Legends, Percy Jackson

i. westover hall.

chapter one
westover hall.

NINA HAD BEEN attending Westover for a year, and she was certain that the vice principal was a monster of some sort.

She didn't normally like to believe the worst in people, but Dr. Thorn was a creep. He always stared at her, which was really weird, not only because of how evil he always looked, but also because Nina was probably the most unnoticeable person in the school. She purposefully kept away from attention, and for the most part, it worked. Until Thorn, it seemed. Nina was extremely uncomfortable with this.

The vice principal also kept his eyes on two students, both some grades below her, named Bianca and Nico di Angelo. Bianca was a kind girl, who pretty much stayed to herself, unless she was with her brother. Nina would like to consider Bianca a friend, as she didn't have many of those, and they were acquainted with one another. (They both liked to attend the library at similar hours, and ironically, both had dyslexia and ADHD, which made it hard to actually study in said library, but they helped each other with the work.) Nico was an eccentric little kid, only ten years old, and he was absolutely obsessed with Mythomagic. When Bianca had introduced Nina to her brother, Nico had all but forced her to play the card game with her━and it was actually quite fun.

     It made Nina wonder why Dr. Thorn took notice to the three specifically━they weren't troublemakers, or the smartest kids in class, or popular, they were just kids with mental disorders and a habit for misspelling their own names.

     There was also his appearance. Now, Nina wasn't one to judge a book by it's cover, but Dr. Thorn's whole vibe just reeked of trouble. He was french, for one thing, though that wasn't all that strange, just peculiar for the middle of Maine. He had two different eye colors, which also wasn't strange, but the glare in his eyes was so fierce and inhuman that she was almost sure he wasn't.

     The teacher scared her, honestly. He made her horribly uncomfortable. Dr. Thorn was recently observing classes, as ordered by the principal, to see if the teachers were good at their jobs. He just so coincidentally was observing her class that day.

     It was the last day of the term, last class of the day. Nina really hated math. Why did there have to be letters in math? She was already struggling with the work in front of her, and it didn't help that she could feel Dr. Thorn's eyes boring holes in the back of her head. The girl who sat beside Nina, Macy, flicked her pencil against the table as she effortlessly solved pythagorean theorem problems. Nina was good at math, too, it was a shame it was so hard for her to read.

She turned to Macy, whispering, "What does this one say?" Nina pointed to number three on their worksheet.

Macy spared at glance at the vice principal behind them, who conveniently wasn't looking at them, before murmuring back, "It's thirty-four here," she pointed at a number, "and then the base is forty-one."

"You're a lifesaver," she responded. Macy gave her a smile before turning back to her own work.

     Feeling those glaring eyes again, Nina snuck a glance behind her, seeing Dr. Thorn staring right back at her. She whipped her head back around, facing the watch on her wrist, as the minute hand crept slowly to the twelve. It was so slow, and Nina could hear the vice principal starting to stand up.

     Tick. The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, and start of the Winter Break. (Most students, some, but not all, would be going home for the holidays. But seeing as Nina had nothing to return home to, she would be staying at the school).