Finding Athena

Why I Now Hate Mondays.

"Oh my God Tory, where were you this weekend? You missed Greg's 18th!" Were the first words my best friend Ava said to me as I walked into form. The second was "Oh god, you look terrible, did you sleep at all last night?" 

"I was working remember? Rochelle wouldn't let me have another night off. And no, I don't think I did get any sleep last night. I was trying to finish my project plan for Art and watching Troy again. I must've fallen asleep at some point though." 

Ava shot me a sympathetic look "want some concealer?" 

"Nah, I'll be fine. I won't suddenly not have a social standing if I look tired for one day Ave. This isn't high school" 

She put her hands together to look like she was praying and looked up at the ceiling muttering "Thank God" over and over. I giggled, Ava was the least religious person I knew, and tended to avoid going to my house, as she knew that Gran was just going to lecture her about how important religion is, and that we need to believe. I think Ava thinks she's nuts, but I don't care. I love my Gran no matter what.

Even if she is keeping secrets from me...

Everyone keeps secrets, right?

"Hey Tory, we've got Greek Mythology today.... a whole hour of checking out Rob. Yum" 

I sighed. As much as I loved my best friend, she was definitely a man eater. I think she was proud of that too. Rob, however, I have to admit, was gorgeous. A bit too laid back, seeing as he’s re-sitting his AS levels, making him part of our year officially, but gorgeous none the less. Of course, as usual, Rob was way out of mine and Ava's league, but that's never stopped my best friend before. She was dying to have her romantic cliché boyfriend. I on the other hand, was happy to admire Rob from afar. I wasn't unpopular, or a geek, or anything like that, but I knew I didn't want a boyfriend like Rob. The guy was a bit of a flake, and a lot of a player. That type of guy wasn't my type of guy. 

I'd never really had a proper boyfriend before. I seemed to just know that they were the player type, or that they were uncommitted, or that they'd had relationship trouble in the past or whatever. And don't say that I'm just being cynical, because I was always right too. Ava thought it was both cool and not cool, because my "freaky sixth boy sense" only worked on me, and didn't work on Ava's array of colourful dating disasters. I guess it was freaky, but I didn't care. Call me a freak and I'll be proud. 

I put my head on the table. I had a mother of a headache coming on. Got to fucking love sleep deprivation. Ugh. 

"Oh god, Tory, you look horrible. Are you feeling okay? You should've skipped and got some more sleep." 

"Really Ave, I'm fine. It's just a headache." The table muffled my words, but Ava knew what I meant. I never took days off from college. I wanted to get a good education, a good job and make my parents proud from where they were watching. And today I had my bit of research to do, which I was determined to do, so I could demand that Gran told me what the fuck was going on with my dreams and who was coming for me.  

"Tory? Tory. TORY!" Ava yelled in my ear 

"Ow, what the fuck Ave. Headache, remember? No?" I scowled and rubbed my temples.  

"Ah, sorry" she grinned sheepishly "but Rob's outside, topless" her grin turned flirty as she pointed out the window, to where Rob was. 

"Wow. Amazing. Made my fucking day" I told her, sarcastically.  

"Jeez, you're so grumpy when you're sick." 

"I'm not grumpy."  

"So are" Ava said, sticking her tongue out at me