“Scar!” he shouts. Everyone fearfully looks at me. I can understand the fear; he’s big, tattooed, and from the underworld. The blonde hair and blue eyes and his smile do nothing to help ease it.
I stand up, letting my breath out.
“Adrian!” I shout back in the same way. I run at him with my arms open, catching him in a tight hug which he happily returns. “You couldn’t go without me for two days and came to find me? That’s so sweet.” I tease him.
“Then you don’t want what I have…” he responds.
I send him my best glare.
“You know I do. Follow me.” I grab his hand before moving around him and opening the door. Before I can step out, Adrian opens his mouth.
“What are you all staring at? Never seen someone go to make out with his girlfriend before?”
I turn back and punch him in the arm.
“Ow, babe, that hurt.” He yelps, continuing the charade.
I raise my eyebrows and lift my fist again—a challenge for him to continue. However, he’s smart and mutters an apology with a chuckle. I pat his arm with a smile before grabbing his hand again and pulling him out into the corridor.
We pass the students standing like statues on either side of the hall before I find a door and push Adrian into the cupboard behind it. I pull the door forcefully close behind me, turning to Adrian.
“Why… Did… You… Do… That?” I exclaim, hitting him with every word.
“You should have seen their faces and yours. It’s not you like you care what these people think anyway, right?”
“Of course, I don’t. I’m hungry which is making me grumpy, so give it to me,” I retort.
He grins, producing the bag of deep red liquid out of his jacket. I snatch it from his hands, ripping the top of it. I let out a content sound when I feel the familiar ambrosia slide down my throat. It only takes a couple of gulps for me to finish the bag. I throw the empty plastic at Adrian’s chest before licking my teeth, trying to clean them. I do a quick check around my mouth as Adrian returns the bag to his pocket.
“Do you think you could stay for a couple of minutes?” I ask as I twist the handle to open the door.
“I’m sure your dad can go without me for a while.”
I smile as we re-enter the hallway, finding that the students are a bit louder than they were before. In the hallway and the cafeteria, ignoring the silence that falls when they see us again, I go back to the table, Adrian close behind.
“Guys, this is Adrian, a close friend from home,” I introduce him as I take a seat. Adrian reaches to a table next to us, turning the empty chair around so he can sit next to me. Everyone at the table gives him a skeptical glance with a hesitant smile before their eyes move to my face. When their eyes don’t move from me and they shoot each other questioning glances, I begin to get paranoid. I pretend to scratch the back of my head as I look at Adrian.
“Do I have anything on my face?” I murmur.
His eyes widen, and he gulps as he points to my cheek.
I instantly bring my finger up to wipe any blood that I missed away. I feel nothing, and thinking I have the wrong place, I prod my cheek, trying to find any smudges. When I realize that there is nothing, I shove Adrian’s shoulder.
“Idiot.” He rights himself and gives me a grin.
Our interaction seems to relax everyone else, and they replace their hesitant smiles with proper ones.
“So, Adrian, have any embarrassing stories about Scar?” Tasha asks.
I snort, looking at Adrian. The question isn’t whether he has them; it’s which one he should tell. I watch him, curious as to the answer.
“If I tell you them all, we would most likely be here all week, so let’s start with the most embarrassing. The year is 2009. Now, the thing you need to know about eleven-year-old Scarlett Hades is…” he starts off dramatically.
I absentmindedly pay attention to the rest, knowing what he’s going to tell them. It was not my finest moment; let’s just say that. He’s not stupid enough to mention anything paranormal, so I don’t have to worry about that. I reach for the unopened bag of chips on the table, slowly eating them as I watch the table laughing at my misfortune.
I crumple up the now empty bag and throw it in the closest trash can. I watch as it falls short, and I sigh in disappointment. I turn back to the table tuning back in at the end of the story.
“And that’s why her uncle always locks away the marshmallows whenever she visits,” Adrian says. This causes raucous laughter from the whole table.
“If I remember it correctly, you were…” I start but am cut off when a crumpled packet is thrust in front of my face.
“I believe this is yours,” Tiffany says sweetly.
I breathe in deeply, trying to force myself to deal with her without punching her.
“Look at you, following one rule,” I remark. “Why don’t you go, and on your way, put the packet in the trash. You know, where you get your clothes from,” I say, pointing to the aforementioned container.
Her eyes narrow, but she doesn’t move and instead turns her attention to Adrian beside me. I roll my eyes as she places her hand on his shoulder, rubbing his arm slightly. Adrian looks her over; however, I can tell if he likes what he sees. Hopefully, he understood that I don’t like her.
“Hi, I’m Tiffany, and you are?” she asks, her voice lowering.
“Not interested, and seriously, leave before I break it,” I tell her, nodding to her blue and black nose, which she unsuccessfully tried to cover with her makeup.
She returns her glare to me before looking each side of her at her clones. One of them looks to be holding back her laughter. Tiffany grunts loudly, clenching her fist. She drops the bag on the table before turning and stomping off in her heels.
“You were the one that did that to her?” Lottie asks me. I nod. She grins, leaning over the table for a high five, which I happily give.
“She had that coming.”
I stand up and throw the packet back toward the trash can. It falls in this time.
“Nice throw, Newbie.”
“One annoying person to another,” I mutter before turning to Hunter. “What do you want now, Oldie?”
“An introduction,” he says, looking at Adrian. I can’t quite decipher what his feelings are. I smell his adrenalin is pumping, but I don’t know whether he is angry or scared.
“This is Adrian. He works for my dad, but he’s been there my whole life. He was just dropping something off for me.”
“We’re best friends,” Adrian says in a child’s voice, pulling me closer to him. I push him away as best I can. I give up waiting for him to tire. I give an awkward smile as the hug goes on. I pat his arm as I look at Hunter’s friends.
“Sorry I ran out on you earlier. I’m Scarlett Hades, but you can call me Scar depending on how well we get along,” I tell them with a wink.
“Hades? Like the devil?” a tanned boy asks. His dirty blonde hair is shorter at the sides, only slightly longer on the top, and pushed up away from his dark eyebrows and green eyes underneath.
“Yeah, like the devil,” I confirm trying to suppress a smile. Adrian pulls away from me, and I sigh in relief.
“I’m Jake, by the way.”
I nod in greeting and acknowledgment before turning to the next guy. He is about the same size as Jake, so slightly shorter than Hunter. He pushes his brown hair, which is swept across his forehead, away from his blue eyes before he reaches for a handshake.
“Liam,” he introduces. I squeeze his hand firmly as I shake it. “Wow, you have a strong handshake. I think you broke my hand,” he complains.
“Aw, you can’t handle a girl shaking your hand?” the next guy teases. “I’m Leo and the only one of these idiots that you should know. They all have sticks up their asses. I’m the most fun,” he finishes with a whisper.
I let out a small chuckle. Leo is blond like Jake, but his hair is styled more like Liam’s. His gray eyes are cheeky. He wink
s at me.
The fourth boy has been standing at the back of them this whole time, and when he pushes through them to introduce himself, I understand why. I think back to what was confusing me earlier and realize that it was me sensing a demon. I didn’t understand why I thought one was close.
His dark eyes meet mine before sliding to Adrian beside me. He looks around the room, his heartbeat rising. Obviously, my dad didn’t allow him to come up.
Adrian stiffens next to me as he senses the same thing, his head turning to me silently, asking me what I would like to do. I turn back to the demon and give him a smile and a chance to explain himself.
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
When he doesn’t answer, I feel myself getting angrier. He wouldn’t dare disobey my father by not answering him, so why does he feel he can do it with me? He’s now going to see that I’m no different from my father.
“I asked you a fucking question. Now, what are you doing here?” I shout at him, thunder rolling uncontrollably. I feel the sun hit my back as if telling me that I made a mistake. Adrian’s hand falls onto my arm, warning me to calm down. Hunter looks from me to the demon, confused.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Lily asks lowly. I ignore her as I wait for the demon’s response.
“I was bored and needed something different from the normal stuff,” he answers, thankfully, cryptically.
“Go back. Adrian will escort you,” I tell him, causing more confused expressions to come our way. I can get why; they’ve just seen a girl flip out on something she apparently just met. I’m used to this sort of thing at home, and I deal with it every day, so this is normal for me. I guess it’ll take a while for me to get used to the different ways.
“No,” he replies defiantly with a smug smile marking his face.
I slam my hand down on the table, getting even angrier.
“Go back! Don’t make me make you, or worse tell my dad that you’re here!” I shout. How dare he defy me? Another roll of thunder resounds, causing murmurs of bewilderment.
“Scar, don’t worry. I’ll go now and take him with me. Your dad will be glad to know you’re settling in well,” Adrian assures me, standing up. He marches forward and grabs the demon by the arm before dragging him out of the cafeteria, passing Mr. Ward on the way.
“Hey, you, what are you doing here?” he calls, following them out again. The bell rings overhead to let us know that it’s the end of lunch; however, I ignore it as I turn to Hunter.
“You still have the cigarettes?” I ask, needing a reminder of home and my dad right now.
“Yes, but what’s the magic word?” he taunts.
“Don’t mess with me right now! Just give me the pack!” I yell, causing another roll of thunder to sound. I close my eyes as I try to calm down. I need to keep my emotions in check. “Please,” I add, gritting my teeth.
He smirks before reaching into his leather jacket and passing me the pack and his lighter. Before anyone can ask me any questions, I walk out. I have had a very stressful day so far, and it’s only my first! Gods help me!
Chapter 6
Demon Teacher
When I finally collapse into the chair in room 217 for Psychology, between Tasha and Lottie, I feel much calmer. I swap the cigarettes and lighter for a notebook and pen as I look up and around the room realizing that it’s louder than it should be. Narrowing my eyes, I look from Lottie to Tasha.
“Where’s Mr. Jeff?” I ask.
Lottie shrugs as Tasha chooses the verbal option. “We don’t know.”
I rest my forearms on the table and my head on top of it, waiting for the teacher to arrive. It only takes a couple of seconds before the door flies open, and someone comes striding in. I hear them writing on the board before turning to the class, throwing his bag onto the table. The class instantly goes quiet.
“Ms. Hades, look lively,” a deep voice commands with a slight edge of amusement.
I shoot up, looking at the teacher, not because of his command, but because of his voice. I recognize it as belonging to one of my dad’s most trusted guards. My dad has a soft spot for him—well, as soft a spot that Hades’ can have—and thinks of him as a son. My dad brought him up since he was a baby, and he’s been around me my whole life, so he’s like a brother. He’s older than me by around forty years, and ever since I was a kid, I’ve looked up to him as a role model, along with my dad. I should have guessed my dad would do something like this. Can’t he trust me? I didn’t really give much thought to him not being around the last couple of days when I was in Hell, as I was busy getting ready to leave.
I groan, making my feelings clear. “Are you serious? I don’t need a babysitter.”
He hears my comment, as I see one side of his lips pull up in a smirk, but he continues as if he hadn’t.
“You will address me by my first name, which is Kyle, nothing else. I will be taking over from Mr. Jeff, who unfortunately as a result of health issues, consequently decided to take this year off to work on getting better,” he explains. Of course, he has; my dad must have had something to do with it. I wonder what he gave to him. It’s very rare for a demon to have a last name unless they are born from souls.
Kyle crosses his strong, tattooed arms as his dark eyes survey the class. I see all the girls perk up, pushing their hair over their shoulders. I roll my eyes; of course, all the girls will be falling over him.
“Do you know him?” Tasha whispers to me. I ponder whether to admit it or not. I look from Kyle back to Tasha.
“No,” I say with a shake of my head.
“Oh, it looked like you did.”
I give her a smile before turning back to Kyle. His dark eyes meet mine with his head slightly cocked. I shake my head minutely. No one is to know.
“I am not usually a teacher of psychology, so we will mainly be working out of books.” He twists back to his desk and the pile of books there. He picks them up, giving a portion of the books to each of the desks at the front. “Take one before passing the pile back. We will be looking at page 35 today.”
When the book lands on my desk, I slowly flick to page 35 and push it back on my desk as I take out a notebook. Kyle starts his lesson, every so often asking people to read a paragraph, ignoring me. I do the same, focusing on the doodles I am doing in my book. Kyle wouldn’t fail me. He might mention something to my dad but would never fail me.
“Ms. Hades!”
I look up at Kyle who is still standing at the front.
“Can you please read the next paragraph before we all leave?”
I sigh, rolling my eyes, before putting on a smile.
“Of course: We communicate additional information through the gestures we make. Some of them are deliberate to emphasize what we are saying, or affect the behavior of another person, whereas others are unconscious, and we do not realize we are communicating information. An example of this is nervously tapping your fingers, or raising an eyebrow,” I read aloud. I know what gesture I want to give to my dad for sending me to this school.
“Thank you, Ms. Hades. If you could stay behind, I would like to talk to you before you go onto your next lesson,” he says. The bell rings, and everyone starts to talk and gets up. “Read the rest of the chapter by next lesson!” Kyle calls over the din of the students.
I move toward the front of the class, leaning against one of the desks there.
“We’ll wait for you outside,” Lottie tells me as she continues out of the class.
I wait for Kyle to finish bidding farewell to every girl going out of their way to walk past him to say goodbye. I find myself tapping my fingers on the desk, like the excerpt from the textbook said, but this time, as a result of impatience.
Finally, Kyle closes the door and turns back to look at me. I raise my eyebrows at him expectantly. He plunges into an explanation without me asking the question I’ve been burning to.
“Your dad sent me up, Scar, because he wanted someone to make sure that you didn’t do any
thing stupid and be found out.”
“Were those his words? Stupid?” I ask, getting offended.
“That’s not what…” He takes a step toward me. I cross my arms. I should have known they were up to something. I hadn’t seen Kyle for about a week before I came up to Earth, and I usually see him every day. Well, now I know why.
“I’m not stupid. I don’t need to be looked after. I can take care of myself. You both should now that and trust me,” I rant, uncrossing my arms and throwing them around me with my words to vent my frustration even more. “Is there anyone else up here?”
“No. It’s just me.”
I let out a small sigh of relief at this.
“Okay,” I reply shortly before moving to the door. I go to push the handle down, but Kyle calls to me.
“Scar, I’m not just here because your dad ordered me to keep you out of trouble. I wanted to be up here with you too.”
I nod to let him know I heard but don’t look back as I push the door open. Still breathing heavily from the hurt and anger I feel toward my dad and Kyle, I storm out of the room almost missing Lottie and Tasha waiting for me leaning against the lockers opposite. They push off and come to walk beside me.
“What happened?” Lottie asks as she walks quickly to keep up with me.
I stop when I realize they are with me. “It was nothing,” I tell them even though my tone is still slightly irritated.
They exchange a skeptical look before turning back to me.
“At lunch, with Hunter’s friend…” Tasha begins.
“I know him. He’s trouble and shouldn’t have been here,” I answer the question I knew was coming. They exchange another look, probably asking themselves, Who is this girl standing in front of them who overreacts to almost everything and knows people who are trouble?
“What’s your next class?” Lottie asks.
“French,” I say.
“Cool. I have that too!” Tasha exclaims.
Lottie tells us that she’ll see us later and goes toward the stairs. A short walk down the hallway later, we stop outside room 230. As we enter, Tasha apologizes to Mr. Francois for being late as I go to the back of the class, passing Hunter on the way.
Hades’ Daughter (The War of Fate) Page 7
