Olympus Academy

Artemis

Artemis patiently waited for the perfect moment to sneak back into class. She sat in the back corner next to the door and had snuck out at the beginning of second period to buy a soda. Finally, Mrs. Rhea was looking at the whiteboard on the opposite end of the room; she dashed in and plunked into her seat. She grinned at her friends and slipped the soda bottle into the pocket of her silver bag.

"And that's how you do geometry proofs," Mrs. Rhea concluded. Artemis put one earbud in and turned on her weird death metal music, watching the hall for anything interesting. An argument in the hallway brought her attention to two freshmen, Poseidon and Athena. Both students were old rivals ever since Dikteon Elementary when Athena formulated a (way too complicated) plan to get back at Poseidon for destroying her favorite book in the fountain.

Artemis leaned her head the slightest bit to see the calamity, but someone tapped her right shoulder. When she turned around, no one was there; she whipped her head around to the left side and accidentally smacked someone in the face with her long braid.

"Ouch!" he complained quietly. "Watch where you flip your braid, Artemis."

Artemis turned her head and saw Zeke, a transfer, laughing at her with his two buddies, Ares and Dionysus. The kid was new yet he was friends with the two most popular boys at Olympus High and Artemis's only friends were Atalanta and Orion? How sad was that?

"What do you want?" Artemis asked through grit teeth. "A soda? Want some fries while I'm at it?"

Zeke shook his head and said, "No, actually, I wanted to invite you to a party me and the guys are throwing this Friday. You and your... friends can come."

"Thanks, but you and the guys can suck my dick, Zeke. We're not interested in losers like you."

Atalanta nodded and made a rude gesture. "This is for you, Ares."

Ares feigned shock. "Oh, you're so mean, Atalanta! I'm so hurt. First you kill my dog, now this..."

"I didn't mean to kill your stupid Kalydonian thing, it attacked me and I defended myself," she retorted, then scribbled on her worksheet when Mrs. Rhea looked towards the back of the room.

"Anyways," Ares said, stretching in his seat, "you two should still come to our dorm. It'll be lit."

"Yeah, I got all the best drinks in the school," Dionysus added.

"Crackhead," Artemis murmured, turning to Atalanta. "Hey, what was the answer to number ten?"

The two engaged in fake concentration as they copied down Mrs. Rhea's pointers on the board and discussed the answers until they actually ended up completing the worksheet. Lucky for them, Mrs. Rhea had everyone pass the papers up as class drew to an end, and Artemis smirked as she watched the three obnoxious boys hand in blank papers. Zeke caught her looking an made an ugly face—well, any face he made was ugly, but this one was exceptionally ugly—and Artemis returned the gesture with her middle finger. The bell rang and she and Atalanta hurried down to the first floor for their gym class.