Intrigue (23 page)

I gasped, “Flock!! When do I get my Super Powers?”

He didn’t know whether I was kidding or not, and he didn’t want to upset me again so he hesitated before answering, “You probably won’t become a Bright Muse until after you turn 18.”

I could grasp Rafe and I being connected. I just couldn’t seem to grasp the alternative. We both started doing our cool down stretches as I inquired, “Why don’t you think that I am your Muse, Rafe? You are drawn to me, right? You discovered me.”

I actually astounded him with my next line (I have been waiting to use this line ever since we covered it in the statistics portion of my math class), “Well, I am going to have to disagree with Aristotle when he claimed that ‘Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.’ Don’t ya think?”

Rafe just threw his head back and laughed, then came over to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. As he leaned down and touched his forehead to mine, he said, “Yes, Calliope. I, too, wish for an improbable possibility.”

I announced, “Until this supernatural stuff starts arriving on my doorstep, I am going to pretend that it does not exist.” I packed up and let him walk me out to my car. On the way, I posed one more question, “Are Muses always women, and if so does that mean that only male gods get access to their souls?”

“Yes, Muses are always women, but there is another term for human men that carry an Olympian’s soul. They are called Satyrs.”

As we arrived at my car, he opened the door for me and then leaned down to kiss me lightly on the lips. “You can call me tonight if you have anymore questions, or if you just want me to lull you to sleep.”

“I hope I am done with the questions tonight. Will I see you in school tomorrow?” I asked with a little bit of neediness in my voice.

He smiled his carefree smile that I adored and said, “Of course. I will always be your guardian no matter what Calli.”

“About that. Let’s keep our relationships and any touchy feely stuff on the down low until Thrace has a chance to recover from our break up. Please.”

“As you wish. It’s your world, we just live here,” he teased.

“If wishing made it so.” I drove off with a lot to think about and a lot of homework to do.

As soon as I got home, I ran up to my computer. I knew I shouldn’t do more research tonight, but if you were told you’re walking around carrying the soul of a Greek god, you might also think further information was important. So I at least had to look up Apollo and Ares to see what my options were. Below was the comparison of my three potential suitors from Wikipedia with a few brief comments from me. A girl’s gotta feel like she has choices—even when she doesn’t.
Free Will
, my Eyas!!

Bachelor #1: Hermes (god I’m crushin On)

-Messenger of the Gods; Guide to the Underworld (Sounds like a place I’m going soon)

-His bag of tricks contains: boundaries, shepherds, cowherds, thieves, liars, wit, literature, poets, sports, weights and measures, invention, and commerce (They should add charm to this list!)

Bachelor #2:Apollo (Most Likely Soul Candidate
)

-God of Light and Sun (A immortal that is the god of light and sun. Ironic)

-His bag of tricks also contains: truth, prophecy, medicine, archery, healing music, poetry, and the arts. (Well, isn’t he well rounded.)

-Son of Zeus and Leto (Is there a goddess out there that Zeus didn’t try to get with?)

-At least as many “consorts” as Hermes, at least none of them were Aphrodite (But not all of them were female)

-Famous Naked Roman Statue pictures him with a lyre (musical instrument that Hermes gave to him) and a snake (That screams creepy to me)

-There is a lot on him and he seems really passive aggressive. (Turning people who displeased him into trees and flowers—whining to his dad that Hermes stole his cattle)

Bachelor #3: Ares (Ruler of Detroit)

-God of War or Bloodlust—(
Total
Keeper!)

-His bag of tricks also contains: weaponry, sacking of cities, rebellion, civil disorder, manliness and courage (Where were you in junior high when I coulda used you?).

-Famous Naked Statue of him at Hadrian’s Villa (Seriously! What’s with the Naked Statues—how exactly does one even go into battle totally naked? Can you say awkward!)

There was an expression that my grandma always used when she didn’t want to change something in her life. She called it a Greek proverb “Better to dance with the devil you know than the devil you don’t.” I had to definitely follow her advice and stick with the god I knew.

Chapter 19: Guilt Trip

I could not ever remember dreading going to school as much as Monday. The thought of seeing Thrace caused a wave of pure panic in me. I thought briefly about taking a mental health day. However, my mother would check all my vital signs to see if a sick day was warranted. Luckily, Thrace was only in one of my elective classes because I could only handle so much awkward before my face got as red as my hair. I had to force myself to leave the sanctuary of my covers and drag myself to the bathroom to attempt to look somewhat human. I barely succeeded as I made my way downstairs for my Zone Bar and Mt. Dew. At first, I hadn’t realized that Thrace wouldn’t be picking up me this morning. Then, I waited just in case--not knowing if I was hoping he would pick me up or hoping he wouldn’t. I finally gave up and drove to school on autopilot.

As I walked in the school, I realized that carrying the soul for some Greek god had a lot of drama associated with it as well as some additional disadvantages: 1) doesn’t get you out of any homework; 2) doesn’t stop your ex-boyfriend from avoiding you; and most relevant to my current situation 3) doesn’t stop your two girlfriends from pouncing on you and demanding details on your rather extraordinary weekend. “What happened to you Friday night? Did Thrace go home with that hoochie? Did you dump his cheatin eyas? Why didn’t you call me back?”

I took a deep breath and put my hand up and said, “Whoa. It’s Monday morning. My brain only can process at a certain level right now.”

I looked down at the floor and tried to come up with the most appropriate response to their questions. Finally I looked up and confessed, “I’m only going to talk about this once and only with you two. I know the break-up will be all over school, and I don’t care. I am going to get this out as quick as I can.”

“Of course, Calli. We just want to help
and
kick Thrace’s eyas if that’s possible,” Jazz replied.

I took another deep breath, and the words rushed out of my mouth so I didn’t have to actually stop and reflect on them. I gave them the whole, but censored tale of the rave and break-up.

“Girl, you are
way
too nice. I’d just walk away and wouldn’t look back,” Jazz commented vehemently.

“He’s been my friend and hero for 10 years. I can’t just walk away from him. You didn’t see how hurt he looked,” I explained.

“Hurt. Hurt. The only hurt he should have been feeling is if you kicked him in the sack before you left. Who knows what STD he could be carrying now,” Jazz scoffed indignantly.

“Well, luckily I don’t have to worry about that. I just think today, this week, and possibly this whole month, is gonna be
awkward
. I want my friend back without all the complications.”

The bell rang with my last words, and I was immensely relieved to be released from my captivity. As we were walking to class Jazz promised, “Doesn’t matter whether its here or at the rave. We still got your back.”

“Especially, at lunch today,” Key reminded me.

When we walked into homeroom, Rafe was sitting in the chair next to mine looking as yummy as usual. I shot a grimace his way that he seemed to interpret as amusing rather than serious. I realized that there was not going to be even one class today where I wasn’t going to be under a microscope of my classmates, friends, enemies, and Rafe. It made me wonder again why I decided to get out of bed today. As class was dismissed, Rafe immediately stepped in beside me and quietly asked, “How are you this morning? Ready for the straight jacket yet?”

I ignored both his questions and instead replied, “I got ambushed as soon as I set foot in the door today. Jazz and Key wanted all the gory details.” I gave Rafe a brief run down of my revelation to them as we headed to our next class. I went through my morning classes in a complete daze.

And then we reached lunch. I sat down with Jazz and Key on each side of me and Rafe across from me toward the end of the table. Thrace hadn’t arrived yet and my back was to the line, so I hadn’t seen him. Our table filled up pretty quickly, and it seemed as if it was the center of everyone’s attention.
Great
….Just what I needed today. A large audience. Thrace finally arrived at our table and scanned it quickly. Our eyes met briefly before he looked away. I could still see the pain in his eyes. He and his friends sat at the opposite end of the table. Things seemed stilted at our table with all my tablemates sitting in the middle, slyly looking back and forth between Thrace and I like they were watching a tennis match. Unfortunately, Thrace took a seat on the opposite side of the table, so Jazz and Key were probably glaring at him every time he glanced down to my end. Rafe remained fairly quiet the whole lunch until he finally tried to break the tension and said, “I heard about the Haunted House at Erebus. You guys up for a little mayhem?”

I looked up at him and smiled as I heard my friends start to plan and debate a ‘field trip’ to Erebus.

Unfortunately, Thrace chose that time to glance my way which didn’t go over so well. He glared directly at me, and Jazz caught sight of it. Her temper flaring, she pointed Thrace’s way and warned in a loud accusing tone, “Don’t be shooting those evil looks down here like you didn’t
cheat
on my girl for the world to see!” It seemed like the whole cafeteria froze, and the silence at our table was deafening, as if it needed a reaction from Thrace to allow for noise. Thrace’s eyes caught mine again as he realized that his sins had not been private and searched my eyes for something ….forgiveness?….. understanding?…..absolution? He looked down at his tray and pushed back from the table and stalked off. I wanted to go follow him, but Justin, Spart, and Siena went after him. As she passed me she threatened, “I wouldn’t get to comfortable in your seats.”

Jazz laughed, “She thinks she can vote us off the island?”

As soon as Team Thrace left the cafeteria, it was like it exploded with noise. I shot a disapproving look at Jazz with one eyebrow raised, “Can’t we all just get along?”

Jazz was immediately contrite, “I’m sorry for shouting your business down the table, but
what
was that look about? How can he be pissed? He cheated on you!”

I just shrugged my shoulders and said, “Well, we gave the caf the drama it had been waiting for, so what time do you all want to hook up on Friday for the Haunted House?”

The question set the group back to making plans and coming up with schemes. Rafe caught my eye and he gave me a searching look as if to ask if I was ok. I gave him a brief nod, but I think my eyes probably told another story. As we walked to study hall, I told Rafe I needed two things: help catching up with my homework (for which I blamed on him) and space in journalism to corner Thrace. Of course, he had to point out that Thrace would be less conflicted in the long run if we made a clean break of it. Although I acknowledged the logic of his observation, there was no way I would emotionally let Thrace go without a fight. And I was excellent at fighting dirty. Three generations of Edonides women had passed on the skills to effectively guilt trip the men and children in their lives to stay in line.

I tried to corner him in journalism, but he deftly got our journalism teacher to let him leave to do the student poll before I could even approach him. I searched for him as we went to our next class, and I had to give up and head to my own class….and I was still late. I sprinted from my last class to the parking lot to catch him before he left, but his class was closer to the exit than mine so I got to see his taillights. I had little experience as a stalker, so my mad persuasion skills proved futile until I tracked him down.

I learned the hardest part of any break-up was starting new routines without that person in your life. There were gaping holes in my time that Thrace filled: before school, after karate class, weekends. It was like all those time slots stood empty. Although Rafe seemed willing to fill up some of those areas, I didn’t want him to yet. Despite my feelings for Rafe, it took time to bounce back from losing a fairy tale relationship that spanned a decade. Then, there were parts of the routine that stayed the same that still included Thrace, which was totally awkward: lunch, journalism, karate, and our families. I kept standing by him in karate no matter where he stood, which got me an annoyed look. I kept approaching him in journalism, which got me ignored. I kept going over to his house, which got me the door slammed in my face.