ATHENA THE BRAIN

by Joan Holub; Suzanne Williams

  Shrugging, Medusa reached up to pet one of the reptiles. It coiled around her wrist, flicking its tongue, then uncoiled itself again. “Actually, I kind of like the power it gives me.”

  Aphrodite and Athena shot worried looks at each other. “What power?” Aphrodite asked.

  Medusa glanced Athena’s way. “Did I mention that some of your goo dripped into my eyes during my shower this morning?”

  “Serves you right,” said Artemis.

  Athena remained silent, thinking hard. What kind of power could Medusa mean? She glanced at the statue of Pandora and then back at Medusa. Suddenly something clicked. “Oh, no! This is all my fault! Snarkypoo was supposed to turn snarky words into stone. But because I misspelled the name as Snakeypoo, it turned hair into snakes. And it gave whoever used it the power to turn–”

  “Pandora into stone?” Aphrodite guessed in a horrified voice.

  Idly stroking one of her reptiles, Medusa sent Athena a sly glance. “Now you know how it feels to have someone you care about mooched from you!”

  “It isn’t her fault Poseidon doesn’t like you,” gritted Aphrodite.

  “Maybe he would if you were a little nicer,” Persephone suggested helpfully.

  “And less snakey,” added Athena.

  Medusa’s snakes hissed, tongues flicking as they strained toward her. Athena backed away.

  “Unfortunately, these snakes only give me the power to turn mortals to stone,” Medusa said pointedly. “But I’m planning a little trip down to Triton after school today. What’s the name of your mortal friend who lives in Triton City? I think I’ll pay her a visit.”

  Athena gasped. “You leave my friends alone!”

  “Anyone who’s mortal, don’t look into Medusa’s eyes!” Aphrodite warned the crowd. “She’ll turn you to stone!”

  The few mortals in the group ducked and ran for cover, hiding their eyes. But her warning came too late for Artemis’s dogs. As Medusa whistled to them to get their attention, all three became encased in white stone.

  “Turn them back, right this minute!” Artemis growled at Medusa. Aphrodite and Persephone held her back, worried the snakes might be poisonous.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Medusa replied, studying her own glossy green fingernails.

  While they were at a standoff, Athena spotted Poseidon standing by the nectar fountain. She pushed her way through the crowd and grabbed hold of his arm. “You have to help me stop her.”

  “Me?” he squeaked, pulling away. “Nuh-uh. I’m afraid of snakes.” His pale turquoise cheeks turned pink, and he glanced around to see if anyone had overheard.

  “Medusa won’t hurt you. She likes you,” Athena coaxed. “Besides, her powers only work on mortals, not godboys.”

  “Are you absolutely sure about that?”

  “Of course–I invented Snarkypoo for mortals, after all. That’s what the Invention Fair is all about,” Athena assured him. “C’mon. Don’t you want to be a hero?”

  Poseidon sighed. “I guess.” But he eyed Medusa’s snakes warily.

  “Good,” Athena said quickly. Then she explained what she wanted him to do.

  “All right,” said Poseidon, still reluctant. “I just hope this works like you think it will.”

  A moment later he called out, “Oh, Meh-DOO-sah!” Medusa’s hair rattled and hissed as she turned to gaze out over the heads of the crowd to locate the speaker. Everyone ducked to avoid her eyes, even though most of them were godboys and goddessgirls, and therefore immune to her stare.

  “Oh, hi, Poseidon,” she cooed when she saw him.

  “You look nice today,” he fibbed, stopping a half dozen feet away from her.

  “Thanks.” Beaming, she coyly curled a snake around one finger.

  “Only, um, there’s something stuck between your teeth,” he added. “Some green stuff.”

  “Really?” Medusa slapped a hand over her mouth, looking embarrassed. She pulled a tissue from the pocket of her chiton and rubbed it over her front teeth. “Gone?” she asked him, showing her teeth.

  He shook his head. “No, it’s still there.”

  “Here, I’ve got a mirror. See for yourself,” said Athena. From her bag, she pulled the shield-shaped mirror she’d gotten at the Perseus Shield Market back on Earth and handed it to Medusa.

  Medusa snatched the mirror away, lifted it . . . and gazed at her own reflection. Instantly she and her snakey hair turned to stone.

  “She fell for it!” said Poseidon.

  “Lucky for us, it really does work on mortals,” Athena said, her eyes gleaming.

  Aphrodite clapped both her hands together and laughed. “How brilliant! You made Medusa turn herself to stone!”

  Around them everyone gaped at the new statue, whispering. Then slowly they started to cheer in relief.

  Athena grinned at Poseidon. “Good job,” she said, giving him a high five. Girls began to surround him, fawning and pushing Athena aside. “Aw, it was nothing,” he said, more than willing to take credit.

  Athena didn’t mind. Those other girls were welcome to him. “Now I just need to figure out how to undo the spell on Pandora,” she told her friends. “Watch her. I’ll be back in a minute.” With that she dashed off, taking the stairs two at a time to her dorm room.

  Rummaging around on her desk, she found her Spell-ology textscroll and unfurled it. There were several thousand spells inside. Quickly scanning, she zipped past Anti–Bad Grade spells (“On any test I take today, let me earn a perfect A”), and Banishments (“Send these freckles from my skin, let them not appear again”).

  She skimmed past Enchantments that could bring forth lightning, love, or luck. Finally, near the end of the scroll, she found what she was looking for: Undo spells.

  She ran her finger down the list. “Let’s see. Unbaldy, Unclumsy, Undragon . . .” Finally she found it–an Unstatue spell.

  Reading it over several times, she memorized it. Before the scroll had even snapped shut again, she was out the door and racing downstairs.

  When she returned to the first floor, the other goddessgirls were still keeping watch over the statues. Kneeling, Artemis was petting her dogs’ smooth white heads and looking sad.

  Athena walked up to the statue of Pandora and placed a hand on her cold, white wrist. Standing on tiptoe she softly murmured into her ear, “Flesh and bone, return from stone!”

  The statue of Pandora began to shake, then crumble. White dust filled the air as stone transformed back into skin, hair, chiton, and sandals.

  “What happened?” asked Pandora, looking dazed. “Why is everyone staring at me?”

  “You’re back!” Aphrodite exclaimed. Giving her a fond hug that resulted in a big poof of white dust, she winked at Athena over her shoulder. “And already she’s asking questions.”

  “What’s going on? What’s all this dust?” Pandora continued, as she combed bits of marble from her hair with her fingers.

  “Medusa used one of my inventions to turn you to stone,” explained Athena.

  “Oh, really?” Pandora glared at the statue of Medusa. “Looks like it worked on her, too.”

  Quickly Athena reversed the spells on Artemis’s dogs. They turned back into hounds, jumping and barking for joy as Artemis hugged them. Then they ran over to the statue of Medusa, growling as if to scold her.

  Before Athena could approach Medusa and say the words that would change her back, Aphrodite grabbed her arm. “Wait!” she said.

  “Yeah,” said Pandora. “What’s the rush?”

  “I like her that way,” agreed Persephone folding her arms. “Nice and quiet for a change.”

  Athena studied the marble statue of Medusa. Her face had frozen in a really weird position as she gazed at herself in the mirror. Her eyes looked a bit crossed, and her upper lip was curled to reveal her two front teeth.

  Artemis snickered. “She looks like a cross-eyed beaver.”

  It was true, Athena realized, trying not to laugh. “But we can’t really ju
st leave her here like this,” she said. “Can we?”

  “Maybe just for a little while,” suggested Pandora.

  “Till tomorrow, after the Invention Fair,” added Aphrodite.

  “That should give the teachers enough time to decide what to do with her. After all, she can’t be allowed to go running around turning mortals to stone whenever she feels like it,” said Persephone.

  Athena grinned, nodding slowly as she gazed at Medusa. “Excellent point. I mean, leaving her like this for a day or so couldn’t hurt. In fact, it’s a marble-ous idea!”

  AT THE INVENTION FAIR THE NEXT DAY, everyone in the academy gathered in the gym to see the inventions students had entered. Athena had only just arrived when Aphrodite, Persephone, and Artemis waved to her from a few tables away. She walked in their direction, passing tables covered with fascinating student entries. There were a few that seemed a little lame, however. The Sackrofice, for instance.

  “Mortals are always giving immortals offerings of yucky stuff like lima beans. Stuff we don’t want,” the godboy who’d invented it told her when she paused at his table. “If you put the offerings in this sack, they’ll disappear.”

  “Interesting,” said Athena. “No one from Earth has offered me anything yet, yucky or otherwise, but I’ll keep your invention in mind.”

  Some of the other inventions were just for fun. Like the Lucky-in-Love Lip Balm that made everyone fall in love with the wearer. That was Aphrodite’s idea.

  “Let me put some on you,” she suggested when Athena reached her.

  “Not me!” said Athena, horrified. “Try it on Artemis.”

  “No way!” said Artemis. She laughed good-naturedly as she backed away. “Try Persephone.”

  “I already did.” Aphrodite pointed her out.

  Sure enough, a pink-lipped Persephone stood nearby. She was surrounded by three godboys, all competing to see who could fawn over her the most.

  “Could I fetch you a flagon of nectar?” one asked.

  “Or some ambrosia?” suggested another.

  “Not that you need either to be beautiful,” said a third. “Your skin is as pale as the finest white marble from the quarry at Thassos.”

  Looking a bit flushed, Persephone caught Athena’s eye. “I sure hope this stuff wears off soon,” she said.

  “Wow! Did you see Poseidon’s invention?” Pandora asked, rushing up to them.

  Athena clutched the box of inventions she’d brought to show. “Not yet.” Glancing beyond Pandora and the rows and rows of tables, she saw that a crowd had gathered across the room. Poseidon stood in the middle of it.

  “Hey, what’s this?” asked Pandora, spying Aphrodite’s lip balm. Before anyone could explain or stop her, Pandora had glossed her lips with it. Instantly Persephone’s admirers transferred their attention to her.

  “Phew,” said Persephone, grabbing the chance to escape. She tugged at Athena and Artemis. “Let’s go check out Poseidon’s invention.”

  “Wait up, I’m coming too,” said Aphrodite. “Watch my booth, Pandora?”

  “Sure,” said Pandora. She didn’t seem to mind when the godboys trailed after her. Instead she happily launched a barrage of questions at her captive audience. “So, I’ve always wondered–what do godboys talk about when goddessgirls aren’t around? And why . . .”

  As the four goddessgirls walked toward Poseidon, Athena could hear him proudly explaining how his invention worked. “See, you whoosh through the sea monster chute and then zoom out of its mouth into this big splash pool at the bottom of the slide,” he was saying.

  When the crowd shifted enough, Athena finally got a good look at his invention. It was a model of a magnificent water park he was planning to build on Earth! There were gracefully curving slides made of polished marble, mermaids and mermen, sea monsters, fountains, and pools of turquoise water topped with lily pads. A sign in front read POSEIDON WATER WAVES.

  Wow was right, thought Athena. Poseidon was a shoo-in to win.

  “What do you think of my park?” Poseidon asked when he saw her. “Think I’ll win?”

  “It looks like fun,” Athena told him sincerely. Like a place even she’d like to go sometime. But of course it was for mortals only. She’d have to tell Pallas about it, though. “And you’ve got a great shot at the grand prize for sure.”

  Poseidon beamed. “Thanks. Are those your inventions?” he asked, glancing curiously at the box Athena was holding.

  She shrugged. Her inventions paled in comparison. None were as good as a water park. She started to tell Poseidon that but was interrupted.

  “Hear ye, hear ye!” bellowed Principal Zeus. Holding a scroll, he climbed a set of stairs to stand on a raised stage in the middle of the gym.

  “Gather around, godboys and goddessgirls of Mount Olympus Academy,” he thundered. “A distinguished panel of Earth mortals visited our gym this very morning to judge all the inventions in this year’s fair. They’ve just now sent a scroll to my office announcing the winner.”

  “Wait!” Aphrodite yelled, waving her hand to stop him. “Athena hasn’t shown her inventions yet.”

  Athena grabbed her arm, shushing her. “I’m not going to enter.”

  “But you have to,” Persephone chimed in. “You’ve worked hard on your inventions ever since you got here!”

  “Do you really think a rake or a ship could beat a water park?” said Athena.

  “Your ship’s cool,” said Artemis. “Come on. Try.”

  Aphrodite nodded encouragingly.

  “No, it’s too late,” said Athena, managing to smile through her disappointment. “I’ll just try again next year.”

  “And the winner is–” Zeus grinned in delight as he unrolled the scroll he held. His piercing blue eyes searched the crowd of students until they met Athena’s. “The winner is my brainiest, most favorite daughter in the whole wide universe–Theeny!”

  Athena gasped in astonishment. “But I couldn’t have won. I didn’t even enter,” she murmured, just loud enough for her friends to hear.

  “Maybe the mortals liked the inventions you brainstormed on Monday,” suggested Artemis.

  “The ones that beaned them on the head?” Athena scoffed. She was still embarrassed by what had happened the other day in the courtyard with Zeus.

  “Anyway, you won!” said Aphrodite.

  “Come up here and get your trophy, Theeny!” Zeus boomed. Even though she suspected there’d been some mistake, Athena couldn’t help feeling thrilled by the pride in his voice.

  “You heard him,” said Persephone.

  “Yeah, go on up there,” added Artemis.

  The three goddessgirls pushed Athena forward. When she got close enough, Zeus lifted her onstage to stand next to him. She tried not to flinch at the sizzle of electricity that shot down her arms.

  “Theeny! Girl, you’ve done me and the academy proud!” his voice rumbled. “Earth is tickled pink with your invention.”

  “They liked the ship?” Athena guessed. “Or was it the rake?”

  “No and no. I mean they liked those okay, of course. But what really wowed them were these little round doohickeys that go in salads.” He held up a little black oval ball between his thumb and forefinger.

  “They liked my olives?” Athena asked in surprise.

  “Not liked. They loved ’em. And they’re not only eating them, they’re squeezing oil out of the little suckers to burn in their lamps and to heat their homes. They’re even making perfume and medicine out of ’em. One group are such fans that they want to rename their town ‘Athens’ in your honor.”

  “Ye gods,” said Athena, stunned.

  “Yep, you and your olives are a sensation down there on Earth! Good job, Theeny!” With that, Zeus tossed the olive he held high in the air, letting it plop back in his mouth. He chomped it loudly for a moment, then spit out its pit.

  Ptooey! The pit soared upward in an arc, before dropping into the crowd. Students dodged this way and that, trying not to let
it hit them.

  “My only objection is the pits,” mused Zeus. “See if you can do something about those, Theeny girl.”

  “O-okay,” said Athena. She glanced over at Poseidon, who looked shocked that he’d lost to an olive. Angling her head to indicate him, she told Zeus, “I’m glad they liked the olives, but did they see Poseidon’s water park? It’s pretty amazing.”

  “Thunderation! That reminds me.” Zeus turned to the crowd again. “I have another announcement to make,” he boomed. “Second place goes to Poseidon Water Waves! Come on up, Posey boy!”

  Poseidon’s face lit up, and he hurried to join them onstage.

  Suddenly Zeus got a funny look on his face. He frowned and cocked his head, as if he were listening to a voice only he could hear. “Take out the trash? You’re reminding me now, in the middle of an awards ceremony?” he groused. As he listened a little more, his frown faded. “Oh, yeah, I almost forgot that.”

  He turned his attention back to Athena. “Your mom just reminded me to give you this.” He dragged a huge trophy forward to show her. “It’s from both of us.” It was the same trophy she’d seen him working on that first day she’d visited his office, and it was just as ugly as she remembered.

  “Thanks, I love it,” she said honestly. No matter how ugly it was, it was a gift from her parents–and she would cherish it.

  “Your mom sends her congratulations too, obviously.”

  “Do you think I could talk to her myself one of these days?” Athena suggested bravely.

  “Sure! I’ll have to translate because she’s a fly and all, but we’ll work it out.”

  Athena’s heart soared. “Deal. Thanks, Princi–Dad.” Even if he wasn’t exactly what she’d expected in the beginning, she was starting to feel glad Principal Zeus was her father.

  Just then Poseidon joined them on the stage.

  “Now you two winners get to choose your prizes,” Zeus told them, proudly placing a hand on each of their shoulders.

  Before Athena could speak, Poseidon whipped out a list he’d prepared and began reading. “First off, I’d like mortals to name a chewing gum after my trident, so no one will ever call it a pitchfork again,” he told Zeus. “And I’d like to be Earth’s official water park designer. And I’d like lots of statues of me to be placed in fountains everywhere.” He tucked the list back into his pocket.