IF I'M LOUDER- Greek Mythology AU

CHAPTER 1 - Part II - Mercury

Aaliyah had no intention of correcting the teacher really, but it was in her blood. The impulsive kid always had something to say and often had to interrupt someone when doing so. She had an impressive knowledge on various topics, which, funnily enough, brought her trouble from time to time.

"Tell me again the reason why you got that detention. Please." said a baffled Shawn. He had known Aaliyah for so many years but still didn't manage to get it in his system that her friend got detention almost every week.

"Well, you have detention too"

"Yes, but because I fell asleep in class, not because I know too much"

Aaliyah rolled her eyes and continued walking towards her locker. She put the combination in and spun around to correct her friend.

"I don't know too much, the teacher just doesn't know enough".

She stopped in her tracks when she heard a rumbling in her locker, and soon enough, it started trembling. Nobody else seemed to notice though, while Shawn and Aaliyah were petrified staring at the abnormal locker, everybody else saw two teens looking completely and utterly terrified staring at the ordinary, everyday locker. Noticing everybody was staring at her, she quickly approached the trembling locker and with a simple hand movement, opened it. However, what she didn't expect, was hundreds of feathers to fly out of her locker. While a shocked Aaliyah walked backwards until she hit the lockers behind her, Shawn took a step forward and managed to catch a couple of feathers despite the horrified shouts of Aaliyah telling him to "Drop that feather right now, you big baboon" In response, Shawn only chuckled and sent her a smirk " Sugar honey iced tea, Shawn! "

___

"I can't actually believe we are doing this"

"Well, we are"

"Shawn, this is serious. We just broke into our school's science lab" Aaliyah put her goggles on and secured her lab coat, while frantically spinning her head analyzing her surroundings, checking for any people or cameras that might be watching "Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, yes, I already told you so, just trust me for once"

The feathers were all distributed into different glass containers, they only had five and they were, oddly enough, still trying to escape. Shawn was watching them intently, grabbing the containers and shaking them around, placing them on the desk and observing them. Minutes passed, and the containers had been shaken far too many times to count. Shawn was already sure there was absolutely no pattern in the behavior of the wings or any hint of what they are, but for the sake of his honor, he just continued looking and pretending he was actually making progress. Aaliyah's patience ran out.

"Oh, come on you big buffoon, how can you not realize they are all moving in the same direction?"

"No, they are no- Wait, yes they are! Why didn't you tell me this before?" Demanded Shawn while shaking his head, because, after years of friendship, he hadn't a clue of what happened inside that very curious brain of hers.

"I'm sorry for overestimating you and thinking you'd actually realize something that's right before your eyes. Given the fact that you didn't even see that, I'm going to suppose you also didn't see the golden strips along their base or the fact that they are not evenly cut so they were probably forcibly broken or snatched."

"I-I-How do you manage to do that ?" Aaliyah shrugs and sits on her stool again with a proud smile stretching across her face, completely erasing all trace of annoyance she had previously held.

"I was just stating the obvious, you're just too slow to realize"

___

Aaliyah did not think it was a good idea. But after hours of pleading, and maybe even some blackmailing, she had finally agreed to follow the direction the feathers tried to escape to. They sneaked through the empty hallways and ducked out of view when they passed the classroom windows. Suddenly, Aaliyah, who was behind Shawn, screeched loudly and quickly covered her mouth. A boy, not older than fifteen, walked out of the shadows he was hiding in.

"Who are you?" Blurted the boy in a loud pitched voice, switching between looking at Aaliyah, Shawn, and the lockers.

"I'm Shawn, and this is my friend Aaliyah, and who might you be buddy?" Asked Shawn while crouching down to meet the boys' eyes, Shawn had a few centimeters on him, even for his age, the same couldn't be said of the short, but slim, blonde.

"I'm not a kid"

"Um...yes, you kinda are sweetie" Aaliyah butted in

"I'm a freshman"

"We're seniors"

"Ok, not the point. Now, what are you doing here? "

"We could ask the same thing, what are you... eleven?"

"I'm fourteen, for gods' sakes just drop it already" Cried the blonde frustratedly, while the friends laughed. However, the loudest voice didn't come from Shawn, nor Aaliyah, it came from the locker the boy was looking at before. Shawn cautiously approached the locker, tiptoeing slowly until he reached the handle, in a fast but sharp movement, he opened the locker to see a pair of eyes looking straight back at him. Shawn jumped to his feet petrified, while an unimpressed Aaliyah helped the girl out of the locker who silently chuckled at Shawn's expression

"So...what were you doing in a locker?" Asked a baffled Shawn who had absolutely no clue what a kid would be doing inside a locker during class hours.

"I was figuring out how well I can fit in it" responded the girl with, surprisingly, a broad smile on her face.

"Why?"

"For-"

"Future references" completed the boy with a funny uncomfortable face "Now if you don't mind, we'll be going. Come on Ianthe, we have to see if you fit in the air ducts"

"Wait a second Balthasar-"

"Don't call me by my full name, you know I don't like it"

"As was saying before you so rudely interrupted me." The girl groaned at her friend, before turning towards the seniors with her head tilted to the side and face scrunched up as if she was in deep thought. "Why do you have the glass containers from the lab in your hands, and more importantly, why are there moving feathers trying to escape from them?"

As a reflex, Shawn put the glass containers not so subtly behind his back, and with a shaky voice, he muttered "I don't know what you're talking about" His face showed uneasiness and regret. He had screwed up majorly and had no way to take it back, the kid was already sporting a playful smirk. He knew that his plan had now officially failed after a short 45 minutes of execution.

"So...what are the mystical feathers for?" Teased Balthasar with a steadily growing smirk on his face matching his best friend's. "Oh sorry, were you going somewhere?"

"Oh, my sweet friend Balthasar, they seem to be going in the same direction the feathers are trying to escape to" Shawn looked at the young girl like she had grown two heads, baffled by her quick response and smart analysis.

"A couple of freshmen not only ruined your plan, but also outsmarted you. Well done Shawn, you're going to get far in life" Uttered Aaliyah with a smirk, leaving Shawn flabbergasted and with a couple of kids giggling at him. Both  seniors accepted defeat and continued their journey with two smirking kids trailing behind.