Laera and Charlie Go To School [Charlie]

[Alvin]

Laera dragged the daughter of Aphrodite down the street towards The Roselyn Blythe Academy.
"C'mon, Charlie, you're not getting out of this that easily," she said, glancing back and giving the girl a stern, annoyed look. The other demigod had made it clear she did not want to be here, but Laera wasn't letting her off the hook. Education was important, after all. Just because her dad was a lowlife didn't mean she had to be. She turned to face forward again, lifting her chin.
They walked through the school gates and up towards the building. Laera recognized a few faces, waving and smiling to a few of her friends. She didn't stop to chat, though. She wasn't in the mood to deal with whatever stupid little things they were probably talking about at the moment. She had a tour to give.
"We need to go to the office first, and get your schedule," she said over her shoulder to Charlie. "I talked to the administration, and you're probably going to be in a number of classes with me, considering I'm the only one you'll know here, and they need to make sure you're not causing havoc all over the place." Laera secretly felt a little proud knowing that they were counting on her to watch the new problem child at the private school. It might've been because it was her fault that Charlie was going to be at this school at all, but either way, Laera liked the responsibility. Charlie would also have to check in with her counsellor every day, due to her being a "troubled youth" or whatever. But Laera didn't tell her that. She'd find out later. When they were inside. And she couldn't run.

[Charlie L]

Charlie didn't like school much.

Despite what most people would think it was not the fact that there was difficult work, or because of classes and homework. The blonde hadn't had good experiences with it in the past, and despite the amount of wealthy suckers that were around at the private school having to deal with people had always been grating on her nerves. Specifically dealing with morons who made certain assumptions based on her appearance.

She hadn't been to a real school in years, and even then had mostly been homeschooled by her father.

Then there was the whole demigod thing to worry about, really Charlie didn't like the idea of being outside of camp like this even if the camp had set up theiir weird network thing. Despite the amount of training she had received over the years, Charlie was NOT a fighter. There was also the fact the school seemed to brand her as a problem child, probably due to both her father's identity and the fact she'd technically run away from her previous school. As well as her slightly questionable upbringing.

"For the record, this is still a terrible idea." Charlie complained halfheartedly. She knew it likely was useless to do so, though she had to wonder how exactly Laera had convinced her to go along with the idea of returning to school in the first place. She glanced in the other girl's direction before turning her gaze away when Laera's attention returned to her.

"I guess I'll give it a try...and I do NOT cause havoc!"  Charlie exclaimed. Tony was the one who caused mayhem, she just profited from it.
Still the idea of sharing classes with Laera actually was appealing to the child of Aphrodite, not that the other demigod needed to know that.

[Alvin]

Laera sighed a little when Charlie halfheartedly attempted to object to going to school again. Sure, she should probably feel bad about forcing the girl to come here. But it was for her own good.
She rolled her eyes when the other girl insisted that she didn't cause havoc. "Yeah, alright, just don't trick everyone into giving you their money and everything," she told her with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I'm pretty sure the school wouldn't like that."
"Laera!"
Laera stopped at the sound of her name, and turned to see her friend Aria scurrying up to them.
"Laera, it's soo nice to see you!" Aria gushed, excitedly grabbing the daughter of Plutus's hands and bouncing up and down a little.
"Hi, Aria!" Laera replied with similar enthusiasm, though she was mostly faking it. Not that she didn't like Aria, she just wasn't in that sort of mood. But of course, she always had a reputation to uphold, so she had to act upbeat and friendly as much as she could. "How's it going? How was that vacation?" Aria had told her where she was going before the break had started, but for the life of her she could not remember. She kind of had other things to worry about.
Aria brightened up and started babbling about her parents taking her to Sweden. Laera listened for the most part, reacting appropriately as the story demanded. She remembered that Charlie was there, and tried not to let any exasperation show on her face when she started thinking of how they should probably get going. She didn't have time for a detailed report on Aria's trips. You asked the wrong question, Laera.
Apparently she had accidentally thrown her gaze over to the short demigod when she was reminded of her presence, as Aria's eyes cut to Charlie's direction too.
"Ohhh, who's this?" Aria smiled, puzzled, at the unfamiliar girl. "Are you... from the middle school? I thought the freshman orientation wasn't til, like, a lot later."
Laera's pleasant expression dropped and she instantly reached out to put a hand on Charlie's arm. She knew from experience (painful, personal experience) that the girl got rather sensitive about how much younger she looked.
"Or are you looking for the daycare?" Aria continued. "It's over there." She pointed.
"No, she's with me," Laera clarified.
"... Oh! Uh, is she your... little sister?" Aria grinned. "Or are you taking my suggestion and starting a babysitter business?"

[Charlie L]

"Fine, I'll only take most of their money" Charlie answered with a mischievous smirk before Laera's friend showed up.
Charlie felt an annoyed twitch beginning to form at Laera's seemingly excitable friend, and a spike of jealousy to some extent over how close the two seemed to be. Despite this she could tell that Laera wasn't really interested in talking to the other girl at least not at the moment.
Then the taller girl noticed her and Charlie felt the twitch intensifying when the taller girl seemed to mistake her for a middle schooler. Then came the other comments and Charlie found herself repeatedly clenching her fist in irritation.
Laera seemed to prempt any sort of violence and placed a hand on the Daughter of Aphrodite's arm. Charlie managed to calm down enough to rationalize that acting in her usual manner with such comments, meaning hitting the offender, was NOT a good idea on the first day of school.
So instead the childlike blonde decided to try to remain nonviolent, though there was no hiding her irritation at the moment.
"I'm Fifteen." Charlie growled out. Why had she agreed to this again?

[Alvin]

Laera had rolled her eyes at Charlie's quip, but said nothing.
The girl, her hand on Charlie's arm, felt Charlie twitch a little, probably trying hard to hold back her anger. She waited, involuntarily holding her breath for a few tense moments. When Charlie told Aria her actual age, the mortal girl's eyes widened. She looked at Laera, back at Charlie, then back at Laera.
"Ohmygod, really?" she asked her friend in a hushed tone.
Laera nodded. "Yeah, she is."
Aria broke out into a grin. "Ohmygod! You're like Thomas Brodie-Sangster!" She laughed. "You are so cute, though. What's your name?" Her friend stuck her hand out to Charlie. "I'm Aria."
Laera discreetly checked her watch. Well, they still had a few minutes before the first bell. This better not take too long. Aria had a tendency to run her mouth quite a bit.

[Charlie L]

Charlie let out a breath of exasperation at the mortal girl's reaction, but wasn't as irritated by it considering the fact she was more or less used to it.
It was still annoying to the blonde, but considering her siblings at camp, it was behavior she had long since gotten used to, so much so she had more or less resigned herself to it and so the other girl's behavior didn't evoke as much of a violent reaction.

All in all Charlie decided to let the cute comment slide without being too annoyed by it. So she grudgingly took the other girl's hand.
"I'm Charlie." Charlie realized that she still needed to get to the office, and figured using it as an excuse would at least allow her to get out of any conversation with the mortal girl.
"and I kind of need to get to the office now so..."

[Alvin]

"Ooooh!" Aria squealed. "I can take you there!"
"It's okay, Aria," Laera interrupted. "I can escort her."
"Oh, I'll come along," the girl said amicably, waving a dismissive hand.
Well. No point in arguing then. The girl was rather dense, and persistent. "Well, alright."
The three of them walked into the school and up to the office, Laera a few steps ahead while Aria walked alongside Charlie, apparently intent on getting to know the new girl a little bit more.
"Sooo, welcome to Roselyn Blythe, what brings you to our school?"
Laera rolled her eyes. It's like she's never met a new student before. She never understood how Aria did it, always seeming to be genuinely interested in every little unimportant detail about other people's lives. Who really cared why? When the occasional new student dropped in, Laera didn't ever ask. No one did. The answer was probably boring, and didn't make any difference in her life. How many reasons could there be for going to a particular boarding school, anyway?
She tuned out Aria's chattering and focused on leading the way to the office. Aria didn't have the same classes as her (which was lucky, as Laera never would've gotten any work done sitting next to her), so the sooner they got there, the sooner they could send her off. Aria was cool and everything, she always had the best gossip, but Laera could only handle so much of her. She hoped Charlie could keep from getting too annoyed.

[Charlie L]

"It's...complicated." Charlie answered, deciding not to mention the fact she had been coerced, and would rather not be present at all. Overall the blonde didn't find Aria too annoying, aside from any comments about her "cuteness" which didn't come up too often. Of course considering her best friend was Tony, and the personalities of some of her cabin mates it really was easy for Charlie to tune mindless chatter out.

Still the daughter of Aphrodite did pay enough attention to the other girl to give replies to numerous questions that she was asked. The girl seemed a bit dense, and while Charlie was still a bit irritated about the earlier misunderstanding involving her age, the girl seemed to be rather on the dense side, so Charlie didn't feel she could really hold it against her. Getting to the office didn't take too long however and soon the two were able to leave Aria, who had gotten a text or something outside.
The receptionist gave her a glance before goinng back to looking disinterested. "The Middle school campus is in the other direction." Charlie feltt the annoyed twitch return, and immediately corrected the woman. She managed to get her schedule but then the receptionist mentioned something else. Specifically something about a counselor, and apparently expected Charlie to know what she meant. The blonde glared at Laera briefly but pretended to know what this counselor had to do with her and finished with their business in the office first.
The two made it just outside the office and into the hallway before Charlie resumed glaring at the other demigod, and was determined to get answers about this.
"What is this about seeing a counselor?" She asked in an obviously annoyed tone of voice.

[Alvin]

Laera sighed. Great, now it was time for the talk. "The school knows about your father, his criminal record, and the... questionable upbringing he gave you. Not to mention the fact that you ran away last time you were at a boarding school. They want you to check in with your counsellor every morning just to make sure you're... adjusting well," she explained, watching Charlie's expression cautiously. The glare on the other demigod's face made her feel a little guilty, and a little worried that she was legitimately upset or mad or something.

[Charlie L]

"I figured out that part, what I want to know is why I'm only hearing about this now!" Charlie growled out.
She honestly had to wonder how she hadn't picked up on the fact that Laera had been keeping that from her. Though the demigod had suspected as much, given that she had been aware that they had known about all of that information. Charlie took a moment to calm down, despite the fact that she felt rather insulted. The school treating her like a she would expect a certain hermes cabin member to be treated was bad enough.
Of course she did manage to suppress the hurt feeling when it came to the fact Laera hadn't had enough faith in her to tell her before.
"Let's just go to class." Charlie said turning away from the other demigod.

[Alvin]

Laera felt another stab of guilt, and was a bit hurt by Charlie's aggressive tone. Alright, yeah, she probably should've told her earlier... "I wasn't sure how you were going to react," she half mumbled. "'Cause, you know... I didn't think you'd like that." It was reasonable, considering Laera herself definitely wouldn't have enjoyed having to check in with an adult every day like she were some sort of delinquent.
The shorter demigod turned away, which made Laera feel even more guilty about the situation. She hesitated, then hurried after the girl.
"I'm sorry," she offered, her voice uncertain. She really hated apologizing. Wasn't taking the high road supposed to make people feel better?  Because Laera just felt bad. "...I should've told you earlier," she added, having a bit of trouble getting the words out. Probably because she wasn't used to admitting any wrongdoing. She felt really weird about it, for whatever reason... kind of vulnerable, considering she was not sure at all of how Charlie was going to take it. Yeah. I really hate apologizing.

[Charlie L]

Charlie had expected Laera to attempt to justify herself, so she was understandably caught off-guard.
An apology from Laera was unusual to say the least, Charlie honestly couldn't recall many times that the rich girl had ever really apologized for anything and it sounded like she meant it.
After a moment Charlie sighed, figuring it wasn't really worth getting too angry over. Besides this was a side of Laera she didn't see often and she found she couldn't really feel that angry with Laera either, It would be too much like kicking a puppy.
"It's fine, it isn't that big of a deal..."

[Alvin]

The weight was lifted from Laera's shoulders when Charlie let out a sigh and forgave her. She stayed silent though, still a bit cautious and not sure what to say after that. Luckily, she was spared from having to come up with conversation when they arrived at their classroom.
The teacher, Ms. Dunne, looked up and smiled at them.
"Hello, Laera!" she greeted her. "It's nice to see you, how are you doing?"
"I'm fine," she replied, offering a smile. Ms. Dunne was one of the much nicer teachers at Roselyn Blythe, and everyone liked being in her class. Laera found Math to be a boring subject, but Ms. Dunne made it a bit more bearable.
"And you," Ms. Dunne said, pointing her pen in Charlie's direction, "are a new face to me." She glanced down at her attendance sheet. "What's your name?"
Other students were filing in now, and Laera frowned. She wanted to get good seats, and make sure that she and Charlie would be able to sit together. So as soon as Charlie answered Ms. Dunne's question and the math teacher introduced herself, welcoming Charlie to the school, the rich girl dragged her friend off to sit down.
"So, what do you think?" she asked. "Nice, isn't she?" With her as the math teacher, Laera hoped that Charlie's aversion to being here would soften up a little.

[Charlie L]

Charlie watched the interaction, relieved that something had happened to relieve the awkward silence that had fallen between the herself and Laera.
The teacher seemed nice, but Charlie wasn't the type of person to believe in first impressions so much, still the fact Laera had actually smiled did help to tell her that the woman was probably friendly.
"Charlie Gavin." She answered. The teacher raised an eyebrow before checking a seemingly random notebook."So I'm guessing you prefer Charlie to-" "Yes." Charlie cut in before her full first name could be said. The blonde never felt that her full first name really fit her, and wasn't really comfortable with it. The teacher seemed to make a note of this.
Before any more interaction could take place Charlie was dragged off to find seats. She was reluctant to answer Laera's question, but figured that it would likely be too much trouble to avoid the question.
"She seemed nice." Charlie conceded.

[Alvin]

Laera smiled, pleased that Charlie agreed. She opened her notebook and started rummaging through her pencil case for her favorite pen.
"Um, excuse me."
Hearing the familiar voice, Laera whirled around in her chair. "Kenna!"
Makenna Calderoth was one of Laera's closest friends at school, and Laera couldn't help but brighten up at the sight of her. She grinned at her in greeting.
Kenna returned the smirk briefly, before turning her eyes back to Charlie, who she had been apparently talking to. A expression of distaste was on her face. "That's my seat, squirt."
Laera stiffened slightly. "Um, you can sit here," she offered, gesturing to the empty seat on her other side.
Kenna kept her eyes on the shorter demigod. "I want this seat."

[Charlie L]

Charlie looked up when thee random person spoke up, and raised an eyebrow at the girl's initial claim of her seat. The girl, Kenna was a pale girl with curly brown hair, she seemed to be a bit taller than Laera, and was apparently friends with the demigod.
Laera's friend or not, Charlie wasn't going to do the girl any favors, at least not for free.
"And just what is it worth to you?" Charlie asked with a mercenary look in her eye.
Kenna responded with a sneer. "Just get out of my seat. I want to sit with my friend here."
Charlie raised an eyebrow, partly disappointed that the other girl hadn't simply paid her to move, but decided that therre was no reason for her to move, after all the girl had given Charlie no real reason to move.
"That sounds like your problem, not mine." She snarked in a disinterested tone.
"Can you believe this girl Lae?" Kenna asked the other girl indignantly. Charlie was reminded of when she had first met Laera, this girl acted much like the rich girl had back then. Though Charlie didn't find the girl's behavior endearing like she did Laera's, nor did she find it as tolerable.

[Alvin]

Oh, gods. Laera shifted uncomfortably in her seat as her two friends interacted. This was not going very well.
"Um..." Laera cleared her throat. "Kenna, meet my friend Charlie," she said awkwardly.
One of Kenna's eyebrows went up. "You know her?" Her eyes went to Charlie with a scoff. "No wonder," she muttered, but the explanation didn't seem to ease her mood any.
"Come sit on this side," Laera told her, eagerly gesturing to the empty seat.
Kenna did so, but not without giving Laera's shorter friend the stink-eye. Laera pressed her lips together. She really hoped this wouldn't be a problem.

*timeskip*

"Alright, there's a minute til the bell rings, go ahead and start packing up," Ms. Dunne said, smiling at the class. "Try to get the first three questions done on the worksheet for tomorrow, alright?"
Sounds of rustling paper and chatter filled the classroom as everyone began putting away their worksheets and pencils, standing up, and filing towards the door. Laera put away her own sheet and quickly checked her schedule before closing up her math binder and stood to stretch.
"So, is your mom still making you go to that stupid summer camp?" asked Kenna.
"Oh my god, yes," Laera said. "It's so lame. They've got the tackiest orange shirts--but I told you that already, it's just so--" She shuddered, making a face. With a short huff, she stacked her pencil case on top of her binder. "Luckily though, there are some cool people there, so it's not a total bore."
"Ugh, that's a relief. Any hot guys?"
Laera laughed a little. "Maybe." She looked over at Charlie. "First class, not too bad, right?"
Before Charlie had the time to respond, Kenna cut in again. "Maybe means yes." Laera glanced at her. "You should totally introduce me," the girl added.
Laera smirked. "Sure. Maybe later. I'll get their numbers for you."
She was about to turn back to Charlie, but Kenna continued, "And their pictures, you know how our ideas of 'hot' differ sometimes." She laughed lightly. "Remember when you dated Jordan Post?"
Laera made a face. "Ugh. No one wants to remember that."
Kenna grinned. "Yeah, your taste in men is weird sometimes."
The bell rang.
"Well, time to go." Laera moved aside and pushed her chair in, saying, "C'mon, Charlie, your next class is..." She leaned over to check Charlie's schedule. "Good. English. With me." She looked back at Kenna. "What do you have next?"
"Socials with Mr. Schindler." Kenna didn't seem too happy about that, which was understandable. Mr. Schindler was one of the stricter teachers.
"I'll see you at lunch, then." Laera waved to her before leading the way out of the classroom. Once in the hallway, she waited a moment for Charlie to catch up so the other demigod could walk alongside her.

[Charlie L]

Charlie had largely found the class a bit too easy, though math had always been her best subject.
She wondered if she was one of the "cool people" that Laera was referring to, she really hoped she fell into that category but her mind was taken off that particular subject when Laera's friend mentioned guys.
The conversation was a bit heartbreaking to the daughter of Aphrodite, given her feelings for the taller girl. But she managed to hide any semblance of her true feelings about the matter behind a wall of denial and indifference. For some reason the method didn't make her feel any better, though years of learning to grift and con did allow the blonde to hide her feelings well.
She could tell that the mortal girl was purposely trying to keep Laera's attention, the periodic glares throughout class had already tipped off the observant blonde to the fact that Kenna didn't seem to like her.
She blushed when Laera leaned in to check her schedule, mostly due to their proximity, but managed to hide it from the other demigod. she took a moment to regain her composure before following the daughter of Plutus to their next class.

[Alvin]

After English class, Laera led Charlie down to the mess hall.
"Don't get the lemonade, it's just powder," she informed her friend, wrinkling her nose. "And the sandwich bread is too dry, so don't get that either."
They got into the line and got their lunches, then sat down at one of the tables. After a few minutes of eating in silence, Laera glanced at Charlie, hesitated, then said, "...I hope you don't mind Kenna. She just likes getting her way... And she's not really used to new people. She's really great when you get to know her, though."

[Charlie L]

Charlie shrugged but went with Laera's advice on what food to get, since she had learned the girl actually did have rather good taste. Something Charlie attributed to the girl's rather privileged upbringing.
She raised an eyebrow when Laera brought up Kenna, and while she felt Laera probably didn't really notice the underlying hostility that the mortal girl seemed to have towards her.
"She's an entitled brat." Charlie stated, though admittedly that had been her first impression of Laera too. Charlie let out a sigh, looked like she'd have to be the bigger person anyways. "I guess I can let what happened earlier go though."

[Alvin]

Laera bristled at Charlie's first statement, but when the girl agreed to let it go, she relaxed. Good. That was a relief. Now she could avoid tension between her two closest friends.
"We've got Science next, right?" she half-muttered to herself. She checked Charlie's sheet, nodding when she saw she was right. Her eyes scanned over the teacher's name, and she moved to set the paper down again--wait. She read the schedule again. "Wait..." she mumbled aloud. The teacher written down as Charlie's instructor for the course was not the same as her own. "... I don't think we have science class together," she said slowly. And even worse, she knew which teacher Charlie had. And he was the devil incarnate.

[Charlie L]

*timeskip*

Charlie figured that Laera had been exaggerating about the science teacher, after all considering how freaked out she seemed about them having different classes, the blonde rolled her eyes thinking that Laera, it wasn’t like she was Tony or anything, she didn’t need somebody keeping her in line.
She made it through the door just as the bell rang for the class to begin, and was met with the glaring eyes of a middle aged balding man. “You are late Ms….” He glanced at her and Charlie could already tell he was questioning her age, as it had happened a few times. “Gavin, and I’m not at the wrong school.” She answered preempting the inevitable question.

“hmm right Charlotte, the new troublemaker.” The teacher remarked. “I suppose I should have expected you to be late then, considering your status here.” Charlie raised an eyebrow, though she was annoyed by the use of her real name, as well as the man’s assumptions. Still she didn’t say anything, since Charlie wasn’t stupid enough to argue with a teacher. After all her attendance of the academy was conditional, so it wouldn’t do to get in trouble so early on. “I suggest you try to be on-time from now on, though I suppose I shouldn’t waste my breath, troublemakers like you rarely stay in this school for long.”
This was going to be a long class.

[Alvin]

Laera kept glancing at the clock.
She was sitting in Science class with Aria and Kenna, and while she probably should've been listening to what her teacher was saying, or at least what her friends were saying, she was mostly worrying about Charlie.
Nobody liked Mr. Merrick. He was notorious throughout the school for being rude, harsh, and overall a very unhelpful 'teacher.' She wasn't sure why he even still had a job here, considering the way he treated students. Laera couldn't even imagine what could be going down as she sat there in boredom as Mrs. Piccoli lectured them on plant cells.
"Laera? Laera."
The girl was shook out of her thoughts by the repetitive sound of her name. Kenna was looking at her as if she were crazy, or had suddenly gotten a zit. Aria tilted her head, giving her a curious look. Well. Awkward.
"Um, yeah?" she asked as nonchalantly as possible.
"You're being a little spacey," said Kenna, still wary. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Laera reassured her, flicking a dismissive hand with a little laugh.
"Ms. Alvin, you have a question?"
Laera froze as Mrs. Piccoli called on her. "Um, no."
"Hmm."
She tried not to turn red as her classmates looked at her, a few of them giggling. Mrs. Piccoli gave her a look, then continued talking.
"So, I told him, 'you're completely out of your mind if you think I'd ever go out with the likes of you,' and he just gave me this wounded puppy look and I had to try so hard not to laugh," whispered Kenna, laughing under her breath. "It was so pathetic."
"Ohmygod, talk about sad." Aria shook her head. "How do you even put up with that stuff?"
Laera glanced aside. Hopefully the midget wouldn't end up getting herself expelled or something.

[Charlie L]

Charlie's eyebrow twitched when the instructor again decided to call on her despite the fact she not only hadn't been in class at all throughout the year. Nor had she had any real science classes in several years.

She was under no illusions that the teacher was doing it unknowingly either, the fact science had never really been her best subject either, considering she didn't really see a need for it. After all she had more or less grown up learning the skills she would need mostly to continue her father's legacy. An idea she had never really questioned until lately, mostly due to Laera's influence.

She could tell that the teacher, Mr. Merrick was trying to bait her, or looking for a way to get her expelled. The fact he had refused to call her Charlie when referring to her by first name was another part of the class that was trying her patience. It seemed the fact her father was a criminal, as well as the fact she'd run away from her last school was enough for the balding man to consider her a delinquent.
The fact that the man seemed to be disinterested in actually teaching, aside from randomly questioning the students on their knowledge and having them read from the textbook was another thing that made the class annoyingly boring.

Especially considering that dyslexia was the norm for demigods, and that was no exception for Charlie, so she was struggling more than her pride would normally allow, though she could cover that up well. The fact that Mr. Merrick seemed to watch over his class with an oppressive level of punishment being given for even talking to other students, ranging from essays being assigned to detention, made it so Charlie couldn't even overhear any gossip she might be able to profit from. he whole class was boring, frustrating, and difficult overall.

The class ended at some point and Charlie had to suppressed a sigh of relief at the sound of the bell. Making it just outside the door before she started cursing the middle aged teacher's name under her breath. She considered actually cursing the man, but most of the Aphrodite cabin curses weren't appropriate for this type of situation, nor would she want to use some of them on the teacher.

[Alvin]

As soon as the bell rang, signalling the end of the period, Laera hastily began packing up her things. She hated to admit that she really hadn't paid much attention at all during the lesson, but it was no matter--she could get notes from Kenna and Aria later on.
Speaking of her friends though, she hadn't been listening to them very much either, which she felt pretty guilty about. Especially since they had noticed. She had been too distracted to really converse with them aside from Kenna asking about how she had met Charlie, among a few other questions about the girl and Laera's friendship with her, which Laera tried to answer, skirting around anything to do with demigods or mythology.
She couldn't very well just walk right out of class and ditch her girls though, so she couldn't zip out of there as fast as she wanted to. She bit her lip, impatient as Aria and Kenna gossipped over a girl in a neighbouring dorm room.
A spark of hope hit her when they turned left onto another hallway.
"Um, I'll catch up with you guys, I gotta go to the restroom," she said hurriedly, gesturing in the opposite direction. "See you later!" She dashed off.
Hallway traffic was one of the things Laera wished would just die. She gritted her teeth together in frustration as the girls all shuffled along slowly, crowding in the hallway like sardines. She finally found the shorter blonde, though, and was relieved to find her in one piece.
"Hey!" she said when she reached her. Studying her face, Laera noted that the daughter of Aphrodite didn't look too pleased. She eyed her carefully. "You okay?" She couldn't imagine what kind of things had happened in Merrick's classroom. Back when she had a class with him, he always looked at her--and the entire class, for that matter--with a bit of a condescending sneer. She still remember the time he blatantly told the class that all they knew how to do was gossip and do makeup, and he seemed to consider his students painstakingly dumb just because they were rich girls. Sure, maybe Laera and her friends did tend to talk often in class, but that didn't mean it was okay for him to do that. Kenna always turned up her nose and said it was just because his wife left him for a homeless guy, and that he felt threatened and inferior because there were like only five male teachers or something at the school.

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