The Shadow Archer Twins

“You told her what!?” Malcolm had just explained to me the plan that he had wanted me to do, but thought Katie would be better for. That was a bad choice.

“Why are you getting mad at me?” Malcolm shouted, “I’m trying to protect you!”

“Yeah, by putting the absolute wrong person into harm’s way!”

“Don’t insult Katie like that!” Malcolm shouted, “She’s going to do great! She's the perfect person for the job!”

Boys, I thought, So ignorant of what’s staring at them in the face. Gods, for an Athena kid, Malcolm acted so dumb sometimes!

“I’m not insulting her!” I shouted back, “It’s you I’m mad at, for being so thick-headed and dumb!”

“I’m not dumb!” Malcolm shouted in return.

“Yes you are! Don’t you ever think, when you’re formulating your amazing plans that only Athena herself could come up with, don’t you ever think about how the people carrying out your plans would feel? How they might think your plan is hurtful and personally offensive to them!”

“How is my plan hurtful?” Malcolm asked. But he didn’t shout this time. He looked like a worried chess player, trying to find his mistake before his opponent could check-mate him.

“Don’t you see?” I asked, looking deep into his eyes. Then I saw the confusion, the utter ignorance, and I realized that he couldn’t see, that he could never really have clear vision without the help of a girl. “Katie likes you,” I said slowly, like I was explaining it to a 1st grader,
“She thinks you’re attractive, and she didn’t know I existed until you came back. I saw her crying, running from the stables after we had kissed,”

I paused, letting that sink in. “Speaking of that, you never told her you had a girlfriend! Seriously?”

A look of realization began to creep into his face as he said, defeated, “No.”

“She thought she had something with you because you rescued her. You were her knight in shining armor, her protector, her leader and healer. She looked up to you; saw you as a figure of power. And it’s obvious why she got a crush on you. You are attractive. I’ve come to appreciate that myself. But, as soon as you got back, you ditched her, after leading her on for almost a week! And then, you have the nerve to ask her to distract a high-ranking Roman officer for a couple hours, and if she felt like it, you know, if it took her fancy, to lead him on into a relationship? Think about how she must feel right now!”

His face pretty much summed up exactly how I had wanted him to feel. A mixture of astonished realization, embarrassment, and guilt, with a pinch of sadness on the side. He opened his mouth, and started to say, “Izzy, I didn’t mean to—”

“Shut it,” I snapped, with a bit more force than I had meant to, “You’ve done enough for today. Go back to Cabin 11 and think about what you’ve done.”

“So what is this, you’re ‘sending me to my room’ to think about my wrongs? What am I, a 1st grader?”

“You just acted dumber than one, so yeah, for now, you’re back in 1st grade.”

“That’s completely—” He started to complain in a whiny voice.

“Unfair?” I finished his sentence for him. “Now you really sound like a 1st grader. Go on, Malcolm. And you’re welcome, because I’m going to go apologize for you.”

“Why can’t I just do it myself?” Malcolm asked, in a hurt tone.

“I’ve already answered that, because you’ve done enough for today. Now go.”

“Fine,” He said, dragging out the word. He sulked across the courtyard between the male and female side of the cabins and once he had closed the Cabin 11 door behind him, I walked over to the Apollo cabin. I knocked lightly on the door, and, after a small sniffle, a small, hollow voice said,

“Come in.”

Katie was on her bed with a tissue box, gazing silently out of the West-facing window, watching the sunset. She had placed the tissues so that they looked like they weren’t being used, but close enough for her to grab one when nobody was looking. The trash bin was full of them, which kind of gave her away, but she didn’t notice. Her eyes were red, and I sensed this wasn’t the first time this week, or the first time today, that they had been red like that. This wasn’t the girl I had seen run across the border, full of life, hope, and eagerness. This was a tortured soul, wrecked by emotions.

“Oh,” she said, in the same hollow voice. Than, with an edge of cold bitterness, she said, “It’s you.”

“Hey,” I said, in a friendly, calm tone, trying to approach slowly, “I’m sorry about Malcolm. He can be so thick-headed sometimes. And just so you know, I know how you feel about him. I kind of, maybe, saw you at the stables. Malcolm didn’t.”

Looking embarrassed and guilty, she said, “Oh. Well, that explains a lot. I’m sorry about that.”
“Don’t be. I feel so bad because Malcolm doesn’t have the intelligence to realize that having a girlfriend would be something you might want to tell a girl who is close to you.” I paused, trying to get Katie to look at me, to see that I wanted to be friends, not enemies. I wanted her support at Camp, for both Malcolm and my sakes.

“Look,” I said, continuing, “I realize that you must hate me because of who I am to Malcolm. But we can be friends. I don’t want this to drive us to opposite ends of the same table.”

She kept gazing out of the window, not looking at me, not saying a word. I knew that an unaccepted apology was better than no apology, so I turned and started to leave. When my front foot was on the threshold, Katie said, in a voice so quiet that it was almost inaudible,

“I’d like to be friends, Izzy, even though Malcolm is a bit ignorant. How about lunch at the archery range, after tomorrow’s plans are scheduled with Chiron?”

I was beaming. I had made a friend out of the least likely candidate.

“That sounds like a great idea, Katie. I’ll see you then.”

I didn’t stop smiling for a long time after I had gotten back to the Hermes cabin.

Notes

So, how did you guys like the first chapter from Izzy's POV? I kinda made her a bit sassy, didn't I? :D I hope you enjoyed, because there is more where that came from!