A Part of Something Bigger

Chapter 5 - Owl House

Over the next 2 weeks, Phil and Melinda gave time to the kids to take in what they learned. They told them in more depth about SHIELD and the work that they did. The kids became divided on the matter. Deke and Jemma understood their parents' reasoning and Mack, while grumpy about the whole lying thing, was willing to forgive. Yo-Yo, Daisy, and Fitz on the other hand, didn't see things that way. They felt betrayed. Daisy most of all. The three of them became withdrawn, only interacted with the rest of the family when absolutely necessary. For Coulson and May, this was a nightmare, but they gave them space. Fitz and Yo-Yo were ranting to each other a lot about how unfair it all was and everything. Sometimes it felt like they themselves weren't sure what they were mad about. But slowly they mellowed out. Daisy on the other hand didn't. Two people, in particular, noticed that she was angrier than usual. These were Mike Peterson and Robbie Reyes. It was hard not to notice. Other than the constant, easily irritable state Daisy was in for two weeks, she was also closed off. She had much less fun with any activity or conversation with either of the boys. And she didn't tell either of them what was up.

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Robbie was rather surprised when Mike walked up to him in between two classes. The boy looked up at his rival waiting for whatever he wanted. Mike gestured for them to go out to the hall. While outside there were more people, it still made sense. In the classroom, it was quieter and it was a more enclosed space. In the hall, on the other hand, people were constantly moving and it was noisy. So whatever Peterson wanted, it was safer to say in the hall. After they exited the classroom and stepped away, mike Turned to Robbie, stating why he wanted to talk.

"You need to talk to Daisy," he stated. Some anger toward Robbie was simmering in his voice, which Robbie picked up on, but he also sensed that Mike's concern for Daisy was his driving force at the moment.

"You'd trust me with that? Why not you talk to her?" Robbie asked.

"I may not like you, but Daisy does. Better than anyone else in the school. If she's going to tell anyone what is going on with her, it will be you."

Robbie nodded slightly. Frankly, he didn't get why Daisy liked him so much, but if it meant she would confide in him with what's been troubling her, he took it.

That day, their physics teacher had called in sick at the last possible minute, and the substitute they managed to send was so knowledgeable in physics that she was an art teacher. The two miracles combined resulted in a lesson where the class was allowed to spend it however they wanted with the only rule being that they were quiet. They were of course not fully quiet, but the teacher managed to demand enough respect so that the noise that they made didn't surpass any noise they would otherwise make during a class. Daisy immediately pulled out her phone and started scrolling through social media. She was sitting with Mike that day but didn't really engage in any conversations. Mike didn't push. So now they just sat in silence. That's when Diasy's mindless scrolling was interrupted by a chat head popping up on the side of her screen. The red bubble marking messages quickly went from '1' to '2'. Daisy recognized Robbie's profile picture and was curious what he wanted in the middle of class. She opened the chat and saw a link, followed by a message that read 'You said you'd check it out'. She opened the link which took her to a website where she could watch The Owl House, a cartoon Robbie had mentioned before. Daisy did actually say she'd check out the series. Seeing the poster, it seemed silly. But at the moment she had nothing better to do so she fished her earbuds out of her bag and started playing the first episode. It was charming. The characters were fun and much more relatable than most heroes of the media. The show then reached its halfway point and the tone grew somewhat more serious. Previously the episode had been the main character, Luz, discovering the magical other world and some wacky hijinks. Then Luz realized that her new companions, Eda and King, were weirdos like her. Then the episode progressed and one part in particular caught Daisy's attention. "King and I don't have much in this world, other than each other. So if that dumb crown is important to him, it's important to me. Besides. Us weirdos have to stick together, ya know." the crazy lady with the owl theme said to the girl. Daisy at that point shifted her gaze to the chat head still on her screen and the black charger on it. Robbie was cruel to use a cartoon to try and get her to talk to him. She knew what this was about. She didn't exactly hide her recent behavior. She finished the episode and saw why Robbie liked the series. Other than being fun and colorful and interesting, it clearly had a strong motive of weirdos, outcasts, acceptance, and looking beyond appearances. She closed the website for the moment, then wrote to Robbie, letting him know that she got his not-so-subtle hint and that they could talk after school. Robbie wrote back saying: