Iris the Colorful Read online

  She looked at Zephyr to find him studying her, and smiled at him. “I think you could be right.”

  “You! Ibis,” Zeus called out suddenly, making Iris jump. She turned to see that he was at the podium again. Hera stood beside him, looking expectant.

  “Ibis?” Zephyr echoed, grinning.

  Iris rolled her eyes, grinning back. “The King of the Gods is not so good with names.”

  “Up here. Now!” Zeus boomed at her. Every eye swung her way, and she hunched down a little.

  “What did I do now?” she wondered aloud.

  “Go on!” Athena urged her. She, Aphrodite, Artemis, Antheia, and Persephone had come over. Now they shooed her toward the steps. As Iris went, students gathered around the podium again to see what was going to happen.

  “I forgot to congratulate the most important person of all in the fight against Typhon,” Zeus announced when she was finally standing by his side. “Her name is . . .”

  “It’s Iris,” she told him quickly.

  “Of course it is. I knew that,” Zeus replied. Then to the crowd he boomed, “Her name is Iris!”

  Then he turned to her, speaking loudly enough that everyone would hear. “I’m pleased with what you did to defeat Typhon. Your quick thinking and decisive action are what saved us in the end, and we are all grateful. So I—”

  Just then the anemometer began to whirl. The wind had picked up. And at the back of the crowd there was a loud thump. Oh no! Had Typhon somehow escaped? Was he back? Wariness swept those gathered around as everyone swiveled to look.

  But it was only the Hermes’ Delivery Service chariot landing at the back of the courtyard. Phew! thought Iris. The crowd parted for Hermes, who stomped through to deliver an armload of packages. He dumped them onto the school steps and then stomped up to the podium.

  “You look terrible,” Zeus told him frankly.

  “I feel terrible,” Hermes said grumpily. “I’m exhausted. I need help. An assistant. Now.”

  “I see,” said Zeus, stroking his red beard thoughtfully.

  Hera set a hand on Iris’s shoulder, a slow smile crossing her face. “How about Iris?” she suggested to Zeus.

  Iris perked up. “Yeah. I could help you, Hermes,” she volunteered. This was just what she’d been hoping for. A worthwhile job she knew she could do if given the chance. “You could train me to deliver messages in my spare time, like an extracurricular.”

  Zeus smiled, appearing to like the idea. Unfortunately, Hermes didn’t.

  “A student helper?” he grumped. “Your wings don’t look very strong. They’ll probably give out on a long-distance delivery.”

  Iris knew she had to do something really impressive right away, or she might lose this opportunity. “I don’t need my wings. I’ve got something better. Watch this!” she said. Quickly she wound up and threw a ball of magic from the courtyard to the top of MOA. Brrrng!

  When a rainbow appeared, she slid up it to the roof and back down to the podium again within seconds. “See?” she said breathlessly. “I can use my rainbows to slide to Earth and distant lands to deliver messages and packages for you.”

  “Not bad,” Hermes said, a new respect in his voice. “So you’re the goddessgirl of rainbows, then?”

  “Well, not officially.” She glanced at Zeus.

  “What’s everyone looking at?” he said, appearing perplexed. But then Hera gently nudged him in the side and whispered something into his ear.

  “Oh,” he said. “I see.” He turned toward the crowd and spread his arms wide. “I just got a great idea!” he boomed to all assembled. “In honor of Iris’s heroism, I hereby officially appoint her the Goddess of Rainbows!”

  “Wow! Really? How cool is that?” Pheme practically yelled from the back of the crowd. Then she was off to Earth to spread the news. “It’s official. Iris is the goddessgirl of rainbows!”

  Zeus beamed at Iris. “Good work. You deserve this honor.”

  She left the podium a few minutes later, feeling as though she were floating on air, even though there wasn’t any wind blowing. At the bottom of the steps, she and Antheia did an impromptu happy dance. Then Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Persephone enveloped them both in a group hug. It seemed that everyone wanted to congratulate her.

  When Zephyr drew near, her friends melted away. “Now that Typhon’s been defeated, it’s time for me and my brothers to go,” he told her.

  “Oh,” said Iris. She heard the disappointment in her own voice.

  “But we’ll be back,” Boreas assured her. And his frosty smile actually warmed when he glanced at Antheia, who was standing nearby.

  “Yeah! You can’t stop the wind!” said Notus and Eurus.

  As all four brothers lifted off, Zephyr waved farewell to Iris. “See you soon!” he called to her. She waved back. Then the winds whirled away, each in a different direction. Boreas to the north, Zephyr to the west, Notus to the south, and Eurus to the east.

  “So you like Boreas?” Iris asked Antheia once the four brothers were gone.

  Antheia nodded, smiling sweetly. “Yeah, I kind of do. We have a lot in common, actually. Turns out he loves wreaths.” She paused before adding, “Well, he loves blowing them around, anyway.”

  Iris laughed. Then Antheia turned serious. “I thought about what you said about crush stealing.”

  “Oh?” Iris said lightly.

  Antheia nodded. “Let’s promise that we’ll always be friends, and that we’ll always be honest about who we like from now on, okay?”

  A slow smile spread across Iris’s face, and she nodded. “To friendship! And to boys never, ever, ever coming between us again.”

  “Pact,” they said at the same time. Both girls hooked pinky fingers to make it binding. Then they giggled, and the newly anointed goddessgirl of rainbows and her best friend, the goddess of wreaths, headed up the stairs to Mount Olympus Academy together.

  Don’t miss the next adventure in the Goddess Girls series!

  Coming Soon

  JOAN HOLUB is the award-winning author of more than one hundred and thirty books for young readers, including Zero the Hero, Vincent van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars, and Shampoodle. Of the four goddessgirls, she’s probably most like Athena because she loves to think up new ideas for books. But she’s very glad her dad was never the principal of her school! She lives in North Carolina. Visit her at joanholub.com.

  SUZANNE WILLIAMS is the award-winning author of more than thirty-five books for young readers, including Library Lil, Ten Naughty Little Monkeys, and the Princess Power and Fairy Blossoms series. Her husband says she’s the Goddess of Annoying Questions. (Most having to do with why her computer misbehaves.) That makes her kind of like Pandora, except that Pandora never had to deal with computers. Suzanne lives near Seattle in Washington State. Visit her at suzanne-williams.com.

  Aladdin

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  READ ALL THE BOOKS IN THE GODDESS GIRLS SERIES

  ATHENA THE BRAIN

  PERSEPHONE THE PHONY

  APHRODITE THE BEAUTY

  ARTEMIS THE BRAVE

  ATHENA THE WISE

  APHRODITE THE DIVA

  ARTEMIS THE LOYAL

  MEDUSA THE MEAN

  GODDESS GIRLS SUPER SPECIAL: THE GIRL GAMES

  PANDORA THE CURIOUS

  PHEME THE GOSSIP

  PERSEPHONE THE DARING

  CASSANDRA THE LUCKY

  ATHENA THE PROUD

  IRIS THE COLORFUL

  COMING SOON:

  APHRODITE THE FAIR

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events
or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  First Aladdin hardcover edition August 2014

  Text copyright © 2014 by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

  Jacket illustration copyright © 2014 by Glen Hanson

  Jacket designed by Karin Paprocki

  Also available in an Aladdin paperback edition.

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  The text of this book was set in Baskerville Handcut.

  Library of Congress Control Number 2014940500

  ISBN 978-1-4424-8824-3 (hc)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-8823-6 (pbk)

  ISBN 978-1-4424-8825-0 (eBook)