The Stars Are Burning [PAUSED]

7. Hermes

WHILE THE GODS worried about their mortalities, Fletcher woke up the next day more tired than ever. Her eyelids were droopy and threatened to fall if she hadn't forced herself to wash her face with ice-cold water. After packing her bag, she walked down the stairs to a plate of pancakes and a cup of coffee already on the kitchen island.

Her brother was eating scrambled eggs with ketchup splattered on it disgustingly as he read the newspaper.

"Morning," Fletcher said, peering over the thirteen-year-old boy's shoulder as he flipped to the page about a merger between two tech companies.

"The Arnaut-Rellacy merger will make the new company a dangerous monopoly power in the tech industry." Fred mused. He finished his egg and stood. "We'll have to leave in five minutes if you don't want to be late."

Fred was a freshman who'd skipped a grade due to his virtuosic piano playing and impressive PSAT score of 1450. He was too young to drive and had to go to school in Fletcher's car.

"When can we get a private driver?" Fred asked as they left the house and waited for the elevator.

"Mom and Dad think that they're a waste of money."

"But everybody has private drivers, and it's embarrassing how we don't."

"That's only because we go to an expensive-ass private school that offers IB. And since when did you care about what others have?"

"Alice asked if I had a private driver," Fred said. The art deco elevator doors opened, and they stepped inside.

"So what?" Alice was, supposedly, the prettiest freshman in the school.

"I don't know," Fred admitted.

"It seems hypocritical for me to say this, but anybody who cares more about money and opulence than people's actual personalities is not worth your time."

Fred nodded but didn't say anything.

AFTER BORING LESSONS without any of her close friends in it, Fletcher was at least enjoying her lunch break with Naomi and Gail.

"Do you think we're gonna get our chemistry test back next period?" Naomi asked Fletcher as she tried to twirl overcooked spaghetti onto her fork. The noodles broke apart, and she had to resort to scooping it up with her fork. Cafeteria food, no matter the quality of the school, was always terrible.

"Probably not," Fletcher replied. She was thankful that she'd brought her own food from home.

"But what if we had to retake the test because we were all cheating?"

Fletcher snorted. "I made sure the substitute teacher wouldn't snitch on us."

"I don't even want to know how you managed to do it." Naomi chuckled.

"I just warned the teacher not to do anything stupid, I didn't even try," Fletcher remembered how she forced Cassian to shapeshift back into himself after he pretended to be the substitute teacher.

The cafeteria microphone crackled to life.

"Fletcher Cheung, please go to the office with your belongings. You're not in trouble." The receptionist said in his smooth voice. Everybody knew that he was in a relationship with the principal.

The seniors in the cafeteria glanced at Fletcher then resumed talking among themselves. Fletcher turned to her friends with an incredulous look on her face.

"Go," Gail said, handing over Fletcher's sandwich box to her as she packed up.

Fletcher left the cafeteria, munching on her smoked salmon sandwich as quickly as possible. She walked up the stairs to the office.