The Weight of the World (6 page)

“
The
Pantheon has fourteen other members; I like all of them better than
you.” Valerie stepped around Nick and kept walking. She felt anger
surging up behind her and stopped. Nick was really mad.

“
You’re
really kidding yourself,” Nick said when she turned around.

“
I
think you’re the one who’s kidding himself.”

“
Just
admit it. You may have pledged yourself to those virgins, but you
still want me. You always have.”

Valerie
shook her head.

“
You
wouldn’t be the first.”

“
You’re
delusional.”

“
I
can have any girl I want. I'm a god. Think of all of the power we
would have if we paired off, Valerie. Zach and June are over. Frank’s
too stupid to take control. It’d be me and you, in charge. We could
take the reigns from Zach.”

“
I
don’t really want to lead The Pantheon. Zach saved all of our lives
in February. And you’re nothing special. You have any easy time
with easy girls, Nick. You’re just the same as everyone else when
it comes to dating girls with standards.”

That
stung. Nick knew that all of his targets over the last few months had
been easy. Tyra had put up the most fight, taking three weeks, and
all it had finally taken for Nick was to get her some jewelry. None
of his pursuits were really a challenge.

“
Alright,
you’re on.”

“
What?”

“
You’ll
see,” Nick said. He had a sudden smirk on his face and a twinkle in
his eye. The cloud of anger had dissipated around him and left the
buzz of excitement. Valerie wasn’t sure if the change she felt was
a relief. “Expect a call from me,” he said.

Nick
left Valerie standing there, confused.

Her
watch beeped. It was time for her to head back to the booth where she
was working with the Olympia Heights Senior High abstinence club.
They were trying to catch incoming freshmen before the summer even
started. Valerie was President. She fiddled with the gold cross
hanging around her neck as she returned to her post. She knew that
Nick was a troll. He wanted to get under her skin, and yet she
couldn’t deny him that pleasure because she just couldn’t shake
his threats from her mind. What was he going to do?

Nick
stopped at the fence to the fair grounds and looked back at Valerie.
Through the flashing lights, the scents of funnel cake, and 60s beach
rock, Valerie looked serious. Good. She had unwittingly challenged
him to seduce girls with standards. Surely she’d agree that her
female members qualified. Nick was going to have fun with this.

“
One
may define flattery as a base companionship which is most
advantageous to the flatterer
.”

-Theophrastus

iv.

Wild
Eris tossed a golden apple skyward

as
a ploy to create a rift between them.

The
gods saw the inscription as the apple

paused
at the zenith.

The
neatly-carved words were a dedication

too
vague for the assembly of pompous gods.

It
read “to the fairest” and each goddess thought

that
it should be hers.

So
Zeus, not wanting to incur Hera's wrath

left
this decision to an impartial judge.

The
most handsome mortal on earth was chosen.

His
name was Paris.

Hera,
as a bribe, offered Paris a throne.

For
Athena's bribe it was prowess in war.

But
Aphrodite outbid both her rivals

by promising
love.

“
To
be loved is something.
”

-Greek
Proverb

IV.

Evan
Fuller was sitting at home on Sunday afternoon, sorting legitimate
emails from spam in his inbox. Evan was part of a number of tech
forums and LISTSERVS that kept his inbox full. He had posted a video
from a test drive of the Night Prowler on Youtube that morning and
was really hoping to see comment notifications. There were a few
comments already. One claimed it was fake, a bunch more were one-word
replies, a string of comments had started a completely unrelated
political debate on the video’s page, and one was a link to win a
free iPad.

Evan
was just about to sign off when he habitually clicked the home button
to return to Facebook. One of his acquaintances from school has
posted a link on her wall. The thumbnail of the page showed a
shocking pink background with lots of tiny text and pictures. Evan
would have clicked away, but the description of the link caught his
eyes. It was a name that kept his attention. Devon Valentine.

Evan
clicked the link.

Discordia
was the header, written in embossed gold script with an icon of a
likewise embossed apple next to it. “Starting the Discussion about
Olympia Heights Senior High.” Some horrible troll had started a
gossip blog about their school.

The
latest post on the blog was at the top and featured a photo of Devon
Valentine from the school site, leading the cheer at an Olympia
Heights Senior High football game last year.

Devon
Valentine Expecting?

Word
is spreading fast that Devon Valentine, captain of the OHSH cheer
squad, won’t be fitting into her green and gold this fall.
Valentine has found herself with a bun in the oven. Who the father is
could be a tricky question to answer. Though Devon has been seen
frequently draped over the arm of Olympia Thunder Center, Frank
Guerrero, her past exploits and witnessed flirtations shed doubt on
the paternity.

The
plot of this Knocked-Up tale thickens with reports that a
college-aged stranger is frequenting the Valentine house and was seen
at the fair last week with Devon.

Frank,
prime suspect number one, transferred to Olympia Heights Senior High
after he allegedly killed a man. Let’s hope he’s the daddy, or
there may be more blood on his hands.

Only
one question remains, now. Who is surprised it took this long to
happen?

Evan
grabbed his phone and scrolled through his contacts. He dialed Devon,
relieved when she picked up. “Hey... uh, it’s me. Evan.”

“
Hey
Evan.” Devon sounded genuinely pleased to hear from him. He figured
she must have been very lonely, being grounded. “What’s up?”

“
I
really hate to be the bearer of bad news,” he began, “but you may
want to see this site that someone started.” He scrolled past the
entry about Devon. There were a couple entries about who spotted who
sucking face at the fair, but Devon’s story was definitely the
biggest news. “I’ll PM it to you on Facebook.”

“
Someone
didn’t get busted using their powers, did they?” Evan could hear
Devon moving around the room. He heard her hunt-and-peck type on her
computer and then it was quiet. Devon didn’t speak for two whole
minutes.

“
Devon?”

“
Yeah,
I’m here.”

“
Did
you get the link?”

“
I’m
going to kill someone.”

“
How
many people did you tell?” he asked.

“
You,
Frank, my parents, Livingstone, Dr. Davis knows... someone must have
heard me.”

“
Do
you think Frank told anyone?”

“
I
don’t know. I haven’t talked to him since I told him.”

Evan
picked up a metal puzzle from the set he kept on his desk and started
fidgeting with it. “I’m sorry. I promise you that I didn’t tell
anyone.”

“
I
know you didn’t, Evan.”

“
Does
that mean you and Frank broke up?” he asked. “I mean, if he’s
not talking to you?”

“
We
never really had a define-the-relationship. So I guess he’s free to
do what he wants. I’d really like to know who this is.”

“
I
could get one of my tech buddies to see if they can find the IP it’s
posted from?”

Devon
was quiet again. Evan got the puzzle apart and then started trying to
hook it back together. “So you’re completely grounded, huh? Like,
can’t go anywhere except to bring that Adam guy places?”

“
Yeah.
My Dad’s convinced that if I see Frank I’ll get double pregnant
or something.”

Evan
snorted. “Well, Frank is a scary guy. Not like me. I’m harmless.
I don’t think anyone’s Dad is afraid of me.”

“
Hey,
Evan.”

“
Yeah?”

“
Do
you want to go out with me?”

Evan
wasn’t sure what happened, but suddenly the metal puzzle melted
into liquid and landed on the carpet between his feet. The rug caught
fire and he cursed as he stomped it out with his boots.

“
Evan?”

“
I
just... Devon I just melted metal!” He had been so shocked by
Devon’s question that he hadn’t been aware of what he was doing,
but there was no other explanation for why a piece of aluminum would
spontaneously melt.

“
Melted
metal? That’s crazy!”

“
We’re
Greek gods, Devon. I don’t think you can limit us.”

“
Woah,
god of the forge, huh?”

“
I
gotta go to my garage to test this out.”

“
Evan,”
Devon said in a firm tone, “You gonna answer my question?”

Evan
had almost forgotten about her shocking proposition. She had asked
him out. “Uh, oh, um... you want to go out with me?”

“
Yeah.
I mean, if you don’t mind the whole pregnant girl thing. I can’t
wait on Frank forever and you’ve been really sweet.”

Evan’s
instincts told him that this wasn’t right. Girls like Devon didn’t
spontaneously ask guys like him out. It was too good to be true.

“
So
do you want to?”

“
Uh,
yeah. I mean, who wouldn’t?”

“
Good.
Come get me tomorrow night at seven?”

“
I
thought you were grounded.”

“
Don’t
worry about that. Go have fun playing with your scrap metal.” She
hung up.

Evan
stared at the screen on his phone to make sure she had really
disconnected. When the call time flashed finished, he put the phone
down. Weird. Why did Devon Valentine want to go out with him? Did she
think he was the best she could do now that everyone knew she was
pregnant?

Evan
headed down to the garage. He cranked up AC/DC on his workbench radio
and grabbed a tin can from the recycling bin. He decided that there
was no point in overanalyzing his date with Devon. He wasn’t going
to figure it out, so he decided to drown out the thoughts with a new
project. He had until seven tomorrow to figure out how to melt metal
again.

Evan
had not only figured out how to melt metal again, he worked on fine
tune control all day. By the time he had to shower and get dressed
for his date on Monday night, Evan had cut and melted together scraps
of soda cans to make a metal rose for Devon. He hadn’t needed a
single soldering iron and he even took the time to melt the edges to
make sure that they were dull.