Calliope the Muse

by Joan Holub

  Seeing Calliope and Medusa, Dionysus waved to them from one of the Episkyros teams that was currently forming. “Come help us beat these guys!” he shouted, gesturing at the other team.

  “No way that’s going to happen!” yelled Ares. He was on the opposing side.

  At the same time Aphrodite, Artemis, and Amphitrite spotted the two girls. “Medusa! Calliope! Over here!” they shouted from a section of lawn bordering the courtyard. “We need more people for Ostrakinda!”

  Ostrakinda was a game that also pitted two teams against each other. One team was called Night, and the other, Day. To begin, a single cockleshell was thrown to the ground. It was painted black on one side for night, and white on the opposite side for day. If a team’s color landed faceup, they had to chase the other team until they were able to tag out one player. Then the shell was thrown again. The game went on like that until all of the players on one team had been tagged out.

  “I’m going to go play Episkyros,” Medusa said to Calliope. “How about you?”

  “Ostrakinda for me,” Calliope said. “I love that game.” What she’d said was true, but she also had an ulterior motive. She really wanted to become friendlier with the three girls who’d called to them. Since Aphrodite, Artemis, and Amphitrite each roomed alone, any one of them could be a potential, perfect roommate!

  “Okay. Later, then,” said Medusa. As the snaky-haired girl ran off, Calliope jogged over to join the Ostrakinda game.

  “Thanks for picking us instead of Episkyros,” golden-haired Aphrodite said. Her blue eyes twinkled as she smiled at Calliope.

  Calliope returned her smile with a teasing one. “No problem! But you’d better watch out if we end up on opposite teams. I’m pretty good. I played a lot of Ostrakinda with my sisters when we were growing up.”

  “An expert! You’re on my team, then,” Artemis yelled to her, overhearing. She was really into sports and competitions.

  Six more girls were quickly recruited to make two five-member teams. Calliope, Athena, Aglaia, Amphitrite, and Artemis ended up together on the Day team, while Aphrodite, Persephone, Hestia, Pandora, and Pheme formed the Night team.

  “Ready, everybody?” Amphitrite called out, holding up the painted shell.

  “Ready!” they all yelled.

  Calliope crouched, ready to run.

  “Here we go, then!” Amphitrite tossed the shell high into the air in the middle of the girls.

  It landed on the lawn, white side up.

  “White!” Artemis called to Calliope and the rest of the Day team. “That’s us!”

  The girls all squealed in glee as the Day team members chased after the Night team members. Calliope chased Pandora, but that girl turned out to be curiously fast, and Calliope never could quite catch her.

  “Score!” yelled Artemis after she’d tagged Hestia.

  “Argh! My goose is cooked!” Hestia called out good-naturedly. She headed off to the designated “out” zone. There she sat atop the short stone wall bordering a fountain that featured several golden dolphins. Water spouted from their half-open mouths to fall into a broad pool at the base of the fountain behind her.

  As they all regrouped for the next toss, everyone laughed at Hestia’s turn of phrase because that girl was a superb cook. Pheme had even interviewed her about her recipes and stuff for Teen Scrollazine. It turned out that Hestia had created many of the dishes on the school’s menu, such as yambrosia stew, celestial salad, and nectaroni. Lucky Aglaia. With Hestia as her roommate, she probably scored all kinds of leftover snacks Hestia brought back to their room from the cafeteria!

  On the next toss the shell fell black side up. The Night team would do the chasing this time.

  Hestia leaped to her feet from the fountain wall. Cheering her team members on, she yelled. “Go get ’em, Night. Run!”

  As the Night team came after them, Calliope sprinted away to avoid being tagged. Luckily, she was a fast runner. But Aphrodite was also fast and was catching up. In the nick of time, Calliope swerved and darted, eluding her. Seconds later Persephone tagged out a different Day team member though—Athena.

  “Who invented this game anyway?” asked Athena. “I wish I had. It’s mega-fun!” Besides being the goddessgirl of inventions (just one of her many titles), she was also a good sport. Amid laughter, she went to sit in the “out” zone by Hestia, and the shell was soon thrown again.

  Eventually the game narrowed to only two members on each team: Artemis and Calliope on Day, versus Aphrodite and Pheme on Night. But on the very next toss, which landed on black, Pheme managed to tag Calliope on the arm.

  “I had an idea I might be the next one out,” Calliope joked as she went to join the others on the fountain wall. Getting her play on words, several girls laughed. She hadn’t been at MOA long, but long enough for everyone to know she was always full of ideas.

  “Very a-Muse-ing,” Amphitrite told her, grinning as she moved over to make room for Calliope to sit beside her.

  Then the shell came up white, and only Artemis was left on the Day team to tackle both Aphrodite and Pheme from Night. All the girls sidelined at the fountain cheered on their remaining team members.

  “Go, Artemis!” Calliope yelled.

  Artemis raced after Pheme and Aphrodite, her expression determined. As they passed the other girls at the fountain, Artemis’s arm stretched out. Her hand reeeached. “Gotcha!” she crowed as she tagged Aphrodite on the shoulder. “At last!”

  Laughing, Aphrodite collapsed onto the grass by the fountain. “Thank godness for that,” she said, breathing hard. “I’m pooped. Plus, my makeup’s got to be a mess by now. And I need new lip gloss and eyeliner. Guess I’ll be going shopping at the Immortal Marketplace this weekend.”

  “Me too,” said Artemis. The other girls looked at her in surprise. She hardly ever wore makeup or went shopping. “I don’t mean the shopping part, but about being pooped,” Artemis explained quickly. She looked over at Pheme. “Want to call it a tie?”

  “Stop the game now, you mean? Okay,” Pheme agreed readily. Then to Aphrodite she added helpfully, “I heard Cleo’s Cosmetics is having a sale.”

  “Fizzy! I love that place,” exclaimed Amphitrite, overhearing. “Maybe I’ll go with you, Aphrodite. Cleo’s has a waterproof line of makeup that really works.”

  Calliope supposed that waterproof makeup would be especially important to a sea nymph. Like Artemis, Calliope herself didn’t bother with much makeup. Except for on special occasions.

  Everyone sat together on the fountain wall now, talking about their weekend plans. A lot of them were going to the music festival in Athens tomorrow. Calliope was just thinking she needed to get back to her room to practice the new song, when Amphitrite spoke to her.

  “Thanks again for your border idea in Architecture-ology today,” said the mergirl. “I’ve decided to make one using crushed, colored shells.”

  “Sounds . . . fizzy!” said Calliope, and they both grinned at her use of Amphitrite’s favorite slang expression. “Your undersea garden is a cool idea. I hope it gets built.”

  Amphitrite slipped a comb from the pocket of her golden chiton and began to run it through her long turquoise hair. “It will.”

  “I like your confidence!” Calliope admired how positive Amphitrite seemed to be that Mr. Libon and Principal Zeus would pick her design as most creative and she’d get to see it built.

  Amphitrite must have guessed what Calliope had been thinking. “Luckily for me, it doesn’t matter whether Mr. Libon and Principal Zeus choose my design or not,” the sea nymph told Calliope. “A committee of merpeople has already voted to build my garden around the Poseidon Palace, once construction on the palace is finished.”

  “Wow!” said Calliope. “That’s fantastic! How great that you’ll for sure get to see your design—”

  Swoosh! She broke off as a sudden cold sprinkle of water showered all the girls.

  Aghhh! Calliope and the others jumped up in surprise. It was the boys!


  Apparently the Episkyros game had just ended. So Ares and Apollo had raced over, leading a bunch of the boys to where the girls were sitting. The boys had jumped into the fountain, splashing all the girls on the wall.

  Typical godboy behavior, thought Calliope. They couldn’t just come over and start chatting. They had to make an entrance that got them noticed! Amid screams and giggles, she had an idea. “Let’s get even,” she told the other girls. “How about a water war—girls against the boys?”

  “Yeah!” the other girls shouted.

  Soon everyone was splashing around in the pool at the base of the fountain, even Aphrodite. That girl was surprising. As the goddessgirl of love and beauty, she always appeared fashionable and “put together.” Since she seemed to care a lot about looking her best, Calliope had pegged her as one of those girls who would shy away from messy activities like Ostrakinda or water wars. But Aphrodite was giving as good as she got.

  At that very moment she was merrily slapping her hands against the water to create a wave that splashed her crush, Ares, right in the face. “Take that!” she shouted. When he splashed her back, she only laughed. She didn’t seem to care that her golden hair was now wet and straggly and her chiton a soggy mess. Naturally, she looked every bit as beautiful wet as she did dry, however.

  Calliope gave a squeal of surprise as a torrent of water suddenly cascaded over her head. Apollo, who was Artemis’s twin brother, along with an apple-cheeked, golden-winged godboy named Eros, had ambushed her. Somehow they’d gotten hold of a couple of pitchers and were using them to good effect.

  Before Calliope could retaliate, Artemis and Amphitrite leaped over to help her. Artemis put a finger to her lips and sent Calliope a significant look. Then she did a shallow dive into the fountain and swam toward Apollo. Seconds later he let out a yelp and fell backward with a splash. Calliope grinned, figuring Artemis must have grabbed his ankles and knocked him off balance.

  Amphitrite’s legs and chiton had turned into a golden-scaled tail as soon as she had hit the water, just like on swim night. Now, with a mighty flip of that tail, she sent a wall of water over Eros that doused him good and caused him to drop his pitcher. He flapped his wings to dry them, flinging drops of water everywhere.

  Calliope grabbed Eros’s pitcher as it bobbed closer. Quickly she scooped water into it and showered Poseidon before he could turn his water-spraying trident on her. Any one of those three A girls—Aphrodite, Artemis, or Amphitrite—would make a good roomie, she thought as she cheerfully battled on. She should ask one of them to spend the night with her so she could interview—um, hang out with them. But which one?

  As usual, a great idea soon popped into her head. “Eenie meenie miney moe,” she chanted under her breath while glancing in the direction of first one girl and then another. “Catch a Geryon by the toe.”

  She paused for a second. It had always been a mystery to her why anyone would want to catch a Geryon by the toe or by any other method. They were six-legged beasts with vicious talons, and they smelled like a combination of swamp gas, wet dog, and cow patties. But, whatever. That was just how the choosing rhyme went.

  “If it hollers, make it pay—fifty drachmas every day,” she continued. “My mother told me to pick the very best roomie for me, and you are SHE.” When she reached the end of the rhyme, her glance landed on the goddessgirl of love and beauty. All righty! Aphrodite! Calliope would ask her to spend the nighty!

  But as Calliope was making her way across the pool to talk to the goddessgirl, she glimpsed someone across the courtyard. Was that—Homer? It sure was!

  Her heart began to beat fast. He was going up the granite steps to the Academy’s big bronze doors. What was he doing here? Giddy to see him, she scrambled from the fountain. Then she raced across the courtyard and up the steps. She caught up to him just as he reached the top step. “Hi, Homer,” she said breathlessly.

  He smiled at her, but then immediately backed away. “You’re dripping!” he exclaimed, holding his scrollbook bag away from her. “You’ll get my stuff wet!”

  “Hey, I’m not all that drippy,” she assured him. “Just my hem.” She bent, grabbed the bottom of her chiton, and wrung it out between both hands. It was wetter than she’d thought. Droplets spattered the granite under her feet. He moved another step away.

  She automatically excused his fussiness. He probably has important scrolls in that bag. He worked hard on his writing and wouldn’t want bleeding ink to ruin it. After all the time they had spent together, she knew how careful and protective he was when it came to his work.

  Homer reached for the big golden door handles and pulled open one of the Academy’s front doors.

  “A bunch of us were playing water wars,” Calliope told him quickly, desperate to hold on to his attention. “That’s how I got wet.”

  “Uh-huh,” he mumbled as she followed him through the door.

  “It was sooo much fun,” she went on. “It was girls versus the boys and—”

  “Listen, Calliope,” he said, interrupting her as they stood in the entryway. “As much as I’d love to stay and talk, I’ve got something I need to do right now.”

  “Research in MOA’s library?” she guessed.

  He shook his head. “Something else.” He seemed a little jumpy about whatever it was, so maybe he’d come to see Principal Zeus with some request. As King of the Gods and Ruler of the Heavens, the big, loud, and powerful Zeus could be very intimidating. “Gotta run now,” Homer said pointedly.

  “Oh.” Though disappointed to be shut out, Calliope tried not to show it. “Well, okay. See you later maybe? Like, tomorrow at the music festival at the Theatre of Dionysus? My sisters and I are singing in it, and our first number—”

  “I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it,” Homer interrupted her again to say. Obviously impatient to be off, he’d been tapping one of his sandaled feet against the marble floor the whole time she’d been speaking. With a toss of his head, he added, “Later.” Then he strode off without waiting for a reply.

  Calliope’s stomach sank. Well, that had hurt. He had obviously been dying to ditch her. Sounded like he wasn’t coming to the festival either. Would it have made any difference if she’d been able to finish telling him that the Muses’ first song was going to be one he himself had written? She would have liked for him to come simply because he was interested in her, but hey, whatever it took! Too bad she hadn’t had time to tell him about that first song.

  Even in the entryway, she could hear the other students outside still having fun in the fountain. For half a second she considered rejoining them. She wasn’t in the mood to go back down there right now, though. No, her wet chiton felt clammy against her skin. And her spirits were even damper. By chasing after Homer, she’d missed her chance to ask Aphrodite to spend the night. She’d have to ask her the next time they saw each other.

  Feeling deflated, Calliope went back to her room and changed into her comfiest, cutest pink pj’s. They were decorated with musical notes and bits of lyrics she’d inspired musicians to write, and she usually wore them when her spirits needed a lift.

  She climbed into bed with the music for the new song lyrics she needed to go over. However, the papyrus sheet soon slipped from her hand. It drifted to the floor as she fell asleep.

  5

  The Music Festival

  CALLIOPE WASN’T USUALLY NERVOUS ABOUT singing in front of large groups. But the next morning she felt kind of shaky when she joined her eight sisters on the circular stage in the Theatre of Dionysus. The Muses were first up on the program. They all looked spiffy, dressed in the purple concert chitons they wore whenever they performed together. Her favorite big sis, Terpsichore, sent her a smile as they formed two rows onstage—four sisters in front, including Calliope, and five behind.

  Calliope took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. The source of her nerves wasn’t hard to figure out. She was not—no way, nohow—prepared.

  She’d hoped to have time to go over
the new song lyrics—the third of the song trio she and her sisters would be singing—a few times before the performance. But as luck would have it, she’d woken up late this morning. In her hurry to leave for the theater, she’d forgotten to bring the new song lyrics with her. And none of her sisters had brought lyrics either because . . . why would they? They’d already memorized them! Well, if necessary, she’d just have to fake it on the new song. Her sisters would cover for her.

  Calliope glanced around the theater from her position second from the left in the front row. The building was a large open-air structure with a three-tiered stone seating area (now full of festival attendees) that stretched up the sloping hillside. The stage was downhill from the seats. The theater bore the godboy Dionysus’s name because it had been built in his honor. He was MOA’s best actor!

  The Academy’s pompous herald had been drafted as master of ceremonies for the festival. Soon he walked out to the front of the stage. Ping! Ping! Ping! As he struck his lyrebell, the audience quieted. “Good morning, mortals and immortals,” he greeted them. “Welcome to this year’s musical festival at the Theatre of Dionysus!”

  He paused a moment, his eyes roving the crowd. Then, in a loud, important voice, he went on. “In case you have not yet heard, there has been a last-minute and very dramatic addition to this year’s program—a new event that will take place directly after the first intermission. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this morning you will witness the satyr Marsyas pitted against the godboy of music himself, Apollo! It will be the musical battle of the century!”

  At this the crowd began to hoot and cheer.

  The herald let this go on for a few seconds. Then he held up his hands, motioning for quiet again. “But before we get to that,” he said after the crowd had calmed, “we have two phenomenal groups of singers here today for your listening pleasure.”