Pandora the Curious

by Joan Holub

  “Sorry, no party,” Aphrodite announced.

  “Phooey,” said Medusa. Whirling around, she and her empty bowl took off.

  “Oh, ungood.” With a look of disappointment Athena plopped down in her desk chair. She pulled her Spell-ology textscroll from the pile on her desk and began reading it upside down.

  Ungood? Pandora could hardly believe her ears. Had Athena really said that? It wasn’t even a word.

  “Godness, this is getting crazy,” said Aphrodite.

  “Believe me about the bubbles now?” Pandora asked her.

  Aphrodite frowned. “I don’t know what to believe. But something is definitely going on. One thing I don’t get, though. Why hasn’t anyone else seen the bubbles but you?” They were both speaking in low voices, so Athena wouldn’t hear.

  “Yeah, I haven’t figured that one out myself yet,” said Pandora.

  “Well, we’ve got to get to the bottom of this.” Aphrodite stood, picked up her pom-poms, and headed for the door.

  Pandora stared after her. “Where are you going?”

  “To find that box,” Aphrodite told her. “And get some answers.”

  “Wait for me,” said Pandora, going after her. Just then there was a small explosion, and the two girls turned in surprise.

  “Oops!” said Athena. A curl of smoke rose from a pile of ashes at her feet. The residue of a botched spell. It was impossible to say what the ashes had been a minute ago.

  “I’m not sure we should leave her here alone,” Pandora murmured to Aphrodite from the side of her mouth. “She’s a little too bubble-brained right now.”

  Aphrodite nodded, then said to Athena, “Come with us, okay? We’re going to the boys’ floor.”

  Athena leaped up and squealed in delight. “Woo-hoo! Let’s get this party started.”

  9

  The Boys’ Dorm

  A MINUTE LATER PANDORA, ATHENA, AND Aphrodite were sneaking up to the boys’ dorm on the fifth floor. Athena was still holding her slightly charred Spell-ology textscroll, and Aphrodite had her pom-poms.

  As they took the stairs up, Pandora tried explaining to Athena that they weren’t actually going to a party.

  “Then what are we doing?” Athena asked blankly.

  “Good question,” said Pandora. She looked at Aphrodite. “Are we going to sneak into Epimetheus’s and Prometheus’s room? Steal the box? What are we going to do with it if we get it? What if they’re in their room?”

  “Then we’ll confront them with our suspicions,” Aphrodite said firmly.

  “What if this was all a Titan plot to overthrow Zeus?” Pandora went on, giving voice to that fear for the first time. She was so keyed up that questions began spilling out of her one after another. “What if Epimetheus and Prometheus are under their dad’s orders to blow us to smithereens if we get too curious? I don’t even know where their room is. Do you?”

  “It’s at the end of the boys’ hall,” said Aphrodite. “I remember Ares mentioning it when those two Titans first came to MOA.”

  Aphrodite had only answered her last question, Pandora noticed. Probably didn’t have an answer for all her other ones. Pandora didn’t either.

  Athena giggled again. “This party sure is weird so far.”

  Rolling her eyes, Aphrodite opened the door to the boys’ hall. “It’s a surprise party, Athena,” she said gently. “So you need to be very, very quiet.”

  “Okeydoke,” whispered Athena. Pressing her thumb and forefinger together at the side of her mouth, she made a motion as if to zip her lips shut.

  Pandora followed the other two girls through the door. Technically speaking, girls weren’t allowed up here except for special events. She had gone to a party in the common room at the end of the boys’ hall once. But she’d never really had a chance to look around.

  So now, as the three girls tiptoed down the hall, she whipped her head back and forth, studying everything. Some of the boys had decorated their doors and left stuff in the hall. That made it easy to identify whose room was whose.

  For instance, one door had a big poster-scroll tacked on it that showed Apollo and Dionysus playing in their band, Heavens Above. So that had to be their room. And leaning against the wall outside another door were several knobby clubs. Heracles’ room, of course.

  “Ares’ room is down that way,” whispered Aphrodite. “It’s the one with the armor.”

  Sure enough, Pandora could see a life-size suit of armor standing next to one of the doors up ahead. As the girls drew near, it clanked into the middle of the hall. Then it held up a shield in one hand and a spear in the other to block their path.

  “Halt! Who goes there?” it said in a metallic voice.

  “Oh, bother. Not you again,” Pandora heard Aphrodite mutter.

  “Hello, gentle knight,” said Athena, making a deep curtsy. “Remember us? We’ve come for the party.”

  Pandora’s brows rose. When had Athena and Aphrodite met the armor before?

  Seeing Pandora’s curious expression, Aphrodite leaned over and whispered, “We sneaked up here a while back to find Heracles. Long story.”

  “Get thee hence from this hallway, fair ladies,” the armor commanded. “This art the dorm of the godboys.”

  “Oh, please. Can’t we go by just this once?” Aphrodite begged. She batted her eyelashes and gave the armor her best smile as she tried to sidle past. No go.

  The armor held out his shield to block her. “No girl shall pass.”

  Studying the armor, curiosity rose in Pandora. “What’s it like to be armor?” she asked the suit. “I mean, is it hard to lie down and take a nap, or what? And, hey, are suits of armor friends with other suits of armor? Do they have families with little armor kids?”

  The armor began swaying back and forth, as if uncertain how to respond to so many questions at once. Then its visor began to open and shut repeatedly. “Clankhead. Clankhead. Clankhead,” it chanted over and over, waving its arms in crazy circles. It had gone totally haywire!

  Athena giggled. “Aw, how cute. It’s dancing!”

  “Let’s sneak by while it’s confused,” suggested Aphrodite.

  Pandora nodded. “And before someone hears and comes out to investigate.”

  The three of them scooted past the armor and hurried down the hall. When they were directly across from the boys’ bathroom, the door swung open. The girls skidded to a stop.

  Out stepped Poseidon, clad only in the towel wrapped around his waist. Besides that, he was wearing flippers and swim goggles and was holding his trident. Water dripped from his pale turquoise skin and puddled on the floor at his feet.

  Seeing them, he squeaked in surprise. His eyes flicked from Athena to Aphrodite. “What are you doing here? Again. This floor is off-limits to girls, you know. I’m going to have to report you.”

  “If you do, we might have to mention to Pheme that you wear flippers and goggles in the bathtub,” said Aphrodite. “Do we really want that news to get out?”

  Poseidon’s turquoise cheeks blushed pink. “Uh, no. You wouldn’t really tell her, would you?”

  “Not if you help us,” Pandora put in quickly. “We’re looking for the Titans. Which room is theirs?”

  Poseidon pointed the pointy end of his trident off to the right. “Three doors down.”

  Aphrodite and Athena immediately headed off down the hall. But Pandora had noticed something curious. One of Poseidon’s hands was hidden behind his back. What was he hiding? She leaned around him to see.

  “Is that a tubby toy you’ve got there?” she asked in astonishment.

  “No! It’s um . . .” Turning even redder, Poseidon clutched the dolphin-shaped toy more tightly behind him. Squeak! went the toy. Looking mega-embarrassed, he whirled around and retreated back into the bathroom.

  Pandora stared after him, not sure whether to laugh or what. Her crush played with tubby toys? And wore flippers in the bathtub? In that second her feelings for him changed a little.

  Setting of
f down the hall again, she saw her companions heading for Epimetheus’s room. And floating high in the air a mere three feet behind Aphrodite was . . . Oh, no! Another bubble! The pink one. It was bobbing along in the air like it was plotting a sneak attack.

  Forgetting to be quiet, Pandora shouted, “Aphrodite! Bubble! Run!”

  “Bubble? Where?” Aphrodite said in alarm. Her golden hair swayed as she turned her head this way and that. She shook her pom-poms wildly, trying to bat away a bubble she couldn’t see.

  Then she ran. The wrong way, unfortunately. She turned back toward Pandora, and her nose smacked right into the pink bubble. Pop!

  “Rude,” a voice whispered.

  Pandora recognized that voice. It was the same one she’d heard before, whispering “Ditz,” “Vain,” and “Anger.”

  Doors began to open along the hall. Uh-oh! The girls’ loud voices had alerted the godboys to their presence.

  Luckily, Epimetheus’s door was the first to open. When his head poked out, Pandora shoved Athena and Aphrodite inside his room and barged in after them. Then she slammed the door behind her before the other boys could catch them out in the hall.

  Epimetheus gaped at the three girls in disbelief. Prometheus stared too, from where he was working at his desk across the room.

  “What are you—” Epimetheus started to say.

  But Aphrodite interrupted him. “Oh, wow. Listen to this,” she said, grinning in a goofy way. “I just thought of a song.”

  Dropping her pom-poms onto the floor, she tucked her right hand in her left armpit. Then she bent her left arm and began flapping it like a bird wing. Boof! Boof-boof!

  Each time she flapped her arm, it squeezed her flat hand, producing horrible fartlike sounds. Sounds that would normally have embarrassed the glamorous Aphrodite (or any self-respecting goddessgirl). But now she only laughed like it was the funniest thing ever. Everyone stared as she proceeded to armpit-play a tune, singing along with made-up words.

  Godboy doodle went to town

  Riding on a pony.

  Stuck a feather in his cap

  And called it nectaroni.

  Athena giggled. “That is so, like, hilarious! Do another one!”

  Aphrodite answered in burp-speak, burping between her words. “Be”—burp—“glad”—burp—“to”—burp. Then she obliged with another armpit tune, making up more words as she went along.

  Now that Aphrodite had been bubble-bumped too, Pandora had lost her only ally. Concern for her friends welled up in her. She wasn’t going to let these Titans get away with this!

  She turned to Epimetheus. “See that?” she told him, pointing at her two friends. “Are you happy now?”

  “No, we are not happy,” Prometheus piped up. “Three girls just pushed their way into our room for no reason.”

  “Yeah, I thought girls weren’t allowed on this floor,” added Epimetheus, seeming a little offended by her attitude. “What’s up?”

  “I’m asking the questions here,” said Pandora, frowning at him. “Where’s that box of yours? The one I opened on Monday.”

  “None of your beeswax,” Prometheus butted in.

  “I know what you’re up to,” Pandora accused. She glanced around the room, but didn’t see the box.

  The boys didn’t have much stuff, she noted, probably because they hadn’t been here long. However, the shelf by Epimetheus’s desk had a whole herd of animal statues and a few scrollbooks about animals.

  And there was also a picture of the twelve Titans who’d fought in the war against Zeus. Seeing it only heightened her fears that Epimetheus’s allegiance was to the Titans. Who knew what these two brothers might be secretly plotting? Maybe even to start another war to dethrone Principal Zeus!

  Pandora turned on him. “I thought you were nice. I actually liked you! But you came here to make trouble, didn’t you? Are you plotting to hurt MOA.”

  Epimetheus looked startled. “Hurt MOA? We came here hoping to stop trouble, not start it.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Just then Pandora was distracted by the sound of yet another pop. It had come from over by the window where Prometheus sat at his desk. By now she knew all too well what that sound meant.

  “Thief,” she heard the familiar bubble voice whisper.

  10

  Thief

  PANDORA WHIPPED AROUND IN TIME TO SEE Prometheus go all shifty-eyed. His hand reached out, and he snatched Athena’s Spell-ology textscroll from where she’d set it on his bed.

  “Great. Number seven,” Pandora groaned.

  “What are you talking about?” asked Epimetheus.

  Her eyes searched his face. It wasn’t a guilty face. Was it possible she’d been wrong to suspect the Titans? After all, Epimetheus wouldn’t sic a bubble on his own brother, would he?

  “Did you really not know there were trouble bubbles in that box of yours?” she asked.

  “Trouble bubbles?” He looked genuinely puzzled. Then his expression changed. “Oh. Wait. You mean you were serious before when you said there were bubbles in that box?”

  In that instant Pandora decided to take a chance on trusting him. What choice did she have? Because now they were the only two un-bubble-bumped people in the whole room!

  “I was dead serious,” she told him. Then words poured from her in a rush as she explained all that she suspected was going on.

  Before she’d even finished, Epimetheus was shaking his head doubtfully. “I was right there when you opened the box that day in the hall. I didn’t see any bubbles fly out.”

  “Don’t you get it?” Pandora spread her arms wide. “Nobody can see them but me. I wish I knew why, but I don’t. So far I’ve seen four of them bump people—Athena, Artemis, Persephone, and Aphrodite. And I’m pretty sure two other bubbles bumped Medusa and Principal Zeus when I wasn’t around. That’s six. And the seventh one just bumped your brother. You didn’t hear it whisper ‘Thief’?”

  “Nope,” said Epimetheus, folding his arms. “And you know what I think? I think you have been bumped by a ‘Crazy’ bubble!”

  “Oh, no!” Pandora pressed her fingers to her cheeks worriedly. “Really?”

  Epimetheus rolled his eyes. “I was kidding. But where’s the evidence that what you’re saying is true?”

  “There!” Pandora waved a hand toward her two friends. Aphrodite was still boofing armpit tunes, and Athena was helping her make up words.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Prometheus swipe something from Epimetheus’s desk. She swung around and pointed an accusing finger at him. “And there.”

  “Who me? I didn’t do anything,” said Prometheus, trying to look innocent.

  “Then show us what you’re holding,” challenged Pandora.

  Epimetheus glanced over at his brother, who was standing by the window. He was facing them, with both hands behind his back. “Go on,” said Epimetheus. “Show us what you’re hiding, Bro. Just to prove her wrong.”

  “Fine,” huffed Prometheus. “Here!” He tossed Aphrodite’s pom-poms and Athena’s Spell-ology textscroll onto the bed. “I was only borrowing the stuff.”

  But even as he spoke, he reached over and stole a little zebra statue that was on the shelf by Epimetheus’s desk. He just couldn’t seem to help himself from helping himself.

  “Now do you believe me?” Pandora asked Epimetheus. “I really did hear a trouble bubble say ‘Thief.’ And now your brother is stealing stuff. And that”—she gestured toward her friends—“is not normal.”

  They both looked over at Athena, who had found a pair of scissors and was cutting paper dolls from her Spell-ology textscroll. Beside her Aphrodite was chewing the discarded bits of the papyrus scroll into spitwads, then thumping them to stick against the windowpane in the shape of a big heart.

  “How obvious can it get?” Pandora asked Epimetheus.

  “Well . . .” He looked a little less sure, but still not quite convinced that something was wrong.

  Suddenly she remembered the mysterious word
s she’d noticed written on the box last Monday when she’d held it. Did they hold a clue that might help save her friends?

  “Where is that box, anyway?” She started pacing the room, casually nosing around for any sign of it.

  Instead of answering her, Epimetheus said, “Look, I think we should go talk to Zeus and see what he has to say about all of this.” He started for the door.

  Uh-oh! Pandora rushed ahead of him and plastered her back to the door. Epimetheus stopped short.

  “Do you really think that’s the best idea?” she asked him. “Like I said, he’s one of the ones who got bubble-bumped. Remember how lazy he’s been acting? That’s so not him.”

  Truth was, she didn’t want to admit her mistake in opening the box to Zeus. She’d rather get things fixed back the way they were, before he found out about all this. Because he didn’t have much patience with troublemakers. And in this case, she was one!

  “I think we should tell him anyway,” said Epimetheus, trying to reach around her for the doorknob.

  “Wait!” Pandora said desperately. She scooched over in front of the knob. “What if Zeus does the lazy thing and punishes you without listening to our story? What if he banishes you—and me—from MOA?”

  “Banishes us?” Prometheus echoed. He looked at Epimetheus. “Where would we go? To the Underworld? To face Dad? He’s not exactly happy with us right now.”

  Why not? Pandora wondered. She pressed her lips together hard, trying to stop the question from leaking out of her. Epimetheus looked so frustrated and unsure. She didn’t want to make him feel worse by prying. It must be awful to have your own dad get really mad at you. And it sounded like the brothers had no place else to call home!

  “It’s night already,” she said gently. “Zeus could be asleep. Let’s not wake him.”

  “We have to do something,” said Epimetheus. “I don’t know the extent of that box’s powers, but I know it’s megadangerous. Our uncle told us so when he gave it to us.”

  Pandora gulped at this reminder of danger. Epimetheus was right. They did need to do something, and fast. But involving Zeus should be their last option, in her opinion.