. "I dunno." She shrugged, though very much excited at the prospect of costume shopping.
They continued to wait by the elementary school until a familiar blue pickup slid around the corner and came to a halt parallel to the sidewalk. Aphrodite was in the back doing a dramatic presenter pose while Percy leaned over in the driver's seat. "Hey losers! Need a ride?" He yelled, and Casey was first to run over to the pickup.
She reached up on her tippie toes to open the truck door and launched herself inside to hug Percy. The other three teens walked over and got in - Artemis in the front, Hela and Apollo in the back.
With Casey comfortably squished in between Artemis and Percy, the latter started the truck and took off, hoping he didn't run over any children on the way.
As he drove dangerously onto the main road and towards the country, Percy fixed the lopsided shades he had hastily put on. "How was school, sweetpea? What'd ya do today?" He asked his baby sister, and Casey looked up at him with a grin.
"I kicked the ball in the net and we found… we found a caterpillar!" She exclaimed excitedly, forgetting for a second what the teacher had called it. At the news that she had scored in soccer, Percy grinned.
"Nice, Case! You'll be a sporting legend just like your brother. What was the caterpillar's name?" He asked, obviously kidding when he said sporting legend.
Casey thought for a second to try and remember the name, then grinned again. "Lenny!"
Artemis smiled at the little girl while resting her head on her hand. "I used to play soccer when I was a kid." She remembered faintly as Percy kept driving. She played for the school team as a striker.
Percy raised an eyebrow as they kept driving. He did not know that about his girlfriend. "Really? Were you good?" He asked, giving her a side glance.
Artemis shrugged. "I won a couple trophies." She reminisced, looking back out the window. Casey's head craned up to look at Artemis, excitement in her eyes.
"Can we play?" She asked her neighbor, eager to play soccer out in a field with her one day. Artemis gave her a smile and then nodded the affirmative. The three sat in silence for a little bit, the sound of the other three talking loudly in the back just barely audible. "Did you kiss?" Casey asked out of the blue, startling the hell out of Artemis.
Artemis was gaping like a dying fish, staring at Casey with wide eyes as she opened and closed her mouth repeatedly. She had absolutely no idea what to say to that. Thankfully, she didn't have to. Percy was there to save her, not even flinching when she'd asked the question. "Yup." He said nonchalantly, popping the P as they kept driving down a straight road at high speed.
Casey smiled and looked back out the front. "Nice." She commented, satisfied by the answer. Artemis could only look perplexedly between Percy and Casey as they continued their journey.
Half an hour later they slid to a halt on the side of a main street in the next town over. Percy turned the truck off and unclicked his seatbelt. "Right. We're here." He nodded out the window, directing Artemis and Casey to get out.
The three jumped out and Artemis quickly ushered Casey off the road onto the sidewalk. Still holding the toddler's hand, Artemis looked at the store. It was a small building on main street with one sign saying it was a dollar store. Brilliant.
She turned around and saw Percy taking a tarp off the back of the pickup. She raised an eyebrow. "Where are they?" She asked her boyfriend, looking for her brother and friends. Percy rolled the cover down and Aph sat up first, smiling at Artemis before climbing over the side.
Her jaw almost dropped when she saw Hela and Apollo get out too, and so Percy explained it to her. "The police in this town aren't as lenient as Mr di Angelo. If they see three kids sitting in the back of a pickup they'll pull us over. I just get 'em to hide under the cover when we get close." He informed her.
Apollo flattened out his shirt and grinned cheekily at his twin. "That was a fun experience." He laughed, making Artemis roll her eyes.
Artemis turned back to her boyfriend as they walked towards the store. "Do you have people doing that often?" She asked, and Percy shrugged and pushed open the door. A little bell rang out, telling the owner of the store they had customers.
"Well I didn't have many other passengers before you guys moved here. Most of the time it's just me and the girls. If Casey's there she can get away with sittin on their lap. When we go on road trips and that then mom, dad and Case take the other truck while the three of us have this one to ourselves." He informed her.
A small man came out from the back, looking at the group of them. "You kids 'ere for yer 'alloween suits?" He asked raspily, and when Percy smiled and nodded he pointed to the back of the store. The group made their way down to the back and Aph was quick to take Artemis' hand, dragging her along to a section she was eager to show her.
Hela rolled her eyes when she saw the skimpy outfits and took Casey's empty hand. "C'mon, hun. We'll get you your costume." She said, ushering the toddler away from such revealing attire. Apollo was less eager to get away, moving over to look under the appearance of trying to find the real costumes. It wasn't fooling anyone though since Percy, Hela and Casey had clearly gone to the real ones.
Eventually Apollo started looking for real this time, leaving Artemis alone with Ash in the Halloween costume section of a store.
Aph immediately started filing through all the costumes, occasionally picking out ones which Artemis would immediately veto for being too revealing. "C'mon, Arty. Surely we go matching with the nurses outfits?" She pleaded, wanting to finally utilize her new female bestie for some cute bff costumes.
Artemis was nothing if not stubborn, and she crossed her arms. "No skirts, Aph. If the damn costume involves me showing enough skin to kill a World War 2 veteran then I ain't wearing it." She adamantly stated.
Aph pouted, giving her the puppy dog eyes. Of course, as she was using them on someone who had natural doe eyes and was well versed in utilizing them on her dad when she was a little girl, Artemis did not even falter when faced with this threat. "Not even an animal costume?" Aph asked softly.
Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Does it show off my stomach, back or tits?" She inquired, leaning on one leg. Aphrodite didn't answer, instead giving an innocent yet still guilty smile to her friend. Artemis rolled her eyes. "Then no."
Hela held Casey's hand as the young girl walked them through the kid's section, looking at all the different costumes. Most of them were superheroes or princesses but she didn't wanna be any of those. They were boring.
Percy found something relatively quickly, holding it out and looking at it. He turned around to face Artemis, showing his girlfriend the picture on the bag. "What do ya think, huh? Fishman from the Goo Lagoon." He showed her the Creature from the Black Lagoon outfit.
Artemis looked it up and down. "Looks kinda tight, doesn't it?" She pointed out, allowing her boyfriend the opportunity to flash a grin.
"You'd hope so, wouldn't ya?" He quipped, and surprisingly Artemis didn't blush at the flirtatious prodding - that sounds wrong. Maybe she was growing out of the prude little allergy to sexual topics. That would be the day.
"Whatever, dork." Artemis rolled her eyes while Aph sifted through all the female costumes looking for one suitable for the Olympia girl. Percy scoffed and held the costume package under his arm, having decided to buy it.
"I'm not a dork, dingus." He muttered, smirking at his girl.
"Hey sis!" She heard Apollo call from a few feet away. They both turned and looked to see what he'd found. It was a cheesy vampire costume - 19th century attire, black and red cap, white face, slicked back hair wig, fangs, the whole shebang. "What about this? 69, ah ah ah." He did his best impression, pointing to the package picture.
Percy laughed from next to him at the silly number. "Nice." He chuckled, high fiving Apollo. Artemis rolled her eyes at the two while Aph kept looking for costumes. It was unbelievable how immature those two were.
Hela spotted a costume she liked and grabbed it, still waiting for Casey to find her own one. The one she had grabbed was a zombie costume, which she liked because most of it was makeup. Zombie makeup generally looked hella cool.
Aphrodite paused as she sifted through the rack, letting out a gasp. Artemis' head snapped when she heard the sound, anxious as to what stripper outfit she'd discovered this time. "Oh. My. God. Look at that, Arty." She held the costume out, revealing it to Artemis.
Artemis looked and then grabbed the package, looking down at the picture. She struggled to remember the name of the character, only the movie she was from. "This is… Joker's girlfriend?"
Aph nodded with an excited look. "Yah-huh. Harley Quinn. Don't you think it looks cute?" She gushed over the thought of Artemis in the outfit. Artemis gave it one more look, noticing the crop top and short shorts.
She shook her head, handing it back to Aph. "Not for me. Too much skin." She dismissed it just like that. Aphrodite's face fell, as she had really liked the idea of getting this costume. It was cute. She was deadset on it.
"Wha- no. C'moooon, please. This'd look sooo good though. Pleeease, Arty." She begged, holding it back out for her to take. Artemis held a hand up.
"Aph, nothing you could say could get me to wear that shit." Artemis laughed, moving past her to look at more costumes. She had skimmed some money off of Zeus for her and Apollo's costumes, and thankfully most of them were relatively cheap.
Aph pouted, turning to look at her. "Alright. What if…. I paid you twenty bucks?" She offered, and Artemis' spirit forced herself to turn around. The teen raised an eyebrow at the offer, not saying a word, and Aph sighed. "Thirty?" She raised it a tad, cringing as she did so.
Artemis' face was deadpan. "Fifty." She counteroffered, seemingly set in stone at the idea. Once again Aphrodite's face fell, and she thought about how negatively that would affect her wallet.
Then she also thought about the photo ops that would come with Artemis' costume, and how cute she would look. Aph could even do the makeup! Besides, she had never ever been good with the money her dad gave her. She grinned wide and nodded. "Deal! Now get it!" She said excitedly, handing her the costume.
Artemis rolled her eyes as Aph celebrated her victory. That was relatively easy. Artemis would've been willing to go for the twenty - any profit was good profit - but she had just discovered how much appearance mattered to Aph. Either that or she was extremely deaf to the sound of financial advice. Either way, step three achieved. Profit.
Percy scoffed when he looked at the costume over her shoulder. "You couldn't even pay me to wear a Joker outfit. That movie sucked balls." He commented, drawling on the balls. Artemis smiled and laughed a bit at him. Percy then looked back down at the costume. "Thought that would look great on you. Guess we're both going for the tight look. Speaking of which… Hey sis!" He yelled, sounding a lot like Apollo as he grabbed a costume off the shelf and chucked it at Aph. "That'd look great on you!"
Aph looked down at the name of the costume: Slutty Nurse Halloween Costume. She looked back up and grinned. "You're sooooo right, Perce! Thanks!" She decided, walking back over to the group as Percy's face fell.
Artemis was struggling to stifle her laughter as Percy looked absolutely dead inside. "I tried to call my twin sister a slut and then it just looked like I called her hot. Aaaand either way she's unfazed. Absolutely sick." He muttered, and Artemis couldn't hold it in anymore.
As Percy sighed and the three of them began to head towards the counter, they regrouped with Casey, Hela and Apollo. Aph smiled at her baby sister and asked her what she'd picked. Casey grinned a baby-toothed grin right back up at her and held up the packaged costume. "Pumpkin!" She announced, showing the picture of the young girl in a normal looking dress with a pumpkin design.
I'm watching Breaking Bad atm. Walt's life is in shambles and I wanna kill his wife. Also it's my last week at high school, and therefore at school forever at least until I go to college, but that's at least a year away since we're waiting for my younger sister to finish up senior year since she's a junior, and also because my mom's having another baby in September. And even better, we find out the gender this weekend. Place your bets as to what it's gonna be, and no anything other than boy or girl is not an acceptable answer. We're talking birth gender, not teen gender.
I shall be updating Change of Scenery next. If you have any ideas leave them in the comments below, and I'll pick my favorites in the next episode of YIAY.
Word Count: 4743