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He clutched her hand like he was doing his best to break it, “I’m scared.”
“It’s going to be okay, Cas.” Meg smoothed the hair back on his head before turning to look at their brother, slightly pleading, though she’d never admit it, “Right, Luc?”
Lucius adjusted the straps on his backpack before kneeling down, “I’m excited!” He had enough enthusiasm to carry the three of them. “Why are you scared, Cas?”
Cassius scratched the top of his nose, “I dunno.”
“Use your words, Cas, it’ll help.”
“Um, well, you said it wasn’t going to be like- like-” Lucius nodded so none of them had to deal with we were raised together in a Roman death cult by an insane god-emperor-man , at least not on a Monday, or on their first day of school, for that matter. They could save that for like Wednesday or something.
“It’s not…” Meg said slowly, looking for the right words before she risked making the situation worse, or scared him. “Neither of us have been to school before, Cas, but you’ll be in a class with twenty other people, and learn things. Not like… before. No sword fighting, no swords in general.”
His hand found the knife tucked under his waistband, “What about monsters?”
“You’ll be with mortals, so they can’t know,” Lucius took over for her. Nero had sent him out to the mortal world on missions before, he knew what he was doing among them, or at least enough to not start talking about god-emperors and monsters and to not look completely at sea with phones.
Meg was hoping her time with Lester-Apollo would carry her through, as well as her other missions, but this was different. This was like… english, math, and gym. She’d picked her subjects already, and opted for French over Latin due to the history portion. They always included Nero, because he was interesting, but she had no desire to see her old stepfather in any format, even if it would guarantee her full marks in the exam.
Besides, Apollo always said that learning new things was good. She probably didn’t need to go to school, but the socialisation would be good for her or whatever. It didn’t mean she wasn’t also a bit terrified at the prospect, she was just better at hiding it than Cas.
Speaking of Apollo… “You guys wait here for a second, I need to go do something.”
Cassius’ lip trembled but Lucius nodded, “I can explain stuff to him.”
She pulled her morning snack/second breakfast (depending on when she was going to get hungry) out of her pocket, and a lighter, hoping it would be enough. It didn’t burn very well, but it caught light properly as soon as she started talking, “Hey dummy, Apollo, I mean. You do knowledge and protect young boys, right? Can you keep an eye on Cas today for me, please?”
She felt sunlight on her skin even though she was inside and there were no windows here. “Thanks, Apollo.”
She went outside to join her brothers, “I called a guy. It’s going to be okay, Cas?” He hugged her, and only stopped when the bus pulled up.
“Thanks for looking out for Cas,” she muttered over her plants. “It was… nice of you.”
“Nice of me? I’m very nice, Meg McCaffey.”
She didn’t jump, but gave him the middle finger as she turned around. “Stop jumping in like that. Get a trowel, if you’re here to annoy me, you can help out at the same time.”
“As you wish.” His appearance shifted from the golden statue-perfect version of himself to his gangly sixteen year old form. He’d added pimples around his nose and his forehead for some reason. Maybe it made him feel young.
“I can’t order you around any more, if you want to do that, it’s of your own volition.”
“It is. Did you learn that at school?”
She raised an eyebrow, “Volition? No, dummy, I’m smart. I read… sometimes.” She planted the seedling. “Dyslexia is a bitch but it doesn’t make me stupid.”
He put his hands up in easy surrender, “Didn’t say it did, sorry that I implied that. What I was trying-”
“And failing.”
He nodded, “And failing, yes, to ask, is how was school for you. You were worried about your brothers, but what about you, Meg?”
“I’m not a child,” she grumbled.
“You’re fifteen,” he pointed out. which was fair, but also kind of a dick move.
“I think dress codes are stupid,” she said.
“Did you violate it or something?”
She was wearing overalls and long sleeves, “No. But the idea about it is annoying. Kinda controlling, don’t like it.”
He nodded, “Okay. And?”
“Bathroom passes are dumb.”
“They are, anything else?”
She scrunched up her face, slightly embarrassed about what she was going to say next, “I think I made a friend.”
His face split in such a way that if a person hadn’t known that he was Apollo, hadn’t known that Greek gods even existed, would know instantly that this was the god of the sun. “That’s wonderful, Meg. Tell me about them?”
“Her name is Wilma, and she’s on the basketball team.”
“Is she tall?”
Meg raised her hand above her head as if to say about yea big . “She’s nice.”
“Do I get to know anything more?” He put down his trowel and smiled at her in a way that told her that he knew something more about something that she didn’t get to know about quite yet. She hated when he did that. So annoying. “Not now.”
“Not yet?”
“We’ll see. She’s in my math class, and english, so I need to keep up the grades in those classes to hang out with her.” She raised her hand to twiddle the piercing in her ear, not fully healed yet, before remembering that her hands were covered in earth, and that wasn’t a good idea probably.
Apollo followed the direction of her hand, “That looks nice, when did you get that?”
“Three weeks ago. Luc got one too.”
“Earrings are great, do you have any fun ones yet or do I get to introduce them to you?”
She fixed her glasses onto her nose from where they had been slipping down, “Sure, you can do that.”
She made sure to water the seedlings properly before going with Apollo to the kitchen, listening to him talk about styles and metals the entire time while the sun went down. It was better than thinking about having to go to class tomorrow at least.