Lena found herself having little trouble adjusting to her new life. At least the routine of her new life. She woke up every morning, glancing at her schedule to see what kind of classes she had that day. She found herself enjoying a few of them to her surprise. She wasn't entirely sold on some of them though. The Basics of Archery class, she was absolutely terrible at. Everyone joked that she probably wasn't Apollo's daughter with how bad she was, which suited her just fine.
However, she did find herself enjoying War Strategy as well as Ancient Greek. Particularly Ancient Greek, though not really because she was into the language. It was because she had a friend in the class.
In the first few weeks, Lena did find herself having a difficult time integrating herself into the community. Lena had never been a particularly social person, to begin with, and with a school as small as Demos, all the groups were pretty much already established. There were a few other freshman that had arrived at Demos for the new year, but she never found herself connecting with them either. And although she knew she had a standing invite from Winn to hang out with him, she didn't want to impose. So she pretty much kept to herself. She didn't really mind that too much, but it did get lonely at times.
So after the first couple of weeks, when a senior named Maggie Sawyer started sitting next to her in Ancient Greek, she was pretty happy. Maggie had said that she noticed how Lena always sat alone in the class and wanted to include her. Lena was grateful for her new friend, who she found out was a senior and in a beginning level Ancient Greek class because she kept putting it off.
Today was no different, Maggie plopping herself down next to Lena, pulling out one of their textbooks, waiting for the teacher to arrive. "Hey, Little Luthor." Maggie greeted her young friend. Lena smiled, waving to Maggie. "How much do you want to bet that teach is going to be late today?" Maggie wiggled her eyebrows and Lena chuckled. Maggie was a daughter of Nike, the goddess of victory, and one of the traits that Maggie had obviously adopted from her mom was her love for competition.
"How about, if I'm right, you come sit with me and Alex today at lunch?" Maggie said. The Latina woman was always trying to get Lena to socialize more, but Lena always came up with excuses as to why she couldn't. It wasn't that she didn't like Maggie, just she didn't want to be a burden. But Lena was also not one to back down from a challenge either.
"You're on, Sawyer," Lena said and Maggie pumped her fist.
"Yes! You are going down, Luthor." Maggie teased. Lena just rolled her eyes at her friend's competitiveness. Back home, Lena probably never would have been friends with someone like Maggie, but being at Demos, she learned to enjoy the vast differences between everyone. Lena admired Maggie's friendliness and determination.
"So, how have the first couple of weeks been, Little Luthor?" Maggie asked her friend. Lena just shrugged.
"I'm getting adjusted. It's been helpful to keep my days busy." Lena replied.
"Made many new friends? Except yours truly of course." Maggie grinned, pointing to herself. Lena chuckled.
"No, not really. I've mostly kept to myself." Lena admitted. Maggie's gaze softened a little bit.
"Well, we're going to have to remedy that. And look at that, teach is late. Which means you have to sit with me and Alex at lunch today." Lena groaned. Though internally she was a little excited at the prospect.
***
After Ancient Greek, Maggie nearly pulled Lena to a table where she and Alex always sat, along with, to Lena's surprise, Winn, James Olsen, another son of Athena, Mon-El, and Alex's sister, Kara Danvers. Lena and Maggie had grabbed their food before heading over to the table, so Maggie plopped down next to Alex, placing a kiss on her girlfriend's cheek, gesturing to a chair next to her.
Lena sat down, now sandwiched in between Maggie and Kara Danvers. "Hey group, this is my new friend from Ancient Greek, Lena." The raven haired woman smiled shyly. Winn seemed to remember Lena and waved.
"Hey Lena! Fancy seeing you here." He said brightly. Lena nodded, as James looked at her.
"James Olsen, son of Athena. Nice to meet you." He said cordially. Lena returned the greeting. Lena looked curiously over at Kara and Mon-El who was seated next to her. Kara smiled brightly at the newcomer.
"I'm Kara! Danvers. I remember you. You were watching me and Mon-El spar." She said, casually pointing to the guy sitting next to her, who flicked his head upward in greeting as his mouth was full of food. Kara glared at him. "Don't mind him, he's the least well mannered of all of us." Lena chuckled at the jest as Mon-El quickly swallowed.
"Hey! I resent that Kara." He said indignantly. Kara just shrugged as James spoke up.
"She's right though man. Son of Ares and all. You just tend to be the most hot-headed. Just stating the facts." Mon-El's eyes narrowed at James playfully.
"Don't think we don't all remember when you, Mr. Perfect, got drunk as a skunk and ended up kissing Alex. Who is your half sister and she slapped the shit out of you after." He said. James just lifted a finger to flip Mon-El off while everyone else watched the exchange. No one was stepping in, so Lena assumed that this was a normal occurrence.
Kara leaned over to her, whispering in her ear, "Don't mind them. They've always felt the need to one-up each other, even when we were freshmen." Lena nodded, looking back at the boys who were still trading playful barbs. It was apparent that the two did this quite frequently if the looks on everyone's faces was any clue. Alex had an arm around Maggie, who was curled up to her side, just watching the two. Winn was interjecting every so often, putting his own input in on the argument. And Kara was sitting back in her chair, watching the show. Lena picked at her donut, smiling to herself. "So, any clue who your parent is?" Kara asked, turning her attention back to Lena. The girl just shrugged.
"Not a clue. I was adopted, so I don't even know if it's my mom or dad." Lena said sadly. Kara nodded, sympathy in her eye.
"I know how you feel. I was adopted too, by the Danvers. I mean, I knew my dad was Zeus because he was the one that asked Alex's parents to take me. But I know what you mean about the adoption thing." Kara rambled. Lena turned her head fully to face Kara and got a little lost in her deep blue eyes.
"So I was wondering. I know we don't have any classes together, but if you wanted help with Swordsmanship, I'd be happy to help!" Lena heard the tail end of the offer and she nodded without realizing what she was agreeing to. "Awesome! Let me know when you've got a free period. This is so exciting. I haven't gotten to help an underclassmen with the sword in forever!" Lena found herself laughing at Kara's excitement. She wasn't completely sold on the sword yet, though she hadn't been to more than a handful of classes where they hadn't even picked up a sword yet. They were still going through technique, safety, and handling.
The bell dinged, signaling the end of lunch. The group groaned before packing up their stuff. Kara turned to Lena. "What do you have next?" She asked. Lena shrugged.
"I've got a free period," Lena said as Kara's face lit up.
"So do I! And so does Mon-El. Want to come hang out at the fight pit with us? You don't have to get involved if you don't want to. Or if you're not free, don't worry about it. Just, you seemed to be pretty interested last time." Kara rambled before Lena took pity and cut her off.
"I'd love to Kara. Just let me drop my books at my dorm and I'll meet you over there?" Lena asked and Kara smiled, nodding. To Lena's surprise, Kara threw her arms around her new friend. Lena stiffened up slightly, not used to the physical contact, nor Kara's strong squeeze. Kara immediately felt Lena stiffen up and let go.
"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't even ask. And you're not used to the Zeus super strength yet. Oh man. I really am sorry..." Kara trailed off awkwardly. Lena just brushed her off.
"Don't worry about it Kara, I was just surprised. That's all." Kara sighed in relief.
"Oh okay. I'll warn you next time. Anyways, I'll see you down there?" Kara asked and Lena nodded. "Great!" Kara turned to Mon-El. "C'mon you, we need to work on your footwork." She said, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him away. Lena chuckled at the sight but finished up gathering her own things and hurried back to her dorm.
***
Lena approached the fight pit, seeing Kara with her broadsword swinging at Mon-El, who blocked Kara's swing with his blade. She watched the two trade blows for a minute before Kara noticed Lena. She held up a hand to Mon-El to get him to stop. She said something to him before he nodded and went off to grab a drink. Kara flounced up to Lena, dragging her sword behind her. "Hey, Lena! You came." Kara said happily. Lena couldn't help the smile that formed on her face.
"I told you I would, didn't I?" Lena teased. Kara shrugged.
"Yeah. Indeed you did. So, do you want to pick up a sword and give it a shot? I'll go easy on you." Lena scoffed and shook her head.
"No thanks Kara, maybe later." Lena, from the small glimpse that Kara had given her, knew that Kara was really good and she stood no chance. "Maybe after we actually pick up a sword in class." Lena reassured the blonde who had pouted when Lena rejected her offer. But perked right up.
"Oh right! You are still a freshmen, aren't you? Wow, I totally forgot. I mean, I know I said I knew you were an underclassmen earlier, but yeah." Kara said awkwardly. "So you're 18, right?" Kara asked curiously and Lena nodded. "Okay cool. I'm 20, if you were wondering." Kara said with a shrug. Lena had figured Kara was somewhere around that age if she was a junior.
"So, what's being a daughter of one of the Big Three like?" Lena inquired. Kara shrugged.
"It's... different. I guess. Weird I suppose, since they weren't supposed to have kids, since we tend to be overly powerful. But I guess it is what it is." Kara said.
"What makes you more powerful?" Lena asked curiously. "If you're okay with answering that question. I'm still not a hundred percent sure on what is considered too personal." Lena said sheepishly. Kara just brushed her off.
"Don't worry about it. I get most of the questions at least once a semester. And it's mostly the intensity of our powers. There's nothing about them individually the makes us more powerful. Like, I have aerokinesis. There are some kids on Hephaestus that have pyrokinesis, but my elemental manipulation is more powerful than theirs. I can even manipulate air currents and fly on clouds." Kara said excitedly. "I may also have Hercules level strength," Kara said afterward, in almost a whisper. Lena's eyes widened. No wonder Kara was worried about hurting her with the hug earlier.
"Oh. Is that rare?" Kara nodded.
"I'm the first one to have it since Hercules himself," Kara said, almost proudly. Lena smiled.
"That's really cool."
"Are you looking forward to being claimed?" Kara asked curiously. Lena shrugged.
"I guess. Don't you always when you're unclaimed? I don't know how Lucy copes really." Lena confessed. Kara nodded.
"I've known Lucy for a while, it took her a long time to come to terms with it. But she's made her peace. I'm sure your parent, whoever they are will claim you eventually. You're too awesome to not want." Kara said earnestly. Lena's heart melted a little bit. She hadn't ever had anyone in her life that had said something like that to her. And Kara barely knew her. Kara looked like she was going to add more, but Mon-El had returned and was calling out to her. Kara gave Lena an apologetic look.
"Don't worry, go. I'll be content watching you kick his ass." Lena teased. Kara chuckled, but gave Lena a thumbs up and went back over to Mon-El.