"Why are you looking at me"

"I'm not looking at you"

"Yes you are"

"..."

"Stop"

"..."

"Aphrodite! What do you want. Can't you see I'm trying to read and I can't focus if you keep staring at me like you're about to start screaming" I finally snap toward the teenage goddess.

"How are you and Poseidon?" She asked with a cheeky smile that I want to slap off her face.

"We aren't trying to kill each other at the moment so I think that's what people label as "friends"" I deadpan.

"Not what I meant"

"I don't care what you meant, that's all that's happening" I narrow my eyes in her direction. 

All of a sudden the outburst I was expecting erupted from the goddess, "But you guys are all flirty like and OMG! This is major in your future relationship! And with all the setbacks because of the constant arguing! I swear, you guys are probably my biggest challenge yet! Even though those insults are quite endearing if you look at it from a less hated point of view..." Aphrodite's rant trails off as her thoughts wander, letting my thoughts be captivated by the work of a popular author- John Green. Page after page, each one causing me to lose my grip on reality. That is until arms take their place on either side of me, slowly closing my book and causing me to notice my surroundings.

"Welcome back to earth, Theena"

"I will stab you with a fork the next time you take my book away from me" my hands already inching toward the untouched breakfast I had made for myself. My attempt at a threatening demeanor only resulted with the chuckling of the idiot with a death wish behind me.

"Sure you will"

"Keep irritating me and you'll find out"

"Aw, is Theena mad" Poseidon says with an irritating look that you give to children directed towards me. I thrust my elbow back into his side, causing only a flinch as a reaction. I huff in irritation.

"Stupid weak mortal teenage girl body!" I make a mental note to go to the gym ASAP to fix this dilemma. A moment passes with us still in this position, me facing the island in the middle of the kitchen and Poseidon behind me, arms resting on the counter on both sides of me.

"Um, will you move?"

"Oh, uh, yeah, sorry" He moves and I turn around to face him. When I do, his face is flaming red and he's rubbing the back of his neck. I get up from my seat with my book in hand.

"I'll see you soon? You're driving me, Aphrodite and Ares to school today, right?" A quick, awkward nod is all I get in return as I turn my body toward the door. But, before I do, my body turns around, messes up his gelled back hair and says, "It looks cute messy." Realizing what I just did, I turn on my heel and speed walk out of the room to get ready. Well, that just got awkward really fast....

****

I'm putting my hair into two dutch braids when Athena comes into the room.

"You okay?" I ask her, as she moves quietly around her side of the room, picking out some clothes to wear.

"Yeah, Artemis, I'm okay. Just a little scatterbrained at the moment"

"You? Scatterbrained? What just happened?"

"A little run in with Kelp Head"

"What did he do?" I reply with a hint of irritation, ready to protect my friend.

"He didn't do anything" she sighs and sits down on her gray comforter. "I messed up his hair and said it looked cute when it was messy..." I stare at her in shock.

"Do you like him or something now?"

"No no no no no no! That isn't ever going to happen, plus that isn't why we're here, we have to learn to get along and we're making progress. We aren't here to develop feelings."

"But if we were here for that, would you be starting to like him a bit?" I question.

"I- I'm not sure"

Before I could say anything in response, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!"

"You guys ready to go yet, we're going to be late and Apollo and me have some pranking to do" Hermes announces.

"Apollo and I" Athena subconsciously corrects.

"No, I think it was just him and me. Especially because we have this one plan and we're going to put glue all in your-" Athena narrows her eyes at him. He gulps. "Nothing. We aren't going to do anything to you, we love you, Theena" he chuckles nervously and starts backing out of the room. Before he could make it to the door he turns to look at me. "You look nice Artemis" he says and leaves the room.

I can feel my face burning as I feel Athena's eyes watching my reaction.

"You're face is a little red there, Artemis. A certain troublemaker get to you?" she smiles.

"Damn it" I mutter and walk out of the room.

****

I rush down the stairs after throwing on my black, ripped skinny jeans, light blue cropped hoodie, and jean jacket. My brown bag slung over my shoulder and my black high top converse in my hand, I run toward the garage.

"Took you long enough" Poseidon states with a smile.

"Shut up, Kelp Head" I say, my smile mirroring his own. I sit down in the passengers seat, Ares and Aphrodite already in the back, and start putting my shoes on. As I'm tying the laces on my shoes, Aphrodite decides to speak.

"Why don't you guys just date already. I mean, its obvious that you guys are attracted to each other" she says in an irritating voice. I think that's her normal voice but even that irks me.

"Aphrodite, we are barely classified as friends, and we aren't attracted to each other" I state, doing my best to stay calm. I'm tired of the love goddess intruding on my friendship with Poseidon because that's all it is, a friendship.

"I already know everything there is about love and so if I know you guys are meant to be together, just listen to me"

"Says you of all people"

"What's that supposed to mean?" she responds, slightly offended.

"You're dating that arrogant jerk" I say, gesturing toward Ares who was watching the whole ordeal, "And you're supposedly married to Hephaestus! For a goddess of love, your love life sure is messed up!"

"Well at least I have someone to love me! All you do is push away any affection from the male species!"

"Yeah, well at least I don't have 67 protons!" I yell my final insult and step out of the car since we just pulled into a parking lot at school.

"Jokes on you! I don't even know what that means!" I hear yelled back at me. Soon enough footsteps fall into sync with mine as I walk toward the entryway of the school.

"Did you really call her a Ho?" Poseidon asks with a chuckle. (The atomic symbol for the atom with 67 protons, Holmium, is Ho, so indirectly she called Aphrodite one.)

"You understood that insult?" I respond with a smile.

"Yeah, I have a chemistry test today and I'd rather not fail"

"You, of all people, studied? And actually learned something?"

"Well yeah. I can't be friends with the smartest girl in the school and be failing everything can I? You have to keep your standards up" he smiles. All of a sudden the bell rings announcing the start of the school day. "See you later, Peyton"

"Bye, Dylan" I say with a small wave in his direction.

****

"What was the point of that?" Ares asks me as we're sitting in the back of Poseidon's car.

"Just another part of my plan" I respond while fixing my makeup.

"Care to elaborate?"

I sigh and respond, "I knew Poseidon would be studying to make himself seem better to Athena and I needed a reason for him to show her, even if it means she had to insult me in a nerdy way"

"Wait, you understood that?"

"Of course, I'm not an idiot" I say while rolling my eyes and opening up the car door. "Come on, can't be late for class"

****

HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Sorry for not updating for so long! I got my first boyfriend, lost a best friend, started my junior year and all around my mental and emotional health deteriorated pretty quickly so I couldn't find time to write but with all the comments and votes that I've gotten lately I pulled myself together to write this for you guys. It makes me really happy to see comments that show that you guys enjoy my writing, it means a lot to me. I'm not going to lie and say I'm going to focus on this story a lot and write chapters each week but I will try more than before to update more often. That I can promise. You guys are amazing and I hoped you liked the chapter! I got to include one of my favorite insults in here and it fit pretty well in my opinion, but let me know what you guys thought!

-Qu33n_of_Sarcasm 

P.S. I read some comments about people not wanting Pothena in here but I am a really big shipper of them and I wrote it in the description so if you don't like it you wouldn't have to read it but, just to clarify, yes, there will be Pothena and there will be a lot of it :D.