by Lucy Roy
“No, I had to travel about two hours to get to the field in Craiova. Andrei, the boy who traveled with me, lived much closer.”
“Oh, bummer.”
I dug through my suitcase until I found my own black leggings and a purple, loose-fitting tank top that was just long enough to cover my butt. I stepped into the bathroom, leaving the door partially open as I changed.
“You guys didn’t know each other, then?”
“No, we had never met before this morning,” she replied. “You knew the other Americans?”
I quickly pulled my long hair into a ponytail and stepped back into the room. “Yeah, we’ve all known each other pretty much forever.”
“That must have been nice, growing up with friends who shared a similar future.”
She looked a bit wistful, and I wondered if that meant she’d only ever been able to talk to her guardians about what lay in store for her.
“Did you have many human friends at your school?” she asked.
“Yeah, some.” I sat down on my bed and crossed my legs. “What about you?”
She smiled ruefully. “A few, but my guardians did not really care for it. I think they were concerned bad human habits might rub off on me.”
“Really? Like what?”
Before she could answer, there was a loud knocking at the door.
“Tessa, let me in!”
Speaking of bad human habits…
I rolled my eyes in Yana’s direction. “Sorry about this.”
I’d barely opened the door before Mary barged in and flopped onto my bed, pulling my pillow over her eyes. Yana looked at me in understandable confusion.
“Something wrong, Mare?”
She yanked the pillow away from her face and glared at me.
“Yes. Ms. Anette Johansen. She’s the freaking problem. I hope you got a cool roommate because mine sucks.” She lifted her head slightly and noticed Yana staring at her. “Oh. Hey. I’m Mary.”
Yana gave a small smile. “Yana.”
“Cool.” Mary sat up. “So anyway, this chick, she must’ve brought her entire freaking bedroom from home, because half of my room is covered with boy band posters and knick knacks. How she even fit all that crap in that dinky little suitcase she brought is beyond me. Tess, there are New Kids on the Block bobbleheads on her nightstand. Do they even exist anymore? I’m pretty sure my freaking guardians listened to them back in the 80s.”
I couldn’t help grinning. “Okay, but what is she like? Is she nice?”
She shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Mary…”
“What? I’ll chat her up at dinner. Or better yet, you chat her up and tell me how it goes.” She gave me a thumbs up and flopped back down on the bed. Almost immediately, she sat back up.
“Hang on. Can we please talk about that thing with Hermes earlier? Why did he have his arm around you?”
“Hermes had…what?” Yana glanced between us, confused.
I rolled my eyes. “I have no clue. Clearly, he and Nathaniel are friends, but I didn’t expect him to be so…”
“Handsy?” Mary offered.
I snorted. “Casual.”
“Who is Nathaniel?” Yana asked.
“A liaison who came to talk to Tessa the other day. He’s got a thing for her now.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” I said, shooting Mary a glare.
Quickly, I gave Yana a blow-by-blow of my first meeting with Nathaniel, leaving out the part about the vision.
“And now he likes you?”
“He totally likes her,” Mary said, grinning.
“I don’t know about that,” I said, the blush I’d felt earlier returning. “He doesn’t know me.”
“An Elder said he likes you. An Elder agreed with me, Tess, so I’m totally right.” She shifted her gaze to Yana. “Just wait. When he sees her tonight in her little dress and those sexy heels, you watch how he reacts.”
“It’s knee-length,” I said. “Not little.”
“Yeah, yeah. What time do we have to be at this thing tonight?”
“I think seven? I’m pretty sure that’s what Chiron said. We’ve got a few hours still.”
“Awesome. I’m taking a nap.” Mary closed her eyes and pulled a pillow over her face.
“Uh uh, no.” I gave her ankle a hard yank. “Get up, we’re gonna go meet some of the others.”
“What? Why? That’s what this dinner is for, right?”
“Come on, grumpy. Let’s at least get out of these stuffy rooms. There’s lots to explore around here.” I gave her foot another tug. Then, knowing her fondness for canned soda, I added, “They might even have a soda machine in the common room.”
It had the desired effect. She pulled her foot from my grasp and swung her feet around to the floor.
“Fine. Let’s go.” She glanced over at Yana. “You coming?”
Yana’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, yes, of course I’ll join you.”
“Don’t worry,” I whispered as we were leaving. “Mary’s not usually such a brat. She just decided to go out and get drunk last night and hasn’t quite recovered.”
Mary stuck her tongue out in response. “Whatever. At least I had fun.”
“You are braver than me.” Yana placed a hand on her stomach. “My stomach has been in knots all day, and I did nothing last night.”
Mary shrugged and stood up. “It’ll pass, don’t worry. Let’s go, I want sugar.”
We were pleasantly surprised to find that the common room did, in fact, sport a few vending machines that held a variety of drinks and snacks. I didn’t recognize any of the labels, so I assumed they were specific to the Olympic realm. Fortunately, they didn’t require actual money—one of the perks of living in Olympia.
To Mary’s disappointment, the closest thing to canned soda was bottled carbonated fig juice. Yana and I went for plain honeysuckle water.
After we’d each picked out our snacks, we sat down on two of the four couches set up around the room.
“So, Yana,” Mary began, crunching away on her freeze-dried pears. “What’s Romania like?”
Yana took a sip of her sweetened water. “It is a beautiful country. My home was near the Danube River in the south, just on the border of Bulgaria. The commune I grew up in is very small, and we did not travel so much. I’m hoping after our training year I am assigned someplace exciting.” Her eyes seemed to brighten at that thought.
The three of us snacked our way through another ten minutes of conversation before some of the others started filtering into the common room, including Eric and a dark-haired recruit who looked to have a permanent scowl on his face. They made their way over to join us, then were quickly followed by a third guy who hopped over the back of the couch to sit next to Yana.
Introductions went around. The dark-haired guy turned out to be Eric’s roommate, Igor Federov from Tura, a small town in Russia. Despite the naturally downturned look to his face, the smile he gave me when he shook my hand made him seem a lot friendlier than I’d initially thought.
The recruit who’d landed next to Yana introduced himself as Andrei Capreanu. He was the one she’d traveled with from Romania.
“Andrei, where’s your roommate?” Mary crumpled up her empty bag and glanced around for a trash can.
“It’s just here, look.” Andrei took the bag and walked quickly toward a metal circle, about twelve inches in diameter, built into the wall next to the vending machine. “It’s an incinerator, see? We’ve got one in our hallway. You have probably got one in yours, as well.”
He pressed a small button on the side of the circle and a hole opened, allowing him to toss the bag inside. It snapped shut, and I could just make out a muffled whoosh that I assumed was the bag being burned to ash.
“Huh. Cool, thanks.” Mary gave him a quick smile, then sat back down and looked at him expectantly as he reclaimed his seat next to Yana. “So. Who’s your roomie?”
“Demir is around here somewh
ere, although he’s been very quiet.” He scanned the room, then lowered his voice to just above a whisper. “I get the feeling he does not care to be here.”
Yana smacked his chest. “Taci, Andrei! That is not your business.”
He waved her off. “What? You tell me to be quiet, but I worry that there is a recruit here who does not wish to be.” He looked to the guys for backup. “I am correct, no?”
Eric shifted uncomfortably, but I was pretty sure he agreed with Andrei. Igor’s face remained impassive.
“Maybe give it a bit more time before passing judgement,” Mary said, arching a brow. “We just got here.”
Andrei shrugged. “I suppose.”
The six of us hung out and talked for another half-hour before dispersing to get ready for dinner. We’d just split off from the guys with the intention of taking a nap, when a tall, peppy blonde came bouncing down the hall, her sleek ponytail swaying behind her.
“Mary! I was just coming to look for you.” She grinned, flashing a set of dazzling white teeth.
“Hey, Anette.” Mary gave the girl a tight smile, then gestured at Yana and me. “This is Yana and Tessa. What’s up?”
“I was beginning to think you’d forgotten what time dinner would be! When would you like to start getting ready?”
Mary forced a smile. “Oh, that’s so sweet…thanks. We still have a few hours, right? Like, three?”
Anette pushed open the door to the hall and held it as we walked through. I heard music wafting through an open door that sounded vaguely like 1990s pop. I gave Mary a questioning look and she arched a brow as if to say, “What did I tell you?”
“Oh, yes, we do, but I thought maybe we could hang out a bit before, you know? We are going to be living together for the next year, after all!”
“Uh huh. Well, I’m totally cool with that…after I take a nap.” Mary looked at me, then back toward her open door. “Which I think I’ll do in Tessa’s room. Softer sheets and all.”
Anette frowned. “Well, okay, but would you like me to come get you? It would be a shame to not have enough time to get properly ready to meet the Elders.”
“I’ll make sure she makes it back with enough time,” I said, cutting Mary off before she could come up with anymore lame excuses. “She’s just a little homesick.”
I ignored the glare I could feel coming from Mary.
“Oh…” Anette nodded knowingly. “Yes, that will happen at times, I am certain.” She gave Mary a look that showed a bit more sympathy. “We will talk after you’ve napped.”
I nudged Mary with my elbow, and she sighed.
“Look, if you want, you can come to Tessa’s room later, we’ll get ready together.”
“Oh, that sounds wonderful!” Anette smiled at both of us. “I will see you in a bit, then.”
I couldn’t even be annoyed that my best friend was offering up my room as pre-party central. Getting ready to go to dinner with a bunch of girls actually sounded like a lot of fun.
An hour later, I opened my door to find a bouncing Anette on the other side. “Ladies, it is time to wake up! The feast begins in just two hours!”
Glancing at the clock on my nightstand, I saw that she was right. Rubbing my eyes, I looked over at Mary, still asleep against the wall in my bed, and Yana, who was sprawled out across her own.
I gave her an appreciative smile. “I’ll get them up. Thanks for letting us know.”
“Oh, it’s no problem. I’ll be back soon to get ready with you all.”
I gave the leg of my bed a swift kick to wake up my best friend. She grumbled in response and threw a pillow at me, but she was awake, so my duty was done. Leaning over Yana’s bed, I hesitantly shook her shoulder.
“Yana, we need to start getting ready.”
“Da. Okay,” she mumbled sleepily, her eyes drifting shut again.
“Do you need to shower first?”
I’d never had to share a bathroom with anyone before, so I wasn’t sure of proper etiquette. I was still surprised at how human my experience at Olympia had been so far. I felt as though I’d just been dropped off at college, not a village at the foot of Olympus in an entirely different realm.
Yana sat up and shook her head. “No, it is all yours. I showered when I arrived.”
When I opened the closet to look for towels, I heard the water turn on in the bathroom. Looking back to my bed, I saw that Mary had snuck into the bathroom before I could.
Brat.
Once we were all showered, Anette joined us, and odd bits of makeup and clothing began getting passed back and forth as everyone worked out what to wear.
I was loving the quintessential girly-ness of the entire process. I’d expected training uniforms and practical clothing to be the norm, yet here we were sharing Anette’s stash of MAC eyeshadow and taking turns with Mary’s curling iron.
“Is this even a fancy thing?” Yana asked as she sprayed flowery hair spray in my hair to set the gentle waves she’d just put in. She picked up a gold clip she’d borrowed from Anette and slid it along my temple, pulling the hair on one side back from my face.
“I guess? I mean it’s a dinner with the gods, so I don’t see how it wouldn’t be.” I grinned. “Even if it isn’t, when’s the next time you think we’ll get to get all pretty like this?”
“This is very true,” she said with a smile. “I like your dress.”
I looked down at the purple pencil dress I’d bought a few weeks earlier. When John and Analise told me I would need to bring one formal outfit, I jumped at the chance to go shopping. It was the last shopping trip I’d done with Analise, and we’d had a blast going from store to store in the nearby mall on the hunt for the perfect dress. I’d even managed to snag some gold bangle bracelets and super cute strappy gold heels while we were there, which set off the pink quick-dry polish I’d borrowed from Anette perfectly.
I smiled fondly at the memory.
“Thanks,” I said to Yana. “It’s a little outside my normal fashion comfort zone, but I love it. I like yours, too.”
The dark gray smoky eye she’d donned to accent her short, flowy charcoal dress made her blue eyes stand out like beacons.
“Thank you.” She smiled as she set down the can of hairspray. “There, I think you are all set.”
I looked at my reflection in the mirror and bit my lip. “Yana, this looks amazing. You might need to do my hair every day,” I said, running my hand over the long blonde waves. “I can never get my hair to do this. Or anything, really.”
“Okay ladies, let’s go,” Mary said loudly, clapping her hands. She’d borrowed a knee-length, off-the-shoulder dress in a deep navy from Anette who’d somehow managed to bring an obscene amount of clothing from her home in Norway. Her brown hair was straightened for once, and she’d put on my pink sparkly eye shadow, bringing out the green in her hazel eyes.
“Hey, Anette?” I asked, moving to walk beside her. “How’d you manage to pack so much stuff? I mean, my suitcase is a decent size, but you seem to have brought everything.”
She grinned and tucked her bright blond hair behind her ears. “Ziploc bags. I folded all my clothes flat and rolled them up. I was able to fit a lot more than if I’d packed them normally.”
I frowned. “Wasn’t everything all wrinkled?”
She laughed. “I brought a fabric steamer.”
I raised my eyebrows and smiled appreciatively. “That’s pretty awesome.”
When we entered the courtyard, I saw that the rest of the girls, as well as the boys, had beaten us there and were waiting expectantly with Nathaniel.
Mary let out a low whistle when she saw him. “Well damn, doesn’t he clean up nice?”
“You can say that again,” I murmured as I took in how he looked in his slim fitting gray pants and pale blue dress shirt with the top button undone. Before I could appreciate the perfect fit of his outfit, Eric jogged over and came to stop in front of me, followed by Igor.
“Hey, guys!” He grinned down at me
. “You look great.”
“Thanks, you guys do, too.”
Similar to Nathaniel, the guys were all wearing dress pants and button downs. A few were sporting ties or blazers, too.
“Sit with me at dinner?” Eric asked.
“Um, su—”
Mary grabbed my elbow. “Sorry, Eric. Yana and I already called dibs on this one. You guys can have Andrei and whoever that guy is he’s talking to,” she said, gesturing toward where Andrei was laughing with a lanky blond guy.
Eric rolled his eyes. “Come on! I’m not sitting and playing wingman all night.”
Mary laughed. “Then go hang out with the other recruits. Make new friends. It’ll be good for you.”
Before he could voice any more disappointment, Nathaniel addressed us.
“Alright, everyone, let’s get going. We’ll be heading back to the portal field to take the door to the Agora. It’s about halfway between here and the deity residences and will be where all formal gatherings and meetings will be held. Tonight, you’ll meet the Elders for the first time, and you’ll have the opportunity to talk with some Ischyra from past generations. Most of those who will be present at dinner will become your mentors for the next year.”
Elders. Right.
Suddenly my purple dress and gold heels seemed massively inadequate for a dinner with the gods.
Silently, we followed him through the outer gate and down the hill to the portal field, forcing me to navigate the cobblestone like a minefield in my stilettos.
Stupid shoes, I thought. What had I been thinking wearing four-inch heels?
‘You look fine. Stop worrying.’
I bit back a smile when I heard Nathaniel’s voice in my head. I looked up to where he was walking, but he looked wrapped up in conversation with one of the male recruits.
‘This is kind of intrusive.’
‘It’s not my fault you project your thoughts when you’re worried.’
‘I’m not sure if I buy that, but I will say your ability to carry on two conversations at once is pretty impressive.’
‘What can I say? I’m good at multitasking.’
“What’s got you so smiley?”