Fall Of The Eldest - Percy Jackson

Chapter 20 - Shopping For Clothes and Retribution

Hazel's P.O.V

I had never been one for the girl stuff: shopping, looking overly dashing. But seeing lines and lines of clothes for me to get out of my bland uniform was Elysium.

We dove into the infinite offerings of clothes. For once, life felt normal; no monsters to fight, no deadly riddles to solve, friends to save. Just the main purpose of getting out of these grotesque outfits and into something more.. teenage.

Jason and Percy ran off together, from time to time I would see them either studying a pair of jeans or hoodies, or straight up rough housing and knocking over the racks.

Nico went out to get his own stuff after having a quick discussion with me about his energy.

"I'm going to look for some stuff myself." He said "I need to clear my head from all these new events."

So that now leaves me trying to find a good private place to change into my white T-shirt and black pants.

Finally, in the back of the storage floor, I spot the doors to the bathroom stalls. There was only one door which was still unlocked, so I assumed it would be fine to go in. But when I opened the thick wooden door, I was surprised at the sight of Koda without a shirt on, in a thick black vest with a zipper, and looked like they were about to change.

"Oh dear!" I gasped in shame for not knocking before answering. I felt ants begin to crawl on my cheeks "I'm sorry I should have-"

"It's fine," Koda cut me off kindly. I would have backed up and given them the privacy they deserved, but the strange cloth armor caught my attention.

"What is that? That your wearing?" I ask, stuttering slightly. Even though it was the twenty-first century, I was from a later time era, it was still a bit scandalous to stand in a small room with a person who wasn't entirely clothed.

Koda looked down at their chest.

"It's a binder." They answered as if it was obvious. But for me, it was quite the opposite. From the deep confusion that was plastered on my face, Koda grunted "I forget you're from the nineteen- thirties." And began to explain.

"When someone's... like me; questioning or changing their original gender, certain products and clothing are made to support that. A binder is one of those things."

I thought back to the conversation the boys and I had in the cell about the queer community. How some people don't relate to their birth gender and take a big step to change it or cancel it out.

"You mentioned that you were non-binary," I note, our first encounter with the person who immediately said so. "Did you decided to become that? Or?...." The air in the small changing room became still. All but the hum of ceiling lights were heard as Koda pondered my question.

"Well..." they began being cautious with their words as if skidding over thin ice "I was... brought in a bit differently, and because of events in my life and how I grew up, I could never connect with the only two gender offered. So when the term of non-binary came in where it was a strange in between or absent of form, it just felt... right."

I could feel they were growing uncomfortable getting into their private life, I didn't mean to pry, just got curious. Koda's eyes darted down to the clothes rested on my fore arm.

"Please tell me that's not what you're going to wear." They demanded, looking mortified. I gave them a quizzical look "Yeah? Why?"

They slapped themself in the face with their palm.

"Nah-ah girl," they snapped back "if my girlfriend has taught me one thing, that's a fashion sense. You're coming with me to fix this atrocity."

I sputtered something incoherent as Koda bustled past me, putting on a black and gray tie-dye shirt and gripping my arm to drag me out of the changing room.