Chapter Text
“Diviértete en el colegio amor” Lilith’s mom said as she unlocked the car, the teen girl stepped out with a quick “te amo” to her mom, a big building loomed over her, its white paint starting to yellow from age.
She sighed heavily- it was school number 3 by her count, and that wasn’t considering kindergarten or preschool.
She walked up the steps, her backpack jingling from the sheer amount of keychains the girl had hung on the zippers, most were either handmade or gifts.
At the reception a kind-eyed woman gave her a schedule and off she went, walking through the hallways of buzzing students.
Suddenly- a familiar silhouette caught her eye- she turned to look, but she didn’t see anyone familiar and if there was, they’d already melted into the crowd.
She kept walking, humming the tune of “beautiful” from Heathers the musical, until she found her first class.
Ignoring how most students were already sitting down and that the teacher was about to begin his lesson, she began walking to an empty chair at the back of the classroom
“Ah, you must be the new student” a deep voice rang out behind her, making her freeze mid step, turning around to face whoever had spoken.
To the surprise of no one- it had been the teacher, who took the opportunity of Lilith acknowledging him to keep talking. “Don’t hide back there! Come up front and present yourself to the class!”
Every step heavy she walked up front, giving her back to the whiteboard “Hello, my name is Lilliana Vera, but I’d rather you just call me Lilith, I’m 14 and this is my third school!” She gave the class a tight smile, barely gazing over them, yet her working eye fixed on a specific person.
Same olive skin paired with a spiky wolf cut that looked messy, but Lilith knew it took way too long to style.
Avery, child of hades and a master at ragebaiting half of camp
They flashed her a sharp smile, and Lilith felt her gut sink with dread when she realized they’d raised their hand “I have a question”
“Yes, Avery?” You could almost hear the despair in the teacher's voice, it seemed that their reputation wasn’t limited to camp “why is your left eye blind?”
She gripped the strap of her bag tighter, holding back the urge to snap at them, instead she widened her smile “It was a fire accident”
She did not include, however, the part where the Chimera had tried to incinerate the rest of her body; she'd been lucky to be far enough from its mouth for it not to burn her skull.
Avery was about to open their mouth again when the teacher intercepted “Wow Lillian-”
“Lilith.” She corrected, trying not to glare at him, it hadn’t been the first time people “Americanized” her name. “Right. Lilith, why don’t you go and sit down, there’s a spot right in front of Avery that should be fine”
She suppressed a groan of absolute dread as she dragged her feet and slumped herself onto the plastic chair, the metal legs scraping against the tile.
“‘Fire incident’? You really couldn’t come up with anything better?” Avery whispered behind her as the teacher had already started to write chemical theory on the board (who assigns chemistry at 7am?) “shut it death kid” Lilith let herself snap at them, but didn’t bother to turn to face them.
A few seconds of silence followed by the sound of pen hitting paper had Lilith thinking that maybe the little shit had shut up for good.
The feeling didn’t last long.
“I thought you said you didn’t go to this school?”
She sucked in a breath, her temper flaring “Oh gee- it’s not like the teacher literally said ‘new student’ or anything”
“I’m just saying it’s weird that you’re stuck here now”
“Why, I thought I wasn’t smart enough for school?”
“Partly yes” they responded and it took every last shred in Lilith not to throttle the kid “but also because you and I are not the only demigods studying here”
She finally turned around, her eyes wide with surprise “what?”
They chuckled “yeah- it’s actually kinda crazy the amount of demigods who wound up in this school, we usually meet up at lunch, we're our own little community, there’s even a clear-sighted mortal who occasionally joins us. We’re still trying to figure out if she’s really a mortal or an unclaimed demigod.” Their smile widened the more slackjawed Lilith went “don’t look so surprised sunshine we even have a betting pool!”
Lilith turned back, realizing that it was now impossible for her to focus on the board, a million thoughts ran around loose in her brain, but like Rome, they all led to one thought .
And that thought was that her expectations for a low-expulsion stakes school were in the same place as the vision in her left eye.
Gone.