PAPER RINGS | jj maybank

000. prologue

chapter zero
prologue

Riding her bike through the cut, Athena smiled at the people around her. She was making her way to Heywards like she did every weekend. Her sunglasses rested on her face, shielding her eyes from the sun that was shining brightly in the sky.

She carried on her journey, occasionally stopping to say a quick hello to people, until she reached her final destination. She let out a breath, putting her bag down and gently resting her bike against a stand of grates, greeting some of the other workers.

"Athena." Heyward called happily when he noticed the blonde.

"Heyward, hello." She replied. The older man stood in front of her, his son slightly behind. Athena had met Pope before, he was nice and smart from what she knew but she had never really had a conversation with him.

"How are you?" Heyward asked. Athena sighed, putting her sun glasses on top of her head and replying to the man.

"I'm great." They walked into the shop, Athena starting to sort the groceries for different deliveries.

This is how it had been since Athena was about twelve. She wanted to help people and one day when she was wandering where she shouldn't have been, she noticed Heyward struggling with bags and offered to help him. Since then she had travelled to his shop every weekend to help, not wanting anything in exchange.

Heyward had grown to adore the young girl, her selfless nature and how smiley she was. She always managed to put a smile on his and anyone around them faces without even trying. He knew who she was, who her family was but didn't care. Athena was her own person and from what he had seen, she didn't care for the money and tried to give it to others as much as possible. Heyward thought she was be a better person to have around Pope than his reckless pogue buddies.

"You don't have to do that y'know." He told her.

"I know." Was her response. That's when Heyward noticed something was wrong. The usually bubbly, talkative girl had given his two word answers since she arrived. Normally she was talking his ear off about how the people of obx didn't care about anyone other than themselves with the amount of litter around for the animals to eat without realising and eventually die but today she wasn't.

"What's wrong?" He wondered. Athena sighed, dropping another tomato into the bag and turning to face him.

"I failed another maths test, and it's my third one this semester. My dad is threatening all kind of things to see if it makes me try harder but I just don't get it so I keep failing and eventually I'm going to have to repeat a year." Athena explained sadly. Heyward looked at her sympathetically before he perked up, looking around for a certain boy.

"Pope! Come here!" He ushered Pope over and stood him in front of Athena.

"Yes." Pope grumbled, looking at the blonde confused. He assumed she was just like to rest of the kook she hangs out with; Sarah, Topper etc, not realising she only hangs out with them because they're her only friends... to a certain extent.

"I want you to tutor Athena here." Both head's snap to the man, shock covering both their features.

"No, you don't need to -"

"Come on Thena," He started, "You insist on not getting paid for all the help you do so let us help you. Pope is the smartest person I know and if you let him tutor you, he can help you pass and not get disowned." Athena laughed, looking at the boy opposite her.

"I'm in, if you are." She stated, quietly, scared of his response.

"If it means you won't get disowned, I'll go anything." Pope told her. Athena squealed, jumping and wrapping her arms around Pope without realising. She pulled back after a moment.

"Sorry, I got excited."

"It's okay." Pope laughed. Heyward just stood back, watching the interaction with a smile on his face, not realising he had just started a friendship for the ages and helped Athena get one step closer to feeling as if she belongs.

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Athena was pedalling as fast as she could, wind in her hair as she made her way to Heyward's, it was a Saturday a few weeks later. She was in search for the Heyward boy, she was now calling a friend.

"Pope." She shouted, catching his attention. Athena practically there her bike down and made her way toward him, he had turned away from the task he was doing, now facing the blonde.

"Hey Thena." He replied. She was smiling brightly when she showed him a piece of paper from behind her back. "You passed!"

"I passed!" She squealed. She had got a C on her most recent maths test, a step up from what she had gotten before. " I can't believe it, thank you, thank you, thank you." The two hugged, Pope lifting her of the ground slightly, congratulating the girl.

"You don't need me anymore." Pope pouted.

"Uh, no no. I do, with your help I could get an A." She told him before shrugging. "And I'm also averaging a D in physics so I need your help with that too." Pope laughed at her.

"What would you do without me?" Pope asked, teasingly.

"Probably die after being disowned." Athena laughed, although she wasn't joking. Her father was extremely proud of her when he saw her test yesterday, congratulating her on actually working hard enough to pass. She decided it would be better if she didn't mention being tutored by Pope, unsure on how he would react about her friendship with a pogue.

"Probably." Pope smiled.

Unbeknown to both of them, a certain blond pogue had 'coincidentally' wandered towards Heyward's just like he had down every weekend since he was twelve to see the Cameron girl. He never worked up the courage to speak to her, him being a pogue and her being a kook and all. He never knew of Pope's friendship with the girl, or him tutoring her,

Pope kept it from the rest of the pogues, as it wasn't his place to tell them of the girl's failures. The blond watched the exchange from a distance, the smiles, the jokes, the hug and felt a bubble of jealousy building in his stomach, he should the one who's chatting and joking with Athena not Pope.

And that was when JJ Maybank decided he absolutely despised kooks.