“I’m only saying that you already have a boyfriend.”
“An asshole of a boyfriend who I haven’t spoken to for weeks. He doesn’t count.”
“Yeah, but maybe you should speak to him.”
“What?!” Maddie looked shocked. “Why are you even saying this?”
“Maybe it’s time that you smooth things over with Agler. You guys are obviously meant to be together. You can’t let this fight fester forever.”
“You’re saying this because you’re trying to scare me off Colin. You want him all to yourself. You’re a selfish brat.”
Nora rolled her eyes. “Now you’re calling me names?”
“For your information, there are definite sparks between Colin and me. Every time I talk to him, I feel like we grow closer together. For all I know, Colin and I are building a foundation for a lasting relationship. And all this time, I thought that—as my best friend—you’d be happy for me. But now I see you just want to sabotage everything.”
Nora couldn’t believe this. “Maddie, we’re excited about Colin for me. Me. I’m the one who just went through a terrible breakup.”
“I did too.”
“No, you didn’t. You didn’t break up, for one thing. And it was not nearly as devastating as what I went through.”
“That’s typical, Nora.” Maddie got up. “You’re always like this. Everything’s always about you. It’s like the world revolves around you. Well, newsflash. It doesn’t. You’re not as special as you think.”
“I never said I thought I was special.”
“Whatever.” Maddie rested her hands on the table, leaning down. “If you want to go after Colin, fine. I’m going after him too. And we’ll just see who gets him.”
“Fine.” Nora stood up too. “But you better prepare yourself for disappointment.”
Maddie curled her lip. “Oh, I don’t think so.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Sawyer was heading over to the dining room for lunch to meet Lute. He’d spent the morning working on a quilt in the fabric and clothing enclave. He and several of the other tweens were all making it together as a project. They were sewing it by hand, because they thought that would be a fun change of pace. It was taking quite a while, but Sawyer was enjoying working with the others.
Lute was standing outside the dining room. He waved at Sawyer, and Sawyer hurried over.
“Hey.” Lute grinned at him.
The grin undid Sawyer’s insides, the way it always did. He wasn’t sure what the hell was going on between him and Lute. It was something, he knew that, but it wasn’t physical in any way. It was more like they were good friends.
“Hey,” said Sawyer, smiling back.
The two of them just smiled at each other for a couple of minutes.
Then Lute broke the gaze, looking a little embarrassed. “Uh, that’s Nora, isn’t it?”
“Where?”
Lute gestured with his head.
Sawyer turned to look. Nora and a bunch of other girls were all crowded together in the fields. “Yeah, I guess she’s helping with the planting this year. We always used to do that.” He felt a pang. It sucked to have lost all his friends. He was getting left out of everything.
“Doesn’t look like they’re doing much planting.”
“Oh?” Sawyer wasn’t really sure why they were watching Nora and the other girls. He still felt awkward discussing Nora with Lute, although he had to admit their conversations ended up there sometimes. Lute sometimes talked about his ex-girlfriends. Sawyer would chime in if he could relate.
That was another thing. Lute really wasn’t gay. He seemed into Sawyer, but Sawyer wasn’t sure if that was enough. He only knew that he was so violently attracted to Lute that he had to take the chance.
“Yeah, they’re just all crowded around. It’s weird.”
Sawyer shrugged. “You want to get lunch?”
Lute nodded. “Yeah, I’m just wondering what they’re all interested in.”
Sawyer didn’t care, but Lute apparently did.
“I mean, it’s a lot of girls.”
“Yeah,” said Sawyer.
Lute arched an eyebrow, looking at him sidelong, mischief dancing in his eyes. “Maybe that’s not so interesting to you, though.”
“Why not?”
“You know…” Lute raised both his eyebrows. “You’re not so interested in girls.”
Sawyer felt uncomfortable. “I’m interested. I mean, I can be.”
Lute laughed. He leaned close. “You can be anything, Sawyer. That’s why you’re interesting.”
Sawyer flushed. Lute was always doing stuff like that. Flirting. Sawyer had no idea how to take it.
Lute looked back at the girls.
Sawyer didn’t have anywhere else to look, so he did too.
The crowd parted a little bit, and Colin Oak emerged from the center. He started walking across the field, grinning from ear to ear.
All of the girls trailed after him, following him.
He was talking to them. They were hanging on his every word.
Lute made a face. “What the hell is up with that?”
“You know,” said Sawyer. “Agler said something about this.”
“Agler Thorn? You still hang out with him?”
“Well… sometimes.” Sawyer shrugged.
“It’s just that Colin’s the guy who lied about me setting off those fireworks.”
“Yeah, well, he probably planted them.” Sawyer glared at him.
“Now, girls are following him around?”
“Well, they’re not really following him around…”
“Sawyer, they are literally following him.”
Sawyer considered. “Yeah, I guess so. Maybe he’s teaching them something.”
“It’s weird,” said Lute. “You said that Agler noticed it? Let’s go find him.”
“Find Agler?” Sawyer furrowed his brow. “I have no idea—”
“He’s in the philosophy enclave sometimes, right?”
“Don’t you want to eat?” Sawyer looked back at the dining room.
“Yeah, maybe later. Come on.” Lute started towards the philosophy enclave.
Sawyer hesitated, and then he went after Lute. If those girls were following Colin around, then he wasn’t much better off than them, was he? Because he followed Lute everywhere.
* * *
Agler had never really cared for Lute. It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with the other guy, or that Lute had ever done anything to offend Agler. But Lute had always rubbed him the wrong way. He was one of those guys for which everything came easily. He could play basically every instrument in the entire enclave. He even created a few of his own. He could sing too. And to top it all off, he was all blond and good looking. Agler sort of hated him on principle, mostly because nothing really came easy for him personally. He loved music, but he wasn’t that good at it—at least not as good as a lot of the other muses.
He’d once had a long talk about it in the philosophy enclave. Not about Lute, per se, but about the idea of working hard to achieve something one wanted or just having it come naturally. Which one had more value. Which one most people saw as more valuable. Of course, they hadn’t come to any conclusions that day. Agler didn’t know if he’d ever come to real concrete conclusions in the philosophy enclave. That kind of wasn’t the point of philosophy.
Anyway, now Lute was telling him about how all the girls were following Colin Oak around and how Lute thought it was really weird. Agler was finding that he liked the guy more and more with every word out of his mouth.
“I’m just saying that it’s fishy, you know?” said Lute. “The guy’s up to something.”
“I was just saying this,” said Agler. He nodded at Sawyer, who was hanging back behind Lute. “Wasn’t I just saying this?”
“You were,” said Sawyer.
“Well, we gotta do something about it,” said Lute.
“Um, I don’t see what we can do,” said Sawyer.<
br />
“Let’s go to Phoebe,” said Agler.
Lute made a face.
“What?”
“Phoebe unfairly sentenced him to a month of dish washing for a crime he didn’t commit,” said Sawyer. “And he just got finished with the dish washing. You can see why he’s a little wary of her.”
Agler cocked his head to one side. “You really didn’t set off those fireworks?”
“No,” said Lute, and he looked serious. “I would never do something like that. I don’t get my kicks scaring people.”
Agler had to admit that it was a pretty juvenile prank.
“Colin did it,” said Sawyer. “And he framed Lute.”
“And now he’s doing something weird to the girls,” said Agler. “You’re right. He’s the common denominator here.” He wasn’t sure that he was completely on board the Lute-is-innocent train, but he was open to the possibility. Anyway, there was definitely something going on with Colin. He’d never seen Nora behave so strangely. “So, if there’s bad juju, we have to go to Phoebe. Nothing else for it. Back me up, Sawyer.”
Sawyer gave him a reproachful look, as if he didn’t like being asked to take sides. But he put a hand on Lute’s shoulder. “He’s right, you know. We need to go to Phoebe.”
Lute considered. “No, you know what? I don’t think I should be there.”
“What?” said Sawyer. “You can’t avoid Phoebe just because she gave you that sentence. Besides it wasn’t just her, it was the whole council.”
“It’s not about me,” said Lute, “it’s about her taking you seriously. Think about it. If I show up, she’ll think I’m trying to get revenge on Colin for ratting me out.”
“But he didn’t rat you out. He made it up,” said Sawyer.
“Yeah,” said Lute. “I know that. You know that. But Phoebe doesn’t. And since my sentence is over, it’s not like she can do anything about his falsely incriminating me, you know? So, leave me out of it. Just get Colin and make him stop doing whatever he’s doing.”
It was a fair point, as far as it went.
So, Agler and Sawyer went to see Phoebe alone.
First, they went to look for her in her tent, but she wasn’t around, so they headed to the music enclave instead. Phoebe had a beautiful voice, and she often spent her time amongst the musicians, singing and creating however she could.
They found her in the music enclave all right. She was with a few other muses in a clump. Two of the other muses had guitars. One had a keyboard strapped to his chest.
“I wonder if you try it lower?” Phoebe was saying.
“Lower?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Maybe if you and David are harmonizing the lead melody in that break down, it will give it a little something.”
Sawyer and Agler stopped next to her and the other muses.
Phoebe turned to them. “Well, Agler I see here sometimes, but Sawyer’s never in the music enclave. I assume you two are here to talk to me?”
“Yes,” said Sawyer.
“Excuse me,” said Phoebe to the other musicians.
They nodded, waving her off. She was a busy woman and probably often had to run off in the middle of making music.
Phoebe gestured to Sawyer and Agler, and the three of them began to walk again. “Now, if this is about whether or not you muses can sleep in each other’s tents—”
“Oh, no,” said Agler. “That’s, um, not an issue these days.” He found that he was blushing, thinking of what an idiot he’d made of himself last year with all his jealousy.
“Good,” she said. “But I imagine there’s some other crazy tween drama going on isn’t there? Go ahead, let me have it.”
“Well, um,” said Agler, “the other day, I was talking to Nora.”
Phoebe groaned. “How did I know this was going to have to do with her?”
“It’s not like that,” said Sawyer. “Actually, neither of us is even dating her anymore.”
Phoebe raised her eyebrows. “I see.”
“So,” Agler continued, “we were talking, and then all of the sudden, Colin Oak showed up, and it was like she completely forgot everything I said. All she could think about was Colin. She beelined for him, and was practically throwing herself at him.”
Phoebe stopped walking. “I thought this wasn’t ‘like that.’”
“It was weird,” said Agler. “We were talking about serious stuff. It wasn’t like her to just run off in the middle of it.”
“And then today,” said Sawyer, “Colin has a group of girls following him around while he’s doing the planting. It’s like an entourage.”
“That’s weird,” said Agler. “I mean, you have to admit, Colin Oak is not a very attractive guy. He’s kind of skinny and short.”
“And he’s got that thing,” said Sawyer. “On his face. You know that thing?”
Phoebe considered. “Well, I don’t find myself attracted to any of the tweens, I must admit. But I do remember that Colin was the one who turned in Lute, and I thought he was a fine-looking boy.”
Agler furrowed his brow.
Phoebe patted him on the shoulder. “Tell you what. I’ll go over and see. Is this entourage still happening?”
“It was when we left,” said Sawyer.
“All right then, I’ll investigate.” Phoebe turned and headed off in the direction of the food enclave.
Agler and Sawyer exchanged a look, and then they went after her.
* * *
“Well,” said Colin with that cute little swagger that made Nora’s heart patter, “this is a flower bulb.”
Nora sighed.
Of course, there were about fifteen other girls who were sighing as well.
“You’re really so smart,” said one of them. “How do you know all this stuff about plants?”
Colin shrugged. “I pick things up. Would you girls like me to demonstrate what we do with flower bulbs?”
A chorus of affirmatives.
This was ridiculous. Nora was getting lost in the shuffle. She couldn’t let that happen. Colin was probably just as annoyed as she was by all these other girls intruding on their time. He’d be grateful if she found a way to get close to him. She stepped forward. “Let me help you, Colin.”
“No, let me.” Maddie pushed her way up towards Colin.
And suddenly, all the other girls were pushing their way up too, all begging to help out.
“Ladies, ladies,” said Colin, holding up both his hands. “Calm down. There’s no reason to fight. How about I do one by myself, and then you can all help me out one by one. You’ll each get a turn.”
Nora narrowed her eyes. Why was he being so nice to everyone? He was just too polite. He needed to send all of these other skanks away, and that was all there was to it.
A clear voice behind them. “Excuse me, ladies.” It was Phoebe. She was working her way through the crowd to get closer to Colin.
That was weird. What was Phoebe doing here? She never helped with the planting.
“Now,” said Phoebe, scrutinizing Colin, “what seems to be going on here?”
Colin looked a little nervous. “Uh, we’re just planting flower bulbs.”
“It looks to me like you’re planting and all these girls are just standing around staring at you,” said Phoebe. “Any idea why they’re doing that?”
Colin’s face turned white. “Well, um, they showed up, and…”
“Of course you don’t.” Phoebe turned around. “Girls, run along.” She gestured for them to leave. “I need to have a conversation alone with Colin.”
Some of the girls backed up, but Nora didn’t. What the hell? Was Phoebe trying to move in on Colin too? Why else would she want to be alone with him?
“Look,” Colin said, “I didn’t know it would be like this. No one ever noticed me before, you know?”
“I can’t see why that is.” Phoebe smiled at Colin. “You seem like such an… extraordinary boy.”
Colin’s eyes got wide.
Phoebe’s mouth curved into a smile. “You’re very mature for your age, aren’t you?”
“Uh…” Colin let out a laugh. “I guess so.”
“You should come by my tent sometime,” said Phoebe. “I can think of a lot of things that I could…” Her voice plunged to a deep, sultry, seductive tone. “Show you.”
Colin grinned, looking pretty pleased with himself. “Well, I might do that sometime, Phoebe. I really might.”
“Tonight?” Phoebe purred.
Nora caught Maddie’s eye across the field. She stalked over. “Can you believe this?”
“She’s shameless,” said Maddie.
“She’s way too old for him. She can’t have him,” said Nora. She remembered vaguely that she’d been angry at Maddie for some reason or other, but she wasn’t sure why now. Her outrage over Phoebe’s behavior seemed to outshine everything else.
“Way too old,” agreed Maddie.
* * *
Sawyer and Agler stared at Phoebe and Colin in horror.
“Are you seeing this?” said Agler.
“It’s disgusting,” said Sawyer.
“Something’s up,” said Agler.
“Definitely,” said Sawyer.
Lute came up behind them. “Um, is Phoebe hitting on Colin?”
Sawyer turned to him. “Go get Coeus. He needs to see this. If anyone will recognize how serious the situation has become, it’s him.”
“Good idea,” said Lute, backing away.
Sawyer and Agler turned back, slack jawed.
“Is she… touching him?”
“Ugh,” said Agler. “I don’t want to watch.”
But they both did watch, neither taking their eyes away until Coeus and Lute came back up the hill.
Coeus was slightly winded. “What’s wrong with Phoebe? Lute said it was dire.”
Sawyer could only point.
Coeus followed his gaze. “I don’t see what—”
Phoebe leaned over to whisper in Colin’s ear, and her hand snaked down his back to cup his butt cheek.
“Oh,” said Coeus.
“That Colin kid is doing something,” said Agler. “And it seems to be affecting every female that gets close to him.”
Coeus looked out at the gathered group of girls, all of whom were watching Phoebe and Colin with contorted expressions of jealousy and rage. They wanted to hurt Phoebe. Badly.
The Helicon Muses Omnibus: Books 1-4 Page 97