Tartarus High: Orientation Day, Part 2

"Who was that?" I asked.

"She's a junior," Iris said quietly.

"That," said Hermes, having gathered the group around the tree, "was Stygio Medusa. Yes, of those Medusas. So, when she says don't look at her, don't look at her. Lucky for this guy," he said, rapping his knuckles against Perseus' head, "she's like twenty-fifth generation or something like that. So, he'll be back to his normal hard-headedness in about ten minutes or so." Snapping his fingers to get everyone's attention back from Perseus, Hermes led us back on the tour, and stopped by the stadium. It looked like any other track and football field combo, but there was a guy in the middle swinging a hammer with lightning crackling off of it.

"Who is he?" asked a girl from the group. It was Aphrodite Cyprus. We'd gone to middle school together, and I thought she was beautiful, but she didn't even know who I was.

Hermes sighed with a bit of resignation at having to answer. "That's Thornton Thunderhead. Champion hammer thrower."

"And he's a senior," sneered a long-haired blonde near the gate. "So, get your eyes off him before I let Fenris eat them out of your head, fresh meat!" As she said that, her gigantic dog barked and growled at us, straining against an impossibly thin leash that managed to hold him.

"SIF SIRNGURD!" shouted Iris.

Sif glared.

"Quit being a witch," warned Iris.

Sif sneered, but turned away. Then we heard a less-than-innocent, "Oops," Fenris broke away, and bolted right for us.

The group suddenly widened away from Aphrodite, Hermes and Iris flying upwards just out of the dog's jumping range. Fenris bore down on her, snarling and drooling, but Cyprus stood her ground, smiled, and happily squealed, "Puppyyyy!" Fenris just made a confused noise, and sat down right in front of her. She smiled again, and he stood up panting, and happily wagging his tail. He jumped about playfully. Aphrodite reached one hand out and scratched his head, and used the other to scratch under his chin. "Aw, who's a good boy, huh? Who's a good boy? You are! Yes, you are!" She scrunched her nose when she smiled, and Fenris licked her face.

Sif, watching the whole time, stormed up to them, grabbed up Fenris' leash, and jerked him back away from Aphrodite.

Aphrodite just shrugged. "Dogs like me," she said with a smile.

"I'll bet they do," growled Sif.

"Sif! I mean it! Be nice," warned Iris as she and Hermes touched back down to the ground. "Or I'll tell everyone that you pluck your hair to walk your dog! Oops," she said, mocking the way Sif had said it, "did I say that out loud?"

Sif narrowed her eyes at Iris, but said nothing. She glared at Aphrodite, and seethed, "And he's a wolf." Then she stalked away silently, jerking Fenris' thin chain to make him follow.

Aphrodite just waved at Sif's back. Fenris saw her and yipped happily before Sif jerked his chain again.

Clearly ignoring the tension between the three girls, Hermes jumped back in with, "Anyone here going into any sports? You think you've got what it takes to become a Titan? A mighty, mighty, Titan?" he said, making slow cheerleading waves with his arms. "I'm a sprinter, obviously," he said, plucking at one of the wings on his shoes. It made a springy noise.

I raised my hand slightly. "I was thinking about going out for javelin."

The whole group was suddenly looking at me. Clearly surprised, Hermes said, "Javvvvelin? Really? You think you've got what it takes to throw lightning bolts?" he said with some doubt.

I shrugged. "Sure. I've been doing it for a while anyway. My parents pushed me to get some sidekick credits before I got here."

"Sidekick credits?" asked Iris. "The only sidekick I know of that throws lightning bolts is--"

"O MIGHTY GODS!" shouted Sharon. "YOU'RE KID JUPITER!?" she nearly squealed.

Once again, she was so loud that she drew the attention of the entire quad.

I looked out at the other students and grimaced a little. I was really hoping this wouldn't get out so fast. "Just Jared Jupiter these days," I answered quietly.

"WAIT A MINUTE" Hermes shouted ecstatically. "You worked with Doctor Zeus?! THE Doctor Zeus?"

"THE PRINCIPAL?!" the freshmen shouted in unison.

I winced. "He's...he's my dad, actually," I confessed.

"No wonder you weren't freaked out by my dad," said Sharon.

Elbow resting on his ribs, Hermes pointed at me and said, "Wait. Wouldn't that make you Jared Zeus?"

I shrugged. "Parents are divorced. Mom took his Roman name as part of the settlement, and had mine changed."

"Wait," said a boy in the group, slightly taller than the rest of us, and definitely bigger built. "You tellin' me that your dad is Doc Zeus?"

I nodded.

Ignoring me, he quoted, "'I shall not give him one or two? I shall not give him three or four? I shall not give him five or six? I'll give him those, and still six more?' That Doc Zeus?"

I nodded again. "Y-yeah."

He punched me square in the face, knocking me down.

"HEY!" shouted Hermes. "What the heck, freshman? What's your name?"

Pointing a thumb at his chest, he leaned towards Hermes boldly and declared, "Hercules Hero!" Then leaning down towards me he pointed a finger in my face, and spat, "And do you know how many times I've heard that stupid rhyme over the years? I hate that rhyme!"

Without getting up, I said weakly, "If it helps, me and dad aren't that fond of it either. Apollo Jettix made it up."

Kicking dirt at me, he shouted, "IT DOESN'T! I hate that danged rhyme! I hate Apollo Jettix! I hate your dad! And I hate Kid Jupiter, too!" Then he bucked like he was going to hit me again. When it made me jump, he just smirked angrily and stalked away.

"Well," said Hermes, clasping his hands in front of him again, "looks like this is going to be a fun year." Pushing his glasses back up his nose, he said, "Alright, come on, we have to get to classes. Let's go!" and he led the group back towards the main building- a massive Corinthian dome with columns and arches, ringed with fluffy white clouds.

I stood up, dusted myself off, and started after them. This was not how I was hoping to start my high school career.

Story and characters owned by Chris Bishop, copyright 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.

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Jan 19, 2022: I came up with Doctor Zeus at least for CCC 64 (2017), but had it on my character list back in 2012. I only recently saw this comic on Facebook, but I still found it funny.

8/12/22: Found this, and a couple of others that will be in another comment box, so that they'll show up.

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I'm enjoying more "pantheons" being added.

I'd like to read about the world around Jarred and how it is different to our world.

Don't suppose you ever read Asterix or The Lorax?

@spareheadone: Asterix I read only a little of one time in high school, and the Lorax once years ago. Jared's world is pretty much your standard superhero world. If there's a difference, it's that mythical folks exist without question.

I'm enjoying this quite a bit. Well done

@oscuro: <grimaces> Thanks, but...um...that's probably it. I'd like to come back to this at some point, but right now, I have nothing for it.

@cbishop: dang it

@oscuro: lol it's just as well. RL needs my attention for a bit.

@cbishop: well hopefully I'll have more soon. Just been spread thin by so many different projects and people are making demands lol

@oscuro: I get it.

8/12/22: Found a couple of other Dr. Zeus pics online, and just had to share them. Had to give these their own comment box so they'd show up. (CV eats 'em after 2 in the same comment box)

8/12/22: ...and here's the other one:

Thanks for stopping in! :^D

Wait the Norse Pantheon is here? That opens a lot of doors. I could just imagine someone like Sun Wukong rolling in to cause trouble, or the Lords of Xibulba being the school bullies or something.

Really cool

This was originally written for a CCC, and while I had a ton of fun writing this one, I didn't think it through as well as I feel I should have. What I may have been thinking at the time was that the Norse kids were upperclassmen because Norse myth is older than Greek myth. That's wrong, according to a quick check with Google, but that's the way I've always thought of it (based on there seemingly being less available about Norse myths than Greek. I've always figured that was because it was older, and more of it was lost to history).

In any case, if I had really thought about what it means for the descendants of Greek gods and heroes to have a high school, I probably should have assumed that each pantheon would have their own high school, so there would be some competition. I think I was thinking of it more in terms of Sky High, where that was the only high school for superheroes (or at least the only one mentioned in that film).

I had fun with the wordplay names too, but I'm not sure giving them last names works for a longer story. ...Bah, as a standalone story, I really had fun with this. When I start thinking about trying to expand it, and/or make it really work in the modern day, it frustrates me lol. I'm probably overthinking it, trying to do too much.

@cbishop: Okay, you also need to take into account that some deities such as Dionysus, Hades, Aphrodite and Pan are ‘import gods’ based on figures from the even older Phonecian and Babylonian pantheons and as such are even older.

Nahhhhh, I really don't. lol ;)

@ficopedia: Fair enough

lol... There's just a point where it's too much information. I'd like to be the genius that could incorporate all the info available, but I would drive myself crazy. ;)