Chapter six; Imperfections



Imperfections
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To say Percy was worried was an understatement. He'd been stressed before the chariot race but after seeing Marnie collapse and all the blood that covered her face he felt sick to his stomach. Percy had promised her that camp was safe, she was only here because she trusted him and now she was laying in the infirmary with a bloody bandage plastered under her left eye.

The only conformation that Marnie was going to be okay was her constant mumbling while she slept. Percy had no idea what she was saying but he knew it was a good sign.

Percy didn't leave till late afternoon the next day when one of Marnie's sisters forced him out of the infirmary with an nasty look.

"What the hell?" Marnie groaned in pain not yet open her eyes in fear of what she'd see.

"Get up lazy ass." Drew nudged Marnie in the side with her foot.

"Why is it so bright in here?" She grumbled burying her face in her pillow.

"Get off your ass stupid." Drew smacked her arm.

"Ow!"

"Drew, stop hitting my patients!" A boy from the other side of the infirmary snapped at her.

Marnie groaned once again before sitting up in her bed. Her face stung, her limbs were stiff and one of her eyes wouldn't open as far as the other. "This place is giving me a migraine."

Drew hummed in agreement taking her eyes off of her magazine to take a look around the room. "The decor is painfully ugly."

"It's the best we could do, if you don't like it leave." Lee Fletcher, son of Apollo snapped exasperatedly when he reached Marnie's bed.

Marnie exchanged a look with Drew before the two girls started to giggle.

"Your boyfriend has been camped out in here for the last two days." Lee said as he gently removed the bandage. He knew his words would be enough of a distraction that she wouldn't move.

"What?!" Marnie squeaked wide-eyed. She had no idea who they could possibly be referring to, perhaps it was an imposter.

"He means your pet fish boy." Drew interjected.

"Percy?" Drew and Lee nodded in unison. Marnie was fighting off a smile at the thought. He cared. Drew and Lee shared a knowing look the two waiting for Marnie to start denying that Percy was her boyfriend.

"Does this mean you're going to stop glaring at the poor boy every time you see him?" Lee asked remembering lunch when he watched Percy throw things at Marnie desperate for her attention.

"I don't do that." She lied unconvincingly.

Marnie knew that she'd been acting a little 'dramatic' and 'jealous' but in her defence, she'd been thrown into a weird ass world filled with monsters and gods and everyone just expected her to be okay with it. She was worried that she'd be left behind.

Lee put weird cream on her injury which Drew cringed at it. "That is the grossest thing I've ever seen."

Marnie felt a little embarrassed she knew that her sister wasn't calling her gross but it still felt like she was being insulted.

Lee glared at Drew. "Please don't insult my patients."

Marnie spent the next few hours listening to Drew and Lee bicker before Drew left to go watch the Ares kids (more accurately to watch Deven Kingsley) play basketball.

"M, M, Marnie!" Someone smacked Marnie on the forehead. She didn't know when she drifted off but the last thing she remembered was some of the Apollo kids having a Disney sing-along (it was supposed to boost morale but it made Marnie want to jump off the roof).

"DON'T HIT MY PATIENTS!" Lee shouted in her direction.

Marnie opened her eyes to see Jamie grinning at her. "Morning sunshine."

She smiled back nervously, her stomach churned and her cheeks flushed. Marnie groaned internally, she liked him.

Marnie had never liked a boy before (well, not a real boy) she wasn't quite sure what to do. She, of course, now had older siblings to turn to with that sort of problem but Marnie didn't feel comfortable enough to share with them yet, it had only been a few weeks.

Jamie smirked as Marnie continued to study him shamelessly.

He had curly brown hair that rested just above his eyebrows. His warm brown eyes were inviting and held flecks of gold in them but they looked as if a fire was burning away deep within desperate to be released.

Come to think of it that fire was probably the only thing the children of Ares had in common (looks wise).

"Marnie Grace, it's rude to stare." Jamie tsked giving her a sly smile.

Marnie would have blushed but something wouldn't let her. Perhaps it was pride from her godly mother or stubbornness from her human mother.

Marnie scowled. Her mother, Valentina Alonso. The designer to the stars and destroyer of families.

Silena had contacted Olive's parents when she was attacked. Apparently, they'd come back from Monaco when her face was in the news labelling her a terrorist. They spent hours 'talking it out' via Iris message.

Valentina told them about how she'd met Aphrodite in the diner about a year before Marnie was born. Apparently, it was a fast affair, it only lasted a few months before Aphrodite dropped off the face of the Earth and she didn't show back up until she'd given birth to Marnie.

The Iris message ended in yelling and tears. Her parents' perfect marriage going up in flames.

"What do you want Jamie?" Marnie shifted sitting up against her pillows.

He was still grinning at her while he waved a small scrap of paper. "Message from your boy."

Jamie laughed at the blank look on her face. "I was coming to visit my brother," he pointed to an Asian boy who seemed to be a few years older than them with his arm in a sling.

"Jackson grabbed me and asked me to give this to you." He shrugged.

"Can I have it then?" Marnie held out her hand to him but Jamie just smirked at her and grabbed her soft delicate hand with his calloused one linking their fingers.

Marnie tried her hardest not to turn red to no avail. "Give me the paper."

"First," Jamie drawled lazily inspecting his nails. "Let me see your cut." He pointed at the bandage below her left eye.

Marnie glared at him before heaving a sigh pulling the dressing to the side gently. Jamie leaned forward to get a closer look which made her blush a little, a boy had never been that close to her face before. He didn't cringe or tell her how gross it was instead he smiled at her.

"That's badass." Jamie said letting go of her hand and tucking Percy's note into it before shoving his hands in his pockets and walking over to his brother.

For a moment Marnie just sat there waiting for the tingling in her hand to stop.

'WE NEED TO TALK!!!!!' Marnie rolled her eyes at the paper. She'd never understand why Percy insisted on writing in capitals all the time.

"Stop taking the bandage off." Lee scolded as he came over to change the dressing.

"Sorry." Marnie gave him a sheepish smile making Lee shake his head.

"It's healing quickly. I think you'll be outta here before the camp fire." Marnie smiled. Genuinely smiled at the thought of sitting at the camp fire eating s'mores.

She spent hours waiting impatiently for her wound to heal, listening to Connor Stoll sum up popular movies in correctly.

"And Daniel Radcliffe kills Robert Pattinson at the end." He explained making Marnie shake her head.

"I don't think that's true." She raised her eyebrows at him.

"Have you ever seen the forth Harry Potter movie?"

"Have you?" She retorted shooting him a glare (she hadn't seen it).

"Children... please no more bickering." Sherman Yang interrupted Connor as he opened his mouth to argue with her.

Someone cleared their throat. A huge African-American boy with a nervous look on his face and muscles like a pro ballplayer's.

"Marnie?" He stood by her bed his hands behind his back.

Marnie remembered him from the chariot race, he was the boy from the Hephaestus cabin. Beckendorf.

"I-I heard you didn't have any weapons so I made you these." He said awkwardly dropping two heavy, covered items onto her bed.

Marnie looked at the 'gifts' sceptically Beckendorf nodded to them encouragingly.

Warily she pulled back the white cloth a beautiful dark wooden bow with silver decoration and intricate carvings on it. The quiver was also dark wood with silver accents and a leather strap with a buckle to decide the tightness of the quiver.

"Woah." Marnie muttered smiling brightly at the beautifully crafted weapon in her lap.

"Selina mentioned that you enjoyed archery so I made these." He gave her an awkward smile.

"COOL!" Marnie squealed excitedly gently picking up the bow and ran her finger along the inscription on the inside ελευθερία. "F-free-dom." she translated shakily.

"Here." Beckendorf said more confidently giving her the other wrapped weapon.

Marnie grinned snatching it out of his hands. A long-bladed bronze dagger with a glittery pink hilt, another ancient word was written on the blade 'φιλότιμο' honour.

It glittered in the light. Marnie instantly dropped the blade once she caught sight of her reflection.

Lee had taken the bandages off the let her wound 'breathe'. A thick jagged horizontal line sat beneath her left eye and shorter line connected another that stretched diagonally across her cheek. A scar like a broken triangle. A scar.

"Get out." Marnie said quietly her hands shaking furiously.

"Marnie are you-"

"GET OUT!" She screeched making most of the infirmary jump.

Lee quickly made his way over to her shooing everyone away as she sat hyperventilating, tears streaming down her face.

A scar. None of her siblings had scars, her perfect siblings and mothers didn't have scars. Her face was ruined, she was ruined.








































Author's Note

I know Marnie may seem a little dramatic but it's to show both her development in the future and the fact that she's a thirteen-year-old girl.















This chapter as The Office memes


Marnie listening to Connor ruin movies for hours



Drew entering literally any room






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