Cassandra the Lucky Read online

  Hermes just grunted down at her, impatient as usual. Ignoring the dark look he sent her, she grinned back and waved. “Thanks!” she called as he lifted off.

  Smiling to herself, Cassandra watched his chariot until it was only a speck in the sky, disappearing into the clouds. Would those immortals take the bait hidden inside the cookies she’d crafted especially for them?

  3

  Cookie Fortunes

  Athena

  ATHENA JUGGLED THE TWO SCROLLS she was carrying in one arm and peeked ahead in the MOA cafeteria lunch line as she pushed her tray along with her free hand. It was Thursday afternoon, and after a long morning of classes she was mega-hungry!

  Spotting a familiar basket with the Oracle-O Bakery logo on it at the end of the line, she took a deep breath, inhaling the delicious chocolaty bakery smell. “Mmm,” she said, closing her blue-gray eyes briefly in delight. Speaking to Aphrodite, who was just ahead of her, she said, “That basket of cookies smells yummy.”

  Aphrodite’s golden hair swung forward, and she flipped it over her shoulder as she glanced back at Athena. “I’m drooling over them too. I hope there are some left by the time we get up there!”

  “If not, I’m sure any boy in the cafeteria would rush to give you his,” Athena commented. She wasn’t just saying that. Boys were always falling over themselves to snag Aphrodite’s attention. She was the goddessgirl of love and beauty—the most beautiful goddessgirl at Mount Olympus Academy! Even now, a godboy who was a centaur, with hooves instead of feet, was gazing at her in admiration. Yet she hardly even noticed.

  The two goddessgirl friends moved along with their trays, both getting the ambrosia salad and a carton of nectar to drink. At the end of the line Aphrodite reached into the Oracle-O basket, then drew her hand back in surprise. She gave a little laugh as she reached in again and took the cookie that rolled into her grasp.

  Athena reached into the basket too. The magical cookies shifted around, one of them edging closer to her hand than all the others. She took the cookie that seemed to want to be hers.

  Once the girls got to their usual table, they sat in the two empty chairs across from Persephone. Athena noticed she’d gotten a cookie too. They were irresistible! Plus it was fun to hear the fortunes.

  “Remember when Oracle-Os used to freak you out?” Persephone said, spotting the cookie on Athena’s tray.

  “Not anymore,” said Athena, poking a straw into her carton of nectar. “When I first came to MOA, they kind of did because, well, who wants to eat food that talks? But once I realized they weren’t really alive or anything, I fell in love with them!”

  Persephone grinned and nodded, which made her long, curly red ponytail bounce. “Me too.”

  “Me three,” added Aphrodite, and they all laughed.

  Seeing Artemis enter the cafeteria, Athena sent her a little wave. As usual Artemis’s glossy black hair was caught up in a cute, simple twist high at the back of her head that was encircled by golden bands.

  And also as usual, her favorite archery bow hung over one shoulder and a tooled leather quiver of arrows was slung across her back. Not that she needed those in order to eat lunch, but she was rarely without them. Of course, Athena didn’t really need to bring scrolls to lunch either, but she liked having something to read nearby at all times.

  Athena took a long, cool drink of nectar. Instantly her skin began to shimmer a little more brightly. When immortals drank nectar, it caused that effect. It never made her roommate Pandora’s skin sparkle, though, or Medusa’s. Because although those girls went to MOA too, they were mortals.

  Just then Artemis sat down opposite Athena at their table.

  “Looks like we all have a sweet tooth today,” Persephone said, nodding toward the cookie on Artemis’s tray.

  “Yeah, what can I say? It was calling my name.” Artemis grinned. She held the wrapped cookie up in one hand near her mouth. Pitching her voice higher than normal, she pretended she was the cookie, saying, “Artemis! Artemis! Eat meee!”

  Which, of course, made the others giggle so hard that Athena almost spurted nectar out of her nose! Heads turned their way at the sound, faces smiling at them. The four girls were among the most popular students at MOA and were all best friends. Each of them had their own special style and different interests, but all wore a gold necklace with a dangling double-G-shaped charm.

  After finishing her meal, Athena unwrapped her Oracle-O cookie. She waited for it to speak a fortune. It didn’t. “Hey,” she said in disappointment. “I think my cookie’s a dud.”

  “So’s mine,” said Aphrodite. There was a puzzled look on her face as she stared at it.

  Athena took a bite of her cookie anyway. “Whah?” Tasting something weird, she quickly pulled the cookie away from her mouth. A little piece of papyrus was sticking out of it!

  “Look!” she said, showing the others.

  “There’s one in mine, too,” said Persephone.

  “Mine, too,” Aphrodite said at the same time. “The fortunes must be written on them.”

  After pulling the slip of papyrus from her cookie, Athena read it aloud: “ ‘A horse, of course.’ ”

  “What kind of a fortune is that?” Persephone said, laughing.

  “I have no clue,” said Athena. She flipped it over. “There’s part of a drawing on the back, but I can’t tell what it’s of.”

  “Let’s see what mine says,” said Aphrodite. She pulled out the slip and read it aloud. “ ‘You have no fashion sense.’ ” Her brow furrowed, and she looked up at the others. “Huh? That’s not a fortune. Besides, it’s just plain wrong.”

  Athena had to agree. Aphrodite was absolutely obsessed with clothes and had a different outfit for almost every activity, sometimes changing her clothes five times a day. Right now she was completely color-coordinated and looked dazzling in the hot-pink chiton she was wearing. Her gleaming golden hair, threaded with sparkly pink ribbons, hung down her back in loose curls. Even her nail polish matched. Each fingernail was hot pink with a little heart decoration that flashed with glitter. She was such a trendsetter that probably every other goddessgirl at school would be wearing polish just like that before the week was out!

  Now Persephone held up her fortune. “Mine says ‘Your green thumb will turn brown,’ ” she announced. She frowned at the slip of papyrus. “That can’t be right.”

  Persephone was the goddessgirl of growing things. Green things with lots of flowers, not brown, dead-looking things. In fact, a new hybrid flower she’d recently created to grow in the hot, harsh conditions of the Underworld had been accepted into the famous Anthestiria Flower Festival!

  Just then Principal Zeus entered the cafeteria. A teenage mortal boy with spiky blue hair trailed him. The boy was talking a mile a minute and seemed to be trying to convince Zeus of something. Mortals were always asking Athena’s dad for stuff. After all, he was a powerful guy—the King of the Gods and Ruler of the Heavens, not to mention the principal of MOA!

  What could this boy want? He probably had some big idea he wanted Zeus to finance. Maybe some temple he wanted Zeus to build? Whatever it was, the boy likely wouldn’t succeed in getting her dad’s backing. Zeus liked to come up with his own ideas.

  “I wonder who that blue-haired boy with my dad is?” she said aloud. “The one with a determined scholarly look about him, carrying a scrollbook tied with a blue ribbon in one hand.”

  “His name is Homer,” a voice informed her. Athena glanced around to see that Pheme, the goddessgirl of gossip, had come over to their table. The tips of her cute new glittery wings, which Zeus had recently given her, fluttered gently at her back. They were orange, just like her short hair, lip gloss, and the chiton she wore today.

  Athena scrunched her face, trying to remember where she’d heard the name Homer recently.

  “He’s an up-and-coming author,” Pheme supplied. The words she spoke puffed from her lips as cloud-letters and rose to hover above her head, where anyone looking could
read them. “He wrote that scrollbook he’s carrying. It’s not actually published yet. It’s called The Iliad and will be for sale beginning next weekend.”

  Athena snapped her fingers. “Oh, that’s right. I read a review of The Iliad just yesterday in the Greekly Weekly News.” She frowned as she recalled a particular detail that had been left out of the review.

  “What’s it about?” asked Aphrodite.

  “The Trojan War,” said Pheme. Then she looked at Athena a little uncertainly, as if unsure of her facts. “Right?”

  Athena nodded. Everyone considered her the brainiest student at MOA, so she was used to others asking her for information. “It’s actually an elongated poem written in dactylic hexameter,” she told Pheme. “Which is a rhythmic form of poetic meter authors sometimes use.”

  “Really?” Pheme’s eyes grew excited. Immediately she dashed off to spread this new info about Zeus’s guest.

  Athena had to hide a smile when she overheard Pheme speaking to another group of girls one table over. The words floating above the gossipy girl’s head read: It’s a long gated poem about pterodactyl hexes!

  Artemis glanced toward the young author as she unwrapped her cookie. “What do you think he’s doing here at MOA?” she asked the other three girls.

  “Probably something to do with The Iliad, that scrollbook he wrote. Even though it’s not in stores yet, it has been getting lots of press,” Athena explained to her friends. “According to the review I read, his work’s not altogether accurate, though.”

  As Artemis munched her cookie, she asked, “What do you mean?”

  Athena huffed a frustrated sigh, which ruffled a few strands of her long brown hair. “It’s just that his scrollbook is about the Trojan War, right? Well, guess what he left out?” Before her friends could guess, Athena told them. “My Trojan horse.”

  “Huh?” asked Persephone, her brows going up. “How can you write a book about the Trojan War without including the very thing that put an end to it?”

  “Exactly!” said Athena.

  “Hey, look, I got a papyrus fortune too,” Artemis announced, drawing out the slip from her half-eaten cookie. She read it aloud. “ ‘Your arrow will miss its target five times in a row.’ ”

  “Ha! That’s nuts!” said Apollo, who’d happened by and overheard. “You’ve never missed a target five times in a row in your life!” he added. He was Artemis’s twin brother, and the two of them practiced archery almost every day.

  “You got that right,” Artemis agreed. She stuck up one hand and gave her brother a quick high five.

  “These fortunes are all weird. Here’s mine,” Apollo said, pulling a papyrus slip from the pocket of his tunic. “ ‘Your curse you should reverse.’ ”

  Athena noticed that his and Artemis’s fortunes had partial drawings on the backs of them too. Cocking her head at him, she asked, “What curse?”

  “That’s the thing,” said Apollo. “As far as I know, I’ve never cursed anything or anyone in my life. I mean, I cast a spell or two in Spell-ology class when I took it in first grade, but what immortal hasn’t?”

  As Apollo went off with his friends, Athena glanced over at her dad in time to see him spot the Oracle-Os. His blue eyes widened with delight, and he made a beeline for the basket. After taking a couple of cookies, Zeus turned and headed toward the goddessgirls’ table on his way to an exit door. Had he only come to the cafeteria for snacks? He did have a major sweet tooth.

  A jolt of excitement filled Athena as Homer followed in Zeus’s wake, still talking away. Homer might not be the most accurate author on Earth, but he was poised to become a megastar in the publishing world. She could hardly wait to read his scrollbook, in spite of the fact that it bugged her that he had chosen to leave out her Trojan horse. That horse had been her idea, and like Persephone had said, it seemed to her that it had won the war. What kind of author left out important facts like that? She wanted to ask him but suddenly felt a little shy as he and her dad halted in front of her and her friends’ table.

  “So, as I was saying,” Homer was boasting to Zeus, “The Iliad reviews have been amazing. Stunning, really, if I do say so myself. Some reviewers have called it an epic scrollbook. Destined to become a classic.” He whipped out copies of Teen Scrollazine and Greekly Weekly News from a satchel he carried, and pointed out the reviews. “Perhaps you’d like to read them for yourself?”

  But Zeus wasn’t listening. His attention was focused on the first of the Oracle-O cookies as he unwrapped it.

  “The Iliad  releases next weekend, and I’d love to make a big splash,” Homer went on, not at all discouraged by Zeus’s refusal to read the reviews. “What better location to begin my author tour than right here at Mount Olympus Academy? We can have a big event with balloons and food. What do you say?”

  By now Zeus had discovered the papyrus fortune inside his cookie. “What’s this?” His bushy red eyebrows knit together as he read aloud: “ ‘Make a splash with your next bash. Hold it at the scrollbook shop in the Immortal Marketplace!’ ”

  Suddenly Zeus’s face lit with excitement. He put much faith in oracles, fortunes, and prophecies. Now he turned to Homer and clapped a big hand on the young author’s shoulder, causing an electrical spark that made the author wince. “I just had an amazing idea, Homie,” he said. “We’ll do your book signing at the Immortal Marketplace. We’ll make it a big splashy bash with food and fun. Sound good?”

  Homie? Did her dad not know the author’s actual name? Athena wondered. Maybe not. He was really bad with names. From Homie’s—er, Homer’s—expression, Athena could see that he was a little disappointed by Zeus’s suggestion. He wanted the event to be held here at Mount Olympus Academy. It was a more prestigious location for sure.

  “That’s an awesome idea of course,” Homer said, being careful not to insult Zeus. “However, wouldn’t it make more sense to hold my book release extravaganza here at MOA? At the very place where students in Hero-ology classes helped direct the events of the Trojan War that are described in The Iliad? Your students would benefit too. They can study my scrollbook in their classes. And ask me questions about writing and being an author. It’s a great opportunity for them and me. What do you say?”

  Zeus’s blazing blue eyes narrowed at the author. Tiny sparks of electricity began to prickle all along his muscled arms. Sure signs that her dad was annoyed. It was always best to agree with his ideas, unless you could make him think that your ideas were his.

  Homer was no fool. Immediately a big fake-looking smile spread across his face. “On second thought, I love your suggestion!” he said. “After all, the Immortal Marketplace is halfway between the Earth and the heavens—the next best thing to Mount Olympus itself. I’m sure you have even more ideas that would make the event superspecial. So do I. So maybe we . . .”

  While half-listening to the blue-haired author prattle on, Zeus tried his second cookie. He read the fortune silently. “Carousel?” he boomed in his loud voice. He looked up from the fortune, his expression a little puzzled. He surveyed the faces of the students around him, and then his eyes came to rest on Athena.

  “Oh, I get it,” she said, thinking fast. “ ‘Carousell  ’ with the emphasis on the ‘sell.’ Is that what you’re thinking, Dad? Building a carousel at the amazing event you came up with to help sell Homer’s new scrollbook?”

  Zeus’s eyes lit up. “Right! What a great idea I had! And here’s another one.” After scanning the cafeteria, he began to point to students at random, calling out names. In all he chose about twenty students, including Athena and her three BFFs.

  “Each of you,” he said at last to the ones he’d selected, “are excused from classes all next week. I’m going to place a magical carousel in the Immortal Marketplace. And you will decorate it.” At this, excited murmurs ran though the gathered students.

  “You’ll each choose a favorite animal and build a carousel-size statue of it that kids can ride,” he went on. “You wil
l imbue it with magic to thrill mortals who come to the Immortal Marketplace for the book event.”

  “What if someone doesn’t want to do an animal?” Pandora called out, even though she wasn’t among the chosen students. She was always asking Zeus questions when no one else dared to, so he was pretty used to it and didn’t get mad.

  “If you don’t want to do an animal, just help decorate the carousel itself. It must be finished by—” He lifted an eyebrow in Homer’s direction.

  “My scrollbook will be in stores next Saturday,” Homer informed him.

  “By next Saturday, then.” Suddenly filled with creative energy, Zeus zoomed toward the cafeteria exit. “Hera is going to love this idea. All the extra visitors to the IM should help boost sales at her wedding store. Can’t wait to tell her! Let’s go down to the IM and get that carousel started. C’mon, Homie.”

  Looking delighted at Zeus’s enthusiasm, Homer followed him out the cafeteria door. Once they’d gone, the twenty chosen students began buzzing with ideas for carousel animals.

  “Dibs on dog,” Hades said quickly. He looked at Ares, whose mouth was hanging open as if he were about to argue. “Sorry, god-dude,” Hades told him, “but  Cerberus is the biggest, baddest dog around. Mortals will love being able to ride a carousel animal that looks like him!”

  Hades was god of the Underworld, and Cerberus was the three-headed dog that guarded the place. Huge and snarling, the dog was pretty scary until you got to know him. Athena figured Hades was right that kids would get a kick out of a Cerberus carousel ride.

  Many of the immortal students had more than one favorite animal, and the dog was one of Ares’ and Artemis’s favorites too. Ares’ eyes narrowed at Hades, but then he gave in and claimed a different animal. “Owl,” he said.

  Athena gaped at him, her eyes as big and round as an owl’s. “Huh?” Everyone knew the owl was her favorite animal. Because it symbolized wisdom. She had all kinds of owl stuff, like the cute owl earrings she was wearing now. She could even shape-shift into a real owl!