Imperfection 101 2.0 PDF

Chapter One - Please Add Proper Grammar Athena “People used to worship the ancient deities.” My Latin professor began. Well no duh, dude! I am an ancient deity, and I think you should account for the fact that I know all of this already. You may be...

Chapter One - Please Add Proper Grammar Athena “People used to worship the ancient deities.” My Latin professor began. Well no duh, dude! I am an ancient deity, and I think you should account for the fact that I know all of this already. You may be wondering why I am taking Latin instead of Ancient Greek. Well, if I am being honest, I chose this class because they do not teach Ancient Greek at Harvard. I mean, come on, guys! What type of curriculum do you think you are using? Oh, you actually were not wondering that? Well then, to waste with my perfect explanation. Oh…you are wondering what I mean by being an ancient deity. Alright. Well then, I will try my best to go over what has happened throughout the past month. First of all, Zeus—yes, the god of thunder. Who else would I be talking about?—thought that he should teach all the Olympians a lesson. Each god has their own weak spot, of course. Hera is afraid of loss, Apollo is self centered, and I am a bit of a perfectionist. Yes, I admit it. The truly wise one sees their flaws and tries to fix them. So, naturally, I agreed when my father proposed that us Olympians—besides Hera and him, even if they needed it—be sent down to Earth in a mortal form and try to survive at a normal college. Why college, you ask? Well, school teaches you a lot of things. My family could use some extra knowledge, and the people here are not afraid to speak their mind. If they do not like you, it will show. And since we had to learn some lessons about our personality and how not to act, this seemed like the perfect place. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Can anyone name one of the Roman or Greek gods?” My professor continued. I rolled my eyes, and he seemed to notice. “How about you, new student?” The fact that he called me ‘new student’ made me mad. He should know my name by now. I mean, sure, we transferred here (our cover up story was that we were from Michigan) but it has almost been a month already! “Athena,” I answered, “and some of you may know her as Minerva.” “Thank you, Miss…,” he looked at me, waiting for me to tell him my name. “You can call me Avery Shakespeare,” I responded. “But I am surprised that you do not know my name already.” The class went dead silent, all waiting to see how the professor would respond.  “Well then, Avery. I think you may like this class.” And that was all he said to me for the rest of the day. Now, you may be thinking, What? I thought you were a god! Why is your name Avery? Do not fear, I am actually a goddess. I would not choose to lie to you under my own free will. I am Athena, goddess of battle strategy, weaving, crafts, and wisdom. My cover up name is Avery Shakespeare, as I thought that if I got a chance to start over and prove myself, I should at least pretend to be related to somebody smart. We all know that no average last name would suit me. “Avery, I’d like to chat with you in the hall,” My professor said to me as everyone began packing up. The time period for this class was almost over, and I could not risk being late for architecture. But alas, my professor most likely did not care as much as he did not care about using contractions. Those things were disgusting. Likewise, I followed him out into the hall, carrying my book bag and looking ready to dart off to my next subject. “Avery,” he began. “Can you list all the Olympian gods for me?” I twirled my blonde hair in between my fingers. I had decided to go for a casual look today, putting my hair half up in a small, decorative bow and leaving the rest down. It hung over my shoulder, and I tugged at it aggressively. Why would my professor call me out in the hall just to talk about this? I did not list my concerns, and instead asked, “Greek or Roman?” “Both.” He answered. I nodded, swallowed, and then closed my eyes, pulling the knowledge from the back of my brain. I knew so many things that past facts were pushed out of the way to make room for new ones. I was always learning, always doing, always thinking. That did not mean I forgot anything, though. The one who forgets is the one who loses everything in the end. And I am a tad competitive, as I never let anyone get a higher test score than me. I was not here to lose. “Okay,” I replied. Then I began to list all of my family, both Greek and Roman. It took about fifteen seconds. “Avery, you remind me of someone,” My professor finally said after a short pause. “Are you sure you’re not descended from Einstein?” I smiled at that feeble joke. The truth was, while coming up with my cover name, I had considered making my last name Einstein. “I am sure,” I replied. “I am related to William Shakespeare, but not Einstein.” “Well, I guess great minds think alike,” he said with a sigh. “You do closely resemble someone from a long time ago, though.” “Who?” “Athena.”  I pretended to look confused. “Me? I resemble Athena? Impossible.” I glanced down at my white tennis shoes, fingering the material of my bag, and hoping my teacher did not begin to come to the conclusion that I actually was Athena. “Do you know any other minor gods?” He asked me, interrupting my train of thought. “They can be Greek or Roman, but if you do—” “Oh, look at the time!” I exclaimed much too loudly, glancing down at my watch. “I am going to be late for…,” Quick! I thought to myself. Come up with something that does not sound Athena-like! “I am going to be late for football practice!” Then I dashed off, thinking, eww, football. I hate football. I was a soccer player, and I did enjoy tennis and badminton. But football was on another level of horrible. “Um, alright, well have fun!” My professor yelled at me. I did not look back, but kept running until I had turned the corner. My professor had almost figured out I was a goddess. Well, I guess I will just skip Latin tomorrow. I knew it all, anyway. It is not an important class like architecture. But most importantly, I needed to warn my family. What other professors would be able to see the resemblance? We could not tell anybody we were the Greek gods—or at least, that is what I decided at that moment. What would happen if these eighteen-year-olds figured out that the gods were in their midst? Would they start worshiping us? Actually, do not tell Apollo that. He will start going around claiming that he is from thousands of years ago and that he should be honored. Soon enough, there would be a temple outside of Harvard, covering up the red and white building completely. Let us not let worse come to worse. I decided that, since I shared a dorm with her, I would tell Aphrodite about my encounter with my professor first. She most likely would not care, but it was worth a try. Besides, I did not want to argue with Apollo about who was better for the thirtieth time. *** I checked my phone. It seemed as though a group chat had been created, titled college sucks. But Poseidon, tell me, why did you fail at capitalizing this title? I quickly opened my messages and fixed it. I did not have time to deal with nuisances like this one. Not now. I had negotiated with my family about how we could not let anyone know who we were. The word had spread around and by noon, we had all come to an agreement that we would keep this quiet. In lieu of this proclamation, Apollo had requested a solution for getting back to godhood. Silly him and his inability to survive in the mortal world for more than a month. I mean, sure, he had a lot on his mind and all, with the music and the poetry and the archery and the healing…but still, this was meant to teach us something! And, nonetheless, I stood by Zeus’s decision to send us here. Right now, I was about to sneak out of my dorm and go to the library. I know, sneaking out was not very Athena-like, but I needed answers, and this was the only time I would get them. Besides, once my brain had a task to do, it did not want to put it off. It did not like waiting, and instead pestered me about it until I finally gave in and did what it wanted me to do. So, I was heading to the library. Aphrodite was not back yet from a night of partying with Dionysus and a few other of her crazy college friends. Personally, I thought she was very irresponsible, staying out this late when we still had to work the next day. But I have tried countless times to prevent her from going out, and she just does not care. So, it was all me tonight as I quietly opened the door. It blended in the walls perfectly, a shade of dark gray that I had made Aphrodite paint it after she had tried to surprise me with a pink dorm. She had not fared well throughout those few days. She was always used to someone doing the work for her, and was not accustomed enough to actually doing something herself. As the goddess of love, I understood why she would not want to get her hands dirty, but still. Even though we were not immediate family, Aphrodite still tried her best to get on my good side. The thing was, I rarely ever showed my good side. The wise ones never reveal their soft side if they want to be thought of as smart. If they want people to come to them for advice, they do not give away all of their secrets immediately. Or ever. I twisted the silver door handle, feeling the cold metal under my fingers. The door creaked open, and off I went to the library, pondering whether I should tell Apollo I had figured out the secret to get off Earth or not. He was rather self centered, inconsiderate, and a jerk. He always tried to keep the peace, but ended up getting roped into arguments with his sister. And he practically could not drive. Trust me, one time, I saw him backing out of the parking lot to take a girl on a date to a restaurant. He was so proud of himself, finally scoring a girl. He held the door open for her, got in his bright yellow coupe. Then he began to pull out of the parking lot and rear ended the car behind him. Everyone groaned and started laughing, while Artemis just stared at the car in dismay, as she shared it with her brother. “That’ll take so much cash to fix,” she muttered under her breath. “Do you think they’ll understand if I tell them my stupid brother broke it? And do you think they could change the color, too?”  I laughed as I walked to the library, thinking about the past events that had happened here. Apollo had purposefully painted his car yellow to rub his powers in Artemis’s face, Dionysus and Artemis had been arguing so Hermes had to carry hateful letters between them, and most importantly, I had been able to get straight A’s. Now I was walking toward the library, figuring out how to make it all end. *** Books were strewn across the floor all around me, there was a massive pile of them on the wooden desk in front of me, and my eyes were threatening to close any second now. But I had to figure this out, no matter what. And who said that you could not learn things from the old fashioned books? Why did technology have to be there at every turn whenever we wanted to look something up? I thought that we should boycott technology, just like the patriots boycotted tea. But alas, no one wanted to join me. For a while, I had sat here in silence, waiting for some divine answer to come to me. Truth be told, I did not find much. So instead I was now looking for a solution to get back to Olympus in books. It felt like I had searched in every book, every index, every page. But nothing had yet come to me. I began to put the books back on the shelves, looking at their covers to make sure I had read them all. Oh, well. I guess I would just have to find some other way to— I paused, my train of thought slowing. On the desk, there was a small lonely book with a black, leather cover. It read, For Athena’s Eyes Only. It looked as if it had been placed there by the gods themselves, and maybe it had been. Maybe Zeus had finally come to his senses and realized that I was his favorite after all. I slowly opened the book. Not a thousand words littered each page, but only a few: The Only Way Is For the Most Self Centered to Learn Their lessons. But…no. I could not tell Apollo this. He would leave us all behind in a flash of light if he ever found out that he could get out of here. He had barely made it into Harvard, anyway. Now, if he could leave, he would not take any chances. I sighed. I had to keep this a secret. Secrets on top of secrets, all in one big pile. I did not want to hide things from my family, but I also did not want to get left behind here. I mean, do not get me wrong. I was completely capable of living here and getting straight A’s for a few years. But I could not let my family find out. Not until they had learned their lessons and became at least decent humans.  Little did I know that becoming a decent human being was actually fairly hard.  Chapter Two - My Phone Almost Explodes Artemis It was in the middle of a lecture when I heard the news. My phone was buzzing wildly in my bag. It sounded like the Twitter fights that Ares always took pleasure in starting, where he would go at it until the person had to step away from the screen for a moment and Ares would declare himself the victor. But instead, this was coming purely from the group chat that Poseidon had created, titled College Sucks. Of course, Athena was the one who added proper grammar to the name. My professor’s right eye was twitching, and I nervously looked around at my classmates like, “I wonder who’s phone’s beeping. Couldn’t be mine….” I don’t think they bought it, but hey, it was worth a shot. Finally, my history professor looked up at me, struggling to get his words out because my phone was interrupting his train of thought. “Whoever’s phone that is,” he began, looking pointedly at me. “Please make sure to silence it so I can continue with the lesson.” “Of course,” I muttered, trying to sound apologetic. I reached into my bag and fished out my phone. It vibrated even louder in my hands, and, yep, all the chaos was coming from College Sucks. What were they blabbering about this time? I opened my phone with a swipe (why would I need a password?) and glanced at the group chat. Quickly, I silenced notifications, but before I put it away, I skimmed over the texts everyone had sent. The conversation went something like this: Apollo: You guys…? Poseidon: What? Apollo: So, I may or may not be in trouble… Hades: Why were you even accepted into Harvard? Athena: Apollo, I just saw you speeding down the street. You are most definitely going to get in a wreck, young man. Slow down or next you’ll be in trouble with me. Hermes: Oh no, Apollo, look out! Athena’s coming to get you! *fake scared face* Athena: Hermes, what have I told you about role playing late at night? Their words get to you. Aphrodite: Please, Athena, youre acting like Zeus Athena: Fix. Your. GRAMMAR! Dionysus: I see pornleb with it *edited to: ‘I see no problem with it’* Apollo: No, seriously, you guys, I may have broken my leg  I froze. What? How had he done that? I hid my phone under the table, pretending to put it away, even though I was secretly glancing at it still. There was a moment of complete silence, and then Ares finally chimed in. Ares: Well how’d ya do that? Demeter: Yeah, what happened? Do you need some magic plants to help you out? Apollo: I don’t do plants, Miss Gardener Demeter: Is my name Miss Gardener in your phone? If so, you’ve got more than some helpful magic plants coming your way, young man! There was silence after that. I suspected that Apollo did in fact have Demeter as Miss Gardener in his phone. You may be wondering why I wasn’t so concerned about my brother, and the truth was that everyone knew he had issues. Everybody knew he was dramatic and self centered and a mess. So for him to say that he broke his foot was assumed as a big stretch from what actually happened. The group chat was silent for a moment, and I thought that the conversation was over, abruptly ended. Then Hephaestus piped up. And yes, I do have him as HF in my phone, mainly because when creating his contact I didn’t want to write his entire name out only to end up spelling it wrong. HF: Apollo, I’m afraid that it must be revealed to you that you are a drama queen Apollo: What? No, guys, I’m serious this time The lack of an exclamation point at the end of that sentence was enough to put me over the edge. Whenever Apollo exaggerated, he always put exclamation marks at the end of his statements. It was something he was known for. That’s how you knew whether he was being dramatic or not. But this time, when my brother had left out an exclamation point, I got worried. While I pretended to pay attention to the professor’s lecture, I started typing. Me (Artemis, duh): You’re really not lying? Athena: We’re in the ambulance, being taken to the hospital after I have just picked up an iced coffee at Tatte Bakery and Cafe. Police are everywhere, filling the scene. This is much, much worse than a broken leg. HF: Athena why did that sound like an opening monologue to a screenplay HF: You don’t need to narrate everything that’s going on Athena: You try being the goddess of wisdom for once! It is much harder than anticipated. Me: It may have sounded like it was written out by an AI Bot, but I’m seriously starting to get worried Apollo: Come save me, Sis! Free me from Athena! She’s holding me captive Athena: No more phone time for you. Apollo: It was a joke! Me: Okay, can someone actually be serious with me for one second? I’m trying to figure out what happened to my brother, thanks Nobody offered to give me any information about what had just happened. No one answered my questions. And Apollo wasn’t heard from again. Athena really wasn’t kidding when she banned him from ‘phone time.’ All I knew was that the goddess of wisdom was rushing down to the hospital right now with my brother. The group chat was quiet when I most needed the answers that would be conveyed through lots of prying. Then I saw the three dots appear on the screen. I waited in anticipation. It looked like this next report would be from Athena. This was exactly what I needed! I watched as the dots faded in and out, signaling she was still typing. And then right when it was loading, the internet went out. I narrowed my eyes and forgot I was in a college class for a moment. I banged my phone against the table and sighed with exasperation. I mumbled about how my brother was one of the most inexperienced people that I’d ever met, my voice getting louder with every word. Then I heard a voice ask, “Miss Forrest, are you done?” I looked up and saw all the students staring at me concernedly. I fiddled with my phone case, embarrassed. Come on, someone should’ve told me I was in the middle of class before I started raging at my phone! “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir,” I muttered. I quickly stuck my phone in my pocket and pondered what could’ve happened to Apollo that was worse than breaking his leg. He hadn’t seemed too upset over text, but then again, it’s hard to read someone’s emotions over a mobile phone. I would have assumed that this was all a ploy so my brother could be the center of attention, but I wasn’t so sure now that Athena had confirmed what had happened. But my main understanding was that now my brother was in the hospital and my internet was out, so I couldn’t know what had happened. Thousands of questions swarmed into my mind, like: why were police surrounding the scene? Did my brother commit a crime that somehow went wrong? That didn’t sound like Apollo, but you never know. People change. That was Zeus’s entire goal for putting us here, at Harvard. He wanted us to change. You know what? I thought to myself, I’m going to find out what happened. I’m going to drive around after this class and see where the commotion began, and hopefully gather some intel about my brother’s whereabouts. *** As I drove around Boston with my windows down, feeling the breeze in my hair, I thought things couldn’t get better. I was only dreading when they got worse and I found out about my brother, and let’s just say that I heard the sirens before I saw them. I also almost ran into an ambulance. Apparently bad driving runs in the family. I pulled over and stopped at the curb. I had borrowed Poseidon’s car from the parking lot, but I was sure he wouldn’t mind. Or, at least, I hoped he wouldn’t. As I opened the door and got out of the car, I saw people all scattered across the street. The neighborhood next to the road was in flames, and firefighters were running from house to house trying to put them out. Ambulances were rolling away and immediately being replaced by more. It seemed as if Apollo had got the worst of it, though. I saw our car—the one good thing about it being bright yellow was that you could find it easily—and couldn’t believe my eyes. Here, let me break it down for you. So, first of all, the car was on fire. Red hot flames danced around it, smoke rising from the scene. The entire engine had combusted and the fire had spread to the surrounding houses and cars. Next up, it was completely flipped over. The windows were all shattered. The front of it was demolished, the hood barely hanging on, The bumper was missing, along with a few other pieces that only Hephaestus knew what they were called. The rest of it was mangled, and I didn’t understand how Apollo had survived. On top of this car, other cars had run into it and flipped over, also catching on fire. Some of these cars had been launched into the nearby neighborhood and now almost everything was in flames. This seemed a bit extreme for just mortals to do alone. I can’t help wondering if my father had something to do with this, maybe to teach Apollo a lesson. There was no sight of Athena or Apollo anywhere, so I guessed that they must already have left the scene. I decided to check my phone and see if I received Athena’s message yet. On my lock screen (it was the moon by the way, don’t judge) I saw a message appear. It was from the group chat College Sucks. And Athena had sent it. Whenever I swiped up on my phone and opened my messages, I was expecting a few sentences written out. Instead, I got an entire paragraph. Athena: Okay, you guys. Here is my report. Naturally, you all know that Apollo is a drama queen and has proclaimed his spinal cord has snapped, when really, it has not. The doctors have informed us that both his left ankle and shoulder are dislocated. He also has a gauge in his thigh that is currently being treated and his neck nearly broke. They are going to test to see if his ribs are broken soon. Generally, he is just pretty banged up. Poseidon: So what happened exactly? Athena: I was grabbing food at Tatte Bakery and Cafe. Apollo was driving too fast and I watched as a Ford truck slammed into his car head on because he had swerved into the other lane. The engine combusted and then the car was flipped upside down into the other lane. Everyone nowadays drives while they’re on their phones, so they could not see his car. It caused an entire wreck in the middle of the road and all of these car’s engines lit on fire and were tossed into the nearest neighborhood next to this street. This caused a chain reaction of fires and wrecks all in this one spot. Meanwhile, being the responsible one, I called 911 and rushed out to save Apollo. Now we’re at the hospital. Me: I saw it, I’m out here right now at the scene of the wreck. Also, why was that an entire monologue Athena? Ares: Does it look gnarly? Athena: Is that all you care about, Ares? Ares: No, but on an unrelated note, how deep are the cuts? Athena: Well, he was bleeding out from his thigh…. Ares: No way! Send me a pic I sighed and put my phone back in my pocket. Ares was being inconsiderate, as always. Whenever we got back to Olympus and reached our true forms again, I would be okay if we didn’t invite him to come along. “What to do now?” I muttered to myself, looking around. People were walking around frantically after their cars had been demolished. Paramedics and regular citizens alike were bustling around, trying to help everybody who had been involved in this massive car wreck. I decided to help, too. And you may be thinking, ‘why aren’t you going to visit Apollo in the hospital?’ The answer was that he was a god. He could deal with it. Athena was also already there. I figured that if these people, who weren’t Olympian gods like us, got into this wreck, they would probably be majorly injured. They needed more medical attention than my brother did. Apollo was the god of healing, after all. He’d be fine. Right?  Chapter Three - We Have A Discussion About Trust Issues Athena I have to give him the information, right? Those words echoed in my brain as I wandered around campus. I was supposed to be joining Artemis on one of her nature walks, but she had left me behind and I had been too busy thinking that I had just let her travel on. I needed time to think, and I was sure she did, too. You may be wondering what happened to her brother, or what I was talking about when I was pondering giving him the information. Well, Apollo was in the hospital right now. I need not keep an eye on him anymore today. Artemis had visited him earlier. The doctors had assured us that he would be fine, but I knew the goddess-of-the-moon-turned-mortal still had her doubts. Last night, I also had a prophetic dream. Now, I was unaware that I could still have those in my mortal state, but low and behold, one showed up at the doorstep of my mind and I let it in. It showed me that one line I had read from the book: The Only Way Is For the Most Self Centered to Learn Their lessons. The words started glowing, and the next thing I knew, I was witnessing the car crash. That is what inspired me to wake up and hang out at Tatte and Bakery Cafe for a while. The truth was, no matter how annoying he could be, I was actually quite worried about Apollo. Yes, I admit it. But if you tell anyone else, I will deny it. I could not tell Artemis about this dream, though. She would resent me. Yes, it is best to keep it a secret for now. Even if I had tried to lie to myself, to say it was just a dream, deep down I knew that my brain would not lie to me, much less hide the truth from me. I was not about to wait around to see if my dream would come true. Instead, I decided that I had to be out next to the street in case my dream actually happened. So, I had been, and it had paid off. Now, I knew that I had to tell Apollo the truth, that the only way for us to get back to godly hood was for him to learn his lesson. And, if I am being honest, I believe that the car crash was his wake up call. Whenever I had taken him to the hospital, he had not been overreacting like everyone thought he would. Instead, he opened up to me about how badly he felt about it all. Everything he had ever done, he told me, was all only for himself. He had never thought of anyone else. He told me that when he got in that crash, he realized how badly all the mortals would be hurt. He realized that his actions had an impact on others. I did not know what divine epiphany had taken hold of him at that moment, or if he was feeling different now, later in the day. But those words he had said proved that he had learned his lesson. Apollo, the most self centered one of us all, admitting to me all the wrongdoings he had committed in his years of life. And trust me, I was not an easy person to open up to. Most likely, I would make fun of all of your weaknesses you had just told me about. Oh, you regret dating that tree spirit years ago? Ha, good luck hearing the end of that. A realization hit me like that Ford truck had hit Apollo’s bright yellow coupe. I had accepted Zeus’s decision to put all of the other Olympians on earth to teach us the lessons we needed to learn. I had believed that there were no lessons I needed to learn, and if they were, they were not as severe as some of my other siblings’ flaws. I thought that if I was respectful, that was enough. It did not matter if I was a perfectionist or workaholic. Those were hardly flaws! They spurred you to greatness and made you work for things. That was valuable. But I will not let anything go. If you offered me a thousand dollars for me to let everything I have ever heard go, to stop taunting people with their mistakes, I would not be able to. I would not be earning that money, and I hate to admit it, but I did not deserve it. Really, Apollo did. And Artemis, and Ares, and Hephaestus. But not Poseidon. It will take some convincing for me to finally realize he means well. I sighed, watching Artemis walk farther and farther away from me, admiring flowers and leaves and the beauty of nature. I guessed it was time to visit Apollo in the hospital once more. “Artemis!” I called to my half sister. “We need to go visit Apollo again!” She was not paying attention to me, though. Instead, she seemed to be staring up at the sky. If I did not know any better, I would have thought that she was watching the birds fly across the bright blue tapestry. But I did in fact know better. She was muttering something to herself, not looking at the birds, but seeming to be…praying? What? I jogged over to her, and when I got closer I realized that she was praying to our father. “Please,” she was saying, “let him be healed by tomorrow. Send me a sign, Zeus. I’ll even be your alibi when Hera accuses you of marrying other women.” “Artemis, that is not going to work,” I protested. “Zeus is not as forgiving as you think he is, and if he thinks Apollo has learned his lesson—” I stopped myself before I continued on to give more information about my dream to my sister. Artemis seemed to pick up on the hint that I was hiding something, though. She turned to glare at me. “What do you mean, ‘learned his lesson’?” She asked, her forest green eyes narrowing. Her long, dark hair that she refused to cut was flowing down her shoulders. I decided to focus on that instead of the expression on her face.  “I meant, uh,” I looked around, my gaze focusing on the cumulonimbus clouds. “I should go.” Then, without another word, I raced off. Please, do not get me wrong. I did not want to have to lie to Artemis about my dream. But if she found out that I knew everything would happen in the first place, then things may not look good for me in the near future. As I charged away, leaving Artemis alone on her nature walk, I heard my phone vibrating in my pocket. I slowed to a steady jog (that is what mortals do, right? Jog?) and pulled it out. I looked at the contact. Of course it was none other than Apollo, most likely calling to complain to me about how unfair his life was. I sighed and reluctantly answered it. “Hello?” “Dude, I think my godly healing powers just came back.” Apollo said, not even bothering to respond to my greeting. They should teach young people how to do that these days. It was just proper phone call etiquette! “First of all, do not call me ‘dude’.” I responded. “I quite dislike the term. You should know that by now, brother.” “Okay, sorry, but seriously, I think I just got my powers back.” I froze. The reality that Apollo may have earned his powers back after realizing how he was not the only person on the earth surprised me. I did not think that Zeus would forgive his children that easily. Maybe he was being biased and I was not his favorite after all, or maybe he was taking pity on the sun god after that horrible car wreck, but for whatever the reason, he had decided to give my brother his healing powers back. Now, do not get me wrong. We gods still had a minority of our powers left after being tossed down to earth. I could still access lots of knowledge and could store as many things as I wanted in my brain without them being forgotten. Artemis was still a fabulous archer, and Dionysus (of course) was still out partying every night. But my father had decided that it would be funny if he took away some of our powers, too. Only when we had regained godhood would we be allowed to regain our full potential. So the fact that Zeus would give Apollo his powers back, out of all the Olympians (seriously, you could not find a better choice?), startled me. “What do you mean?” I asked him. “I literally can, like, fly,” he responded. “Please, do not try and break even more bones,” I warned him. “Besides, this all seems like a fluke. Father could not have meant for this to happen. We have not all learned our lessons yet.” A small thought could not help but run through my brain. Are you sure? “No, I’m not joking, Athena. I think you have trust issues.”  “I think you have trust issues,” I replied, “and being given our powers back is impossible. We are just lowly mortals right now. There is no way we could be able to do the miraculous things we used to do.” “But there is!” Apollo protested. When he heard me sigh, he said, “You know what? Here. Can you see this?” “See what?” “I’m going to move my hand and…hold on…,” I heard the sun god start muttering to himself. “Aha!” He finally said. “Alright, just had to check it would work halfway across the world first.” “What are you even talking about?” I murmured. “Apollo, what did you do?” “I didn’t set anything on fire this time, I promise!” He assured me. “Here, so, I’m moving my hand up and down…do you see it?” I looked out across the horizon, fixing my gaze on the sun. “See what? I see nothing, Apollo.” “Ooh, sorry, I was still focused on Mongolia. Now I’ve got it!” Then, suddenly, the sun started to sink in the sky. I blinked, unbelieving. It was not every day that you saw a magical change like this. The sun started to disappear. “Um, Apollo?” “Yeah?” “What are you doing?” “Let’s just say that for the people in Asia, it was a pretty early morning.” “No way,” I breathed. “You really did get your powers back.” “Yep! I’m back, baby! I’ve gotta go tell Artemis, and then I need to tell Dionysus so we can have parties together, and then I can rub it in Poseidon’s face…oh, it’s gonna be so awesome!” I could hear the excitement in his voice. “You know, that sounds great and all, brother,” I began. “But how are you planning on keeping this on the downlow in the college?” Apollo started to laugh. “That’s the great thing: I’m not going to!” I heard him drop his phone from all the joy he was feeling right now. “Ah, oops. Hold on, there’s a thing outside my window,” “What? What do you mean, ‘there is a thing outside your window’? You do realize that it is very rude to call a person a ‘thing’, right?” I asked him, furrowing my eyebrows even though he could not actually see me. I waited for a response from my brother, but nothing happened. Instead, he seemed to just let his phone lay on the ground where he had dropped it. I heard the sound of a voice, probably from the person at his window. Maybe Apollo had DoorDashed something and had not realized it had shown up, so the driver felt compelled to tap on his window and get his attention. Or maybe some annoying kids were egging his apartment (I would like to see that). I waited for a moment longer. Six seconds passed of complete silence. Finally, I heard Apollo speak again, but this time, his voice sounded worried, urgent. Almost like he was realizing that he did not look as perfect as he thought he did. “Athena,” he told me. “Pick up Artemis and meet me at the Tatte Bakery and Cafe or whatever it’s called. We’ve got things to discuss.” Before I could question him any longer, he promptly hung up. He did not even wait for me to say, “Here, let me pick you up, since you are such a bad driver.” Seriously, what was going on with Apollo? *** As I made my way into the parking lot of the Tatte Bakery and Cafe, I saw Apollo, standing there at the door, fiddling with something that I could not quite make out from this far away. There was no sign that he had previously been in a car crash earlier today. He looked perfectly fine. “What’s he on about?” Artemis wondered. “I have no idea,” I responded, parking my car. “So how about we find out?” Artemis let out a breath she had been holding. “Athena, I’m so glad you didn’t inherit the bad driving trait.” She pushed open the door and we began to walk over to her brother. “Hey you two,” he said. “We’re sitting over there. Also, I ordered you both iced coffees, so don’t complain.” We followed him to a round table. Our drinks were already there. If Aphrodite were here, it would not only be the drink she would complain about. I can just imagine the goddess of love now. She would not even step foot near our table, much less sit down. I can practically hear her voice in my head, “Eww, we have to sit outside?” “Okay, Apollo,” Artemis said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “What’s up? I see you’re…well, you know, better.” “Yeah,” the god of the sun replied. “I am. Athena, did you tell her about my godly healing powers yet?” “No, Apollo,” I muttered, slightly annoyed. “We only had time to get in the car and drive here, and unlike you, I actually focus on where I am going.” “Please, you’re just salty that you don’t have cool powers like mine.” My frustrating half brother said with a smile. I wanted so desperately to dump my iced coffee in his face.  “You two, will you stop your arguing? And brother, will you get on with what you wanted to tell us?” Artemis sounded exasperated. I wonder why. “Ugh, you never let me have any fun!” Apollo protested. Artemis shot him a look that could wither an apple, and he said, “Fine, fine. I’ll tell you. When I got back to my apartment this morning after the magical healing transformation, I tested out my powers.” “About that,” I cut in, “you said that it was an early morning for the people in Asia?” Apollo was silent for a moment. “Um, yeah, so, I kinda sorta tested out my powers on their side of the world.” “Oh, my gosh, Apollo!” Artemis exclaimed furiously. “You’re insufferable!” “Not for anything bad!” Apollo assured her. “At least I wasn’t playing with matches this time.” I cringed, remembering the time that Apollo had been holding those matches in his hands on Olympus. He had tried to focus on telepathically moving the sun across the sky, but instead, he had just lit the matches on fire and burned down his entire palace. He is lucky that he was immortal, or else he would not be here with us today. “Anyway,” Apollo continued, “I was on the phone with Athena when this happened, too, but Zeus visited me.” He paused to let that sink in. We both stared at him, then looked at each other. “Zeus,” I repeated, “visited you? The nuisance? And he did not have the decency to come say hello to his favorite child?” “Now that’s just offensive!” Apollo replied. “Your whole face is offensive,” I snapped back. “But by all means, continue on.” Apollo frowned, opened his mouth like he was about to retaliate, and then closed it again. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Alright, I’m ready now,” he told us. “So, Zeus said that I needed to meet him at this one restaurant tonight. I don’t know what he’s planning, but guys, I think he’s offering my godhood back.” Artemis immediately screamed, “Do it!” At the same time, I told him, “Do not agree, brother.” “Dang, you two not agreeing on something? I told Teripschore that I’d pay money to see that. Now I don’t have to.” Apollo mused. “Oh please, brother, we don’t want to hear about whatever you have going on with her,” Artemis replied. “You have to do this!” “No,” I protested. My two siblings stared at me. “‘No’?” Apollo repeated. “What do you mean?”  I took a deep breath. “Apollo, has it ever occurred to you that Zeus may have put us here on Earth so we can fix our flaws?” “Flaws? Then why am I here?” Both Artemis and I gave him an exasperated look, and he said, “Okay, I’ll admit, I hear it now.” “Yeah, so imagine what would happen if you were to accept godhood without your flaw being fixed,” I told him. “And then a few months later, everyone else shows up, actually acting like they are worthy of their place on Olympus. How would that make you look?” Apollo was silent. I was hoping he would say something to me, or at least nod. He did not even have to understand what I was saying. This silence was unbearable. I had no idea if I had changed his mind or if I had merely made a question arise in his mind. “I’ve gotta go,” the sun god finally told us. “Zeus awaits.” Then, without another word, he ran off to get in his car and meet our father. “Do you think I made a difference?” I said, turning to Artemis. “We’ll find out,” she responded. “Either tonight, we’ll go to the football game, or my brother will become a god again.”  Chapter Four - Who Gave Zeus This Idea? Apollo It seemed all my problems had been fixed. Or, at least, I hoped they had, because I couldn’t afford to get into another car wreck. As I drove into the parking lot of Row 34, I automatically dug my fingernails into the steering wheel of the car that Zeus had just dropped off at my door for me. I hadn’t been necessarily wanting a bulky pickup truck, but hey, when the god of thunder showed up at my doorstep, it didn’t look like I had much of a choice. Really, I had been hoping to figure out all the car stuff later. Or never. That’d be alright too. But sadly, no. My father had taken care of it for me. It was true that I was considered Zeus’s favorite. I know that Athena thought she had earned that title, but really, it was me. Athena was responsible, independent, and all that stuff, but I realized that Zeus needed someone to always depend on him. That’s where I came into play, because let’s be honest: I wasn’t as good at taking care of myself as Athena. I mean, I literally got into a car wreck! I should be supervised. I parked without rear ending anyone this time and sighed. Whenever my father had showed up at my door as a strange mortal with sunglasses that he most definitely stole from Ares, I knew something was up. He had told me to meet him here, at Row 34, and that we had important things to discuss. Whether he would offer me godhood or simply just ask what town he should strike with his lightning bolt next was what stressed me out, though. You see, Zeus is one of those people who’s so serious about everything. Seriously, if this guy got a job as a stand up comedian, I’d be blown away. This trait also makes him very unpredictable. You never know what he’s going to say next. Maybe he would ask me about my car insurance (which I didn’t have, by the way) or maybe he would tell me that I was welcomed back on Olympus. I just hoped that this wouldn’t turn out to all be some joke, or that he would just stand me up at this restaurant. I can imagine his excuses now. “Oops, sorry, I was busy,” just wouldn’t cut it. Not this time. I walked into the restaurant, and instantly I was greeted by the chattering of people. This place seemed busy today. I imagined that this was what Athena’s mind looked like, with so many different ideas and thoughts all mingled together. Seriously, when I first met her, I found it hard to believe that she had never taken speech and debate. She would’ve killed it. I looked around, searching for my father. I was tempted to use my powers and make the lights even brighter, but then I heard Artemis’s annoyed voice in my head after she’d figured out I’d done that and thought better of it. Then I heard a voice behind me. “Hey, Forrest, come join me.”  For a moment, I stayed right where I was. Even though that was my father’s voice, I wasn’t Forrest. But then I remembered the fake last name Artemis had given us. I groaned and turned to face my dad. “You really had to use my last name?” Zeus was dressed in your casual gray shirt and black jeans. He was still wearing Ares’s sunglasses, the dark lenses making it hard to see his eyes, and he had a scraggly beard. He flashed a smile at me. “What else could I have used? Your first name?” My eyes widened. “Nope. No. Last name is fine, thank you.” For various reasons involving my reaction, I will not tell you my cover up first name that Artemis tried to give me. I sat down across from the king of the gods and sighed. “What do you want?” Zeus raised his eyebrows. “Is that how you talk to your father?” “If you use his last name, then yeah.” Zeus shook his head. “Young people these days,” he muttered. “When did you become Athena?” I asked him. He frowned. “Please, Apollo, relax. Order some food.” “What do you have to tell me? I’m not here to wait around.” Zeus breathed deeply, no doubt trying to gather all the patience he had left, which couldn’t have been a lot. “Fine, son. Listen, I put all the Olympians here to let them realize what their flaws were. I was going to give them a second chance to fix them. I have been watching you, and it seems that you just have one more test to pass before you are welcomed back to Olympus.” I froze and stared at my father. I mean, sure, I had been hoping for this, but it still surprised me that I had been accepted on Olympus again faster than Athena. I would have to rub this in her face later. “Um, okay,” I said hesitantly, wondering if this was all some kind of joke. “What do I have to do?” “It’s simple,” Zeus replied. “You just have to answer my question. Will you accept godhood again?” I blinked. No. There was absolutely no way that my father would make it this easy for me. There had to be a catch. I waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, I prompted, “And?” “You will be accepted back on Olympus with Hera and I, but the rest of the Olympians will not. They still have their lessons to learn, after all.” I opened my mouth to say yes, I would most definitely like to be welcomed back on Olympus. Then, the reality of what he’d said hit me. “Wait,” I found myself saying, “only I will be invited back?” “Yep.” Zeus answered, nodding. “So, what do you say?” “I say…,” my voice trailed off as I thought about how lonely I would be. I mean, sure, Zeus and Hera were there, but there was no Artemis to argue with, no Athena to bother, no Dionysus to party with. Hermes wouldn’t be delivering the letters between everyone. Aphrodite wouldn’t be there to criticize my fashion. Normally, I found that annoying, but now I realize how much that actually meant to me.  “Why are you hesitant?” My father asked me, tilting his head. “You can have everything you want, your palace, your powers, your place on Olympus. You just have to agree to wait for everyone else. It’s either you or nothing, Apollo.” I narrowed my eyes. It’s true that throughout the years, I had thought that the other Olympians could never be as good as me. I hated it when I got into fights with my sister and we ceased to speak to each other for a few millennia. I had been mad when Hephaestus had refused to make me glorious armor. But now I realized that my life would actually be pretty boring and lonely without them, and no doubt would I miss Artemis. What would I do back on Olympus with no one to talk to? Play guitar? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love to play guitar, but it couldn’t beat annoying Poseidon. “I say no, father,” I finally said. I had no idea what I was doing, no idea why I was doing it. I only knew that I couldn’t live without those people in my life who always corrected, bothered, or annoyed me. “If everyone can’t join me, then I’m not coming back to Olympus.” Zeus’s eyebrows raised. He was silent for a moment. Then, he said, “Wise choice, Apollo. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting that. You would’ve said yes before that wreck, you realize.” I thought about that. I guess I really had changed because of that wreck after all. “Hmm,” I said. “I suppose I would have.” I turned to look at my father, but he was gone, most likely teleporting back up to Olympus. I tried to make all the lights in the restaurant brighter. Nothing happened. I was back to being my mortal self again. But I couldn’t help wondering, had that been the right decision? *** I got out of my car and looked at the table where Artemis and Athena had been sitting before I’d left. They were still there, and judging by the brown haired girl at the table, Aphrodite had joined them. As I approached, I heard Athena muttering, “I hope I made a difference. He cannot just go back to his old life after everything that has happened this month, can he?” “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Aphrodite responded. She was wearing a simple pink shirt and blue jeans today. Of course, she had her phone out and was scrolling through Instagram while reassuring the goddess of wisdom, her kaleidoscope eyes glued to the screen. “Hey, how do you think I look in this lighting?” She asked. Artemis glumly stared into space. “Whatever lighting works for me. It’s nature’s natural beauty effects,” she said, her voice monotone. She didn’t seem to be paying attention to anything around her. Since all three of them were zoned out and focusing on their own thoughts, I decided to announce my presence. “Hey guys, I, uh—” I was cut off when Athena’s eyes widened and she ran over to me. I was only halfway to the table and still in the middle of the road, but she didn’t seem to care.  “What happened?” She asked. “Did you accept it? Please tell me you didn’t accept it!” I froze. Since when was Athena so flustered that she used contractions? Did she really not want me to go back to my old life that bad? While I scrunched up my eyebrows in confusion, the goddess of wisdom shook her head, seeming to try and get the contractions out of her system. “Sorry,” she murmured quickly. “So, what did he ask?” I explained to her what had happened, then paused for dramatic effect (even though that was Dionysus’s strong suit) at the part where my father had offered me my place on Olympus again. She started fidgeting with her hair. “So, what did you say? You better have made the right choice, Apollo…,” I shrugged. “I mean, I don’t know if it was the right choice, but I told him no.” Athena’s thoughts seemed to pause for a moment. She stared at me, surprised. Then, with no context at all, no confirmation to if my decision was right or wrong, she hugged me. I didn’t know what to do, so I just hugged her back. “Apollo,” Athena said, pulling away from me, “that was the best thing you could ever have done.” I tilted my head. “Really?” “Yeah. Would you be sad if you missed the football game tonight?” She asked me. I shrugged. Truthfully, I had kind of forgotten about the football game. “I mean, I suppose.” “Good, because we better get going,” Artemis said. Athena and I looked around and saw Artemis and Aphrodite standing next to Athena’s car. “Come on, Sunshine. We’ll drive you.” I could tell that Artemis was pretending to be unfazed by my decision, but by the way she called me Sunshine, I could tell that she was glad I had said no to my father. “Alright,” I agreed. “Let’s get going. The others will be wondering where we’ve been.” *** “So, Zeus came and asked you if you wanted your godhood back, and you said no?” “Yep,” I said, trying to hear myself over the roar of the crowd. Poseidon stared at me, his mouth open. He was wearing a plain Hawaiian shirt and shorts today, and he studied me with confused dark blue eyes. “Dude, if I were you, I would’ve said yeah,” The sea god said. “That’s, like, a crazy good deal!” I shrugged. “Yeah, for you, maybe. But I’d prefer to stay down here for now, with you guys.” Poseidon sighed, then I watched as his gaze floated past me and towards the field. For all of you who hadn’t known the sea god as long as I had, there’s only two things I’m going to tell you: surfer. Well, okay, that was one quality, but you get the point. Poseidon’s mood often depended on what the tides were doing that day. Most of the time he was chill, but trust me, you didn’t want to get on his bad side. Then again, you didn’t want to get on any gods’ bad side. After that, you were done for. Poseidon had those vibes that told you he was taking his sweet time. He wasn’t concerned about getting back to Olympus. He seemed to know that everything would be okay, and he agreed to wait for his chance to accept godhood again. Everyone cheered. Maybe someone had, like, won the game or something. If you couldn’t tell, I didn’t know much about sports. Usually, I was just dragged to these games. This is why I was relieved when Athena tried to strike up a conversation, because let’s be honest, I never would have figured out what was going on with the game. “So, you all know that Apollo rejected immortality, right?” Everyone acted like they knew. Well, everyone except Hermes. The short messenger god asked, “Wait, what?” “Apollo didn’t agree to go back to Olympus without all of us, the big softie,” Demeter explained, twirling her brown hair in between her fingers. I rolled my eyes. I didn’t approve of Demeter calling me a softie, but I did have her contact as Miss Gardener in my phone so I figured it was sort of like payback. “So, what are we going to do after this event?” Athena asked. Then, she answered her own question, like she does oftentimes. “We will have to wait for another accident like this to happen, I am guessing. Then we will listen to the next offer he gives us, assuming it is something similar to the one he proposed to Apollo.” I sighed. “As much as I want to believe you, I don’t think it’s going to be easy,” I responded. “He’s not just going to ask us the same thing, over and over again. We all have different flaws, don’t we?” “Yes,” the goddess of wisdom agreed, “I suppose we do. I just cannot fathom how everything will turn out.” “Yeah, humans are weird like that,” Aphrodite commented. “You fix one problem with your personality, but then another pops up. How does Zeus expect us to become better people if we can’t be perfect?” I had not heard the goddess of love utter such meaningful words in all my time on Olympus. The fact that she did all of this staring at her phone also amazed me. I guess sometimes those people glued to their devices actually had pretty good ideas. “I think you’re onto something,” I heard Artemis say. “Unfortunately, our father doesn’t understand that. I just think we’ll have to keep waiting until he finally comes to his senses.” “Or we’ll have to teach him a lesson.” Ares added. I sighed. Well, then, I was stuck in college with these people. I had been given the opportunity to go back to Olympus, and I had declined, so I didn’t expect to be called up to that mountain any time soon. My father probably thought I was a fool for rejecting immortality. But you want to know the strange thing? I think I’m okay with that.  Hear me out. Ever since I had been accepted into Harvard University with the rest of the Olympians, I had been searching for a way to get back to my original home. I would have done anything for it, which, now that I think about it, would have been a good way for me to get scammed. I had resented being stuck here on earth and not being able to control the sun telepathically. I hadn’t wanted to pay attention to my studies (who does?) and I always got into fights with my sister. Now I realized that the world doesn’t always revolve around me, though. I mean, I was the sun. But rather than becoming the sun both literally and figuratively, I was only the sun verbatim. When you think about the sun, tell me, what do you imagine its personality to be like? On one hand, it can be harsh and boastful and mean, but on the other it was a light in the darkest hour. And that was what I wanted to be. So sure, I was the actual sun and the world needed me to survive. But was the world really a better place if it needed past me to survive or future me to survive? Because past me only thought about myself all the time. I’d never thought about this before. It had never been revealed to me that my actions did in fact have an effect on everyone around me. But now I knew that if I wanted to be a good person that others looked to for advice, I had to become the person who I wanted to be. I had to become less self centered, more considerate, and a better driver. So, while I was here in college with the people who annoyed me the most, I thought I’d work on that. Besides, what else was I supposed to do, pay attention in class? Oh, and another thing: my father didn’t have to let any of us back on Olympus. He had to face that sometimes, we have flaws. Flaws are what make us who we are, aren’t they? If we had no flaws, then who were we? Just some nameless person who did everything right? Yeah, no thanks. I’d rather be the clumsiest person in the world than perfect, because then at least I’d be well known. I mean, take Athena for example. Sure, she was smart and always had that professional aura about her. The goddess of wisdom seemed perfect, that’s for sure. But I knew that Athena was a perfectionist. I knew she had a hard time talking to people because she was so focused on her studies. But she also was probably one of the only Olympians who actually listened to the professor’s lectures. She had good qualities and bad qualities, quirks and flaws. And that was perfectly okay. But my father needed to learn that even if we were gods, we were still humans. We couldn’t be everywhere at once, couldn’t do everything perfectly. We were only human. So he needed to set his mind right, and if he thought that we would come back from our time here on Earth completely changed, he may need to think again. All I knew right now was that I would focus on becoming a better person. In the meantime, there were some surprises in store for us. But the one thing that I could assure myself of was that we Olympians weren’t abandoning each other here. We would stick together until we all were accepted back on our mountain home. It may take forever, or it may be next week. And I was perfectly fine with that.  Chapter Five - We Sure Must Love This Cafe Aphrodite After that whole ordeal, what with Apollo almost getting his powers back and almost dying and everything, something new happened to us. Yeah, I know. We never seem to get a break, unlike some of my fa vorite people on Facebook. Come on, you guys! Why are you taking a break from posting about your dog? I want more photos! But I’m getting sidetracked. Now, after that football game (which I wore the cutest outfit to, by the way) we all went back to our dorms, obli vious of what was to come the next day. What came the next day, you ask? Well, I’ll explain it in stages. First, when we all went to our first classes of the day, the group chat was quite acti ve. Athena wasn’t texting as much, since she wanted to pay attention to class, but other than that, the t wo powerful brothers of Zeus were ruling over the chat.I’m not kidding.They were acting like they were both king of Olympus, when really, we all knew they were just some dumb guys with too much time on their hands. Next, I met up with Athena in our dorm room. She had hated it when I’d painted it pink to surprise her. I don’t know how. It was supposed to be a gift, not like that one blouse I had got a few years back and shoved behind my dresser (that thing was hideous), but a gift that made you happy! I don’t understand! How does pink not make Athena happy? “Hey, does anything feel off to you today?” She’d asked me as she brewed some coffee. “No,” I responded. “But now that I take it into consideration…,” my voice trailed off as I realized something did feel off today. And it wasn’t just that we hadn’t had a massi ve party at Josh’s last night, like al ways. It was something supernatural, and the only people that dealt with the supernatural were us Olympians. “Do you think our father’ll call us back on Olympus today?” “No,” Athena responded, shaking her head. “I know that is our wish, but I doubt it will be granted any time soon.” She sighed, gathering her curly blonde hair into a ponytail. “We shall see, I guess.” The third and final stage was when we were greeted by a goddess. Yes, a goddess. Who else would we be confronted by? But this goddess wasn’t just any goddess. You see, Athena, Demeter, and I had been walking around Boston, going to our new fa vorite place, the Tatte Bakery and Cafe. I had purchased a normal coffee, then did my normal ritual of dunking s weetener into it and making it almost as s weet as me, almost being the key word there. Of course, no one could be as s weet as me. Everyone knew that. As soon as Demter sat down, that’s when the chaos started. We heard a voice behind us, “Hello. May I sit?” Athena turned, her calculating gray eyes steely and narrowed. Demeter brushed her brown bangs out of her face (I love the way she styled them today!) and whipped around, gripping her non-dairy flat white in her hand. I looked up at the newcomer, confused. Who would ha ve approached three former goddesses at a coffee shop? I studied the person in front of us. She had creamy blonde hair, crystal-like blue eyes, pale skin, and a sil ver tiara on her head. She was wearing a white, flowing dress that dragged across the concrete and her hair was braided. She smiled at us, her white teeth looking too perfect for her to be a simple mortal. Apollo had described Zeus as a scruffy dude who looked like he should be in a biker gang. So for this woman to show up completely decked out in an outfit most definitely not appropriate for the weather, I realized this had to be some supernatural deity.  Then, I realized who she could be. I recognized her voice, the way she talked to us with such regal manner, and I came to the conclusion that this young woman in front of us was in fact Queen Hera of Olympus. “Oh, please, stop staring at me! That’s very unkind of you all. Especially you” —her gaze tra veled over Athena— “as you are my daughter.” Athena rolled her eyes. “What do you want, Mother.” That word was said with so much hate, as if Hera were a stain on the tablecloth of good will. I sighed. If Hera was only going to address her magnificent daughter, then why bother paying any more attention to this con versation? I began to pull out my phone and sa w that I had a notification from TikTok, but no sooner had I grabbed it then Hera had slapped it out of my hand. “Hey!” I shouted angrily. “Ah ah ah,” she said, wagging a finger at me. “Even my aunt doesn’t get to dissociate from this con versation.” “Hera, why are you here?” Demeter asked. I could hear a hint of annoyance in her voice. Hera looked offended. “Please, can’t I just sit down and ha ve coffee with you?” Athena did not look happy to ha ve Hera as her mother. “The resemblance to Zeus is uncanny,” she murmured drily. “Why is this reminding me so much of the meeting Apollo had with him?” Demeter added. Hera sighed hea vily, but I knew it was just for dramatic effect. She al ways wanted people to feel pity for her. “I guess I’ll just ha ve to tell you what I’m here for now,” the queen said. “That would be great.” Athena took a sip of her coffee. She looked soulless, staring at her mother like that. I wondered why the wisdom goddess hated her so much. I thought Athena stood by Hera’s decision to send us to college. “I ha ve horrible news,” Hera continued, ignoring Athena’s comment. “Your father has been captured!” We all froze, contemplating what Hera had just said. For me, my father was different from both Demeter and Athena’s. Athena was a princess, being the daughter of Zeus and Hera, and Demeter was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Mean while, I was the daughter of Ouranos. Now, whenever you’re at the table telling people about how their father was captured, you may want to specify which father. “Do you not know who I’m talking about?” Hera exclaimed, flabbergasted. We all stared at her blankly, and she rolled her eyes, which in my opinion was very unqueenly. “Zeus, people! We’re talking about my husband here!” “Oh…,” a look of realization settled over all our faces. Then I piped up. “Wait a sec. Zeus is captured?” “Yes,” Hera responded. “By what, I ha ve no idea. All I know is that he’s not on Olympus anymore, lea ving me to rule myself.” She sounded happy about that idea. “But now I am coming to you with a task,” Athena pinched the bridge of her nose. “Here it comes,” she muttered. Hera again ignored her. “I don’t ha ve any recollection of where he is, what managed to overpower him, or why. So I am instructing the ten of you, gi ve or take a few, to go rescue him while I monitor the mountain.” Athena looked like she wanted to bang her head against the table. I heard her mutter, “Please, you just do not want to sa ve him yourself.” Demeter’s eyes were wide. “What do you mean, ‘gi ve or take a few’?” She echoed, concerned. She was the softie of the group, except if you messed with her crops. Then you should sleep with one eye open.  Hera shrugged. “You never know what the Fates ha ve in mind,” she responded. “They may call a few of you back to Olympus, or they may not.” “By they, do you mean you?” Athena pointed out. Hera didn’t respond. “Well, I must go now,” she announced. Athena looked like she was about to say something she would regret, but then she shut her mouth. “I’ll see you later, my wonderful daughter.” Hera wa ved to Athena as she stood up. Athena just stared bitterly at her coffee. “Tell me when you’ve found Zeus!” Miss Marriage Goddess cheerfully said. In a flash of light, Hera was gone, lea ving the three of us sitting at the table. My phone was still on the metal, and I picked it up. “You realize what this means, right?” “That we’re under the threat of disappearing at any moment?” Demeter asked. I tilted my head. “Well, technically, yes. But we wouldn’t be disappearing forever! We would be called back to our original home. Isn’t that what we wanted in the first place?” Athena shrugged, admiring her iced coffee like it was the most important thing in the world. “I guess so. I just really despise Hera.” “We could tell,” I muttered. “What is it with you t wo?” “Well, she tries to kill all of Zeus’s children,” Athena replied. “I mean, look at Hercules. Do not get me wrong. Zeus is not much better, and should not be seeing other women, but still, it unsettles me. Like, what if one day she just decides all his children should die? What does that mean for me?” I blinked at her. Demeter’s eyes widened. Truthfully, I had no idea Athena worried about things like that. She was the wisdom goddess, and, let’s be honest, Zeus’s fa vorite. That was her role. I was the prettiest, Demeter was the softie, Hermes was the messenger, she was the smart one, etcetera. So for her to open my eyes to a world without her here…that felt strange.  “Hera can’t just blatantly decide that,” Demeter argued. “If she did, you’d be dead, Apollo and Artemis would be gone, Hephaestus, Ares…,” her voice trailed off. “The list goes on forever! She would be illuminating, like, half the population on Mount Olympus.” “But there is nothing stopping her, is there?” Athena debated. “She is queen, after all. With a snap of her fingers, she could do anything she wanted. And now that she is in control of Olympus, who knows what is going on up there.” We all contemplated that for a moment. It was true, Hera now had absolute control over everything. We were entrusting her with our palaces, thrones, homes, domains, everything. And was I okay with that? Not really. Zeus wasn’t there to make sure she didn’t go crazy, all by herself. Who knows what she would do to our old home while we were stuck down here. We wouldn't be able to do anything but watch as she destroyed the Greek pantheon. “And another thing,” Athena continued, “she al ways assigns little tasks to people, like they work for her. She does not ha ve the guts to sa ve Zeus herself, so now we are being forced to do it. Does that sound like good parentage to you?” I knit my eyebrows. Now, none of us knew good parentage. I mean, I was born from the seafoam. Things weren’t all fun and games at our Thanksgi vings, either. But I did understand the concept of it. And Demeter must, too, because even though I knew nothing about her childhood, her mom seemed pretty chill. “No,” the goddess of grain responded. “She sounds…evil.” “Exactly. And that is why we must make sure Zeus earns his spot back on Olympus. This calls for a council of the gods.” I gripped my phone, my eyes narrowing as they met Athena’s. “I’m on it.”  Chapter Six - Among Us And A Marriage Deity Poseidon When they call for a friendly council of the gods, you know something’s wrong. Uh, I mean, everything’s chill. I’m just your local surfer dude. Yeah. Nothing’s bothering me right now. I’m just meeting up at the basketball court to talk to my entire extended family. No biggie. I was lying, because it turned out to be a pretty big deal. “You may be wondering why I gathered you all here today,” Aphrodite began. She was standing under the basketball net in front of us all, with Athena and Demeter at either side of her. They looked like queens talking to their faithful subjects. “Well, we were visited by Hera.” Everyone stilled. Apollo’s eyes raised, and we all turned to look at him as he said, “Another supernatural appearance? Man, this really isn’t our week, is it?” “I’m afraid not,” Demeter responded. “The queen said that our father was—was captured.” I blinked, flabbergasted. “Huh?” I muttered. “Repeat that, please?” Hermes added. I stared down at the pavement below us. Zeus, my all powerful brother, was captured? No wonder everything had felt off recently. I mean, that argument I’d had with Hades about who wanted to be the next king of Olympus when Zeus passed on was just for fun, but had we actually manifested something? “I understand your confusion,” Athena began, taking the stage. “I, too, was concerned. But there is more. The oh-so-amazing Queen Hera who claims she can do everything cannot do this.” We all stared at her with open mouths as Athena told us that we were to save my pathetic brother. “But…but he’s king,” Hephaestus protested. “Can’t he just save himself?”  Hades shook his head. “I knew there was a reason I lived.” He muttered. Everyone went dead silent and stared at him, but the young, black haired teenager looked down gloomily at his feet. I still did a double take every time I saw him. He just didn’t look the same as when I saw him in the Underworld. He was wearing all black, and he had pale skin. He had also decided it was a good idea to get a silver stud piercing in his right ear. Why only his right ear, I have no idea. Personally, I’d wanted to go with him and get some blue earrings, but he wouldn’t let me. That was brothers for you, I guess. “Anyway,” Athena interjected, flustered. “One more thing. Hera said that she could call us back to Olympus any time she wanted.” “So, we could just wait for her to bring us back to Olympus. We don’t even have to go along with her stupid plan,” Dionysus offered. “She won’t accept that,” Ares argued. “You know her. She’ll demand we rescue him at the cost of our lives.” Aphrodite looked skeptical about that. “Our lives? Really, Ares?” “Our immortality, sorry. War god tendencies.” Ares apologized, and his girlfriend just rolled her eyes. “Yeah, so, if we go and try to rescue Zeus, Hera has every opportunity to make our lives harder by just subtracting a few of us from the equation,” Athena murmured. “With how messed up this family is, it’s more like she has the power to isolate X, Y, and A and then get rid of every other constant variable.” Apollo corrected. When Athena’s eyes widened and Artemis looked like she didn’t know who he was anymore, he shook his head. “Woah. Dunno why I said that.”  I saw a flicker of recognition in Aphrodite’s eyes, which must have meant she was planning something. Uh oh. When the goddess of love plots something, it’s most likely that a couple will get together a few days later. “Uh, okay. Anywho, we are under the threat of being called back to Olympus at any time possible. One of us could be called back now, even!” Athena exclaimed, pretending she hadn’t heard Apollo’s strange outburst of algebra facts. “We could be in the middle of a battle and suddenly some divine light shows up and Dionysus has disappeared.” “He’s been ejected off the ship,” Hermes added. “And the imposter was Hera.” Everybody looked at him with confusion. “You’ve just ruined Among Us for me,” Dionysus whispered, shaking his head. “You see, this is why we never get together for family gatherings. Weird things happen.” “Dionysus, you play Among Us?” Artemis wondered. Dionysus shrugged. “From time to time. I like being the imposter and venting everywhere.” “Guys, please focus,” Athena ordered with a defeated tone of voice. “How are we going to save Zeus with all of this on our plate?” “Quests, obvi,” Aphrodite responded. “Isn’t that what Hera does? She assigns difficult tasks to people, causing them to travel all across the world and abandon their current lives.” Hephaestus tilted his head, his curly brown hair glinting in the sunlight. He had on cargo pants and a tool belt, and was wearing a plain forest green shirt. “I mean, I guess that makes sense.” I sighed. “Great. We’re all gonna die.” Then I realized everyone was looking at me and said, “I mean, yay! We’re all gonna die!”  Hades high fived me, while everyone else stared at us like we were the craziest people on earth. “Gods, that was dark, Poseidon,” Hermes said with a shudder. Dionysus shrugged. “I mean, hey, sometimes that’s how things go. Then you get high off alcohol and wake up in Vegas.” This caused the attention to float from us to him. Even I didn’t know Dionysus was doing things like that. “Dude, are you following the law?” I asked. He glanced blankly at me. “What law?” “Okay. This was a good session with the tortured teenagers department—” Apollo cut himself off with his own realization. “Do you see what I did there? Like, the Taylor Swift album? The Tortured Poet’s Departement? TTPD?” We all groaned. “This meeting is dismissed,” Athena said. “You guys are all imbeciles, anyway.” “Hey! You’re mean!” Ares shouted. “And you are acting like a crybaby. Name something new.” Athena responded. “Gosh, Athena! Stop being mean to my boyfriend!” Aphrodite shouted. “Boyfriend? Oh, do I have some beef with you, young lady!” Hephaestus butted into their conversation. “I’m going vegetarian.” Aphrodite murmured drily. “Come on, Ares. Let’s go.” Before Hephaestus could yell at them anymore, they sped away from the basketball court on Ares’s motorcycle. “Well, they’re gone,” I noted. “How are we gonna come to any decisions now?” Athena shook her head. “Just…give me a moment to think about it, alright? There has to be another way….I am not sure. Maybe it shall come to me in a dream. Maybe we are going about it all wrong. I wonder…Hera would not have done that, would she?” She began to mutter to herself. “Well, she is cold blooded enough to. But I just do not understand how. Maybe she wants to be the sole ruler?” With a jolt, I realized what Athena was mumbling about. She was wondering if Hera herself had somehow been working with the kidnappers of Zeus. But no. She was his wife! Of course she wouldn’t do that. But on the other hand, the goddess of wisdom was never wrong…. I shook my head, clearing my thoughts. No. This had not been Hera’s doing. This was someone else entirely, maybe even a team of people, but it couldn’t be Hera. The queen of Olympus didn’t like to get her hands dirty. She preferred to have someone else do the work for her, just like our situation right now. “Hey, I’ll drive you back to your dorm,” Apollo said. When Athena didn’t hear him, he touched her shoulder for attention. The goddess of wisdom flinched, surprised. “Did you hear me?” “Yeah, yeah, sure,” she responded, dismissing him with a flick of her hand. “Great.” He muttered. “I’ll grab my car keys.” I watched as those two drove off together. Now it was all the people whose name starts with an H, Artemis, Demeter, Dionysus, and I. “Why wouldn’t he offer to drive me home?” Artemis wondered, staring after the car they shared as it cruised down the street. “We live in the same apartment, people! It’s not that hard!” I shook my head. “Here, you can walk with me.” Artemis eyed me warily. “Uh, no thanks. I’m a maiden.”  I began to protest, but then she turned to Demeter and began pulling the goddess of agriculture across the sidewalk. “Bye, guys!” Artemis called. “We’ll see you when Athena figures out a plan!” As they disappeared, Dionysus turned to me. “Dude, you were just turned down by Artemis.” I facepalmed. “I wasn’t trying to ask her out! Gods, Dionysus. You jump to conclusions real quick, don’t ya?” “Must be all that alcohol. Went to his brain,” Hephaestus said, tapping the side of his forehead with a finger. “Oh, shut up!” Dionysus argued. “You shut up!” Hephaestus shot back. “Here, how about we all stop acting like children,” Hermes tried to reason with us. Hephaestus crossed his arms angrily and glared at Dionysus, who just smiled at him and did finger guns in his direction. “I’m leaving,” Hades murmured grumpily. I watched him walk away, waiting for him to summon a skeleton or something and play a prank on us. Nothing happened. Then I remembered we didn’t have any powers and breathed a sigh of relief. If he did have his powers, that prank would’ve felt a little too real for my liking. “Guess I better go, too,” Hermes muttered. “Hephaestus, you’re coming with me so you don’t kill Dionysus.” “Hey, why do I have to go with you? Why can’t he?” Hephaestus whined. Dionysus laughed. “I’m just that good, that’s why.” “Oh please, you can’t even do half the stuff I do.”  “Oh, you wanna bet?” “Boys!” Hermes snapped. “Come on, Hephaestus.” The two gods began walking away, and I sighed as I watched them. Before Dionysus said anything, I turned to him. “Lemme guess: you’ve got to go too?” The god of wine nodded. “Yep. I need to get back to that Among Us, y’know?” I smiled at him, and when he asked me what I was going to do, I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I replied. “I’m probably going to stay out here and shoot a few baskets for a while.” “Alright. Well, see you around, Poseidon.” “Yeah. You too, Dionysus.” I watched him as he walked away from the basketball court. In truth, I didn’t shoot any baskets. Instead, I sat on the bench and stared at the sky, contemplating all my life choices. I couldn’t help thinking, what if…what if Athena was right? What if Hera was behind it all? But at the same time, she couldn’t be. She wouldn’t do that to Zeus. Would she?  Chapter Seven - I Have A Talk With My Future Self Athena That night, something did come to me in a dream. It was just very…unexpected. I had been waiting for something like this. I was the information gatherer of our group, the smart one, the strategic, the planner. But I was not feeling quite like the planner at this point. I had hit a wall, a dead end. Now what did I do? We had no idea where to go, who we were fighting, or even how many of us were actually taking action. That was why I was hoping for some supernatural, godly force to tell me what to do. I get it. That sounds weird. Usually I was very resourceful, making a plan out of whatever I had. But I just could not find all the puzzle pieces to this problem. This is why I was overjoyed when my dream finally gave me some answers. I was watching myself walk around the halls of Harvard. I did not look older, exactly, but wiser. How did that work, I do not know. I could just sense that there was an older feeling about myself. The older me sighed as she gripped her book bag in her hand. Then her eyes flashed with recognition as she noticed me. She approached me and tilted her head. “You…you look just like me,” she noted. I wanted to retort with, Thank you, Sherlock. Instead, I just smiled. “Um, you can see me?” “Of course I can!” She replied with a scoff. “This is more than just a dream, y’know.” I tilted my head. Future Me uses contractions? I wanted to correct her, but I let it slide just this once. “Okay…?” “Anywho, I’m assuming you have questions about that big quest you’re about to embark on.” She continued. Again with the contractions, people. How was Future Me anything like Present Me? I opened my mouth to speak, but Future Me cut me off. “First you’ll go to the south,” she explained. “Seaside, to be exact.” Seaside, Florida? Hmm. That was more than just a few hours from Boston, but I guess I would manage. “Oh, and also, you must go on the quest with Apollo.” I stared at Future Me. My mouth hung open, and she gently reached over and shut it. “Apollo?” I stammered, trying to make sure I had heard Future Me correctly. “I have to go on a world saving mission…with Apollo?”  Then I did something uncharacteristic: I burst out laughing. Future Me raised her eyebrows. “Is there something wrong?” She asked. I tried to explain my sudden outburst, but I could not because I was laughing too hard. “I am…sorry,” I wheezed. “It is just…him? Really?” Future Me watched Present Me with confusion. “You want me to save the world with him?” I repeated. Then I broke down in laughter again. “Uh, what’s the problem?” Future Me wondered. “I mean, he’s not that useless, is he?” Oh, poor, poor Future Me. You do not understand the lengths Apollo will go to annoy me. He is a self centered former sun god. He is used to having the world revolve around him. Now he has no powers, no sense of self, nothing. What makes you think he is capable of going on this quest? Of course, I did not tell her that. Instead, I cleared my throat and asked. “Okay. Who else shall join us?” Future Me shook her head. “Can’t tell you that. It’s just whoever’s left after everyone’s taken to Olympus.” I raised my eyebrows. So it was true that Hera would slowly call people back to Olympus. She would grant them her powers back and they would sit and watch as we stumbled around here on earth trying to do the dirty work for them. I tried to ask her who would be taken to Olympus first, but then my dream started fading. With a jolt, I realized I was waking up. But no. I could not wake now. I have not received all of my answers yet! Future Me smiled as she faded away. “We will talk again soon,” she told me. “I am sure of it.” Then she was gone, leaving me staring up at my gray dorm room ceiling. I blinked groggily, sitting up. Aphrodite was still asleep next to me. I looked at the clock on my desk. It read five o’clock in the morning. No doubt everyone else was still sound asleep. I awoke earliest out of all the Olympians. What can I say? I liked to get a head start on whatever I had to do next. I began to stand and get ready for college, but I paused right in the middle of the room and gaped at who I saw. A woman with a flowing dress, blonde hair, and icy blue eyes was staring at me. She held a staff in her hand, something I had never seen before. It was fully golden with peacock feathers erupting from the top. I narrowed my eyes. “What do you want, Hera?” Hera stood triumphantly in front of the window. I think she was trying to go for an effect where all the light would stream in from behind her and it would look like she was glowing, but since it was dark outside, she just looked like a normal human being. She raised her hands. “Aphrodite!” She called. The goddess of love groaned. “Ow. That hurt my ears. Athena, why are you yelling?”  “It is not Athena. It is I!” Shouted Hera. “Yeah, I am pretty sure you should inform Aphrodite on who ‘I’ is. She looks pretty confused,” I muttered. Hera sighed. “Very well. Aphrodite, it is I, Hera, Queen of Olympus, here to take you back home.” Aphrodite sat up slowly. “How?” “With my magical staff!” Hera exclaimed. I observed it more closely. “That looks like it is made out of foam and was spray painted gold.” Hera clutched it to her chest protectively. “Was not!” Which is Hera for Yes it was. She turned back to Aphrodite. “My dear, are you ready to go?” Aphrodite looked at me mischievously. Uh oh. “I guess so.” She spread her arms wide, closed her eyes, and let Hera work her magic. Hera conjured up more light than Apollo could have mustered and then pretended it was all the staff. Aphrodite slowly rose into the air and then in a flash of blinding light, she was gone. Hera lowered her staff, even though I knew she was doing all the work herself, and said, “If you tell anyone that my staff’s made of that stuff, I’ll sue you.” Then, in another flash of godly light, she was gone too, probably off to collect someone else from college. I wondered what the professors would say when some of their students failed to show up. Maybe they would just shrug and give them all zeroes. Now that was something I would like to see. My brain replayed the previous interaction. The way that Aphrodite had looked at me, as if planning something…it unsettled me. Why did she care about my love life? What was she searching for when she looked into my eyes? I did not want any part in a relationship, much less a romantic one, so she should go looking elsewhere. I thought about the way Apollo had not cared when I was rambling on and on about what Hera was behind. He seemed to realize that I needed space, time to think, and he offered to drive me back to my dorm. When I had refrained from responding, he had taken it as a yes and and drove me home, even when I had not given him consent. I could not but help wondering…was he in cahoots with Aphrodite? You know what? I shall go confront him and see what those two are truly up to. *** That afternoon, I walked to Apollo’s apartment. I knocked on the front door, which was bright sunshiny yellow like you would expect. I saw the silver knob turn and was greeted by Artemis. “Hey, Athena!” She welcomed me. “Come on in.” I followed her inside, and my eyes widened as I saw what was going on. The walls of the apartment were painted bright yellow. There were smaller paintings everywhere of the sun, the moon, eclipses, etcetera. Otherwise, the apartment looked like a normal building. I saw the door to Artemis’s room off to the side, and there was a living room with a large couch and a few chairs. The kitchen was a mess. It looked like someone had been almost done baking cookies, but then abruptly stopped and switched to making blondies. And standing in the center of it all was Apollo, his blonde hair askew, his eyes narrowed. He was backing away from the wall, studying it intently. “Painting a mural,” Artemis informed me. “Does a new one, takes a photo, leaves it up for a week, and then paints over it and starts anew.” I glanced at him, my mouth open. “He did all of this?” I gestured to the highly decorated walls, spreading my arms wide. Artemis nodded. “Yup. He also started making blondies in the kitchen. Now he’s letting them bake and is working on whatever it is he’s painting. He won’t let me see it until it’s done.” I tilted my head. “Brother, we’ve got a visitor.” Artemis said. Apollo turned, a paint brush in his hand, covered in gray paint. I wondered what he was painting, but he quickly moved in front of it, his eyes widening when he saw me. “Oh. Um, Athena, I didn’t know you’d be here!” He swallowed nervously, then tried to play it cool. “I mean, uh, hey.” He looked like he mentally slapped himself. “I mean…can I try again?” I rolled my eyes, glancing over him. Today he was wearing black jeans and a bright yellow hoodie. And also black combat boots, because he can never leave home without them. His freckles on the bridge of his nose popped with his tan skin, his sky blue eyes looking nervous as can be. His blonde hair was ruffled, and he looked like he had been dragged out of his focus. I knew that feeling, when someone broke your flow. Really, this was the guy that Aphrodite was working with? “Apollo, you did all of this?” I asked him, amazed. He shrugged. “Uh, yeah. It’s what I do when I have free time. Y’know, baking, painting, the usual stuff. Not to mention writing songs, poetry—” “So, why’d you come here?” Artemis asked me, cutting her brother off. I gazed at her, her dark hair flowing over her shoulders, the light streaming in from the windows and glinting off her pale skin. “Actually,” I began. “I wanted to talk to your brother. Do you have a moment?” I asked Apollo, glancing behind Artemis to look at him.  He looked from left to right, at his mural and the blondies he was making, and then finally met my eyes. “Uh, yeah, I suppose so.” I walked over to him. He was still guarding the mural furiously. “Uh, do you want to take a break for a minute, or just keep standing in front of that mural?” I muttered. Apollo failed to move, so I took that as a no and sighed, beginning our conversation where we were. “Alright. Apollo, did you arrange something with Aphrodite?” His expression faltered. “Wh—What do you mean?” “Like…ask her to help you get a girl?” I wanted to add, Mainly, me? Apollo shook his head and started stumbling over his words. When speaking his feelings aloud failed him, he burst out in laughter, but it sounded forced. “No! Ha! Me, ask Aphrodite to help me get a girl! I don’t need the love goddess to do everything for me! I can get a girl by myself, thank you!” I raised my eyebrows, remembering the time he rear ended someone in the parking lot after asking a girl to be his girlfriend. She had promptly broken up with him. “You sure?” I asked skeptically. Apollo looked at me with exasperation. “Okay, okay, fine. Sometimes my attempts at getting a life partner don’t go very well—” I heard Artemis say, “Sometimes?” but Apollo ignored her. “—but why would Aphrodite even agree to help me? She hates me, right?” He looked at his sister with a wide, forced smile on his face. “Right?” Artemis did not respond to his pleading. “That is true,” I replied, the gears turning in my brain. “But the woman does love a good romance. Particularly one including the Olympian gods. Do you recall the feud between Ares and Hephaestus that she started?” Apollo put up his palms. “Hey, that was purely those two. She had nothing to do with it.” I shook my head. “Apollo, I am just saying, why would Aphrodite not want to help you? I do not think she hates you—” Apollo cut me off. “She doesn’t?” He repeated, a hopeful gleam in his wide blue eyes. I watched him carefully. Something about this entire interaction felt…off. “No. But besides, even if she did, she would love to cause havoc and sit back and watch as a relationship form because of it.” Apollo glanced at Artemis, whose eyes were wide. Then he leaned in and whispered, “I’m going to tell you a secret. And you better not spill!” He glanced at me sternly, but I could see he was hiding playfulness behind his expression. He was not doing a great job at hiding it, either. “I…I want to date Aphrodite.”  My eyes widened much more than I would have liked them to. “You mean…?” “Yeah.” He said with a nod. “You want to become a part of the long, long list of her lovers?” “I want to be the one to end that list.” “You want to marry her?” “That’s correct.” I watched his gaze carefully. Usually, Apollo was a horrible liar. But right now, I could not tell if he was lying to me or telling the truth. If he were being honest, I would say that marrying Aphrodite sounded like a long shot. If he were lying, I would tell him he did a bad job at trying to come up with something believable. The only problem was that I could not tell which he was trying to do. Was I being outsmarted? No, I told myself. You are the goddess of wisdom. You cannot be outsmarted, especially by Apollo. He must be telling the truth. So why did it hurt so much? Was I…feeling love? For Apollo? No. That simply could not be possible! I did not realize that I loved Apollo after hearing that he loved another girl. That was not happening to me! Oh, gods. That was happening to me, wasn’t it? Ew. Contractions. You can take everything from me, love! Just do not take my ability to properly speak! I realized that I may be asking a lot of love. Then someone burst through the door. We all turned, flustered, as Hephaestus ran in with wide brown eyes. “Guys! Have you heard the news about Aphrodite?” We all stared blankly at him. “What news?” Artemis asked. “Aphrodite just erased all of our DNA.” Everyone was silent for a moment. Then I broke that silence by shouting, “She what?” “Not fully!” Hephaestus reassured. “We’re just not related to each other anymore. That’s it, though.” “Aha! You were planning something with Aphrodite! And you thought you could lie to me?” I accused, turning to Apollo. Apollo looked flustered by my sudden outburst. “Okay. You caught me. I asked Aphrodite to erase our genetic ties to each other so that I could cover up my love for her and say I wanted to date—” Artemis held her breath. “Please don’t say me.” “Ew. Why would I say you? I said I wanted to date Demeter.”  I heaved a sigh of relief. Artemis joined me. Thank the gods, he didn’t want to date me. “Good to know. I shall be going now.” I walked past Hephaestus, who looked confused about this entire ordeal, and out the door, beginning the journey back to my dorm. Knowing that Apollo did not want to date me was surprising, honestly. But he was head over heels for the goddess of love herself instead. And he had made it sound like he wanted to date someone else because he was still trying to figure out how to ask Aphrodite out. He was already tied up in thousands of lies—why not add to the pile, I guess. But I still could not shake the way Aphrodite had looked at me specifically. What could that look possibly mean?  Chapter Eight - The Love Triangle’s On Olympus Apollo The next disappearance happened sooner than you would expect. I mean, you'd t