First Day (01)

After Axel heads off, I start gathering things together on my tray to bus it, but while Hannah and I have a second alone, I ask her quietly, "Hey, how are things really going? I'm glad you get to be in school. But is he...you know, treating you okay and everything?"

I feel the familiar pang of guilt about getting Hannah involved in this mess. I know it's too late to do anything differently now, but it's still there. I lean my cheek against her head. "Romantic is better than...whatever he thought he was before, right?" It's another of my actions that I hope hasn't backfired. I really was trying to help. "After graduation, is...is Protigi the plan then? Or will you try to convince him to stay then too?"

"Marries you!" I blurt out, too loud. I pull away from our little cuddle to look at her in shock, but wait a few beats for my outburst to be swallowed by the cafeteria before I continue, "He's going to marry you? When...when did that happen?"

Melony grins like the cheshire cat when she overhears your outburst, mostly due to your shock.

My eyes narrow momentarily on Melony. That witch doesn't deserve to grin at me.

But I focus back on Hannah. "You can't have his children," I say, softly now, taking her hand and squeezing it. "Mortals giving birth to demigods can be..." I flashback to Soph. All that blood. Just...just everywhere. She could've died. She would've died if I hadn't helped. "It can be bad." I don't say it out loud, but I also can't imagine that any child of Menoetius would be small or easy or anything but an absolute demon. "You can't let that happen."

I take a breath, hearing the ask without her even having to say it outright. "Dionysus was the one who wanted you to go be with him in the first place, right? Maybe whatever goal he had in mind has been accomplished now..." Or maybe he just forgot about it completely. "Let me talk to him, at the party tonight. Maybe it's time for you to be done with all of that."

I wave off her worries. "It's no risk. Dionysus and I are cool. Plus...he is capricious, and that's exactly why he might not even care about this whole Menoetius thing anymore." I get up and give her shoulder a squeeze before I pick up my tray. "Don't worry about it."

You swear you see Hannah mouth the words "I love you" before she heads out of the cafeteria down a different hallway. You head to your next class - AP Psychology, and move to sit in front of Red. She grins brightly when she sees you.



How does Kinsley Patterson remind you that you aren't a normal human?

What does Jonathan Martin do that really gets on your nerves?

Who here survived one of your hexes unscathed?

Hannah's words - even if I maybe made them up - stick with me as I make my way to class. It feels...close to what worship feels like, to be honest, and it gives me a bit of a high, which is always helpful before I see Red. Keeping her close but not giving her too much has been a delicate balance, one I'm always aware of.

I head toward the seat in front of her, giving her a quick smile before I sit and immediately turn to Cris, greeting him aloud, "Hey. You don't mind if I sit next to you, right?"

I glance up toward Kinsley, who has called me "Aphrodite" ever since she pieced together that I dated Kastor, Shane, and then she saw me with Knox. I hope Aphrodite doesn't hold it against me. It's just a stupid nickname, but it always reminds me how different I am.

Sitting behind Jonathan Martin in this class might make me crazy because he's a pencil tapper. Constantly tapping his pencil on the edge of his desk or his notebook. I'm not sure if he's some kind of drummer, or maybe he's doing Morse code, or dren, maybe he's casting some kind of spell that requires constant attention. Whatever it is, it's SO annoying.

Then there's Chloe Schmidt in the corner, on her phone OF COURSE. She thinks she's some kind of diva influencer, and when I tried to hit her with a little Psychic Resonance so she'd stop worrying about online followers and start connecting with the real world, it...did absolutely nothing. I'm pretty sure I did everything right, so I'm still not quite sure what happened.

Cris and I have been in circles that haven't really crossed before. He was really into being on the football team and it was a year-round job for him basically. No time for relationships, no time for any homework that wasn't required to stay in sports. But he got a concussion and I heard the doctors banned him from playing this year, which sort of sucks college-wise. I wonder if it's kind of a relief, though? He doesn't seem that upset over it for some reason, but maybe he's just not the type to openly sulk around the halls.

I ignore Red for the moment and focus all my attention on Cris - attention I know she wants. "How was your summer?"