"I wonder what we're doing in class today," Leo said, staring out the window.
Everyone sat in English class, their homeroom. They had all heard what had happened to their old teacher, but none knew much about the sub except for one thing: she was horrible. Rumors, legends, everything flew around from other schools and siblings.
"Who knows?" Aries replied. "For all we know we'll have to run laps or something."
A woman with bleached blonde hair walked in. She was tall, but scary. The way she walked was as if she was above the rest of the world. She had a seemingly permanent glare etched onto her face, so bad that even Leo the Brave cowered in her place. On her shoulder stood a parrot, that looked just as mean.
"Listen up, since I'll only say this once," the woman glared at the students. "My name is Ms. Mal, this parrots name is Finn. I won't tolerate any pranks, laughter, or anything but hard work."
In the second row, Leo dared to speak. "You have a parrot named Finn?"
Her fellow fire signs laughed, before quickly shutting up under Ms. Mal's scowl. "Detention, all three of you."
Gem dug her nails into Nye's arm, as he resisted getting up to protest. All twelve of the zodiacs knew that this was completely unfair, but they knew better to stand up and say anything. This lady would make school hell. They knew it without a doubt.
"I'll take roll call, then." Ms. Mal took out a clipboard and scanned the room. "Aries?"
"Here." Aries grumbled. Ms. Mal looked at him with a horrible burning hatred in her eyes.
"Taurus?"
"Here!" Taurus fearfully yelped.
"Gem?"
"Pres-ent," Gem pronounced every syllable like it was poison.
"Nye."
"Here." Nye spoke through gritted teeth.
"Cancer?"
"Here," Cancer said, almost unsure.
"Leo?"
"Right here." Leo smirked. Ms. Mal sent her scathing glare down upon Leo.
"Virgo?"
"Present," Virgo stiffly replied.
"Libra."
"Here," Libra said, taking a sip of her coffee.
"Scorpio?"
"Unfortunately," Scorpio grumbled.
"Sagittarius?"
"Here." Sagittarius received the same glare as her fellow fire signs.
"Capricorn?"
"Present."
"Aquarius?"
"Here," Aquarius said coolly.
"Pisces?"
"Here." Pisces squeaked out.
"Great, since everyone's here, we can start our first project of the semester. You will each be doing a poster on a Greek myth of your choice. This is to prepare you for your next unit." Ms. Mal hissed at the class. "It will be due tomorrow. I'm sure you all have enough time. No copying or helping each other. I'll, know."
The class nodded fearfully as the bell rang. The twelve zodiacs ran out of the room in a desperate hurry. Aries looked like he was about to punch a wall, or worse, a person.
"I can't believe that woman! Who does she think she is? Banning happiness!" Aries ranted to a poor Nye and Sagittarius. "And giving Leo, Tari, and I detention for laughing? This woman is a whole new level of evil."
"She's the Dolores Umbridge of our life," Gem huffed to Cancer and Taurus.
"I regret coming to school today," Libra muttered, taking a sip of what must have been her fifth cup of coffee.
Almost out of nowhere, Ms. Mal came from the classroom and grabbed Libra's coffee. "No drinking non-water drinks. Detention with Aries, Sagittarius, and Leo." Ms. Mal walked away, her parrot mocking the teens as she left.
"This bitch-" Libra started, cut was cut off when Aquarius covered her mouth.
"Shh. She probably has eyes and ears everywhere," Aquarius warned. "We've gotta be careful what we say at school now."
Nye nodded. "Aqua's right. We have to stick together and get through this together."
"Yeah, Whatever. Let's just get to lunch," Libra scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, Gemmy, What'd you make us for lunch?" Nye slung his arm around his sister as the group walked to lunch.
Gem rolled her eyes at the pathetic nickname. "I made you nothing."
The twelve sat down at a table. The fire signs and Libra were ranting about Ms. Mal. The water signs were quietly brainstorming ideas for their projects. The earth signs were up buying lunch. They were the only safe ones. The air signs, with the exception of Libra, were all joking around, making the best of the situation.
BUT SHE APPEARS A-FREAKING-GAIN. She struts up to the twins with a glare that even Elsa would melt from. "I know High school is a great time to date, but we have a no PDA policy for a reason. Remove your arm from her shoulder or else."
Gem, Nye, and Aquarius looked at their newest teacher in absolute horror. Nye immediately pulled away from his twin and Gem scooted away from him. Aquarius gawked at the woman.
Nye was the first to speak. "No! I mean, yes, ma'am. But no, we're not dating. We're twins, actually."
Ms. Mal turned a dark shade of red, and Finn squawked at Nye. "I apologize for the mistake, but you still broke the rules. Both of you, detention."
That's when the normally cool water bearer broke. He stood up in a rage. "It was an honest mistake! Can't you just give them a warning or something?"
"You'll be join them, then." Ms. Mal snapped. "This is your warning. It only gets worse. Now sit down."
Aquarius obliged, his face suddenly pale. As Ms. Mal walked away, Aquarius could only manage to say, "We won't survive these next few months."
"Hell, we won't survive the next few days," Gem agreed.
Taurus and Virgo left the lunch line after buying their lunches, only to find the fire signs pissed, the air signs terrified, and the water signs anxious.
"This new teacher sounds overly extreme. I don't think half of this school will make it." Taurus stared at her poor friends with wide eyes.
"I don't think half of our friends will. Four already have detention." Virgo sat down and eat some of her salad.
"Seven."
"What?" Virgo asked.
"Seven people have detention," Capricorn corrected her once more. "The twins and Aqua just got it."
"That settles it, we're doomed."
——————
"I'll do mine on Minerva popping out of Zeus' head, I think," Scorpio told his two friends. "That one can't be too hard."
"I'm doing how Zeus overthrew Kronos," Pisces nodded with a frown.
"I can't believe it's due tomorrow," Cancer groaned. "I think I'll do mine on Medusa or whatever."
"This is so unfair. No happiness, no coffee, no PDA. What can we have?" Pisces whined.
"Knowledge, I guess," Scorpio said through gritted teeth.
"This'll year our group apart, or bring us closer together." Cancer warned.
"Or both." Pisces frowned.