Return of the Wild One

Poseidon was running late. He had woken up thirty minutes later than usual, and now he was running to the bus stop on an empty stomach.

Not his best look.

Finally, Poseidon managed to make it to the bus stop just before the bus pulled up. There was a new boy waiting at the stop. Usually it was just him and Zeus. The boy had short violet-black hair, and his eyes were a sharp, unique purple. Zeus was chatting with him.

"Oh hey, Poseidon! Meet my brother-" Zeus was cut off by the opening of the bus doors.

Poseidon never heard what he said.

When Poseidon got to class, Mr. Cecrops had an unexpected surprise for everyone.

"We're rearranging the seating chart!" he proclaimed with an enthusiasm unworthy of such a statement. "Isn't that exciting?"

Poseidon sighed. Guess he was not going to be sitting next to Zeus anymore.

The desks were arranged in groups of two, with a column by the window, a column by the wall, and a column in the middle. Poseidon used to sit next to Zeus in third row of the middle column. Now, he was stuck in the last row of the window-side column of desks. He hated the last row. You could barely hear or see anything. And the worst part was that he was away from his friends.

But maybe not.

Since he was seated next to Athena.

Pick your poison, I guess.

But Mr. Cecrops was not done yet.

"And we also have a new student! He recently came back from studying overseas!" he said, once everyone was seated at their new desks. "Would you like to introduce yourself?"

It was the new boy from the bus stop.

"Hey guys! I'm Dionysus. Nice to meet all of you!"

Poseidon was attempting to figure out just how Dionysus and Zeus could possibly be brothers, since Dionysus had dark, violet-black hair, and Zeus had light-blond hair. And their eye colors were completely different. Zeus had light-blue eyes the color of a sky clear of clouds, while Dionysus had mysterious purple eyes that cut through the air like invisible knives.

Meanwhile, Athena was considering that maybe the new kid wouldn't be too bad. After all, a person could change in a few years. But Athena was not ready to accept that yet. She was sure that Dionysus was still the wild, crazy boy that plagued her middle school years. And maybe she was right.

Athena sighed. First new seating arrangements, and now this. This was going to be a long day.

She watched as Dionysus took his seat next to Ares, the class bully. He was known throughout the grade, even the entire school, as someone not to be trifled with. He had short, spiky, red hair that was surprisingly natural. His eyes, a violent red, seemed as if they were weapons in themselves. He was tall, and was rumored to have the physique of a god.

Mr. Cecrops began the lesson, and Athena decided to let her thoughts rest.

During lunch, everyone sat with Dionysus as he told of his life in a school overseas. Apparently, he used to be bullied for being kicked out of his family, but those bullies disappeared one day because of a reason unknown to him. He had wished for them to turn into dolphins and swim away to a place where he would never meet them again.

Of course nobody knew that.

And Dionysus was not going to tell them that.

Meanwhile, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon were sitting at their usual table. Zeus was bragging about Dionysus and Poseidon was trying to eat his lunch without throwing up at the random unnecessary details Zeus decided to throw into his story. Hades was continuously glancing at something behind him. Zeus only noticed this after he decided to pester Hades.

"What are you looking at?" Zeus said, waving his hand in front of Hades' face to get his attention.

Poseidon zoned out of the conversation.

"You know, if you like her, you should tell her." Zeus was saying.

Poseidon zoned out again.

"We'll start the plan as soon as possible!" Zeus said, giving Hades a high-five.

Now Poseidon was worried. None of Zeus' plans ever went well.

But at least this time it had nothing to do with him.

Athena was sitting with some of her friends at another table in the cafeteria. Nike was talking about something related to fashion trends and Iolo was probably thinking about punching a Nike-shaped punching bag.

"Hey guys! How have you been?"

"Oh, hey Persephone!" Athena said, looking up to see a girl with long, wavy auburn locks and soft amber eyes.

"Not so great." Iolo said, with a disgruntled look on his face. "Nike is babbling nonstop about some sort of nonsense, and it's killing me."

Nike was offended.

"You should be honored that I'm in your class and not Athena's! Without me, you would still be that lonely little nerd you were in seventh grade!"

Persephone and Athena watched in silence. Who knew what those two psychos were doing, anyways.

Despite the fact that Nike and Iolo had been in the same class since seventh grade, they had never really gotten along. They claimed they were friends, but the only thing that really happened between the two of them whenever they met up was just arguing and screaming again and again. Eventually, Athena, as someone outside of their disputes, became the moderator of these arguments to make sure that nothing got too out of control.

"Aren't they cute together?"

Athena flinched. Persephone could be completely blind to human relationships sometimes.

"Yeah..."

Athena awkwardly glanced around the cafeteria. Something caught her eye. After a few moments of observation, she was certain that Hades was glancing in their direction every now and then. Poseidon was avoiding her gaze, but that didn't matter. Now what could have been so interesting for Hades to turn his back on his friends? Definitely not Nike and Iolo's argument. He didn't care about those things. Could it be...?

Zeus and Hades high-fived.

Oh no.

Now they were both looking towards them. It didn't take Athena long to make out the mischievous smile making its way across Zeus' face. But Athena didn't care. Unlike Zeus, she didn't meddle in other peoples' love life. Zeus could do anything he wanted. She wasn't going to help Persephone. After all, her mother would just solve everything in the end.