Chapter 1
Eros looked at the brick building in front of him. Clearwater High School. He had left his home almost three years ago, and this was the first lead he’d gotten. So here he was, standing outside a high school in Woodstock, Vermont of all places. Quite different from where he’d started his journey, that was for sure.
Drawing in a breath, Eros straightened his shoulders and walked inside. He looked around a moment before he spotted the main office, heading into it. When the lady behind the front desk didn’t seem to hear him come in, he stood there a minute or two before clearing his throat quietly, and the secretary-- Karen Mikels, according to her name plate-- looked up.
She smiled at him. “Hello. Can I help you?”
“Yes,” Eros said with a smile in return, brushing his hair out of his eyes. “I’m Eros Kokinos, the new student.”
“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Mikels typed something into her computer before rolling her chair back and opening a cabinet drawer. A minute later, she straightened up, handing over a paper with Eros’ schedule on it. “Just wait a moment while I call someone down to escort you.”
Eros nodded and took a seat, setting his backpack on the ground beside him. Mrs. Mikels picked up the phone and dialed in an extension number. “Could Raven Kamine please come down to the office?” A pause. “Raven Kamine to the office please.” She hung up the phone and looked over at Eros. “I’m sure they’ll be here in just a minute.”
Eros nodded again, standing up and lifting his backpack onto his shoulder. “Alright. Thank you.”
About a minute later, Raven rounded the corner, brushing her bangs back from her eyes as she walked into the office, looking at them. “Hello, Mrs. Mikels,” she said politely, smiling at her before looking at the boy. She offered a small wave to him before she looked back at the school’s secretary.
“Is this a new student?” she asked shyly, her cheeks flushing a bit. Her gaze flickered over his form for a moment; he had midnight black hair, brightly colored green-gold eyes, and stood much taller than her at around six feet or so. Raven suddenly felt rather short as she turned her gaze to her feet.
“I’m Eros,” Eros said, his English coming through in a lightly Greek accent, looking at the girl. She was several inches shorter than him with strawberry blonde hair and hazel-colored eyes behind plastic-rimmed glasses that were a swirl of silver, red, and gold. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Your name is Eros? Like… the Greek god of love?”
“Um, yes?” Eros could practically feel the shock on his face. He structured it into a look of hesitancy instead. He’d known that his background was fairly well known, but he didn’t think anyone here would connect it that quickly.
“That’s pretty neat!” Raven looked up at him, a small grin on her lips.
“Thank you?” Maybe she hadn’t connected it then. That would have been rather difficult to explain.
“Oh, I’m Raven.”
“Like the bird?” It was Eros’ turn to grin a little.
“Um, yeah… Like the bird.” Raven rocked back and forth on her toes as she looked up at him.
“Off to class with you, you two,” Mrs. Mikels said a bit sternly, but she had a smile as well. She turned back to her computer, clearly indicating that they needed to get going.
Raven nodded obediently. “Yes, ma’am.”
She gestured for Eros to follow her as she started down the hall, and he jogged a few paces to catch up to her, settling into a comfortable pace beside her. The silence felt a bit awkward, so he decided to try and start a conversation. “So… hi.”
Raven chuckled a bit, looking over at him. “Hello,” she said with another wave. “How are you today?”
“Pretty good, I suppose,” Eros replied, glad she had picked a topic of sorts. He’d come up completely blank, which was unusual. “Still getting used to everything, but I suppose that’s to be expected. How are you?”
Raven gave a half-hearted shrug as she looked at all the classroom doors. “I’m alright,” she responded as she brushed her hair over her shoulders. “What class do you have first?”
Eros looked at his schedule and groaned quietly. “AP English.” He felt like banging his head against the wall. Although it hadn’t been all that hard for him to learn-- what with him being a god and all, English was still a pain. He vastly preferred his native tongue of Greek. Shaking the thoughts aside, he glanced over at Raven. “What about you? I assume you have at least some of the same classes, if you’re supposed to be showing me around and all.”
Raven beamed at him. “Really? I do, too!” She clasped her hands in front of her as she spoke.
“You assume that too, or you have English too?” Eros asked, teasing the girl. Really, she was supposed to be the native speaker here.
Raven rolled her eyes in a playful manner. “I do have English, silly,” she teased him back.
“I was just checking,” Eros laughed. “I wanted to make sure I understood you correctly. Not a native English speaker, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” Raven said, her cheeks blushing again. “I almost forgot.”
“I guess I’m just that good,” Eros said, shrugging a little. “So where’s this class at anyways?”
Raven pointed two doors down. “Right there.”
“Oh…” Eros said. He laughed at himself a moment before looking at Raven. “Well, after you then, Ms. Bird.”
Raven couldn’t help the giggle that passed from her lips. “Thank you… I’ll need to find something to call you now, I suppose.”
“You could always just call me Eros,” Eros suggested as if he were being helpful.
Raven tilted her head as she pretended to think. “I suppose I could… but I won’t… but I could.”
“What does that even mean?” Eros asked, confused. If they had still been around, he would have hunted down the inventors of the English language and curse them to loneliness for eternity. Of course, if they were sitting around inventing a language, they were probably already alone…
Raven shrugged some as she opened the door to the English class. “Here we are.”
“That was very helpful, thank you,” Eros said sarcastically, following her into the room. It seemed the rest of the class was already there. Raven offered a small smile to him as she walked to her seat, pushing her glasses up on her nose as she went.
