I pressed my head against the school bus window, not caring that it shook my teeth, making my head throb. My friend, Isabel, sat nearest to the aisle as she chattered with our friends, all of whom were sporting pink everything. I myself was wearing a thin-strapped tank top the color of Barbie and a denim skirt. I pulled down at it as I shifted my position, preventing it from riding up.
"Lan!" Isabel said, twisting face to me. I glanced up at her. Even when sitting down, she felt twice my height. It wasn't that I was extremely short, but Isabel just happened to be extremely tall. In fact, she looked like she had just walked out of a fashion magazine. "What do you think of Jason? We give him a nine."
Clara, my only ginger friend, protested. "A nine? I thought we agreed on ten, Isabel!"
"Guys, he's dating Piper," I said, raising my eyebrows. "And anyways, Clara rates everybody a ten."
"That's cause she's high all the time," Isabel whispered, loud enough for our whole group to hear. My friends laughed — all of them were always high. Honestly, I didn't see any point in going to Wilderness School if the counselors didn't care about making us 'better children' in the first place.
I was only here because some boy, whose name I will not mention for his sake, had framed me for something that was apparently so believable of me to do. Men, am I right? I knew I shouldn't have trusted him. Growing up, my mum always told me the stories of the woman who had my name before me. Atalanta, a fierce warrior, was kicked out by her father for being a girl. She learned to fight — to throw spears and run as fast as the wind. When I was younger, I wanted to be just like her. I never wanted to marry. I wanted to be just as important as a man, but have a reasonable attitude and thought process that most didn't have. Apparently, that was the reason she left my dad.
Unfortunately, I couldn't stop the man from putting me here. I had actually liked him, similar to how Ariadne had loved Theseus, but with more reason, as the boy who put me here was actually a good person in the beginning.
Suddenly, our counselor yelled at the boy named Jason, including his friends, who were sitting in the last row. I remember how the Atalanta from the stories had helped Jason acquire the Golden Fleece, pretending she was a man in order to do so. Our counselor, Coach Hedge, was short and always had a temper, no matter the day. Jason, on the other hand, was dashingly handsome, could flex and impress, and just straight-up beautiful. Too bad he was dating Piper, the main target of my friends' constant bullying whenever they weren't off gossiping or doing ... shenanigans. Don't do drugs, guys.
"The cow says moo!"
My friends and I snorted and laughed as Coach Hedge slapped his rigged megaphone, trying to convey the right words. Unfortunately, all that came out was the mechanic voice of Darth Vader, making whatever he was saying impossible to comprehend.
Eventually, he managed to scream at the top of his lungs and inform all of us that we had to complete a worksheet about the Grand Canyon (the place our school bus was headed) and not die. Well, I thought that seemed easy enough.
As we got off the bus, Isabel and I drifted towards the back of the group, walking slowly as she took something out of her wallet and offered it to me.
"We're going to a museum, Isabel."
"Ugh, fine." Isabel put the plastic bag back where it came from as she rolled her eyes.
"Besides," I said. "We should save it for Saturday anyways."
A gust of wind came at us, blowing our hair into our faces.
"Shit," Isabel said. "I should've brought a jacket."
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ATALANTA | hoo
FanfictionGrowing up, Atalanta was told the endless tales of the woman who held her name many years ago. She thought it was all just a good story, teaching her to be strong and fearless. However, when she finds herself unfairly enrolled in the Wilderness Scho...
