by May Burnett
For a moment I was tempted, but then common sense intervened. “Forever? That’s a long time. We’re only sixteen, Eros. Don’t even think of going there.”
Something he’d mentioned before sunk in – what was all that about betting? That would be cheating, just for a bet, wouldn’t it? No way. Go back to New Olympus and take that bow and arrow with you. Now.”
Eros sulkily withdrew, although I couldn’t tell if he was really gone or just invisible.
I was still seething. So they were spying on me from New Olympus, and betting on my love life? How tawdry. How humiliating. When I went back home, I’d give them all a piece of my mind.
9
Still angry, I went to my room and switched on my laptop. I had to write an essay on Jane Austen, and needed to do some research, as English literature had not been very prominent in my Olympian education. I liked it, however, and was compiling a list of books I wanted to read when I went back and had time enough. It was getting longer every day.
Could one download e-books in New Olympus? I’d have to find out. Meantime I had ordered an e-ink tablet and planned to fill it up completely before I went home.
I had tried TV too, but simply couldn’t stand it for longer than ten minutes. The ridiculous advertisements completely broke whatever illusion had been created during the main programme. I couldn’t go back to a story after hearing someone witter on about feminine products (what were those for, anyway?) or some crummy stomach remedy. If these items were so useful, why did their producers need to persuade the customers so much, probably at great cost? It made no sense to me.
Christabel hadn’t done or said anything to spite me while Jason was away from the school. I kept out of her way as much as possible, and she did the same. Melinda warned me not to get complacent. Going by past experience, she said, Christabel would humiliate me at the time when it most mattered.
“Where’s Paul?” Our English teacher asked one morning, when the bully had not shown up for class. We soon heard that he was laid up in the infirmary with a broken wrist. Paul was scheduled to be driven to Denver in the afternoon, for X-rays.
It was not hard for me to guess what had happened. “Wasn't that overkill, with Paul?” I asked Hell when we had a moment alone.
“Paul got off lightly. He made some sexual innuendoes, and tried to push me around. Father would have done far worse.“
“I don’t need to hear the details,” I hurriedly said. “Did he complain about you to the authorities?”
“I doubt it. I made him forget about the whole thing, he may just believe he slipped and fell in the bathroom.”
“All right then.” I had little sympathy to spare for Paul: What a waste that he was extremely good-looking, and could pretend to be charming when he wanted. Such types could do tremendous damage before you got their number, I reflected.
One detail bothered me. “If he doesn’t remember what happened, he’s not going to learn any lesson, is he? He might try it again.”
“It’ll take longer than this term for his wrist to heal.”
“Well, if you have to confront him again, I suggest you do something to make him appear ugly. A handsome face on a bully is a dangerous combination.”
“Handsome? Paul?” Hell shook his head in surprise.
“Yes, he’s almost as good-looking as Jason. Mike and Roman are also quite attractive,” I told him. “Jeremy has the best abs, and very cute lashes.”
“I thought you only had eyes for Jason?”
“While I’m here, is there any reason not to look at all the guys? For purposes of comparison only, of course.”
“Of course,” he echoed. I detected some sarcasm, but let it go.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t been checking out the girls in our class, Hell. I know you.”
“They’re mostly taller than me, and those who’re always revolving around Christabel have no character to speak of. I like Melinda best, but if I wanted a romance – which I certainly don’t – I’d look at the girls in the grades under this one, the girls my own age.”
“Those are definitely too young for romance, I should think.”
Hell just grinned. What had I done, bringing him here among these vulnerable humans?
10
The subsequent Monday, Jason returned from the first leg of his promotional tour. He sought me out during the first intermission in class.
“Myra, I kept thinking about you while I was gone. At night I dreamed only of you.” His face radiated sincerity, and his beautiful eyes were fixed on mine with passionate intensity.
What was going on here?
“Since when did you find me so interesting?” I asked suspiciously.
“It happened on the second day of the tour, during a press conference in Chicago. All those flashing lights – I felt a sudden jolt, and suddenly thought of you. Since then, I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind. Will you be my girl-friend?” He grabbed my hand in his, almost painfully hard.
“Let me think about it,” I said, temporising. Clearly Eros had gone ahead and shot Jason after all. What a cheat.
“What are you holding her hand for?” Christabel’s shrill voice interrupted this tender moment – well, tender on Jason’s side. I only felt exasperation. Jason did not drop his hand. I had to wrench mine away from him. Those arrows are potent.
"Christabel,” Jason murmured, complete indifference in his voice. “I’m talking to Myra; give us a moment, will you?”
She stared at him, outraged. “What’s the matter with you? Has she hypnotised you somehow with those big cow eyes?”
That did it. Jason turned a wrathful expression on the redhead. “Don’t you dare speak like that of Myra! She’s the only reason worth returning here for.”
Christabel was speechless. A couple of her acolytes, who had overheard, started to titter excitedly.
“I’m sure you didn’t mean it like that,” I said to Jason. “You’re insulting everyone else.”
“Okay, whatever you say, Myra.” He gazed adoringly into my face.
We had to return to our seats for the next lesson then, not a moment too soon.
During the French lesson, Maths and Geography Jason kept sending me pleading notes. One said, Myra, I adore you… my life was not complete before we met. I can’t bear the thought of being parted from you. At least two of his notes were intercepted by Christabel and her friends.
What a mess. I was going to wring Eros’s neck, when I caught up with him.
11
Lunch was excruciating. Jason kept sticking to my side like a burr, even going so far as to pick the exact same dishes (not that we had a lot of choice). He sat down at my right side, and hardly touched his food, staring at me like a moon-calf instead. It was enough to put me off my food.
Hell and Melinda were watching Jason’s love-sick behaviour with morbid fascination. My brother immediately guessed what had happened, of course, though I hadn’t told him about the betting going on in New Olympus. Betting and cheating, I thought, angry once again when I considered how my naïve hopes were spoiled by this interference. Any chance of a real relationship between Jason and me, as remote as it had seemed before, was completely ruined now. I didn’t want him like that. The cooler I was towards him, though, the more impassioned he got.
Christabel was shooting angry looks at our table and speaking to her closest friends in sibilant whispers. She didn’t reckon with my super-sharp hearing.
“He’s lost his mind,” she told her friend Harriet. I had to agree. “This Myra is a witch. I wonder what kind of black magic she used to rob Jason of his will.”
“You really think-?” Harriet sounded both excited and a little nervous. “If she’s so powerful, she could be dangerous to cross. Maybe it’s voodoo she uses, sacrificing chickens in the night.”
“It must be something like that,” Christabel agreed. “But I’ll get rid of her, and then Jason will come to his senses.”
“How're you going to get rid of her
?” Sophia, another of the group, chimed in.
“I’ll tell you later,” Christabel announced with a glance around the room. This did not bode well. What could a bunch of shallow human teenagers do to me, anyway? Maybe I’d better be on guard, just in case.
12
I have to hand it to Christabel, she lost no time in planning and executing her manoeuvre. That same evening, as I was hammering away at my English essay, I was rudely interrupted by the door opening without a knock.
Mrs Acton, the matron, accompanied by Christabel and Harriet, stomped in without greeting. Her face was severe and disapproving, as I’d never seen her before. Something was very wrong.
Hell – I’m in trouble! I sent the thought to him as hard as I could. Would he be open to the message? Though I'd lost my telepathic ability with my other powers, he still retained his, after all. I could only hope he would hear my plea across the huge building over in the boys’ wing.
“What’s the matter?” I asked Mrs Acton.
She looked at me coldly.
“Harriet has told me that she is missing a golden bracelet, a birthday gift from her mother. Christabel says she has seen you wearing it. I have to search your room.”
She didn’t add that she fully expected to find it, and that I would be thrown out of the school ignominiously; but her pinched mouth and disdainful look strongly implied it.
I thought quickly. The bracelet was probably hidden in my room – they would have made sure of that before running to the matron with the accusation. I could deny taking it, but with several witnesses against me, there was little chance I’d be believed.
I crossed my arms defiantly.
“If you’re accusing me of theft, Mrs Acton, my father will sue you and your school for defamation, all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.”
She was unimpressed.
“Well, if it’s not here, I’ll be willing to believe that Christabel was mistaken.” Without further ado, the matron started to open my drawers and rummage among my possessions.
My fury was palpable. I felt like my head would explode, and had a momentary vision of turning all three of my tormentors into toads. Behind Mrs Acton’s back, the two girls were smirking at me, certain of victory.
I tapped my foot, wondering if I should call Pallas now. To be defeated by these devious girls would be too humiliating, but at the moment I couldn’t think of any other solution.
It took Mrs Acton less than three minutes to find a gold bracelet that had been wedged out of sight behind the heater. As if I’d have chosen such a lame hiding place.
“There it is!” Harriet cried. “Oh, I’m so glad to get it back!” She would never be an actress, but it was good enough to convince Mrs. Acton. The matron turned to me, her face implacable.
Just at that moment, Hell came running along the corridor, tumbling into my room, which was now rather crowded.
“They hid a bracelet and claimed I stole it,” I quickly told him in Greek.
Hell said a word of power, freezing the three of them into statues. Harriet had been blinking and Christabel’s mouth was open. Ignoring their ridiculous expressions, I quickly I told my brother what had happened over the last minutes.
He was almost as angry as I. “You choose their punishment, Myra,” he offered.
I had to think a little, and to let my anger subside at least a bit. Pallas had taught me that decisions taken in the heat of anger are often regretted later on.
“Mrs Acton wasn’t acting in malice, she really believed what the girls told her,” I decided. “She should just forget the whole thing.”
Hell woke the matron up. She stared at his face vacantly.
“Nothing happened here tonight. You will forget anything you were told about a bracelet.”
“What bracelet?” she said, confused. She caught sight of the two girls, still frozen. “What’s going on here?”
“You will go to your own rooms and not remember anything you saw or heard tonight. If anyone comes to your with accusations against Myra or me, you know that they are lying. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she mumbled.
“Go now.” Mrs Acton shuffled out, and we heard her steps retreating in the distance.
“Thanks,” I told Hell.
“It’s nothing. If Father hadn’t taken away your powers, you wouldn’t have needed any assistance.”
True. I wondered if our lot up in New Olympus were monitoring this fiasco, and if more betting was taking place right now. My anger mounted again.
“Harriet should be struck dumb for a week,” I decided. "That will teach her to slander me.”
Hell nodded and moved his hands. The next moment Harriet was gone, bracelet and all, no doubt back in her own room.
“That leaves dear Christabel.” Hell’s voice was as grim as his expression. We both looked at her sightless eyes and open mouth, considering various options. Even in its immobile state, there was something calculating about her face. And she was still beautiful, I hate to admit it. Beauty and character don’t have any correlation.
“Well?”
“I want something to render her harmless, but not take away her free will. It’s disgusting how Jason is following me around like a puppy, just because Eros got him with an arrow.”
“We could ask him to shoot an arrow at Christabel, to make her fall in love – with you, maybe?”
I shuddered. “That’s the last thing I need, both of them pursuing me. No, let’s give her a compulsion to answer any question completely, and truthfully.”
“Is that enough?”
“For a person like her, who lies all day long without even thinking twice about it, it will be terrible. She cannot remain silent, she has to speak, and say the truth, no matter how awkward.”
“Okay, I can see where that might be an interesting effect.” With a nod, he sent the immobile girl from my room.
I breathed a sigh of relief to see the last of her.
"Thanks again, Hell, I owe you one. Now I really need to do my homework. Have you done the essay already?”
“In a manner of speaking.” That meant he had simply produced it by magic, I knew, as usual taking the easiest way. But after he had saved me from major humiliation, this was not the moment to criticize.
“Good night, then.”
13
At breakfast the next morning Jason sat right next to me, and watched me like a hawk as I brooded.
“You’re just stirring that muesli around and haven’t taken a bite,” he observed after a while. “You’ve got to eat to keep up your health.”
“What?” I glared at him. “Do I look like an anorexic waif by any chance? You attend to your food and let me decide about mine.”
He actually flinched. “I didn’t mean to offend you, Myra, all I want is the best for you. Teenagers need lots of healthy food for optimal brain development. My agent gave me a brochure about it, with tables and all.”
“I’m sure he was concerned about your own nutrition, not mine.” I moderated my voice and expression; the whipped puppy look he had given me was making me feel irrationally guilty.
Hoping to distract Jason with his favourite subject, I asked, “So, how’s your agent? What new engagements has he been planning for you?”
Jason frowned. “Actually, Jerry keeps after me to fly out to Atlanta for a recording session with the MacDudes, but I’m not going anywhere while you’re here.”
“The MacDudes? Who-“
Melinda, who’d been listening, shook her head at my ignorance. “They’re only the hottest new band since the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Really, Myra, have you been living on the moon?” She turned to Jason. “Are you crazy, to turn down a chance to work with them?”
“I won’t leave Myra,” Jason said, stubbornly. Melinda and I exchanged glances of consternation.
This was so not what I had hoped for when I’d wanted to meet him. He might ruin his career over this sudden obsession with me.
“Ja
son,” I spoke to him carefully, “I want you to go. This is a chance for you to advance your career.” He still looked reluctant. “I’d really like to hear a recording of you with the MacDudes.”
“You would?” His happy smile was like a sunrise over the Aegean. “Then come with me to Atlanta!”
I was taken aback. “I’m not sure the school would allow that.”
“I won’t go without you. I’ll call Jerry right away to set it up.”
“Whatever.” I doubted that anything would come of it, but didn’t want to rain on his parade.
“Have you guys heard,” Melinda said, “that Christabel and Harriet have had a falling out? But the details aren’t known, because Harriet has a sore throat and can’t talk at all just now.”
“Small loss, that,” I said. “I’m sure she’ll recover.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Anyway, we could ask Christabel what it’s all about.”
“She won’t tell you anything she doesn’t want to,” Jason said.
“Maybe she’s changed,” I said cheerfully. Christabel was coming into the breakfast hall just then, rather late. On her way to the buffet she made a big detour so she wouldn’t pass anywhere near our table.
“That’s strange,” Melinda said, watching her. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say she’s afraid of us.”
I gave up on the muesli and reached for an apple instead. As I bit into it, Jason gave me a look that expressed his approval and love.
“Fruits are very healthy.”
“Enough already. I know they’re healthy.”
I was actually thankful when it was time to go to class. Jason’s constant attentions were starting to creep me out. Yet if I hadn’t made that stupid birthday wish, Jason wouldn’t be under the influence of helpless passion. I was at least indirectly responsible for his pitiful state.
If only I had my powers, I’d soon set everything to rights. Being merely human sucked.
14
We had some unexpected comedy in class. Ms Cowslip, our English teacher, asked Christabel if she loved Dickens, since her essay on Oliver Twist had been so insightful.