Olympus Academy: The Final Bell.

Chapter 6: It's Beat-Down Time.

Rosie lined up with the other students attending Miss Shinoda's advanced flight class. After forty-five minutes of algebra, she was excited at the thought of hitting the open sky. She noticed that the class was much smaller than her previous one, there were only six students including herself, but one student in particular really stood out.

She had olive skin, and electric pink streaked, brown hair covering the left side of her head. Her uniform was shredded at the sleeves, and her skirt was way too short for academy regulations. The exposed areas of her flesh revealed that much of her body was covered in tattoos; a Phoenix ascended her right arm, a flaming rose burned on her left leg, on the centre of her chest a heart blazed, and a dragon curled itself from her right thigh to her mid-riff. Her eyes though...

'What?' The girl was looking over, her intense amber eyes burned into Rosie.

'Just checking out your ink.' Rosie smiled at the tattooed girl with the amber eyes but received a sneer in reciprocation. Rosie's fists clenched, and she was about to ask amber eyes what her problem was, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see a more welcoming face.

'You might want to hold that thought.' The boy behind her smiled. Rosie's fists relaxed. 'Unless you want to get that nice new uniform chargrilled. It's not a good idea to get into it with Leah Neramani.'

'Leah...You mean that's...?'

'Oh yeah, daughter of the devil himself.' The boy offered her a nervous chuckle. Rosie, much like the rest of the world knew who Dante Neramani was. He was the reason mortals were afraid of Olympians.

'... I don't care who she is, I'm not...'

'Good morning class.' The appearance of Ino Shinoda prompted silence among the students. Rosie had read about Miss Shinoda, they called her the She-Devil, and seeing her in person, Rosie could understand why. Shinoda's skin was a deep blood red, she had long pointed ears that poked through her thick black hair. A forked tail swept behind her as she approached the small group. 'Before we begin, I want to be sure that everyone is aware that this is the advanced flight class. Is there anyone here who thinks they would benefit more from the foundation class instead...? No...?

'Excellent. For the new ones, my name is Miss Shinoda, and for the duration of this term we will be exploring complicated manoeuvres, formation flying, and flying at high velocities.

'There is a lot to cover, so if there are no questions, I am keen to begin.'

'Just one quick question, Miss..." Graves appeared, along with a tall, pretty, sulking girl with angelic wings, wearing a bikini, and clutching her uniform. Shinoda laughed.

'Why Miss Carter, cutting class on the very first day? Good to see you are maintaining the form that led you to fail so spectacularly last year.

'Perhaps you'd care to slip into something more appropriate before you join us in the air? Thank you, Mr. Graves.' Shinoda nodded to Graves, who responded with a wink before disappearing again to resume his hectic schedule of daytime T.V and reading the newspaper with his feet up on his desk in his sweaty little office. Rosie had never seen a teleporter before, she thought as powers went, it was pretty awesome.

'Why bother,' Chelsea looked around her with general disapproval. 'not like you can teach me anything any...' Chelsea caught the expression on Shinoda's face and decided now would be a good time to not say words. Shinoda agreed with her assessment with a brief, but stern nod.

'We've wasted quite enough time, shall we begin?' Dark red wings burst free from Shinoda's back. Ragged, and leathery, like those of a dragon, or a bat. Rosie saw a certain dark beauty in them that rivalled the more traditional sense of the concept that Chelsea's feathered wings encompassed. There was a powerful gust as Shinoda's wings swooped down, taking her effortlessly up into the air. 'And do try to keep up, if you can.'