"And that is how the pomegranate got its name, the name directly translates to mean 'an apple with many seeds'." The centaur closed his text book and stuffed it in his bag before facing the class, of which half were dozing off, "are there any questions? We have five minutes before the lunch bell goes off."
Persephone pursed her lips and looked around at her other classmates but no one seemed to want to ask anything except her. Not wanting to stand out, she decided to refrain from asking and check it out later on hoogle.
The lunch bell, well, more like the lunch announcement, buzzed over the intercom a few minutes later. The teacher dismissed everyone and exited the classroom, while the students scampered out of their seats for the door. Persephone was packing up her books when a hand slammed down on her table.
"Hi Persephone, are you heading out for lunch?"
The goddess looked up at who the hand she so dearly wanted to break belonged to and saw Ares smiling down at her. "Yes I am," she responded with a forced smile as she stood up, "I'm actually meeting a friend at the canteen square."
"How ironic, I was heading to the canteens as well, we can go meet this friend of yours together."
"Hey Ares!" One of Ares' friends called to him, "We going to KFC for lunch?!" He was a very tall male with orange hair and a squared jawline, he almost looked like a baby giant.
"You guys go on without me! I'm going to the canteen square today!"
Persephone sighed and made her way to the door. Ares gave his friends a sly smirk and a mini salute before dashing out the door after her.
"So this friend of yours, is he a guy?"
"Umm no she's a girl," Persephone responded and glanced at the god walking beside her. She didn't see how that information was relevant to him.
"Oh that's a relief, cause it would have been a little awkward if I was walking you to see another guy am i right?"
Persephone gave him a forced smile, "yeah sure." Now that she got a good look at Ares, he looked a lot older than the other students in the class. Had he also been held back, or was he just an early bloomer?
Ares glanced at Persephone and caught her staring at him. The goddess quickly looked away while a huge grin painted Ares' face, "you like what you see Persephone?"
The way he said those words made her insides churn, there was something about this guy that just didn't sit right with Persephone. "Sorry I didn't mean to stare."
*
"So how was the party on Saturday? Did you and Persephone have a gooood tiiiiime…"
The silly smirk on Flora's face made Tekos roll his eyes, "calm down, nothing even happened. I barely got any alone time with her, we were interrupted."
"By who? Was it Arethusa?"
"Who else," Tekos responded and took a sip of his orange juice, "she got really drunk and started talking a lot of crap." The satyr covered his face and sighed, "it was so embarrassing, I'm sure Persephone thinks me and Arethusa are together."
"Oooh so you want her to think you're single now do you?" flora chuckled menacingly.
"I AM single, Arethusa and I broke up months ago.. she's just really stubborn and won't accept that things are over between us."
"And I'm glad you broke up with her, that little cougar only liked you because she could give you a boner just by looking at you." Flora flicked her friends nose making him blush in embarrassment.
"I told you I can't control it okay," Tekos mumbled, "you think I enjoy it, it's humiliating." Tekos sipped the last of his juice and threw the carton in a bin beside the bench they were sitting on. "I don't even understand why she's so obsessed, we didn't even do anything besides make out."
"Exactly, you're the one that got away," Flora explained. She leaned closer and whispered into Tekos' ear, "she had a glimpse of the forbidden fruit and now she wants to climb the tree."
Tekos shoved his friend away and sighed, "stop it you're making me uncomfortable." He reached into his pocket and popped a pill into his mouth. "I swear sometimes I think you enjoy my suffering."
"Speaking of your suffering," Flora pointed at a red head who was walking a few feet away from them, "isn't that Persephone? I forgot that she was-" Flora turned to her side and noticed the space where Tekos was sitting was already empty, and the satyr was walking his way to the pretty goddess. "Hey! Wait up, how do you leave your wing woman behind!"
Ares narrowed his eyes as Persephone and him approached a table where a dark haired girl was sitting, the girl had her head down so he couldn't really tell who she was at first, but immediately she looked up, he halted in his steps and an irritated look painted his already naturally scowling face.
Eris stood up and glared at the guy who was walking by Persephone's side.
"And who the hell invited you?!" They both uttered in unison. The air around Eris and Ares was so thick one could cut through it with a knife.
"You two know each other?" Persephone inquired.
"No!" Eris denied.
"Yes," Ares corrected her, much to Eris' displeasure. "Persephone, I didn't know you and my sister were friends."
Sister? Persephone moved her eyes between the two, now that he mentioned it, there was a bit of a resemblance between them. They had the same dark hair and eyes, and even their noses were the same.
"Alright, alright, thank you for walking Persephone here," Eris spoke and pulled Persephone to her side, "you can go trip over some broken glass now, bye."
Ares growled before making his way to the opposite side of the bench and sitting down, "Persephone agreed to have lunch with me too, I'm not going anywhere."
Persephone watched the two siblings stare each other down, gods she really don't have the mental preparedness for all of this right now. She needed a distraction, any distraction at all.
"Persephone?"
The goddess turned around and sighed in relief when she saw Tekos smiling at her, there was something about this satyr that always calmed her nerves. "Tekos hi, I didn't know you go here?"
"Oh yeah I do, sometimes.." he explained with a sheepish grin, "I'm doing my post grad here."
"Oh wow that's really impressive!"
"Oh it's nothing," Tekos chuckled.
"Have you had your lunch yet?" Persephone asked, he was the perfect person to diffuse this awkward situation, "join us… please.."
"Sure.." Tekos was about to sit opposite Persephone, when Flora practically dived onto the spot.
"Oh sorry was this seat taken? Guess you have no choice but to sit next to Persephone."
"You can sit next to me I don't mind," Persephone scooted closer to Eris and pat the space next to her.
Tekos slowly sat down and tried his best not to lean too close to Persephone. As he tried to control his breathing, her sweet scent wafted into his nose. Oh gods she smelled like strawberries and cream! This was going to be an incredibly long lunch break.
*
Hades filed the last of his paper work and pulled out a cigar, he flicked his finger and used the little blue flame he had created to light it as he leaned back on the chair.
Suddenly his phone buzzed to life making the crimson eyed god sigh, couldn't he enjoy his lunch break in peace?
"Salutations, Hades here, to whom am I speaking to?"
'Caller ID uncle Hades learn to use it..'
"Oh Hephaestus!" Hades quickly put out his cigar in an ash tray and sat up straight. "Did you find anything?"
'It's actually quite odd, I didn't find anything on anyone called Persephone, and I dug real deep, I'm talking dark web encrypted files deep.. it's like she doesn't exist.'
Hades ran his hand over his face in frustration, "alright kid, thanks for trying."
'Although…' Hephaestus interrupted his uncle, 'I did find a really old article about an ancient goddess that somewhat fits Persephone's description. The red hair, the blue eyes and banging body…'
Hades cleared his throat loudly making Hephaestus chuckle.
'Jokes uncle, I know she's off limits..'
"That's not the point, but do go on," Hades responded with a faint blush tinting his cheeks.
'Well I couldn't really read through it all because the text is in some dead language,' Hephaestus explained, 'I tried decrypting most of it and well, I don't know, it didn't make a lot of sense to me but maybe you would want to check it out.'
"I would appreciate that thank you."
'Alright I'll email it to you right away.' There were some typing noises before an email icon popped up on Hades' screen.
"Thank you kid, I really owe you one."
'Invite me for dinner sometime with this Persephone whose got you so worked up, and we'll call it even.'
"Goodbye Hephaestus!"
'Later uncle…'
Hades placed the phone back on the table and clicked his tongue, "pssh, worked up? I'm not worked up, just hungry for knowledge." He clicked open the email Hephaestus had sent and glossed over the contents, "now let's see what my 'know it all' nephew managed to dig up."
To avoid confusion lol Eris (pronounced A-Ris) female goddess of discord.
The Ares (pronounced Eh-Riz) male god of war