The next morning, Damian woke up with a crick in his neck. He stretched his arms and turned from side to side, trying to work it out. Once he was done with that he simply sat in bed and looked out the window at the white clouds passing by.
There was no thought in his mind. He had hoped last night that he might actually wake up back at home today. In his own room, sitting in his own bed. And not trapped here, like a prisoner.
Damian sighed and got off the bed.
There was a bag beside his wardrobe that he hadn't seen there the previous day. It was filled with school supplies. There was a note in it as well and Damian felt tempted to simply tear it up, but curiosity got the better of him and he opened it up to take a look. It was empty.
Damian's eye twitched and he threw the paper behind him. Ignoring it.
He grabbed the bag from the floor and put it on his bed, he then moved to grab his uniform and changed.
He left his dorm room with a gloomy expression on his face. He got to the elevator, entered it, and then sighed as it began moving down. On the ground floor, he walked out of the elevator while pulling at his sleeves and collar. He was still weirded out by how perfectly made the entire thing was.
There was a gasp from his left. A deep one that sounded like someone was having a heart attack. Damian quickly looked towards it, ready to helo out if needed, but what he found instead were two boys looking at him in shock. One of them had his eyes so wide open that Damian feared it might fall out, while the other simply stood, mouth agape.
"H-Hades," one of them said while pointing to his collar, and just like that, every movement stopped.
People turned towards Damian in surprise, some of them who were closer bean taking steps back from him. Damian looked around at them in surprise, wondering what was going on. He swallowed thickly and hung his head low while quickly making his way towards the main doors. As he went, someone's shoulder tackled into his and he stumbled to the side.
"Better not come near me, scum," a boy with green hair and black eyes said while eyeing Damian in disgust, "Couldn't have picked a worse day to come here, could I?"
Damian ignored him and continued for the door. Once he was outside he reached for the button on his collar and pulled it. It wouldn't budge. He brought it up to eye level and glared hatefully at it.
"H-Hades!?" someone said from his side and Damian saw the people on the bridge turn to look in his direction. He hoisted his bag onto his shoulder and quickly ran towards class building 1.
-----
Adrian grabbed his bag from the corner of his room and walked out the door. He moved down the hallway and entered the elevator leading down.
"Hold the door," a voice said from down the hall and Adrian did so.
A boy entered the elevator quickly. He had black hair and blue eye, and a light blue button on his collar showed his affinity to Zeus. He sent a nod towards Adrian, "Adrian," he said
"Dennis," Adrian replied as he released the door and pressed down on the elevator, "You're still as late as ever, it seems"
"And you're still as stuck up as ever," Dennis shot back, "Nothing's changed there"
The two boys descended to silence then. Adrian simply looked ahead at the elevator door while Dennis brought out a phone and began scrolling through it. Not long after, the elevator dinged and opened up to the ground floor. The two boys walked out together and began to walk in opposite direction.
But before they could go out of earshot of each other Dennis spoke up, "Heard there was a member of Hades in your class," he said while still looking down at his phone, "This is true?"
Adrian swung his bag over his shoulder, holding onto it with one hand, "Is that important?"
Dennis glanced back at Adrain, "You know it is. Don't play games with me"
Adrian sighed and nodded. Dennis turned off his phone, put it in his pocket, and continued walking on. There were no more words exchanged between them.
-----
Persephone breathed a sigh out as she looked herself in the body-length mirror, she smoothed out her skirt, closed her eyes, and sighed again.
"You can do this," she said, "You just need confidence"
She opened her eyes and smiled at her reflection
"You can do this,"
The elevator leading down had someone else in it already, a girl shorter than Persephone with white hair and blue eyes, she looked up as Persephone entered the elevator and smiled at her, "Hello," she greeted.
Persephone tried to smile back, but it came out strained, "H-Hello. Nice to meet you"
"I'm Cassandra. Nice to meet you" the girl said while stretching her hand out. Persephone shook it quickly and then took it back just as fast.
"P-Persephone. I'm Persephone"
"Nice to meet you!"
'You already said that' Persephone thought. She looked the girl over and found her eyes trailing towards her collar. She saw a light green button on it, it was engraved with the image of a bow and arrow.
"Oh," Cassandra said when she noticed where she was looking, "You could've just asked, you know. My affinity is to Artemis. What's yours?"
Persephone rose her collar, "Poseidon,"
Cassandra's eyes lit up, "Oh, that's so cool. One of the elder gods" she looked to Persephone and smiled, "Lucky,"
'Not really,' Persephone thought as the elevator dinged and allowed them to walk out. Cassandra waved as she began walking the other way.
"Hope I see you around again," she said as she disappeared into the crowd, "Have a great day".
Persephone rose her hand up and just kept it there till Cassandra was gone. Once she disappeared into the crowd, Persephone brought the hand down and used it to grab onto her bag handle.
"A great day, huh?"
She walked out of the main door and moved over the bridge connecting the dorms to class building 1. once she made her way to the class, she opened the door and saw both Adrian and Damian already at their seats.
"H-Hello," she said while quickly moving over to her seat. Adrian rose a hand in greeting, but Damian simply stayed silent. He had his head lowered to the table and his hands wrapped around it.
The silence in the class was stifling, and Persephone found herself growing more uncomfortable as time went on. She looked over at Damian and saw that he hadn't moved from his position in close to ten minutes now. Was he sick?
"Hello everyone," Helios said as he opened the classroom door and walked in fluidly. He had on a white tracksuit that had gold lines running down the sides. And was chewing on a piece of beef jerky. His hair was tussled and the earbuds were playing a different heavy metal song this time. He looked like he had just come from the gym.
"Helios-sensei," Adrian called and Helios turned to him while taking off his earbuds, "A-Are you coming from the gym?"
Helios blinked and then looked at himself. He took in his tracksuit and the music, he took in his running shoes and also touched his tussled hair. He shook his head, "No"
"You're lying!"
"Yes."
"T-This isn't professional!"
Helios ignored Adrian, "You all had a full day yesterday, so I couldn't come to see how things went. If you have any questions, you can direct them to me now"
He looked around, waiting for someone to speak up. After a while, someone did.
"Why?" Damian whispered.
The other three turned to him.
"Why?" Helios parroted.
Damian rose his head with a glare and Helios blinked in surprise when he saw the red and tired eyes. He had been crying?
"Why can't you all just leave me alone!?"
Helios narrowed his eyes at Damian, "I was actually asking for questions regarding yesterday's classes. But if there are none, then I guess I'm not needed"
The class watched as Helios simply grabbed his earbuds and put them in again, he completely ignored the glare Damian was leveling at him and walked out of the class. A SLAM! echoed through the class as Damian hit his hand on the table. He then sent his head down on it with a thud.
Persephone looked at him with wide eyes, wondering what had happened. She looked towards Adrian and saw him looking out the window to his side, ignoring the class. She turned back to Damian.
"H-H…" she tried to speak up, but she stopped herself. Was there really anything she could do? No, there wasn't.
She turned back to the front of the class and ignored everyone as well.
Their first teacher came in.
It was Callista. They had history.
"H-Hello everyone!" she said, trying to sound bolstering. There was no answer from anyone and Callista felt her self-esteem take a plummet into absolute zero. She shyly moved to the desk and put her folder on it. Then she decided to try again.
"I-I hope you all slep -"
Callista paused. They weren't even looking at her. The entire class seemed lost in their own little worlds. Adrian was looking out the window to his side, Damian had his head on the desk and Persephone simply stared into space.
'W-What in the world happened here?' Callista thought
That day, things were very tense in class. The students barely participated in any of the lectures and even when they did, it was only with short clipped sentences - on Adrian's part, or shy, brief sentences - on Persephone's part. Damian didn't say a single word throughout the day. Once they were dismissed, he picked up his bag and left.
He walked through the hallway quickly and made his way into the elevator. He saw Adrian coming out of the class but he didn't wait for him to get closer, he pressed the close button on the elevator and watched with tired eyes as Adrian disappeared behind the doors.
He got out on the ground floor and began trekking across the bridge. There were a few people around and Damian kept his head down as they whispered and pointed at him from a distance. He felt like covering his ears with his hands, but he wouldn't give them the satisfaction. He entered the ground floor of the dorm and immediately made his way to the elevator there. He entered, went up, and then he basically sprinted to his room.
It was only after he was inside that he finally screamed.
That night, Damian groaned as he turned over and onto his back. His everywhere hurt.
He sat up from the floor and rubbed soothing circles into his lower back. He didn't know what gave him the bright idea to sleep on the ground, but it was one of the worst ones he ever had. He stood from the ground and walked up to his window. The sky was dark already and he sighed as he allowed the air to wash over him.
Was every place in the world like this? Even in what was a different world to him, he still met the same sort of people. Bullies and liars.
His stomach growled and he suddenly remembered that he hadn't eaten anything since the previous day.
'Great,' Damian thought sarcastically.