Athena in Theory

Eighteen years ago, she had been named after the Greek goddess of wisdom. Her mother Alexa, a linguistics and history professor, thought she was doing her newborn daughter a favor. After all, weren’t names defining in and of themselves? Maybe Athena Scarpelli would go on to do great things that would astound her family.

Her father Vito was on the opposite spectrum: his language was food. And things like making a name for himself didn’t involve books, honors, and finely tuned resumes. After high school, he worked at the family restaurant—appropriately named Scarpelli’s—which boasted freshly made pasta, brick oven pizza, and bruschetta always made with the finest of ingredients. And it was this affinity for food that had brought Athena’s parents together when he had waited on a table of Alexa and her friends during high school. (Alexa would lovingly recount how he gave the table tiramisu for dessert “on the house,” followed by Vito winking at her.)

With this legacy, Athena split her time between school and the restaurant. By age sixteen, she was helping as a waitress between her studies and schoolwork. By bedtime, she would fall into bed fully dressed because her mind was so exhausted from remembering menu specials and customer favorites to the right equations and historic timelines for her exams.

Leading up to college application season, she nearly cried when her first score on the ACT was 24. Her mother clicked her tongue when she heard the results, and Athena had locked herself in her room, hyperventilating and trying to calm herself down before she had to start her next shift at Scarpelli’s. It took two more tries before she was satisfied with her score of 29.

When it came time to leave for the dorms, it was her father Vito who drew her into a hug and asked her if she would just like to take a year off and help with the restaurant. She closed her eyes, breathing in the scent of baked dough and herbs that emanated from him, and she was so tempted to say yes, her mother’s expectations be damned. But she just smiled and laughed, hoping her father wouldn’t be able to see the tears in her eyes before she climbed in the car and set off for the journey to campus.

College was like entering a portal to a different life. Club ambassadors handed out flyers and urged new students to consider entry to build a sense of school community among the incoming freshmen. Ducking her head and wheeling her first suitcase to her second-floor dorm room, Athena had no intention of focusing on anything but her studies. When she put her keys in the lock, she was jolted forward when another girl opened the door inward.

“Athena!” The girl’s face was nearly all smile as she grinned widely. Her bobbed hair was also a bright shade of...pink. “I was wondering when you’d show!”

Being ushered into the small dorm room, Athena was struck by how...effusive the girl—Tanya—was. Her DMs over Facebook hadn’t been nearly as bodacious, Athena decided, as Tanya kept her eyes trained on her. It was almost like being observed by a puppy who couldn’t sit still. Well-intentioned but a bit...overbearing.

“Do you want to go explore the campus with me once you’re unpacked?” Tanya asked, sitting on her already-made bed and nearly bouncing with excitement. Athena already felt exhausted, and she hadn’t even been in the room fifteen minutes.

“I have to get the rest of my stuff,” Athena said, trying to turn the other girl down without outright saying it. But Tanya obviously didn’t get the message from the way she brightened even more (if that was possible).

“I can help you!” she said, jumping up and nearly giving Athena whiplash. “Did you come with your parents?”

It took a moment before Athena answered. “No,” she said. “I drove here by myself. My car’s in the student lot.”

Tanya made a sound of appreciation. “Wow, you’re lucky,” she said. “You can go into the town next over whenever you want. I heard there’s an awesome art gallery there.”

Despite being a history professor’s daughter, Athena really had little time for the creative arts. An art gallery would not have impressed her in the least, but she didn’t want to say the admonition aloud, lest she hurt Tanya’s feelings. “Yeah, cool,” she managed. “And, look, you don’t need to help me with my stuff—”

“It’ll take you forever on your own,” Tanya interjected. Then she jumped up from the bed. “Believe me, it’s no problem. My mom and I made a few trips down to her car too just to bring everything of mine up. It’ll be quicker with two people.”

Athena thought about refusing—again—but she figured she didn’t want to be rude. She’d be sharing this dorm room with the other girl for at least a year. Best to stay on good terms, right?

And Tanya was a talker. All the way down to the car and back (it took two round-trips just to get Athena’s suitcases up), Tanya kept going on about the campus, her impressions, and everything she hoped the year would be for her and the people she’d meet. Athena mostly stayed silent, with the occasional “uh-huh” and “yeah,” but her first impression of Tanya had been very apt: the girl was a puppy trapped in the body of a human. The growing comparison just made Athena smile to herself.

When classes actually started the next day, Athena was out the door before Tanya had even woken up. She took to the campus pathways for a short walk before her 9 AM class and found herself entranced by how peaceful the place was. Despite her mother’s warnings about continued education and the greater realm of academia, Athena found herself more enraptured by the setting than she had thought she would, even with two campus tours before she had decided on the school.

But the overwhelming nature of the day—so many syllabi, so much content, so many new people—had Athena taking to the outside again, breathing deeply, digging out her cell phone from her jacket pocket.

When her dad answered on the third ring, she started crying and saying she wanted to come home.

Her father waited before she finally calmed down enough to stop sobbing into the speaker. “Oh, mia bella, I know you miss home,” Vito said, “but you have to give these things a chance too. What kind of life would you have if you just stayed in this restaurant with me? Would that life really make you happy?”

But I don’t know if I wanted this either, she thought.

It was a drawn-out moment before she said, her voice trembling, “Okay, Papa, I’ll try to give it more of a chance.”

When Athena got back to her dorm room, Tanya was still awake. Something must have shown on her face because the other girl sat up abruptly, worry in her eyes.

“You okay, Athena?”

She took a deep breath. “I think so.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Tanya asked.

Athena thought about just shaking her head and saying no—but then she saw how Tanya watched her, as if she were ready to be a good friend by taking the time to listen. Suddenly, Athena felt bad about thinking how Tanya was just a little puppy so ready to follow anyone who was nice to her.

Sitting down on her bed, Athena sighed. “I don’t know if I can really articulate it. I just—I didn’t realize it would be so hard, going away to college. I thought I’d feel...free.”

Tanya nodded along. “Yeah, I get that,” she said. “But we all feel that way to some degree, you know? None of us really wanted to leave home. But we can’t stay baby birds forever, right?”

Athena thought of herself as a plump baby bird being afraid to try and fly out of the nest, and she ended up snorting. “I guess I liked being a baby bird too much,” she said.

The other girl laughed. “Me too, Athena. But won’t it be fun to explore the sky we’ve only seen from afar?”

Athena supposed there was something more to this creative pink-haired girl—who was excited at the prospect of art galleries over anything else—than she had originally thought. Funny how first impressions could be so wrong.

“What’s up?” Tanya asked slowly, her voice suspicious. “You’re being awfully quiet.”

Athena just shook her head. “Just thinking how I’m glad I got you as a roommate.”

That big smile that was becoming familiar appeared on Tanya’s face again. “Likewise, roomie.”

It seemed college wasn’t going to be quite the experience Athena had thought—but she’d live through every moment, the good and the bad, just to see where she landed when she was done.