A Battle for Athens

Mr. Cecrops, the homeroom teacher of Athens Homeroom, was known as the most reasonable and fair teacher in the entire school. And he was genuinely confused by the situation he was facing.

A few moments earlier...

"Aphrodite, you should run for Class Rep! You would do so great!"

"No way. I'm far too busy for that kind of stuff." Aphrodite replied, once again, fixing her already too perfect makeup.

"Then what about you, Poseidon? You should run! We would all vote for you if you did!"

"I don't know..." Poseidon said, glancing over at Athena. He had always known that she wanted to become Class Rep, but never won. She would probably run again this year...

"Will our candidates please rise!" Mr. Cecrops said, unaware of what was to come.

Athena stood up.

A few people snickered. Poseidon sighed in relief.

Suddenly, somebody pushed Poseidon into the aisle between the desks.

Struggling to find his balance, Poseidon ended up standing in the middle of the class. Mr. Cecrops clapped his hands energetically.

"Wonderful! We have two candidates! Shall we begin the voting?"

"W-wait! I actually don't want to run. I-" Poseidon said inching back towards his seat.

"Then I guess I'll run." Zeus said, standing up next to Poseidon.

Poseidon's jaw dropped.

"Actually, I do want to run." he said, fumbling his way back to the place he was standing before.

Athena watched all of this from the back of the class with an unreadable expression.

"But now I've decided to run." Zeus said, smiling innocently at the rest of the room.

"You-"

Zeus shrugged.

Poseidon was stuck. He genuinely wanted Athena to win, but if Zeus ran for Class Representative, then she would have no chance of winning. But if he ran, there was a slim chance that Athena would still win, but...

She would probably hate him for going against her.

A voice rang through the room.

"Are you running or not?"

Athena had spoke up. Poseidon turned to face her, but her face was still as unreadable as before.

"I'm not running, but I don't know if he is." Zeus said, sitting back down.

"Yes, I'm running." Poseidon said, defeated.

"Okay, then!" Mr. Cecrops said with all the positivity that he could muster up. It wasn't much.

After Poseidon and Athena gave their speeches, the rest of the class cast their votes on slips of paper.

"It's a tie." Mr. Cecrops said, surprised. Never once has this ever happened in his entire teaching career.

"Wait, Mr. Cecrops! I haven't submitted my vote!" Zeus ran up to the teacher's desk, and placed his slip of paper in the voting box.

Mr. Cecrops took the paper out.

The entire class grew still. Who was the winner?

"Our Class Rep for this year will be...Athena!" Mr. Cecrops announced to the class.

Poseidon let out a sigh of relief.

Just then, the bell rang, and all the students filed out of the classroom like a horde of bison stampeding into the sunset.

"I hate you." Athena said, walking out of the room.

All the blood drained from Poseidon's face. She won...so why was she acting like this? There were so many unanswered questions he had about Athena. So many things he wanted to ask her, to get to know her, but...now none of that was possible. Poseidon walked out of the room.

Honestly, Athena had been expecting to lose by a landslide. She knew that Poseidon had the ability to do that, but when he gave his speech, she realized that he wasn't trying at all. She didn't hate him for going against her, but rather, she hated him for not going all out against her. And Zeus...why did he pit Poseidon against her if he was going to vote for her anyways?

Athena couldn't figure it all out. She just decided to go to lunch.

Meanwhile...

Pandora did not care for the drama that had unfolded in front of the school that morning. Oh, sure! Some random dude had a crush. Oh, wow! He insults her in front of the whole school. Oh, joy! Everything goes downhill. Was she supposed to care?

She had a boyfriend already, for goodness sake.

"Epimetheus!"

Epimetheus ran over to her. They were both in their senior year. What could possibly happen?

Zeus could happen. But she didn't know that, now did she?

One day during lunch, when Epimetheus had left to go to the restroom, Pandora was sitting alone at her table. Suddenly, Zeus, the most popular freshman approached her.

"Hey...so I was wondering if you could do me a favor...?"

Unknowing of his evil plan, Pandora agreed.

"I have a present for someone I know, but I don't want to keep it in my room because it won't be a surprise then. Could you please hold onto it for me?"

"Sure!"

"But don't open it. It's something really important."

"Don't worry, I won't open it."

"Good. Thank you so much!" Zeus waved goodbye and left.

Pandora was a naturally curious girl, so of course she wondered what was inside the box. She was just dying to open it. But she shouldn't. One little peek wouldn't hurt, now would it?

No. She had promised to never open it.

But she just had to know what was inside the box.

"Hey, Pandora! What's that?" Epimetheus had returned.

"I don't know," Pandora's fingers slid to the clasp keeping the box shut. "I was just about to open it.

Her fingers lifted the clasp.

The box flipped open.