A Pawn For Time (Daughter of the Olympians #1)

(7) This is Me

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<Set before The Lightning Thief>
10 years later
•Katherine's Point of View•

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Ugh," I groaned. I hit my alarm clock and read the time. 6:30 A.M. Man, I hate weekdays.

I got up from my bed and started to get dressed. I slipped off my night clothes and stared at my closet. I decided to wear a black tank top, black tights with blue jean shorts over it, and a red flannel shirt to tie around my waist. I slipped on my black combat boots and headed to the kitchen.

I quickly grabbed an apple before the head mistress saw me. I grabbed my bag and headed out the door.

My mornings consists of this routine everyday. On the weekends I usually seek through the French Quarter, instead of going to school. My life was as normal as it could get.

My name is Katherine François. I'm 15 years old. My real name is Katerina, but who wants to walk around with that name? Definitely not me.

I live in a foster home in New Orleans. Yep, that's right, I'm an orphan. I don't know much about my parents. All I know is that they put me in the foster system when I was 5.

I have no memory of anything before that, but I'm not too concerned.

I'm currently in 10th grade, and I go to a private school called North Horizon Academy. I have no idea why it's called that, considering we are in the middle of the French Quarter and in the South of the US.

This is my 3rd school in the past year, you see I have a "discipline problem". I honestly believe that teachers and the school board system are out to get me.

In my first school this year, some lame place outside the city, I got expelled for throwing a dodge ball at a teacher. I told the principal that she threw one at me first, but she didn't believe me.

At the second school, we took a field trip to the World War II museum, and I apparently pushed a quote, "innocent civilian" into a display on Hilter. The person attacked me and had only one eye, but once again no one believed me and I was sent off to another school. That's how I ended up at North Horizon.

This time, I was determined to be good. No more suspensions until I graduate. I wanted to do this for me. Moving around place to place was always a hard thing.

I snapped back to reality when I heard a school bell ringing. I hurried and ran into the school and straight to my locker. I unpacked my stuff, grabbed my books and headed to my homeroom. English. I don't get why so many people hate it, but I had some respect for it. After all, it was the only class that I had an A in.

I sat in my desk just as the tardy bell rang and let out a sigh of relief. I hated being late to class. Our teacher, Mrs. Brooks, took role and started her lesson. We were going to read the novel To Kill A Mockingbird for the next week. I kind of zoned out after that, everything else was a bore to me.

So there I sat for an hour, listening to Mrs. Brooks lecture us on the importance of deadlines. The bell rang for 2nd block and I grabbed my stuff and headed out the door and to my next class. If I could get through lectures from Mrs.Brooks, I could do anything. If only I knew then how right I was.

•A/N For those of you wondering, François is pronounced "Franswa". It's French and I like it :) Character Polaroid: Katherine François portrayed by Zhenya Katava•