Olympus High

Part 1

Atalanta navigated through the maze of tables in the cafeteria before plunking down on the seat beside Pandora at their usual spot. The latter was too busy glaring at Eros and Psyche to notice her friend groaning about how tired she was.

"Seriously guys? Could you two cut out the canoodling for like, two minutes? A girl is trying to eat here." Pandora whined.
"Sorry, Dora." Psyche said sheepishly as she pulled away from her boyfriend. Eros wrapped his arms around the dark skinned girl, preventing her from moving too far away
"Ugh why am I always third wheeling?" Pandora grumbled, "Why are the others taking so long to get their lunch anyway?"
"Yo I've been here for like two minutes now" Atalanta said, giving the girl beside her a friendly shove. She responded by sticking her tongue out at her.

"Who's that dude over at the jocks' table?" Hermes asked as he took the seat beside Eros. "He's been looking your way ever since I walked into the cafeteria."
Atalanta raised an eyebrow at Hermes as their whole table simultaneously turned to look at the mystery boy who had just been mentioned.
"OH MY GOD NOT ALL AT ONCE" Hermes hissed, causing them all to turn back.

"Isn't that the guy you're all chummy with during Professor Homer's class?" Eros asked.

Atalanta finally looked over to the jocks' table to see who they were all referring to, and smiled when he caught her eye. The brown haired boy looked away instantly, but glanced back at her again. She tilted her head and smiled, giving him a wave. He grinned back, the smile reaching his hazel eyes, before being pulled back into conversation by his friends. When she turned her attention back to her own company, she saw Eros wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at her.

"Oh my gods, what? It's just Hippomenes." She rolled her eyes.
"Interesting.." Pandora smirked, "How come I haven't heard about this one from you yet?"
"Because it's not that big of a deal, Dora. We met during pep rally practices and I've talked to him a couple of times. We're just friends." Atalanta shrugged, biting into her chicken sandwich.

"You know, we started out as friends ourselves" Psyche said, gesturing towards herself and Eros.
"Oh please," Hermes rolled his eyes, "You two made out the minute you laid eyes on each other!"

"Anyway," Pandora said, turning to look at her friend. "I thought you didn't want to date anyone, what with your busy schedule, and sports being your first love."

"I told you, I'm not. We're just friends.

-※-

Hippomenes watched the girls' soccer team as they practiced. In his opinion, their skills seemed to match - if not beat - their male counterparts. He watched as Atalanta sped through the field, zig-zagging around other players and passing the ball back and forth between her teammates.

She had short hair, which stopped just below her chin. Half of this was currently tied up to keep it out of her face, while the other half clung to the back of her neck. Even from the bleachers, he could see the layer of sweat covering her tanned skin, completely drenching the back of her jersey. Her face was screwed into a concentrated scowl all throughout the practice game as her lean legs carried her from one end of the field to the other. He leaned back, completely spellbound by her.

It wasn't just that she was attractive as hell, with her dark blue eyes and perfect smile, but also that her competitive spirit always seemed to keep things interesting. She was witty and never backed down from a challenge. They'd been friends for quite a while now, and he really wanted to take her out. But of course, there was a catch...

"What are you doing here?" Atalanta asked, jogging over to his spot. She plopped down on the grass and took a long sip from her water bottle. Her words brought him back to the present moment as he looked down at her. Hippomenes broke into a grin, "I wanted to see for myself how fast you were."

"And why is that?" She asked, tilting her head.
"Because I was wondering if you'd go on a date with me."