Aphrodite the Fair Read online

  “Thanks, Ms. Hydra,” Ares called back, waving a toy spear Aphrodite had just noticed him holding. However, his eyes were glued to Eris, and there was something odd in his tone, thought Aphrodite. In fact, ever since his sister had arrived, he’d been acting weird. What was up?

  “Wait! Take some cake back to the office with you,” she called out as Ms. Hydra started to follow the principal. Aphrodite hurried over to the table to grab a plate with the biggest slice she could find, since she figured that all nine heads would be sharing it. Ms. Hydra’s yellow head thanked her delightedly.

  “Nice of you to give her some cake before she headed off,” Persephone said from beside her. Aphrodite smiled at her silly joke, but her mind was still puzzling over Ares’s behavior.

  Grr! Grr! Sss!

  What now? she wondered. Looking past a group of students, she saw that Hera, who hadn’t left with Zeus, was chatting with Athena, who was her stepdaughter, of course. And Ares’s sister had gone over to talk with Artemis and Medusa. Oddly, Artemis’s three dogs and Medusa’s snakes seemed as wary of Eris as Adonis had been. The dogs growled while edging away from the petite girl, then ran to Apollo with their tails tucked between their legs. And Medusa’s snakes were rearing back, as far away from Eris as possible. Eyeing her nervously, they had begun to hiss.

  A strong hand fell on Aphrodite’s arm, pulling her aside. She looked up. Ares had come over. “Hey, um . . . about my sister,” he started to say.

  He looked so apologetic and worried that Aphrodite suddenly realized what must be going on. He was acting weird because he was worried Eris had hurt her feelings earlier with the sea foam thing. That had to be it. How sweet of him!

  Before he could continue, she interrupted. “Not too tactful, is she? But that’s okay. I’m sure she didn’t mean to hurt my feelings before.”

  Eris glanced over at them just then, and her eyes glinted. Before Ares could say anything more, the girl called out, “Hey, Aphrodite, how about a party game?”

  “Sure,” Aphrodite agreed as murmurs of interest ran through the partygoers. “Any suggestions?” she asked the room. “Pin the Tail on the Trojan Horse? Ten in a Temple? MOA-opoly?”

  “I’m game for anything,” Persephone announced. She and her crush, Hades, were over by the snacks table now, munching on chips. “Except Truth or Dare,” she added quickly. Her GGBFFs laughed. They knew she was probably thinking about a recent “dare” that had taken her way out of her comfort zone and landed her onstage at the mega-popstar Orpheus’s Rock the Gods concert!

  “How about Two Truths and a Lie?” Eris suggested.

  Ares groaned aloud.

  “Sounds like fun,” Aphrodite said quickly, elbowing him gently in the ribs. Even though Eris had hurt her feelings, Aphrodite hoped his groan hadn’t hurt Eris’s feelings.

  “Ooh,” Pheme said excitedly. Words puffed above her head as she went on. “I love that game. Everyone in our chariot played it on the way to that journalism conference we went to. Remember, Eros?”

  “Wait–” Ares tried to butt in.

  “Oh, yeah,” said Eros, before he could finish. “The game where you have to say three statements about yourself–two that are true, and one that’s a lie, right?”

  “Right. Then everyone has to guess which one’s the lie,” Eris explained to the room in general. “You eliminate players with the fewest points at the end of each round until there’s just one winner left.”

  “Sounds thrilling,” Apollo said, making a face. “I vote for Pin the Tail on the Trojan Horse. Who’s with me?” He uttered a magic spell that instantly produced a three-foot-tall flat cut-out drawing of a wooden horse. In his hand he now held a tail to match.

  “Great idea,” seconded Dionysus. “Anybody got a blindfold?”

  All the boys eagerly fell in with Apollo’s idea instead of Eris’s. Artemis and a few other girls did, too. Ares was the only boy to hesitate, his gaze switching back and forth between Eris and Apollo.

  “Go on,” Aphrodite urged him. “I know you’d rather wear a pink chiton to your war games competition than play Two Truths and a Lie. You love Pin the Tail on the Trojan Horse, so go. It’s your birthday. Have fun!” She gave him a gentle push in the direction of his friends, and the crowd divided up, each group heading to opposite sides of the room. Oddly enough, Apollo had to practically drag Ares off to get him to go with the rest of the guys.

  “Let’s get in a circle. It’s easier to play that way,” Pheme eagerly suggested. Aphrodite and the other girls grabbed chairs. Meanwhile, the other group began to play the Pin the Tail game across the room. Aphrodite watched their big paper horse snort and stamp its hooves, preparing to run from whoever was blindfolded first. And that was apparently going to be Ares. His friends were laughing and saying that the birthday boy should get first try.

  “Where’s my bag?” Eris blurted suddenly, drawing her attention.

  “Oh!” gasped Hera at almost the same time. “Here it is.” She’d been making her way toward the cupola door as if ready to leave, when she’d tripped over that very bag. She picked it up, holding it upside down. Something golden and gleaming started to slide out, and she grabbed it before it could fall.

  Eris rushed over and snatched her bag away. “Thanks. I’ll take that,” she said, pushing the golden object back inside. As Eris rejoined the girls in the quickly forming circle of chairs, Hera just stood there gazing after her with a strange expression of longing on her face.

  “So what’s the prize for the winner?” Pandora asked Eris.

  “Glad you asked,” Eris replied. Pushing her chair between the ones Athena and Aphrodite had positioned close together, she opened her bag. And pulled out . . . a trophy! Its top was a highly polished golden apple that sat upon a slender vertical gold rod, which connected it to a square base. The whole trophy was only about ten inches tall.

  What a weird thing to carry around, thought Aphrodite. She and Athena traded looks from where they sat on either side of Eris. From the expression on her face, Athena obviously thought it was strange, too. But, whatever. Eris was Ares’s sister. So Aphrodite was determined to overlook the girl’s oddities and be friends with her.

  Hearing a sudden cheer from the other group across the room, she glanced over and saw that the blindfolded Ares was really into the game now. He’d just lunged and missed the Trojan horse and was after it again.

  “Here, take a closer look,” she heard Eris say to someone. Aphrodite swung back around in her seat. There was a gleam almost as bright as gold in Eris’s eyes as she held out the trophy to Athena.

  “Okay,” said Athena. As a few more girls brought chairs over to their circle, she took the trophy politely but without enthusiasm. However, as she held it, her face slowly lit up. “Wow! It’s lovely. Really beautiful,” she said avidly. Gripping its base in one hand, she cupped the golden apple in her other. “In fact, it’s the most beautiful trophy I’ve ever seen!”

  “I agree. It’s so smooth. So perfectly shaped,” another voice gushed. It was Hera’s. She seemed to have changed her mind about leaving the party. Instead, she brought a chair over to the group and sat on Athena’s other side, two over from Aphrodite.

  “I know!” Athena agreed. “The apple looks so real!”

  Aphrodite stared at them in surprise. Hello? It was just a trophy. No better and no worse than most other trophies, as far as she could see. Why were these two acting so mega-bizarro over it? The Hera she knew was pleasant and warm, but no-nonsense. If there was one thing Hera was not, it was a goddess who gushed! And the brainy Athena was usually levelheaded and not at all prone to exaggeration. She’d won tons of awards, including having the city of Athens named after her when she invented the olive. So why would Athena get so excited over this simple trophy?

  Hera gazed around the circle. “You girls don’t mind if I join your game, do you?”

  Eris looked a little nervous about this, but Aphrodite jumped in and said, “Sure. Have a seat.” Of course, Hera had
already seated herself.

  Eris reached to take back her trophy. “Here, let Aphrodite see it,” she told Athena.

  Athena frowned a little, hugging the trophy to her chest. But then she seemed to realize how odd a thing that was to do and reluctantly passed the trophy to Eris, who then thrust it into Aphrodite’s hands.

  “Oh, um, thanks. Yeah, it’s very . . . ,” Aphrodite said, nodding. Suddenly, she sucked in a sharp breath as the trophy’s true beauty abruptly became apparent to her as well. She’d only intended to examine it quickly and hand it right back. Because, really, who cared about a trophy if they hadn’t won it? But as soon as she clasped this one, it suddenly became clear to her why Hera and Athena had been so enchanted by it.

  “Ye gods,” she said in wonderment. “It really is magnificent!” She glided her fingertips over the gleaming, shiny gold apple. On the base of the trophy she noticed words. Tipping it closer, she read them in a soft voice. “For the Fairest.” Her heart beat faster. Surely that must mean the trophy was meant to be hers. She was the goddessgirl of love and beauty after all. And fairest meant most beautiful, right? Not that she was vain about her looks, of course. But still . . .

  “Can we start the game now? And, hey, where did you get that trophy?” she heard the ever-curious Pandora ask Eris. “Did you win it for apple picking or something?”

  Eris answered only one of the three questions. “I bought it from that Be a Hero store in the Immortal Marketplace, after I went to Hera’s shop yesterday. The shopkeeper promised me it was one of a kind.”

  “You mean, Mr. Dolos?” asked Medusa, with a disgusted snort. “That guy’s a liar and a cheat!” But then she shrugged. “He’s a good businessman, though. He used to have just the one store near my hometown on the Aegean coast. His second store in the IM is a big step up.”

  Mr. Dolos had once paid Medusa for the use of her image, Aphrodite recalled. But then he’d altered it in an unflattering way and used it on a toy shield he falsely advertised as magic. A short round man with slicked-back hair and a stiffly curled mustache, he usually dressed in a tacky bright yellow-and-black checkered tunic. Medusa was probably right about him. After all, Aphrodite figured, how could anyone with such poor taste in fashion be reliable?

  Persephone was sitting on Aphrodite’s other side and reached for the trophy. “Can I see it?”

  “No!” When Aphrodite pulled back so she couldn’t touch it, Persephone looked startled and a little hurt. And now the other girls around the circle were looking at Aphrodite like she’d flipped her lid. But who cared? she thought as the trophy hypnotized her with its dreamy, gleaming magnificence. She couldn’t bear to let it go. And what’s more, she felt an overwhelming impulse to win the game they were going to play so she could possess it forever.

  Without warning, Eris snatched the trophy away from her.

  “Hey!” Aphrodite protested, feeling like she’d just lost her best golden, gleaming friend.

  Eris ignored her and gazed around the circle of girls (and Hera) who were now sitting in the chairs. “Pandora’s right. Let’s get this game started!” she said.

  Just then Ares and Apollo came over. Seeing them, Eris frowned and quickly jammed the trophy into her black bag. “What are you doing here?”

  “We got kicked out of our game early,” said Ares.

  “Yeah, I’ve never seen Ares play so lame,” Apollo added, looking confused. “I mean it! It was like he wanted to lose. He was so far off the mark that he almost pinned his tail on me!”

  “Huh? Slight exaggeration,” Ares said with a fake laugh. “Anyway, can we play with you guys?” When some girls scooched over to make room, he dragged over two chairs and sat in one. Apollo plopped into the other, sending Ares a perplexed “what’s up with you?” glance.

  “Whatever, birthday boy,” said Eris. She seemed suddenly intent on getting the game going. Glancing around the circle, she said, “So who’s first?”

  Hera rubbed her hands together. “I’ll start.”

  “Humph!” Aphrodite and Athena both snorted.

  What was Hera thinking, barging into their game like this? wondered Aphrodite. This was a student party. Grown-ups always put a damper on student fun. Besides, why would she suddenly want to hang out with them?

  “Okay, here goes. My two truths and a lie,” Hera began cheerfully. “I taught Zeus how to dance. I dye my hair. I’m not allergic to feathers.”

  Aphrodite was pretty sure Hera’s first statement was true since Zeus’s dancing had improved right after he and Hera had begun seeing each other. And she was also pretty sure that Hera was not allergic to feathers since she had a chariot drawn by peacocks and sometimes wore peacock feathers in her hair. So the hair dye statement must be the lie. Which made sense because her hair color looked natural.

  As they went around the circle, all but three people guessed correctly that the hair dye was the lie. Score one point for those who’d guessed right, and three points to Hera who got one point from each player who had guessed wrong.

  Now it was Pandora’s turn. “Are my favorite colors red and green? Do I love questions? Do I have a Magic Answer Ball?”

  “Uh, those are questions,” said Eris. She thought for a second and then said, “So everyone can just try to pick the one that should be answered no.”

  That was easy. As everyone knew, Pandora’s favorite colors were blue and gold–MOA’s official colors and the color of her hair, too. So Pandora got nothing and everyone else got one point. More players went, and then it was Apollo’s turn.

  After thinking a few seconds, he said, “I can see the future. I have a twin sister. I don’t like pythons.”

  “God-dude.” Ares groaned from beside him. “All of those are true.”

  Apollo shrugged, grinning. “Well, I’m the godboy of truth. I can’t tell a lie.”

  “No points for you, then,” Eris huffed, frowning at him. “And one point goes to everyone else.”

  Ares took the next turn. “My trident has four prongs. I can’t swim. I invented the olive.”

  Aphrodite stared at him, as did everyone else. “Tridents have three prongs. Besides that, you don’t own one,” she said.

  “And you can swim,” noted Apollo.

  “And I invented the olive,” Athena added.

  “So those are all lies,” said Aphrodite, smiling bemusedly at her crush’s oddball sense of humor. “Plus they’re things Poseidon would say.”

  Ares grinned at her. “I guess Apollo can’t lie and I can’t tell the truth,” he quipped.

  It wasn’t really true. Still, it was funny and everyone laughed. Except Eris, that is. She grew red in the face and stamped her foot. “Some of you are not taking this game seriously!” she snapped.

  Whoa, thought Aphrodite. Apparently, Eris had a hot temper to rival the one Ares used to have. Growing up with someone like her, it was easy to see where he might have gotten his competitive spirit.

  After Eris’s outburst, players seemed to try harder to follow the rules. But it was pretty easy to guess the lies they came up with. Medusa’s, for example, was, “I’m immortal.” Even someone meeting her for the very first time would know that was a lie, since immortals had skin that shimmered. Hers was green and definitely did not.

  Athena fooled quite a few people with her lie, however. It was, “I’ve never gone to see the Gray Ladies.” Because she was smart, most people couldn’t imagine her ever needing to talk to the Gray Ladies, who were the school counselors. Still, the ladies didn’t just advise students about academic matters.

  Athena’s three BFFs, plus Medusa, Pandora, and Hera, were the only ones who knew that Athena had once gone to see the counselors to talk over her feelings about Zeus getting married again. (This was after her mom–who was an actual buzzy fly named Metis–had literally decided to fly away from Mount Olympus!)

  It was very crafty of Athena to risk such a personal statement that few in the game could’ve guessed, thought Aphrodite. Look at all the points she’
d earned!

  Eris refused a turn, so Aphrodite was the last to go. “My favorite color is pink,” she said. Oops. Too easy, she thought when everyone laughed. She smoothed a hand over the hem of her cotton-candy-pink chiton, and thought harder. After a few seconds, she added, “I can make armpit farts. I get mostly A’s on my report cards.”

  There, she thought. Those two will confuse a lot of people. It was true that she mostly got all A’s, but many students seemed to think that beauty and brains couldn’t go together. As for the armpit farts, few would imagine her ever doing anything so crass. However, she’d actually armpit-played goofy songs while under the spell of a “rude” trouble bubble that had escaped from a box Pandora had once gotten ahold of. Mortified when she learned what she’d done after the bubble’s enchantment had worn off, Aphrodite had sworn everyone who knew to secrecy.

  She peeked over at Ares now to see him grinning widely. She’d never told him about her special “talent.” It didn’t fit the image of her she wanted him to have. But if Athena could admit that she’d been to see the counselors, then she could admit to making fart noises. That was how badly both of them wanted the trophy!

  Turned out that her strategy worked. Only Pandora, Athena, and Persephone guessed correctly. Artemis knew, too, but she was off playing the Pin the Tail game.

  “So who won?” asked Aphrodite once the game ended.

  Eris quickly added up the points, but Athena was faster, doing it in her head. “The front-runners are Aphrodite and me.”

  “Front-runners?” Aphrodite echoed.

  “Since the scores between the two of you are so close, I think it’s only fair to play one more round,” said Eris.

  “Then let’s do it,” said Athena.

  “Sorry, I have to take off,” Persephone apologized, getting to her feet. “I told my mom I’d be home by eight and I’m already late.” Unlike most MOA girls, she lived with her mother, the goddess Demeter, most of the time and commuted by winged sandal to school each day. She handed Adonis to Aphrodite for a quick farewell hug. Since it was Persephone’s week to take care of him, the kitten would be going home with her.