Vi Presento a Athea (Introducing Athea)

XV

By the middle of the week, Athea was already getting used to Jason's presence around her at school. Not only had the boy introduced her to the people she could now call friends (which still excited her very much to think of), he also seemed to be trying to partake in being a present part of her day-to-day life. In the days he didn't arrive late, he would always be one of the first people to greet her with a smile and a good morning, and Mr. Creed had already set them as Chemistry partners for the year. As it was expected, Jason would occasionally be pulled aside by his group of friends, who did not try to hide in the slightest their displeasure with the jock hanging around the new foreign girl – and in those times, despite his efforts, the boy usually did not return until the end of the school day.

On her way to meet up with Eric for Mrs. Caldwell's class, she heard heavy footsteps behind her, followed by someone shouting her name. Eyes wide, she turned on her feet to watch a waving Jason running towards her. She was surprised, since the boy had been hanging around his friends since the beginning of the day, and she had already expected that to be a Jason-less day. She did not contain a shy smile and waved back, timidly. He caught up to her and, under a heavy, panting breath, managed to say:

"Today..." He exhaled deeply, followed by a laugh. "That was quite a run, there." He joked, holding onto his knees and Athea let out a joyous chuckle, nodding in agreement. He cleaned out his throat and stood up straight. "Are you free today?" He asked, his cheeks flushed from the run. Before Athea could answer, he complemented with a genuine smile: "I'm going around to see pops." The girl raised her eyebrows and opened a wide smile, which made the boy's breathing short for a small second, as he did not recall seeing her smile that widely and freely at him before, and his turning stomach and beating heart weren't sure how to feel about it.

"Oh, my- yes! Yes, I'm free!" She couldn't contain her child-like, innocent excitement and it was a delight to watch.

"Awesome!" He clapped his hands together excitedly and Athea giggled, very excited herself. "I'll stop by and pick you up, is that okay?" She nodded. "Okay, j-just give me your number and I'll text you when I'm coming over." He clumsily picked up his phone and handed it to her.

"O-oh, sure." The girl felt her cheeks burn and inputted her number in his phone with trembling hands.

"Athea..." The boy recited slowly as he typed her name onto the phone. "Is that right?" He turned the screen towards her, to check his spelling. She nodded in return. "Cool!" He quickly smiled and slipped the phone back into his pocket. "By the way, this has been on my mind for a while but I don't know why I never managed to ask." Athea responded with intriguing eyes. "Your name is very beautiful but it's also very unique. Where does it come from?"

"Oh, it's not that deep, it's actually a funny sto- "The bell rang once more over them and she remembered where she was heading to before the boy stopped her. "Erm, I have to..." She started pointing and waving awkwardly over her shoulder.

"Mrs. Caldwell, right? I was on my way, too." She stopped her wiggling around. "Every class, remember?" He shrugged his shoulders tiredly. "You can tell me on our way there. The funny story, that is." He started walking towards class and Athea followed with a flustered mind.

"So, uhm, you remember I told you about my older sister, right?" Athea started to explain, feeling a familiar tightness in her chest when mentioning Brie. Jason nodded. "Before I was born, my mother bought a book which had mythology tales, but for kids. She'd read it to us when we were younger, and to Brie, my sister, when mom was still pregnant with me." The boy watched and heard her carefully, occasionally nodding. "Brie had created a fascination for Athena and her stories when she was a kid, and when my parents told her she was getting a sister and jokingly asked what should be my name, my mom told me Brie just immediately shouted "ATHEA!" in an attempt to say Athena." She giggled and Jason smiled along. "And although my parents found it cute and funny at first, they began calling me Athea around the house as a joke during my mom's pregnancy and started growing fond of it that way, and it eventually stuck around." Athea shrugged. "Not that interesting of an explanation, right?" She chuckled. "But I still like it."

"I think it's nice, too." He adjusted his bag on his shoulder as they approached the classroom. "So, your sister likes Athena... that would explain why she likes owls, too." He gave her a look and Athea raised an eyebrow in surprise. "What? You think I'm taking Literature just for fun?" They both laughed as they entered Mrs. Caldwell's class. As soon as they got in, the girl's eyes met with Eric's, sitting on the front row. Guilt overtook her and she waved embarrassed, a shy smile on her lips. Eric smiled back until noticing who she was with, to which he just shrugged conformed. "Looks like Cyrus skipped this one, too." Jason commented, which took her attention away from Eric's disheartened eyes. She followed his gaze to where the jock normally seated, next to her usual, empty seat. "Guess I'll be taking his seat, then." He gave her a wink, making his way towards Cyrus's seat, to which she followed, towards hers.

"Thank you, by the way." Athea said, while they picked up their materials. The boy, now sat next to her, answered with a confused gaze. "You said my name was beautiful. No one's ever told me that. In fact, people used to make fun of it for being "different" and "weird"." Jason slowly placed his notebook on the desk, attentive to what she was saying. "So, yeah. Thanks." She smiled at him and he just scratched the side of his head, embarrassed.

"N-no problem." He managed to say, followed by the sound of his pencil case falling to the ground, which brought him back from his high abruptly. Athea smiled with herself, still happy from the compliment, and soon enough Mrs. Caldwell started tapping the board, and began roll call.