Another One Bites the Dust - - - OPEN

[Amber Craze James]

Amber struggled to pull back the arrow. She was good at archery, but this was too far. They had given her a bow much to big for her, expecting her to pull it off. Gahh! Why can't anyone stop expecting stuff out of her? She found it annoying that everyone always assumed -- even Demigods themselves -- that if you're a Demigod, then you're capable of anything. Man, how that got annoying.

Finally, she got it pulled back, a sweat actually breaking out on her arms. She did the correct posture, aimed, and let the wooden arrow fly, wobbling and spinning as in imbedded itself roughly two inches from the red center of the target. Amber grabbed another arrow, doing the same ritual and letting fly. This time it did get inside the red center, just not dead center.

She was pretty good. But then again, she was an Apollo kid. Runs in the family, right? Right. So Amber couldn't take too much credit, so instead she muttered a thank you. Just then, she could see the sun grow just a bit brighter, as if Apollo was saying ''finally someone sees that it's me!''. Amber smiled at the thought of her dad looking upon her, and it drove her determination to get a perfect shot in.

The pullback got easier each time. Amber had muscles from doing the rockwall so many times, not unlike most of the girls at camp. So it wasn't impossible for her to do it so many times. As for the stance -- she'd memorized that a long time ago. Then there was the release, which was the easy part.

But this time, she had held it to close to her. The rope around the bow scraped Amber's cheek and the wrist she was holding it with. She lurched back in suprise, sure that this would make her shot terrible. Hanging up the bow with eyes closed and then opening them while she was clutching her cheek she saw something very, very strange.

Bullseye. Go figure.

Forgetting her pain, Amber did a little dance. Snapping her fingers, doing an odd torso-bob thing and swinging her head Amber started singing. ''And another one bites the dust! And another one bites the dust! And another one gone, and another one gone and another one bites the dust!''

She wasn't sure why she picked that song, it just seemed to fit. She smiled and continud, collecting a ton of stares. But it's not like she cared -- Amber James never got embarassed.

[Millenium Camden]

Millenium scrunched her nose up, and looked the mirror by December Winchell's bed. It was the only mirror in the Hermes Cabin, because no other Hermes Kids gave a crap about their appearance, so Millenium thought that it would be okay to use Em's while she was at Arts and Crafts. Millenium had just awoken - she had been at camp for one day so far - and the cut on her face from yesterday's battle hurt like crazy. This camp was already growing on her, and she liked it. She was also utterly curious to find out about her father. Mom had never said much about him, except for the fact that he was kind and gentle, but still fiery and strong.

The blonde threw on some classic light blue waterproof shorts that were decorated with abstract turquoise spirals, and a navy blue tube top, which didn't really match, but Millenium didn't really care about her clothes. She brushed out her ratty bed-head, then curled it up, so it looked goregous when it bounced along her back. But Millenium always only curled her hair slightly, so it wasn't totally curled, but not flat-out straight either. She was picky about this. Without even putting on makeup - which Millenium couldn't care less abotu - she headed out.

It was a really nice day, and Millenium felt clean against the air. She made a mental note to go to the beach later, because she had only occasionally gone to the beach in California, considering how poor she had been. But whenever she was in water, her legs started to grow scales, so Millenium always got out, thoroughly creeped. She had never really taken long showers. She now wondered if it had to do with the fact that she was a demigod. Her father had to have something to do with water. Or else the fact that she would have fish scales would be a bit retarded.

But there was one place Millenium really had wanted to go, and that was the archery range. She had tried to shoot an arrow once, and had failed so bad, that she had hit the tree that was about seven trees down from that one. And she had hit the leaves instead of the trunk. She wasn't the best archer, so this would be an excellent opporotunity to get a little better at it.

On her way down, a song caught Millenium's ear. It was no doubtedly "Another One Bites the Dust", which Millenium had always known was a classic. The voice was obviously female, because no male vocals could be that high. She kept going to the archery range, but found that the voice got stronger the more she kept going. Then she finally realized that it was coming from the archery range. That was one thing about Millenium. She had a slow mind when it came to things like that.

When Millenium finally got to the archery range, she found a blonde girl singing it while she shot arrows, hitting the bullseye every single time. Millenium could never do that. Shoot the arrows, I mean. She can sing quite fine, actually.
She stood there at the entrance to the archery range, looked at the girl for a few seconds - who didn't seem to notice her presence -, and said "Gee, now that song's gonna be stuck in my head," she grinned as she said it, realizing how odd it must sound. Some random little girl comes up to you and tells you that the song you're singing is going to be stuck in her head. Weird.

Plus, the girl must have been at the least fourteen years old, and Millenium was only twelve. The last time she checked, fourteen-year-olds think that twelve-year-olds are strange little creatures from another planet, but this girl seemed to be the equivalent of oddness that Millenium was, so it was alright.

[Amber Craze James]

"Gee, now that song's gonna be stuck in my head,"

Would it be sad if that the first thing Amber James thought when she turned around was Man, that girl needs to get a fashion sense! Oh, it would? Well, she did.

Instead of focusing on the words she said, she was focusing on that horrid clothes on her. I never thought it was possible for blue to be so... so... blindingly horrible. Amber thought, her eyes trained on her outfit. Her face probably showed her horror, but she was to startled to care/hide it.

It was a fact of life that Amber was a fashionista. A serious fashionista. One that was obsessed with capitalization. And a slight perfectionist who made messes all the time. And a country girl. And a girl who eats way more than most girls, yet remains skinny. And a girl who is totally boy-obsessed, yet can't get a boyfriend.

Honestly, she was a hot mess.

''You're welcome!'' Amber said, a bit louder than needed. She was a loud girl, it was just her. She had even once screamed ''OHMYGOSH!'' in quiet time at her camp that she used to go to. The result was glares and a serious punishment. It wan't her fault, though, she was just loud. She stood out in the crowd, was a little too loud, but that's why people love her! Okay, Aries is now just using a quote from a song to make her wordcount longer. Curse Maria! She's the one who got Arinne obsessed with it!

Anyway...

Amber picked up her bow again and nodded to the girl. ''Care to join me?'' She asked, notching it with an arrow. She let the arrow fly, and it hit way of center. ''Shoot!'' She exclaimed. Then: ''You know, for an Apollo, I suck at archery.''

[Millenium Camden]

"Sure. Thanks." Millenium picked up a bow and arrow, then shot the arrow very quickly, and hit a few centimeters short from the bullseye. Mill shrugged. "Kinda. I've seen much worse archers." the problem with Millenium is that she's a loud, slightly-annoying, goofy twelve-year-old. She voiced her opinions quite clearly. "By the way, I'm Mill. That's short for Millenium."

The twelve-year-old introduced herself with pride, because she was very proud about who she was. Millenium continued shooting arrows, always hitting several centimeters to one inch from the bullseye. Ugh. Such inperfection. She scowled at the target, with had arrows stuck all over it, forming a perfect circle of the celestial bronze-tipped arrows around the bullseye. Millenium sighed. Hopeless. Grrr.

Millenium threw down her bow, crossed her arms, and gave out an exasperated "Humph.". Then she turned to the girl and said "This is a hopeless activity. I really don't mean to offend you or your father, but this is a crappy waste of time."

Mill wiped the sweat off of her brow with the back of her hand. She picked up her bow and fired the last arrow, being careful to aim it perfectly. With a pleasing sound, the arrow hit the bullseye. Millenium punched the air with success, "Yeah!" she said in triumph. If Millenium Camden was anything, she wasn't a quitter. At all.

[Amber Craze James]

"Kinda. I've seen much worse archers."

''Yeah, but none of them are Apollo's.'' Amber aimed her bow and arrow and then fired one. The arrow struck the middle of the target. Hmm. Well, maybe she didn't suck at it! I mean, compared to her half-sibling Ossac, she wasn't very good. But still, she was Apollo-worthey. Right? Right.

"By the way, I'm Mill. That's short for Millenium."

''I'm Amber. That's... not short for anything.'' Amber laughed, then re-adjusted her arrow, let it fly, and watched as it hit a few inches away from the center. The blond let loose a curse under her breath, then tried again. Another arrow a few inches from center. Dang! What did a girl have to do too get two bullseye hits in a row? Practice? I mean, practice was so exhausting!

"Humph. This is a hopeless activity. I really don't mean to offend you or your father, but this is a crappy waste of time."

''...It really is.'' Amber agreed, nodding. She honestly had no idea why she was even there. Probably because there was a lot of crap on her mind, and she just wanted to do something that required focus so that she didn't have to think. Between all the sickness, the guy trouble and just the overall drama, there was no time to breathe. So when she had gotten a regular, non-packed day she did something pointless. Makes sense, right? Right!

"Yeah!"

The daughter of Apollo's head snapped around. ''Wow. Good job!'' She said brightly. Then she walked over too the rack where all the arrows laid, and hung up her bow and hung the quiver she was wearing next too it. She was done. Was that a crime? Maybe No. She just decided she wanted to do something else with her day off.