Chapter Text
Bagi never wanted to be a demigod.
It's a difficult life, and gods usually don't pay attention to any of their children. But before she found out about her godly ancestry, her life was already bad.
She is 12 years old, and for all of these years, Bagi doesn't remember having any friends. Actually, she doesn't remember one big part of her own life. Not even her own surname. Her first memory is feeling cold, having a big jacket on her back, and a stranger man from the social service letting her in her new home when she was 8 years old. The weather was terrible, with a lot of thunders and strong winds, but she wasn’t afraid of the storm.
Fortunately for her, that’s not the only problem in her life. For as long as she can remember (and 4 years is a lot for a 12 year old), she never stays in one school for too long. Her guardian, Elena Santos, however, is never mad at her. Even when she was expelled after one day after fighting with some bullies because they destroyed her notebook. Or when she was in a zoo with her classmates and teachers and, on accident, opened the birdcage and a kid almost got taken by a bird and flew away.
Most of the time, she just smiles and says something like “you are just a kid, I could never be mad at you.” or something about Bagi being her responsibility. She was like a mother to her, but being the troubled kid made her feel bad everytime she goes to school to listen about how Bagi is different.
But today, Bagi would be better, she would be normal. That is her sixth new school, and she is almost a year in here. She beat her record!
But sometimes, she wishes that she could change schools again. She hates internates! It’s so annoying having to spend five days with people like Ms. Kram, her English teacher, or Hannah Bobafit, her annoying bully. Everytime Bobafit does something, she manipulates their English teacher to believe her. Sometimes, she doesn't even try, and she already starts with “Please, miss Santos, follow me”.
Before she could continue being a massive hater, her friend, Tubbo, wakes up and looks weird at her. Both of them are in a bus seat, and her classmate was sleeping the whole time.
— What? — Bagi said.
— Why didn’t you wake me up?
— You never sleep, dude. Besides, our school is like twenty minutes from here.
— You should have.
Bagi doesn't understand and just ignores him. Tubbo seems like he is younger than anyone here, besides being skinny and small and looks like he never had a good night of sleep. His legs don’t seem to work well too, because when he walks it looks like he is limping. The blonde boy is different from everyone too, and that made them stick together. Before him, anyone besides Elena never treated her kindly.
For her luck, Bobafit didn't mess with her today. The two teacher that takes them here, Ms. Kram and Mr. Brunner, lead the class to the entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at Greek and Roman stuff. Seems boring for most of her classmates, but Bagi finds history a very interesting topic, and Mr. Brunner makes the class more entertaining to her ADHD brain by using media when explaining, like scenes from movies and even cosplaying as a greek soldier.
Mr. Brunner has a gentle face, and his voice is very comforting and even scary when he is angry. He uses a motorized wheelchair and sometimes plays basketball in PE class. His hair is blonde, but a different tone from Tubbo. As a matter of fact, sometimes it seems that the boy seeks for approval from Mr. Brunner. Bagi is not one to judge, daddy issues are not uncommon in a school full of weirdos and troublemakers, and Mr. Brunner is a very cool person.
The museum is big, and after half an hour, Bagi can’t concentrate with everyone talking behind her. She is using her notebook, a present from her guardian. There's a pen linked with a red string, and the book is covered with some light tone leather and an owl sketch in the front. Even with her trying to write down everything that she is listening to, she can’t pay attention.
— Shut up! — She says.
— Don’t be a nerd, Snow White.
Bagi never understood why Bobafit calls her that. Isn't the whole point of Snow White that she is the most beautiful girl in the world? Maybe she was just stupid and never read more than one line in her life.
Ms. Krams looks at them with angry eyes. Bagi feels an impulsive desire to return the stare, but Tubbo notices and tells her to do some breathing exercises.
— Dude, you are almost being suspended. Last time, you had to do an essay with 50 pages about some random guy with no Wikipedia page.
Bagi laughs louder than she wishes she had, and unfortunately that calls Mr. Brunner's attention. She felt her face turn red when he looked at her.
— Ms. Santos. — he says in a calm voice. — Do you find this picture funny?
— No, sir.
She didn’t even look at it until now.
— So, you certainly know who this is?
Bagi looks up, and feels relieved immediately. Of course she knows.
— Yeah, it’s Zeus, right?
— Yes, and…?
— Ahn, he is like the king of gods. — She looks at the picture with more attention. The statue in the picture seems huge. The god has a big beard and has an arm raising a thunderbolt. She feels scared, somehow. — And he is the god of thunder and all the sky.
Behind her, Bagi could hear Bobafit saying that this kind of information is useless and boring.
— Ms. Bobafit. — Says Mr. Brunner. — Do you wanna add another thing in Bagi's response?
Even without looking back, Bagi could feel in the girl's voice that she was ashamed. She smiles while looking at Tubbo, who smiles back.
— N-no, sir.
— But answering Ms. Bobafit's question, do you know any useful information about Zeus?
She looks confused with the question. Like, useful in real life? Guess it is cool to know a bunch of fun facts, and just to know the history of humanity but not really important in day-to-day life.
— He became the god of gods — She starts. — by defeating his titan dad, and freeing his siblings.
— And do you know why this is useful?
— I don’t know, sir.
He looks disappointed, moves his head in a negative motion, but smiles at all his students.
— Well, good to know that you paid attention, but you gave a half answer. He indeed defeated his father, Kronos, but only because he tricked him and made him vomit his kids. — Someone made a vomit noise in the back. — Then, only with the help of his siblings, Zeus killed his father. Well, after this nice lecture, time for lunch.
The teacher leaves with a funny laugh, and Bagi notices Ms. Kram is paying attention to her. She tries to ignore, and follows a very happy Tubbo outside.
Her classmates are all around the place. Two of them are hanging in a tree, some are trying to get some girls' attention and Bobafit is nowhere to be found. Bagi feels safe enough to eat her lunch.
— What do you think Mr. Brunner meant by that?
— You are the history nerd, you tell me.
— You are not helping.
— I’m sorry. — He bites his apple. — I think this is something you have to find out for yourself.
Bagi looks at him with a disbelieving look. This 5’5 foot kid is trying to give her some life lessons? Trying to look cool? This just makes her more confused with the meaning behind all this.
She breathes in and out, trying to call down. Her true wish is just to go home. She knows Elena would answer any question she has, because her guardian is the most intelligent woman she knows. But the last thing Bagi wants is for Elena to be disappointed about her being expelled from another school, even though she says she never felt that way about Bagi.
The sky is dark, with heavy clouds and a storm seems to start. She sees some colleagues scream when lightning strikes, but she doesn’t understand the fear. There’s lighting rods everywhere in New York, they are completely safe.
Tubbo seems agitated, and Bagi finds it odd. Tubbo is a very logical type of guy, but she guesses fear is not logical.
But the girl’s luck over, and she seems Bobafit getting closer to her with a trying-to-be scary smile. Bagi finds her more pathetic everyday.
— Snow White, why is your hair weird?
Bagi ignores her, she calls her hair like that on a daily basis. She decides to focus on Tubbo. Bobafit opens her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and smashes in Tubbo’s face.
Bagi didn’t even know how it happen, but in a moment she was standing up and ready to beat her face, and in another she was feeling the electricity in the air and Bobafit was on the ground, with a very scared face.
Not only her, but some classmates were scared, and saying things like “Did you see that lightning?”. Bagi looks confused at her fallen bully, and before she can say anything, Ms. Kram appears on her side.
One more essay of a random guy in her account.
— Ms. Santos…
— I didn’t do anything!
— I did it! — Tubbo said, and Bagi does not believe that her goody two shoes friend is taking responsibility for this. Maybe he just didn't wanna be alone when she got suspended. — I pushed her and-
— Ms. Santos, follow me.
Her voice is rigorous, and she just follows her. They left behind a crying bully and a scared Tubbo, who seems to be looking for another person.
They enter the museum, and the sound of the tempest outside decreases. Bagi tries to make sense of what just happened. If the teacher in front of her wasn’t almost giving her a suspension, she would get her notebook and start trying to write her thoughts. Before she notices, they are in the same area as before, and Bagi sees more pictures of Zeus. Some statues, like him in a throne, and others were vases with him holding a lighting.
— Bagriela Santos. — Her voice is lower than before. Her arms shiver. — We were looking for you.
— Anh?
— You. — The teacher ignores. — Give it back and we will make it quicker.
Before Bagi could ask any more questions, she feels some people entering the room. Two women that she saw outside. In front of her eyes, in a matter of seconds they transformed into hideous monsters, as if they were never human in the first place, with fangs and a weird combination of human and a bat.
Bagi screams and falls on the ground. Her back hurts, and her notebook and pen escapes her jacket and hits the ground, but when she looks again, they become a shield with an owl symbol in the front and a sword with the pommel shaped like two wings, both made from a brownish metal that she doesn't recognize.
She tries to get them, but her former English teacher goes for her arm and makes an attempt to hit her, but she evades and kicks her ugly face. The other weird bats run at her, but she takes the shield and sword, and even never holding a real one, she gets in a defensive position she saw in a movie, where she puts the shield in her front, and leaves the sword point outside, on the top of it.
One of the former women doesn't seem to care about her formation and just goes for it, and Bagi just follows her instincts. When the creature gets close, she hides her face behind the shield and swings the sword. When she opens her eyes, she sees a weird yellow power, and she is gone.
None of this makes sense for Bagi, but her mind seems truly calm for the first time and this scares her a little. Unfortunately for her, the bat's friends just seem more angry, and they both try a joint attack. One goes in the front, and the other tries to attack her back. She breathes and waits. When the creatures goes to attack at the same time, she jumps to her right and swings the sword, making the two of them hit each other head on. They both become yellow powder, just like the first one.
Bagi falls again, and even with the creatures gone, she can feel like someone is whispering curses for her, and like their eyes were looking at her.
Ok, something in her lunch has expired. Or she is just crazy.
When she looks at her hands, she is holding her normal notebook and her pen. She gets ups and runs outside, and sees Tubbo talking more calming with Mr. Brunner. Bobafit stands, and sends Bagi a nasty look.
— I hope Ms. Kerr hit your ass.
— Who?
— Our teacher , dummy!
Before she could try to see if she was trolling her, Bobafit rolls her eyes and leaves a very confused Bagi behind. She goes to Tubbo and Mr. Brunnen, and the two seem strangely calm.
— Oh, Ms. Santos. — Mr. Brunnan starts. — I hope Ms. Kerr didn’t put all the blame on you.
He says it with a smile, and leaves chasing after some troubling student. She stares at her best friend, who looks weird at her.
— What?
— Where is Ms. Kramp?
— Who?
Bagi is almost in a panic now.
— That’s not funny, man.
— You are crazy, dude. We don’t have a teacher named Ms. Kramp.