What If...?

What If... Artemis Had Kids?

Bella'a POV

'Bet you I can finish the parkour quicker!' I shout.

'In your dreams Bella,' Kayla answers.

It's a Friday afternoon, and I'm hanging out with my best friend Kayla Knowles I'd told her that children of Artemis were the better archers, but she disagreed with me, so now we decided to do an archery parkour set up by none other than Leo Valdez.

'Stop bickering you two, the parkour is ready for you,' Leo says.

'Now, this is going to be interesting,' Percy says, walking up to us. 'What's going on exactly?'

'I'm gonna make Knowles regret that she ever dared disagree with me by beating her sorry ass,' I say.

'Damn, you kiss your father with that mouth?' Kayla asks.

'I don't have to worry about that since he left me on the streets.'

I think back to when I first came to camp after getting thrown out of the house by my drug addicted father. It was about eight years ago, and I barely remember it. It was a cold night, and I had a dream that the moon told me to go to the big hill with a pine tree on it on Long Island Sound. So I did.

When I told the people there that my dad turned into a screw up who was addicted to drugs after my mother left, they weren't surprised. They weren't even surprised I knew about all these bad things at five years old.

I was taken in, and two years later claimed by the goddess Artemis. Everyone was shocked at first, because I was the first descendant of Artemis in almost two hundred years, but it wasn't unheard of.

'Oy, earth to Bella!'

Leo's voice wakes me up from my trip down memory lane.

'Sorry, you were saying?'

'The parkour is ready, if you get on your platform, we can see who really is the best archer. Artemis or Apollo? Bella or Kayla?'

I got on my platform, but just before we could start, the horn sounded, signalling lunch.

'Aaw man, I was so ready to beat you,' Kayla complains.

'Oh well, you'll have to wait until after lunch, when I'm full and energized. What? Are you scared?' I tease.

'No way!' She runs over and pushes me off the platform. 'C'mon, I'm hungry.'

I get up and run after her.

...

I'm sitting at the Big Three table with Percy and Nico (who doesn't break the rules every once in a while?) when Chiron makes an announcement.

'Campers! We have a new demigod amongst us. Let's all welcome Robin to camp!'

A kid about fifteen walks up and introduces himself:

'Um... Hi, I'm Robin.'

I take a look at Robin. Tall, red hair in a short ponytail and soft brown eyes. I wonder who will claim him.

'Who do you guys reckon he's from?' Percy asks.

'I don't know, his arms looks like archer arms. Maybe he's an Apollo kid,' Nico says.

'Archer arms? I think you've been checking Will out too much again,' Percy says, grinning.

Nico goes bright red and whacks Percy on the shoulder. 'Sh-shut up!'

I snort. 'But look at his hair though. It kinda looks like mine. What if he's my brother?'

'You're not wrong, but I don't think so,' Percy says.

'But he's got archer arms remember?'

Percy and I snicker as Nico gets up and leaves.

...

After lunch, Kayla and I go back to the parkour, and there he is. The new guy. Robin.

'Hey, what are you doing here?' I ask.

'Oh, sorry, is this like a restricted area or something?'

'No, she's just waiting to fail and lose a bet,' Kayla jokes.

'Pff, look who's talking.' I turn back to Robin. 'We had a bet on whom the better archer is.'

'Oh, I love archery, me and my dad used to go out into the forest to go hunt almost every day,' Robin says.

'Archer arms,' Percy says, who came to look.

I laugh.

'Did I miss anything?' Leo asks confused.

'Inside joke,' I explain. 'Anyway, you any good Robin?'

'Yeah, I guess.'

'So modest,' Kayla teases.

'Well, Kayla, since you said you were so good, you could easily beat Robin without knowing his skills right?' I say.

'Hey! That's not fair!' she complains.

'Of course it is. Since I'm the best at camp, and you think you can beat me, surely you can beat a random guy who says he can shoot. No offence Robin.'

'None taken.'

Kayla huffs. 'Fine.'

...

'Okay, get ready my dudes!' Leo says.

Kayla and Robin both get on their platforms, a bow and quiver slung over their shoulders.

'On your marks, get set, GO!'

They jump off the platforms and start running towards the parkour. They get there about the same time and start the parkour.

I'll be honest: I definitely underestimated what Robin could do. His movements were so smooth, and he avoided every obstacle very swiftly. On top of that, he hit every single bullseye.

When he finishes the parkour, he runs over to us, not even seeming the least bit exhausted.

'How did I do?'

I look over at Kayla, who is only now shooting her last bullseye.

'Fantastic! Dude, you beat her ass!' I say giving him a high five.

'Thanks,' Robin says grinning a bit.

Then finally Kayla walks over.

'You!' she says, pointing her finger at me. 'Did you know about this? How... I... You cheated! I was supposed to beat you! This means nothing!'

'Geez, Kay, calm down. You can't even withstand your loss.'

'It's not loss, I was supposed compete against a child of Artemis.'

'And you did,' Percy says. 'Look.'

We all look at what he means.

'Why are you all looking at me?' Robin asks, the sign of the silver moon still hanging above his head.

'Because you're being claimed. Welcome to camp... brother.'