two
August 1st, 2014, for most people it was the first day of 7th grade, but for Athena it was the first day in a new school, hell, a new state.
To say she was nervous was an understatement, she has no idea who anyone is, she's been here for barely 4 weeks and is being thrown into a school where everyone has already been around for a year or longer.
To make matters worse, she was on the younger side, having a birthday in late November.
She was 11 going into a grade full of 12 year-olds, and everyone knows that 12 year-olds are the worst.
She was in unknown territory, and didn't have her mom in her corner to tell her everything would be ok anymore.
Her father tried to help, waking up extra early that morning to make Athena her favorite breakfast.
At 7:00am exactly, Athena walked down the stairs to the smell of fresh chocolate chip pancakes, bacon, and eggs.
As she entered the kitchen, she saw her father's back but she knew what he was wearing.
An apron on that says "may the forks be with you" with two spatula looking forks crossing, with him being born on May 4th, it was obviously his favorite dad joke ever.
He wore that apron religiously, anytime he ever cooked anything he would put it on, Athena once saw him have it on when just putting something in the microwave for 45 seconds.
It took him longer to put it on then for the food to be done.
"Really dad? Again with the apron." Athena said, interrupting her dad's humming.
"Hey now, I am a chef, and this is a chef's proper attire." Her father replied with a smile, gesturing to his apron with the spatula in his hand.
"You ready for your first day? I made all your favorites."
"I guess so." She mumbled with a slight shrug.
"Can I have some pancakes now?"
"Of course, grab a plate." Her dad then went back to his cooking and humming.
Athena took 2 pancakes, 3 strips of bacon, and a few spoonfuls of scrambled eggs.
She took a seat at table, tucking her right knee under her butt and her left foot on the chair, putting her left knee close to her face so she could rest her head on it.
Athena didn't eat much, except for the pancakes, she devoured those, but mostly poking around the eggs, thinking about the day ahead.
It was only 7th grade, and she was smart, she was named after the greek goddess of wisdom after all yet she had this crushing fear of anixety thinking about school.
Her father took a chair across from her, looking down at her playing with the eggs before speaking, "Nervous for today? It's ok to be, new town and everything."
"Yeah." She mumbled.
Short.
That's pretty much how she's been since February, only talking when necessary.
Her father has been patient with her, he knows how much her mom meant to her, she was her world, then she was gone in a matter of minutes.
Her dad nodded his head, then began to eat his breakfast and drink his coffee.
Athena abruptly stood up a few minutes later, "I'm going to get ready." Leaving the table, not giving her dad a chance to reply.
Moments like that is when she felt bad, she was shutting out her dad, he lost someone important to him too, but she felt like it was different for some reason, like he wouldn't understand what she was feeling.
Athena picked a simple outfit, just a t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, basic but enough to make some what of a good impression.
Then she started packing her backpack, a blue pencil case (with 3 pencils and a pen), a blue folder, (can you tell what her favorite color is), with her schedule in it, and of course her book.
She didn't know what to expect from this school but she did know that any chance she could, she would be reading, today would mostly be introductions so there shouldn't be much problem.
Downstairs, her father was waiting, nervously tapping his toe.
He didn't understand why he was nervous, maybe because he picked up their lives, moved them to a completely different state, and enrolled his daughter in a new school in a total of 4 months because he couldn't handle being in the same place as his late wife anymore, just maybe.
When Athena walked down with her blue backpack on hanging on her shoulder, his nerves increased, he just wants this day to go good for her, lord knows she needs a good day.
"You ready to go?" He asked, fighting the urge to chew on his lip.
"Dad it's 7:42, school doesn't start 'til 8:30 and it's like 7 minutes away." Athena responded, already wanting the school day to be over.
"Right....But it's good to be early, for first impressions that is, plus the first day traffic....Right? Never mind, just tell me when you want to go and we can....go." He rambled on, then turning on his heel to go into his office.
15 minutes later, Athena called out to him, "Dad, can we go now? It's 8:02."
Her dad peeked his head out of his office, "Yes! I-I mean yes, yes we can go now.
Go get in the car, I'll be there in a second." He walked out of his office, shutting the door behind him and grabbed his keys, while Athena was double checking she had everything (her book), then putting her backpack on.
Her dad opened the door for her, letting her go first, as she walked down the driveway to the car, her dad was locking the front door, double checking the handle before walking to the car.
The drive to school was mostly quiet, only the soft sound of the radio playing in the background, her dad wanted to say something, anything but he couldn't think of anything.
Athena's mind was running wild, coming up with all the possibilities of what could go wrong today and ruin her reputation for the next 6 years.
With all the thinking going on between the two, neither of them noticed they were at the school.
Finally breaking the deafening silence her father spoke, "Have a great day Thea, and please try to not bury yourself in your book all day."
Athena smiled at her dad, "Thanks dad, I'll try." She knew he was doing his best, so she leaned over and placed a kiss on her dad's cheek before getting out of the car.
Watching as she walked towards the school, her dad had a bright smile on his face, a smile only little Calliope could bring to him.
Athena's first class was homeroom, which is not really a class, so she was excited she could read for the first part of her day everyday at school.
Problem was that for a middle school, it was massive.
Athena had no idea where to go, she was supposed to be in room 278 but half the classroom's numbers she walked by were scrapped off or not even there.
She was about to go to the front office, if she could find it, to ask where her class was, but she felt a someone bump into her back, shoving Athena forward a few feet.
She turned around, expecting to be eye level with someone, but she was met with a blue eyed, blonde who was practically towering over her, "Oh I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there." The blonde apologized, looking back down at her phone and continuing her walk.
Athena was slightly frozen, great you've been here 5 minutes and you're already in the way, dummy, at this point she was about to be late so she had no option but to ask the giant for help.
"Hey wait! Uhm, c-can you tell me where room 248- wait no sorry, 278 is." Athena asked, her question stopping the blonde, she looked down at her schedule only to see blurs, and as she reached in her pocket for her glasses, there was nothing there.
Perfect, I must've left them at home.
"278? There's no 278 classroom.
Who's the teacher next to it?" Blondy asked, Athena mentally cringed but she couldn't come up with another name on the spot.
"Uh, Mrs.
Boomer, wait no Bummer, B-Bloom?" Athena could barely see the words on the paper so she prayed that it was right.
Blondy stood there, staring at her, trying to decipher the code that the shorter, brunette was saying, "Ohhhh, you mean Mrs.
Blunder, 203.
Homeroom right?" Athena just nodded her head.
"Follow me, I have her too." She slightly smiled, then followed after Blondy to their class.
Once they got to the class, surprisingly on time even though that whole interaction felt like it took 3 hours, Athena made her best effort to go to the desk in the back corner without running into anyone or anything.
She could still see but did need her hand slightly in front of her as a guide.
Blondy noticed, it was hard not to notice when she had been staring at her almost the entire time, but you couldn't blame her, she had never seen her around, sure it's a big town and not everyone knows everyone, but she would have remembered Athena for sure.
Impulsively, Blondy walked over to the desk next to Athena, and sat down, "So I never did get your name."
Athena was confused when Blondy took a seat next to her, ignoring it at first but couldn't anymore when she spoke to her, "Oh, it's Athena."
"Ahh, like the greek goddess, right? That's pretty, anyway I'm Paige, like the things in a book but with an I in the middle.
Are you new here, I've never seen you around" Paige smiled and offered her hand out to Athena.
Athena shook her hand and nodded to her question, not missing the rough calluses on Paige's hand, she was curious but shook that thought as they had only met 15 minutes ago.
The time was 8:36, homeroom ended at 8:45 and Athena still had no idea where her other classes were, and couldn't find out because she can't see them either.
She debated asking Paige for help, she was nice enough to show her to this class but thats probably only because she's in this class too.
Before her thoughts could go deeper, Paige spoke, "So do you need help getting to your other classes?"
"Oh no, I think I'll be ok." Yeah I'll be ok, RUNNING INTO A WALL.
"You sure? Because earlier you thought that Mrs.
Blunder was Boomer, which don't get me wrong she is, she is way too old to be teaching 7th grade math.
Anyways I don't mind showing you where to go." Paige offered, she could tell Athena was struggling to read earlier but didn't want to make her feel bad, especially on her first day.
Athena debated it for a minute, but ultimately agreed, "That'd be great, actually, if you don't mind.
Thank you." Paige reached her hand out for her schedule and Athena gave it to her.
"Of course, but I do expect something in return." This made Athena raise her eyebrow, questioning Paige, "Some information about you."
Athena released a breath, "Like what?"
"First off, where are you from because it certainly isn't Minnesota with that tan." Paige joked, Athena slightly laughed, something she hasn't done much of lately, yet Paige, who she met now 19 minutes ago was able to make her do it.
"California." Short and cryptic, just like always when asked questions about her past.
Paige paused, "You moved from California to Minnesota.
What? Why?"
This is what Athena hated, what she was expecting but hadn't come up with an answer.
People were curious, they want to know everything they can, for some reason, "Dad got a job here." She shrugged lightly.
Athena was good at hiding her feelings, but Paige was good at seeking, and she could tell that struck a nerve, so she stopped talking and looked at Athena's schedule.
"Well Athena, you are one very lucky girl because you get to spend homeroom, 2nd, 4th, 5th hour and lunch with me.
Most people would kill to be in your position, I know you're new here and everything but I'm kind of a big deal around here." Paige said proudly, dusting off her shoulder and leaning back in her chair cooly.
"I'll believe that when I see it." Athena smiled at Paige's antics, she didn't feel any nerves anymore, at least not in this moment.
At 8:45 on the dot, the bell rang, signaling the end of homeroom and the beginning of actual school, the beginning of where Athena would try not to make a fool of herself.
Paige stood up, Athena's schedule still in hand, "So were you just that nervous or can you not read." Athena's face immediately turned red, thinking back to the embarrassing moment earlier.
"The nerves I guess, they made me forget my glasses at home.
I can still see and stuff without them, it's just blurry." Athena explained to Paige, as she nodded.
Paige walked out of the classroom, making sure Athena was close behind.
They walked side by side, with Paige rambling about herself and how awesome she is, which Athena was ok with, Paige wasn't pressuring her to talk, to tell her about herself or why she's here.
The rant was short lived, very short lived as they entered the main hallway, the loud volume of the school and mass crowd of all the students shocking Athena.
She was worried about losing Paige in the crowd, not because she would miss her or anything but she was her guide to class, and she would be slamming into the nearest locker if left alone.
Paige noticing Athena slightly get closer, grabbed her hand and reached for a lanyard attached on her bag, acting a leash so she wouldn't get stuck in the crowd.
After every class, Paige would be there to show her to the next one, Paige didn't have to do it, ok she slightly did because, one, she basically shoved Athena earlier than ignored her and, two, the girl was blind, but she also wanted to.
She was intrigued by Athena and wanted to know more, so the hours they had together was mostly Paige telling Athena about herself or something about the classes they didn't have together, but Athena also contributed a little, just telling little things about herself and class but things nonetheless.
Athena didn't open her book once that day, something she hadn't done in 4 years, even if she had her glasses, she still think she wouldn't have opened her book.