Chapter Text
why do Pat and Achilles give off bucky and steve vibes? ://
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Clytemnestra Tyndareus: Sister of Helen and cousin to Penelope. Dating Agamemnon. Popular; part of The Fairest.
Helen Tyndareus: Sister of Clytemnestra and cousin to Penelope. Dating Menelaus. Popular; part of The Fairest.
Penelope Icarius: Cousin to Helen and Clytemnestra. Popular; part of The Fairest.
Agamemnon Atreus: Brother to Menelaus. Dating Clytemnestra. Popular; part of the football team.
Menelaus Atreus: Brother to Agamemnon. Dating Helen. Popular; also part of the football team.
Achilles Peleus: Popular; part of the football team. Deemed the 'hottest guy' by the student lead newspaper team and by basically the whole school.
Paris Priam: Brother to Hector. Son of principal.
Hector Priam: Brother to Paris. Son of principal. Better liked than Paris.
Diomedes Tydeus: Popular; on the football team.
Odysseus Laertes: Popular; top of the year and on the student-led newspaper team.
Patroclus Menoetius: New kid.
righto let's go
Patroclus didn't know quite what to expect when entering the new school. He had never been to a school that didn't have uniforms before. His own parent's probably wouldn't have approved it if Achilles's dad hadn't suggested it. And seeing as Achilles's is currently the worlds best son and student maybe Patroclus could be as well if he attended the same school.
Initially, he dreaded meeting the person who would be showing him around as they were usually teacher pet type deals. But when he met Odysseus he was sure he wasn't a teacher's pet and rather something much worse.
"Greeting, brand new fellow classmate," was what the redhead said first, "I am Odysseus Laertes," But Patroclus was immediately thrown off when he was met with a bright flash from a camera.
"Did you just take a photo of me?" Patroclus stuttered, clearly surprised.
"For the newsletter," Odysseus shrugged. "So you're Patroclus?" Patroclus slowly nodded as he watched Odysseus scribble in his notebook. "Patro...clus...Menoe...tius..."
Patroclus opened his mouth slowly before closing it. "Right,"
"And you're friends with Achilles?"
"Um, Achilles Peleus?"
"How many Achilles's do you know?" Odysseus rolled his eyes.
Patroclus caught the words 'possible threat' next to his name. "Possible threat?"
Odysseus looked at him intently for a bit. "Yes. You're allied with Achilles. That makes you a threat,"
"Oh, do you not like Achilles?"
Odysseus snorted and waved his hand before walking down the corridor. "No, I am close with Achilles myself," Patroclus hurriedly followed after Odysseus. "You're a possible threat because you have the ability to cause chaos and drama in our high-school environment,"
"What do you mean?" Patroclus asked, thinking about whether he had just joined a high-school or a war zone.
"I am unsure of whether you are aware of who Achilles is in this school," Odysseus glanced at Patroclus.
"I know he's like...popular?"
Odysseus grinned. "At our school, you're either in the lower classes, well-known or dangerous. Popular is a relative term. For example, I would be deemed 'popular'," Patroclus couldn't help but smirk with a frown. He obviously took note. "I am!" Odysseus fumed. "I won't get into it. Achilles is well-known. As well as considered the 'Most Attractive' as deemed by last year's newsletter poll,"
"What really?" Patroclus wondered if Achilles ever mentioned this to him.
"Yes. I am surprised he never expressed this information to you. He stated briefly that you were in close acquaintance with him from childhood,"
Patroclus ignored that Odysseus has recited this from his notebook. "Yes, we knew each other from when we were young. But we haven't spoken in a long while,"
"I see," Odysseus continue to scribble down notes.
"Are you going to show me around?" Patroclus sighed, getting used to Odysseus tendencies to zone out.
"Oh right," Odysseus paused then took off his bag and fished out a piece of paper. "This is the map of the school. I have decided that instead of showing you around the school, as any moron could accomplish, that I will kindly inform you of the high-school hierarchy so you don't get murdered,"
"Hierarchy?" Patroclus glanced at the map Odysseus had passed him, which had some scribbles in red pen all over.
"We both know high-school is a battle-field," Odysseus sighed. He tiptoed a little bit to show Patroclus something on the map. "This is where we are, the Sophomores lockers. Right there...or right here," he pointed to a door near them. "Is a janitors closest. Except the janitor doesn't use it because he thinks it's always locked. Little does he know,"
Odysseus jingled some keys in front of him. Patroclus didn't ask.
"This is where we sometimes have meetings, but only I have the key," Odysseus said. "Come on,"
Soon, Patroclus found himself sitting on the floor of the janitors closest (which was stacked with cookie jars instead of cleaning supplies) and facing Odysseus, who had his phone screen pointed towards Patroclus.
"Okay, so, I am friends with Achilles," he swiped to show a picture of Achilles, to which Patroclus realised how much his old friend had grown. "As I said, he's pretty popular and all the girls like him due to his physic. Then there's Diomedes," he swiped to a dark-haired boy. "He is also like Achilles although not as popular with the ladies. Unlike Achilles though, is that he is intelligent. He can almost beat me at being the top student. Almost,"
Patroclus sat in silence as Odysseus went through the student body. He kept note of whenever Odysseus said 'my friend' or 'Achille's friend'.
"Okay, now be prepared for the Siblings,"
"The siblings?"
Odysseus nodded. "There are three pairs of siblings you need to be aware of. There is The Fairest group, which is what they named themselves, which are made up of Clytemnestra and Helen, who are sisters. The third is Penelope but she is their cousin. Next are the Atreus brothers. They are ruthless, Agamemnon is dating Clytememnestra and Menelaus is with Helen. The next lot are the Priam brothers. They are the sons of the principle so they get all the benefits. Paris is a total loser but he's pretty so all the girls love him. And then there's Hector, who is relatively better. We don't really associate with those two," he finished that mouthful of information with a biscuit.
"Oh...that's a lot,"
"It is,"
The two of them jumped when the bell went. "Oh, is it second period now?"
"Yes," Odysseus stood up and opened the door. "I have English. You have Physics,"
"How do you know that?"
Odysseus glanced up from his phone. "I peeked at your timetable at reception. Nevermind that," he looked around as the hallways began to fill up. "Follow the map. Be careful," he put away his phone and walked off.
Patroclus finally had time to process what had just happened but he was pushed about by the crowd. Awkwardly, he followed the map Odysseus had given him.
Squinting at the corner which was circled in red pen 'The Fairest Nest', he looked up at where it corresponded in real life. He spotted three girls standing there, resembling the pictures Odysseus had shown her.
One of the girls had striking blonde hair (that was Helen, Patroclus remembered), the other had slightly darker hair, slightly ginger (which Patroclus was pretty sure was Clytemnestra) and lastly, the girl on the right, who had slightly darker hair, was Penelope (he assumed due to the process of elimination).
He immediately realised what Odysseus meant by a 'social hierarchy'. The three girls were obviously highlighted in the corridor compared to the rest.
"Hey," a boy approached the girls. He had dark brown hair and embraced Clytemnestra. That must be Menelaus, Patroclus figured.
"Hey, what are you doing?" a harsh voice was brought to Patroclus's attention.
"Huh?"
"Are you checking out my girlfriend?" he seemed familiar. That's when Patroclus realised it was Agamemnon. He was bigger in person.
"What? No- I wasn't-" Patroclus spluttered, panicking.
"Agh beat it Agamemnon," another voice came from behind Patroclus. "He's the new kid, he doesn't know,"
Agamemnon frowned furiously but sighed. "Alright, last time new kid," and walked off.
"Thanks," Patroclus thanked the student.
"Don't look at The Fairest again, unless you want to be slaughtered," he said sternly before smirking. "I'm Diomedes,"
"Oh, right, I'm-"
"Patroclus? Yeah, I got the text," Diomedes shrugged. "Come in," he led Patroclus into a classroom.
"What text?"
Diomedes sat down. "Odysseus texted me," and then after a pause, "And a few group chats, but it's fine,"
"Is this Physics?"
"Yeah,"
"Oh," Patroclus slowly sat down next to Diomedes. He remembered Odysseus telling him that Diomedes was friends with Achilles. "So, um..."
"Don't worry about Odysseus. Just don't say anything too incriminating around him, otherwise, he'll publish it for the newsletter," Diomedes laughed.
"Oh, I wasn't really worried about him," Patroclus frowned. "He is rather odd,"
Diomedes glanced at the front of the class where the teacher hadn't arrived yet. "Yeah, you get used to it,"
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"He's new and he's cute," Menelaus shrugged. "Achilles, you might have someone to compete with this year,"
"Fresh meat," Agamemnon rolled his eyes.
"Shush, he's coming," Clytemnestra giggled excitedly. The table watched as Diomedes brought Patroclus over.
"Hey guys, this is Patroclus," Diomedes introduced, taking a seat.
"We got the text," Agamemnon rolled his eyes.
"Hi," Patroclus awkwardly waved before sitting down next to Diomedes. He didn't see Odysseus but he certainly noticed Achilles sitting nearby.
"So new kid," Helen turned to him. Patroclus almost stopped breathing, up close Helen was certainly breathtaking. "What's your deal?"
"Deal?" he frowned.
"What are your hobbies, interests, intentions," she waved about a carrot stick.
"Oh, um, well I like drawing and stuff...?" Patroclus said, then realised that was probably the stupidest thing he could've said.
"Ugh, he's boring," Clytemnestra sighed.
"Ness!" Helen gasped, slapping her sister with the carrot stick. "He's not boring!" she turned to Patroclus. "Don't worry about her, sweetie. She's very judgemental,"
Patroclus nodded, slowly, almost expecting to be decapitated there and there. He spotted Odysseus walking over with Penelope. They sat down and Clytemnestra began talking.
"Oh Penny, love, don't sit too close to him, your daddy won't like it,"
Penelope went red and gave her sister an accusing look. "Oh shut it, I'm allowed to talk to people,"
"Her dad won't let her date anyone," Diomedes whispered to Patroclus.
Odysseus took out his notebook and began scribbling in it again. Penelope realised Patroclus was there. "Oooh, it's the new kid!"
"Don't get too excited," Agamemnon sighed.
Penelope ignored him. "I'm Penelope,"
"Hi, I'm Patroclus,"
"Patroclus? What a name! It's lovely," she ignored Clytemenestra's grunt of disapproval. "What? Come on, you gotta admit he's cute! The girls will be all over you, don't worry," she glanced back to Patroclus with a grin.
"That depends, what team do you play for?" Menelaos shot Patroclus a look.
"Team? I don't play football...?" Patroclus said before he realised what they meant, and went red.
"Oh sweetie, he meant if you like boys, girls or both," Helen laughed. "Menelaos, don't be so rude, he doesn't need to tell us,"
"Hey, it's just a question," Menelaos grumbled.
"Um," Patroclus mustered up when the attention of the table was turned to him. He noticed the lack of pen scribble sounds coming from Odysseus. "What about you lot?" he finally blurted out. What was he supposed to say? Oh, hey, I'm gay? But I'm not sure?
"He's good," Helen nodded, glancing at Clytemnestra. "We're all some variety of 'not straight',"
"That's Helen's way of saying she's fucked everyone at school," Clytemnestra shot at her sister.
"Hey!"
Patroclus paused his attention on the bickering sisters and glanced at Achilles; that's when he realised Achilles was staring at him. He promptly turned his attention back to the sisters.
"Agamemnon! Tell her the truth," Clytemnestra whined.
"I don't know," Agamemnon sighed, knowing he'll get in trouble later anyways either way. "That's for Helen to know and for you to shut up about,"
Helen stuck her tongue out at her sister.
For some reason, Patroclus realised that this event seemed to summarise the group pretty nicely. He still hadn't spoken to Achilles.
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Odysseus was used to scrambling around the school, gathering intel, exposing cheating couples, taking photos and printing the newsletter two minutes before release.
He was finally taking a breath when it happened.
New Notification
Agamemnon to "gang gang": party at the Priam's house tomorrow night. everyone will be there. go or I'll drag you there myself.
A party. Odysseus loved parties. Not for their intended purpose though. Parties were where all the drama occurs, where all the secrets are exposed and where all the cheating usually happens.
He quickly scribbled down a reminder to memorise a collection of random but interesting 'truths or dares' he could ask someone as well as thinking up of as many believable white lies he would need to tell whilst being drunk or during a game of goodness knows what.
"I'll take these copies down to the principle to review over the weekend," Penelope broke the silence of the empty room. Everyone else from the newsletter club had left.
"Ok,"
"Did you get that text from Agamemnon? About the party?" she asked, picking up a stack of newsletters.
"Yeah. Are you going?"
"Of course," she laughed. "Helen will help me sneak out of the house,"
"Brilliant. I shall expect to see you there," Odysseus smiled and watched her leave. Did he have his sights on one of The Fairest? Perhaps. Her father didn't like him and no one ever gets with any of The Fairest girls, especially since two of them are already taken and the other, Penelope, was under her father's strict 'no dating' rules.
He didn't particularly have brilliant relationships in the past, only having two girlfriends before (compared to his attractive jock friends, this was little). Neither of them had even been good experiences.
Calypso had been his first, and because of that, she took advantage of him, using him for popularity and selfish needs. He quickly got out of that (if 7 months is 'quicky').
After that, he had gotten more knowledgeable in the dating game, but ironically he hit a rotten apple again, dating Circe, who promptly cheated on him about four weeks after dating. They laugh about it now, seeing as that Odysseus was well known for exposing cheaters in relationships.
("They're easy to find if you look closer," he tells his friends).
And now, two years later, he was single and because all the Gods were against him, he was eying the one girl he couldn't have. And he wasn't even sure if Penelope would even be a good girlfriend if she was anything like Helen or Clytemnestra.
Sure, Penelope was less intense than the other two, but she grew up with them, she was like them. True, she was smarter and kinder. But Odysseus, king of thinking things over ten times more than someone sane should, having ven diagrams, pros and cons, flow charts and analyses on how a relationship with Penelope would go, doubted any truth.
("Man, Circe and Calypso messed you up," his friends would laugh). He doesn't tell them about how Calypso and Circe really did mess him up.
But Odysseus was good at putting off pointless problems and went back to working on his homework, ignoring his Penelope Problem.
New Notification:
Achilles messaged you: is Patroclus going to the Priam party?
Odysseus stared at the text messages. Sure it was just a text message. But Odysseus knew better. Two childhood friends reunited? Patroclus not answering the 'boys, girls or both?' question? Patroclus checking out Achilles? Achilles staring at Patroclus for the entirety of lunch? An anxious text message about whether Patroclus would attend a party?
Odysseus took about 0.3 seconds to think up of the conspiracy, quickly scribbling it down with all the 'evidence' to support it.
Odysseus: I don't know. I can inquire for you.
Achilles: Thanks.
Odysseus frowned. He didn't have Patroclus's number. Of course not. He paused for a moment to think. Everyone had gone home already, most people had. He went into his contacts.
To Hector Priam: What is your location?
Hector: What?
Hector: I'm at home?
Odysseus: Can you do me a favour? You'll be in my book.
(The book of favours; famous in the school; if you have a tick next to your name you could extract (mostly) any information from Odysseus for a certain amount of time (or questions). It was a valuable currency in the school. Odysseus didn't need favours often).
Hector: Fine. What is it?
Odysseus: Sneak into your father's office and look for the file on the new kid, Patroclus Menoetius.
Hector: Fine, but if I get caught it's on you.
Odysseus: Get me his phone number.
Odysseus's friends weren't close with Hector with either of the Priam brothers. But Odysseus knew everybody. And the Priam brothers knew he was valuable. If Odysseus's friends knew he sometimes conversed with them, and even worse, gave them information in return for much-needed favours, he'd be disowned.
Hector: 0424069420
Odysseus: Thank you.
Odysseus scribbled the number into his notebook, added it to his contacts and texted it.
To Patroclus: It is Odysseus Laertes. I showed you around this morning. Are you going to the Priam Party?
As he waited for a reply he continued working on his homework. Technically it was homework. He had finished all his real homework the previous day. Currently, he was working on coding the next week's newsletter's column.
Smartly, he had devised a coded system in which he could hide the 'important' news into useless news so the teachers wouldn't suspend him.
For example, he was currently putting the words 'Accalia and Adrien are no longer together due to Adrien lying about cheating on the Maths test and Accalia catching him redhanded speaking badly about her' into 'the cheese in the cafeteria smell like carrots but students enjoy it'.
Sure, the final piece ends up sounding a bit ridiculous but as long as it doesn't contain any 'no-no' words, the supervisors don't really care what the article entails.
New Notification:
Patroclus messaged you:
The Priam party? Also, how did you get my number?
Odysseus: The Priam brothers have invited everyone to a party tomorrow night. You should come.
Patroclus: I've never been to a proper party before though. (How did you get my number??)
Odysseus: It's a good way to establish your position in the hierarchy. (Didn't you give it to me?)
Patroclus: I have homework. (No I didn't).
Odysseus: Even worse. (Maybe Achilles' dad gave it to me)
Knowing it would be a bit harder to persuade Patroclus to go, he hit him with:
Odysseus: Everyone's going. Even Achilles.
Patroclus: Alright. Send me the details. (And that's a little weird but okay).
Odysseus smirked.
To Achilles: He's going.
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another high-school au? yes.