Athena the Proud Read online

  Maybe he felt he owed Cassandra a favor too, thought Athena. Years ago he’d accidentally put a curse on the girl. Because of that, no one ever believed her predictions—at least not for long. Apollo had tried to reverse the curse, but his attempt had been unsuccessful.

  At least that problem had eventually been semi-resolved. Cassandra now had her very own line of Opposite Oracle-O cookies that were being sold in her family’s store. The cookies’ spoken or written predictions always foretold the opposite of what would actually happen, though. So when you opened one up, you only had to believe the opposite of whatever its fortune said, and that would turn out to be true.

  “Sure,” Pheme said. “I’ve got Beast-ology after lunch, so I’ll ask him then.”

  “Awesome!” Apollo exclaimed. After saying good-bye to the girls, he walked off whistling a tune that Athena recognized as one of the mega–pop star Orpheus’s newest releases. It was called, “I Predict You Love Me.”

  Athena and Pheme exchanged smiles. It was common knowledge that Apollo was crushing on Cassandra. Maybe that was why he wanted her to go with them to Crete, rather than to make up for the curse he’d put on her!

  As the lyrebell sounded, Athena jumped up to take her leftovers to the tray return. Heracles had fourth-period Revenge-ology with her. If she hurried, maybe she’d get a chance to chat with him for a few minutes before class.

  Unfortunately, it wound up that Ms. Nemesis was in a hurry to start her lesson that day. So Athena could only send Heracles a quick wave from across the room before taking her seat. Theseus was in the desk behind him. Looked like he would be attending classes with Heracles. Later, when the students split up into pairs briefly for an in-class assignment, Athena wound up working with Medusa, since Theseus nabbed Heracles as his partner first.

  When the period ended, Pheme, who had Revenge-ology fifth period, came up to Athena just outside the classroom door. “Professor Ladon says it’s okay for Cassandra to take my place,” she told Athena, her words floating above her head. “King Minos’s letter specified students, but not necessarily MOA ones. And Professor Ladon thinks that bringing a non-MOA student is actually a good idea. He said it would increase good feelings between Mount Olympus and Earth if mortals down on Earth hear that a girl who’s originally from Troy got invited along.” She grinned. “Which I’ll make sure they do, of course!”

  As Pheme was talking, Eros, who was the godboy of love and had fifth period Revenge-ology with her, came over to join them. “Well, I’ve decided,” he announced. His glittery gold wings fluttered gently, then folded against his back.

  He went on, but Athena wasn’t listening. She’d been keeping an eye out for Heracles and saw he was now finally exiting the Revenge-ology classroom. Theseus was right behind him, talking away as they passed without even noticing her. She watched the two boys head on down the hallway. She’d only been able to exchange maybe two words with Heracles during fourth period because of that dreadlocked cousin. Ever since his arrival he’d stuck to Heracles like a barnacle on a rock.

  “You are such a sweetie,” Pheme was saying to Eros. Just tuning back in to their conversation, Athena turned to look at them and caught the smile Eros sent Pheme.

  “What did I miss?” she asked the pair.

  “I was just telling Pheme I’m going to the journalism conference with her instead of to Crete,” he said.

  “I’m allowed to bring a guest, so I asked him to come,” Pheme explained. “He’s interested in journalism too,” she added as a pink blush spread across her cheeks.

  Why was she blushing? Athena wondered. Did she really think that no one at MOA had figured out that she and Eros were crushing on each other? Ever since Pheme had gotten her wings, she and the also-winged Eros had been spending more and more time together. Athena was glad the two had become such good friends. But why did it seem like whenever you were having boy trouble like she was, other people were always getting along great with their crushes?

  Just then Aphrodite, Artemis, and Ares came up the hall. They all had Revenge-ology fifth period too. And behind them were Heracles and Theseus. For some reason they were coming back this way. Athena brightened. Was Heracles returning to talk to her?

  As the five of them joined Athena’s group standing near the door, Eros followed up on what Pheme had just said. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about pitching a relationship advice column to Teen Scrollazine. Going to the conference, instead of to Crete, might give me the chance to talk to the staff about it.” His chocolate-brown eyes twinkled as he added, “It would be aimed mostly at guys, actually.”

  Aphrodite’s blue eyes blazed with interest. “I’ve always wanted to see an advice column in the scrollazine, but never had time to write one. Too busy with my Lonely Hearts Club. And I never thought of a guys-only one. What an awesome idea!” she told Eros.

  Then she grinned over at Ares, who was standing beside her, and she poked his shoulder lightly with a perfectly pink nail-polished fingertip. “I know of one guy who could definitely use some advice,” she teased him.

  Ares grinned back at her. “Yeah,” he told Eros. “If you need any help with the column, I could give your readers advice about what not  to do,” he joked.

  Everyone laughed. Ares and Aphrodite had an on-again, off-again friendship that had actually been mostly “on” for a while now.

  Athena glanced around the group. It seemed like everyone was in like these days, she thought. Aphrodite and Ares. Pheme and Eros. They were only two of the many crushing couples at the Academy. Speaking of which . . . she caught Heracles’ eye and smiled at him. It was going to be nice to finally get to hang out with him on the trip to the aMAZEment Park.

  Heracles smiled back at her and started to say something. But then Theseus tugged on his arm, and Heracles’ attention swung back to him. Athena watched Theseus whisper something in his cousin’s ear. “All right. I’ll ask,” she heard Heracles reply.

  “Hey, Eros,” he said, clapping a hand on the godboy’s shoulder. “Since you’re going to a conference, instead of to Crete, can I ask Professor Ladon if my cousin Theseus could take your place?”

  “Sure, why not?” Eros said genially.

  Oh, great, thought Athena, her heart plummeting. Professor Ladon had thought that inviting non-MOA students was a good idea when Pheme had asked him about letting Cassandra go on the trip. So it was practically a given that he’d agree to taking one more student who didn’t attend the Academy. Namely, Theseus, who was now grinning from ear to ear.

  “Thanks, godboy dude!” Theseus said to Eros.

  “Aren’t you expected back in Athens on Friday night?” Athena hinted.

  “Yeah,” Theseus told her. “But as long as I let my dad know what’s up, he’ll let me go to the park instead.”

  Athena couldn’t help but think that if Theseus pestered his father the king as much as he did Heracles, his dad would probably be glad to have Theseus gone a while longer. Not that Heracles seemed to object much to the pestering, mind you!

  Face it, she told herself. If you want to spend time with Heracles during the trip, you’re also going to be stuck with Theseus. But, ye gods, how she wished things were different!

  4

  The Journey

  AFTER SCHOOL WAS OUT ON friday, the fourteen students going to Crete carried their overnight bags with them and lined up to board an enormous dragon-drawn chariot that had been designed by Professor Ladon.

  “Take your placesss inssside in an orderly fassshion!” the professor called out. He was already perched astride the neck of the enormous fierce-looking dragon, prepared to guide it on the upcoming journey. Its bronze and green scales gleamed dully in the afternoon light, and thin streams of fire and smoke puffed from the beast’s nostrils when it exhaled.

  Though the professor had some dragon features—snout, claws, and tail—he stood upright on two feet. The dragon pulling the chariot, however, was the kind that snorted instead of spoke, and it walked on four clawed feet when
it wasn’t using its wings to fly.

  The chariot itself was painted blue and gold, the school colors. The MOA logo and a thunderbolt to represent Zeus were emblazoned on its side. Athena counted seven rows of gold-painted bench seats divided by a center aisle as she boarded behind Heracles and Theseus. Each seat on either side of the aisle was wide enough for two. Unfortunately, as she suspected he would, Theseus grabbed the seat beside Heracles before she even had a chance to sit with him.

  Wanting to pout, she plopped down in the seat behind the two boys and shoved her bag under her bench. Nearly all of the other students were seating themselves in girl-boy pairs, she noticed: Aphrodite and Ares, Persephone and Hades, Cassandra and Apollo, Medusa and Dionysus. As Artemis and Actaeon boarded the chariot, Athena saw that Artemis wasn’t carrying her bow. And no quiver of arrows was strung across her back. It seemed odd to see her without them, but King Minos’s letter and Professor Ladon had strictly forbidden weapons.

  “Who’s taking care of your dogs?” Athena asked as Artemis came even with her seat. Pets weren’t allowed on the trip either.

  “Iris and Antheia offered to feed and walk them while I’m gone,” Artemis replied. Iris was a goddessgirl with a talent for making rainbows, and Antheia was the goddessgirl of flowery wreaths. They were both sweet and liked animals, so Athena wasn’t surprised that they’d made the offer.

  Pandora was the last student to board. Like the chariot, her hair also matched the school colors. It was gold, with dyed streaks of blue running through it. Athena was relieved when her roommate sat down beside her. It was a good thing that fourteen students had been invited, or she might have wound up sitting alone. How awful—or at least lonely—would that have been?

  The dragon unfurled its wide, green-scaled, leathery wings. As its wings began to flap, the chariot lifted off. Pandora peered up through her question-mark-shaped bangs as the chariot soared into the sky, then up and over the peaked roof of the five-story Academy.

  “Wow,” she said to Athena. “I’ve never ridden in a chariot pulled by a dragon before, have you?”

  Athena was going to say that she hadn’t either, but then Pandora fired off another question. “How long do you think it will take to get to Knossos?”

  Knossos was the main city on the island of Crete, where King Minos’s palace was located. “I’m not sure, but I think I heard Professor Ladon say it’s—” Before Athena could finish saying a two-hour trip by dragon wing, Pandora interrupted with two more questions. “Where do you think we’ll stay? How many rides do you think there will be in the park?”

  That was how conversations often went with Pandora, especially when she was excited. Athena squeezed in a word wherever she could here and there. She also leaned forward just a bit, so she could keep an ear tuned to what Heracles and Theseus were chatting about.

  “Which one of your twelve labors was your favorite?” she heard Theseus ask. Ye gods, was he still going on about that hero stuff? she wondered. Still, she found herself holding her breath in anticipation of Heracles’ answer.

  Would he say it was the first labor they did together? The one in which she’d helped him corral the many-headed Hydra? Or maybe he’d mention the boring Erymanthian boar. They’d needed to carry the boar off, and she’d had the idea to slip their winged sandals onto his hooves while they rode on his back.

  Or maybe he’d choose the last labor she’d helped him complete. The one that had required him to “win the favor of a strong woman.” After he’d told her that she was the “strongest woman” he knew, she’d gifted him with the two tapestries she’d woven depicting his labors, thus showing he’d won her favor and completed all twelve labors.

  She strained to hear as Heracles answered his cousin.

  “They were all mega-awesome,” he said. “But I think my favorite is either the one where I captured those man-eating horses in Thrace or else maybe the one where I tricked a Geryon so I could steal its herd of red cows.”

  What? Athena felt like she’d just been punched in the stomach. Heracles had performed those two particular labors alone. She hadn’t been with him to help at all!

  “Epic!” Theseus exclaimed. “I’d love a chance to battle a Geryon. Or any kind of monster, really. What was it like? Fighting a terrible beast like that?”

  “Terrifying,” Heracles told him honestly. “It was a typical Geryon—one head, two arms, three bodies, four wings, six legs. Plus vicious talons, slimy green lips, and extremely bad breath.”

  “Worse than a certain professor’s?” Theseus asked, shooting a glance at Professor Ladon, where he crouched atop the dragon’s long neck ahead of them. The dragon’s broad wings flapped rhythmically as the professor guided the chariot onward toward their destination.

  Heracles nodded. “Way worse. In fact, its breath was so foul, I nearly passed out a couple of times while facing off with it—even when it was a hundred feet away.”

  There was a fake, magical Geryon in Professor Ladon’s Forest of the Beasts, so Athena knew what they were like. Truly terrifying, like Heracles had said. And the man-eating horses he had battled must have been too. But so were the monsters he and Athena had bested together. She’d given him so much wise counsel during the labors they’d shared. Did picking those other labors as his favorites mean that Heracles hadn’t valued her help? And that he liked being on his own more than he liked being with her? She tried not to care. Still, a lump formed in her throat.

  Well, she wasn’t going to let boy trouble ruin her day. Determinedly she pulled out one of her library scroll-books. It was titled The History of Farm Implements. Eagerly she began reading, hoping to get some inspiration for improvements to her plow.

  “Hello?” Pandora said sometime later. She waved a hand in front of Athena’s face. “I asked you a question?” she said, as if that were a rare thing for her to do. Which it definitely was not.

  “Sorry,” said Athena. “What was it again?” She didn’t want to admit that she hadn’t been listening.

  Pandora blew out a puff of air, which fluffed her question-mark-shaped bangs. “I said, how’s it going with the plow improvements?”

  “Well, as a matter of fact . . .” As Athena began explaining her efforts so far, and the joys and frustrations of invention in general, she started to feel a bit more cheerful. Pandora could actually be a good listener when a subject really interested her. And anything that was related to science, which would include inventions, fascinated her roommate.

  A little while later Cassandra announced that she’d brought along a basket of Opposite Oracle-O cookies. This was met with cheers, and her basket was passed around. When each cookie was opened, it spoke its fortune aloud. Athena’s fortune said: “You will have a good and bad day.”

  Huh? Even if you switched her fortune around to the opposite meaning like you were supposed to do with these cookies, it just indicated that she’d have a day that was bad and good, instead of good and bad. Same difference. Whatever!

  The sun had already begun to set when Professor Ladon shouted back that they were “almossst there.” Looking down, Athena could see the outlines of Crete. According to a guidescroll she’d consulted in the MOA library the day before, Crete was Greece’s largest island, with a length of one hundred sixty miles and a width of thirty-seven miles.

  The city of Knossos was toward the center of the island on the north coast. As the chariot neared it, Athena could see the palace below. It had many multi-floored wings of rooms, built around an inner courtyard, and the palace was surrounded by gardens and fountains except on one side. Near the center of that one side, she spotted what looked like a gigantic set of golden curved bull horns sticking up above the roofline. Since the famous maze ran beneath the palace she guessed that the gigantic golden bull horns marked the entrance to the labyrinth. Below the horns a walkway bordered by red-and-blue-painted columns led straight out from the palace to connect to a magnificent golden archway topped with red and blue flags. The entrance to the aMAZEment Park, o
f course! Beyond the archway she could see numerous fantastical structures. Those had to be rides and games!

  Everyone held on as the teacher dipped the dragon chariot downward, heading for the front of the palace. Athena’s hair whipped wildly in the wind. Aphrodite’s didn’t, she noticed. She’d probably put one of her “don’t mess up” spells on it before the trip. It was hard to hear over the wind as they zoomed lower, but when Athena saw Theseus speaking to Heracles, she leaned forward to listen.

  “If we do come across any monsters while we’re on this trip, I’m prepared!” Theseus announced.

  Her ears perked up. What did he mean by “prepared”?

  Then she heard Heracles give a low whistle. “You shouldn’t have brought that,” he hissed. “I told you King Minos’s invitation said no weapons, remember?”

  Athena drew in a sharp breath. Had Theseus brought his dagger—that is, his small sword—with him? she wondered, as they landed. That must be it! Well, he’d better keep it hidden if he didn’t want to get himself—and possibly Heracles, too—in trouble.

  King Minos and his pretty black-haired daughter, Princess Ariadne, greeted the travelers as soon as they stepped from the chariot. Ariadne looked to be about twelve or thirteen, the same age as all fourteen of the visiting students. She wore a cute tiara studded with pink pearls that matched her gown perfectly. Aphrodite immediately complimented her on it before they were even introduced.

  “Welcome!” the king boomed out, spreading his arms wide. He wore blue robes and a gold crown. A large man, he had more hair on his chin than on the top of his head. He wasn’t as big a guy as Athena’s dad, however. Zeus stood nearly seven feet tall!

  “I’m so pleased you’ve come to help celebrate the grand opening of Minos’s aMAZEment Park!” the king went on. “You’ll have the whole park to yourselves tomorrow. And you’re in for a real frightful . . . er, I mean delightful experience.”

  As Professor Ladon and King Minos began discussing arrangements, Athena introduced herself to Princess Ariadne. The girl’s lovely hazel eyes went wide with admiration. “OMG!” she exclaimed in a worshipful tone. “You are just, like, sooo inspiring! I mean, wow! Your invention of the sewing arts? Mega-important and . . . and useful. I mean, without sewing, we wouldn’t have clothes,” she bubbled. “And without clothes we’d just be . . . um . . .” As if realizing what she’d been about to say, twin red roses bloomed in her cheeks.