by Holub, Joan
Startled, Medusa jumped. All twelve of her snakes hissed in surprise. “Give me a heart attack, why don’t you?” she said in annoyance.
Stepping back, Aphrodite eyed the snakes warily, but then her face took on a determined look. “We’re going out for ambrosia shakes and snacks at the Supernatural Market later. Everyone’s talking about wedding gift ideas for Hera and Zeus. Want to come with us?”
Godness! She never should have told the truth a few weeks ago when Aphrodite had asked why she didn’t like her. What Medusa had replied was something like, “Everything’s so easy for you just because you’re pretty. You don’t even have to try, and boys adore you. It’s not fair.” She hoped Aphrodite didn’t feel sorry for her because of that, but she had a feeling she did. Because now Aphrodite was always trying to be fake-friendly and include her in things. Medusa was sure she and the other goddessgirls didn’t really want her butting in.
“Sorry. I’m busy,” Medusa replied tartly, even though she did kind of want to hang out with them.
Aphrodite put a hand on one hip, like she didn’t believe her. “Doing what?”
“Stuff.” Medusa’s fingers toyed with the papyrus javelin in her pocket. She really did have something to do, but she wasn’t about to tell Aphrodite what it was. Because it was a big secret!
2
Medusa’s Big Secret
AS MEDUSA STARTED EDGING OUT OF THE row of bleachers, Aphrodite stayed put. “Come by later if you change your m—,” she called out.
“Yeah, okay,” Medusa interrupted, not waiting for her to finish. After zipping down the stone steps, she dashed off toward the dorms. She didn’t trust Aphrodite’s sudden offer of friendship. And she didn’t need anyone to befriend her out of pity!
When she got to her room on the fourth floor of the Academy, she unlocked it, rushed inside, and then closed the door. Click! She locked it behind her. As far as she knew, she was the only girl in the dorms who’d put a lock on her door. But she wasn’t about to trust her privacy to the honor system like everyone else. No one but she had been inside this room since third grade. Not even her two sisters, Stheno and Euryale. And she planned to keep it that way.
Tossing the Teen Scrollazine onto her desk beside a stack of textscrolls from her classes, Medusa then went to kneel on her spare bed. Like all the other dorm rooms, hers had two twin beds on opposite sides of the room, and two desks, but only one of each was used. Oh, she’d had roommates in the past. But she’d driven them off, one by one.
In third grade she’d been paired with a mortal named Pandora. That girl had been nothing but constant questions. Medusa had quickly figured out how to drive her away, though. She’d just answered her questions with more questions. Like if Pandora said, “Have you done your homework?” Medusa would answer, “Why do you ask?” If Pandora said, “Do you think Poseidon is cute?” Medusa would reply, “Do you think he’s cute?” Finally the curious girl couldn’t take it anymore and requested a room reassignment. She was Athena’s problem now.
Her next roommate had been Pheme, the goddessgirl of gossip. She had a weird habit of puffing her words into the air in little clouds, so you could read them. She couldn’t help it, but Medusa had coughed and complained, finally declaring the room a no-smoking zone and refusing to let Pheme speak. Since the girl lived to gossip, it had practically killed her to stay quiet. Finally she’d moved out too. Nowadays Medusa had the whole room all to herself. Just the way she liked it.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the little triangular javelin she’d picked up in the bleachers. Staring at the giant bulletin board on her wall next to the bed, she searched for a place to pin it. Eventually she fastened it between the pine-gum wrapper Poseidon had dropped on the playground in third grade and the comic he’d drawn of Mr. Cyclops back in fourth-grade Hero-ology class. There!
She stood back and gazed at the tribute to her supercrush that she’d created. This was her big secret!
Her bulletin board held every single thing Poseidon had ever touched and left behind in her presence. There were Oracle-O cookie fortunes that she’d sneaked from his lunch trays after he’d set them in the cafeteria tray return. There was a napkin he had dropped at the Hero Week dance. On it he’d scribbled a few lines of a song he was writing for Heavens Above, the band he was in with some other godboys. And around the edges of the board, she’d arranged pictures of him she’d cut out of Teen Scrollazine over the years. He’d been the first boy to say hi to her on her first day at MOA, and she’d liked him ever since.
In fact, he was in her head so much that she could almost hear his voice now. Wait a sec. That was his voice!
She hurried over to her window and peered down into the courtyard. There he was, walking toward the sports fields along with Apollo, Ares, and a few girls, including Pandora! Everyone knew she was crushing on Poseidon too.
Pandora said something, and Poseidon laughed. But then another girl spoke, and he turned his attention to her. From the way he acted, Medusa could never tell if he liked Pandora or not. He had danced with her a lot at the last school dance. But then, he flirted with just about every girl in sight. And he always got away with it because he was so cute and fascinating. Even Athena had seemed interested in him when she’d first enrolled at MOA earlier in the year. Fortunately, if she had liked him then, the feeling appeared to have blown over.
Medusa cringed as Poseidon laughed at something Pandora said yet again. This was all Aphrodite’s fault. Medusa had hinted like crazy that she wanted to be fixed up with Poseidon at the Hero Week dance. But instead, clueless Aphrodite had paired her with Dionysus. Humph! Some goddess of love she was!
Medusa had gone along with it, just to see what would happen. But although Dionysus was cute and all, he wasn’t serious about anything. And that made him practically the opposite of her. Besides, he’d worn a stupid blindfold the whole time they’d danced. She was pretty sure he hadn’t guessed she was his partner.
Still, she’d heard the snarky whispers around her even though she’d pretended not to. “He put on a blindfold so he wouldn’t have to look at her.” A tiny spear of hurt pierced her at the memory, but she pushed it away. Who cared what they thought?
One of her snakes gently head-bumped her cheek as if to offer comfort. “Hungry, guys?” she asked. “Who wants snake snacks?” Grabbing the extra ambrosia burger she’d stuffed into her bag at lunch and the snake snack sack from her closet, she went to sit at her desk.
With a sigh she opened her textscroll for Beauty-ology class, her worst subject. “Time to hit the scrolls,” she murmured to herself. As she eased into study mode, she alternated taking a bite of her burger with tossing a bunch of dried peas and carrots high overhead. Her snakes quickly snapped these up before they could drop to the ground. Unlike most snakes, hers were vegetarians.
A while later she heard the voices of Athena, Aphrodite, Persephone, and Artemis in the hallway. Heading out for the Supernatural Market, probably. She sighed again, feeling a little sorry for herself. She was likely the only student at MOA who was studying tonight. Everyone else was out having fun. You’d think she’d be used to it by now, though.
She’d had to work extra hard to keep up with the immortals ever since coming to MOA in third grade. This was her second biggest secret. Only she knew how many hours she had to study—in private—to keep her grades up. It was the real reason she had turned down Aphrodite’s offer to hang out tonight.
Truth was, she struggled with her studies. She’d die if anyone ever found that out. In fact, sometimes—like today—she purposely goofed off in class, doing stuff like reading a scrollazine just to make everyone think her good grades were effortless.
The few other mortals at MOA, such as Pandora and Heracles, didn’t seem to have much problem keeping up. But maybe they weren’t cursed with dim-witted blockheads for parents like she was. Although Medusa’s mom and dad had gotten tutors for her immortal sisters, they’d actively discouraged her from bothering with an educa
tion.
“Why don’t you quit school and get a job carrying water to and from the community well like your friends here on Earth,” they’d said. But Medusa hadn’t listened. No, instead she had followed her sisters to MOA, determined to get an education. She had aspirations for herself. Nobody was going to keep her down!
Still, minutes later, when she heard the four goddessgirls chatting below in the courtyard, she went to the window to wistfully watch them slip on their magic sandals and skim out of sight. On their way to have tons of fun, no doubt.
Just imagine if she were a goddess too, she thought. Life would be easy-peasy. She’d have magical powers and could boss mortals around, and they would have to worship her! And if she were immortal, she’d have a better chance at getting the two things she wanted most. Her supercrush and popularity!
How perfect would that be? Very.
Going back to her desk, she picked up the Teen Scrollazine and stared at the ad for the Immortalizer again. At the very bottom of the page were testimonials from satisfied customers who’d supposedly tried it.
“TRUST ME. THIS THING WORKS!” —PEITHO
“IT’S AMAZING. NO LIE!” —APATE
Sure, it seemed too good to be true, but what if the necklace really did work? What if she could become immortal?
The golden wings on the horse charm in the picture sparkled, as if beckoning her to buy. She knew it was probably dumb to think she might get immortality via mail order, but she felt desperate. Her chances with Poseidon seemed to be slipping away, and after years at MOA she was nowhere close to becoming popular.
Determination filled her. She tore out the order form for the Immortalizer, grabbed a feather pen, and began to fill it out. She was going to make her dreams come true—one way or another!
There was just one big problem. She didn’t have enough money to buy the necklace. But she knew who probably did.
3
Mail-Order Immortality
INEED A LOAN,” MEDUSA ANNOUNCED AS SHE took the empty seat across from her two sisters at their cafeteria table the next morning. After getting dressed and feeding her snakes, she’d knocked at their dorm room door, found them gone, and then tracked them here.
“What kind? A sense of humor loan?” asked Stheno. Although the three of them were triplets—all with green skin—only her sisters’ skin shimmered. Being immortal, they were goddessgirls, of course. A fact they liked to remind her of often.
Euryale grinned. “Or maybe a brain loan?”
“Ha-ha,” said Medusa, pouring honey milk on a bowl of Ambrosia Flakes. Just because they were immortal and older than her by a few measly minutes, they liked to act as if they were way superior. “But really—I need money. Twenty-two drachmas, to be exact.”
“Huh? What for?” asked Euryale.
Medusa studied her cereal before taking a spoonful. Although she ate the same stuff that godboys and goddessgirls did, it didn’t make her skin sparkle and didn’t give her any special powers. Unfortunately.
Maybe she should just tell her sisters the truth, she mused, staring at the floating flakes. You never knew. When she least expected it, they’d act all nice and help her out. After all, she wouldn’t have even gotten into MOA in the first place if they hadn’t sneaked her in that first day of school.
The front office clerk, Ms. Hydra, had been confused when they’d shown up at the Academy—three identical girls barely eight years old. She’d checked her admissions scroll, saying, “I only have two Gorgon sisters on my list. Principal Zeus’s invitation was for twins, not triplets.”
“Must be a mistake,” Medusa had piped up. “I’m their sister—a goddessgirl, just like them. See?” Pointing a finger, she’d magically lifted a textscroll from the counter and twirled it around to convince the clerk she was telling the truth. Of course, her sisters had been the ones who’d actually secretly performed the magic.
But by the time the girls’ trick had been discovered weeks later, Medusa was already attending classes at MOA and making good grades. Fortunately, Zeus appreciated a good trick (he was famed for them on Earth), so he’d allowed Medusa to stay.
“Earth to snakehead,” said Stheno, snapping her fingers to get Medusa’s attention.
Medusa batted her hand away and then took a bite of cereal. Everyone at school probably thought she and her sisters were best buds. But Stheno and Euryale were much closer to each other than to her. They liked being more powerful than she was, so she seriously doubted they’d help her become a goddessgirl too. And that’s why she couldn’t tell them the real reason she needed a loan.
Racking her brain, she tried to think of some other explanation that would convince her moneybags sisters to fork over some cash. Suddenly two of her snakes swooped down in front of her face. They tied themselves into a bow as if wrapped around a present.
What do presents have to do with anything? Medusa wondered. Then one of her snakes formed itself into a zigzag shape, so it looked like one of Zeus’s thunderbolts. And lightning fast, an idea hit her.
Thanks, guys, she mouthed silently. She glanced at her sisters. “I need the money to buy a wedding present for Hera and Zeus,” she fibbed.
“Use your allowance,” said Euryale.
Medusa sat back in her chair, folding her arms. “You get three times more allowance than I do.” It was true. Their mom and dad liked her sisters more. “And since worshipful mortals are always giving stuff to goddesses, you hardly ever have to buy anything yourselves. You must have a ton of money saved by now. C’mon.”
“No can do,” said Stheno, smirking.
“Pretty please with nectar on top? I’ll pay you back.” She wasn’t beyond begging when she had to.
“Nuh-uh,” said Euryale, shaking her head. “Sorry.”
Medusa straightened and jabbed her spoon into her bowl in annoyance. It was hard always having to be dependent on her sisters’ goodwill. They usually only helped her when it somehow benefited them.
Hey! That was it! She needed to make it seem that giving her money would be in their best interest.
Thinking quickly, she said, “Okay, but you know it’ll make you look bad if your little sister doesn’t have a gift for the wedding, right? I’ll think of something, though. Maybe I’ll just knit some socks for Zeus and Hera, or make them a jar of pomegranate jam.” She sighed, rubbing it in. “Of course that’ll look pretty pathetic compared to a gift like the magical golden apples a godboy like Hephaestus can make.”
Stheno and Euryale exchanged glances. Ha! She had them worried now. Victory was near, Medusa thought, innocently munching her cereal.
Euryale leaned forward with her elbows on the table. “Okay, little sister, tell you what we’ll do. If you promise to clean our room, we’ll take you to the Immortal Marketplace today to shop for a decent gift.”
“And the loan?” Medusa asked hopefully.
“Don’t push your luck,” said Stheno. “We’ll think about it.”
“Okay, deal,” Medusa agreed.
Euryale cackled with laughter. “Ha-ha-ha! We were going there anyway!”
Medusa shrugged. She’d already guessed as much. But if they all hung out together, she’d have more time to try to squeeze some money out of them.
Minutes later the three sisters finished breakfast, stowed their trays in the return, and then headed out of the cafeteria. On their way out they passed some godboys at a nearby table laughing like crazy.
“Can you believe this?” asked Ares, nudging Apollo and handing him an open Teen Scrollazine. Apollo skimmed it, then laughed too. “Godsamighty! Mortals will try anything to become like us,” he said.
From a distance Medusa couldn’t read the page, but she could see it had a sparkly winged horse on it. Obviously they were making fun of the Immortalizer ad. Their reaction didn’t change her mind one bit about buying the gadget, though. Immortals were always poking fun at mortals for wanting to be like them. They just didn’t know how lucky they were!
Aphrodite and
Athena walked into the cafeteria just as Medusa and her sisters were going out. When both of them smiled at Medusa and seemed about to speak, she pretended not to see them and sped up to get away. What is up with those goddessgirls lately? she wondered. Their niceness was weirding her out.
Still, a tiny part of her wondered what might have happened if she’d said hi back? Oh, well. Too late now. Besides, what if they’d only looked surprised and replied, We weren’t talking to you. How embarrassing would that have been? Very.
When the Gorgon triplets reached the big bronze front doors of the Academy, each of them slipped off their regular sandals and grabbed a pair of silver-winged ones from the basket nearby. Then they went outside and down MOA’s wide granite steps, where they sat and slipped the sandals on. Once the laces magically twined around their ankles, they stood.
Immediately the silver wings at the heels of her immortal sisters’ sandals began to flap. Stheno and Euryale rose to hover a few inches above the tiled courtyard. But Medusa’s sandaled feet remained firmly on the ground, wings unmoving. That is, until her sisters came to stand on either side of her and each took one of her hands in theirs.
At their immortal touch the wings on Medusa’s sandals began to flutter too. “Whoa!” she said nervously as she rose to hover between them. She gripped their hands with her own white-knuckled ones. It didn’t matter how many times she’d done this, it was still a frightening experience. Because her sisters controlled these sandals, not her! Only by clinging to an immortal’s hand could a mortal fly.
“Let’s go!” said Stheno. With that the three of them whisked away across the courtyard at ten times the speed of walking.