by Joan Holub
A girl whose golden hair was streaked with blue was talking to them now. Her bangs were curled in the shape of question marks. Since her skin didn’t glitter like that of the immortals, Nyx figured she must be a mortal. “This is my roommate, Pandora,” Athena said as Nyx put her tray in the return.
Pandora’s pale blue eyes sparkled with curiosity as she smiled at Nyx. “How come it’s not night at MOA now that you’re here?” she asked right away. “And how exactly do you make it night?”
“I need to be wearing my special cape to bring night,” Nyx explained as Pandora accompanied the girls out of the cafeteria.
Athena cocked her head. “I didn’t know that!”
“Me neither,” said Artemis.
“Can I see it?” Pandora asked excitedly. “Your cape, that is?”
“We’re on our way to see my dad,” Athena reminded her as they pushed out into the hall.
“Maybe later,” Nyx told Pandora. Her cape was in her bag, anyway. Which should be upstairs in the dorm by now.
Pandora opened her mouth to speak again. However, just then a boy who looked a lot like Artemis stuck his head out of the cafeteria door. “Want me to take your dogs for a walk in case you’re in the office a while, Sis?”
“Thanks, Apollo,” Artemis told him. “That would be great.”
“Hey, Apollo, I’ve been meaning to ask you something. . . .” Pandora gave the girls a little wave as she followed Apollo back into the cafeteria.
As Nyx, Artemis, and Athena headed down the hall toward the office, Nyx wasn’t at all surprised to recognize many of the Academy students they passed. She knew tons more about the gods and goddesses at MOA than they knew about her. Though Artemis and Athena had written an essay about her, even they really didn’t understand what she did or how night worked. Despite her Poseidon-caused discomfort, this realization gave Nyx a renewed sense of gladness in coming here. She hoped Poseidon turned out to be wrong about Zeus sending “that goth girl” packing. If she could succeed in her goal of making everyone see just how important night was, this visit would be totally worth it!
4
Zeus
MS. HYDRA WAS SHUFFLING SOME forms behind the counter when Athena, Artemis, and Nyx entered the office. At once two of the assistant’s heads looked up at the girls. “Principal Zeus is waiting for you,” her gray head said briskly.
“He said to go right in,” her yellow head added cheerfully.
“Thanks,” said Athena. She took the lead as the girls started toward Zeus’s office, but when they reached the door, she halted. Looking over her shoulder at Ms. Hydra, she whispered, “What kind of mood is he in?”
Ms. Hydra’s purple head popped up on its long neck. “Don’t ask me,” it said impatiently. “He’s barely been out of his office this morning.”
“He’s just so tired, the poor dear,” her blue head said sympathetically.
“Because of Hebe,” her pink head added in a confidential tone. “Some babies just aren’t very good sleepers.”
The assistant’s yellow head smiled at the girls. “But never fear. Things are bound to improve as Hebe grows older.”
“Yes, but that might take a while,” Artemis said. Looking at Athena and Nyx, she muttered, “In the meantime we’d better be prepared for some crankiness.”
“Crankiness is one thing,” said Athena. “Getting zapped is another.”
“Yeah.” Remembering the buzz she’d felt after touching the blazing gold Z on her invitation, Nyx couldn’t help wincing.
The girls pushed through the door without knocking, since Ms. Hydra had said to go right in. They saw straightaway that, except for a candle burning on his desk, Zeus’s office was completely dark, with curtains drawn over its windows.
Zeus’s big head was resting on top of his desk and he was . . . snoring? The only other sound in the room came from the bubbling, trickling waters of a tall two-tiered fountain behind the door they’d just entered through.
“Dad?” said Athena, tiptoeing closer to Zeus. But he didn’t respond, unless you considered snoring a response.
As Nyx and Artemis followed Athena farther into the room, there were whispered exclamations of, Oops! Ow! What was that? Because the floor seemed to be littered with objects they all tripped over.
Once Nyx’s eyes adjusted to the candlelit darkness she could make out a file cabinet lying on its side in the middle of the room like it had been knocked over by an earthquake. If there had been an earthquake sometime in the last few days, that might also explain the files, scrolls, maps, and board games scattered everywhere. Only there hadn’t been an earthquake in Greece for years. So she could only conclude that Zeus was lousy at housekeeping, er, officekeeping.
Artemis stumbled over a half-empty bottle of something labeled Zeus Juice. “Ye gods. It’s a mess in here again. I thought your dad had donated a bunch of his office stuff and cleaned up.”
“Hebe,” Athena whispered back, as if that explained it all. Which it probably did, Nyx figured. Babies apparently took up a lot of time and energy that might otherwise be used for cleaning. And sleeping. Now that she looked closer she also saw a lot of baby toys and baby stuff lying around.
“What do you think? Should we just leave?” Artemis asked softly. The three girls looked at one another.
“We could scribble a note to say we came by and—” Athena started to say. Before she could finish, however, Zeus let out a screech.
“Eeeek! Don’t you dare kiss me, you slimy Geryon!” The principal’s massive head with its mane of wild red hair thrashed from side to side, but his eyes were still closed.
“He must be having a nightmare,” whispered Nyx. She’d seen a Geryon once. They were dreadful one-headed, two-armed, three-bodied, four-winged, six-legged beasts with blazing red eyes, vicious talons, clawed hooves, and extremely bad breath.
It was exactly the kind of nightmare that Phobetor specialized in. He and his two brothers, Morpheus and Phantasus, were Oneiroi, the dark-winged spirits that caused dreams. Like Nyx, they also lived in Tartarus. Without ever leaving the Underworld, each night they shaped the dreams of mortals and gods alike.
Nyx had a soft spot for the Oneiroi. Whenever they happened to fly close enough to her palace to hear her birds singing, they were drawn to listen outside the windows. They would try to sing along, but they had no voices. They couldn’t even speak. And their “singing” was just high-pitched squeals!
“Yuck! Get away from me!” Zeus cried out again. One of his fists shot up from beneath his desk as if to punch the monster out, but instead he knocked over the candle, which set some papers on top of his desk on fire.
Reacting quickly, Athena ran to the fountain, dipped out some water in her cupped palms, and doused the candle and papers with it. “Dad!” she called out, reaching across his desk to shake his shoulder. “Wake up!” In the meantime, Artemis raced to open the curtains and the windows to let in air and light.
The moment Artemis turned away from the windows, a dark mist slipped out of the office through them. Nyx blinked. How had her defense mechanism drifted all the way over there without her noticing it had even materialized? Or . . . what if her coming to MOA was causing some weird atmospheric disturbance? She certainly hoped not!
When the sunlight hit Zeus’s face, he woke with a start. “Wha? Theenie? Whatter you—” Glimpsing the other two girls beyond her, he jerked his head upright. He had a serious case of bedhead, and even his beard stuck out at odd angles. “Ahem,” he said. “Guess I drifted off for a minute.”
“You were having a nightmare,” Athena informed him.
“Nightmare? Oh, yeah, I remember.” He shivered. “It was so real and—” He broke off suddenly and glanced warily at Nyx, who was standing stock-still in the middle of the room. For a split second, the look he gave her made her wonder if he suspected her of causing his nightmare. But dreams were the Oneiroi’s department. Was this something else she would need to educate everyone here about? On the other hand, it co
uld simply be that Zeus feared her, as many others did. Yet why would this powerful King of the Gods and Ruler of the Heavens (among many other titles) be frightened of her?
“You . . . um . . . asked us to come?” Artemis prompted Zeus after a moment.
He yawned and then shook his head as if to clear it. Nyx couldn’t help noticing the dark circles under his eyes. She knew how he felt. She had been up all night, so she was tired too! “Right,” he said. “Take a seat.”
Nyx glanced at the chairs around her. They looked brand-new, with bright blue-and-gold-striped cushions. (Blue and gold were MOA’s school colors.) Even so, there were big scorch marks on some of the cushions. Remembering the electrical spark she’d gotten from her invitation and not wanting to get zapped, she chose a chair as far from the principal’s desk as possible.
Zeus yawned again and stretched his muscled arms high. Then he settled back in his huge golden throne. Focusing his gaze on Athena and Artemis, who had (more bravely, perhaps) taken chairs closer to his desk, he got right to the point. “It has come to my attention that Nyx is here to visit for a week.”
Athena and Artemis nodded vigorously.
Zeus flicked a quick look at Nyx, and once again she sensed fear in his gaze. “The thing is,” he went on, eyeing Athena and Artemis once more, “I never approved that visit. So I’m sorry, but she’ll need to leave.”
Nyx’s heart clenched, but she said nothing in her defense. Athena piped up, though. “You did approve Nyx’s visit, Dad,” she said gently. “You’ve just forgotten because you’ve been so busy.”
Remembering that the invitation was still in her pocket, Nyx pulled it out. Gathering her courage, she left her chair and went to set it on his desk. He seemed to recoil as she approached, especially when her shadow fell over the desk briefly. His reaction was just so strange. And a bit hurtful, too!
Zeus frowned at the invitation. He turned it this way and that in his big hands as if he suspected it might be counterfeit or something.
If he didn’t want her here, maybe she should just go, thought Nyx. But she wanted to stay! If she didn’t, she’d lose her opportunity to convince him that she and the night were good for everyone and were nothing to fear. If she couldn’t get him to see that, what hope did she have of convincing anyone else?
“You were kind of distracted when you signed it,” Athena said, nodding toward the invitation her dad held. “Maybe that’s why you don’t remember.”
“You said whoever got the highest grade for their Unsung Hero essay could invite the subject of their essay to come here for a week,” Artemis reminded him. “That was Athena and me.”
A light came into Zeus’s eyes then and he nodded. “Oh, yeah. I was going to judge those essays myself, but I passed them to a staff committee because I had too many other things to do.”
Based on this remark as well as his reaction to her, Nyx guessed he might have chosen a different essay if he’d been the judge. Maybe that was being unfair. Surely the quality of the essay, rather than the subject (her, in this case), counted most when choosing one essay over another. As for quality, Athena and Artemis “got” that she and night were beneficial. But they had missed some important things about their subject too, in her humble opinion. Maybe the other contest essays had missed even more things about their subjects, though.
Seeming to decide that the invitation was genuine, Zeus leaped from his throne and began to pace around his office. Now that he was upright, he looked even more intimidating than he had when sitting down. She judged him to be about seven feet tall! His arms were bulging with muscles, and wide, flat, golden bracelets encircled both of his wrists. She drew in her breath when she noticed his thunderbolt belt buckle. Happily, so far there’d been no thunderous zapping.
“I have to admit,” he said as he paced, “my mind hasn’t been in its usual tip-top condition lately.” Coming upon the file cabinet, he lifted it as if it weighed no more than her parakeets’ domed cage and placed it upright against a wall.
“Ms. Hydra mentioned that Hebe still isn’t sleeping well,” Athena sympathized as her eyes followed his movements.
He nodded and gestured toward the fountain bubbling away by his door. “After we had to put that Fountain of Youth into storage, I got this new one to replace it.”
Nyx knew the story of Hebe’s birth from the news, of course. Apparently, the baby had magically been born by appearing to Hera atop an enchanted Fountain of Youth, inside a big Lettuce Wrap. Though Hebe’s birth story might seem strange, the births of immortals often were!
“The sound of the water helped Hebe to sleep every night for about a week. But then it stopped working.” Zeus paused in his pacing and yawned, which caused Nyx to yawn this time, too.
Seeming to decide that their visit was over, he waved a hand in the direction of his office door. “Hera and I will find another way to help Hebe sleep eventually. Off to your classes, girls!” he announced before returning to his desk and plopping back down on his throne.
“We don’t have classes today,” Athena reminded him, still looking concerned about the Hebe situation. “It’s Sunday,” Artemis added.
“Oh, right,” Zeus said tiredly.
The girls all rose from their chairs anyway. “So it’s okay if Nyx stays?” Athena asked as they sidled toward the door.
“I did sign the invitation,” Zeus replied with another yawn. Already he’d lowered his head to his desktop again.
Nyx guessed that was as close as he was going to get to agreeing she could stay. Then she remembered her birds. Though she didn’t want to give Zeus a reason to take back his permission, neither did she want to lie to him by keeping her pets a secret. She turned to face him again as Athena reached to open the door. “I brought my two parakeets from home,” Nyx admitted. “Is that okay?”
“They’re in a cage,” Artemis added quickly.
Zeus didn’t even bother to raise his head. “Fine,” he mumbled. Then he dropped off to sleep and immediately began to snore.
Phew, thought Nyx.
The three of them left the office and started up to the girls’ dorm on the fourth floor. “I don’t know why, but your dad seems uncomfortable around me,” Nyx commented to Athena as they climbed the wide marble staircase.
Athena hesitated before replying. “Oh . . . you noticed.”
Nyx’s eyes rounded with hurt. But then Athena explained. “My dad’s not afraid of much, but, well, he is scared of the dark. So, as goddess of the night, I guess you would make him a bit nervous.”
Nyx bit her lower lip. “That’s too bad. I’m sorry he feels that way.”
“How he feels is hardly your fault,” Athena said reasonably. She grinned. “Hera told me once that he always sleeps with a night-light.”
Athena and Artemis burst into giggles. Even though Nyx found this news kind of discouraging, she giggled a little too. Because the thought of Zeus, the strong and powerful King of the Gods, being so afraid of the dark that he had to sleep with a night-light was . . . well . . . funny.
They were still giggling when they glimpsed an orange-haired goddessgirl with small iridescent orange wings at her back above them on the stairs and heading down. “Shh,” said Athena to the other two. “Not a word to Pheme about my dad’s night-light, please.”
“That’s Pheme?” Nyx said interestedly. “I’ve read her gossip column in Teen Scrollazine.”
“Exactly,” said Artemis. “And Zeus’s fear of the dark is a piece of gossip Pheme wouldn’t be able to resist sharing.”
“Understood,” Nyx said quickly. “I’ll keep it secret.”
Unfortunately, Pheme had unusually fine hearing and was now close enough to overhear the last part of what Nyx said. “You’re Nyx, right? You’ll keep what secret?” she asked as she came even with the three girls. Her brown eyes sparkled with interest as cloud letters puffed from her mouth and floated above her head to spell out the words she had said.
Nyx thought fast. “The secret that I’m a h
uge fan of your Teen Scrollazine column,” she said. “I didn’t want to embarrass you with my adoration.”
Pheme’s wings fluttered with pleasure. “Not a problem. I love adoration. So nice to know that I’m even being read in the Underworld.”
“Yeah, we read your column hot off the presses,” quipped Nyx. “Super hot, if you know what I mean.”
The girls laughed. Wow, it was like they were all friends, joking around together, Nyx thought happily. This was probably normal stuff for these girls, but to her hanging out like this was amazingly and surprisingly fun. Maybe she wasn’t as socially awkward as she’d thought. Maybe she’d only needed a little practice!
As Pheme continued downstairs, the other three girls went up. “Nice save,” Athena said to Nyx when they were all safely past the goddessgirl of gossip.
Nyx beamed at her praise. “Thanks.”
Even before they entered the fourth-floor hall, it was obvious that Heracles had brought Nyx’s things up there and set them just inside the hall door.
“I hear birds,” noted Artemis.
Sure enough, someone in the dorm had slipped the cover off the domed cage and Nyx’s parakeets were chirping up a storm. Several girls from the hall had gathered around to listen to the two birds, and now those girls peppered Nyx with questions about her parakeets.
“Hypnos is the blue-and-white one. The green-and-yellow one is Thanatos,” she replied when asked about their names.
“Are they tame?” asked a girl with straight brown hair. She wore a cute wreath of ferns and berries atop her head.
Nyx nodded. “When they’re out of their cage they’ll perch on my finger or on top of my shoulders,” she told the girl. “And they’ll eat seed from the palm of my hand, too.”
“Can you show us?” the curious Pandora asked eagerly.
Nyx glanced over at Athena and Artemis. “Okay to let them out for a while?”
