Finding Her Place

Chapter 15 A Surprise and, Welcome Guest?

Walking into the dining room, Sarah felt hundreds of eyes on her. Then she locked on to a specific two pairs of eyes. She made eye contact with Zoi and Julian from across the room.

"Sarah, the two of us usually sit together. Just the two of us. So... if you want... and do not mind we could sit with you and your friends?" Sammy asked hesitantly as if he was worried about Sarah's response.

"Of course you can come sit with me!" Was Sarah's enthusiastic response. She didn't know if Zoi and Julian wanted to sit with her, so she would happily take on two more friends.

As the threesome approached Sarah saw Zoi and Julian waving at her. Then their faces slightly dropped when they realized she wasn't alone.

"You know Zoi?" Gabriel questioned, seemingly in awe.

"Yeah. She was one of my first friends here with Julian. That's the boy with strawberry blond hair."

"Hi Sarah! Gabriel, Sammy," Zoi greeted. Julian looked shocked that she was so familiar with the two boys.

"You know them?" Julian asked the group. Sarah didn't know who he was referring to but both her and Zoi responded with a simple "Yeah."

All of the boys said "Hi" to each other being very shy in front of the new person and people respectfully. Sarah, Sammy and Gabriel all sat down and started to eat in silence.

"So Sarah, what did you do today and how did you meet Sammy and Gabriel?" as Julian spoke he almost sounded resentful. As if he was jealous of the other two boys.

"Oh," Sarah didn't know how to respond.

"Sarah was getting extra tutoring for magic because she had missed so much and our teacher decided to let us help." Gabe said nonchalantly. Sarah supposed that he technically wasn't lying but it still made her feel uneasy. She was lying to some of the only real friends she had.

"Ok. I-we were worried about you," Julian said, not looking satisfied.

"Oh, by the way, this weekend and after dinner I'll be doing the same thing." Julian looked even more unhappy at this, but he brushed it off when Sarah questioned him.

Right before Sarah left, Zoi pulled her aside.

"I know that you were lying before. Which of the big three is your father? I swear on the Styx that I won't tell. I understand how it feels to be crazy powerful." Sarah was taught in her previous truth or dare sessions exactly what a swear on the Styx meant so she decided to trust Zoi.

"My dad is..." she hesitated. "My dad is Hades, god of The Underworld."

"Oh, good! Now we have a perfect trio!" Sarcasm was dripping off of Zoi's words. "Not that I despise any of you. Actually, I quite like the three of you but, the power that you possess- it's dangerous.'' Then Sarah heard Zoi mumble one last part that Sarah assumed was not meant for her ears. "Even I don't possess the power two of you combined hold. At least you guys have a way to control me now."

Sarah was worried and concerned about what that meant.

"Sarah, we should be going back now," Sammy said, snapping Sarah out of her thoughts and she turned to face her cousins.

Gabriel noticed the look on Zoi and Julian's faces, "don't worry we'll have her back by nine."

"Probably," Sammy finished. Then the two of them dragged Sarah off to the room.

Anna was waiting for them with a stack of books.

"I will send these up to your room at some point but not now," she said, gesturing to the large pile of books.

"Thank you!" was Sarah's timid response.

They finished up training and as promised, Sarah was walked to her room. Julian was patrolling the hallways as part of his duties and missed them in the dark corridor. As a consequence of that, Sarah and Julian bumped into each other.

"Sorry," Sarah apologized.

"It's fine," Julian brushed off, then he realized who it was. "Oh. Hi Sarah, you finally finished training?"

"Yeah, but I'm really tired."

"I can tell. It's a child of Apollo thing. You should really get some rest." They said their goodbyes and Sarah stumbled into her room practically falling onto the bed. She managed to change and brush her teeth slipping into bed right before passing out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sarah was bored in her math class; the previous day had been much more exciting.

Sarah had already woken up and had a simple breakfast of cereal.

The bell rang and she headed to ELA with Julian and Zoi.

ELA passed by much quicker than Sarah's previous class and before she knew it it was time for swordsmanship.

Thankfully, none of her classes, including this one, had asked her where she was yesterday. She couldn't lie to her teachers and she couldn't tell them with Julian around.

"Sarah, we have some dummies over there. Why don't you practice with them?" Mr. Summer suggested pointing to the practice dummies. She did as suggested and was thinking about what Mr. Summer had said. All of her teachers were working together to change her schedule but to also keep the same teacher. He had said that they would have it done by the next week.

In what felt like 5 minutes, but was in reality 45 minutes, the period was over.

The rest of the school day was boring. After that, Sarah and her entire floor had training.

"Ok now we are going to man 'Apollo's music and Archery school/shop'." Julian was obviously annoyed or embarrassed at this fact. Sarah couldn't tell which.

"What is that?" Sarah was confused.

"It's the store that the Apollo kids run as well as the rest of the floor because there are not enough kids from the other gods to have a store or something. It is a 'shop and school for bowmanship and music' that is located downtown." Julina was definitely annoyed.

They all walked into the shop. It was closed at the moment so they all had to lend a hand in getting it ready for consumers. All they had to do was get it ready for customers and serve any if they walked into the store. Though she was warned that the shops almost never got any business during 'after school activities'. So of course it was just Sarah's luck that she would be the one manning the store with Julian and Zoi right as a customer entered the store.

A man in a black robe walked in with a hood covering his face.

"Hello. Can I help you?" Sarah asked the stranger. Or who she assumed to be a stranger.

"Yes my child, I wish to speak with you." Julian was in shock and confusion at the man's words while Zoi was just impressed that Sarah had managed an audience with the lord of the dead. Sarah was an odd combination of both of their emotions.

"Father?" Sarah finally managed to speak after a long paus.

"Yes. I am your father now. Will you come with me or ask your friends to leave? This matter must be discussed in private."

"We will leave lord H-" Zoi was cut off by a look from Sarah reminding her that Julian didn't know her secret. Yet.