Musical High

First Day Prep

It was a pretty nice day for Early September. Luckily the autumn weather hadn't hit yet. For many, it was the first day of school, and everyone was doing various things to get ready.

Orpheus, for example, was sitting on his bedroom floor writing a song and shoveling Cheerios into his mouth. He leaned over to write something down, being so careful not to spill any of the cereal on the carpet. As he got to the bottom of the page, his hand brushed the bowl and it started to tip.

"Shit! No no no..." Orpheus rushed to pick up the bowl before it tipped over causing a mess. He unfortunately couldn't stop a small drop of milk from hitting the carpet. He pulled a jean jacket off and tried to clean up the spill. No matter how small it was, he knew his dad would be able to pick it out. Once that was taken care of, he stuffed the book into his backpack and went to bring the bowl down before he was caught.

"You're still sneaking food up here?" Luke, Orpheus's brother caught up to him in the hallway.

"I know I'm not allowed...but I was on a role with the song I'm working on! I needed to get it on paper!"

Luke shook his head as the two walked into the kitchen. Thankfully, their father wasn't in the room, so Orpheus quickly put the bowl and spoon away.

"You know he'll find out, right?" Luke leaned over the counter, watching his brother.

"Yeah, but I can still take care of it," Orpheus paused. "I'll be right back." He ran back out in the direction of his room
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"Orpheus snuck food into his room while he wrote music and got some on the carpet!"

Orpheus walked back into the kitchen, with his guitar and jacket in his hands. He froze as Luke looked at him. Their father, Hermes, looked between the two as if this had happened many times before.

Orpheus jumped in before anyone could say something. "I, uh, I can explain." Hermes nodded, indicating that Orpheus go on.
"I didn't want to be late for school on the first day, but I had to write down this melody I thought of last night, because it would be in my head all day, and you know some of the teachers don't like it when I hum them, so this would be the only way to-"

"Orpheus!" Hermes stopped him, "I understand that, but you know the rules."
Luke almost said something snarky but stopped when he saw his father look over to him. Luke stepped back as Hermes continued. "But you don't have to worry about getting in trouble for singing in class. You chose your classes this year, remember?"

Orpheus started to smile, realization dawning on him. "Oh yeah!" He smiled, starting to think about the classes. "So it's okay then?"

"Not entirely." Orpheus's face fell as Hermes responded. "You're not in big trouble, Orpheus, but you can't bring your guitar to school today."

"But-"

"It'll be here when you get back, and you always find some other way to make music."

Orpheus nodded at that, still kind of sad he couldn't bring his guitar. They didn't get any more time to talk about it, because Luke was being impatient.

"Come on! We're gonna be late!"
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"Kids, get in the photo!"

Every year, on the first day of school, Hermes, Orpheus, and Luke took a photo with their next door neighbors, Hades and Persephone, and their daughters, Mal and Meg. The kids (excluding Orpheus) tried to avoid taking the photo this year, and the parents weren't having any of it.

"Mal, Megara, you heard your mother." Hades was more stern as he tried to get the kids to get in. "You get in the photo too, Luke."

The kids reluctantly got into the same formation they'd been recreating for seven years. Meg was conveniently next to Orpheus.

"So, have you found your muse yet?"

Orpheus sighed and looked at Meg. "No...Not yet. Why do you always ask me that anyways?"

Meg shrugged. "You're a great musician, but I just think that when you find a muse, they'll make you soar!" She pantomimed a bird flying. "And you're the only one I can give advice to. Your brother is too focused on his-"

Meg was cut off by Persephone counting down. She and Orpheus immediately looked at the camera, along with Luke and Mal.

"Everyone say poppy!"
The kids repeated the word, as the camera flashed, and Mal and Luke left before the parents could take any more photos. Orpheus looked back before he went, looking at the adults.

"We'll catch up to you kids," Persephone said. "Go find your friends."

Meg had waited for Orpheus to start walking and whispered, "find your muse" to him as they joined Mal and Luke and went off into the wild.
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A/N: Whoa I haven't written one of these in a while, but I need to say some things. I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and there are definitely more to come. I want to give a huge thanks to evangelistofstars, who helped me come up with some major and minor details that will appear throughout the story. It's far more developed than it would've been, so thank you so, so much! I won't be doing a ton of author's notes this time around, but I'll definitely check in and try to update regularly! See you all in the next one.