Poppy Krass's Story

Honestly, she knew it deep within her core that she should apologize to Mr. Keating. It wasn't entirely his fault that Cadence met her fate with absolute dread. Thise whole new aspect of her life, and so soon as it was just plopped down right in front of her, was perplexing. Maybe she just wasn't one of those students who wanted to be more than normal; entirely human. Of all the deities that could have given her life, it just had to be Hades. Arrogance was never part of her personality, but he seemed to have given her a very nasty attitude.

While her pencil scribbled lines and curves, she heard a soothing feminine voice, "G'morning, Cadence." Ms. Krass was one of those teachers that, not only had an interesting class to teach, was extremely intelligent. Cadence liked that, even though she chose not to flaunt her own. "Good morning," she replied, a little disturbance rustling through her tone of voice. Still, she had yet to look up from her sketchbook to visually acknowledge the woman. Instead, ceased the movement of her pencil and entered somewhat of a pensive, and unnatural, thought process. It had taken just a mere greeting from the physic's teacher to make her brain go all haywire on her. Yes, she did need to go and say sorry. There was no reason to treat Mr. Keating like he was some aweful person, and she probably set him a bit on the edge for the rest of the day.

"Jesus Christ, I can't believe that I am actually going to do this," musing to herself as she packed up all her belongings. With hesitance, the strap of her bag slipped over her shoulder, and she went back toward the direction of power control class. This did not mean that Cadence had a sudden change of heart in regards to exactly how she felt about being able to do something so stupid; raising the dead, conjuring darkness. It was merely an attempt (as vain as it may be) to remedy her mild attendance in a classroom that was deemed the most important for all demigods. Simply put, she did not want to lose control of herself one day.

After a few moments of solitary walking, she had somehow managed to bring herself right back through the doors of Mr. Keating's class. For a second, she just stood there in front of Boone like she was lost for words. Then, which some twisted expression on her face of disbelief as to what she was about to both say and do, she spoke, "I - erm, apologize for my behavior Mr. Keating. I just really don't believe that these 'powers' of mine are really any good. They seem pointless, actually. Moving towards one of the desks along the wall, "I guess I will attend today." Even though she knew that he would probably have something ugly lined up for her, she had nothing better to do with her time right now. Cadence figured that she might as well as suffer through whatever Keating was going to force her to do.

Glancing at Peter, she rolled her eyes. Great, she thought, Did he really have to be here, too?



With a little amber heaven in her belly, she was ready to head to the great hall. Amarie neither held the scent of alcohol, nor allowed it to display as a hesitance in her steps. It was just enough to calm her mind from her earlier explosion. She had no idea what that was about. Tension, she supposed; frustration of many kinds. As she stepped inside, she took a minute to pause her feet and greet Nathan and Jules, "Good morning, Mr. Hensleigh, Jules." She knew exactly how the teacher felt about her, but not what Jules thought. She did, however, admire the drive that the student had. There was no motivation in wasting her breath being completely vile to Nathan, either. He had a cute face, but he also had his tendancies, and they were the only things that kept her from being too friendly.

Afterwards, she went to start setting up the decorations, which were thankfully predetermined. Whilst she worked, she did notice a few more students in the hall aside from Juliette; Nova Tricon, and Blitz Licht. Blitz was set in her ways, but she had a lot of confidence in everything she did. It was pleasant. Nova was mighty helpful in times when Amarie just couldn't tell one wire from the other. He was, without a doubt, just a wonderful and outgoing boy. They were both locked up in their own conversation, she so just tossed the pair a friendly smile and went on about her business.

She had to figure out what she would wear to this event, if she would even want to participate in more than just being a baby-sitter. There was a certain romantic air that she loved about a ball, but not when it was student-teacher. This was also not her first dance in this school, as it was notorious for introducing a myriad of activities to ease the drag of school life. The only thing that she scoffed at was having to watch all of the students; many of who were prone to spiteful and ugly behavior. She could name a few right off the bat, but she hoped that it would just be an easy and relaxing night. Perhaps she could even enjoy a dance or two... maybe. Amarie was your classical clutz, and she would step all over Boone's feet without so much as a sliver of grace. So yeah, maybe she won't go dancing.

Fion Atreus

Fion's eyes were glued to his coffee mug, watching with close attention as the the liquid sloshed within to insure it didn't spill over the sides, when a pleasant voice lilted over to him. “Morning sir” He glanced up, returning Ava's smile with his own. "Mornin' Ava." Of course as soon as he took his eyes off the coffee some of the hot brew spilt out over his hand. Fion's eyes returned to the cup; glaring at it and grumbling as his long, loping strides continued on.

"Hello, Mr. Artreus. Where are you going and is there anything lively going on there? Or food? Subsistence related things would also be great." Fion stopped in mid-step looking from his cup to the little finger poised in his chest, then followed the arm up to the face it belonged to. "Oh, Hello Poppy!" He beamed, "Good morning!" Giving the little lady a wide smile he offered his coffee to her, or what was left of it. "Would you like some-" He glanced down at the mug, quickly changing the offer: "The rest?" She sounded a little hoarser than usual. "I was headed to make some flyers for my students... I think they gave me a day off because so many of 'em showed up in the wrong place for P.T last year… but I can do that anytime." He looked over Poppy's head to glance out the window. It was shaping up to be a nice day, sunny and bright. Which reminded him; he'd also have to set up the training field.

"As for food…" Fion chuckled, brandishing the lamb chops with a grin. "Betty's always so kind to me on the first day. She'll probably spare us some pasta, or tofu, or salad...." His face fell into contemplation as he went over all of the non-meat products she ate in his head. Before meeting her, he wouldn't have even conceived of the idea of not eating meat. Fion still wasn't quite sure how she managed to stay alive...

The teacher snapped out of his musings with a earnest smile, "Do you have time for a picnic?" Fion was always trying to feed Poppy. Whatever food he could get into her would do her good. She needed some meat on that little body. No matter how much she ate Poppy seemed to stay so tiny. Remembering the boxes Ava had been carrying, and a question having struck him, Fion gestured behind him in the direction of the Main Hall. "And what's this now about a Ball?"

This may come as a bit of a shock to you, but Boone Raziel Keating was actually shaving. It had been a while since he'd worked to make himself presentable to the general public, but today would be special and he would make sure of it. He put product in his hair, splashed his face with water a couple times, applied a hint of cologn- oh god, was he sweating? No, no, he wasn't nervous and it certainly had nothing to do with the fact that this was an event that he was genuinely clueless about. He'd never been to a dance because he'd been a little bitch in his adolescence and a bitter old coot up until he had a certain English teacher he wanted to impress. He would act like a perfect gentleman tonight. Everything would go smashingly. He was determined to be as good of a date as humanly plausible, even if twats like Brendon and nagging students prone to snogging and punching and, oh god, not musical date asking tried their best to intervene. Wait, no... this was just babysitting. He had to remind himself that he wasn't actually attending the ball- just chaperoning it. Surprisingly enough, this concept actually brought down his nerves. After this partcular morning, which had proved to be both aggravating and humorous, he had stowed himself in a good vat of whiskey and reading and now that he was sobered up and a good deal more intelligent, he was actually pretty calm again. Aside from the ebb of nervousness eating at the insides of his brains.

He adjusted the bowtie on his favorite suit. It was more formal than he normally wore, obviously, but not that far of a stretch from his casual clothing either. Even though he was a bit of a mess at times, he couldn't remember the last time he'd simply gone out wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans or something of the sort. He rather liked feeling dapper in his attire; it was one the things he felt he could do particularly well. Yes, he looked good. He had this in the bag. There was absolutely nothing to be worried about. He leveled eyes with himself in the mirror, a big frown spreading across his chin as his pep talk did little to nothing to calm his nerves.

He shook his head and left his reflection to itself, exiting his room and slinking down the hallway. He could use a walk and he might as well go on over to the ball now. He had never been one to be fashionably late, but rather awkwardly punctual. As he strode over to his destination, he caught glimpse of precisely the woman who'd been on his mind, ravished in gold and casually strolling like a petal fluttering to the ground. He immediately slowed his pace so as not to seem hurried and cleared his throat, eyes taking her in as he felt a surge of relief wash over him like the ocean lapping at the sand. He treaded closer to her and called out from a few yards away, "You look beautiful." And he meant it, too. Any anxiety he'd felt had vanished the moment she was around- silly how a proud man could get himself into a fuss about nothing. He smirked where he wanted to smile, but no good lady revealed all of her playing cards at once. And if Boone was anything, it was a good lady. Wait, what?

---

Nova was positively radioactive this evening, a burning ball of celestial jubilance that couldn't be snuffed out even if a worm hole tried sucking him in. Okay, that may have been a bit of a stretch. He may have been excited for the ball, but even he wasn't invincible against tears in space and time. He had on a suit that was actually somewhat silly, but he was proud of it nonetheless. Though his oxford clad feet couldn't sit still, it was purely out of anticipation. The pant legs were shorter and revealed his ornate socks, and he was quite fond of his suspenders and bowtie. There was fancy gold buttons on the cuffs of his sleeves and a fancy watch clung to his wrist - it was all about the little things with Nova. With a mind like his, attention to detail was key.

He busteld around here and there like some sort of caffeneited puppy, not doing much more than running around his rooming area without a purpose in sight. Finally, he stopped - he had to kind of force his feet to be still for a second- and remember what it was he needed to actually do. He'd spent weeks preparing and yet he still felt like he had no clue what was going on. Okay, okay, he should go meet up with Peter. Yes, he'd do that. He would find Peter and ask him about his plans for the ball. If he said that he wasn't going, Nova would obviously persuade him otherwise because nonattendance was simply not an option. He smiled, made sure his phone was in his pocket, and then scurried out his door.

If he didn't have such a linear mind, Nova would have thought about a number of other things- he'd have thought of Lukas and whether he had ended up going out after all- of Cale and whether the boy decided not to be as reclusive as usual - of Phoebe and any date related problems she may have had. But, Nova Tricon had an extremely linear mind, one of those trains of thoughts that just plummeted through in one direction at a time. It could jump from topic to topic rather well, but when he was hell bent on a single mission, other obstacles tended to get plowed down in the process. He may have been brilliant but he was certainly not conventional. He focused so precisely on one topic- obsessed over every single tiny thing about said topic- that the others faded into the background. It was a strength and a weakness. If he were to open up his brain to all the possiblities, he'd have probably exploded into a million pieces. One boy simply could not have that much information streaming in like that.

So, he simply walked (or, rather, sprinted, as he was extremely excited) over to Peter's room and knocked at the door, several raps in a quick succession. It was his typical knock, rather distinguishable, and surely Peter would have been expecting him anyway. Truthfully, nothing of the sort had been planned but Nova had a terrible habit of assuming things like this and Peter would probably be used to such actions by now. "Hey, Petey. Peter. Pete, it's me. Peter, it's Nova." he called from outside the door as if the other wouldn't have been able to guess it already. The ball was still hours away, yet here he was like an incessant bee buzzing around outside the poor lad's room.

---

Poppy sat criss cross applesauce on the carpet in her room's floor, leaning back breezily onto the palms of her hands as she grinned up at the bearded man before her. She and Fion had spent most of the day paling around like a bunch of kids, but that really shouldn't have surprised anyone because they were more like children than some of the students sometimes, and it had all ended very conveniently for Poppy as Indian cuisine in her own home with company to boot. She wiggled her toes and stretched like a cat, a big yawn bubbling up from the pit of her chest and pouring from her mouth. It'd been at least a couple days without sleep now, and when it got to be this stage, pretty much everything felt like she were dreaming instead of waking. No, that wasn't quite right, either. It was more like a mixture of both, and while it'd been miserable to deal with as a child, she'd somehow managed to revel in the feeling now.

Of course, she didn't voice these ponderings, simply because Poppy Krass rarely ever did. "You and my stomach have got to be best friends by now, Fion." she said, a little comment thorown out to show her appreciation for his culinary generosity. She dabbed a bite to eat before she cracked her neck and checked the clock on the wall. "It looks like it's about time to prepare for the ball. Baby sitting and puppy guarding aren't things to put off. Think of all the unsat babes and helpless pups." she said, mostly to humor herself- she was a frequent abuser of self indulgence. Yet she decided she'd much rather peck at her food and chat as she got ready, and took another bite. She rocked up to her feet in one fluid bounce before trailing lightly to the bathroom where her dress was already waiting. It was something her mother had sent her a long, long, long time ago- no doubtably taking up a full two weeks pay checks. The woman had long since forgotten the meaning of frugality. She'd never really had an occassion to wear to 'til now, either. She suppressed a sigh though she really did love the woman as she quickly zipped it up before returning back out in a remarkable amount of time, her hair remained in its sloppy bun and her feet remained in her cowboy boots, face makeup less. Now decked out in a fancy gown, she plopped back down in her place and picked up another bite.

She spoke while she chewed. "I know I was makin' fun of you earlier for it, but I've never been one for this sort of thing, myself." she admitted, referring to the upcoming dance. While it wouldn't seem like a big deal, it was actually quite a morsel of information she'd tossed out- a blantant and honest self reflection offered to another person. She didn't bother to explain herself, but rather hopped back up and dabbled her face with makeup, drawing her hair back easily as well. "You got a date?" she asked, though she could probably guess the answer. When you worked at the academy like this, your selection was rather limited. It would have been rude not to ask, though. She ripped off her cowboy boots and pawed about the room searching for anything heel-ey or strap-ey or just not ridiculous. Ridiculous was a good word for times like these, in her brain, call her biased or not. She had a tendency of rejecting things that called for uniformity and caked on grandeur. It was like watching a sea of cloned peacocks bobbing about, trying to impress one another with things that didn't matter, all moves feigned and faked. Her mind wandered to Gabe, picturing him all dolled up and beaming, his easy smile spreading on his lips as if things like dances and formal get togethers were actually enjoyable. Who knew? Maybe they actually were for the man. She wished she had a tenth of his optimism, a dull dread throbbing in her chest as she thought about attending this. She let out this feeling in a sigh, remembering that when you're adult, sometimes you simply must do things you don't wish to, and that was that.

"Hey, you supplied the recipes. I only helped you cook…" He chuckled, humming contently and licking his fingers clean. The food was indeed good. He had eaten probably the equivalent of three plates of Poppy's portion, but they still had a good amount left. Ah well. Leftovers. Fion chewed on another paratha, watching Poppy nibble with a faint smile. He sighed, following her gaze to the wall. "Pups and babies? Hah!" Fion laughed, standing as she skipped off and gathering the empty dishes. He liked spending time with Poppy, it was as easy as breathing. "They're far from helpless…" A fond smile crept onto his lips as he recalled some of the "incidents" that had occurred over the years. Teenagers in general had no concept of restraint. Couple that with the potency of Demigod-strength hormones and power misconduct and some real damage could be done. Basically; it was their job to make sure the school was kept standing when any school function required a large group of Olympian students to co-exist in the same room for a few hours. Easier said than done…

She popped back out of her bathroom, Fion just coming out of the small kitchen to grab the rest of the plates. "Wow…" He whistled, eying over her dress. Then gave her a cheeky smile when he saw her purple boots were still attached to her feet. "Sometimes I get jealous I'm not a lady… You dames get to wear such pretty clothes." He laughed, picturing himself in a dress, then stopped. Eugh. He actually had to purchase another tux at the end of last year due to his old one getting ruined during the spring ball. If he remembered correctly… Someone set him on fire. Which was another thing; it was unexpected to have the school host a ball so early in the year. There must have been some reason behind the decision…

"I know I was makin' fun of you earlier for it, but I've never been one for this sort of thing, myself." "Hm?" Fion looked over at her, stretched out comfortably with a pensive look on her face. He couldn't really comprehend why she would say that. Then again, he had always been a social person himself… Perhaps it's the dancing? Was she shy? He thought it over as he washed the dishes. Poppy didn't do the ordinary, the mundane. Teachers were asked to do this every year, but it was optional when enough signed up… did she perhaps have bad experiences in the past? Fion frowned, scrubbing off the curry and yogurt from their plates. Perhaps it was just the atmosphere that attending a "ball" brought. Ms. Poppy was a free soul, and not all too formal… He smiled, an idea forming. Perhaps she just had the wrong partner...


"You got a date?" He heard her ask from the other room, jumping slightly in surprise, Fion raised a brow. Could she read minds too? "Actually, Miss…" He said finishing up and stacking the last of the silverware in the drainer, "I was going to ask if you-" He pivoted and stopped mid-sentence, eyes widening. "Uh.." Fion said dumbly, blinking. He was faintly aware of his mind yelling at him to pull it together and stop gawking like an idiot. It wasn't like he had never seen her dress up… Okay, so he'd never seen her dress up. Luckily she seemed to be searching for some heels, and was spared the retarded look that came over his features. She'd probably have smacked him. Fion watched her look through some shoes; he'd never understand why women wore those things, other than to be taller… How were you supposed to run in them? They looked really uncomfortable… He should really finish that sentence now…

"Would you allow me to take you as my date?" He asked hesitantly, then immediately wanted to run his hand heavily down his face for sounding so formal. He resisted the urge, instead busying his hands by packing away the excess food and waited on her reply. Why was he nervous? They'd been friends for years… Was it because he hadn't asked a woman to a formal since his senior year? Or something else?

Fion had begun a sentence that was easy to figure out the end to, but then had stopped halfway through. Had a cat gotten his tongue? She stopped what she was doing, standing up with the heels in one of her hands and looked at him with those knowing coal eyes, a pensive smile meeting her features. She was merely waiting for the obligatory words- ushering them out with that blank gaze. "Would you allow me to take you as my date?" he had said and Poppy quirked an eyebrow at the phrasing. What, no "RAH HAHAHA" or speak of monsters? It was like that for a while, her scrutinizing him from across the room before her blank expresssion cracked to reveal a giggling twenty something year old, scrunching her nose and pawing off formalities. "I don't think I've ever seen you so stoic, Fion. When's the last time you've seen a woman in lipstick?" she taunted, prodding at him like some sort of imp with a pitch fork.

She pranced over to him and suddenly got a very serious expression though it was clearly a sarcastic front. She grabbed him by a tuft of his beard and forced his head downward so that they would level eyes, almost like a mother scolding a child only entirely more silly. From this angle and the placement of his head, she got a fine view of an involuntary double chin that made her want to laugh again but she kept it silent for a bit, a lot to do with the fact that it was very fun to watch Fion wiggle. Finally she spoke up. "I will go as your date but only if you never ever use that tone of voice with me again, you hear me, mister?" she chided before immediately letting go and going back to the dresser. It didn't suit Mr. Atreus to be nervous.

Well, now she wouldn't be going alone, and that was a plus. This hadn't been what she'd planned, but Fion was always dependable and curteous like that. He probably wouldn't have been able to sleep a wink at night if he knew that some damsel in distress was attending the ball by herself. Of course, Poppy wasn't a damsel in distress. She wouldn't call herself the badass female hero, either. Perhaps, she pondered, she was the misunderstood villain.

She turned back around to him. "You need a suit, Fido?"

---

Nova was completely unfazed by Peter's current lack of pants status, aside from a furtive thought of, "Egads! Why in the world isn't Petey ready for the ball yet?" He kept this thought to himself, however, because he was very much so fazed by the fact that his best mate's eye was smudged with dark, pooling colors, like an eclipse on the bright, expressive face of his. He entered the room hesitantly, but with furrowed brows and he kept his eyes honed onto Peter's face the entire time. The other went off searching for something Nova didn't really know about and in a bit had stopped to say, "You look nice, Nova. I like your socks." Nova had forgotten for just a split second that he was supposed to be a very serious, concerned investigaor at the moment so a silly grin flashed onto his face and a peppy "Thanks!" left his mouth before he had the chance to push it back into the depths of his brain. His expression switched instantly back to his pseudo-dark one.

Peter began asking something- he was only half listening, really- but Nova was shuffling over to where the other boy was so that he could stare rudely at his eye. "Peter, what happened?" he asked, disapproval marring his voice. Who had done this? Before anyone could tell him how stupid of a thing this was to do, his mechanic hands were already on Peter's face, prodding softly at the bruise as he inspected it. He even went so far as to forcefully open Peter's eye (he wanted to see if any damage had been done to the actual eye itself). "Tch," he clicked his teeth at the mark, though a sympathetic frown formed on his lips. Again, he wondered who'd have injured him in such a crude manner. Nova was oblivious to how many people truly disliked Peter Mahony, let alone how instigative the brown haired lad really was, so as he racked his brain for potential culprits, he can empty handed. He was examining it like he would have a machine, which meant he had forgotten that bruises actually hurt people.

Then, he remembered, and his hands flew to his side. "Ah, uh... Sorry! Hi, Peter. Sorry." he said, folding his arms behind his back so they couldn't do anymore damage. His very being oozed apology. He tried to remember what it was that Peter had asked him before he began to poke wounds, and vaguely recalled it. "Oh, um, I was over here to see if you were going to the ball. I don't have a date to fuss over so I thought I'd make sure you were all ready to go-" he explained, inadvertedly answering a question he hadn't even heard. He squinted his eyes in fake scorn though a smile remained on his lips to add, "which you're not." He sighed, leaning back on the counter. "It's good that you're going, though. Who're you taking?" he asked innocently, no hidden meanings behind his words. Nova rarely had hidden anythings.