Aphrodite the Fair Read online

  “In you go, Eris . . . ,” he hinted, opening the door and holding it wide. He needed to warn Aphrodite about her in private.

  “Oh, but I was hoping you’d show me your room,” Eris told him, refusing to budge. “Fifth floor, right?”

  “Sorry,” Ares said as he rebalanced his box of gifts again. “No girls allowed on the boys’ hall and vice versa. The rules.”

  “Rules schmules,” said Eris. Ignoring him, she rushed upstairs, heading for the boys’ dorm hall one floor up.

  “She can have a peek down your hall at least, can’t she?” Aphrodite argued, as they followed his sister. “No harm in that.”

  Ares snorted. “Oh, really?” Eris could make trouble between two dust bunnies given half a chance.

  Up on the fifth floor, she was already opening the door. “Hey! What’s up, guys?” she called down the boys’ hall.

  “Eek!” It was Poseidon’s voice, raised in alarm. Ares got there just in time to see him–in his fish-patterned pj’s–racing down the hall from the bathroom to his room, his trident leaving a trail of water across the floor. Eris and Aphrodite both giggled, obviously amused.

  Shifting the box of gifts to his hip, Ares grabbed the door from his sister and ducked his head inside. “Girls in the hall!” he yelled to warn the other guys. A few poked their heads out to look, then drew them back into their rooms like startled turtles retreating into their shells.

  The two girls stared down the hall, looking fascinated for some reason. He followed their gazes, noticing stuff he didn’t usually notice. The stuff he and the guys kept outside their doors, like various projects they were tinkering with. There was even a half-built chariot down near the room Apollo and Dionysus shared. Random objects littered the hallway, like stray sandals, spears, clubs, javelins, archery bows, and Hero-ology class projects. It looked kind of messy, he guessed, but it worked for them!

  Ares figured he’d be just as interested looking at the girls’ hall as these girls were in the boys’, but enough was enough. “Okay, show’s over.” He started to close the door.

  Suddenly Eris pointed past it to the life-size suit of armor that stood outside his dorm room. The armored “knight” held a shield in one hand and a spear in the other. “I remember that!” she exclaimed.

  Ares nodded. “Yeah, you helped me build it when we were kids.” It was one of the few fond memories he had of her.

  “I didn’t know your sister helped you on it. I think that armor is so cool!” Looking at Eris, Aphrodite confided, “Last year, Ares even put a spell on it so it can talk.”

  “I wish I could learn magic,” Eris said with a pout. “They don’t teach it in the schools on Earth.”

  Ares didn’t want to touch that subject with a ten-foot spear. “Well, now you’ve seen where I live,” he told Eris quickly. Stashing his box of presents just inside the dorm hall for now, he firmly shut the door, blocking their view. Then he ushered the girls back down to the fourth floor, waiting for an opening to warn Aphrodite about Eris.

  As if she’d guessed his intention, Eris talked the whole flight of stairs down, swinging her bag back and forth between her and Aphrodite. Whatever was inside it was definitely heavy, thought Ares, judging by the way it sagged at the bottom.

  When the three of them arrived at the girls’ dorm hall, Eris pushed Aphrodite in through the door, saying, “I’ll be right there. I want to talk to my brother alone for a minute, okay? Haven’t seen him in sooo long.”

  “Oh, okay,” Aphrodite said. “Totally understandable. Well, my room’s on the left when you’re ready. Name’s on the door.

  “ ’Night, Ares,” she called over her shoulder as she turned to go. She even blew him a kiss and sent him one of those beautiful smiles of hers that always managed to melt his heart. “Happy birthday, again!”

  “G’night,” Ares called back. He watched helplessly as the door slammed shut behind her.

  Thonk! Eris set down her bag. For just a moment Ares glimpsed something made of gold metal at the top of the bag. Then whatever it was slid deeper inside. Was it the trophy Aphrodite has mentioned earlier? Only Eris had dismissed it as “nothing.” So did that mean it wasn’t a birthday gift for him? He was about to ask when his sister pinched his arm. Hard.

  “Ow!” he yelled. Staring at her, he rubbed the place she’d pinched. “What did you do that for?” he asked, knowing it was a dumb question. Eris had never needed a reason to visit her torments on him before. So why would she need one now?

  “Consider it a reminder,” she informed him. Her eyes were gleaming again. “That if you dare to cross me, you’ll regret it. I like it fine here at MOA, especially since it seems to be my only option right now. So I’m going to get Principal Zeus to let me go to school here.”

  “How? We’re not twins, remember? So I don’t really think that’s an opt–ow!” Ares yelped. Eris had pinched him again. If only she were a guy. And bigger. Then he wouldn’t let her get away with that kind of stuff!

  She laughed. “Don’t try to stop me from getting what I want. You’ll be sorry if you do. There are sooo many embarrassing stories I could tell everyone at MOA about you!” She eyed him evilly, tapping a finger on her chin. “Let’s see. Like the time you wet the bed the night before battling your first beast. Or how you once almost poked your eye out with a toy spear.”

  “I was four years old!” he protested. He hunched his shoulder and looked around, hoping no one had overheard.

  “Once a baby, always a baby,” she taunted him, smirking. Her dark purple-blue eyes bored into his, still gleaming. “Those stories ought to impress Aphrodite and maybe all your guy friends, too, hmm?” She stretched on tiptoe and got into his face. “And maybe your enemies would be interested to know you sometimes carry your teddy bear into battle. Would you like that, Ares? Should I tell them all those things?”

  Panic ripped through him. No, he did not want that! Aphrodite and his MOA friends looked up to him. They thought him powerful, strong. A godboy without weaknesses. His sister could ruin his reputation here. Stop others from respecting him. A big part of winning competitions and battles was the fear and respect you inspired in your opponents. Who would respect him if they knew he occasionally took his good-luck teddy bear into a competition?

  He broke away from her gaze to stare down at his sandaled feet. Only his sister had the ability to make him feel this powerless. “No, don’t tell them,” he said in a meek voice very unlike his normal one. A voice only she could cause him to use.

  “Thought not,” Eris said in triumph. “But don’t worry, little brother. I won’t breathe a word about your . . . quirks . . . as long as you keep out of my way.” All at once she smiled sunnily. Picking up her bag again, she opened the door and stepped into the hall. “Nite-nite, Ares. Oh, and like Aphrodite said–happy birthday!” she sang out. Then she let the door slam shut in his face.

  Feeling doomed, Ares trudged back up to the guys’ dorm and pulled open the door. After picking up his box of gifts, he started down the hall to his room. “Want some help?” he called out to Dionysus, who was painting purple racing stripes on one side of the half-built chariot. Apollo was helping out, hammering something on the chariot’s other side.

  Both godboys gave him a thumbs-up. “Yeah, sure!” said Dionysus. “You can help Apollo pound out the dents in the side panel.”

  Ares dropped his box of gifts along the wall and grabbed a hammer. Going to the other side of the chariot, he got on his knees and started whacking out dents. Bam! Bam! Whack! It felt good to get out his frustrations like this, and he was mostly quiet as his friends joked around.

  Never before had he wished his guy friends talked about feelings and things like girls did. But right now he kind of wished they did. Aphrodite probably talked over all kinds of problems and shared tons of secrets with her friends. But he and the guys were more into doing stuff.

  He slung his hammer. Whack! It wasn’t like he could complain to his buds about Eris, though. He’d spent a lo
t of time at MOA these past years building up a reputation as a tough guy in order to be worthy of his title as godboy of war. If these guys guessed that his sister–to the untrained eye, a mere slip of a girl–could make him quake in his boots, he’d be a laughingstock.

  When the work on the chariot eventually broke up for the night, he headed for his room, no closer to figuring out what to do about Eris. Just thinking about the way she’d outmaneuvered him tonight made him feel small and powerless all over again.

  “Halt. Who goes there?” his suit of armor called out as he came even with the door of his room.

  “What’s it doing?” Dionysus called from across the hall, his hand on the doorknob to his and Apollo’s room. Instead of letting Ares pass, the armor had raised its spear and pointed it at his chest. Or rather, at the box he was carrying against his chest.

  “Godsamighty, it’s me. Ares,” he told it. “Don’t you recognize me?”

  The armor swayed back and forth, seeming confused. At last, it relented, lowering the spear to its side again. “Alack! For a moment I thought ’twas some small child.”

  Ares frowned. Small child? Maybe the spell he’d cast to make the armor recognize him was wearing off. Or had the box of presents blocked the suit of armor’s view of him? Or maybe, since Eris had made him feel small, he’d actually seemed a child to the armor just then. What a horrifying thought.

  Creeeak! The suit of armor bowed at the waist. “Pardon me, Sir Ares,” it said. “You may pass.”

  “That was weird,” he muttered to himself as he went inside his room. With a quick wave to Dionysus and Apollo, he kicked the door shut behind him and dropped his box of gifts to the floor. He heard something break inside. Argh!

  After starting off so well, this birthday had turned out to be the worst one of his whole life! Thanks to his sister!

  5

  Teamwork

  Aphrodite

  I’M POOPED,” ERIS ANNOUNCED THE minute she entered Aphrodite’s room. “Mind if I go straight to bed?”

  Aphrodite had been flipping through a fashion scrollazine while waiting for Eris to join her, but she set it aside now and tried to hide her disappointment. “Oh. Okay. Sure.” She’d been hoping to have a long chat with Eris before they settled down to sleep. To find out more about Ares. Eris probably had lots of cute stories about him she could share.

  In the few minutes they had left, she gave it her best shot. “So I’m dying to know what Ares was like when you guys were growing up. I bet he was adorable!”

  Eris shrugged, then yawned. “Oh, you know.”

  No, she didn’t know. And she wanted to! Ares rarely talked about his childhood or feelings. This was her chance to find out more about him. And she’d also hoped she might get to see the trophy again or learn something that might help her win tomorrow’s Two Truths and a Lie game. Not that she would ever cheat, of course.

  “You can sleep there,” Aphrodite said, gesturing toward her spare bed. Like her own bed just opposite, it was covered with a plush red velvet comforter stitched with a pattern of little white hearts.

  Eris reached out to squeeze one of the puffy, heart-shaped pillows at the head of the bed, leaving it bunched and lumpy-looking. Aphrodite’s fingers twitched with the desire to pat it back into shape, but she resisted the urge and watched Eris set the bag with its precious trophy under the bed.

  “I’ll need to borrow a nightgown,” Eris said.

  “Oh, of course,” Aphrodite said quickly. She grabbed a cute one from her closet and held it out.

  Eris frowned at it. “Pink ruffles? Don’t you have anything nicer?”

  “That’s my best one,” said Aphrodite, taken aback. Really, Ares’s sister could learn a few manners! Saying so wouldn’t help her make friends with the girl, however, so she kept silent. She was determined to befriend Eris. After all, she was Ares’s sister. And Aphrodite had often longed for family of her own. Maybe Eris could become the sister she’d never had. Though no matter what, she’d still have her GGBFFs, of course.

  Eris squinched up her nose and took the nightgown, holding it with just the tips of her fingers as if she didn’t really want to touch it. “Guess this will have to do,” she said with a sigh. After changing into it, she flopped onto Aphrodite’s spare bed, pulled the comforter up to her chin, and went straight to sleep.

  Aphrodite was about to climb into bed herself a few minutes later when her eyes fell on the trophy bag. It was sticking out a bit from under Eris’s bed. An urge pulled at her to sneak the golden apple trophy out of it. Just for a minute. Only to admire it again. She went closer and bent, reaching.

  Ermmm. Eris turned over in her sleep, snuffling a little.

  Aphrodite leaped back. Ye gods! How embarrassing if she’d gotten caught snooping in another girl’s schoolbag! Wondering what in the world had gotten into her, she made herself resist further temptation.

  Besides, she was tired too. Planning Ares’s birthday party had been a lot of work. She smiled as she snuggled into bed. He’d enjoyed it, though, which had made all her efforts worth it.

  • • •

  “I borrowed something to wear,” Eris announced the minute Aphrodite woke the next morning. The girl was already dressed–in Aphrodite’s newest pink chiton, no less. She hadn’t even had a chance to wear it herself yet!

  “Figured you wouldn’t mind,” Eris explained as Aphrodite sat up. “Oh, I’ve decided I like pink after all.”

  “Looks nice on you,” said Aphrodite. In truth, her chiton looked a little too big on the petite girl, but she decided not to say so. She was determined to be a good host.

  Eris was sitting in the desk chair, Aphrodite’s magic makeup brush hovering above her head. When she raised her face to it, it swooped in to add a touch of blush to her cheeks. She stretched her fingers out before her. Immediately, another smaller magic brush dipped its bristles into a bottle of Tropical Sunset Pink polish and began painting it back and forth over Eris’s nails. Aphrodite had bought that polish at the Immortal Marketplace only last week.

  Hey, help yourself, why don’t you? Aphrodite felt like saying. But then she decided it was kind of cool in a way. Almost like they were sisters. Because sisters shared clothes and makeup, right? That’s what she’d heard, anyway. Just like she sometimes shared with her friends. But her friends usually asked first. Maybe sisters didn’t, though. She’d have to ask Medusa sometime.

  “So what are your plans?” she asked Eris, padding over to her closet. “What do you want to do while everyone’s in classes? I could show you where the library is and you could hang out there till lunch.” She opened her closet to pull out a fresh chiton to wear and then gasped. A heap of chitons lay balled up at the bottom!

  Hearing her, Eris looked over. “Oh, yeah, I tried those on before finding one cute enough to actually wear.”

  A prickle of irritation swept over Aphrodite. Didn’t this girl have any manners at all? As she shook out the wrinkles in the discarded chitons and hung them up again, Eris blew on her nails to dry them.

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ve got plans,” Eris informed her. Her eyes glinted in the morning light filtering in through the window. “Wish me luck.”

  “Luck?” said Aphrodite as she slipped a fresh chiton over her head. “What for?”

  “I’m going to the office to talk Zeus into letting me move here and go to MOA,” Eris said in a determined voice.

  It was obvious how much Ares’s sister wanted to attend the Academy. It was a good reminder to Aphrodite of how lucky she was to be enrolled here herself. If she’d never been admitted to MOA, she’d never have met Athena, Artemis, and Persephone. Or Ares! “Well, good luck. I’m sure it would be fun for you and Ares if that worked out. And speaking of Ares . . .” she said, returning to the topic of the night before, “what was he like when you guys were growing up?”

  “Dorky, like most brothers,” Eris said flatly. Which was not at all helpful or interesting. Not only that, Aphrodite doubted it was true.
Ares was many things. But he could never be a dork.

  Her gaze fell on the spare bed. Eris’s bag was lying on top of the rumpled coverlet. The bag with the trophy. She could hardly believe she’d almost snooped in it last night! Though the trophy didn’t seem quite as enticing now as it had then for some reason, she still wanted it. Wanted to hold it again. Possess it. She followed Eris to the door and gestured toward the bag she held. “Could I maybe see–”

  But Eris interrupted. “I’m going to grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria before I pin down . . . um . . . have a chat with Principal Zeus. See you!” she called back over her shoulder. Then she headed off down the hall, leaving the bed unmade and the makeup she’d borrowed spread out across Aphrodite’s desk.

  Well, so much for getting another look at that cool trophy, Aphrodite thought as she began straightening the spare bed. Or pumping Eris for info about Ares’s childhood. Or getting any inside tips about the Two Truths and a Lie game.

  Of its own accord, her magic rouge brush sailed back into its box, when she went over to clean up the makeup mess Eris had left behind. She wasn’t sure how much success Ares’s sister would have with Principal Zeus. He’d been clear last night that she would have to leave today after dinner. Even Ares seemed unsure about having her here.

  Since Aphrodite didn’t have any family at all, she totally got why Eris wanted to enroll at MOA. If she had a brother going here–especially a cool one like Ares–she’d want to be with him, too. Still, although Aphrodite admired Eris’s spunk, it seemed unlikely her chat with Zeus was going to work. He was pretty picky about who he allowed to go to school here and had even been known to kick students out on a whim. Besides that, he could be really hardheaded and difficult to convince about things that weren’t his idea!