by Joan Holub
They’d reached the third-floor landing by now, and she paused for a second to catch her breath. “So the spider in your room is probably completely harmless,” she concluded.
“Too much information. No more, please,” Ares begged in a shaky voice. So much for calming him down.
As they blew past the fourth-floor landing and started up to the boys’ dorm on the fifth floor, Eos heard the door to the girls’ dorm open. Shouts and laughter streamed out through it. The games Persephone and the other girls had been organizing must already be in progress, Eos realized with longing.
She glanced back to see who had just come out. It was a girl with short orange hair and cute iridescent orange wings. Pheme, the goddessgirl of gossip. For a second their eyes met.
“Come on, Eos! We’re almost there!” Ares called from a few steps above her. Hearing his voice, Pheme’s eyes rounded in surprise. Without a word to Eos, she turned around and hurried back inside the girls’ dorm.
Weird, thought Eos. But then she figured that Pheme had probably just forgotten something she needed and gone back inside to get whatever it was.
When they reached the fifth-floor landing, Ares came to a halt before the hall door. “Normally girls aren’t allowed in the boys’ dorm and vice versa,” he told Eos. “But this is an emergency!”
“We don’t have to break the rule,” Eos told him. “You could just capture the spider and bring it—” She stopped speaking when she noticed that Ares had gone quite pale. Wow! He really must be afraid of spiders. If he weren’t an immortal, she’d even say he was deathly afraid of them! “Okay, I’ll go with you,” she said.
He gave her another shaky smile. “Thanks.” Then he opened the door. “Girl in the hall!” he yelled out to warn any guys who might be about.
“Eek!” a boy’s voice squealed. Peering around Ares, Eos glimpsed Poseidon. Wrapped in a dolphin-patterned towel and with a puffy sea-blue shower cap over his head, he scurried down the hall into what was probably the bathroom.
Stifling a giggle, Eos followed Ares to his room. It was fascinating to be in such unfamiliar territory, and her eyes darted here and there, taking it all in. The messy hallway was littered with archery bows, swords, and clubs, and also what appeared to be school projects in progress, such as a half-built model of an amphitheater and one of an arena.
She almost tripped over someone’s stray sandal when she noticed a life-size suit of armor farther down the hall. The armored “knight” held a shield in one hand and a spear in the other. “That armor is too cool for school!” she exclaimed.
Ares turned to look at her. “Thanks. My sister and I built it when we were kids. I put a spell on it so it could talk.”
“No joke. Really?” said Eos as they came even with the “knight.” All at once it came to life, raising its spear and pointing it at her chest. “Halt. Who goes there?” it demanded to know.
Eos sucked in her breath.
“Relax,” Ares told the armor. “She’s my guest.”
At this the “knight” lowered its spear. Creak! It bowed at the waist. “Pardon me, m’lady,” it said to Eos. “ ’Twas a grievous mistake. To be certain, I meant thee no harm.”
“None taken,” Eos assured it. For some reason she found herself curtsying.
“Here’s my room,” Ares told her. He opened a door just beyond the suit of armor. Standing back, he gestured politely for Eos to enter first. At least she thought he was being polite. Then again, maybe he only wanted her to go first because he feared the spider might be lying in wait for him or something!
Eos stepped inside and glanced around. Like Aphrodite’s room (and probably most of the rooms in both the girls’ and boys’ dorms), this one had two matching beds, two closets, two desks, and one window, which stood open. But there the similarity ended, because Ares’ room was nowhere near as tidy as Aphrodite’s.
And the style of decoration here could best be described as “athletic.” Various weapons and shields, as well as posters with war scenes or battle maps, adorned the walls. Barbells and weights sat atop one desk. There was a set of half-painted gladiator army men and a paint set on the opposite desk. Both blankets on the beds were boring brown.
“Psst. It was on the wall above my desk—the one with the army—when I saw it last,” Ares said in a loud whisper. He was still in the hall, eyeing the area around his desk from the doorway. Why the whisper? Did he think the spider might hear him and attack? He still hadn’t ventured inside, so perhaps fear really had driven his “politeness.”
Eos went over to his desk and thoroughly searched on top of it and the surrounding wall. “Well, the spider’s not here anymore,” she reported. She studied the ceiling, deciding to widen the search. The spider would likely be easy to spot if it was still in Ares’ room. It had to be huge to have frightened him so much.
Suddenly Ares let out a shriek from the doorway. “Aaagh! There it is!”
Eos wheeled toward him as he pointed to the floor near one of the closets. At first all she saw was a balled-up dirty sock. But then she saw movement near the sock. An itsy-bitsy spider, no bigger than her smallest toenail, scurried across the floor in Ares’ direction. She stifled the urge to laugh when the godboy of war leaped away, moving backward into the hall.
“What’s going on?” asked a voice. A couple of godboys had rushed over behind him and were peering inside the room.
“Nothing. No problem,” said Ares, herding them away before they could ask more questions.
Meanwhile, thinking fast, Eos grabbed a crumpled-up piece of papyrus from his trash can. She smoothed it out and then slid it under the spider. Carefully she carried the arachnid to Ares’ open window. “Have a nice life, itsy-bitsy spider,” she said as she gently transferred it to the wall outside the window.
When she turned around, the other boys were gone and Ares had moved to stand a foot or so inside the room. He jerked his head toward the window, then caught her eye, still looking nervous, though not frantic any longer. “It might crawl back inside.”
So Eos closed the window. “Better?” she asked with a smile.
Ares ventured into his room a little farther. “Yeah. Was it a poison—I mean, a venomous spider?”
Eos shrugged. “Doubtful. But anyway, it’s gone now.”
“I owe you,” he said.
She smiled. “Consider the debt paid. You gave me your autograph for Tithonus, remember?” But after a moment’s thought, she asked, “But actually, there is one thing. Do you have any advice for casting tricky spells?”
Ares lifted an eyebrow. “Define ‘tricky spells.’ ”
“Um . . . like one for granting immortality, for example?”
Ares let out a low whistle. “That is a tricky one. So tricky that only Zeus can do it.”
“But suppose you could cast it. What words would you use?” Eos asked, without revealing that Zeus had lent her his power to do it a single time.
Ares shrugged. “Carefully chosen ones that exactly suit my intentions.” After a short pause he added, “And it’s always good to use rhyme.”
Eos angled her head, a little confused. “That’s it?”
“Pretty much,” said Ares. Then he waved her back out into the hall. “C’mon, let’s get you outta here.”
Some of the guys they passed when they left Ares’ room looked at her in surprise. She’d broken a rule by being there, she realized. “Hey, she just wanted an autograph for her mortal friend Tithonus,” Ares fibbed. “What can I say? I’m popular!”
Eos hoped none of the boys had noticed him signing his autograph for her at Artemis’s temple earlier that day. Then again, even if they had, they might think she’d lost it. Or returned for a second autograph.
“Hey, uh, don’t say anything to anyone about that spider, okay?” Ares whispered to her out of the side of his mouth as they headed up the hall.
“Okay,” Eos whispered back. Seeing no one up ahead, she added, “But you shouldn’t be embarrassed. Lots of people ha
ve phobias about one thing or another. Some people are scared of the dark. Others are scared of—”
Ares straightened his shoulders. “I am the godboy of war. I am not scared! Of. Anything!” he insisted. “It’s just that my older sister, Eris, used to tease me that there were spiders in my bed when I was little. Really little. Like two years old. She said they would spin a web around me while I was sleeping and eat me as a snack.” He shuddered.
“Yikes,” said Eos. “No wonder you’re afraid of them. Well, I promise I won’t say a word.”
“I told you, I’m not afraid! Now pretty please just be a sweetheart and don’t tell—” As he opened the door to the landing, his words broke off.
For there, waiting on the landing with a thunderous scowl on her face, was Aphrodite. “ ‘Sweetheart’? Did I just hear my crush call another girl ‘sweetheart’? Another girl who is in the boys’ dorm hall instead of joining in the games my friends and I planned just for her tonight?” Her voice rose higher and got louder with every word. “Pheme told me I’d find you both here, but I didn’t believe it . . . till now.” Beneath her anger she looked hurt, thought Eos.
“He didn’t mean it the way you’re thinking,” Eos protested, wanting to calm Aphrodite’s fears. Too late she recalled that the goddessgirl of love and beauty, though super nice most of the time, also had a reputation for jealousy. Especially where her crush was concerned. Suddenly Eos could guess why Pheme had rushed back inside the girls’ dorm earlier. To tell Aphrodite that she’d seen Eos with Ares!
“Then why are you here exactly?” Aphrodite demanded in a suspicious voice. Hands on hips, the furious goddessgirl glared at Eos. “And don’t tell me you came to get Ares’ autograph! I saw you ask for it at Artemis’s temple. Now I’m thinking that was probably just an excuse to flirt with him.”
“What? No!” Eos protested. At the same time, she remembered Aphrodite frowning at her back at the temple and realized she’d been right about what the goddessgirl had been thinking. That there was flirting going on when there wasn’t! Eos looked pleadingly at Ares, willing him to explain about the spider since she couldn’t do it herself. Because that would mean breaking a promise!
Ares’ mouth flapped open and shut. “I . . . um . . . we . . . er . . . Eos was telling me about bugs!” he blurted at last.
Aphrodite’s head jerked back a little. “Bugs?” she echoed in a disbelieving tone.
“That’s right,” Eos said brightly. “They can be very fascinating.”
“Really?” said Aphrodite. It was clear from her tone that she was not buying their story.
Eos just gave her a weak grin and nodded. The other goddessgirl’s pretty blue eyes narrowed. A strange light came into them as she folded her arms across her chest. “I guess you must love bugs if you find them so fascinating,” she said to Eos.
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Eos replied.
Aphrodite’s lips curled in irritation.
The sudden sound of footsteps coming up the stairs caused everyone to fall silent. Seconds later, Persephone appeared. “Hey! Pheme told me you all might be up here,” she said, looking curiously at Ares and the girls. Then, speaking to Aphrodite, she added, “My mom’s here to give us a ride to my house. I already took Adonis to her. You ready to go?”
“Yep,” Aphrodite snapped. “I just need to grab my overnight bag from my room.”
“Great! I’ll let my mom know you’ll meet us at her chariot in a few,” Persephone said. Then she turned and gave Eos a quick hug. “Great meeting you. Hope I’ll see you again sometime.”
“Yeah, fun to meet you, too,” said Eos.
As Persephone ran back downstairs, Aphrodite glanced over at Eos and Ares. She stared hard at Eos, and a slow, disturbing smile spread over her face. “Well, gotta go. I hope you’ll be comfy in my room tonight.” She let out a giggle. Then in a singsong voice she added, “Good night. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.” This old-fashioned saying, which Eos had only ever heard grown-ups or Tithonus use before, basically meant you hoped the sleeper would get a good night’s rest.
“Uh . . . thanks,” Eos said in surprise. It seemed that all was forgiven, despite the fact that there was nothing she or Ares needed Aphrodite to forgive them for!
“So . . . um . . . I guess I’ll see you tomorrow when you get back?” Ares said to Aphrodite.
The beautiful goddessgirl smiled easily at him. “Sure.”
Ares gave her a crushy kind of smile in return and sent a casual good-bye wave to Eos before disappearing into the boys’ dorm hall again.
Something still felt a little off with Aphrodite, though, thought Eos as they trooped downstairs together. Much to her relief, Artemis and Athena soon joined them. “Too bad you missed the games,” Artemis said to Eos.
“Yeah, I know. I’m really sorry I didn’t make it,” Eos replied earnestly.
“A bunch of us are meeting at the Supernatural Market to get shakes and snacks now. Want to come?” Athena asked.
Eos peeked over at Aphrodite. Seeing that the girl didn’t look mad, she relaxed a little. “Sounds like fun,” Eos told Athena and Artemis.
When the girls reached the fourth-floor landing, they paused for a few minutes while Aphrodite ran to her room to grab her overnight bag. Once she was back, they trooped down the rest of the stairs and then pushed out through MOA’s main doors. Persephone was holding the black-and-white Adonis in her arms while she and her mom stood waiting at the edge of the torchlit courtyard in a chariot drawn by two magnificent winged serpents.
“Bye, then,” Aphrodite said to Eos. They hugged, but it seemed to Eos that Aphrodite’s hug was a little stiff. Maybe she only imagined it, though. She hoped so, anyway. She didn’t want to part on bad terms.
As Aphrodite started toward the chariot to join Persephone, Artemis and Athena linked arms with Eos, one on either side of her. The three of them began to walk toward the market. “No dogs?” Eos asked Artemis, suddenly noticing the absence of those three bouncy, furry creatures.
“In my room,” Artemis replied. “They’re not allowed inside the market.”
Behind them, Eos didn’t notice Aphrodite pause in the middle of the courtyard. And she didn’t hear her mutter a spell while staring squarely at Eos’s back. If Eos had heard the spell, she would have realized that Aphrodite was definitely still jealous:
“From among the bugs you see,
You will fall in love with three.
While this spell is in effect,
Other spells will redirect.
These love bugs you must protect!”
When she finished the spell, Aphrodite’s pink-glossed lips curved upward with satisfaction, as if she was thinking, That’ll teach her.
9
Love Bugs
WHEN THEY ARRIVED AT THE Supernatural Market, Eos, Athena, and Artemis threaded their way through racks of ’zines and shelves of snacks to some round tables at the back of the shop. While Artemis went to get shakes, Eos and Athena joined a group of MOA students that included snaky-haired Medusa; Athena’s roommate, Pandora; violet-eyed Dionysus; Eros, the red-cheeked, gold-winged godboy of love; and others.
“You’re Eos, right? I’m Amphitrite,” said a girl with flowing turquoise hair as Eos sat down across from her.
“Yes, I am. Hi,” Eos greeted the girl. Then, suddenly, the name Amphitrite struck a bell and she exclaimed, “I’ve heard about you! You designed that cool garden at the bottom of the Aegean Sea, right?”
“You know about that?” Amphitrite said in surprise. She was a mermaid, but you’d never guess it, since her tail transformed into legs and feet whenever she was on land.
“My mom’s into gardening,” Eos explained, leaning closer to be heard over other conversations around them. “She showed me an article about you with a picture of your garden in the Greekly Weekly News a while ago. It looked mega-awesome!” That had been one of the rare evenings she and her mom had spent together in the past few months, which was probably w
hy she remembered it.
The turquoise-haired goddessgirl beamed at Eos. “Thanks!”
Just then Artemis returned with a tray of shakes. “Ambrosia? Or nectar?” she asked Eos and the other kids nearby.
“Um . . . can I have one of each?” Eos replied. She could get shakes back home, but none that were ambrosia- or nectar-flavored. This might be her only chance to taste such shakes!
Artemis grinned. “Sure, I got extras of everything.” She set two shakes in front of Eos. Amphitrite took a nectar one, then turned to answer a question from Medusa.
“Mmm. This is yummy!” Eos murmured, taking a sip of her ambrosia shake first. She’d only drunk about a quarter of it when Pheme showed up.
“Hi, Eos!” she said brightly. “How’s your visit to MOA going?” Her words puffed into the air above her in little cloud letters that swiftly faded away.
Though miffed at the girl for causing trouble by telling Aphrodite she’d seen Eos with Ares, Eos decided not to bring this up. What would be the point? As the goddessgirl of gossip, Pheme had merely acted according to her nature. So, setting aside her annoyance, Eos smiled and gave the orange-haired girl a thumbs-up, replying, “Terrific!” Then she watched as Pheme took a seat beside Eros one table over. From the fond looks the two exchanged, she could guess they were crushing.
Eos spent a pleasant hour or so chatting with Athena and Artemis and the other MOA-ers at their table while sipping her two shakes. (Both were so delish she couldn’t decide which flavor she liked best!) But then she began to yawn. “Sorry,” she said when Artemis caught her stifling a big one. “I usually go to bed early since I have to get up so early to bring the dawn.”
“No apology needed,” said Artemis. “I’m kind of tired myself.”
“Me too,” said Athena. “It’s got to be after nine already.”
After saying good-bye to the other students, the three girls left the market and started walking back to MOA. Luckily Selene’s moon was up in the sky, and it shone super brightly tonight, lighting their path. Along the way, Eos told Athena and Artemis about her urn-room at home. “I get into it by transforming into a mist and whirling down through the opening at the top,” she explained. She twirled in circles and transformed briefly to demonstrate this ability of hers.