Sara stared at the crowded cafeteria. The sea of unfamiliar faces made her stomach slightly queasy. She stared down at her tray of food. A salad, apple and orange juice stared back at her. She had no desire to eat and momentarily considered just dropping everything and eating outside. Biting her lip, she looked back at the sea of faces. She didn’t like this sea. This kind of sea was beyond her control.

Tentatively taking a few steps forward, she began to search out and empty sea. At first glance, it didn’t look like there were any. However, upon closer inspection, Sara found an empty table. When she came closer, she saw why. The table was rickety and had graffiti all over it. Oh, well, she thought, and sat her tray down. She airily brushed the stray flecks of food off the table. Sitting down, she set about opening up the orange juice. A small smile spread across her face as she coaxed the water in the juice up into the air. Making a ball, she stuck a straw into the ball and began to sip the juice down. She hadn’t been allowed to play with her food like this at home, but here at the school, no one seemed to bat and eyelash.

Sara coaxed the juice back into its bottle. She looked around at the cafeteria and felt keenly aware of how alone she was. Even here, in a school full of people like herself, she felt alone. Sara sighed and began to pick at her salad. Even with playing with her food, she still felt lonely. Normally her sisters would have been all over that trick, but here, nothing.

Sara straightened up, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. She may feel alone, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to show anyone she felt so.

Sara turned suddenly as a girl seemed to magically manifest from the air. Sara, slightly confused, looked around her, trying to figure out where she may have materialized from. A moment ago it just looked as if there were shadows, possibly from a cloud creeping over the sun. Then, a girl stood, asking if she could take a seat. The effect was a little unsettling. Before the girl could perceive her sudden surprise as rudeness, Sara gave a curt smile and nodded.

“Uh… sure, you may sit,” Sara replied, her accented voice heavier than she would have liked. “But… uh… the seats, they are not very good.” Sara emphasized the point by gently tapping one that was directly next to her. It made an angry sound and then fell to the floor. “Perhaps you would like to sit there? That one is… how do you say… sturdy, I think.” Sara gestured towards the seat directly across from her. She nudged it with her foot. It stayed fast.

Sara wasn’t exactly sure what to do with the girl. She had had friends before, of course, but she wasn’t very good at making them. Any effort had to come from the opposite party. Sara wasn’t a great conversationalist and had to really strain in order to come up with good conversational topics. Thusly, after she had motions towards the seat in front of her, she stared down at her food. It was her only defense really and one she employed all too frequently, ever since her little… excursion… from home so many years ago.

Sara began poking at her salad, popping a piece of tomato into her mouth. The food was nothing like the cuisine she enjoyed back home, but it would do. She kept sneaking glances at the girl as she ate.

Sara gave a small smile and said, “Sara.” She popped another piece of tomato into her mouth and searched for something to say instead of sitting in awkward silence. This girl was literally the first person Sara had talked to at the school and she wasn’t keen on messing it up.

“Um… I am a water manipulator. See?” To prove her statement, Sara used her ability to suck the juice out of the girl’s Capri sun. She made it into the shape of a bird, having it fly around their table twice and then return to its former packet. Sara missed showing off for people. Her sisters used to be delighted in little tricks. It had given her a lot of practice. Though, after her abduction, she had taken to going out at night instead, sometimes one or two of her sisters in tow. She had become rather skilled in her art at these little play sessions. “Animals are my favorite, but I can make other stuff too. Like cyclones and tidal waves, things like that.” Sara normally didn’t like to advertise her more destructive abilities, but she doubted this girl was going to turn her in. After all, she was like her.

“Do you do manipulate light?” Sara had deduced, by the way Phe had just appeared out of nowhere, that she had some ability to bend the light around her. It wasn’t totally unheard of here at Pantheon. Sara had heard about some people who were able to manipulate the very molecules in the air, let alone light.

Sara was curious about which deity this one might be. She was quiet and a bit timid. She must have been some sort of shadowy deity, maybe one that preferred to lurk in the shadows as opposed to putting herself out there like Zeus and the Olympians. However, on her first day here one of the counselors had advised her outright that it was probably a bad idea to ask outright. A few of the students had bad blood and preconceived notions that they should hate other students because of what may have been done in their past lives.

However, Sara wasn’t sure who hated Amphitrite. It would have been odd to find a person who hated her based on her deity.

“Nyx?” Sara was only vaguely familiar with the gods before the Olympians. Mainly she just thumbed through any mythology books she found until she saw a passage on Amphitrite. There wasn’t really much about her, much to Sara’s disappointment. “A night goddess? That’s pretty impressive. I have not seen anyone manipulate shadows here yet. It would be nice to… teleport?” For a moment she cocked an eyebrow and checked with Phe to make sure she said it right and used it correctly. Since she said nothing, Sara continued, “It would be nice to teleport wherever you wanted to go.”

Sara took of sip of her drink. When Phe asked where she came from, she paused and said, playfully, “My accent? It is you that has the accent, m’amie. I was told by my tutor that I speak perfect English.”

She set her drink down and sort of thought a moment. It was a still a little tough for her to talk about home. She missed it.

“I am from Marseille, in France. It is along the coast, near Spain and Italy. My father was from France, but my mother was from Greece. She never taught us Greek.” She had once asked her mother why she never taught them Greek. Her mother had gotten all haughty and said, “Why should I teach you girls Greek? You live in France. You’re not going to Greece.” Sara had always suspected her mother had had some sort of falling out with her family after she married Sara’s father. It was a family mystery and Sara was pretty sure she’d never find out. She’d yet to meet any of her Greek relatives.

“My father owned a fishing boat and my mother was the daughter of a dock owner. I believe that is how they met. They married very young.” Sara deliberately left out the part where they were both only seventeen and had known each other approximately two weeks. How they hadn’t had a divorce by now was beyond Sara. Luck of the draw, she supposed, Lord knew she never had much luck in that department. “After awhile, my sisters and I were born.”

Sara felt as if she was talking too much. After all, she just met this girl and already she was divulging her family history. “Do you have any siblings? Mother? Father?” Families now a days were often very odd in their dynamics.