“Yeah. No problem,” Claire said, rubbing Helen’s back. For a second, Helen let herself lean against Claire in a sideways hug.
“Shit. I’ll kill him,” Claire offered. Helen tried to laugh at that, but what came out of her sounded more like a hacking cough.
“Thanks, but no. I don’t want him dead,” Helen said. She shuffled after Claire to homeroom.
Mr. Hergeshimer asked about her health as soon as he had a chance to process how wretched she looked. Helen assured him she was fine, and after studying her face skeptically for a moment he gave up and went back to harassing Zach about his choice for the Word of the Day. Matt asked Helen in a whisper if her stomach felt better, and then restated his opinion that she should quit track.
“You’re wearing yourself too thin,” he said, sounding an awful lot like her father.
The rest of the morning went similarly. Every teacher asked if she needed to go to the nurse, and all of her acquaintances worried that she wasn’t better yet from her “fit” during track the other day. Except for Zach.
“I had no idea you were so fast, Hamilton,” he said as he ran to catch up to her in the hall.
“Yeah, I’m pretty fast,” she countered, trying to sound disinterested.
“Right before you collapsed I saw you chasing that shirtless guy and I realized that I’ve had it backward all these years. See, I always thought you were the one who liked to be chased, you being such a tease and all,” he said with a faint sneer. “But it’s hard to believe any guy could outrun you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone run that fast.”
“Wait,youtoldGretchen?” Helen asked, a sinking feeling in her stomach. “I thought it was the other way around.”
“I gotta admit,” he said, taunting her, “when you want to, you can move so fast it’s, like, inhuman. The only other time I’ve ever seen anyone move that fast was when one of those Delos kids was playing the hero during football practice and this freshman went down on the other end of the line—” Zach was cut off by Helen’s history teacher, who gestured for Helen to hurry up and get in the room.
For the moment, Helen was saved, but from the way Zach was looking at her, she had the feeling that this wasn’t the end of the problem. She tried to put it out of her head by telling herself that he could spread as many rumors as he liked, but everyone would think he was exaggerating. Zach liked to gossip and even though people generally listened to him, Scion speed was something that a person had to see to believe.
On her way to the auditorium to meet Claire and Matt, Helen got intercepted by Cassandra and Ariadne. They asked where she was going, and she didn’t feel like lying to them, so she invited them along.
When the coast was clear, they sneaked in the unlocked fire door and came into the auditorium from the backstage entrance. Matt and Claire were already sitting on the apron of the stage, their lunches laid out on napkins like a picnic.
“Good. You invited them,” Matt said with a satisfied nod when he saw that Helen wasn’t alone. “But don’t bring anyone else along or we’re going to get caught.”
“We’ll probably get caught, anyway,” Claire said with a smirk. “But it’s totally worth it. Where else could we get such atmosphere?” She gestured to the beautiful, glittery set that was growing, piece by piece.
Cassandra and Ariadne looked around appreciatively, especially at the parts of the set that were to be Theseus’s palace. They shared a conspiratorial grin with Helen, who managed to lift up half her face in something sort of like a smile. The fairyland parts of theMidsummerset appealed to Helen, but the Greek bits disturbed her. The faux Doric columns were half painted and lying sideways on the ground as if they’d been toppled, and they made Helen think of the arduous journey she’d taken the night before.
She never wanted to go back to the dry land, but if she could find that river...Wait, what river?she thought. She turned her back on the half-built columns and sat down next to Claire to eat her lunch.
Helen tried her best to get into the conversation, but she barely had the initiative to chew, let alone laugh and joke. She could tell that her friends were being clever and fun by the way Cassandra and Ariadne were reacting, but she could barely stay awake, let alone participate in the conversation.
She kept thinking about flying. Well, really she kept catching herself thinking about Lucas, but as soon as her thoughts slid down that hot knife, she shuffled her imagination over to the side and thought about flying instead. Maybe she would try it again on her own later, she decided, but this time she would do it inside her house so she wouldn’t be in danger of floating away. Although the prospect of blowing away on the breeze didn’t seem like such a bad idea right about now.
“Lennie! The bell’s ringing,” Claire said, her bag already over her shoulder. Helen jumped up and got her things together while her friends shot each other looks behind her back.
Claire tried to talk to Helen during track, but eventually gave up when Helen kept turning the conversation around to ask how Claire was instead. Helen didn’t want pity, and she didn’t want to talk about herself. She just wanted to switch her brain off and float.
Eventually, Claire got the hint and started talking about the bonfire party on the beach that night. She was having trouble deciding if she was going to get a ride with Ariadne or not.
“On the one hand I want to get to know her better, but it would mean I would have to go with her and Jason, and he always finds a way to start an argument with me. Are you sure you can’t take the night off from work? We could get a ride with Matt together,” Claire said optimistically.
“You know I can’t.”
“If you asked Kate, I’m sure she’d let you,” Claire coaxed
“Gig? I really don’t want to spend the night sitting on cold sand watching everyone make out,” Helen said with finality. “But you should go and have fun. And who knows? Maybe you and Jason will get along tonight, for once.”
Claire launched into a tirade about how annoying Jason was for always disagreeing with her. Only half listening, Helen finessed the air currents around her, practicing flying with the gravity on. She couldn’t wait to get home after work that night and give it a try.
Hidden behind a sand dune, Creon counted the minutes that passed while his cousins Hector and Jason stayed submerged. He hadn’t known about this talent, and he was happy that circumstance had led him there to witness it. He had lost track of Lucas earlier, which happened often considering his little cousin could fly, and he had to settle for following Jason and Hector to this ridiculous beach party. As he watched his cousins breach the waves and stroll out of the thundering surf, he seethed with resentment. All that talent wasted on cowards who were too frightened of the gods to challenge them, and too interested in their own pleasure to consider the implications that flirting with human girls could have for their entire House.
Jason spent most of the evening talking to a tiny Japanese girl. He seemed to be able to control himself around women, but Hector was a different story. It wasn’t even midnight yet, and Creon had seen him rolling around in the sand withtwodifferent girls already. Didn’t Hector know how easy it was for Scions to impregnate women? Did his idiot cousin really want his firstborn to be from some foolish child with no character? Obviously, Hector didn’t care about their House, or he wouldn’t waste his time with such silly girls. It rankled so much, Creon had to look away and grit his teeth. There was only one girl on this island who was equal to any of them in status. Only one girl worthy of his attention.
