There was Ari, wearing her Queen of Corona apron, right where I’d hoped she would be. After the day I’d had, a friendly face and yummy ice cream were exactly what I needed.
Except the face behind the counter was anything but friendly.
Ari was scowling at me, her hands crossed tightly over her apron.
“Have fun at the museum?” she asked.
She was definitely not happy to see me. I looked around quickly, taking in the bodega, and out the windows, a small view of Queens. If I could have transported back to Miami with a blink, I would have. But the bodega didn’t have an entrance point, and besides, not everything could be solved with magic.
“Um. The museum was okay. Thanks for the directions.”
“Whatever,” Ari said.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, knowing that the answer was obviously yes. It felt like everything was going wrong. Why wouldn’t things crash and burn with my new friend? Lately, it felt like I was stuck running on a hamster wheel of doom.
“Hanging out with friends, were you? I mean, you just moved here and you have friends already. That’s, like, super social of you.” Ari leaned on the counter, her eyes boring into mine.
“Did I mess up or something?”
Ari laughed, and it was a cold sound, colder than ice cream.
“Oh no. Never. You and your kind are never wrong. Are they, Calliope?”
What was going on? What did she mean by “my kind”?
“Ari, I don’t know what you’re talking abou—”
She laughed again. “Come on now. Friends don’t keep secrets, do they? My aunt told me all about you.”
“Your aunt?”
“Never mind,” Ari said. “Just stay clear of me,” she said, slamming her hands on the counter.
I took a step back. Goose bumps covered my arms, but it wasn’t muse magic. Why was Ari being so mean?
Maybe I was going about this the wrong way. I pictured her joking with me again, both of us friends again, hoping the muse magic would fix things.
“Stop it. Stop what you’re doing. I don’t like it,” she said. I cleared the pictures from my head at once. Ari stepped around the counter and came to stand by me. She stood very close to me, in fact. “I. Know. What. You. Are,” she said, punctuating each word with a little jab of her finger to my shoulder. “None of you can keep me from what I have to do. She couldn’t stop me, and neither can you. Stay away from me, or you’ll be sorry.”
My mouth went dry, and my brain was in a fog. Did Ari know I was a muse? But how?
“Ari, I—”
“You and your friends need to leave me alone!” she shouted, then tugged off her apron and ran out of the bodega.
I could only stare after her.
My instincts were telling me to think this through. Ari had said, “I know what you are.” That didn’t necessarily mean she knew about the muses. Maybe she had misunderstood something I’d said. Maybe Maris had shown her my terrible poem, and she thought I was going to sabotage the Student Showcase. It seemed to mean a lot to her.
She’d said, “She couldn’t stop me, and neither can you.” Who was she? Another student at the Corona Arts Academy?
My head was swimming. Mami always told me, “When you’re unsure of what to do, take a big breath and give yourself the gift of time.”
So that’s what I was going to do. Give myself time to think this one through before jumping to any conclusions. Whatever Ari was up against, the muses definitely didn’t have anything to do with it. She was safe from us, at least.
But were we safe from her?
Chapter 10
A Mustering of Muses
That night, after dinner, I called Mami.
As soon as she heard my voice she said, “Something’s wrong,” doing that mom-intuition thing she did so well.
“No. It’s all good.” My voice caught a little. “Maybe I’m just homesick.”
“Oh, mi vida. That’s natural. But New York can be home for you, too. Talk to your papi. He’ll understand.”
Except this thing with Ari and with the spiders was not something Papi or Mami could understand. Very few people in the world could, in fact. But I knew three other girls who would totally get it.
“Muse Squad, we need to talk. Let’s meet in the museum,” I whispered into the bracelet later that night after everyone had fallen asleep. I hoped Thalia, Nia, and Mela would show up.
Back home, I’d slide under my bed and pop up at headquarters. Now all I had was this noisy pin-pan-pun. It was a tight squeeze under there, and my nose was half an inch from a rusty spring. I closed my eyes, counted to ten, and when I opened them again I appeared to be on a different bed, surrounded by smooth wooden walls. Across from me were two more beds, and a little farther away, a small ladder led up to a dark opening.
Had the magic misfired somehow? Where was I?
I clambered out of the bed and climbed up the ladder. Outside, it was dark, but I spotted emergency lights in the ceiling, and a flickering red Exit sign in the distance. Definitely the museum, then. But where in the museum was I?
The ladder had led me up to the deck of a ship, with bright white canvas sails and everything! The ship was in the center of a large room, and I could just make out a sign that said “The Science of Navigation” on the far wall.
Thanks, Clio! I thought. I couldn’t have picked a cooler entrance point myself! I was about to talk into my bracelet again, to see if the others had arrived, when I heard someone rustling nearby.
“Aye, aye, Captain Callie!” said Thalia, standing at the ship’s helm. Nia had her hands on the wheel and was twisting it left and right. For the first time since I’d met her, she wasn’t wearing a science T-shirt. Instead, her shirt read THIRD STREET GYMNASTICS. Meanwhile, Mela was sitting on some coiled rope, headphones over her ears as usual, flipping through an old playbill someone had discarded on the ship.
“I can’t believe how awesome your entrance point is,” Nia said, noticing me at last. “Did I ever mention I love ships? My mom was in the navy, and she used to take me to see the tall ships when I was little. I love tall ships like this. Are we mustering? We’re totally mustering, aren’t we?”
“Mustarding? Like the condiment?” Thalia asked. Her face looked horrified. “I hate mustard.” She squished her features together and stuck out her tongue.
“No. Mustering. A gathering of sailors. We are totally mustering.” Then Nia grew serious. “So what’s up? Spiders again?”
Mela looked around frantically for a moment. “Please don’t even mention them,” she said, shivering all over.
“Not exactly,” I said. “It’s this girl at Corona Arts Academy. Her name is Ari, and this afternoon she told me, ‘I know what you are.’ Like that. And she called me Calliope. I never told her my name was Calliope, you guys.”
“That doesn’t mean—” Mela began.
“She knew I was trying to use my magic on her. It’s like she could feel it.”
Everyone was silent after that.
Thalia’s brow was furrowed in thought, while Nia chewed on a thumbnail. Mela’s eyes were glistening.
“We’ve battled worse,” Thalia said. “Some random girl isn’t going to be a problem.”
Nia nodded, tapping her chin as she spoke. “We need to investigate. Find out what she wants. Is she magical herself? Maybe she’s a gorgon in disguise.”
“Gorgon?” I asked.
“Mythical monsters. Turn people into stone, like Medusa. She had snakes for hair, you know. Other gorgons eat people whole, like Lamia. She was half snake. Snakes all over the place! No spiders, though,” Nia explained.
Mela sniffed from where she sat on the coiled rope. She’d been very quiet.
“Are you okay?” I asked her. More than any of us, Mela wore her heart on her sleeve.
“Ari sounds scared. Of us. Why would she be scared of us?” she asked, her voice small.
Once again, we were all quiet. A few minutes ticked by as we
all thought this through. My mom would be proud.
“We aren’t scary,” Thalia said at last.
“Yeah, we are actually. We are super scary,” Mela responded. “Think of what we can do, what we can convince others to do. If I knew some strange kids had powers like that, and I didn’t know who they were, or if they could be trusted, I’d be scared as well.”
“Mela is right. If Ari is scared, we need to find out why. Maybe she needs our help,” Thalia added. “Even if she is a gorgon.”
We heard a creaking sound off to the right, and the four of us whipped around to watch as the rope ladder that led up to the ship’s deck rubbed against the top rail. A pale hand appeared on the ledge, then another. And that’s when I saw them.
Two wrists full of friendship bracelets.
How much did Ari hear? I wondered.
I rushed over to help Ari onto the ship. Her wide eyes met mine. Ari looked nervous.
“Callie, I, um, a-apologize for yesterday. I got some advice from my aunt. And I’ve thought things over. I think you and the others might be able to help me.”
“Our help?” I asked, feeling like a whole swarm of butterflies was making a home in my stomach.
“Yeah. I’ve got a big problem. Let’s just say I need some inspiration, okay?”
“So you know who we are,” I said quietly.
Ari nodded. “Muses. And if you give me a moment to explain, I’ll tell you who I am, too.”
She waited, fidgeting with her bracelets. Her dark eyes shone. Whatever Ari was dealing with, I could tell that it was a huge deal.
“Please, Callie,” Ari whispered.
I didn’t have to think about it much more. “Of course. Yeah,” I said, and waved the others forward.
The rest of the muses approached slowly. Ari shook hands with Nia first, then Mela, and finally Thalia. Then Ari sat on a barrel and rubbed her hands on her black jeans over and over again.
“You okay?” I asked.
She flexed her hands. “Your magic tickles.”
“You can feel our magic?” Mela asked.
“I’m a little sensitive to it.”
“Okay. Spill it,” Nia said.
Ari stopped rubbing her hands on her jeans. “Ari is just my nickname. I’m Arachne. Nice to meet you all.”
I sat on the deck of the ship with a thump. Arachne? The girl Clio told me about? The one who had entered a competition with Athena and had been turned into a spider for disrespecting the goddess? I’d seen Athena’s tapestry at the V and A, had held it in my hands! It was beautiful. And to think that Ari had woven one that was even better!
“Rings a bell,” Thalia said, her finger on her chin.
“It should,” added Mela. Then she turned to Ari. “Do you mean to say you are the Arachne?”
Ari nodded. “The very one. Like I said, nice to meet you.”
Clio had said that Arachne had been turned into a spider, but she looked pretty human to me. “How come you’re a . . . um, a person?” I asked. “And not a spider?”
Thalia snapped her fingers. “Oh! You’re that Arachne! The weaver! That’s brilliant. And weird. Why are you here?”
“More like, how are you here?” Nia asked finally.
“Why don’t you start from the beginning,” I said.
We all sat down in a tight circle at the ship’s bow. I could hear Ari’s breathing, tight and fast, and Nia clicking on her app, measuring the stars at this moment.
“You know the story, then. Athena challenged me to a weaving competition, and my people selected my tapestry, yet Athena declared herself the winner anyway. When I stood up for myself, she turned me into a spider. I was twelve when that happened. Been a spider for a couple thousand years, and now I’m twelve again.”
“That’s a lot to handle,” Mela said, her eyes all watery.
“Now I have a second chance.”
“How’d that even happen?” Nia asked. “The gods don’t change their minds. Ever.”
“I don’t know for sure. One minute I’m just me, weaving a web, thinking about the fat flies I’m going to catch for lunch—”
Thalia made a gagging sound.
“Shh,” Mela reprimanded her. “Go on, Ari.”
“Thanks. The next minute—well, it felt like a minute. But it was thousands of years later—I was my old self again. A kid standing in the middle of a bodega in New York City, wondering what was going on.” Ari paused, and the rest of us waited carefully for her to begin again. I had about a million questions, and I would bet the others did, too. But those could wait until Ari told us her—
“YOU SENT ALL THOSE SPIDERS TO COME AFTER US, DIDN’T YOU?” Thalia interrupted loudly, putting two and two together at last.
Ari scrunched up her nose and held up her hands. “Oops?”
“Oops? You should know I’m very, very cross with you about that,” Thalia added.
Ari sighed. “Listen. I’m sorry. I’m obviously not a spider anymore, and frankly, I’d rather not remember any of that. But I still know how to talk to them and get them to do things for me if I ask nicely. I didn’t send any venomous ones, and you’re very welcome about that.”
“But why did you do it?” I was feeling a tight ball of anger forming in my chest. My brother had almost crashed our van. Not to mention the people running away from spiders in the Hall of Science. They could have been hurt.
“I didn’t know what side you were on.”
“Side?” I asked.
“Mine or Athena’s. You can bet she’s not happy that I’m back,” Ari said. “And my aunt said not to trust anybody. She’s the one who told me you’d be meeting here tonight, and the reason I was able to get in the museum after hours. My aunt is . . . resourceful.”
“If you’re the real Arachne, then how can your aunt be here in New York, too?” Mela asked.
“Not my real aunt, obviously,” Ari said. “My real aunts have been dead for thousands of years. She’s adopted me as her niece.”
That made me think of Tia Annie, of course. She’d only been gone for a few years, not thousands. But I bet it still hurt Ari to think of her family, long gone.
Nia cut in. “Who’s your aunt? You aren’t telling us everything, and I don’t think we should help if—”
“You don’t need to know everything,” Ari said, crossing her arms.
“And we don’t need to hear you out,” I said. “Come on, everyone. Let’s go.” I got to my feet. Nia and Thalia were up on theirs right away, too.
“Stop,” Ari said. “You know what it’s like. You’re all bound to secrets, like I am. There are certain . . . conditions on my return to human form. Keeping secrets is one of them.”
Thalia sat down again. “What?” she said when we gaped at her. “I completely get it. Do you know how hard it is to keep this muse stuff from my mum?”
“Yeah, we have an idea,” I said, sitting down. Nia leaned against the ship’s railing and said nothing.
Ari glanced at Mela, who nodded at her encouragingly. Ari sighed. “My aunt, well, you’ll have to ask her yourself if you want to know more about her. Anyway, she explained everything when I appeared in her bodega. She’d been waiting for me, she said, for ‘Just the right time.’ I guess it was the right time, because here I am. As for the spider attacks, I’m sorry about that. My aunt thought Athena might use the muses to stop me. I didn’t know who the muses were. I just figured I’d scare them—um, you—off. I panicked, okay?”
“Why would we try to stop you? Muses inspire people. Not the other way around,” Mela said.
“Do you normally inspire people to go head-to-head against a goddess? Because that’s what we’re talking about here,” Ari explained.
She was right. Muses were all about encouraging others to tap into their best selves, but had they ever gotten involved in battles between gods and humans? I couldn’t be sure, but there was probably a rule about that somewhere.
“No,” Mela said. “But we help those whose gifts make the
world a better place. Perhaps that’s you, Ari.”
Ari answered quietly, “I just know I want to prove myself, that’s all. Like I said, I’m sorry about the spiders. Are we cool now?”
“Maybe,” Nia said. “Why do you need our help?”
Sitting up a little straighter, Ari pushed her sleeves back to her elbows, revealing about a hundred friendship bracelets. “I mean to set the record straight. My tapestry is the winning tapestry. Just because Athena is a goddess doesn’t mean she’s right all the time.”
“It sort of does,” Thalia added.
“No. It doesn’t. It’s not just or fair. And if the gods aren’t just or fair, what hope does anyone have?” She paused, running her hands through her long black hair. “Listen, my aunt explained that I can only stay in my human form if I can prove that I bested Athena in that competition, and I mean to do just that at the Corona Arts Student Showcase. Let real artists decide the winner this time.”
“Our campmates, you mean?” I asked.
“Yeah. You and Maris, and all the other kids. They’ll tell the truth.”
“What about the donors no longer supporting Corona Arts?” I asked.
Ari frowned. “There probably won’t be a Corona Arts summer camp next year if we don’t impress the donors. My tapestry will wow them. It’s a win-win. You’ll see. And if I lose, then I’ll go back to making webs and eating bugs.” Ari shivered all over and her eyes shimmered with tears. “If I win, though, I’ll be a person for good, and I’ll get to live my life, and the gods will have learned a lesson.”
Mela suddenly launched herself at Ari and hugged her hard. “Yes, we’ll help,” she said, her voice muffled against Ari’s hoodie.
“Hold up. Don’t speak for all of us, Mel,” Nia said. “This is huge. You’re asking us to go up against Athena.”
“No, I’m asking you to help me do that. You can stay neutral.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” I said. “We’re kids, but in some ways, we’re goddesses, like her.”
“Then maybe you have a lesson to learn as well.”
The Mystery of the Tenth Page 7
