Chapter 9

Opal hummed, pulling at her hair in nervous habit as she slipped into her homeroom class, she watched Herry smirk down at his phone in his lap as she walked over to her desk. She set down her books and took a step past her seat to sand beside his desk. Tapping the flat side of a loosely closed fist into the palm of her hand she waited for him to look up. It took him a moment; she was just about to clear her throat when he sent over a curious gaze.

"Hey," she said, shrugging her shoulders as she reached up a hand to tug at the curls at the back of her neck, "I, ah, just wanted to apologize about yesterday morning. What did the news say? Solar eclipse. You probably think I'm crazy now."

"Don't worry about it," he said, "If I was scared of the dark I'd be losing my shit too."

"Thanks?" she drew her brows together for a moment and then shook her head, "It be great if you could just forget all that."

"Done," he said with a smile.

"Kay, good," she held out her hands flat palmed towards him and backed away to take a seat at her desk. She let out a slow breath as she ran her fingers through her hair. That whole situation the morning prior had probably been the most embarrassing thing she had ever done in front of a guy, let alone a guy that she liked. What was she thinking, accusing him of something ludicrous like that and then bursting into tears. That was just it, she wasn't thinking. Funny the things fear could influence one to do.

She was for once grateful when the bell rang. She could focus on the lecture rather than how much of a fool she'd been. Rice ended the class early to declare their next project, to research a Greek myth of their choosing and present to the class. He announced it would be done in partners and Opal groaned at the revelation, she hated group work. She did what she always did and waited until the scramble of people died down to look for someone else that hadn't yet found someone to work with.

"You and me then?" she turned to Herry, seeing he took on her same strategy, and he did seem to know what he was talking about in this subject.

"Yeah, I guess so," he muttered, turning away to rub the back of his neck, "anything you want to do?"

"I don't know," she shrugged and named the first thing that came to mind, "Hercules?"

She watched him stiffen and then he looked back to her to shake his head, "I bet he'll be overdone."

"Kay," she nodded and looked down to her twirling thumbs in thought.

"Look it up tonight," Herry said, "I can really do anything. It doesn't matter to me."

"Sure," she nodded and then glanced at the clock; there was still twenty minutes of class.

"We could skip out early," he leaned forward to say in a quiet whisper. She sent him a quick glance and couldn't help but return his smirk. Rice was occupied talking over topics with other students, and there was a clear shot to the door.

"Let's go," she scooped up her books and quickly strode out into the hallway, looking behind her she laughed, "You're a bad influence, I've never skipped before."

"What?" he said, "No way, you're a senior and you've never skipped?"

"Well maybe for a dentist appointment," she said with a sheepish smile. Herry just shook his head and laughed.

"I have bio next, I could skip that if you want to grab an early lunch," he said, "and I never did get that lunch with you."

"I don't know," she shrugged sharply. He bit his lip and squinted at her for a moment, uncomfortable under his gaze Opal reached up to twirl her bang around her finger. Hesitantly she asked, "What?"

"Nothing," he said and shifted his gaze down the hallway. He had always been in the habit of making friends with his locker neighbors. Most just smiled and struck up easy, casual conversations. Opal was really the only one that always seemed to be looking for a way out of any conversation. He had started taking more notice of her around school, he'd spot her in the library or in the halls every now and then, she was always alone.

"Hey," he voiced and then drew up short, 'Do you have any friends?' might seem a little rude, "Ah, who do you hang out with?"

"I don't really hang out with anyone," she shrugged sharply. He hummed and looked away, back down the hall. He used to be like that, back in his old school. Being alone was never that bad. However, that was until he found himself here with a great group of people he was proud to not only call friends, but family. Being alone went from something he liked to realizing it was something he just accepted. The inner turmoil started to churn, like the dipping of a wooden spoon into a caldron.

There was something that was nagging at him to pull her out of her rut, but another part reminded him about the precious morning. She may think she was being unreasonable now, but she had been completely correct, to a certain degree he did know what was going on. He had secrets he couldn't afford for her to know. As much as this whole crazy situation with Cronus had introduced him to the closest friends he could ever hope to have, it also closed the door to anyone else he may feel the inclination to open himself up to.

He sighed as he watched her spin her lock from the corner of his eye as he slowly entered his own combo. Perhaps nothing more than acquaintances at school could come from this for now, but maybe someday, when he didn't have to worry about mental gods taking over the world it could become more. He dumped his books into his locker, letting them pile in an unorganized mess of papers at the bottom. Right here and right now he could see no issues in being friendly with her, as locker neighbors and classmates. When she bent over to collect an instrument case of some kind he reached over to snap her lock closed from where it was hooked on the corner of the open door. She shot up a confused look, which quickly narrowed in irritation when she realized what he had done.

"Hey," she said with a slight scowl, narrowing in her gaze on his lock she lunged to pull the same stunt, but he swiped it up just in time. She sent him another glare, but he could see the smile tugging at the corner of her lips, "I'll get you back for that."

"I'd like to see you try," he smiled and closed his locker, leaning against the door he pointed down to the concealed instrument and asked, "What do you play?"

"Umm, this is my violin," she said, smiling down at the case in her hands, "but, I started on the piano."

"Cool," he said.

"Yeah," she muttered, still looking down to her instrument, "Do you play anything?"

He laughed and then shook his head, "No way, but when I was little my Gran did write out numbers on the keys of her piano for me to follow, so on her piano, and her piano only, I can play twinkle-twinkle little star."

She laughed and quickly covered her mouth with her hand, almost like she was surprised the noise just came out of her. Still the smile reached her eyes, brightened up her face in a way that made Herry's heart flutter.

"Music class next?" he cleared his throat and shook off the unexpected sensation.

"Yeah," she looked up to him, still smiling in good nature.

"I guess I can't ask you to skip music class," he let out an exaggerated sigh and rolled his eyes, smiling when she sent him a toothy grin.

"I'll see you later then?" she said as she turned to go off down the hall.

"Yeah," he gave her a wave and slouched further against his locker as he watched her leave, "Hey, Opal wait."

She stopped and turned to give him a curious look from a few paces down the hall.

"Look up Orpheus tonight," he said, "You might like him."

"Orpheus?" she repeated, confusion creeping up on her face.

"Yeah, he's a musician in Greek Mythology."

"Oh," she lit up in understanding, "Yeah okay." Then she turned and continued her way down the hall, off to class.

Jay was biting at his thumbnail as he and Theresa strolled through the park. He watched his feet as they walked, lost in his own thoughts. Theresa shifted her gaze from him to the trail in front of them. Biting the corner of her lip she hesitantly reached out a hand and slipped her fingers in between his. He startled and jerked slightly as he looked over with wide eyes. She offered him a bashful smile and gripped his hand tighter.

"Loosen up Jay, just walk with me," she said and slowly leaned her head over to rest on his shoulder.

"Theresa," he scolded and shook off her hand, stepping away from her, "This is serious. We never had a time limit before, if we can't beat Cronus by New Years… I'm starting to think this dragon in the storm isn't one of Cronus' ideas. What if it's just like Nyx, drawn to the energy. What if more and more monsters start showing up? We're going to be overrun."

"Then we beat him by New Years," she said.

"How?" he tossed out his hands in exasperation, "We've been at this for almost two years. All we've been able to do it just hold him back. How are we going to get him back in Tartarus, October's almost finished?"

"I don't know Jay," she muttered and looked away, reaching over a hand to rub her opposite arm.

He groaned and smacked his face into his hands.

"We'll figure this out," she said quietly.

"I'm going back to the dorm," he announced and turned on his heel.

"What?" she shot her head up and jumped after him, "Jay, come on. You said you would go on a walk with me. When was the last time we did something together?"

"There will be plenty of time after Cronus is back where he belongs," Jay called over his shoulder. Theresa stopped and huffed, sending him a sneer as he ploughed away.