I know I say this a lot about Emily, but I miss Apollo too. I probably miss Apollo more since Emily makes occasional present day appearances and Apollo's going through way worse as we speak.
And I love how so many of you were curious and excited for how Merida and Daniel would escape their current predicament.
Year Two: What Would Apollo Do?
Four Years Ago - Streets of Manhattan
Merida and Daniel walk out of the park behind Apollo who takes the lead because he drove them here. They walk along the side of the road and Apollo unlocks his car once they're close enough. Before they get inside, Merida and Daniel notice that Apollo parked right beside a no parking sign. They do a few rounds of looking at the car and the sign to make sure that it was actually Apollo's car. Typical. Forget being bad at driving, Apollo can't even park. Who gave him a license?
"Nice parking ticket," Merida comments, pointing at the folded piece of paper shoved into his wipers.
Apollo takes it out and fakes a gasp before laughing. Merida turns around and glances at Daniel who's just as confused. What's so funny about a fine or a trip to traffic court?
"This is fake," Apollo says, putting it in his back pocket.
"How can it be fake?" Daniel asks.
"Because I put it there." He smiles when his friends look even more confused and need an explanation. He takes the ticket back out and they huddle around it as he opens it. They see that it's the real sheet of a ticket but instead of a fine, it's a warning message. "The first time I parked incorrectly, it was a month or two after I got my license. I was heading back to my car when the cop approached me. Instead of giving me a fine because I was a fresh driver, he let me go with this warning ticket to remember."
"Remember to park properly," Daniel clarifies.
"Or to remember that I have it so I can use it like a real parking ticket," Apollo explains. "So I put it between my wipers to make it look like I already have a ticket so no parking officer bothers to give me a new one."
"I can't believe how clever that is."
"Modern problems require modern solutions."
Merida cannot be more amazed. She has to write that down. "You're a fucking genius."
-o-
Present Day - Earlier - Edison Residence - 19:04 PM
"What would Apollo do?" Daniel repeats, trying to get Merida to focus.
Merida hesitates. Apollo would go to Asgard and he's already there. Too much is going through her mind: remnants of THC, panic, confusion, and a whole lot of other emotions she isn't used to experiencing with a sober mind. But she forces herself to stop and collect herself. She made this mess (the drugs and the sweater vests on the floor) so she should clean it up, but would Apollo do that? Sort of. Merida smiles in a way that causes the ideas in her head to turn in a different direction, heading towards wherever Daniel's mind is.
"Apollo wouldn't clean this mess," Merida says. She runs into James's closet and tears open a box of pop-tarts she saw when she was putting on his sweater vests. She tosses him a package as she tears one open by the corner with her teeth.
"He'd make another one to cover it with." Daniel bites right into the pop-tarts.
They eat the pastries and the sugar hits them instantly. Screw pot. Pop-Tarts were the way to go. The orders from the RA and supervising agent in the hallway are getting louder but if other people are still rearranging their dorms, then that means they still have time.
"We need to cover up the scent," Merida says, scrambling around the dorm to find something. She runs over and opens the window.
"Here," Daniel passes her a bottle of James's cologne. He gives her another one, having two already in each hand. Daniel would never wonder why James needed so many bottles.
Merida readjusts her grip as Daniel starts spraying. She watches him for a second, realizing that method will take forever. Instead, she smashes one bottle on the ground in front of her. Daniel jumps a little as she heads across the room and breaks another one. Merida grabs Daniel's bottles and smashes them on the ground. They both put on shoes to avoid stepping on glass, which they should've done first, but almost stumble over when the expensive scent hits them and their eyes. They begin hacking, holding on to their chests and wheezing for air as tears stream down their eyes in an attempt to blink it away.
"Is this what blindness feels like?" Merida asks, wiping her eyes furiously.
"Apollo, we're sorry this is an embarrassment for you!" Daniel yells, looking up at the ceiling.
"Did his cologne have pepper spray in it?"
"Just come here!"
Daniel grabs Merida's arm and drags her outside. She snatches a pair of James's sunglasses from his dresser and puts them on to block the scent. Doesn't really work but A for effort, right? He makes Merida stand on one end of the doorframe and he stays on the other.
As the supervising agent and the RA maze through the neighbouring rooms, the other students look at Daniel and Merida suspiciously. Aside from Merida's presence, it was their stupid outfits, the overpowering cologne scent, and cold breeze coming from inside.
"What the hell happened here?" The agent asks, peering inside the room. They back away instantly once the scent hits them.
"We wanted to try and understand James's love for sweater vests," Merida responds, holding back a cough. She straightens the sweater vest she's wearing. "I still don't see it."
"Dear god, why?" Their RA asks, pulling the collar of his shirt over his nose. Some of the students who already passed inspection have already gone to their rooms and shut their doors to avoid contaminating their space.
"We asked ourselves that too," Daniel says.
"I regret all my life's choices," Merida mutters. She wasn't saying that as a part of the act.
"I'm not going in there," their RA says as he walks over to the next room.
"Neither am I," the supervisor says, peering inside and covering their nose, "but clean all this up."
"Right away," Daniel says as he heads back inside. He's never been more grateful for his clean record.
Merida follows and closes the door, taking off her sunglasses. She's never been more grateful for his clean record. If they were in her dorm, they'd be suspended from a rope, for sure. When they look at each other, they have never been more relieved.
-o-
James returns in the middle of the night. He opens his door and turns on the light. He almost screams but he holds back because he can't believe it. All his precious sweater vests are crumpled on the floor except for the two that Merida and Daniel are wearing while sleeping (Daniel sleeping the wrong way on his bed and Merida curled up in a corner on the floor using some sweater vests as pillows and a mattress). Those two were definitely up to something. Within his sweaters, he feels a cool breeze from the window. James goes over to close the window, stopping when he steps on glass. Thank Thor he's wearing shoes. James looks down and that's when he notices all his cologne bottles smashed to pieces. First his sweater vests, now his cologne … this was an act of war.
"These were all designer!" James screams, instantly waking Daniel and Merida. They both look lost, exhausted, and hold their heads, nearly ignoring him. "What happened?"
"Apollo said…" Daniel starts unsure of where he was going.
"Dorm inspection," Merida explains although that gives James no details.
Not bothering to deal with this, James grabs a pillow from his bed and heads back out, shutting the light. He's going to crash on the couch in their living room and pretend that the scene in his dorm room was a dream. Forget his intervention with his exes, Apollo said dorm inspection was the weirdest thing of the night.
I got the parking ticket idea from a post I read on Instagram.