athena ➢ sherlock's daughter

Chapter 21

School Restarts, and Old Habits Die Hard

Athena had to start school two days later than everyone else due to her concussion, and that was absolutely horrible. It was bad enough that she had to go back to that hormone-infested social Hunger Games arena. But to start later than everyone else? That was basically suicide. You see, Athena wasn't very well liked at school. There seemed to be a hierarchy within the social system of the school, and she was very close to the bottom. That was because someone very close to the top hated her, Trinity James.

To the normal observer, one may not ever understand why Athena faced the wrath of Trinity James; but to Athena, it was obvious. Athena had a solid 4.5 GPA and was very well liked by all her teachers. Trinity was jealous. That didn't stop the sting of the snide comments and obvious manipulation from Trinity.

So when Athena strolled back into the halls of Avalon High beside Riley, who had his arm slung around her protectively, people immediately started whispering. It took everything within her not to snap at a group of teenagers that didn't understand the concept of whispering.

"Remind me again why I denied going where Uncle Mycroft suggested?" she droned, annoyance settled in her tone.

"Because you would miss your best friend in the whole wide world?" he inquired playfully.

"Or maybe I just didn't want to jeopardize my title as valedictorian," she thought aloud, teasing Riley slightly.

"Alright, I see how it is." He pouted at her slightly until she patted his back.

"Finally, you understand the truth."

The bell rang sharply, and Athena glanced at him. "I've gotta go. See you at lunch."

With that, she turned to the right and headed to first period, her notebook, pencil bag, and novel clutched to her chest as she walked to English Lit. As she walked to class, a footballer called behind her, "Oi! Nerd."

There was a pause where Athena decided what to do. She decided to keep walking.

"Hey! I'm talking to you! Turn 'round!"

She realized that what was happening may cause her physical pain if she didn't turn around. So she turned slowly to him and kept a neutral expression.

A large boy surrounded by a group of smaller boys. Once he began to laugh, they laughed. "Look at 'er. She's my bitch. See boys? My bitch."

Quite frankly, Athena didn't want to deal with this. She was far too busy wallowing in her own self pity for picking a criminal as her almost-boyfriend.

He turned to Athena and frowned. "What's wif that freak dad o' yours, eh?"

"I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean." She was using the tone of voice she always used under distress, blank, monotonous.

"Is he a fake?"

"No, of course not. I understand you merely got that information from your dad, but surely you must know he is not always correct. I've seen Sherlock in action, we've solved cases together," she explained slowly.

"What about them kids, yeah? Them kids tha' he stole to 'ave another case?"

She frowned. Sherlock was keeping things from her while she was bed ridden. Perhaps she should speak with him about it. "He did nothing of the sort. He's been set up."

"I bet you're just like 'im, goin' round, pretending to be some genius. Pretendin' you don' study. I bet you can' even tell me everythin' bout me like your dad says 'e does."