²Olden Crown, heroes of olympus

001.

OLDEN CROWN
━━ chapter one

━━ THE FIRST THING she noticed when she turned around in her seat was the blond boy in the seat behind her.

Everything about him was out of place. He stood out like a sore thumb. He was like some teen model, shining brightly compared to all the acne-riddle, sweaty teenagers on the bus. His face was carved by some artist—sharp, yet confused, electric blue eyes; smooth skin devoid of any imperfections ( seriously, this guy had no pimples, it just wasn't fair ) beside one tiny scar right above his top lip.

If Delaney was honest, the first question that popped into her mind was; 'Where d'you get the scar?' Instead of embarrassing herself like that—because no way in hell was she going to admit to looking at his lips—she narrowed her eyes and demanded, "Who the fuck are you?"

The scrawny boy beside her, Leo Valdez, and the girl beside the blond boy, Piper McLean, looked at her strangely. The blond boy was staring too, like a deer caught in headlights.

Piper's eyebrows furrowed, and she glanced at the boy beside her. She laughed slightly, like Delaney was pulling some kind of joke. "What do you mean, Laney? This is Jason."

"Don't call me Laney," Delaney quipped. "And I don't know any Jason. And I certainly don't know him." She nodded to the 'Jason' holding Piper's hand.

Leo grinned, a thing he did often. "Oh—I get it. Delaney's trying to freak us out, Pipes. She's still upset about the spider in her beanie."

Delaney looked at the boy beside her coldly. "Get out of my seat," she snapped. "I told you to sit over there!" She guested to the empty seat opposite of them.

"No way, I want in on all the action!" Leo shook his head.

Delaney scowled and looked ahead, over the seat in front of her. Coach Hedge was staring back, clearly perplexed. The satyr narrowed his eyes at the blond behind Delaney. He didn't know this 'Jason' either. Thank the gods, she wasn't going insane after all.

After another 'talk' with Hera earlier that December, Delaney had been shipped off to Wilderness School. And she uses 'shipped off' too nicely. Hera had tormented the girl for a month and a half before Delaney agreed—just to get the goddess off her back of course. Stupid cows and peacocks. They were more annoying than she could have ever guessed.

It seemed the goddess knew she had driven the daughter of Erebus to a breaking point, showing up on the night Delaney decided that enough was enough. When the Goddess of Marriage appeared in Delaney's dream, she seemed much weaker than she had back in November. Back then, Delaney couldn't help but grow nervous at the state of the goddess.

Then, the next morning, Delaney ran away. Not her first time running away. She found Wilderness School easily. Not many schools would take the gamble of naming themselves Wilderness School—pretty bad connotation, all things considered. As Delaney made her way into the school, toying with the Mist to make everything seem perfectly all right, her instructions from the goddess kept ringing in her mind; 'Go to Nevada. Find Wilderness School. Find Gleeson Hedge. Tell him you're here to help. Help him bring back the half-bloods to Camp Half-Blood.'

Delaney couldn't help but curse herself everytime she thought about it—which was consantly.

And it wasn't easy convincing Hedge she was there to help. She had fought with Kronos, after all. But when she didn't kill Piper or Leo in the weeks she was there, it seemed Hedge was coming around to the idea that she was there to help. Not that Delaney wanted to; she would rather Leo and Piper get mauled than Delaney have to waste her life helping them.