FicWad

The next day comprised of “Neil, get out of the shower!” and “has anyone seen my physics book?”
When they finally left the house they were running late and had to run down the road to New Olympus High School. Jacinta had to go to the office to chat to Ms Peloponnesus or Grandma Hera, as Jacinta knew her. “But grandma...”
“Here, I’m Ms Peloponnesus or Ms P, not grandma.”
“Ok, but, do I have to do Ancient history? I know it backwards and forwards. My mother took me to the wars before I was fostered out.”
“How did she do this?”
“She had a Holsecaar... you know, the Horn of Picus that lets you travel through time?”
“Hmmm... Ok, you may go now. Oh, and Jacinta,” she added as the bell signaling the end of homeroom rang, “you do have to do ancient history. I’d expect high marks because of your mother and the Holsecaar.” Jacinta groaned and headed towards physics, her first lesson of the day.
***********
Archie hated physics. He had it first on Mondays, second on Tuesdays, forth on Thursdays and last on Fridays. What a way to begin, and end, a week! Not only did he not understand the definitions of most of the words, but he couldn’t get his head around all the equations and reactions. He was only doing it because biology was full. “Thunk.” The door opened and shut as someone walked through and handed a slip of paper to the teacher, mid-lecture. Dionysus or Mr. Bacchus, as he was known during school, read the paper then looked up, as if he was searching the room for something. “Class, this is Jacinta. She is a transfer from Nebraska, please make her feel welcome. Jacinta, there is a seat over there, next to Archie. Also, he will be showing you around the school and looking after you for today.” Archie smiled. Not only was an extremely pretty girl gonna be sitting next to him during physics but she was also gonna hang out with him all day. ‘Maybe this week wont be so bad,” he thought, staring at Jacinta.
************
Next up was gym. Luckily for Archie, he had that with Jacinta as well. Mr Thebes (Ares) decided that a great beginning to the term would be to test everyone’s physical fitness. First up were laps of the oval, followed by rounds (basically 5 push-ups, 5 sit-ups, 5 burpies then 5 star jumps done over and over again) then an obstacle course finished with a few more laps of the oval. Everyone gave up pretty quickly except for Archie, Atlanta, Blaine (a really popular jock) and Jacinta. Eventually Blaine couldn’t go any further and Archie’s heel gave way. As he sat, Archie could see all of the jock guys staring at Jacinta, checking out her body and rating her in comparison to the hottest chick in their grade, Melinda. Melinda was perfect. She had long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was thin, with a perfect smile and plump lips. Melinda was sweet, smart and funny but could get quite nasty, quite quickly in the same ways that Persephone gets mad.
“Melinda is a ten out of ten, right?” Blaine asked all his friends.
“Yeah. I guess so...” his best friend, Alex, answered.
“Then, Jacinta would be nine and a half.” Blaine stated, looking around to check that no-one questioned him. Unsurprisingly, no-one did.
“Thump!!!” Jacinta had just tripped and fallen, barely a meter behind Atlanta. She got up, shoulders shaking, face turned away. Archie walked over to see if she was ok. “Hey, are you alright?” he asked, worried that she might be crying. She turned around, laughing, eyes sparkling. “Yer, I’m fine. Thanks for asking though.”
“No probs.” he answered, smiling as Blaine looked insanely jealous.
**********
The rest of the day passed without much interest but with loads of homework. “Urgh, I’m so over homework! Thank Zeus there's only two weeks of our last year to go!” Archie complained after ten minutes of sitting at the kitchen table in the brownstone, drawing something for design tech.
“I wonder... Hey, Arch, if you’re over homework, Hephaestus has my motorbike. I’ll give you a ride if you want? I know some cool places to visit.” Jacinta suggested.
“Sure, just wait a sec.” And with that, Archie ran up the stairs, grabbing his hoodie from his study chair.
By the time he had gotten back downstairs, Jacinta was outside, waiting for him so they could walk to the school together.
When they arrived at Hephaestus’s workshop, he was working on creating a metal scorpion-like video camera that could be controlled with a remote control. “Hey, Hephaestus, is my bike ready?” Jacinta called over the groaning of the bellows and the hammering of the mallet.
“Yah, just wait a sec,” Heph answered as he plunged the shaped metal into a bucket of icy water. He then examined it for flaws then, satisfied with his craftsmanship, took his goggles off. Then, walking off, he pushed a green button and a black motorbike was revealed. “Whoa!” Archie breathed, stunned by the parts just seemed to fit into the body. Jacinta was thrilled with the upgrades and, taking the side garage door, drove out into an alley. “Hey!” Archie exclaimed, running to catch up. She stopped, then ran to Hephaestus and gave him a hug saying “thank you uncle, it’s better than ever!” Hephaestus smiled, patting Jacinta on the back awkwardly. She then pulled away, ran to her bike and hopped on, motioning Archie to do the same. As soon as he was seated, she opened the throttle wide and they sped off, Archie holding onto her waist for dear life.
Within five minutes they were in the outskirts of town.
“Ok, you got me out here; you wanna explain where we’re going?” Archie asked after about ten minutes.
“Wait about two seconds and you’ll see,” was all he got for an answer.
Looking around, Archie eventually saw it, the edge of a cliff. Before he could call out, Jacinta had turned the bike so it was skidding sideways. “Screeeeeech!” was the sound the tires made until, a meter away from the edge, the bike stopped. Archie got off, stumbling onto the ground. “This is what I wanted to show you,” Jacinta said, gesturing towards the sun that was slowly setting. Archie looked up, and gasped in amazement at the stunning rays of pink, orange and yellow, lighting up the sky. “Pretty awesome, huh?” she asked. “yeah, wow! Thanks for showing me this!” Archie seemed pretty happy with the view from the top of the cliff until...
“Is that Cronus’s giants?” Jacinta asked, pointing to the water reservoir below.
“I think so, let’s go check it out,” he answered, turning to walk to the ramp down to the reservoir.
“Archie? Who’s this with you, your girlfriend?” Cronus’s voice echoed all around him, setting his nerves on edge. He glanced at Jacinta who had just zipped her black hoodie up, so it covered her face.
“Cinta, get on the bike and go, I’ll be fine,” Archie said, hoping to the heavens that Jacinta listened to him. She didn’t. “Archie, I’m not leaving without you. Either we both go or I’m staying.”
Cronus laughed as he stepped into the clearing. “That would be a very stupid idea, mortal. I’d suggest running and hiding before you get hurt.”
“Cinta please, go!” Archie said, extremely seriously. Jacinta walked to the bike got on and started it up. Suddenly Jay burst through some bushes, followed by the other five, all brandishing weapons. Then Jacinta was speeding, on the bike, towards Cronus, who was flung into a tree. “I’ll get you for that,” Cronus snarled as he stepped through a newly opened portal. “Cinta?” Jacinta asked Archie, one of her eyebrows raised. Archie smiled. “It was the first nickname that I thought of that wouldn’t, hopefully, reveal your name as being Jacinta,” he answered simply. “Hmmm... I like it,” Jacinta said eventually as everyone started off home.
*************
That night, Athena decided how the rooms where going to change so that there would be room for Jacinta. After an hour and a half, she walked into the lounge room and said “ok, here’s how the rooms are going to be split. In room 1, the bigger one, there will be: Theresa, Jay, Atlanta and Neil. In room 2, there will be: Jacinta, Archie and Herry. Odie, you’ll stay in the basement with your tech stuff.” Odie whooped, Jay and Theresa smiled at each other, Atlanta and Neil both said “in the same room as you? Uh uh!” while Herry shrugged and continued devouring his quadruple layered sandwich and Jacinta said to Archie, “I’m gonna enjoy this... Did I mention that I get up at 6 every morning at the latest?” Archie groaned.