THIEVES

The Worshipped Idol

"I will get old. You will get old. But I will still look in your eyes the way I looked at them when we were young."

- Anonymous

Athena could tell the number of days she counted to finally meet her heart-throb, the amount of times she had kissed his posters and online pictures she had kept framed.

She remembered every bits so vividly like it happened a millisecond ago.

His pretty smile that he constantly had whenever he'd talk to the teachers in primary school, his sandy brown hair that made her feel nostalgic to the beach, and she hated beaches. His primpy way of handling things made Athena confirmed that he was indeed perfect in every way.

Of course, it was also his unbounded tenderness and amiability that she admired the most.

It all started back when she was still a horrid devil's daughter. Her parents wanted their daughter to experience and befriend children of the upper class.

She was supposed to study there for only five months as her parents couldn't afford any further beyond that.

To the eight year old Athena, it was a no problem as she thought she was above everyone else until... the day of her major exam.

It was the final subject that she had to score, and being undoubtedly clever since a young age, she was confident the first place would be nobody else's but hers.

Since she loved attention, she wanted to ace this final one without a single mistake. Plus, it was the easiest subject, according to her haughty self anyways.

Art.

Athena strode in like a lion into class that day, nose high in the air, arms crossed with her suitcase. When she got her canvas, she smiled like she won the lottery to the class, assuring them they can get the hell out as she was clearly the winner.

After stretching her hands in front of her for a fake warm up, she felt her blood went frigidly cold, her proudly rigid back can might as well fall off her seat.

Where the hell is my brush?

Surely, she could not have misplaced it elsewhere. She went for another round of robust rummaging. Still, empty, nothing but her watercolors, palette and neglected dust at the base of the suitcase.

Thanks to her infamous repute, almost the whole class noticed this.

Some stifled a laugh, a few more pretended to be oblivious but a satisfied grin couldn't help but betray them, and even the teacher in charge who was suppose to help, huffed to hide her smile and went back to work.

The snob on her face morphed into a piteous look abruptly, hoping it could bewitch her classmates to brush off the past incidents.

None fell for her wicked tricks. They knew her too damn well. She even tried mimicking her favourite cartoon, Puss in Boots.

It worked for him, she thought.

Unfortunately, Puss' reputation wasn't half as bad as was Athena's. So it wasn't a surprise she ended up twenty minutes into the exam just staring at her bleak canvas who seemed to mock her too.

Now, exams may be something frivolous to many but it wasn't anything like that for her. She was so used to getting good grades that even getting a B+ would completely shatter her heart.

Breaking down was the most foreign thing to devil Athena but with the vast pressure weighing down on her small body, she did.

What she didn't expect was God was on the devil's side that point.