Athena the Proud

by Joan Holub

  2

  Theseus

  WHEN ATHENA AND HER FRIENDS arrived at the Supernatural Market, Artemis stopped her three hounds outside its doors. “Sorry, guys. You know you aren’t allowed inside the store. We’ll be back soon, and I’ll bring you some treats.”

  Amby, Athena’s favorite, wiggled all over as she reached down and gave him a Good-bye for now pat. “See you later, Amby-gator,” she told him. Then she followed the other three goddessgirls into the market.

  Once inside, the girls passed shelves of snacks and a rack filled with copies of the latest issue of Teen Scrollazine. “Hey,” said Persephone, snatching a copy from the rack, “isn’t that your Hero-ology hero on the cover?” She handed the scrollazine to Athena. The drawing showed a strong-looking, curly-haired mortal man. He was standing between a lovely, dark-haired woman and a handsome teenage boy. His muscled arms were around the shoulders of both, and there was a proud, happy look on his face.

  Athena nodded. “Yes, that’s Odysseus. With his wife Penelope and their son, Telemachus,” she said excitedly.

  “I wonder what he’s up to,” Persephone said. “Now that Mr. Cyclops has us studying our textscrolls in Hero-ology class lately, instead of using the game board, I mean.”

  Athena had successfully guided Odysseus through the Trojan War and back home again by moving a little three-inch-high figure of the hero around a game board in Hero-ology class. Just as other class members had done with their assigned heroes. The figures were like chess pieces. They weren’t the actual heroes; they only represented them. But whatever happened to heroes on the game board also happened to them in real life down on Earth!

  Athena glanced at the caption on the cover of the scrollazine: Main Story: Odysseus at Home, page 4. She flipped to the beginning of the article and quickly skimmed it. She was disappointed to see that it was mostly a fluff piece. There was hardly anything in the article about all the trials and tribulations—the many shipwrecks and encounters with man-eating giants and tricky sorceresses, for example—that she’d guided Odysseus through. Such troubles had filled his ten-year journey (his Odyssey) home to Ithaca.

  Instead the interviewer had asked him about day-to-day things for the article. Like, what was Odysseus’s favorite meal? (Anything he didn’t have to cook himself.) What was his favorite way to relax? (Juggling axes.) And what was one of his favorite memories? (His faithful dog, Argos, recognizing him and happily running over to greet Odysseus when he arrived home in disguise after the Trojan War.)

  It was a pretty bland interview for a guy as heroic as Odysseus. Still, after ten years of war plus that ten-year trip home, maybe he was ready to give up the hero biz and just enjoy his home and family. He certainly deserved some downtime after all he’d been through!

  “I’ll go grab some nectar shakes for us,” Aphrodite said before she split off from the other girls to head for the soda counter.

  “Okay,” Athena called after her. Spying Heracles at a big, round table at the back of the store, she set the scrollazine back on the rack. Then she hurried to catch up with Artemis and Persephone, who’d gone on ahead while she’d been reading.

  Ares and Hades were also already at the table. Even though Heracles’ back was to Athena, she could spot him easily. Because, as usual, he was wearing his lion-skin cape, whose jaws fit his head like a helmet. She’d really, really, really hoped to sit by him so it would be easy to talk. However, the chairs on either side of him were taken, one by Artemis’s brother, Apollo. And the other by a boy sporting dreadlocks.

  Athena had never seen the dreadlocks boy before, but she could tell he was mortal right away because his skin didn’t shimmer. When immortals like her drank nectar, it made their skin take on a glittery tone. It didn’t have the same effect on mortals, though.

  Persephone must have seen Athena eyeing the chairs near Heracles, for suddenly she hopped up from where she was sitting with Hades, directly across the table from Heracles. “Take my chair,” she offered. “I’ll bring another one over so we can sit together.” Persephone was thoughtful that way.

  As soon as both girls were seated, Aphrodite arrived with a tray full of frothy nectar shakes with straws. When she set the tray down in the middle of the table, hands instantly reached for the shakes. Athena took a sip of the one she’d snagged, and gave Aphrodite a warm smile. “Yum. Thanks!”

  At the sound of her voice, Heracles looked up. He’d been in rapt conversation with the dreadlocks boy and apparently hadn’t even noticed her until that moment. But now his brown eyes sparkled at her. “Hi, Athena.” He motioned toward the unknown boy. “Meet my cousin, Theseus. He just got here from his dad’s—King Aegeus—in Athens a few minutes ago.”

  Athena smiled at Theseus. “Hi.”

  Why hadn’t Heracles mentioned that his cousin was coming to visit? she wondered. Though she’d hardly seen her crush outside of classes during the past couple of weeks, they’d chatted in the hallways and during snippets of time in the classes they had together. There had been opportunities for him to tell her.

  Theseus dipped his head at her, and his dreadlocks fell forward over his shoulders. “Yeah. Hi,” he said.

  Athena could see a family resemblance in the shape of the two boys’ dark eyes, their identical square jaws, and their muscular builds. “So how long will you be here at MOA?” she asked Theseus before taking another sip of her shake. Mmm. Delicious! The pale shimmer of her skin brightened with every sip.

  Theseus had taken a gulp of his shake at the same time. He winced as he swallowed, then explained, “Sorry. Brain freeze. We don’t get shakes like these down on Earth. They’re awesome!”

  She waited for him to reply to her question, but he seemed to have forgotten all about it. Instead his head swung back to Heracles.

  Persephone leaned over to her and murmured, “I heard him say he’d be here for two days. Leaving Friday.”

  “Thanks,” said Athena. Hearing Theseus mention Zeus, who was her dad and also the principal of Mount Olympus Academy, her ears perked up.

  “I’ve been to Zeus’s new temple in Olympia,” Theseus was saying to Heracles. “I saw the paintings of your heroic deeds there. You are way wicked, Cuz.”

  He was complimenting Heracles’ twelve labors, in which he’d battled all kinds of creatures, from a many-headed Hydra to birds with razor-sharp beaks. Athena had actually helped him a lot with those labors, and the paintings in Zeus’s temple had been copied from tapestries depicting those labors, which she’d woven as a gift to Heracles afterward. As she sipped her shake, she waited for Heracles to mention this, but instead he just waved off Theseus’s praise. “It was nothing,” he said humbly.

  “Not true,” Theseus insisted. “You’re the greatest hero that ever lived!”

  “Aw, no way,” Heracles said. Though he seemed a little embarrassed at the praise, he was smiling. “Couldn’t have done it without . . .”

  Again Athena waited for him to say her name. But instead he lifted his enormous, heavy club to stand upright and twirled the handle end in his palm. “My trusty club,” he finished.

  For Zeus’s sake! thought Athena, feeling more than a little hurt. She remembered the time they spent together completing those labors so fondly. It was when they’d become each other’s crushes. But far be it from her to fish for a compliment.

  “So,” she said to Theseus, “what are you guys going to do while you’re—”

  But before she could finish her question, Theseus spoke right over the top of her. “I’ve got something I want to show you,” he said to Heracles.

  “Yeah? What?” Heracles asked.

  “You’ll see.” His dark eyes twinkling, Theseus reached beneath his tunic and drew out a short silver sword with a golden handle. Though it was very shiny, it actually looked more like a toy sword than a real one. Was it even sharp?

  “Do you like my sword?” he asked Heracles. “It was a present from my dad.”

  “Nice,” said Heracles in an admiring tone.
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  Some of the other boys overheard and leaned over to look. “It’s a little short for a sword, though, isn’t it? Looks more like a dagger to me,” commented Apollo.

  Theseus frowned at him. “It’s a sword.”

  “Oh. Okay,” Apollo said amiably. He rolled his eyes where Theseus couldn’t see, as if to say, Get over yourself, mortal dude! Then he turned away to teasingly scold Artemis, who was sitting on his other side and had just tried to sneak a sip of his shake.

  “I know it’s not as mighty a weapon as your club,” Theseus admitted to Heracles. “But I bet it’ll serve me well in battle if I ever get the chance to use it!”

  Athena pursed her lips and shared a look with Persephone. What made boys so crazy about weapons and battles, anyway? These guys’ favorite place to shop at the Immortal Marketplace was a store called Mighty Fighty. It sold all kinds of battle gear like shields, spears, and bows and arrows. When it came to that kind of stuff, these boys had one-track minds!

  Theseus seemed to be in awe of his cousin Heracles and aspiring to become a hero just like him. She wondered if the boy carried his dagger with him everywhere, the way Artemis did her bow and arrows. And like Heracles used to do with his huge, knobby club until Athena had convinced him to leave it in his dorm room most of the time. The fact that he had it with him now made her wonder if he might be showing off a little for his cousin.

  Persephone was busy chatting with Hades now as Aphrodite squeezed a chair between her and Athena. “Seems like we’ve hardly talked much lately,” Aphrodite said to Athena as she sat down.

  “I know, right?” Athena agreed, pushing her nearly empty shake away. “I’ve had homework, homework, homework. Not to mention our Cheer practice and some inventions I’m working on in my free time. How about you?”

  “Swamped,” said Aphrodite. “And not just with homework and Cheer. Remember that Lonely Hearts Club I started a while back, where mortals write to me asking for help with their love lives?”

  Athena nodded. “Are you still doing that? Still getting letters, I mean?”

  “Yeah, I never officially stopped doing it,” Aphrodite said. “The letters died down for a while is all. But lately I’ve been getting more of them again. Just this morning I got one from a girl who wanted help getting her boyfriend back.” Aphrodite arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Sadly, I had to write her that it was probably too late for that.”

  “Why?” asked Athena.

  “According to her letter she’d been so busy with her own activities that she’d been spending less and less time with him. Apparently they grew apart and he lost interest in her. Then he met another girl.” Aphrodite shook her head as if to say she just didn’t get why the girl had neglected her crush. “I always make time for Ares. I mean, why wouldn’t I? Without time, relationships wither and die.”

  “Like plants without water,” Persephone agreed. Hades was talking to the guys now, and she’d turned back to join the two girls’ conversation.

  “Makes sense,” said Athena, thinking hard on what they’d said. As the goddessgirl of love and beauty, Aphrodite could be trusted to know what made relationships work. After all, she was an expert. And Athena trusted Persephone’s opinion too. She and Hades got along great.

  “Looks like we already need another round of shakes,” Aphrodite said, gesturing toward the now empty tray.

  “I’ll get them this time,” offered Athena. As she picked up the tray and went to the soda counter a few tables over to fetch more, Aphrodite’s words echoed inside her head . . . too late . . . lost interest. She drew in a sharp breath. Could what had happened to that letter-writer-girl happen to her? she wondered. Was it already happening? Could her distraction and lack of attention be causing Heracles to lose interest in their friendship? That would be awful!

  As she waited at the counter for the clerk to make more shakes, she remembered she was starving and bought two snack bars. Munching them, she happened to glance at a cheesy gossip scrollazine in the rack beside her. The cover headline read: Love Tips from a Dumped Hydra-Gal! She unrolled the scrollazine and read more: He said I had too many heads for business and too little time for him! Love dashed! Alongside the words there was a picture of the seven-headed Hydra-lady, looking heartbroken.

  Starting to feel anxious, Athena put the scrollazine back in the rack. Were her heads—um, head—so buried in homework and other stuff that she was pushing Heracles away? Was her love doomed to be dashed too? But maybe it wasn’t too late to make amends. Determined to wrest Heracles’ attention from Theseus, if only for a few minutes, she picked up the tray as soon as it was ready, and turned to hurry back toward the table.

  Athena’s heart sunk when she saw that the two boys were no longer sitting there. She glanced toward the front of the market just in time to see them go out the door. Heracles had left without even saying good-bye! That kind of hurt, and she was worried about what it might mean.

  Oh, stop it, she chided herself. Everything’s fine. Besides, Theseus is leaving in just two days. She and Heracles could renew their friendship during the trip to Crete. It would be great!

  3

  Stuck!

  HEY, PHEME!” ATHENA CALLED OUT to the goddessgirl of gossip, who’d just passed the table where Athena and Artemis were eating lunch the next day.

  Pheme reversed direction and fluttered back to their table, her sandaled feet hovering a few inches above the floor. As her sandals touched down, her small, cute wings stilled. The glittery iridescent wings were a gift from Principal Zeus. A reward for heroism! Like her lip gloss and hair, they were orange, her favorite color.

  “Artemis just told me you’re tenth level in Professor Ladon’s class. Eros, too,” Athena told her. Those two were the missing seventh girl and seventh boy. “So are you excited about the funpark trip?” She used to go out of her way to avoid the gossipy girl, but that had changed not long ago. Pheme had been a big help when the two of them had worked together to rescue Phaeton, a brave but reckless boy with an obsession for chariots.

  Before answering the question, Pheme glanced around the table and then asked one of her own. “Where are Aphrodite and Persephone? The four of you always eat lunch together. Was there an argu—”

  “No argument,” Athena said to head her off. The fact that Pheme was constantly on the lookout for good and ill rumors to spread had often bugged her in the past. Now she just dealt with it.

  “They left a few minutes ago to check on Adonis,” Artemis volunteered before taking a bite of her nectarburger. Adonis was a black-and-white kitten that Aphrodite and Persephone shared and took turns caring for.

  “Oh,” Pheme said, sounding a bit disappointed. Seeking out juicy gossip was sort of like her job at MOA. Plus, it gave her material for the gossip column she wrote in Teen Scrollazine, which was mega-popular with readers.

  “You should’ve come to the Supernatural Market yesterday,” said Artemis. “We were all buzzing about the park and what we’re going to do there and stuff.”

  “Couldn’t. I was packing,” Pheme explained. “I leave after school today for a journalism conference in Athens.” As always when she spoke, puffy cloud-letters formed above her head so that anyone who happened to be looking up could read her words. “The whole staff of Teen Scrollazine is attending, along with Greekly Weekly News reporters and staff from lots of other magazines and newspapers.”

  “Sounds fun,” said Athena. “You’ll be back in time to go to the aMAZEment Park, though, won’t you?”

  The corners of Pheme’s orange-glossed lips turned down. “Nope. I’ll have to miss it. The conference goes through the weekend. I don’t get home till Saturday evening, probably about the same time you guys get back.” She stole an ambrosia fry from Athena’s plate and munched it.

  “Oh, too bad,” said Athena, and Pheme nodded.

  “What’s too bad?” asked Apollo, who’d just come over to the table. Without waiting for an answer, he nodded toward Artemis. “Hey, Sis. Don’t forget we�
�ve got archery practice after school.”

  “I won’t forget,” Artemis assured him. Then she went back to what she’d been doing just before he arrived, namely, feeding her three dogs pieces of her nectarburger under the table.

  “Pheme can’t come to Crete,” Athena told Apollo.

  “Oh, rotten luck.” He silently read the cloud letters that still lingered over Pheme’s spiky orange-haired head, then looked at her. “So you’re going to a conference instead?”

  Pheme nodded. “It was a hard choice, but I couldn’t pass up a chance to meet so many other reporters.” She licked her lips. “Who knows what juicy tidbits I might learn?”

  Apollo and Athena laughed. Pheme lived to gossip. It drove them all crazy sometimes and could also cause trouble. But it was as necessary to her as the ambrosia and nectar the immortal students at Mount Olympus Academy ate and drank in order to stay immortal.

  Suddenly Apollo’s dark eyes lit up. “Hey,” he said to Pheme, “since you can’t go anyway, what would you think about asking Professor Ladon if Cassandra could go in your place?”

  “Ooh! Great idea!” Athena exclaimed. Cassandra wasn’t an MOA student, though. She went to school in the Immortal Marketplace, where her family owned and ran a bakery and scrollbook shop. Still, Athena felt like she owed the mortal girl a favor, so she was all for Apollo’s suggestion. If it hadn’t been for Cassandra’s helpful predictions about Odysseus’s future a couple of weeks ago, Athena might never have succeeded in guiding her hero back home to Ithaca. As return favors went, a trip to the most mega-mazing amusement park in Greece might just fill the bill.

  Pheme cocked her head, considering. “I guess I could ask. I like Cassandra. And her mom and I kind of bonded when we all helped with the grand opening of their family bookshop and I was doing the promotion.”

  “So we’re agreed?” Apollo prodded Pheme. “You’ll ask Professor Ladon?”