Soul Mates AU (Heroes of Olympus)

The Struggle is REAL

(Frank's POV)

Ah, December!

Today is December 1st, which I would have said was my favorite day if you had asked me yesterday.

Right now, I seem to be in a predicament.

My face is red.

My coat is torn and crumpled.

My formally white shirt is now pink.

My hair is neon green and slimy.

My left index finger is double its normal size.

And I'm really, really cold.

In other words, I look completely ridiculous. Especially since I'm still at school.

You seem confused, yes? Let me back it up a little bit.

                  ******************

7:35 am

I was late.

Light snow floated down from the sky, the first of the year. I would've marveled at it, but I didn't have time.

I burst through the doors of the school, jogging to my locker. I had five minutes until school was going to start, and I still needed to put my coat and backpack into my locker- I had gym for first hour.

Huffing and puffing, I made it to my locker, and threw it open more violently than I had intended.

I stuffed my backpack into the locker, and hung my coat up on the hook. Not noticing that my coat had gotten stuck in the locker hinge, I slammed it shut and bolted down into the gym. I looked at the clock, then groaned loudly.

7:41 am

"ZHANG, YOU'RE TARDY!" Coach Hedge shouted, and everyone turned to look at me.

"AS I WAS SAYING, WE WILL BE PLAYING SHIRTS AND SKINS- AND SINCE MR. ZHANG HERE THOUGHT THAT IT WAS OKAY TO SHOW UP LATE, YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY A SKIN!"

I swallowed my cry of protest, then headed to the locker room to take off my new, white T-shirt. I tossed it into my football locker, then headed back out to see that the teams had already been formed.

I stood with the skins, and took note of who our best (and worst) players were. The other team looked pretty good, so I was a little worried.

Anyway, I'm not going to tell you about the game for two reasons.

1) I'm explaining why I look and feel so ridiculous right now, standing outside of the school with slimy green hair, a torn and crumpled coat a bright pink shirt, a swollen finger, and a red face. This game was not the direct cause of any of that.

2) We lost. Bad. Like, really bad. I'm kind of ashamed. I'd rather not recount it all.

So, to continue my story...

After the brutal beating that we know as "shirts and skins" was finally over, class was dismissed. I went back to the locker room for my shirt, and threw open the door in frustration.