Poseidon's Academy

Chapter 4. Exciting News

Madam Grayson led the first years back to the entryway, where she ushered them through a wide archway between the two staircases. The room they entered was longer than it was wide, stretching the length of two Olympic-size swimming pools. Over fifty mother-of-pearl tables filled the vast space, each one bordered by ten scallop-shell chairs. Gold plates, goblets, and cutlery covered each table, glittering under the light cast by the big shining orbs floating beneath the ceiling.

'This is the main hall.' Madam Grayson attempted to speak over the other students' echoing chatter. 'Find a seat, and when dinner is over head back to the common room.'

'There's some free tables over there,' Demi said before vanishing into the crowd.

Hailey followed after her, weaving between furniture and students towards the front of the hall, where she dropped down at a vacant table with her best friend. A table twice as long as theirs stretched fifteen feet in front of them. Teachers sat behind it, scanning the hall, alert for any signs of trouble.

'Jayden, we're here.' Demi waved at Jayden, who was moving towards the other empty tables with the rest of the first years.

'I was afraid I'd never see you again,' Jayden said, plunking himself down next to Demi.

'Who are your friends?' Demi asked, staring curiously at the two boys who sat down beside him.

'This is Alec.' Jayden gestured to the lanky boy with blond hair on his right, who shyly met their gazes before lowering his eyes to the table and feigning interest in its shell border. 'And this is Aaron.' He gestured to the other boy, who had tousled brown hair and thick arms that you could only get from lifting weights-or being a Heracles. He smiled at them. 'Alec, Aaron, this is Hailey and Demi.'

'Nice to meet you,' Hailey said. 'Are one of you Jayden's dorm mate?'

'Nah, we're roomies.' Aaron nudged his head at Alec, who was busy polishing a shell with his finger. 'But our dorm is next to Jayden's, and he came in to say hi.'

'Who's your dorm mate then?' Demi asked Jayden.

Jayden flashed a grin that said he was about to make Demi very jealous. 'Actually, I've got a dorm all to myself.'

'Well, I think having your best friend as your dorm mate is better than being on your own,' Demi argued, Hailey tuning her and Jayden's argument out as she turned her attention to the rest of the hall.

She noticed some of the older students staring at the ceiling or at their laps. Why do they look so nervous? Shouldn't they be the confident ones? But the really strange thing was the dirty glances those students were receiving from other people, who pointed at them as they whispered to their friends. It was like-

'Welcome everyone.' A woman no older than thirty stood before the teachers' table. She had flawless skin and curtains of platinum blonde hair that draped over her pale blue flowing dress.

Hailey's jaw dropped. The woman was a nereid. An actual sea-nymph, who was standing so close Hailey could have reached out and touched her.

The nereid waited for silence, her dress seeming to shimmer like the iridescent scales of a fish when she moved. 'I would like to welcome the older students back, and to the new students, I'm Amathia. I look forward to becoming acquainted with each of you.' Amathia's turquoise-coloured eyes fell on Hailey briefly before shifting elsewhere. 'Being the beginning of the year, I will uphold tradition and recount the creation of Poseidon's Academy before revealing some exciting news... After the gods' demise, I continued to reside here with six of my sisters. As the centuries passed, I found the palace too large for us and proposed the idea of converting it into a school, where students could learn the true accounts of history and how to harness their powers.'