Chapter Text
Yancy Academy was - technically - a school for “troubled kids”. And just about every student in attendance had some kind of issue that their families didn’t feel like dealing with.
I did, too.
I have a tendency of getting into fights.
My mother would always yell at me when I’d come home with a bloody nose or bruised knuckles or whatever.
Right now though, our class was stuffed inside a crappy old yellow school bus, driving to Manhattan for a field trip to a museum.
My legs were pulled up into the seat with me, my knees just a few inches from my chest, and I have a bottle of black nail paint grasped between my fingers in one hand, and I’m painting my fingernails with the other hand.
Currently, I’m about to finish with the last fingernail, but the stupid school bus hit a bump in the road, and my brush goes off mark. The black paint meant for my nail hits my pale skin, and I curse under my breath. Tucking the brush back into the bottle and tightening the cap on, I look around for something to wipe the excess paint with before it dries.
That’s when Grover, the scrawny boy with a wispy little beard and acne across his face, holds out a small handkerchief to me. I take it as I watch a bit of torn up peanut butter sandwich come flying at him from a seat or two behind us. I raised an eyebrow at him in a silent question, and he shook his head and I could tell that he was doing his best to just ignore the blatant bullying while dodging what bits of sandwich I could. Grover was always the type to cry easily, and as much as it annoyed me, I never seemed to be able to get too far away from the guy.
Instead, after a few months of watching him be bullied in our first couple months at this school, I took him under my wing, at least as much as I could.
I’ve been expelled from six other schools already - I get into fights, I taunt other people, and I rarely get caught stealing. I once had a grown man tell me that he was too scared of me to keep me in his school, and thus he was expelling me.
And I’m currently on probation in this school. It was a lucky break for me when our Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner convinced the principal into allowing me to come on this field trip. Now I can listen to Latin lessons in a museum instead of the classroom!
Anyway, by the time I managed to clean the excess paint off of my fingertip, the bus finally parked at the museum. I watched from the window of the bus while Mr. Brunner was assisted off of the vehicle. He needed assistance because he was paralyzed from the waist down, by the way. He had this electric wheelchair that honestly I was convinced weighed more than he himself does.
When we got into the museum, I managed to slip one of my earbuds into my ear, letting the black cord blend in with my hair after I’d laced it through my clothes on the bus while Grover was getting off.
I had music playing in the background as Mr. Brunner walked us through the museum and gave us highly in-depth analytical accounts of each and every statue or display piece.
After about an hour, I felt Nancy’s fingers against my neck as she tried to tug my earbud from my ear, and when I slapped her hand away, Mr. Brunner’s gaze turned toward me, “Miss Ashley.” his voice rang out, and I could hear the pug-faced girl behind me snicker, “Do you have something to say?”
“No sir,” I replied, my voice singing lightly in innocence, “I’m just curious about that picture depiction.” My hand raised out in front of me, pointing haphazardly at one of the pictures carved into the stele before us.
Mr. Brunner glanced at it, “Ah, I was hoping that someone may tell us what it represents.” His eyes glanced over the crowd of students, and I heard Nancy’s voice murmuring behind me to her friends.
A mean smirk crosses my lips and my tongue rolls over the front of my white teeth until I coo out, “Oh, Mr. Brunner, I think I heard Nancy say something about.. What was it, a Titan?”
“Titan? Which Titan, Miss Bobofit?”
I could feel Nancy’s hatred glaring into the back of my skull, and I just smirked at Mr. Brunner, because I knew he knew that I was fucking with her, and her voice echoed out from behind me, “U-Uh.. I’m not sure, sir..”
“Hm..” Mr. Brunner says, “I’m a little disappointed.” His gaze met mine before he opened his mouth to continue, but I quickly jumped back in.
“Isn’t that Kronos, sir? Now that I think about it,” I tilted my head and tapped on my chin playfully with a single black-nailed finger, “Kronos ate his kids after his wife gave birth to them, except for Zeus who was hidden.”
His eyes twinkled a little bit at me, and he nodded, “Correct, Miss Ashley. Do you mind continuing?”
I shrugged, my music still playing in one ear, “Well, when Zues grew up later on, he rescued his brothers and sisters by tricking his dad into throwing them up.” A girl in the group behind me let out a slow ‘Eww.’ “But after, there was a war between gods and Titans. The gods won.”
Mr. Brunner nodded in satisfaction, and just when Nancy mentioned why we’d ever need this in real life, Mr. Brunner offered me the stage again with a curious glint in his eyes.
I hummed in thought before I gave a safe answer because I wasn’t honestly that sure, “Well.. I’m not sure sir, aside from if someone takes a job that covers history related to these subjects,” I gestured to him with my hands, “Like you.”
He hummed a little, and gave me a little nod, “Acceptable. You forgot about the part where the gods sliced up their father into pieces with his own scythe before they scattered his remains across Tartarus.” He looked toward our pre-algebra teacher, “Mrs. Dodds, care to lead us outside for lunch?”
As the rest of class began to drift apart and begin making their ways out to the front steps of the museum, Mr. Brunner kept me back. When Grover looked back at me, I gave him a simple one handed wave as I turned around to face our Latin teacher again.
As I approached him, he looked me dead in the eyes. “You must learn the answer to my question.”
I looked at him with narrowed eyes, the reddish tint inside them, which I was told from birth was a defect in my irises, was glowing between my eyelids. “To.. how it’ll apply in life?”
He nodded, “Yes. What you’re learning from me will be vitally important for you, Miss Ashley.”
I looked at him skeptically, but nodded. “I see. Very well.”
He smiled at me, his normal glow of a radiant smile, and then lifted a hand to the side of his head as one of his fingers touched his ear, “Don’t let Mrs. Dodds catch that.”
I spun around before he could see the embarrassment rising in my face, and I chanted quietly as I left the room, “Yes sir.”
When I stepped outside, I looked up at the mass of dark clouds hanging overhead. I smiled at it. I love the rain.
Thunder crackled, almost as if it were angered by my very thoughts, but I hopped lightly on my feet over to Grover, who was eating his lunch peacefully. I took out my lunch, broke it in half, and handed half to him. I’ve always been a light-eater, and one of the benefits of having Grover nearby all the time was that I didn’t need to worry about wasting food. I ate what I could, and Grover would happily have the rest.
I watched traffic for a while as I thought about being able to return home, to see my mom. I haven’t seen her since last Christmas, but if I ran off from this little field trip, not only would she be disappointed in me having left, but I’d probably also just get expelled the instant I got back to school.
As I finished the little bit of sandwich I had, Nancy came up toward me with a smug little look. I glanced at her, “Did you get caught stealing from a tourist again?” I asked her lightly.
She rolled her eyes but reached over to dump her half-eaten lunch onto Grover’s lap, uttering ‘Oops.’ as she did so. It’s so painfully obvious that she’s trying to get me to act up, and honestly seeing her so boldly doing these things is getting on my nerves.
If I could, I’d just punch her in her ugly, smug face. But I can’t. If I can do it without getting caught, I absolutely would.
I don’t remember doing anything, but suddenly, Nancy is sprawled on the floor a few feet away from where she had been while I glared down at her. She looked horrified, and I heard the murmuring whispers of our classrooms around us.
“What just—”
“--But that’s—”
“--Did her shadow—”
Mrs. Dodds appeared in front of me, and I rolled my eyes. “Come with me.”
Nancy is smirking up at me, and I glare at her again as I stand up. When I look up again, Mrs. Dodds is a dozen meters away, standing at the top of the stairs to the museum and she tapped her foot impatiently. Did I zone out again?
While I walk up the stairs and begin to follow Mrs. Dodds, I shake out my hair. I do this to get my long strands of hair to cover both of my ears and parts of the sides of my face in a messy look. It helps hide my earbuds, and I’m able to loop my second earbud - previously unused and hidden in the strap of my bra - around my other ear that’ll help me zone out of Mrs. Dodds' droning voice entirely.
She leads me into a room at the deepest part of the museum, and I can hear her at first saying, “You’ve been giving us problems.”
I restrained the urge to roll my eyes, and instead I kept quiet as my eyes watched her lips as she spoke. I tuned her voice out entirely, because this was probably the twentieth time I’ve had her scolding me, and I could probably mimic her word for word. I looked for keywords on her lips to respond to, as I have the last dozen times she’d pulled me aside, but it didn’t come this time.
Instead, I watched as her hands turned into big talons, her face contorted and she grew an ugly beak, and her leather jacket turned into a pair of leathery wings. I tilted my head to the side, and for a second I thought I was daydreaming, but when she hissed at me with a mouthful of ugly yellow fangs, my body instinctively pulled away from her.
I watched as her talons ripped the air where I previously was, and my knees were now on the ground after I’d leapt away. I heard the sound of Mr. Brunner’s voice in my head yelling “Erika!” Something was moving the corner of my eye, and I reached out for it.
What I caught was Mr. Brunner’s ring - a simplistic ring that looked like it was crafted out of a black metal and in the shape of an ‘x’ when it’s around your finger. As I slipped the ring on, I watched as it turned into a gloved claw.
The claw didn’t actually cover my whole hand; only my fingertips, knuckles, and a small brace around my wrist. All of these bits were completely black - so black that I felt like I was looking into the darkest shadows to exist - and were held together by white chains that seemed to glitter in the reflections of light.
When Mrs. Dodds saw the claw fitted so perfectly around my hand, she hesitated. She backed away and her incessant screeching faltered, and it felt like she feared the weapon itself more than the fact that I had a weapon at all. Every step I took toward her, she doubled it as she backed away, and soon enough I watched as she soared out from the closest window - which was luckily opened already - and I watched as her form flew away.
I looked down at my hand and saw a normal ring in the shape of an ‘x’ wrapped around my finger. There was nobody in the room, and I made my way outside, where the dark clouds above us were getting increasingly threatening.
I made my way over to Grover again as Nancy attempted to taunt me, “I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt.”
I waved her off with a single hand before what she said registered in my brain. I glanced back at her as she stalked away, but I turned my attention to Grover. “Did Mrs. Dodds come out already?”
“N-” He began to respond, but caught himself as he made a really awful attempt at fake clearing his throat. He then continued in a light, nervous voice, “Who?”
My lip twitched.
I don’t hate liars.
I hate bad liars.
I turned on my heel and marched over to Mr. Brunner, holding his ring out for him as I couldn’t keep the slight anxiety from my voice, despite the irritation of being lied to. “Mrs. Dodds said thank you.”
There was a slight twitch of the corner of his lips as he looked up at me. He took the ring carefully back from me, “I’m not sure who that is, nor how you got this, but thank you for returning it, Miss Ashley.”
“Mmh.” I responded, turning away. I stomped away from both of them, making my way toward the gift shop of the museum.