Hello! This story is about 5 years old, and I only made one chapter of it. It was riddled with errors and my writing has probably improved since then. I liked this story, so I decided to remaster it. Just as a warning, I forget where I wanted this story to go, so updates may be very slow. Anyways, I hope you enjoy! Please R&R!
I was sitting at my desk in the front of my Spanish 1 classroom, casually flipping through a few papers that my principle wanted me to go over before the school year started. Something about a change in electronic policies and gum or whatever, I didn't care much about that stuff. You wanna chew gum? Have fun. You wanna text your friend? As long as you're paying attention. Needless to say, I was a very laid back teacher. I've had quite a few of my 'fellow teachers' try to get me fired because I actually knew how to have fun in the classroom.
I crumpled up a paper about not chewing gum in class and tossed it in the trash can as the morning bell rang. A bunch of nervous looking children walked in for home room; tall ones, short ones, fat ones and skinny ones, all found seats next to their friends and sat down. I looked up at all their faces with a wide grin on my face.
"Everyone here's excited for the days ahead, I'm sure," I said sarcastically as a ripple of sighs spread around the room. "But hey! This marks the beginning of your last year of middle school! But don't get too excited, freshman year in high school isn't so much fun."
A few kids shrugged and nodded, whispering to each other.
"For those of you who don't know me," I spoke up again, "I'm Mr. Adelina, or Mr. A for short. I'll be your homeroom teacher and, unless you took those silly French and German languages, your Spanish teacher." A few kids laughed, which was good for me. In my opinion, a teacher that can't connect with the kids isn't a good teacher at all.
Some people had grins on their faces. They probably had me for study hall last year or something.
"I like to start the year with telling you something about myself," I said. "First off, I have ADHD and dyslexia, so I might get really off topic and I might need people to read for me." I shrugged. "I read Spanish better than English." Kids chuckled and I continued, "I'm only twenty-five years old, so don't go cracking jokes about how I'm old." Kids laughed, "Yeah I've heard that before. I mean, do I really look that old?"
I hoped not. My dad would be disappointed in me, it's not that easy to meet his godly standards.
"You probably know this by now, but homeroom is about two hours long on the first day, so get ready for a whole lot of papers." I said.
For the rest of homeroom, I explained papers they would need to get signed by parents. There was always a lot of them, and each one seemed more stupid than the last. Unfortunately, I had to give them out. At least this was an eighth grade class, they should be used to it by now.
Thank the gods, the rest of the classes were really short on the first day. It was basically all home room and assemblies, so the actually periods were somewhere around 15 minutes long. What? You think students are the only ones who get bored at school?
Finally, the bell rang and all the kids went to their next class. Before the first period class came in, I pulled my silver necklace out from under my shirt, gripping the sun charm and saying a silent prayer to my father, Apollo, Greek god of music, poetry, etc. And yeah, they are real. I did this at the beginning of every school year, even when I was still a student. It made me feel more ready.
I climbed on top of my desk and waited for the class to come in. As they walked in, they all gave weird looks at their new weird Spanish teacher standing on his desk. They made their way to the back of the room, waiting for me to give them seats.
"What are you waiting for? Sit anywhere." I said, and they all found a seat next to a friend. That's another thing I didn't really care about. Just sit wherever you want.
"Now, stand on your desk's." I instructed. They all obeyed, with very confused looks on their faces. "Trust me, this is very important."
When they were all standing on their desks, I spoke up again. "Now, you're all gonna jump off onto the floor, and jump to the right, so you don't hit anyone." Every kid looked around, whispering a few things to their friends. "Ready? Three, two, one- Jump!" I shouted and everyone, including me, slammed our feet on the floor.
I stood there, looking at the confused faces of my students with a grin. One of the them raised his hand shyly. "Uh, why did we do that, sir?"
"Because," I shrugged, "I like annoying the German teacher right under us, now take a seat." I said, and the kids laughed, sitting down. "Anyways, my name is Mr. Adelina." I said, " now, I want to start by- di immortals!" I shouted as banged my toe on my desk.
They all stared at me and one shouted out, "Is that Spanish, Mr. A?"
I thought for a second, because, obviously, it wasn't. "Uh… no. It's a… dead language." I said. Gods, I really need to stop cursing in Ancient Greek.
"As I was saying," I said, sitting in my desk and rubbing my toe through my shoe. "I like to start the year with you guys asking me whatever question you want to know about me. Shoot."
The kids sat in silence for a few seconds, until a girl in the back finally rose her hand. "Do you have any kids, Mr. A?"
I laughed, shaking my head. "No, no. At least, not at the moment. Maybe some day."
Another kid who say in the middle raised his hand. "Do you have a wife."
"Well." I said. "No, but maybe soon. I've had a girlfriend for seven years."
"What's her name?" Asked a different kid.
"Madison." I said with a grin. Sure, some day I would ask her to marry me. But right now, I didn't have the money. I lived in a small apartment that can barely fit the two of us, and I've only been teaching for two years. The most we could do was live together. She was a daughter of Demeter, so having two demigods living in a small space together attracted some monsters. We always had to pay repair bills, too. I felt bad about it, but she got a job to help me out with the bills. At least she's doing what she loves; growing flowers at some persons greenhouse. The thing about living with a daughter of Demeter, was the constant smell of flowers throughout the apartment.
A few more kids asked their questions, and the bell rang. That's pretty much how most of my classes went that day. As the final bell rang, I said goodbye to my students and put on my jacket, walking out of school to my car. I drove through New York City, making my way home.
I parked my car in the buildings parking garage of my building. It was relatively run down, and the place certainly didn't look that good, but it was still home.
I walked up the stairs a few floors, eventually reaching mine and walking through the halls, finally getting to my apartment.
I unlocked the door, opening it to the delicious smell of freshly cooked steak. I tossed my bag on the ground, walking to the kitchen area and wrapping my arms around Madison's waist, who was cooking dinner at the stove.
"Hey, Baby." I said, kissing her cheek and looking down at the stove to see two small steaks sitting on a pan. "Two? But what are you gonna eat?"
She snickered, turning around and planting a kiss on my lips and wrapping her arms around my neck. "Oh, shut it, Josh. I just don't get how you stay so thin."
"I don't get it either." I kissed her again, before walking to the fridge and pulling out a soda. Madison was a slender, curvaceous girl with long brown hair that fell over her shoulders. Her eyes were green, like a freshly grown flower stem. She was still wearing her work uniform, which was basically just a green polo that had the words Queens Area Green House: For the Plants! In a square above her heart. She was a year younger than me, but was still the mature one in the relationship.
"How was work today, sweetie?" She asked me, putting the steaks on two plates and grabbing some corn out of the microwave, putting an even amount on both.
"Oh you know, first day is always fun." I shrugged, grabbing my tie and loosening it. If the school didn't make me wear one, I wouldn't. They were the worst things in the world. Sometimes I wondered if I was ready to be a grown up. "How was yours?"
"They let me out early." She said with a smile, handing me my plate. "Had enough time to stop at the store and pick up some food, so we can have dinner like a normal couple."
Obviously, that wasn't gonna happen. We walked over to the couch, turning on the TV and flipping the channel to Comedy Central. Yep, normal couple.
We ate with casual conversation, laughing occasionally at whatever stupid show was on. I finished up my food, putting the plate on the coffee table and wrapping my arm around Madison's shoulders, who was still eating.
"That was delicious, babe." I said, kissing her on the cheek. "Where'd you learn to cook like that?"
She shrugged. "Wasn't you, that's for sure."
I laughed, taking her fork and stealing a piece of steak. "Man, it's just so good, I think I'll have some more. Hope you don't mind."
We continued to talk for awhile, turning down the TV so we just heard each other's voices. I talked to her about the school day, and she told me about her day at the greenhouse. It wasn't usual that two demigods could live together past the age of twenty, so we were making the best of it.
After dinner, I got changed into athletic shorts and a white undershirt. Business clothing was not comfortable, so this is basically what I wore when I got home every day. It had gotten dark quickly, as it usually did when I talked to Madison. We got into our bed, and I wrapped my arms around her, starting to drift to sleep.
"Babe?" She asked me. "This weekend, do you want to go visit camp? We haven't been there in a few weeks, so I thought that it'd be fun."
She was talking about Camp Half-Blood, my other home. It was where all demigods could go to be safe, and not worry about monsters all the time. It's where Madison and I met, when we were only 13 and 12 years old. We didn't start our relationship until I was 18 and she was 17, but we've always been close.
"I'd love to." I said to her, yawning. "See some of my siblings again..."
"That voice you make when you tired is real cute." She said with a laugh. "Go to bed, I'll be here in the morning."
I managed a smile, even though I felt like I'd pass out any minute now. I kissed her quickly, saying goodnight before I entered dream world.
I woke up in the morning with my arms still around my girlfriend. I knew she didn't have to go to work until a few hours after I did, so I carefully got out of bed, trying not to wake her. I did my normal morning routine; showering, brushing my teeth, putting my contacts in, all the normal stuff, and left a note on the counter telling Madison to have a good day. Before I knew it, I was back at the school.
I was sitting at my desk, looking at papers kids handed back to me from first period about some issues they might have in school. I laughed at a few of them, like this one kid, he had a 'small bladder.' Kids were always trying to find excuses to go to the bathroom and skip class.
Everything was normal. I got a lot of kids who had things like asthma or heart problems or whatever. Towards the bottom of the pile, there was a paper with the name 'Cory Allen' on the top. I froze when I got to the bottom of his paper where he listed some common classroom issues. The boy said he had ADHD and dyslexia. Now, those things are common, but it's often times a sign of a demigod.
I frantically searched through another pile of papers. This pile had things like emergency contact information, where kids would put their moms and dads cell phone numbers or emails so I could talk to them about their kid misbehaving or something. Of course, the kid only listed a mother. That could easily mean nothing, but it could also be extremely important.
I grabbed a binder that was filled with the names and schedules of all of my students. The principals gave these to all the teachers, just so we could talk to one of them if we needed to.
I searched for the name Cory Allen, and eventually found that he was having a science course with a particular teacher that I couldn't stand. Her name was Mrs. Vendela, and it just sounded evil. She's tried to get me fired once or twice, maybe three times. To be honest, I lost count.
I went to her room, knocking on the door and peaking my head in. "Uh, can I see Cory Allen for just a second, please?"
