Persephone was the daughter of the Goddess of nature, Demeter. Hades was the God of the Underworld. He ruled ghouls and lived in an eternal darkness. She plucked flowers and enjoyed the springtime.
She was light; he was dark. And against all odds, he fell in love with her, hoping her sun could scare away his shadows.
--Greek Mythology
***
The next morning at track practice, Atalanta was strangely energetic for someone who could not sleep. She had drifted off early in the evening, but when her dreams were full of a domineering, blue-eyed, particularly British professor, she became wide awake.
She had planned to read the story of Atalanta just before class so that it would be fresh in her mind for discussion. But that night, she stayed awake reading her copy. And this time, she made many, many notes.
While Atalanta had never given history much thought, she found herself entranced by the reading. The Atalanta in the story was much like herself: the way she ran, refused men, and eventually met a fate worse than death.
After reading, Atalanta wondered if her mother knew of the tale when naming her daughter.
She wondered if her mother intentionally destined Atalanta to end up alone.
These troubling thoughts turned into fuel for Atalanta, for she outran the rest of the team at practice. Sprints was and always had been Atalanta's event. At the beginning of practice, the others seemed a bit standoffish when regarding the new first-year on their team. However, they quickly learned why Atalanta received the scholarship she did.
At the end of practice, Atalanta was gulping down water when two girls approached her. The taller one with dark hair introduced herself as Katherine, and the shorter, ginger-haired one said her name was Eliza.
"We wanted to come meet you," Eliza said. She had a round face that lit up like a casino, her large blue eyes sparkling. "Tried to say hi at the starting line but I blinked and you were gone!"
Atalanta smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I got excited." This was only partially true. She was excited to make a good first impression on her new team, but mostly she had just wanted to clear her head.
"Excited? To run?" Eliza giggled and shook her head, making a playfully disgusted face. Atalanta shed a grin. It seemed every school track team, even a college one, shared the ironic joke in how they hated to run. "Well, we know you're a first year and Kath and I thought we'd invite you over tonight."
Kath nodded. She was super thin and willowy, beautiful in a kind, soft way with her black locks and equally-dark eyes. Atalanta smiled at the two of them, more than excited to have some new friends.
They exchanged phone numbers, and Atalanta walked to her dorm with an extra skip in her step. It was only her second day of class, her fifth day of living on campus, and while at first she wasn't too concerned about making friends, she had began to grow lonely.
This feeling dawned on her last night. Something about reading the story of Atalanta had made her more aware. She never had many friends--not any she liked, anyways, just people from her town she felt obligated to be polite to since they had known one another since birth. By extension, she never had any boyfriends. The idea of one made her uncomfortable.
But after the reading? She shook her head as these thoughts began to trickle back in, disturbing her post-run peace. Did she want to make friends? Was she even capable of such a thing?
How does one learn to form a relationship when all they know how to do is run away?
***
Just as she did the day before, Atalanta made the mistake of arriving to Professor Pattinson's class early. Though this time, she had the sense to wait outside, and she herded in with the others when they showed up.
The professor was writing on the board when she took her seat. And though she decided to sit in the back today, when he turned around, his eyes found hers. She swallowed. Even from this far away, he would be able to call her out in class. She had hoped she could hide today, but his gaze on hers told her that she had already made an impression on him, and it didn't seem to be a good one.
He had looked into her student profile. He had said as much the day before. And, as he knew she was two years older than everyone else, Atalanta could tell that he expected more out of her. This also meant she was two years behind everyone else, and so he would challenge her more than the others, too.
If it were any other professor, she would've kept her chin down and tried her best. But, for some reason, she met his eyes, and silently dared him to bring on the challenge.
However, his gaze had only landed on hers for mere seconds, and then he was moving on. He began the lecture for the day, and Atalanta made sure to take notes. Even if she didn't see him look at her, she had learned that he was more observant than she may think.
He didn't call on her once during class. This should have come as a relief to her, for she had cringed when he ridiculed the boy in the front row who didn't know the name for the goddess of wisdom. But, strangely, she almost felt disappointed.
The end of class could not have come sooner. Professor Pattinson gave a careless wave of his arm, saying, "get out of my classroom," as a way of dismissal.
Atalanta waited in her seat as everyone else rose to their feet. She watched them go, her heart pounding. Her hands clutched her copy of Atalanta, her shoes tapping against the floor. She was so, so nervous. Repeatedly, she reminded herself that she knew this story, and she had nothing to be afraid of.
Professor Pattinson gave no indication that he remembered they were to have a discussion over the reading today. He just sat at his desk and scribbled on paper.
All too quickly, the classroom became empty. Though, Atalanta realized, the other students hadn't cleared out quick enough. For there was a strange part of Atalanta that was excited.
It was just as she told herself: she knew this story. She was excited to prove herself, even if a bigger part of her was more excited to impress the professor.
She approached his desk. He didn't seem to notice her. She reached out a hand and placed a shiny red apple on his desk.
His eyes flicked to the apple, and then up to her face. He lowered his pen. "I thought you had forgotten," he said.
Atalanta swallowed. All she could think about for the past 24 hours was those eyes, but thinking of them and seeing them, trained on her, this close, were two very different things. "An apple a day keeps the bad grades away," she quipped.
The professor narrowed his eyes. "Don't sound too confident," he said. He pushed back on his desk to stand. Atalanta watched as he crossed the room to a stack of spare chairs and took one off the top. He walked back over to her to plant that chair in front of his desk.
She held her breath. He stood so close to her. She hadn't before realized how tall he was. Of course she had known he was tall, but she didn't know just how tall until he was only a foot away from her.
He indicated for her to sit, and he returned to his own chair. They both sat, and Atalanta felt the weight of his gaze even more so now that only the desk separated them.
"What did you think of the reading?" he asked.
Yes. The reading. She placed the story onto the desktop and looked at the cover. The reading was something she could focus on, and she welcomed the opportunity to place her attention on something else. "To be honest? I didn't like it."
The professor raised his eyebrows. "Why?"
"It's sad," she told him. "Atalanta had wanted to stay a maiden. She was tricked into marrying that guy, and if she was allowed to stay alone like she had wanted, she wouldn't have been turned into an animal."
Professor Pattinson studied her for a moment, his blue eyes thoughtful. Then, he frowned. "It's not meant to be a sad story. In fact, it is usually a class favorite. I certainly wasn't expecting you to dislike your namesake."
Atalanta looked at her hands in her lap. It was precisely because the story was her namesake that she didn't like it. "There were... Well, it felt very familiar."
She didn't raise her head, but she knew he watched her. A beat of silence passed before he reached across the desk to examine the story. "This is one of the few myths you will read in this class that isn't a tragedy," he told her.
At this, Atalanta did look up. "This isn't a tragedy?"
He shook his head. "She fell in love. They both lived. Yes, they lived as animals, but there are worse fates."
"Loneliness?" Atalanta asked. "Is that what I'm supposed to take away from this? That being a maiden forever is the worst fate?"
To her surprise, Professor Pattinson actually chuckled. It was a dry sound, and he didn't smile, but she felt pleased with herself for making him laugh in some way. "Take what you will from it," he replied.
She couldn't help herself. She rolled her eyes. She hated that self-interpretation stuff, for she never found anything that deep. After all, she was just an apple-picking runner. The most thought-provoking things ever got for her was if the track was muddy, or if rodents were eating her crop.
Sometimes she wished she could be a deep person. She wished she was an amazing writer, or she could discuss philosophy, but she had nothing interesting about her. In fact, she felt she was exceedingly dull.
"I'm hoping to take my five points from it," Atalanta said.
The professor sat back in his chair. "I will give you your five points," he agreed.
A smile instantly broke across Atalanta's face. "Thank you, I really--"
He held up a finger. Her mouth fell closed. "That doesn't change the fact that you are two years behind the others. This is an advanced curriculum, and I can't spend every day after class giving you make-up opportunities." He laid his hands flat against the desktop and leaned in towards her. "I am going to suggest that you drop my class."
Atalanta's jaw dropped. "I--What?" She had been excited to impress him, and she felt she demonstrated a good understanding of the reading. This is not what she had expected. "But... No, I--I did the reading. I stayed after class, like you asked me to."
"Ultimately, the choice is yours," he told her. His tone was devoid of any sentiment. It was like he wanted to see her fail, though he wouldn't care either way.
"And I choose to stay," she demanded.
"It's only the second day of class," he reminded her.
She sat up straighter in her chair. "Second day or hundred and second day, I'm not quitting."
Professor Pattinson blinked. Perhaps he hadn't expected her to be so determined, but she was. She had people to prove herself to. If he had to be another person added to that list, then so be it.
"The choice is yours," he said. "My office hours are on Tuesdays and Thursdays after class. I suggest you utilize them."
Atalanta lifted her chin. "I will." She gathered her things and stood to leave, feeling angry. All she wanted to do was scream, or cry, or run. Yes, perhaps she would run. Far, far away from this classroom.
She slid the story across the desk. "Here's your copy back," she mumbled.
"Keep it," he replied easily, completely oblivious to how upset he just made her. Then, casually, he pulled open his desk drawer. From it, he produced another thin booklet and held it out to her.
She raised an eyebrow. "For extra credit?"
"For personal growth," he replied.
She looked at the booklet stubbornly, thinking of what he would say if she rejected it. But, feeling too tired and annoyed to argue, she took it. On the cover, it read Andromeda.
This will look nice, she thought to herself, in my bottom desk drawer, where it will remain unread.
Though as she reached the classroom exit, she heard the professor call out, "come prepared to discuss on Thursday," and she knew that the booklet would be read.
She could ignore all of her opinions she thought or everything she felt towards the professor. But she couldn't ignore this pestering urge to please him, though she didn't know what it was about him that made her want to work so hard.