The Archer ↠ Percy Jackson

one

"Mia Ashford."

"Miss Ashford."

Everyones eyes are drawn to the beautiful blonde in the back of the classroom who is sleeping soundlessly not realizing that she is currently the center of attention. Among those curious eyes are the ones that belong to the one and only Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon, however unlike everyone else, Percy's eyes linger on the blonde for just a minute too long.

If one were to look close enough into his ocean blue eyes they would most likely see the utmost adoration for the sleeping beauty. It's unrequited of course, but that doesn't mean he can't admire her. This is not the first time that Percy has fallen under the captivating trance of the alluring blonde.

"MIA!"

Startled awake, the now conscious girl jumps from the loud boom of Miss Dodds, their substitute English teacher, voice. Disoriented, she takes in her surroundings realizing that she's not in the comfort of her own bed but rather the bland classroom that she finds herself in five out of the seven days of the week. Once she registers where she is, she finds herself victim to the critical gaze of her classmates.

Looking around the room she locks her eyes with the piercing blue ones of Percy Jackson, the boy who she has spent the last six years protecting from afar. Percy and Mia aren't friends by any means. They are actually pretty far from it. In fact, they've never actually had a real conversation aside from the casual 'what's the homework?' or 'do you have a pencil I can borrow?'

Mr. Brunner, otherwise knowns as Chiron, informed her and Grover when they were first assigned as protectors that only one of them was allowed to be in direct contact with Percy while the other had to keep their distance. This was to not draw any unnecessary attention to Percy by having another demigod and a Satyr as his two closest companions.

So far Mia hasn't had any problems with keeping her distance from Percy, in her eyes it gives her more time to train at Camp Half Blood. Plus, it helps her not entertain his crush.

Of course she knows about his little school boy crush on her, Grover spilled the beans as soon as he found out. That boy has got one big mouth on him. But it's not like it changed anything between them, she still protects him while he admires her.

Breaking eye contact with Percy her gaze turns to the teacher looking at her expectantly. Sinking down in her seat to try to avoid prying eyes she clears her throat and says meekly, "sorry, um, what was the question again?"

Rolling her eyes the teacher crosses her arms, "The question was 'Miss Ashford are you awake?"

Cringing, Mia responds, "I am now." mentally cursing herself for staying up all night training with her bow and arrow as she looks down at her desk.

Luckily for her the teacher turns her attention to her next victim but not before mumbling under her breath something about kids these days being so disrespectful. Feeling the gaze of one of her classmates, Mia raises her head as she looks around trying to find the culprit.

To her surprise her eyes lock with none other than Grover Underwood. She raises her eyebrows as if to ask 'what?' Grover shakes his head at her and mouths 'you're ridiculous.' This results in Grover receiving a well deserved middle finger from Mia before turning back around to the front of the class.

You see, Mia and Grover have what most would call a love hate relationship. They only talk when it's absolutely necessary which mostly consists of smart remarks from Mia. The rest of the time is spent shooting sarcastic glares to each other. The first few years the two of them were actually pretty good friends, but as they got older Mia started focusing more on her archery while Grover started hanging out more with Percy. It was basically a mutual understanding that they would keep to their own circle of friends, which is pretty small for the both of them.

"Would someone please explain what Shakespeare was trying to convey in this line from Othello?"

Trying her best to avoid eye contact with Miss Dodds, Mia sinks even farther down in her seat. She even resorted to acting like she was writing something on the piece of paper in front of her.

"Percy Jackson." The nasally voice of Miss Dodds fills the air making Mia snap her eyes to the boy in question.

Percy looks at the board to read the quote as he sees the words start to jumble together.

"Well?" Miss Dodds says expectantly.

Sighing, Percy fiddles with his hands before looking back up to Miss Dodds, "I'm sorry, I don't know."

Mia finds herself staring at him curiously as she rests her head in the palm of her hand.

"Anybody Else?"

Immediately, Mia removes her head from her hands and goes back to writing mindless scribbles on her paper acting like what she was writing was the most important thing in the world.

She lets out a sigh of relief as she hears Miss Dodds call on some other poor soul, before drawing her attention back to her paper, out of the corner of her eye she catches Percy sink down slightly in his chair in defeat.

•••••

After another dreadful day of high school, Mia finds herself training with her bow in her personal archery range in the back of the apartment that she shares with her father David.

David Ashford, a lonely human who just happened to fall in love with a greek goddess.

Of course he had no idea that the gorgeous woman he met in a run down bar one stormy October night would turn out to be the olympian goddess Artemis. But he would find that out soon enough. And slowly but surely she would change the rest of his life forever.

For the past 16 years David has had his hands full raising the young Artemisia. The girl who feels as if the weight of the world is on her shoulders. He's tried his best to be everything he can be for her but it never seems to be enough.

Mia grabs another steel arrow from the rack on the left side of the room, and with a shaky hand she pulls back the string to lock her eyes on her target.

For some reason she can't seem to steady her hand no matter how hard she tries. Out of pure frustration she throw her bow across the room and the sound of the metal arrow clashing to the ground can be heard throughout the entirety of the small apartment.

Letting out a shaky breath, Mia slides her back down the wall behind her until she is sat down with her knees up and her head between her hands.

All Mia's ever wanted was to prove to everyone that she doesn't need her mother. Her whole life she's felt like she's been nothing but a disappointment. That's why when Chiron offered her the chance to protect Percy she jumped at the opportunity. To her this was her one chance to prove herself.

She's always blamed herself for her mother's departure and the root of her father's pain. To Mia it was her fault that her mother left her father. She didn't want to raise their daughter so she left David to fend for himself.

In her eyes she ruined her father's life.

A quiet sob can be heard throughout the room as Mia snaps her eyes shut willing her tears away. No matter how hard she tries to convince herself there's one thing that no one can deny.

She'll always be chasing after the mother who ran out on her.