Fiction, Historical Fiction
4 min
The Unseen
Lauren Masiello
The Gods are all around us, only probably not in the way you'd expect. You might expect them to be CEOs of major companies, professional athletes, or having some other form of amazing success.
But no.
They choose to blend in with the children of the world.
Undercover.
The all powerful Greek Gods, as little, insignificant, children.
Great cover story, right? No one would suspect that the Gods would be the kids that walk all around us.
The arrogant Ares loves playing sports with his friends.
The Sea God, Poseidon, surfs in his free time.
Even Zeus, the King of Gods, is fascinated by meteorology and weather patterns.
There are many, many, more we could talk about, but this story focuses on the mighty Athena, and her life as a twelve year old, high school sophomore.
Constantly overlooked by her adoptive parents and teachers, and onto her three triplet siblings. She was made fun of by other kids as a little girl because she liked to play with army figures, because they thought those toys were only for boys. Unaware of her true identity, her peers would call her names like ‘strange', ‘weird', and her favorite of them all, ‘Curve Breaker'.
So now, we're going to look into the life of Athena. The quiet, sassy, gifted Goddess.
~~~
"Thea!" Her adoptive mother called from downstairs. "Come set the table!"
I sighed, and set down the book I was reading. I'd told my mother countless times not to use that nickname, and to use my real name, but to no avail she continued to call me by a nickname.
"Athena Miller!" She called again. "Table! Now!"
"Coming." I groaned in response.
I made my way out of my bedroom, and downstairs into the kitchen, where my siblings were already sitting at the table.
"Why did you call me down to set the table if they're already down here?" I asked, confused.
"They're busy doing homework before you all go to school." She answered.
I raised my eyebrows, and looked back over to where they were sitting to make sure we were watching the same people.
They were all sitting on their phones.
Sigh.
"Whatever." I grumbled, but I still grabbed the silverware, and set the table as my siblings giggled.
My father joined us all in the kitchen, and we all sat down for breakfast before school. The room was filled with conversation, by everyone except me, and I wasn't really paying attention, until something one of my siblings said caught my attention.
"We're imposingly having a substitute in Biology today." She said to my mother.
Wow. Just wow.
"Supposedly." I corrected.
She set down her fork, and looked up at me. "What do you need, Thea?"
"Supposedly." I say again. "Not imposingly."
"That's what I said." She insisted.
"No it isn't." I pressed. "And it's Athena."
The rest of my family sighed, and rolled their eyes at my comment. I shut my mouth, and finished my food in silence. I put my dishes away, grabbed my bag, walked to the bus stop behind my siblings, and rode to school.
No one back home would've treated me like that. I was revered as a Goddess.
Which I am.
Everything I would say was treated as wisdom from Olympus. I'd lead armies into battle, but now I'm walking into high school in the body of a twelve year old.
Groan.
My classes were Chemistry, Latin, Ancient Civilizations, Culinary, and Trigonometry.
All of which went smoothly, except for Ancient Civilizations.
We started learning about Ancient Greece that day.
I consider myself an expert at that topic, and every time the name ‘Athena' was mentioned, a chorus of snickers would erupt from the room.
My teacher was giving a lecture on all of the Gods and Goddesses, which led to him listing all of them.
"There's Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Minerva, Pluto,-" He listed incorrectly.
I quickly raised my hand, and thankfully, he called on me soon after that.
"Those are the Roman Gods and Goddesses." I informed him.
"I don't think so." he disagreed.
"No, they were." I countered. "Jupiter and Juno are the Roman equivalents of Zeus and Hera of Greece. And Mars and Minerva are Ares and Athena."
The snickers from my classmates around me hit my ears.
"Alright. Whatever you say." He conceded.
He continued to name the Roman Gods and Goddesses.
I barely finished the class with a shred of my remaining sanity, and we all went to lunch. My classmates continued to call me names as I left class.
"Weirdo."
"Stuck-up."
"Curve Breaker."
I just pretend I don't hear them.
But as I was walking outside, an enormous crack appeared in the earth.
A large, serpentine man with claws and wings crawled out of the ground, and stood at his full height in front of me.
Typhon.
"Foolish Athena." He boomed. "Thinking you could spend your time here, unnoticed. Undercover."
Screams and shouts from the school flooded out into the courtyard as everyone saw what was happening.
I couldn't waste anymore time.
I used my powers to form my armor, helmet, and spear out of the air.
I couldn't even imagine what that looked like to everyone else in that school. A twelve year old facing a giant serpent, and magically forming weapons couldn't have seemed normal.
This wasn't the first time I've had to battle monsters during school, and have to wipe the memories of everyone after.
Just a normal day in the life of an undercover goddess.
Before I knew it, little Ares, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Hades, Artemis, and Zeus appeared next to me, prepared to fight.
"Let's kick some monster butt!" Ares cried.
Typhon summoned some more of his monsters, making them also crawl out of the earth. Hellhounds, chimeras, even a hydra.
We readied ourselves for battle, gave each other a nod, lowered the visors of our helmets, and charged forward.
Sending ourselves into battle.
This was an entry for a writing contest held in conjunction with Center for Fiction and The Decameron Project
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