Thena

Athena

By: Samwise

            Hi! My name’s Athena, though most people call me ‘Thena. Most kids hate the name their parents give them, but I love mine. I’m obviously named after the Greek Goddess. She’s the Goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill. Which is totally cool (Yes, I had to Google it. Shut up!). I have short brown hair and bluish/green eyes and I have ADHD. Which stands for Attention Deficit Hyper Disorder; against popular belief, we can be in a normal classroom. I like to fidget and keeping my hands busy. My parents put me on Ritalin and I love to draw. I get so absorbed in my art—the only thing (besides reading/writing) to keep me still.

            I’m far from being popular and I’ll be a freshmen at _____________. Where seniors rule, jocks are plenty, and nobody cares about you; high school is all about image and the “next big thing”. Personally, I don’t really care—I just hope I don’t get beaten up or thrown into a garbage. Tomorrow is the first day of high school; I wonder what it’ll be like. Well, on the flip side, my mom is pregnant again. I’m hoping for a girl; I told my dad I liked the name Artemis—another Greek Goddess and sister to Athena! I glanced over at my desk to find an empty notebook laying on the top. Reaching over, I snagged it and a pen. I opened to a new page and began to write.

December 20^th

          Well, we still don’t know what gender you are, but I guess that’s alright. I’m your older sister, Athena. This journal (NOT A DIARY!) is for your eyes only, understand? For now, you’re still a little…foreign thing inside our mom’s belly. She’s really pretty and our dad is pretty handsome. He’s a farmer and owns several five star restaurants across the States. I should probably mention that our mom isn’t from earth. She’s from a place called Asgard. But that’s another story for another time.

            With me being on Winter break (They couldn’t say Christmas because it might offend people’s religious beliefs), I’ll have a lot more time on my hands. Mom is becoming a better cook every day! I get good grades—I just kind of suck at taking tests, y’know? Maybe I want to be an editor when I grow up…or maybe an artist. I don’t think I’ll be starving… (Ha-ha…Get it? Starving artist?) Soon enough, I fell asleep.

            I awoke to the smell of bacon and pancakes. The first day of high school. I was excited, yet terrified. After showering and dressing, I made my way downstairs to find my mom sitting at the island, flipping through a magazine. My dad was at the table, drinking his coffee and flipping through the paper.

            “Want some breakfast?” she asked as I nodded. Mom always made chocolate chip pancakes and bacon on the first day of school. I sat at the table and slowly ate my breakfast.

I must warn you, smelly. Even though the pancakes are good, you have to be careful of those chocolate chips. They’re hot as heck and you could burn your lip off!

After I had my breakfast, I made my way to the bus stop. I was the first one there; I should have brought a book or something—but then that would have been a bad idea because then I would’ve been painted as a nerd. A few minutes later, a few other freshmen started to show up—kids I recognized from middle school.

“’Thena!” A voice called out as I looked over. Oh no. It’s Alaska. Of course, that’s not his real name. His real name is Ernie Backlaw. Everybody calls him Alaska because that’s where he moved from. He likes to talk on and on and on and on! Nobody likes him because he can get really annoying really fast.

“Are you nervous? I’m not nervous…Well, I am a little nervous. It’s a new year! High school, can you believe it? I can’t believe it!” And on he rambled.

The bus pulled up and I realized that it’ll be full of upperclassmen. As I got on, I made the mistake of sitting in the front. The jocks came by and swatted me over the head—granted it was lightly (Surprisingly). I pulled out my notebook;

Let me tell you a few things about the bus, you foreign object. Here’s my tidbit: The bus has three sections: Front, middle, and back. The back is for the popular kids. The middle is for the nerds/geeks/losers, and the front is for the quiet/special needs/all the seats are taken and nobody wants to share kids. I usually get smacked in the head every morning from popular football star Ryan Johnson. Let me tell you a few things about Ryan: First off, he’s the star quarter back for the football team.  Second of all, he’s a grade above me—meaning he’s in 10^th grade. Third, his sister is on the cheerleading squad. Her name is Allison. She’s in the same grade as I am. Fourth, he’s really cute. Looks can be deceiving, Artemis. Remember that!

By the time I finished writing, we pulled up to the school. Everybody rushed off the bus and it smelt like…something not very pleasant. This school was huge! Of course, homeroom had to be on the far side of the school. Lockers were lined up in the hall and I found mine. Making my way to homeroom, I found out my English teacher is my homeroom teacher. That could be cool. I was the first one to homeroom. He looked up and smiled.

“What’s your name?” He asked

“Calaway, Athena”

“Athena? Hm… Greek Goddess. Very creative” He stated, marking me as here

“My parents thought so too”

When I took a seat in the back of the room, I took out my schedule to look and see what classes I have:

1^st: Honors English –Mr. Frank

2^nd: Algebra II – Mrs. Thompson

3^rd: Pre-AP Biology—Mr. Redd

4^th: Lunch

5^th: Pre-AP Spanish—Mrs. Lopez

6^th: American History—Mr. French

7^th: Gym –Mr. Snow

8^th: Drawing I—Mrs. Buttons

9^th: Band –Mr. Chord

I put my schedule away as the room filled with incoming freshmen and a few before the bell rang again. Once settled, the teacher sat on the edge of his desk.

            “My name is Mr. Frank. I’ll be your homeroom teacher for the next four years. I also teach Honors English as well as AP European Literature”. Hm. European lit…Now that might be fun.

            After homeroom was over, I stayed where I was because the homeroom was in the English room. How awesome is that?

January 1^st

Congrats! You’re a girl! Oh. Happy New Year! I knew I was right the entire time! Ha-ha. Let me tell you something, Smelly… Life doesn’t get any easier, so enjoy it on the inside while you can! Once you’re out, you have rules to follow… Though, they won’t really apply to you yet since you’re just a smelly, pooping, crying machine. Mom and dad will make sure you don’t vomit your way out of your crib or anything… If you vomit or spit up on me, I’m chucking you out the window or selling you to the circus!

            Break was nice, but now I’m ready to get back to class. You know how I spent my entire break? Playing football, basketball, and baseball; I watched sports on TV and fought with my dad. I stayed with my grandparents too. What I really wanted was to go to Australia. It’ll be nice to go back to school (Did I just say that?). Means I can get away from my parents for a while. I haven’t been eating all that much lately either. I’m not starving myself; I’m not bulimic; I’m not anorexic either. I just… I don’t know. I’m thin and people tell me I’m beautiful. I am beautiful. I have wavy brown hair and beautiful eyes and a smile to match. I know things; I have a bunch of secrets. I can lie (Doesn’t usually help because my dad knows when I’m lying).

            Going back to school means facing Allison and her goons. Which, to a certain extent, I can handle.

Don’t.Trust.ANYBODY! (Well, except for certain members of your family, but even then). The word is full of backstabbing people. You think you can trust somebody, but then you find out that you really can’t. So, just be careful, alright?

            Well, I’m going to bed. See you in the morning!