The Daughter of Artemis ψ Percy Jackson

Ch. 3: What The Hell Is Going On?!

     "That was so much fun," Cherrie clapped as we walked through her front door, successfully getting out of the rain. "We should do that more of'en!"

     I laughed and scratched the back of my neck. The thought sounded less than appealing to my ears. "I don't know if I could make it through another one of your shopping trips...," I casually admitted. We chuckled as we hauled all of my shopping bags into the house and quickly put them away into the drawers of the room I was staying in. The pup we'd saved seemed rather curious, sniffing around as he traveled through the house. I made sure to keep a tight eye on him.

     Pulling out the new technology that we'd bought, Cherrie grinned and grabbed the iPod. "Yay! I get to expose yer virgin ears to music." I rose a brow at her elated behavior, still unsure about how to handle her strange attitude. She practically skipped with delight to her computer and plugged the music player into it. "Hmm...What should we name yer it?" She turned to me, curiously.

     I shook my head. "I don't know..." I picked up Orion as he began exploring the living room, and pet him softly. One thing bothered me excessively: who would leave this adorable puppy out in the cold?

     "Oy! I got it." She smirked and typed in 'olive of the gods'. Wow. "I made ye a playlist of songs that I'm pret'y sure you'll like," Cherrie laughed and uploaded 'Olive' to the iPod. The computer told us that it would take at least an hour to finish downloading from Cherrie's Itunes account. She sighed contently at her job well done and turned to me and Orion.

     "And, what are we gonna do with ye?" Cherrie picked Orion out of my arms and held him up into the air as he squirmed around, practically nothing more than a small puddle of skin. He couldn't be older than two months - if he was even that old. She pat him while she thought out loud, "I think I have an ol' dog cage 'e can sleep in, but he'll be doin' his business outside." She gave him a sharp look. Almost immediately, Orion jumped from her hands and ran to the sliding door, pawing at it politely. 

     Amused, I ran over and opened the door for him. Bravely, the puppy ran into the storm to do his business, then came back inside - drenched to the bone. I chuckled and quickly got a towel to dry him. Cherrie checked the downloading process and groaned. "It's up ter TWO 'ours!"

     To occupy ourselves, Cherrie and I went over baby names. She said she didn't know the sex of the baby, she wanted it to be a surprise. I remembered that she had originally called it a 'daughter', and when I brought that to her attention, she chuckled and told me she hoped it would be; a boy was fine as well.

     "Hm...well if it is a boy,...I think Rex." I laughed and Cherrie's face twisted into a weird look of dislike.

     "Woah, woah, woah! Like ther dinosaur? No," She giggled.

     "Okay. Fine, Alexander, Xander for short. " I smiled and rested my cheek on top my hand, thinking of the stories my mother used to tell me about a brave warrior named Alexander.

     "Hmm.." Cherrie popped a piece of popcorn into her mouth and thought it over. "Yeah, I like it." She chewed over some more popcorn before raising a brow towards me, adjusting her legs so she would be more comfortable on the couch. Wha' about a girl?"

     I sighed. "Arethena. Especially if she were mine." The name brought so many mixed feelings it hurt.

     "Arethena?" Cherrie raised a brow. "Pret'y, but strange. How'd ye come up with that?"

     "It's a mix between Ares and Athena," I informed her. "It's what I wanted my mom to name Penny, but she obviously didn't." A chuckle shook my chest as I thought about myself demanding my mother to name my little sister Arethena. She'd laughed at me, reminding me that Penelope was already a year old. I didn't care, I'd thought it was a much more appealing name.