by Joan Holub
“There was some weird lettering on your box. What did it say?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he told her. “We couldn’t decipher it. Not even my uncle could.”
“Maybe they’re directions on how to defeat those bubbles. If I could see the box again, I might be able to figure them out,” Pandora hinted. “Well?” she said when he didn’t make a move to get the box. “Can I see the box—puh-leeze?”
“We don’t have it,” Prometheus piped up. There was a string of Athena’s paper dolls hanging from his pocket now. And Aphrodite’s pom-poms had mysteriously found their way onto his desk.
Epimetheus nodded. “He’s right. I left it in Zeus’s office before Science-ology that day you opened it.”
“Why?” asked Pandora.
“Because we thought it would be safe with him.” He turned away and muttered something that sounded like, “But I guess we were too late.”
“What did you say?” she asked.
Epimetheus looked over at his brother as if asking permission to reveal some secret. But when Prometheus shook his head, Epimetheus just shrugged and said, “Nothing.”
Nothing, schmothing, thought Pandora. There was definitely something they weren’t telling her.
“Well, Zeus probably stashed the box somewhere in his office like he does everything else he collects. I’m going to sneak in there and look for it,” Pandora said decisively. Turning, she reached for the doorknob.
Athena had apparently been listening, because she said, “Sneaking into my dad’s office is a great idea.” Then her face scrunched up in confusion. “Or maybe not. I can’t decide.”
Pandora didn’t want to imagine how much trouble she’d be in if she were caught. But if there was a chance that the box held the secret to returning everyone at MOA back to normal, she had to try.
“Okay. Let’s go,” Epimetheus said, taking a step toward her.
Pandora shook her head. “I’ll go by myself. There’s no reason for the rest of you to risk getting in trouble too. Especially since I’m the one who opened the box and let the bubbles escape in the first place.”
“No way. I’m coming,” said Epimetheus. “Your search will go faster with help.”
“Me too,” said Prometheus. “I bet there are some awesome collectibles in Zeus’s office.” He rubbed his palms together in anticipation.
“What about me?” asked Athena.
“We’ll need lookouts,” Epimetheus told her. “Maybe you and Aphrodite could wait outside the office and signal if you see anyone coming.”
“Yay!” said Athena. She jumped to her feet, clapping like she’d just won a prize.
Aphrodite, who had abandoned her spitballs, was busy working on a new armpit song. “What”—burp—“ever,” she said carelessly.
“Okay, but don’t blame me if we get caught,” Pandora warned them. She was going to feel really bad if that happened, though. However, Epimetheus was right that the search of Zeus’s office would go faster with help.
She opened the door a crack and peeked out of the room. There were still boys in the hall. She looked back at Athena. “Where’s your Spell-ology textscroll?”
“Um.” Athena looked around blankly.
Epimetheus frowned at Prometheus and held his hand out toward him, palm up. “Hand it over, Bro. And the other stuff.”
With a sheepish expression Prometheus handed over the pom-poms, paper dolls, a couple of small animal statues, and what was left of Athena’s cut-up Spell-ology textscroll. He’d somehow managed to steal it again.
Fortunately, the section of the scroll with the “hiding spell” was still intact. With a little help from Aphrodite and Epimetheus, Athena was able to cast the spell. It made all five of them invisible.
“Hurry. We can’t be sure how long the spell will last,” Epimetheus said as they silently left the room.
Pandora, Athena, and Aphrodite held hands as they sneaked along, so they wouldn’t get separated. Halfway down the hall they passed Ares and Poseidon. Ares was busy trying to get his armor to work right. Wearing a robe now, Poseidon stood next to him, watching him work.
“What is wrong with you?” Ares asked the suit of armor. He bent its arms to its sides and held them there. But the second he let go, the arms whipped up again. “C-c-clankhead!” the suit stuttered.
Aphrodite stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at the armor as they went past. Athena giggled.
“Did you hear that?” asked Poseidon. He dropped to a crouch, glancing around wildly.
But Ares was so busy concentrating on his armor, he wasn’t paying attention to anything else. He shook his head. “I didn’t hear anything. Why are you so jumpy?”
“I’m not,” Poseidon insisted. He still looked nervous, though. His face had paled and he clutched his trident tighter. What a scaredy-cat!
Pandora rushed the two goddessgirls onward to the stairs before they could make any more mischief. Good thing too, because the invisibility spell wore off the minute they all ducked out the door.
She doubted Ares or Poseidon would’ve really ratted them out even if they’d seen them. But there had been other boys in the hall as well. If they’d spotted the sneaking group, word would get around. Eventually Pheme would get wind of the news, and then Zeus would find out.
“I don’t get what you see in that Poseidon,” Epimetheus said to Pandora as they started downstairs. “What a dippy guy.”
Pandora shrugged. “He’s the godboy of the sea. Of course he’s going to be drippy. What do you expect?”
She was only pretending to think he’d said “drippy.” Because she didn’t want to tell him that she halfway agreed with him. In fact, she was beginning to wonder exactly what she saw in Poseidon herself.
Could it be that she was so used to worshiping him that she couldn’t admit he was unworthy of her admiration? She’d think about it more when she had time. But right now they had other more pressing matters to deal with.
Like rounding up a bunch of dangerous bubbles!
11
Sneaking Around
THROUGH THE WINDOWS ALONG THE STAIRS, Pandora could see it was pitch black outside except for a scattering of twinkling stars. Fortunately, torches were set here and there in holders that angled out from the walls along all the school’s stairs and hallways.
Prometheus seemed fascinated by these night-lights and asked about them. Pandora explained that Hephaestus—the godboy of blacksmithing and metalworking—lit them each night from the fire burning in his forge.
When the five students reached the main floor, they moved soundlessly through the empty halls toward Zeus’s office.
After a minute Athena whispered, “Sneaking around the halls this late is, like, so . . .” She seemed at a loss to describe it.
“Sneaky?” Pandora supplied. “Creepy? Spooky?”
“Yeah, all of those,” said Athena.
“We’re here,” Epimetheus said when they eventually reached the door that led from the hallway into the school office.
“Athena, you and Aphrodite keep a lookout, okay?” Pandora reminded them. “And don’t let each other out of your sight. Promise?”
Athena nodded, giggling for no reason at all. Aphrodite slouched against the wall and pulled a piece of gum from her pocket. After popping it into her mouth, she began smacking it loudly. “Yeah. Uh-huh. Whatever.”
Pandora rolled her eyes, trying very hard to remember that Aphrodite couldn’t help being rude at the moment. Putting her hand on the doorknob, Pandora turned it and pushed. Creak! The door swung inward. Epimetheus and Prometheus crept past her into the outer office.
She was reluctant to leave Aphrodite and Athena out here without supervision, but they really did need lookouts. Glancing back at them again, she asked, “What signal will you use to let us know if someone’s coming?”
Right then Aphrodite let out a loud burp followed by two short ones that echoed down the hall.
“One long, two shorts. Got it,” Ep
imetheus called softly back to them.
Pandora was unsure whether Aphrodite had actually meant that as a signal, or whether she’d just burped for fun. Either way, Pandora was looking forward to having the polite Aphrodite back. And the brainy Athena too.
She crossed her fingers that they’d find the box. And that the words on it would provide a solution to make things normal again!
Moving quietly, she followed the Titans into the office. As they passed the tall semicircular counter behind which Ms. Hydra usually worked, she saw Prometheus’s hand reach out.
Quick as a whip, he snagged the small golden bell that sat on the countertop. Students rang it to get Ms. Hydra’s attention if none of her heads were within earshot. The bell gave a startled little tinkle as he stuffed it into the pocket of his tunic.
“Put that back!” Pandora whispered. Caught red-handed, Prometheus hunched his shoulders. Then he grudgingly returned the bell to the countertop.
“Whoa! What happened here?” Epimetheus said. He spoke in a hushed voice even though there was no one else around.
He’d stopped outside Zeus’s office. Its door was hanging at an odd angle, swaying crazily by the top hinge. The two lower hinges were broken.
The creepiness of sneaking around in the middle of the night made Pandora speak softly too. “Oh, that. It’s no big deal. Happens all the time,” she told him. “Principal Zeus doesn’t know his own strength, so sometimes he swings his door too hard. Ms. Hydra will probably call a custodian to fix it tomorrow.”
The Titans managed to shift the door aside so they all could slip past. Creak!
Pandora tiptoed inside. Zeus’s office was mostly dark. But luckily a bit of pale light filtered in from the stars and the full moon, which were visible through the office windows.
Clunk! “Ow!” Epimetheus grunted up ahead.
“You okay?” Pandora asked.
“Uh-huh,” he muttered. “No thanks to Principal Zeus’s housekeeping. This place is a mess.”
“Eew, gross!” Pandora wailed softly as her sandal squished something. It had felt gooey and slippery like a banana peel. She stumbled over a couple of board games, then crunched what she guessed was one of the game pieces underfoot.
“It’s always messy in here,” she whispered to her companions as they searched for the box. “I’m pretty sure it’s only like this because a trouble bubble is making Zeus lazy.”
Epimetheus’s voice floated back to her from somewhere by the windows. “You stick up for people. I like that about you,” he said.
Pandora considered that as she bent and felt the tops of the chair cushions in front of Zeus’s enormous desk. “And here I thought you thought I was annoying,” she teased.
“Huh? No way,” said Epimetheus. Then she heard him tell his brother, “Put that down.” There was a dull thunk as Prometheus dropped whatever it was that he’d just tried to steal.
“I can’t see a thing!” Prometheus grumbled. “I’m going to go get a torch. Be right back.”
Pandora heard his footsteps cross the room. Once his brother was gone, Epimetheus spoke in a low voice. “There’s something I need to tell you even though Prometheus doesn’t want me to,” he said. “It’s about a prophecy. One that an oracle told my uncle. One that concerns you, I think.”
“Me?” Pandora asked. Prophecies were exciting, amazing things. She could hardly wait to hear more.
“Our uncle warned Prometheus and me not to tell anyone because it would cause suspicion about the box. But that oracle? She predicted that one day a curious girl would open the box and bring forth trouble.”
“Oh. Um, I’m guessing the trouble-bringing girl turned out to be me?” said Pandora, a little dismayed.
“Bingo. But don’t feel bad. Prophecies have a way of coming true even if you try to stop them.”
“Yeah,” Pandora replied. It was weird to think that an oracle had known what she would do before she’d even done it, though. She never thought she’d be part of a prophecy!
“So anyway, that’s why I avoided you when I first got to MOA,” Epimetheus went on.
“You did?”
“You didn’t notice?”
She shook her head, forgetting that he couldn’t see her. She’d thought the Titans were avoiding everyone.
“My Uncle Epimetheus said that you were the most curious girl at the Academy,” he told her.
“He knew me? Hey, wait a minute,” said Pandora, as she suddenly put two and two together. “Did your uncle substitute teach a class at MOA one semester a few years ago?”
“Yep. He said you unleashed some weather disasters from a box in a storage closet, right?” Epimetheus asked.
Pandora blushed, remembering. “Oh, yeah. I sort of tried to forget about that.”
“So anyway, I just wanted you to know that even though we avoided you, it was nothing personal. I mean, I like that you’re curious, you know?”
Now that she thought about it, they had sat as far away from her as they could in Science-ology class. And their table in the cafeteria was far away too.
She heard him moving stuff around somewhere across the room, and realized she’d been just standing there thinking. She started searching for the box again. “So do you think that’s why the box opened for me when it wouldn’t for anyone else? And why I’m the only one who can see the bubbles?”
“Probably,” Epimetheus said. “I’m sorry,” he added. “Since I knew about the prophecy, I should’ve believed you about the bubbles when you first told me. I guess I just didn’t want to believe what was happening. Everything seemed okay at first. And by then we’d given Zeus the box to protect, so—”
Oomph! “Ow!” Stumbling in the dark, Pandora pitched forward onto all fours. She wound up kneeling in a square patch of moonlight that illuminated the floor in front of her.
“Are you okay?” Epimetheus asked, his voice full of concern.
“Um-hm. Yeah, I just tripped,” she told him. “Over some empty bottles of Zeus Juice.”
When she pushed up, Pandora brushed her long hair from her face. And found herself looking right at a pair of huge golden sandals. Sandals with feet in them. They were under Principal Zeus’s desk. Which probably meant . . .
She went up on her knees and peeked over the edge of the desk toward the throne behind it. A tiny squeak left her, and she clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from shrieking in surprise.
Zeus! He’d been here the whole time, snoozing away in his throne! Couldn’t he at least have snored like usual to let them know he was here?
“Pegasus?” Zeus mumbled sleepily. “Did you fetch my thunderbolts?”
His big hand reached across the desk and patted the top of her head. He’d mistaken her for his winged horse! Sparks shot from his palm. Luckily they went sideways. Otherwise her hair might’ve caught on fire.
“Good boy,” Zeus said, obviously still half-asleep. Then he folded his arms on the desk, laid his head on them, and began to snore.
“What’s going on?” Epimetheus whispered in alarm from across the room. “Is Zeus here?”
“Shh! Yes,” she whispered back. “He’s asleep at his desk.” Keeping an eye on Zeus to be sure he didn’t wake up, she began backing away on her knees. Then she froze in her tracks. Because she’d just noticed something.
In the crook of one arm, Zeus was cuddling a stuffed horse that was a perfect likeness of Pegasus. And clasped in his other arm was—the bubble box!
RIINNG! RIINNG! Just then the fire alarm lyrebell went off!
Pandora’s eyes bugged out. Zeus’s blue eyes popped open. For a second they both stared at each other across the desk in silent astonishment.
Then she leaped to her feet. “There’s a fire somewhere in the building. We need to get outside!”
Suddenly Epimetheus was beside her. Zeus blinked at them in confusion. “What are you two doing in here? What’s going on!” he bellowed. Then he yawned. His eyes drooped shut, and his head sank onto his desk again.
“Principal Zeus, wake up! There’s a fire!” Pandora yelled. She and Epimetheus ran around the desk and each grabbed one of Zeus’s arms, shaking him. Or trying to. He didn’t budge.
“C’mon!” Epimetheus urged him.
“I think I hear your wife calling you,” Pandora fibbed, figuring that might wake him.
Immediately a burst of energy surged through Zeus. He jumped to his feet. “Hera? Sugarplum?” he called, looking around. The mention of Hera sure seemed to bring back the old Zeus. But not for long.
When he didn’t see her, his eyes closed again and his shoulders slumped forward. At least he was standing now, though. Pushing him from behind, they managed to get him to shuffle out of the office. Out in the hall, students were scurrying toward MOA’s enormous bronze front doors and the courtyard beyond.
“Where’s Prometheus?” Epimetheus called.
“I see Athena and Aphrodite up ahead,” Pandora called back. “I’m guessing he’s with them?”
Swept up in the crowd, she couldn’t see over the heads around her and quickly lost track of Zeus, her friends, and Epimetheus, too. Soon she was out in the courtyard with everyone else. Most of the students looked sleepy, like they’d just jumped out of bed.
Artemis was wearing a lavish froufrou nightgown and long robe. She was holding her Cutie Pie dog in one hand and her hand mirror in the other. In the meantime, her three big dogs were excitedly bounding around among the other students. All dozen of Medusa’s snakes were curled tightly to her head, still dozing despite the commotion. Next to her, Ares sported pj’s bearing the logo of a sword-making company in the Immortal Marketplace called Mighty Fighty.
Spotting Hades nearby, Pandora went over to him. “What’s happening? Where’s the fire?” she asked.
“There!” Hades pointed up at a window in the school. Smoke was billowing from the Hero-ology classroom!
Zeus and the other teachers were gazing up at it. Zeus seemed to be having trouble taking charge of the situation. Instead of shouting his orders, he mumbled them, sighing and yawning.