The Girl Games (Goddess Girls) Read online

  Zzzing. Zzzing. Just as Penthe and Skadi loosed their arrows, the target jerked left to spin a wild figure eight. Spotting the movement, Artemis waited a fraction of a second longer before firing. Zzzing!

  The other girls’ arrows hit in the target’s outermost white circle. But Artemis’s arrow flew straight and true. Crack! It slammed right smack into the heart of the bull’s-eye, splitting Penthe’s first arrow in half.

  A thrill shot through her as excited shouts went up from the crowd. “Bravo! Yay! Epic!” Artemis heard her friends yell. Seconds later, Skadi came over to hug her. Penthe, however, had disappeared. Probably off pouting.

  Hera walked onto the field holding an olive wreath. As she set the wreath atop Artemis’s head, all twenty of the fancy flying targets took to the air. They twirled and whirled, their colored rings glowing and blinking. All in celebration of her win. Joy whirled inside of her too. Could this get any better?

  As they left the range, Artemis felt over the moon. In spite of all the work and the mistakes along the way, these Games were turning out great. And there was still the cheer event to go!

  She and her friends grabbed a quick lunch in the cafeteria. After they ate, they changed into their blue-and-gold GG Squad outfits and headed to the gym to warm up before the cheer competition began. Since all four of them would compete as a team this time, Adonis was left behind in Aphrodite’s dorm room. He was so tired from the excitement of the Games, they all figured he’d sleep most of the time anyway.

  Before their warm-up, the goddessgirls detoured down a set of limestone stairs to the pool in the basement grotto below the gym. The swimming event was being held here. They arrived just in time to see Medusa ace the race! Though they’d never exactly been friends, Artemis was glad she’d won.

  In a swimming contest just before Zeus and Hera’s wedding, the snaky-haired girl had given up the lead and sacrificed her chance to become a bridesmaid. All in order to rescue a little kindergartner from being bullied by several sea nymphs. So Medusa definitely deserved this win.

  As she cheered with everyone else, Artemis scanned the crowd for Apollo and Actaeon. They weren’t in the bleachers, though. In fact, she hadn’t seen them since the archery competition.

  She would’ve thought they’d want to congratulate her on her archery win, but they hadn’t. Didn’t Apollo care? And what was up with Actaeon? Had Penthe gotten him to like her now? Artemis’s first crush, Orion, had never really liked her the way she liked him. Maybe Actaeon didn’t see her as crushworthy, either. Swallowing the lump that crept into her throat, she decided not to think about him.

  “I wish we’d had more time to practice our routine,” Athena said as the goddessgirls climbed upstairs from the grotto again.

  “Relax,” said Aphrodite. “We’ve got it nailed.”

  Persephone grinned. “We know it so well, we could probably do it backward!”

  “Interesting idea,” said Athena, “but—” She hesitated, as if unsure whether to say more.

  “But what?” Artemis asked.

  “Well,” Athena began. “Don’t freak out—but I’m thinking our new ending might be a little weak.”

  Surprising even herself, Artemis replied calmly, “Should we tweak it? I think we have time.”

  The other three girls gave her a shocked look.

  “What?” said Artemis. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  Aphrodite cocked her head. “Last-minute changes? From you? After you’ve been so serious about the Games going off without a hitch?”

  “Not that we don’t want the Games to go well, too,” Persephone added quickly.

  “But you practically wore yourself to a frazzle trying to be sure everything went according to plan,” Athena said. “So we’re kind of amazed you’d be up for making changes this late.”

  “I know I’ve been trying to run things and getting all stressed out lately,” said Artemis. “But the mix-up with the Fancy Flyer targets just now made me realize something.” She wrinkled her forehead. “Of course, that was just one of the things that didn’t go exactly right this week . . .”

  “Are you thinking of the zillion stuffed animals I accidentally ordered?” Aphrodite interrupted, grinning.

  “And the Pegasus-Chimera incident?” suggested Athena.

  “And us letting the cat out of the bag with Zeus?” added Persephone.

  They all laughed. Artemis smiled, feeling closer to her friends than she had in days. And that’s what these Games were truly about, she decided. Friendships—old and new. She felt the last of her stress melt away.

  “So, what I’ve figured out from all those mix-ups,” she went on, “Is that things don’t have to go perfectly to work out great in the end.”

  Persephone grinned. “I agree. Besides, I think those flying targets you ordered added pizzazz to the competition!”

  “Pizzazz!” Athena snapped her fingers. “That’s exactly what’s missing from our cheer ending.” She looked at the other three. “If you’re really up for changing things a bit, I have an idea. And if it works, I think it could be spectacular.”

  Aphrodite’s eyes sparkled with interest. “I’m up for spectacular.”

  “Me too,” said Persephone.

  The three of them looked at Artemis. She smiled at Athena. “Go for it!” she said.

  22

  Persephone

  Saturday afternoon.

  THE GYMNASIUM WAS PACKED THAT AFTERNOON for the last event of the Girl Games—the cheer competition. When Persephone peeked from behind the stage curtain, she saw Zeus and Hera sitting front and center in the audience on blue-and-gold velvet thrones. The sight of the principal made her extra-glad they’d left Adonis in the dorm.

  She looked for Hades in the stands but didn’t see him. She didn’t see Ares, Actaeon, or Apollo, either. Weren’t they coming to watch?

  Earlier, with the support of all her best friends, Athena had explained her plan for changing their routine. They’d only had time to go through the changes twice during warm-ups. It wasn’t really enough practice, and Persephone was a little nervous. She just hoped they could pull it off.

  Hearing the heralds on their salpinxes, she closed the curtains and went to stand by her friends. As each team was announced, its members filed out from behind the curtain to be applauded and then went to sit in reserved seats near the stage.

  Only three other teams, each with four members, would be competing against them. The other teams were from Egypt, India, and China. MOA’s team—the GG Squad—would go last.

  The Chinese team was first to perform. Wearing sparkly red robes with red-and-gold ribbons that trailed from their sleeves, they flipped through the air like sleek, brilliant flying fish. A few minutes into their routine, they pulled on the ribbons, and out from their sleeves came big red fans. Using them like pom-poms, they threw them into the air, then caught them and twirled them around.

  “Wow,” Persephone whispered to Artemis. “They’re really good.”

  “No kidding,” Artemis whispered back, looking a little worried.

  At the end of the routine there was a burst of firecrackers, and the girls disappeared in a cloud of smoke, only to reappear in a dragon costume. A dragon with eight legs. It danced around on the stage and shook its head at the audience, much to their delight. Then it pranced offstage to thunderous applause.

  The Indian team wore jeweled headdresses and orange-and-blue saris. Their moves were less acrobatic than the Chinese team, but exceptionally graceful. The complexity of their arm and hand movements, as they wove them together, apart, and together again, left Persephone wondering if each girl might have multiple arms instead of the usual two!

  The Egyptian team was every bit as good as the other two teams. At the conclusion of their routine, three of the girls joined hands to form a triangular base while the fourth girl flipped up to stand atop their hands to make—what else?—a pyramid!

  Finally, it was time for the GG Squad to take the stage. Bef
ore they left their seats, they all leaned their heads together. Usually someone in the group said something encouraging before a performance. But this time no one seemed to know what to say.

  Realizing that everyone else was as nervous as she was, Persephone relaxed. A grin spread over her face. “This is gonna be fun,” she told the others. “Let’s rock it!” It seemed to be the right thing to say because she felt excitement zip between them as the others matched her grin.

  The girls jumped up and got into position at the bottom of the stage steps. The first notes of their music sounded—and they were off, cartwheeling up the steps to the stage.

  As soon as they were onstage, Aphrodite, Athena, and Artemis faced the audience and went into the splits. With one leg stretched out before her and one stretched out behind her in a side split, Athena was in the middle. Aphrodite and Artemis were on either side of her with their legs stretching side-to-side in center splits.

  Together they formed one long line divided in the middle by Athena. With their heads held high and their arms outstretched, the girls waited.

  From the side of the stage Persephone eyeballed the long line her friends had made, measuring the distance she’d need to clear them. The first time she’d tried the stunt, she’d run too fast and crashed into Aphrodite before takeoff. The second time she’d barely cleared Artemis’s toes on landing.

  I can do this, she told herself. I’m a championship long jumper!

  The crowd held its collective breath as she ran toward the line. Her friends didn’t even blink as she pushed off a few inches from Aphrodite’s right foot. Persephone soared over all three girls and landed a full foot beyond them. Immediately the other three girls sprang to their feet while magical pink sand swirled high above them to form the words: PRESENTING: THE HERAEAN GAMES.

  “Way to go,” Aphrodite whispered to Persephone as they passed each other.

  “Thanks,” she replied as the audience clapped wildly. But this was only the start of their new routine. Athena had rechoreographed the entire thing to mimic all the events of the Games, one after the other!

  Next came some comic stunts. First, they pressed the knuckles of their right hands together and pretended to do a funny four-way thumb-wrestling match. Separating, they then began a dance with lots of swimming motions, while bubbles floated upward all around them to pop to the beat of the music.

  While the whole crowd was still cracking up over these skits, Athena and Persephone did flips to one end of the stage. Artemis and Aphrodite flipped to the other. Then, while Athena and Persephone held a string of pink flags between them, Artemis and Aphrodite dashed in graceful leaps across the stage in a mock race.

  After Aphrodite broke through the flags to “win,” they moved smoothly into their next stunt. Athena, Aphrodite, and Persephone stood facing each other to form a triangular base, just like the Egyptian girls had done earlier.

  Artemis skillfully flipped upward to balance atop her three spotters. With her friends supporting only her left leg now, she arched slightly sideways and raised her right leg until it was sticking almost straight up on her right side. Then she grabbed her right foot high above her head with both hands so that her body and leg formed a “bow” shape.

  There was only one last move to complete this cheer, which was named the “bow and arrow.” Quickly shifting to a one-handed hold, she then straightened her left arm parallel to the floor and pretended it was an arrow being shot with the “bow.”

  Persephone grabbed a round cardboard target that she had clipped to the front of her chiton before the stunt. She tossed it high into the air, and Artemis pretended to aim and shoot at it. Then as her friends let go of her left foot, she fell into the basket of their arms.

  Everyone went wild clapping. But there was still their grand finale to go!

  Athena looked over, caught Zeus’s eye, and nodded. On his signal, Pegasus appeared, gliding down through the circular opening in the ceiling high above the stage. Losing no time, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Persephone grabbed Athena by her arms and legs and, with a mighty thrust, tossed her into the air.

  Persephone held her breath as Athena flipped head over heels. What if they hadn’t given her enough of a lift? she worried for a second. But they had, and Athena landed just as planned—standing on top of Pegasus’s back!

  As the crowd roared their approval, a loud whistle sounded from high in the bleachers. Persephone glanced toward the place the sound had come from. It was easy to spot the boy in the lion’s-skin cape.

  “Heracles!” she heard Athena say. From the delight in her voice, Persephone could tell how happy she was to see him. He was with the missing godboys: Ares, Hades, and Apollo. Actaeon was with them too. How lucky that they’d all arrived just in time to see the GG Squad perform.

  But who had won the cheer event? All eyes went to the judges.

  23

  Aphrodite

  Saturday afternoon.

  CONGRATULATIONS!” PRINCIPAL ZEUS WAS beaming as he came up to the four goddessgirls after the awards ceremony with Pegasus trotting at his side. Turned out that the MOA cheer squad had tied with the Chinese team. So all eight girls had received olive wreaths. Aphrodite was delighted to have two wreaths now!

  “I’m so pleased that my idea to have a girls-only Games worked out so well,” Zeus said. The girls nodded agreeably. Petting his winged horse’s muzzle, he added, “And my fly guy was awesome in your cheer finale. You’re a good boy,” Zeus told his horse fondly.

  “You love animals, don’t you, Principal Zeus?” Aphrodite blurted out.

  “Of course!” he boomed.

  “Me too. In fact, I bet you love Pegasus as much as I do Adonis,” Aphrodite went on. “So—”

  Zeus’s bushy brows furrowed. “Who’s Adonis?” he interrupted.

  “My kitten,” Aphrodite reminded him. She was sorry she’d brought it up if he’d forgotten. But he’d likely have remembered on his own at some point. Like when he started sneezing from cat fur.

  Persephone frowned at her. “Ours,” she muttered darkly. Out of the corner of her eye Aphrodite saw Artemis and Athena exchange worried looks. Just when everyone is in a good mood and getting along well, Persephone has to go and act jealous again, thought Aphrodite. How annoying!

  Zeus’s piercing blue eyes focused first on Persephone and then on her. “So whose kitten is it?”

  “Mine,” Aphrodite said with emphasis. Because it was! Persephone glanced at her and then looked away. “Hers,” she admitted softly.

  You got that right! thought Aphrodite.

  “Speak up,” Zeus said to Persephone. “I didn’t hear you.”

  “Hers,” she said in a louder voice. “But I love him too,” she added wistfully.

  Aphrodite’s heart squeezed a little at the look on her face. She did feel kind of sorry for Persephone. They both loved Adonis. Persephone had proved her affection in the way she’d taken such good care of him. And she’d designed the collar Hephaestus had made for him too.

  But the last thing they should be doing was fighting in front of Zeus. What if it made him decide that the kitten had to go? No! She couldn’t let that happen. She’d do anything if only she could see Adonis at least sometimes.

  All four goddessgirls held their breath as Zeus studied Aphrodite and Persephone. “Doesn’t seem fair to give him to one of you when you both care so much,” he said after a thoughtful pause. “So I guess—”

  “Wait!” Aphrodite and Persephone said at the same time.

  “Persephone can have him,” Aphrodite added in a rush.

  “Aphrodite can have him,” Persephone said simultaneously.

  They stared at each other in surprise.

  “Or maybe we could—” Persephone began again.

  “Switch off?” suggested Aphrodite. The corners of her mouth turned up at the same time as a matching smile grew on Persephone’s face.

  “Exactly what I was about to suggest,” Zeus interrupted. “The kitten can stay here at MOA one wee
k, then go to Persephone’s home the next week. Back and forth, so you each get him half of every month. An equal share.”

  “Yes!” Persephone agreed quickly.

  Principal Zeus looked at Aphrodite. “What do you think of my idea?” he asked.

  Aphrodite reached for Persephone’s hand. Squeezing it, she told Zeus, “It’s genius. Like all your ideas!”

  “Of course it is!” Zeus agreed. The sound of Hera’s tinkling laughter suddenly caught his attention. She was chatting with the girls from the Chinese cheer team. Abruptly, he headed off in her direction, but then he turned back. “Just one thing. Keep that cat away from me and my allergies. Or the deal’s off, got it?”

  “We promise!” Aphrodite and Persephone called back. Then they looked at each other and hugged big time. Friends again. Hurrah!

  24

  Athena

  Saturday evening.

  DID ANYONE SEE WHERE HERACLES WENT?” Athena asked as the girls walked back to the Academy. “I was hoping he’d wait for me after the awards ceremony.”

  “I saw him, Ares, and a bunch of the guys leave the gym together while we were talking to Principal Zeus,” Aphrodite said with a suspicious glint in her eye. “Something’s going on.”

  Athena nodded. “Heracles did write me that the boys were planning a surprise for us. I bet it’s a party.”

  Back at MOA, the girls went to their rooms to change clothes. When they came back down, they saw some students in the main hall clustered around the enormous column by the trophy case. There was a sign hanging there. Printed with uneven block letters, it read:

  COME ONE, COME ALL!

  TO CELEBRATE THE SUCCESS OF THE FIRST

  GIRLS’ HERAEAN OLYMPIC GAMES,

  YOU’RE INVITED TO A PARTY.

  IT STARTS AT SUNDOWN IN THE CUPOLA.

  BE THERE OR BE SQUARE.

  Poorly drawn sketches of a pair of running feet, a monstrous head with an arrow through it, and a dizzy-looking sea serpent in a swimming race adorned the sign.