by Joan Holub
Narcissus grinned at her. “All you have to do is pick out the most awesome outfits you can find in Hera’s shop, and we’ll return them after the celebration. Easy-peasy.”
“Oh, and make sure Narcissus’s complements his eyes and skin tone,” Tiresias put in.
“Okay,” Echo agreed. “But we’d better get going if we want to reach the IM before they close.” Putting a hand against a wall for balance, she slipped on one winged sandal, then the other. Her flying skills probably weren’t powerful enough to wing two mortals to the IM as well as herself. She was about to tell them this, when Narcissus spoke.
“We’ll stay put. We trust you to get the job done,” he told her. “Besides, we already have plans here tonight. Some Beauty-ology students will be giving me a facial and a hair trim so that I’ll look my best for the big day. In turn they’ll get extra credit for their work.”
“Remember not to look at yourself in any mirrors while the students are working, though,” Tiresias reminded him as the two boys turned to go.
“Yeah, yeah,” Narcissus assured him, rolling his eyes. Then he called back to Echo, “We’re staying in the boys’ dorm in a spare room tonight. Just come up to the fifth floor and knock on the hall door when you’re back with the you-know-what, and someone will come get me. Remember, this is supposed to be a surprise. Tell no one.”
Once the front doors had shut the two boys inside the Academy, Echo flew off to the Immortal Marketplace on her own. The sun would be setting in a couple of hours. She’d have just long enough to borrow a couple of outfits, then fly back to MOA before darkness fell.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t realized that the IM was closing early because of the parade the next day. By the time she arrived at Hera’s Happy Endings, Hera was gone, and her assistants were getting ready to leave too. She considered enlightening them about the plan to borrow two outfits to promote the shop in the parade, but Narcissus had told her not to tell anyone.
That was probably wise. The assistants might let the plan slip to Hera, and that would ruin the surprise. Besides, from the way they frowned at Echo when she entered the shop, she figured they were feeling tired and grumpy. After all, they’d been working long hours to get ready for Monday’s wedding. What if they refused her request? She couldn’t risk it. However, she didn’t know how she was going to sneak anything out of the shop without them noticing.
At the last minute some customers arrived. As the assistants got busy with them, Echo paced among the racks of formal chitons and tunics, her thoughts racing.
Finally, she paused before a beautiful long, white wedding chiton with flounces of delicate netting that the sales tag called tulle. The gown was stunningly beautiful. She tried to imagine the young bride who might choose it. What would she be like? Echo couldn’t bring a picture of anyone in particular to mind, however. Though the gown was gorgeous, it just didn’t seem one-of-a-kind—meant for one special bride. For that the chiton would need pizzazz. Bling, as Narcissus had called it.
Then, on a low table beside the rack, she spotted books with ideas for jazzing up the shop’s sample chitons. Oh, that explained it. These chitons were all meant to be given finishing touches that would make each one truly a bride’s own. Suddenly an idea struck her. What if she copied an idea from the books to add special touches to this particular chiton? And to a matching tunic for Narcissus as well. That way she could showcase Hera’s store samples while also proving her own talent as a designer?
Excitement filled her at the thought of the task she’d set herself. She loved fashion, and the idea of making the sample dress exactly as beautiful as one in the book thrilled her. But then she heard a click, and her shoulders drooped. There was no time for what she had in mind. The assistants had begun locking up for the night.
What should she do? Narcissus had entrusted this job to her. It was really important to him. She’d already let FirHeart down. She didn’t want to let Narcissus down too. He was counting on her.
Panicking, she crouched low so the assistants wouldn’t catch sight of her. Then she silently made her way to the storage closet where she and Zeus had talked that morning. She slipped through the curtain to hide.
Once Hera’s employees were gone, Echo crept back out into the main shop again. The candles in the overhead chandeliers had poofed out the moment the assistants had gone. Fortunately, rows of safety torches along the walls now magically lit themselves to serve as night-lights. She grabbed the sample chiton and a matching tunic. Both were a little big for her and Narcissus, so she would have to temporarily take in their seams.
In the back of the shop, she found scissors, pins, needles, thread, ribbon, measuring tapes, and pattern-making paper. And tons of sparkly bling, such as sequins and rhinestones. It was designer heaven! Fueled by her passion for fashion, she got to work.
After a few hours her stomach rumbled. “Even fashion designers need more than just the thrill of creating a new outfit to fuel them,” she murmured to herself. She needed a snack pronto! She’d spied more cupcakes in the storage area when she’d hidden there earlier. However, they and all the other snacks that had been in the shop were now inside a locked glass cabinet. Echo dug through some drawers under the cabinet, hoping to find a key, but came up empty.
Just as she was about to give up on the snack idea, she spotted a platter with a dome-shaped glass lid. It was sitting on a shelf high above the locked cabinet, and held a lone yellow cupcake. Thank godness it had been overlooked when Hera had locked the others away.
She could kind of understand why Zeus had found these cupcakes irresistible, she thought as she reached up to nab it. This one looked especially yummy, with thick, creamy lemon frosting on top. She munched away, then got back to her stitching.
At the crack of dawn one of Hera’s employees opened the shop. A tired Echo sneaked out the door when the assistant’s back was turned. She headed back to MOA with one clothing bag under each arm. After she ducked in through the bronze front doors, she tiptoed up to the fourth-floor girls’ dorm. Following Artemis’s directions from the day before, she crept down the girls’ hall, then silently slipped into Artemis’s room.
The minute she shut the door behind her, a bloodhound, a beagle, and a greyhound came bounding over to her. All three dogs jumped around happily, their tongues hanging out.
“Shh!” Echo told them. She glanced over at the sleeping girl on one side of the room. Artemis was apparently used to such disturbances, and merely rolled over without waking up.
Echo found her way to one of the closets. It was stuffed full of clothes, all hung neatly, with no room for more. She tried the other closet. There were far fewer chitons here, but most were half on and half off their hangers, and some were even balled up on the floor of the closet. It was as if Artemis had a split personality when it came to how she cared for her clothes. Still, there was plenty of room in this closet, so she hung her and Narcissus’s outfits at its far end. Then she sank down onto the empty bed opposite Artemis’s and conked out.
9
The Parade
WHAP! ECHO WOKE WITH A start as a door slammed shut. She had fallen asleep quickly after sneaking into Artemis’s dorm room earlier that morning, but was still groggy after working all night in Hera’s store.
“Oops, sorry. I didn’t meet to close it so hard,” Artemis said. She’d just breezed into the dorm room with her dogs, and was carrying a tray.
Echo blinked at the bright light streaming in through the window on the far wall, which looked out onto the courtyard. Outside, the sun was already high in the sky!
“Figured you must have been out late, since you weren’t here when I went to bed,” Artemis said cheerfully. “In case you’re wondering, it’s midmorning.” As usual, her dogs were bouncing around the room with excitement.
“Midmorning?” Echo sat up and gathered the covers around her. That meant she’d only been asleep about four hours. Stretching her arms high, she yawned. Then she reached over to pet the dogs, gently push
ing them away when they tried to jump onto her bed. The greyhound grabbed one end of a chew toy, and a game of tug-of-war began between him and the beagle.
“Mm-hm. I’ve already taken my dogs out and had breakfast.”
“Breakfast?” Echo repeated.
“Afraid you’re too late for that, sleepyhead,” Artemis informed her. “But don’t worry, I brought you some Ambrosia-O’s cereal and milk from the cafeteria.” As she brought the tray over to Echo, she asked, “So anyway, where were you last night?”
Echo yawned again, sitting up straighter to take the tray onto her lap. “Last night?” As she opened the carton of milk and poured some over her bowl of cereal, she tried to think up an excuse for where she’d been. She didn’t really want to lie, but she’d promised Narcissus not to spill the beans. Luckily, a knock at the door saved her from having to come up with something to say. It was a special knock—two knuckle raps, a wait, then three quick raps.
“Aphrodite’s secret knock,” Artemis informed Echo as she dug into her cereal. Then in a louder voice Artemis called out, “Come in!”
Aphrodite entered Artemis’s room wearing a flouncy pink-and-white chiton with sparkles along its hem. She dashed to the stuffed-full, neat closet Echo had tried first earlier that morning. “Hi, guys. Sorry to barge in. I need something for today’s parade. And I think it’s here somewhere.” She began pushing things around on the closet’s high shelf.
“I only need one closet, so I let Aphrodite use my second one since the two closets in her room aren’t enough for all her clothes,” Artemis explained as she roughhoused with her dogs on the rug between the beds.
Aha, thought Echo. So that was why the closets looked so different. She guessed no one would accuse Artemis of being a neatnik.
After a few seconds Aphrodite emerged from her tidy, stuffed closet holding a half-circle silver band studded with sparkly pink stones. “Here it is! My tiara.”
“Tiara?” echoed Echo. Pushing the coverlet off, she sat cross-legged and kept eating.
“Too much?” Aphrodite asked the two girls uncertainly. She set it on her head and turned this way and that, surveying herself in the full-length mirror that hung on the closet door. Seeing her, Echo was suddenly glad of her choice of dress for today’s event, because it would fit right in with the fanciness of Aphrodite’s.
“I like it. It matches the sparkles in your chiton,” said Artemis. Then she added, “On the other hand, what I know about fashion could fit into Echo’s spoon.”
Aphrodite laughed. “True,” she said affectionately. “But in this case I agree. It is a good match. I’ll wear it!”
Echo nodded her approval as she set her empty bowl aside. Aphrodite sent her a smile. Then her gaze slid over the golden-edged red chiton Artemis was wearing, eyeing it critically. Seeming to deem it suitable for the day, her bright blue gaze switched to the rumpled chiton Echo was wearing. She’d been so tired last night, she’d slept in it.
“Feel free to borrow anything you want from my closet for the IM parade today,” Aphrodite offered.
Echo yawned again, nodding. “IM parade today?”
“Yeah,” Artemis told her. “Athena’s already at the marketplace with Persephone. We need to get going.” She raised an eyebrow. “Aphrodite and I will wait for you if you can get ready fast.”
“Fast?” Echo shook her head to show that wasn’t possible. Suddenly she frowned. It had just occurred to her that ever since she’d awakened this morning, she’d been repeating the ends of everyone else’s sentences. Weird!
“Okay, if you’re sure.” Pausing at the door, Aphrodite pointed down the hall. “So, the bathroom’s that way. Everything you’ll need is already in there. And, like I said, my closet is your closet for as long as you’re here at MOA. Feel free to borrow.”
Before Echo could thank her, the three dogs bounded down the hall ahead of the two goddessgirls. “We’re off, then. See you there!” said Artemis. Waving bye, the two girls dashed away.
“See you there!” Echo called after them. There she went again—repeating the ends of sentences. Maybe it was just because she hadn’t quite woken up yet. She hopped up and scurried down the hall toward the bathroom. The hall was superquiet. Every girl in the dorm must’ve already left for the Immortal Marketplace. She’d better get a move on!
But when she was halfway to the bathroom, the door at the end of the hall opened partway. A boy’s head peeked in. “Psst! It’s me, Narcissus.”
Echo let out a squeak of surprise, but then she calmed down. “Narcissus?”
He nodded, then craned his neck to look around the hall with interest. His dark-lashed eyes flicked to the NO BOYS ALLOWED sign posted on the wall just inside the door. Heeding the sign, he stayed put. “So?” he called to her in a whisper.
Echo shrugged uncertainly, not sure what he was asking. “So?”
“Where are they? Did you get them last night? Our outfits?”
“Our outfits?” said Echo. She tried to make her mouth form other words. Words to explain about how she’d spent the night adding pizzazz to the outfits each of them would wear today, and how she had gotten in too late to wake him. But she couldn’t make any such explanation come out.
Narcissus frowned. “Are you mocking me?”
“Mocking? Me?” said Echo, raising her brows. She shook her head earnestly, trying to get across the message that, no, she was not mocking him. Not intentionally, anyway. Something was definitely wrong. Why could she only repeat the last words of what others said?
Narcissus rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Have you got my tunic?”
She made another attempt to tell him everything, but when she felt his words, “my tunic,” bubbling into her mouth, she swallowed them before they were uttered. Instead she held a finger to her lips, as if to say he needed to be quiet in case others were still in their rooms and overheard. Then she gestured for him to stay where he was and pointed down the hall, indicating that she’d go get his outfit and return in a minute.
Hoping her speech would be back to normal soon, she zipped down the hall to Artemis’s room and whipped open the messy closet where she’d hung the two outfits from Hera’s shop. She grabbed the tunic and chiton she’d hung at the far end. Each was still wrapped in a papyrus bag.
Next she found a notescroll and a pre-inked feather pen on Artemis’s desk. She tried to write a note to Narcissus saying that she had lost her voice and would meet him at the IM. That way she wouldn’t run the risk of seeming to mock him again. However, her message didn’t come out as intended. Instead she watched her hand write, Got my tunic? Those were the very last words Narcissus had spoken to her a minute ago!
Had she caught some weird kind of copycat virus that was going around? Or maybe, instead of a virus, it was some strange allergic reaction to Artemis’s dogs? Guiltily she wondered next if it could be a magic punishment for “borrowing” outfits from Hera without asking.
After tossing the useless message into the trash, Echo dashed up the hall and wordlessly handed the tunic bag to Narcissus. She smiled, hoping he wouldn’t ask her any more questions. She didn’t want to embarrass herself by repeating things again. Luckily for her, he was totally fixated on getting a glimpse of his new outfit.
“Awesome!” he enthused, peeking inside the bag. “Can’t wait to try it on. I’ll meet you at the IM.”
“Meet you at the IM,” she agreed, nodding. Argh! What was wrong with her? Maybe she should just stay here until this copycat virus-allergy-curse thing wore off. But no, she wanted to show off her new gown and help Hera’s shop. Besides, Narcissus needed her at his side to complement his outfit.
Once he was gone, Echo dashed into the bathroom and hung her fancy new chiton on a hook on the wall. Then she turned and caught sight of herself in the mirror. Eek! Not only was the chiton she’d slept in a wrinkled mess, but her green hair looked like a long, tangled bird’s nest. And the perfect, handsome Narcissus had just seen her like this. Double eek!
She ho
pped into the shower. It took her a few seconds to figure out how to turn it on, since she wasn’t used to bathrooms with smooth silver mirrors and showers with gold handles and spigots. Back in the forest she and her friends showered under trickling waterfalls, and you had to look at the surface of a pond to view your reflection.
Once she was dressed, she surveyed her wet hair with displeasure. It was going to take forever to dry. But when she found a brush in a supply cabinet and began using it, a brisk breeze whipped up. It was a magic brush that blew her hair dry in seconds!
Within a half hour she was ready to go. Gazing at herself in the mirror, her jaw dropped. Wow! The chiton had transformed her. It made her look as amazing as a . . . a . . . goddessgirl! She had copied the picture in that book from Hera’s shop down to every last detail, adding sequins and sparkly gems to the satin part of the gown, mostly around the neckline and hem. She remembered Aphrodite’s earlier question about the tiara—“Too much?” Echo couldn’t help wondering if she should ask the same question about this chiton.
Well, so what if it was over-the-top? She’d probably never again get a chance to wear something so fancy! Before hurrying downstairs, she grabbed the simple cloak she’d also stuffed into the clothing bag she’d brought from Hera’s shop. It would help keep her dress a secret before the unveiling on the float.
Soon she was zooming through the air wearing winged sandals, on her way to the Immortal Marketplace, her frilly skirt fanning out behind her. As she approached the IM, the skies around her filled with chariots bringing immortal guests from other realms. And below her, crowds of mortals were making their way to the IM too. There was a big grandstand with dignitaries and musicians at the marketplace entrance, where the parade would end with the final float’s arrival. It looked like Zeus’s event was going to be a big thumbs-up!
After touching down, Echo tethered the wings on her sandals and wandered among the floats. They were all in a line that stretched around the IM, ready to begin parading. She hurried down the line, looking them over.
