“No, just an answer is good,” I said. “Um. What the other muses and I are doing? It’s not what we’re supposed to be doing. We have a whole different mission. And I think we’re going to get into big trouble if we help Ari.”
Aphrodite’s lovely eyebrows knitted together. I observed them for a second. Not a hair out of place. She clucked her tongue twice, perked up, and said, “You have just one mission.”
Now I was confused. “No. We have two. Ari and Athena’s quest on one hand,” I said, raising my left hand, “and finding the tenth muse on the other,” I finished, bringing my right hand up. I lifted them up and down in turn, as if weighing them.
Aphrodite stilled my hands with her own. “They are one and the same. One mission completes the other.”
“But how?”
“Like I said, Callie, the muses must help Ari. The tenth muse is helping, too. You just haven’t noticed yet.”
“She really is here? In Queens?”
“The muse finder clock is never wrong, peaches.” Aphrodite released my hands. “There,” she said, smiling at me.
I didn’t smile back.
Then Aphrodite patted me on the head. “Off you go.”
“I feel like I need more information,” I said. “Queens is a big place, after all. How is the tenth muse helping us? Does she know she’s a muse? Muse of what, for that matter?” That’s when I felt my feet start slipping, leading me toward the door without me moving them. It was like trying to walk on a soapy floor!
“You get what you get, and you don’t get upset,” Aphrodite sang.
I grabbed on to a beanbag chair, but felt it sliding along with me. “Stop! Please! Can I at least tell Clio and the others?”
My feet stopped slipping at once.
“I don’t think so. This bit of info is just for you, pumpkin. In order to solve this mystery, there’s something you, and only you, can figure out,” she said. She smiled again, and I could have sworn I saw a twinkle.
“It’s just that the muses are a team. We work together. And anyway, Clio said that our mission is to find the tenth muse. Not to help Ari.”
“Then I command you to help my niece.” She released my hands and pointed at herself. “One of the major gods in the pantheon here, and I’m pulling rank.” Aphrodite squeezed my cheek super hard, and I bit back a yelp.
“Okay. Um. Thanks,” I said. I suppose I should have felt some relief at this. Aphrodite herself had now told us that helping Ari was a priority, officially. But I couldn’t help feeling as if I were letting Clio and the other grown-up muses down, even if I was trying to protect them by keeping our new mission a secret. Aphrodite started leading me to the door, but I had another question to ask.
“Is it true,” I asked, my feet already shuffling out from under me again, “that there can only be nine muses? Why not ten?”
“Nine it is, cupcake. That’s how it’s always been,” Aphrodite said, laying her hands on my shoulders and pushing me out.
“Not helpful,” I grunted, trying to keep my feet from moving. But it was no use. When a goddess wants to shove you out the door, she shoves you out the door.
“Sayonara, young goddess. Dasvidaniya. Ma el-salama,” she said, goodbye-ing me in lots of languages until I crossed the threshold of her office and felt the door slam behind me.
“Ugh,” I said, sick and tired of half-answers. First Tia Annie, now Aphrodite, of all people—er, goddesses.
“How did you like her?” I heard, and looked up. There was Ari, fanning herself with a piece of junk mail.
“Loved her. Doesn’t everybody?” I said.
“They do. It’s exhausting,” Ari said, and we both laughed.
I observed Ari for a moment. I should still be mad at her for how she’d made fun of Maris. But part of me felt bad for Ari, too. Not just the whole multiple-lifetimes-as-a-spider part, but the bit about not having a family anymore. That seemed worse than being a spider. “So, you in the mood for pizza for dinner?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“The bookstore clue. I figured it out. Small boot. Little Italy,” I said.
Ari smacked herself on the forehead. “Of course! I’d forgotten that Italy was boot-shaped,” she said with a frown. “You know, when I was first learning geography, we all thought the earth was flat. I still have a lot of modern-day catching up to do. But you? You’re a goddess, Callie!” Ari shouted, and jumped up and down.
I shrugged. “I know.”
Then Ari grew serious. “I thought you got in trouble for coming home late last time. What about your dad?”
“I’ll figure it out,” I said, hoping we had enough time to get to Little Italy and be back before my curfew. “Meet at my place in fifteen minutes?”
“Done,” Ari said. “Tell the others.”
“Of course.” I lifted my bracelet to call the Muse Squad into action when, suddenly, it started to heat up. Clio was calling a meeting.
“What’s happening?”
“Muses are mustering. All of them this time. I don’t have a phone, so I’ll try to meet you outside the museum when we’re done. But don’t go without us. Promise me, Ari. We don’t know what Athena has planned for you.”
Letting others take charge wasn’t easy for Ari. I could tell. “Okay,” she said at last, holding her pinkie finger up. “Promise.”
We shook pinkies, then I dashed out of the bodega, back to the Hall of Science, where Clio and the other muses waited for me to tell them what I’d learned about the tenth muse.
I had learned something. That Ari’s trouble with Athena, and the mystery of the tenth muse, were somehow linked. And that the tenth muse was already helping us. Except there were two big problems.
I didn’t have a clue who the tenth muse was, or how she was helping us with anything!
And according to Aphrodite, I couldn’t tell anybody a single thing.
Chapter 19
Half-Truths and Mini-Golf
The muses weren’t inside the Great Hall. The place was swarming with kids jumping on the beanbags and playing with interactive light displays projected onto the walls.
“Hello?” I called into my bracelet. “Anybody here?”
It took a second before Nia responded, “We’re playing mini-golf! Come on out!”
This was new.
I made my way to the entrance to Rocket Park, the Hall of Science’s mini-golf area. A sign read “Closed for Refurbishment.” The mini-golf park was deserted. I walked outside anyway, leaving the chaos in the museum behind me. The door closed, and the sounds of kids playing died down.
“Hello?” I called again.
That’s when I saw Mela’s head pop out from behind a tree trunk.
“Over here! We’re already on the fifth hole.” She held a golf club in her hands like a sword. “And I’m winning.”
The course was bright and colorful. Blue shapes made up each hole, with globes painted to look like planets embedded into the ground, creating the hazards that made getting the golf ball into the hole tricky. I found the other eight muses gathered around the fifth hole, with Paola lining up her shot.
“Uno, dos, y tres,” she said, the bells on her waist jingling. The ball shot out before her, landing in the hole with a plunk.
The muses cheered, and I joined in.
“Here at last,” Clio said.
“Where have you been?” Nia asked softly.
“Later,” I told her.
“Let’s take a bit of a break,” Clio announced, and led us all to a grassy knoll off of the sixth hole. It was shady and green. Tomiko and Elnaz sat cross-legged on the grass. Clio sat, too, at the highest point of the knoll. Paola settled onto a bench at the edge of the grass, and Etoro sat in her wheelchair beside that. Thalia, Nia, Mela, and I spread out on our stomachs, hands resting on our chins.
“Can all meetings be like this?” Mela asked dreamily.
“Next time, I’ll bring a picnic lunch,” Thalia added.
“It’s the o
nly unoccupied space in this museum at the moment,” Clio said, with a bit of a frown. I could tell she was missing the V and A, with its dark nooks and crannies and tons of places to hide. “Let’s begin with updates on our Fated Ones. Elnaz?”
We watched as Elnaz told everyone about the young man she was helping in Zimbabwe. He was extraordinarily intelligent, had fallen in love with a cello player, and now Elnaz was helping him learn to appreciate classical music for their first date.
“Playing Cupid?” Etoro asked with a smile on her face.
Elnaz shrugged, blushing a little. “The cello player will be good for him, I think.”
I looked at the rest of the Muse Squad and, one by one, they rolled their eyes. We had our own problems to deal with, but they had nothing to do with dates, or crushes, or anybody falling in love.
Tomiko told us about a Russian ballet dancer she was helping to choreograph a ballet for dancers who were differently abled, and Etoro described the efforts of a high school principal in New Zealand who was building an environmentally friendly school, after which Paola told us all about a teenager in Bolivia who had created a sanctuary for endangered salamanders in his backyard!
“Maya’s at Space Camp,” I added, “being her usual genius self.”
The muses cheered. Last year, the muses inspired Maya to be her best self. She’s a Fated One, a person with the potential to change the world for good, and we’d fought evil sirens to protect her. If anyone deserved to go to Space Camp, it was her.
Once all the Fated One reports were done, the older muses turned to look at us, stretched out on the grass.
“Oh no,” Thalia whispered.
Mela buried her face in her arms.
Clio narrowed her eyes at us. “To the business at hand. The tenth muse,” she said.
I could feel the others shifting their attention to me.
I sat up and took my time brushing grass off my thighs. When I spoke, I didn’t quite meet anybody’s eyes. “So we went to see the Gray Sisters.”
“They were totally gross, as advertised,” Thalia added.
“Um. And they asked us to find their eye, which had been taken by an owl,” I explained slowly. “We had to go to the zoo to get the eye from the owl. Which we did.”
“Did I mention this whole thing was gross?” Thalia interrupted again.
“And we took it back to the Gray Sisters,” I continued.
“Nia actually dropped the eye. It went splat, people. Splat! Honestly. So gross,” went Thalia again.
I rested my hand on top of Thalia’s and gave her a little squeeze. She always joked more when she was nervous, and I could tell that at this point, she was freaking out. Because I was about to either 1) lie to the other muses or 2) tell them the truth.
Both options were terrifying.
“Go on,” Clio urged, looking a little green at the turn my story was taking.
“Then we asked the Gray Sisters for help,” I said, pausing.
“And?” Clio asked impatiently.
“And they helped,” I said. Mela made a little whimpering noise beside me.
Silence followed. Tomiko and Elnaz started talking quietly with one another. I caught Etoro giving Paola a very pointed look.
“Now what?” Nia asked beneath her breath. I shrugged.
Clio let the quiet linger for a moment before asking the inevitable. “They helped how, Callie?”
“By giving us a clue. We need to go see about that tonight, actually. A clue that will help us find what we’re looking for,” I said rapidly.
Clio shook her head. “I see what’s happening here,” she said.
“You do?” I asked. My brain felt like scrambled eggs as I tried to come up with excuses that would keep us out of trouble.
“I do. You four want some independence. It’s understandable, really. You’re twelve. It’s the natural way of things. As the first junior muses ever, we must—”
“Muse Squad!” Thalia chimed in.
“—we must accommodate your development as people,” Clio finished. “Go find your clue tonight. But I expect a report soon.”
I clamped my hand over Thalia’s mouth before she could correct Clio again.
“Will do!” I said, saluting awkwardly.
“Oh my goodness, the cringe is upon me,” Nia muttered, but I could tell she was relieved, too. We’d gotten away with it—without having to actually lie!
Sort of.
I mean, I said the Gray Sisters had helped, and they had, just not with the thing we were supposed to be getting help on.
Clio grew serious again. “I wish to impress upon you four the importance of your task. The future of the muses might depend on it. Humans need us, and if we were to disappear from the world, simply because we couldn’t figure out this mystery, it would be a tragedy and a disgrace to the memory of those muses who came before us.” Clio’s eyes fell on me, and my head filled with thoughts of Tia Annie.
I missed her so much. My eyes stung, and I blinked back ridiculous tears.
The meeting ended with Clio passing around the usual plate full of brownies. Nia, Thalia, Mela, and I stuck around for a bit.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Mela said as soon as the grown-up muses were back inside the museum.
Nia added, “Me neither.”
I was very quiet, thinking over what Clio had said. The fate of the muses might rest on finding the tenth. We might be helping Ari, but what about all the future Fated Ones who might never get help because we failed in our mission?
“Has anybody figured out the ‘small boot’ thing?” Thalia was asking.
Mela spoke up. “There’s a western wear store in New Jersey that sells child-sized cowboy boots. I looked it up online. And I think that—”
“Little Italy,” I interrupted. “It means Little Italy. It’s where we have to go to find the next piece of the tapestry. I’m positive.”
“Are you sure?” Mela asked, frowning. I could tell she had been excited about the possibility of visiting a western wear store.
I explained how I’d figured it out, then I told them about Aphrodite and how she’d officially commanded us to help Ari.
“The Aphrodite?” Nia responded.
“The one and only.”
“Honestly, you have all the luck,” Thalia said.
“That’s Captain Callie for you,” Mela added.
I swallowed a big lump in my throat at that. Why did they insist on putting me in charge? I didn’t want it. Except . . .
I was the only one who dreamed of Tia Annie, who sometimes told me things others didn’t know.
And I was the only one whose magic had changed, even though they didn’t know it yet.
But I didn’t feel special. I felt like I needed help all the time.
We heard someone making a “Psst” sound, and we turned our heads to see Ari peering at us through a chain-link fence that bordered the golf course. “You ready to roll?” she asked.
“Ready as we’ll ever be!” Nia called back. “Meet us out front!”
Ari gave us a thumbs-up, and the rest of us went back into the museum only to run into Etoro, who was sitting in the foyer, observing a summer camp group getting ready to board their bus.
We stopped short.
Without looking at us, Etoro lifted an arm and called us to her.
“Busted,” Nia muttered.
“Hi, Etoro,” Thalia said. “Fancy an afternoon in New York then?”
Etoro nodded. “I love this city. And what of the four of you? Off to find your clue? Going to locate the tenth muse for us? It’s quite the mystery, isn’t it?”
The four of us nodded. I could actually hear my heart beating.
I started to speak, anxious to say something that would let us get away, but was cut short by Etoro. “You should know that I am very proud of you all. I wasn’t sure at first that it was a good idea having such young muses take on the work that we do. But it wasn’t for me to decide, was it? The workings of the
universe have always been mysterious, but it seems to me that they are even more so lately. Four muses who are all but children. A tenth muse. Mysterious.”
We waited a little fearfully, not knowing what she would say next.
“Do you know what you need?” she asked at last.
We shook our heads.
“A nice meal. Lots of rest. Young things like yourselves are growing still, don’t forget. Full bellies mean happy hearts,” she said, patting her stomach.
“Italian food would be the ticket!” Thalia said, and I could have kicked her.
Etoro made a happy, humming sound. “Indeed. A nice baked ziti for growing girls.”
“Will do,” Nia said.
“On it,” I added.
“Done and done,” Mela said.
Then we left the museum, breathing hard, and ran straight into Ari.
“Are you all okay?” she asked. “You look a bit freaked out.”
“All good,” I said. “Subway?”
Ari smiled. “Absolutely.”
I turned around as we walked away and noticed Etoro sitting in the foyer, looking out the glass window at us.
I reminded myself that we had Aphrodite’s permission.
I’d told Clio and the others the truth. Sort of. And they would be safe from Athena’s anger.
So why did I feel like a world-class jerk?
Chapter 20
Ssssssspaghetti
“I need to be home by seven,” I said out loud. Again. “And it’s five o’clock already. Five.”
“We know,” Ari said. “And we can totally have you home by then.”
“That’s totally not a promise you can make.”
Ari shrugged. “Just a feeling, I guess. Trust me?”
I didn’t say anything, just turned my head to watch Queens zoom by until the train headed underground as it rumbled into Manhattan. How could I answer her? I didn’t really trust Ari entirely. It felt like I hardly knew her.
And yet I’d already borrowed Ari’s phone to text Papi and Laura, letting them know I was working on the project again with Ari.
Laura had texted back with a thumbs-up emoji.
Papi had merely written, Be home by 7. Hello to Ari.
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