by Joan Holub
“Hey! That’s Amphitrite!” Eurynome whispered to Pallas, who nodded. Seeing Athena looking their way, Pallas added, “We read about her and you and those giants in Teen Scrollazine.” Though Amphitrite walked while on land, she was actually a Nereid whose legs shape-shifted into a mermaid tail when she swam in the sea. She’d recently helped Athena find an herb that had prevented a hundred giants from taking over the world!
“Let’s hear it for the godboy of the sea!” Amphitrite called out. “He’s been working his tail off all morning to stay dry!”
Everyone laughed at her mermaid-inspired joke.
Smiling at Amphitrite, Poseidon climbed up to sit in the dunking seat once more. “Congratulations, mortal who dunked me! I now reward your success with a tribute.” As he spoke, he caused water to shoot out of the tips of his three-pronged trident, sprinkling the crowd. Which of course made them laugh again as well as rush to get in line to buy more tickets to try their luck at dunking him once more.
Athena sighed reluctantly, looking at Pallas and the other four girls. “Sorry to bail on the fun, guys, but I’d better go. I need to check on how the other activities and events are going.”
“Where’s your dad?” asked Persephone, looking around.
“Yeah, I thought he was going to help you organize things today,” said Artemis. “You’ll get busy once the reenactments start, since you’re in the competition. You can’t oversee the festival too.”
Before Athena could reply, the girls heard what sounded like little kids giggling. To their surprise, the giggling was actually coming from a bunch of grown-ups standing under some olive trees not far away.
“Huh?” said Athena. “What are my dad and Hera doing over there?”
“Look, they brought Hebe!” said Persephone.
“Who’s Hebe?” Pallas asked, but everyone was too focused on the group of giggling grown-ups to answer her question.
8
Goofy Grown-Ups
Athena
RIGHT AWAY ATHENA SPOTTED HEBE cradled in Hera’s arms. Hera was somewhat boisterously rocking the baby from side to side while feeding her from a baby bottle.
As for Zeus, he was crawling on his hands and knees around and around them, acting like some kind of muscular bearded baby himself. Hera apparently thought this was hilarious. So did the other grown-ups in the group under the trees, which included several MOA teachers all laughing their heads off.
Athena, however, did not find her dad’s antics the least bit amusing. He was supposed to be helping with the fest! On the bright side, since he hadn’t helped her make the greeting speech, he hadn’t been able to proclaim the festival to be in Hebe’s honor as he’d proposed.
“Oh, Zeus! You are sooo craaazeee!” Hera screeched just then in a high-pitched voice that hurt everyone’s ears. Then she giggled again.
Both she and Zeus had been behaving a bit oddly all week, but this was really strange. Embarrassing, too!
“Wow! Your stepmom looks so different from the drawings of her in Teen Scrollazine,” Pallas murmured to Athena.
“Younger,” Eurynome observed.
It was true. Hera did look young, partly because she was acting like a little kid holding a doll. But also because her pretty blond hair was braided in three lopsided pigtails and she was barefoot! Zeus’s hair was messy too. It was sticking up in disorderly spikes like he hadn’t combed it in days.
“I know. It’s weird. I just hope my dad remembered to bring my aegis. I’ll need it for my competitions. Back in a sec,” Athena told her friends.
She hurried over to the grown-ups. “Hi, Dad,” she greeted him cheerfully. But Zeus gave no reply. He didn’t even acknowledge her presence. He just kept crawling around while Hera kept giggling. Athena tried again. “Dad, did you remember my aegis?” When he still didn’t pay her any attention, she tapped him on the shoulder as he crawled by.
Zzzt! “Ow!” She yanked her finger away. She’d gotten zapped by the sparks of electricity that rippled over his skin.
At her cry, Zeus finally leaped to his feet. “Theeny!” he crowed happily as if they hadn’t seen each other for a year. He reached out and enfolded her in a big bear hug. Zzzt!
“Ow!” she squeaked as he accidentally zapped her again. Now that she was closer, she could see that he seemed to have lost the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, and his hair and beard seemed a brighter red. Like Hera, he looked younger.
When he set her down at last, she stepped out of hugging reach and tried yet again. “Dad? Did you hear my question?”
Before Zeus could reply, Mr. Cyclops focused the single eyeball in the middle of his forehead on her. “Questions? Are we playing a game? How about Simon Says? I like that one.”
By now Hebe had finished drinking from her bottle and fallen asleep. Quickly Hera set her in the stroller that was parked under one of the olive trees. Then Hera looked at Zeus and Mr. Cyclops expectantly. “I love that game! I’ll play! Can I start?”
The grown-ups gathered eagerly for the game, some of them clapping in excitement. Among them were normally serious types such as Mr. Eratosthenes, the school librarian, and Ms. ThreeGraces, the well-mannered Beauty-ology teacher. Athena frowned. They all wanted to play a little kid’s game? Something strange was definitely going on here, but she didn’t have time to get to the bottom of it right now.
“I’m in charge,” Zeus boomed cheerily before Athena could ask about her aegis again. “I’ll start the game. And instead of ‘Simon Says,’ we’ll call the game ‘Zeus Commands.’ ”
He quickly tried to round up the dozen or so grown-ups. “Everybody line up!” he yelled. When nobody moved, Zeus roared even louder, “Do like I say!”
“You have to say ‘Zeus commands’ first,” complained Mr. Cyclops.
“Oh, yeah. Zeus commands everybody to line up!” boomed Zeus.
As the grown-ups gleefully fumbled around to do as he’d ordered, Athena tried again. “But, Dad, what about my aegis? Did you bring it?” The aegis’s magic wouldn’t help her since magic was forbidden in the competition. However, it was her lucky shield, and considering how little she’d practiced and the fact that Zeus hadn’t helped with that at all, she was going to need as much luck as she could get!
She’d caught his attention for the moment at least. Rubbing his bearded chin, Zeus glanced around. “Well, I brought it. Forgot where I put it, though. You’ll have to look for it.”
“Look for what? Is that a command?” the normally quiet-voiced Mr. Eratosthenes shouted. His eyes squinted at Zeus from behind his binocular-like glasses.
“No! It was not a command,” Athena’s dad yelled back. “Did I say ‘Zeus commands’? I don’t think so!”
“I don’t like this game,” Ms. ThreeGraces complained. “Can’t we play a different one?”
Athena’s eyes widened at her whining tone and the fact that she wore about a zillion necklaces, probably every single one she owned. Athena and Pallas used to do that, but only back when they were little and playing dress-up. Usually the Beauty-ology teacher spoke in an elegant, soothing voice, even when annoyed, so the whiny voice was not at all like her. And she had always looked stylish until now.
“No change-backs! I want to play this one,” Hera grumped. And suddenly all the teachers were arguing over which game to play.
Giving up on them for now, Athena went over to the stroller to check on Hebe. The baby was sleeping quietly, with her pacifier in her mouth. Aww, she really did look sweet. So pink-cheeked and chubby. But just how she could sleep through all this commotion was a mystery.
Athena tiptoed around the stroller, looking for the aegis. However, she only spotted toys, bottles, blankies, and other baby stuff. Abandoning her search, she went back to her friends.
“No aegis?” Artemis asked, seeing Athena’s empty hands.
“My dad brought it but forgot where he put it,” she explained in frustration. “He just left it lying around somewhere, can you believe it? He knows that thing is
important to me! Ever since Hebe came, he’s been acting strange, and—”
“Who’s Hebe?” Pallas interrupted.
“You haven’t heard the news?” Artemis asked her in surprise. “It’s only been plastered all over Teen Scrollazine and the Greekly Weekly News for a week now.”
Pallas shrugged. “I’ve been too busy training lately to keep up with news.”
“Same here,” added Eurynome.
“Hebe is my new baby sister,” Athena explained patiently. She had planned to tell Pallas about Hebe sooner. But then Pallas hadn’t shown up or responded to her invitation, of course, which had kind of hurt Athena’s feelings.
Pallas’s jaw dropped. “You never told me your parents were having a baby!”
“I only found out a week ago myself. It was a ‘magic’ thing,” Athena explained. When Pallas still looked confused, Athena and the other goddessgirls quickly told her and Eurynome the story of Hebe’s magical birth.
“Whoa!” said Pallas afterward. “Getting a baby sister so unexpectedly like that must have come as a real shock. I’d feel like my world had been turned upside down if that had happened to me!” She gave Athena a sympathetic look.
Athena smiled at her old friend. Pallas understood exactly how she’d been feeling. “You nailed it. I’m starting to get used to it, but—”
Suddenly Zeus ran by. The grown-ups had moved on to a game of chase. Other teachers followed, all trying to tag him. Unfortunately for them, he shinnied up a cypress tree, as nimble as a monkey.
“Wow! Look at him go!” said Pallas, gaping.
“Is he always this energetic?” Eurynome asked.
“Well, not this energetic,” said Athena, biting her lip. “I’m getting a little worried about him, but I’m not sure what to do.”
The group watched in surprise as Muse Urania, MOA’s Science-ology teacher, headed up the tree after Zeus. Meanwhile, the giant Mr. Cyclops began riding around the tree on a too-small tricycle with Hermes perched on his shoulders. Both were staring up at Zeus and Muse Urania and giggling like crazy.
“So I’m guessing this isn’t normal behavior for MOA teachers?” asked Pallas.
“Far from it,” Aphrodite answered. “And did you notice Hera’s pigtails? Those are so not her.”
“You don’t suppose all this has to do with those youthful makeovers your Beauty-ology class was doing?” Athena asked her hopefully. It would be nice if the explanation were that simple. Maybe the makeovers were making the grown-ups feel temporarily peppy or something.
“Huh?” Aphrodite shook her head, sending her shiny golden hair swaying. “We haven’t started that project yet. We’re still practicing on those fake head models.”
“Oh.” Athena furrowed her brow as she studied the grown-up gods, goddesses, and mortals running amuck. Even if she’d known what to do about it, she really didn’t have time to deal with this problem. She needed to be checking on things around the festival. And the competitions were set to begin soon!
“They’re acting like little kids,” Pallas murmured.
“It’s almost like they’re all under a spell or a curse or something,” added Eurynome.
A spell or a curse? One that made grown-ups behave like little kids? But who would cast such a spell? Athena tried to puzzle it out. Suddenly she got an idea. “Do you think Hebe could have something to do with this?” she asked aloud. Three goddessgirls and two mortal ones looked at her in surprise.
“You think your adorable baby sister put a spell on the grown-ups?” Aphrodite asked, sounding doubtful.
Right then Hera came skipping by, hand in hand with the three-eyed owner of Cleo’s Cosmetics. They paused to speak to the girls. “Cleo and I are going to do face-painting and hairdos for everyone in the art area! Come over if you want,” Hera invited them. Both ladies giggled, then skipped down the path toward the art area together.
A puzzled look came over Artemis’s face. “Hey, if Hera is off to do face-painting and Zeus just went up a tree, who’s watching Hebe?”
They all looked toward the olive trees again, and Athena gasped. “No one, that’s who!”
The six girls rushed as a group to stand in a circle around the baby’s stroller. They breathed sighs of relief when they saw that Hebe was still sleeping peacefully, despite the chaos around her. As they watched, the baby stretched her little arms out of the blanket and opened her blue eyes.
“What kind of magic are you up to, little girl?” Athena wondered aloud.
But Hebe only cooed and gave them all a sweet, innocent smile.
9
Baby Trouble
Pallas
PALLAS GAZED AT THE PINK-CHEEKED baby in the stroller. So Athena had a new little sister. She was mega-cute! But was she also a spell-caster?
A gasp from Persephone caught Pallas’s attention. “Ye gods! My mom’s gone bonkers too!” she wailed. She was staring at a group of ladies dancing in a circle and singing “Ring around the rosie” farther down the path.
Persephone’s mom, Demeter, was super-fond of plants and owned the flower shop in the IM. However, at the moment she was ripping the heads off a bouquet of flowers she held, as the others danced around her in a circle.
When they got to the part where they sang “We all fall down!” she tossed the flowers high into the air, to rain down on them. Destroying flowers didn’t seem at all like something a flower-loving goddess like Demeter would do. Normally.
“I think I’d better take her home,” said Persephone. She hurried over to her mom just as a teacher Pallas had met during her former visit to MOA came running past the olive trees from the art area. Her name was Ms. ThreeGraces. Seeing the girls gathered around the stroller, the teacher stopped. Her eyes sparkled and she bounced on her toes in excitement. “Cleo painted my face and Hera styled my hair. Isn’t it kee-YOOT?” Then, without waiting for a response, she skipped off.
The girls all stared at one another. Actually it looked like a clown had done the Beauty-ology teacher’s makeup. Or a two-year-old. Her hair had been cut way too short in some places. And haphazard hunks tied with ribbons sprouted up in it here and there.
“I’d better get to the art area and oversee those makeovers before there are more disasters,” Aphrodite announced. “Otherwise I’ll probably spend the entire rest of the year doing makeovers of the makeovers to repair the damage!” With that, she dashed off.
With Aphrodite and Persephone gone, only four girls remained around the stroller. “What should we do about Hebe?” Athena asked, sounding worried.
About the baby being a spell-caster, did she mean? wondered Pallas. But Hebe was just an infant! So how could she be doing magic?
The baby was getting more active now, kicking her legs, waving her arms, and cooing like mad. “Uh, do any of us know how to take care of a baby?” Artemis asked. “I helped look after Apollo when we were little, but my mom was in charge.”
“Eurynome and I do a lot of babysitting in Triton,” Pallas assured her. Eurynome nodded from beside her.
“Yeah, I read that in your letters,” Athena said to Pallas, sounding relieved.
The reminder of those unanswered letters caused Pallas’s mood to plunge a little. It still hurt that Athena had only contacted her when she’d needed help. And Pallas suspected that she now knew the reason why Athena had wanted her help—because Hebe had appeared.
Suddenly a lyrebell sounded across the acropolis. Ping! Ping! Ping! The heads of the four girls swung toward the sound.
“Uh-oh, that’s the herald. The reenactment competitions are starting,” said Athena. “Good thing Coach Triathlon agreed to help organize them, ’cause Dad is useless as a grown-up right now.” In fact, Zeus was still up a tree.
“Um, I don’t think the coach is going to be much help either,” said Artemis. “And what’s Professor Ladon up to?” She pointed at a sandbox just past the trees, where a teacher with a whistle around his neck was happily building sandcastles that resembled gymnasiums. A dragonlike
grown-up was sneaking up on him from behind.
Pallas figured the guy with the whistle must be the coach and the dragon-tail guy must be the professor.
Just then Professor Ladon yelled, “Sssurprissse!” With each Sss sound, he let out a blast of dragon fire that destroyed the castles the coach had built.
When the coach leaped up, he and the professor began yelling at each other and calling each other names. “Dragon lips! Pootie head!”
“You two! Stop that!” Athena called out to them. “You’re responsible adults!” But this did no good. Professor Ladon zoomed off, with the coach after him, both name-calling all the while.
“I don’t have time for this!” exclaimed Athena, sounding unusually frazzled. “I’ve got to go kick off the competitions at the arenas, plus check on everything else around here.”
Artemis glanced at the scroll-filled helmet she still held. “Some of the swordplay competitors haven’t gotten their scrolls for the first bouts yet, but I’ll take care of that at least.” Athena sent her a grateful look.
As Artemis hurried off to the arenas, Athena peered down at the baby in the stroller, then up at Pallas. Her eyes were pleading when she said, “I don’t know what to do about Hebe. Could you watch her?”
Pallas hesitated. She knew what Athena expected her to say and she couldn’t let her down, but she was still smarting. Did Athena value her more as a babysitter than as a friend? Before she could decide how to reply, Eurynome spoke up. “I’ll stay with the baby,” she said.
“But you’re in one of the first competitions!” Pallas exclaimed, aghast. “You should be reporting to arena A right now!”
Eurynome just shrugged. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not,” Pallas insisted. “You have to go. We trained hard for this!” Her mind made up, she turned toward Athena. “I’m not up till the second round, arena B. So I’ll stay with Hebe until someone can come back and take my place.”
“Are you sure?” asked Eurynome.
