The Beginning of the End (J. Grace)

VIII: Elara wants to get kicked out before she's in the building

Elara's PoV:

So, how is she going to get kicked out of this school...?

That is all Elara was thinking about while Argus drove her, Annabeth, Piper, Leo and Jason to their new school. It wasn't a long journey, really -thirty minutes- but it felt like forever.

The boys were sat in the front while the girls were in the back, Elara in the middle as there seemed to be some tension still between the other two, though it was slowly wearing away. She wondered what had happened or if it was just that -in many ways- they were so different. Although, they're so similar at the same time.

"Who've we gotta look out for?" Elara questioned the daughter of Athena to break the silence.

Annabeth was wearing a simple, plain light blue T-shirt, matching her blue Yankees cap (which had rudely lost its invisibility magic) and white jeans paired with trainers.

"No one, really." She shrugged, absentmindedly flicking through the pages of a Geography text book. "There are a ton of people who'll down-talk you no matter what you do. Just don't let it get to you. There's so much drama in that group, you can't even imagine."

"Alright." Elara reclined in her seat, feeling a little better about that.

She looked to Piper who was wearing flattering dark blue jeans with a fitted white top and there was her favourite fleece snowboarding jacket stuffed into her bag.

Elara had come to know what the colour of her friend's eyes meant regarding her mood: her happy colour was light green mixed with a sunny gold, her bored colour was grey with blue geometric shapes, and so on, and so on.

Right now, Piper's eyes were dark green with a light brown around the edges of her iris: scared/nervous.

She reached out and squeezed her friend's fidgeting hands reassuringly, giving her a supportive smile when she looked up.

"It's going to be alright, okay?"

Piper nodded slightly. "Ok." She whispered, clearly not convinced, but thankful for the comfort.

"Besides, Dove," Elara continued. "You need to help me decide how I'm going to get kicked out."

Her signature troublemaker grin was plastered across her face once more as Annabeth slapped the daughter of Hermes's arm with a tsk sound.

Laughing, the daughter of Aphrodite queried. "What are the options?"

"Don't encourage her!" Wise Girl exclaimed in frustration, but they were all laughing now.

"Oh, I have so many ideas." Elara's eyes glittered as her mother's once did, before... before...

Annabeth sighed. "You're lucky that I love you, Lara." She decided, putting her book away and smiling at her.

"I know I am." Was all she said in response.

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When they pulled into the driveway, Elara was relieved to find that it just looked like a regular old school. Nothing fancy: there were your standard high walls, flat roofs, metal lockers with the paint peeling on some and, overall, a pretty normal school vibe.

"Great, school." Elara grumbled, gazing up at the building. "How long do you think it'll take before they get tired of me?"

"Oh, don't be like that!" Annabeth exclaimed, trying to be comforting, but looking up that the building with dread.

"It's hard not to after you've been kicked out of almost all of the schools in the country and more." She countered, reaching down to her bag which was by her feet to check that everything she was going to need was in there: