Primo giorno

[gwenchan]

Fandom: Iliad
Prompt: Scuola

Patroclus swung his brand new backpack in one hand as his mom fixed the collar of his shirt.

"Bye my love, you behave, alright?" She said, hands on his shoulders. He quietly nodded, as in the corner of his eye some kids flocked around Miss Hestia. Miss Hestia was a super nice teacher. 

"Yes, mom."

"Good. Now go to your friends."

Patroclus hadn’t seen most of them for all the summer holidays. Busy playing with toy cars sitting on the floor, Ajax and Odysseus waved at him.

"Did you have fun?" Ajax grinned. "We went to the mountain with my—uncle Peleus!"

Patroclus' head snapped toward the entrance. On the threshold a tall man was trying to pry a crying child off his leg.

"No. No. I want to go home," the kid screamed, turning his back to Miss Hestia to go grab further onto his father.

"Your uncle? So that's your…"

"My cousin. Achilles," Ajax confirmed. In the hall Achilles was still firmly glued onto Ajax's uncle.

"It's only for a few hours, poppet." The man cooed, bending to gently pat Achilles' head and giving miss Hestia an apologetic look.

"He woke up on the wrong side of the bed, right?"

"No," Achilles muttered, stubborn.

"It'll be fun. Look,  there's even Ajax. See, I told you he'd be here too. Don't you want to play with Ajax?"

He beckoned Ajax closer as he said this. Curious, Patroclus trudged behind.

"Hello Achilles. Nice to see you" Ajax said, grinning. 

"Hi, Ajax," mumbled Achilles, who didn't seem to share the enthusiasm. But, Patroclus guessed, at least it was a familiar face. 

"And I'm Patroclus," he offered. "Wanna come play with me?"

He was still holding a toy car in his hand. "See, this is my favourite," he said, showing it to Achilles. Achilles sniffled. He had the nicest backpack Patroclus has ever seen, with colorful fishes and glitters.

"Your backpack is super cool," he said, unable to resist the urge to touch the plush-looking appliques

They were as squishy as expected.

"Patroclus," Miss Hestia chided. "It's not polite to touch others' things without permission."

"Sorry, Miss Hestia."

"That’s fine. But, yes, it's a very nice backpack you got there, Achilles. Can I see it.”
Achilles pondered the question for a moment, then slowly let go of Peleus’ trousers to shim out of the backpack straps. He clutched it to his chest.

"Mama bought it for me," he said, while Peleus exploited that second of distraction to  finally free himself. 

Before Achilles could realise it, Patroclus and Ajax were already dragging him away. In the time they were gone Odysseus had decided he'd rather play with LEGOs. 

"That’s—" Patroclus made to introduce him, Achilles' free hand still solidly clasped in his.

"Nobody" Odysseus muttered, not lifting his head from the tower he was building. 

"That’s not true. Odysseus, don't be mean."

Odysseus shrugged. Patroclus turned to Achilles, whose eyes were mostly still glued onto his father.

"He's not always like this," he said, just as Ajax perked up. "Look, that's your girlfriend. Hi, Pitsa!"

Odysseus' ears turned the same bright red of the LEGO piece he was holding, refusing to meet eyes with the girl, now twirling around to show Miss Hestia her new dress. 

But everybody knew Penelope and Odysseus were together.

Achilles hadn't let go of Patroclus' hand, perusing the crates of toys for something of his interest. After long consideration he fished out a plastic T-rex. 

"You like dinosaurs?"

"A little," Achilles said, but still grabbed a Triceratops as well and sat on the floor. Patroclus opted for a stegosaurus, which was attacked by Achilles' T-rex in record time. Patroclus responded just as fiercely.

They played like this for a while. At a certain point Achilles picked up a toy car, which he made to race around the dinosaurs.

"The yellow owls with me," Miss Hestia called. Patroclus jumped up and Achilles looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Gotta go," Patroclus explained. Ajax was already in line, while a little over Odysseus was bickering with Menelaus, much to Miss Ebe’s , the young teacher of the red class, chagrin

"Yellow owls. Yellows with me," Miss Hestia called again. 

Achilles' hand shot out to grab onto Patroclus' shirt. Patroclus shook his head.

"No. You are too little. You can’t come." And gently tugged himself free to reach his friends 

There was a moment of silence. Then Achilles' brows scrunched, his lower lip quivered and he broke down into a new wave of ear-piercing sobs.

Mrs Demeter came rushing in. “What happened?” She asked, looking severely at Patroclus. 

“I think he wants to stay with me, Mrs Demeter. I didn’t mean to make him cry.”

Mrs Demeter let out a long sigh. “I know, sweetie. Go now, I’ll take it from here.”

“No!” cried Achilles, stomping his feet, face all red and blotchy. 

“We can play later."

"Now."

"No, now we go to class, lil man," Mrs Demeter said, easily picking him up despite his kicking. "Come on. We’re going to have a lot of fun. Look at the other kids, they aren't crying."

As she dealt with Achilles, Patroclus hurried to reach the others, stopping right behind Ajax. 

“Is your cousin always like this?”
“He tends to get very attached and quickly.”

Achilles wasn’t the only one making a scene. A row over Mrs Leto was trying to separate Hector from his younger brother holding firmly onto him.

"Always the same story," Miss Hestia shook her head. “Alright. Is everyone here? Then we can go."

First morning of school passed quickly. Miss Hestia gave them papers, coloured markers and told them to draw their holidays. As anticipated, Ajax had spent most of them in the mountain in the family lodge. Castor and Pollux had been to Crete. 

"What about you, Patroclus?"

That summer Patroclus' family had decided to remain home, but dad still brought him to the pool every day and bought plenty of ice pops to fight the heat. 

"And I learnt how to ride a bike," he added, proudly.

By snack break he had drawn himself and dad at the pool with matching blue T-shirts and ice creams and a little over him and dad, again, only around a bike this time.

Achilles too had spent a good portion of his first morning at school drawing. And Mrs Demeter must have found a way to console him as upon spotting him he went straight to Patroclus with a big grin.
Then he shoved a paper into his hands. 

The pictured featured two kids holding hands and surrounded by coloured shapes Patroclus guessed must be toys

One had curly hair sprouting from his head and above Achilles had scribbled a wobbly "Π", "Α" and "Τ". 

Floating over the other kid were an iffy "ΑΧΙ". Both kids were smiling. 

"That’s nice. Thank you," Patroclus said, a bit unsure,  with Achilles tailing him as he put the drawing in his backpack.

Achilles kept following him as he walked to his friends too, quickly trudging behind. 

"Is he always so quiet," Patroclus asked Ajax, who laughed.

"Achilles? Not at all. He’s only a bit lost” he said, squeezing his cousin into an enthusiastic hug. “How's the first day going?”
“Nice. I like Mrs Demeter. She gave us stickers.”

“Which stickers?”
“Animals. I took a shark.”

“See?” Ajax told Patroclus. “Wait a couple days and you’ll regret it when he didn’t talk. Isn’t that right?” he said, then smacking a big kiss onto Achilles’ cheeks, who giggled and squirmed away. 

They played together again after lunch, the three of them, alongside Odysseus and Menelaus, Achilles always tailing Patroclus as if a little shadow; except for the part he decided to race with a classmate called Diomedes.

“Wanna come to my house today?” Ajax asked Patroclus as they were waiting for their parents to arrive. On the other side of the hall, Achilles was jumping in place.

“Of course.”

To Patroclus’ surprise, he found his dad instead of mom waiting for him at the exit. He was chatting with Achilles’ dad.

“There you are,” dad said, bending to pick Patroclus’ backpack. “Did you have fun?”
“Mhm,” Patroclus nodded, just as Achilles dashed next to him to run into Peleus’ waiting arms. 

“I made a  new friend,” he said, enthusiastically, grabbing onto Patroclus.

“That’s good, love.”
“Can Patroclus come to our house?”
Peleus looked at Patroclus’ father, pondering the question for a moment. “I don’t think there’s any problem."

"Can he come now?"

“But Ajax invited me already,” Patroclus protested. “Can I stay for dinner, please?”

“Only if his parents agree,” dad replied. “You know it.”
“Can I go too?” Achilles asked. “Ajax won’t mind.”

“We can ask him. And see if uncle Telamon agrees, alright?"

Ajax didn’t mind, enthusiastic instead of having his younger cousin home to play. “We can go to the pool,” he said, while the grown-ups chatted. Achilles beamed.

There was some more back-and-forth, then finally Ajax’s dad ushered them all to the family car where they piled with some laughter, Achilles firmly attached onto Patroclus’ shirt and Ajax already asking if they could have fried meatballs and chips for dinner.