Greek Times for a Future Girl

The Apollo Mission

After all the madness that happened after school yesterday, Hades told me to basically screw getting more followers on his side and to focus on spying on Hercules. Basically, get any intel on the demigod that could be an advantage to taking him down. Not the most exciting job in the world, but nobody really wants to argue with someone who could melt your face off if you disagree. Now, I had to keep my secret just that twice as much as I was already doing.

Today, however, was the start of a new school day, the start of a new mission for me, and I was looking forward to how it was all going to turn out. My main focus was to just get through the week without any madness going on -well at least for maybe an hour-or-so. I wondered how school would go out considering the fact that the entire cafeterium was destroyed, and upon walking to school, I saw that there were lines of what looked like chariots in a school bus looking format, picture large traveling wagons driven by a pair of horses, and students getting on the buses. Was the entire school going on a field trip or something?

"Aria!"

I turned around and saw Helen running towards me with a relieved smile on her face and she immediately embraced me with a hug so tight I felt my lungs squish together.

"Oh, thank the gods, you're alright." she told me. "I was so worried about you after what happened with the two-headed cyclops."

I gently broke apart the hug to let my lungs fill back up with air. "It's okay. I'm fine. Everyone's fine. Hercules, the new guy, and I managed to beat the monster."

"Oh, I heard from Cassandra. It was so brave of the two of you to fight that thing and save everyone." she told me. "I don't know how I could ever repay you."

An idea popped into my head. I considered that Helen was, in fact, different from all the other popular girls I grew up with, so there was only one real thing to ask of her to decide whether or not my predictions about her were true or not.

"Well, and this may sound corny beyond all reason, maybe we can be friends?" I suggested, mentally preparing myself for a popular girl laugh of disapproval.

Instead, I got another tight hug from Helen. "Oh! That'd be the greatest thing ever!"

Congratulations, Aria Plousios. You're officially friends with both outcasts and the popular girl.

I broke off the second hug and nodded towards the line of bus/chariots. "So, uh, what's this thing with all the chariots?"

"We're going to the Agora for school!" Helen said excitedly.

"Agora?" I repeated.

"You know, silly. Where people go to shop and eat." she reminded me.

I tried to think of places like she described, but the only thing I could think of was a shopping mall. Come to think of it, that's literally what an Agora was: A shopping district.

"Oh, right!" I said in understanding, but I still didn't know why we were going to a mall for school. "What for?"

"To give builders time to rebuild the damage done to the cafeterium after the orthus incident." she explained. "Also, the teachers think that giving us assigned jobs at the Agora will help with our careers! Y'know, Intern Week!"

"You're saying that we'll get paid for doing something school-related?" I rhetorically asked. 

I had no idea that this kind of stuff was an actual thing or not. But if I knew stuff like this existed back home, I'd be more excited about school stuff. Where has this been my whole life?

"They didn't have Intern Week where you were from?" she asked me.

I shook my head. "Nah, they had a College Week. It's not as fun and we don't get paid."