Artemis & Apollo

Chapter Nine

A/N Thanks to sassyclassydiva and bootycallzjm for the awesome suggestions!

-Flashback chapter-

Andy halfheartedly swung his sword at his younger sister. Artemis easily jumped out of the way. "You know, you could at least try," She said.

"What's the point?" Andy asked. "We all know that you're gonna win."

"Come on, don't tell me that both of you together still can't beat that worthless, weak b****?" Sportsmaster said. He scoffed. "She's pathetic."

"You've got Apollo on your team, Andy. I've got no one." Artemis said, ignoring him.

"Thank god. If we had to deal with Jade too, this fight would already be over."

Another scoff from their father. "You're right. Jade would have beaten you by now. Unlike Artemis. Jade always was better."

"Probably." Artemis flipped out of the way of one of Apollo's arrows, still refusing to acknowledge her father. "C'mon, Polly. You can do better than that. Do you really wanna get grounded until tomorrow morning?" That was their father's leverage for today. Whoever lost was grounded for the rest of the day.

Now, that didn't sound like such a bad thing, but "grounded" in their family meant being locked in Artemis' room without food. Not so bad in this situation; they'd already had lunch, and they could have as much water as they wanted from the tap in Artemis' bathroom. What was worse was the punishment if you brought food to the grounded people/person. You'd get grounded too, but for double the time. And Dad always knew if you did; whenever he grounded someone, he put up cameras. He always knew.

One of Apollo's arrows cut Artemis' arm. "Sorry, Sis," He said.

"No prob." She whacked him in the head with her bow, hard, and knocked him out. Andy got the same treatment.

"Ok, done," Sportsmaster said. "I'm impressed. You're such an idiot. It's a good thing that you can fight. Without that, you're worthless." Despite her wishes, Artemis' eyes began to fill with tears, which threatened to spill over as everything her father said filled her mind. "What are you gonna do? Cry?" Sportsmaster asked coldly. A tear ran down Artemis' cheek. He slapped her. "What have I told you about crying? You're no daughter of mine." He left to go to Arty's room to set up the cameras. The boys started to stir not long after.

"You ok?" Apollo asked when he and Andy had come back to their senses.

"Yeah. I can patch myself back up." Artemis said and walked to the hall bathroom that served as Apollo and Andy's. She grabbed a first aid kit and her razor from her pocket and sat down.

She patched up the gash on her arm from Apollo's arrow. When she was done, she drew the razor down her wrist, wincing at the stinging pain. But she deserved it, she thought. Her father's words spun around in her head. 'Worthless, weak b****.' 'Your sister was always better.' 'You're pathetic.' 'Worthless.' 'What are you gonna do, cry?' 'What have I told you about crying?' 'You're no daughter of mine.'

Sportsmaster was right. She was worthless. She was weak. Jade was better. Artemis was pathetic. How come only she and her father could see that?

"Artemis?" Apollo said, walking into the bathroom. His eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw his twin sitting on the floor with a razor in her hand and a bloody wrist. He hurried to her and knelt down. "Oh, Arty," He said in a hushed voice. He pulled Artemis into his lap. "Why?"

"D-dad," Artemis stammered, her face flushed with embarrassment. "Everything that he says is so mean, and awful. And to make it worse, it's true. The kids at school don't help, either."

"No it's not true. What EVER made you think that?"

"I-I don't know," Artemis admitted. "It just seems to be."

"Well, it's not. Hey, Andy, can you come in here for a sec?"

"Coming!" Their older brother called. A few seconds later, he was at the door. His eyes grew large at the sight of the girl. He plopped down next to the twins. "Wha-what? Arty? Wha-"

"She thinks that the crap Crusher says to her is true." Apollo said simply.

"No way." Andy looked at Artemis. "That's stupid."

Apollo rolled his eyes. "No sh**, Sherlock." He said angrily. Art and Andy's eyes widened at him. That was seriously strong language from their brother.

"Wow. That's a strong word, Apollo Dexter." Andy said jokingly.

"Don't say that. Or else every time that one of you cusses, I'll looked surprised and go 'Artemis Lian!' or 'Lawrence Andrew!' I mean it. Or even better. I'll call Andy Justin Bieber."

Andy groaned. "Just because I have the same haircut does NOT mean that you can call me that!" Apollo laughed and Artemis even cracked a smile.

Apollo stuck out his hand. "Give it to me, Art." Artemis reluctantly handed the razor over to her brother. "Wait, you've been getting bullied at school? The popular kids? My friends?!" He suddenly looked angrier than Artemis had ever seen him. It made sense that he was angry: he was the most popular boy in school, and his sister was getting bullied. By his friends. And he hadn't known.

Artemis hung her head and nodded. "Looks like I have some 'friends' to throttle on Monday."

"N-no," Artemis stuttered. "It's fine, it's fine."

"No, it's not fine. They made you hurt yourself. Do you not understand how bad that is? They made you feel so worthless that you started hurting yourself. They gave you depression, Artemis. Which is a mental disorder, by the way. I'm not letting them off the hook. I'm certain that Emily won't, either. Don't forget that they're her friends, too."

"Dad contributed, too."

"Yeah, well there's not much we can do about that, unfortunately."

"Do about what?" Sportsmaster growled.

"Nothing," Artemis said hurriedly, hiding her arms behind her back. But not before her father saw them.

Sportsmaster laughed cruelly. "Don't tell me that you've been cutting." He yanked her arms from behind her back. His evil chuckle warned the three teens trouble was coming. "That is the single weakest thing that you've ever done. I mean, I knew you were weak, but not getting-depression type weak." His voice changed to one of fake sympathy. "What happened? Somebody mean to you?" He dropped the act. "Wimp!" He grabbed her and slammed her into the wall. "Weakling!" He slammed her against the again. "B****! Coward! Baby! Dumb***! Idiot! You pathetic little sh***!" He rammed her against the wall with each word. He suddenly crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Behind him stood a furious Jade.

She shook out her hand. "That felt good."

"Hey, Jade," Andy said.

"Hey, Andy." She knelt down by Apollo and Arty. "You ok, Alice?"

Artemis nodded. "Yeah."

"You're sure?"

Another nod.

"Ok." Jade grabbed the first aid kit and started to clean and bandage the cuts on her little sister's arms.

"We're gonna be in so much trouble," Andy said, looking at their father.

"I'll cover for you, don't worry. I've got a plan. Now, Polly, Justin, go to Arty's room so Dad won't be so mad." Jade said simply. It wound up fine. Sportsy was too preoccupied with Jade's presence to be angry at anyone else, Andy and Apollo got out of being grounded, and Sportsy ended up agreeing to send Artemis to therapy, which fixed the depression problem after a few months. Well, up until three months later when she started dating Ronnie.