Not that I blame her. A quick glance at the screen shows me that I’m an even bigger disaster than I originally thought. My perfectly pressed shirt is ripped in two places, there’s a giant streak of mud across my shorts, my legs and arms are all scratched up, and my hair is exploding out from my head in all directions.
Never in my worst nightmares did I imaginethisis how my first day at Anaximander’s would go.
But short of the ground opening up to swallow me whole—something I don’t put past it, considering the shake and quake it put on earlier—right now there’s nothing for me to do but get through this.
Get my gumball sphere thing, join Athena Hall, and put this whole, awful morning behind me.
“I do.” Sheer will alone keeps my voice from trembling like the rest of me as I hold my coin up for her inspection.
“Very well, then, Penelope.” She smiles warmly. “Let’s just see where your place is here at Anaximander’s.”
She waves me toward the gumball machine, and I forget all about the way I look. I forget about my hair, about my torn shirt, about the gross squelching of my shoes, and focus totally and completely on what’s about to happen.
Like my parents and grandparents before me, I’m finally going to be in Athena Hall.
I lean forward to drop my coin in the slot as everyone looks on. My wet fingers slip a little when I start to turn the lever, but I just hold on tighter as I twist it around and around.
Three turns in, it finally stops and I hear the click of a plastic ball sliding into the chute.
It’s time. It’s finally time.
I take a deep breath and try to calm my wildly beating heart as I bend down to lift the little silver door.
Only, the moment I do, two balls roll out instead of one. I catch the green one, then watch in horror as the red one rolls across the orchestra floor until it runs straight into Dr. Themis’s gold sandals.
13.Great Gumballs of Fire
ALL AROUND THE AMPHITHEATER, PEOPLEgasp as they lean forward to get a better look at what just happened.
Somewhere behind me someone mutters that this has never occurred before while in front of me, Dr. Themis looks from me to the fallen ball and back again. I can see in her eyes that she’s as confounded as everybody else.
And that’s when the panic starts deep inside me. It’s one thing for the students to be freaked out. It’s another whole issue for the headmaster to be confused—especially when that headmaster is one of the smartest, most accomplished, most powerful people in the world.
What is happening here, and why, oh why, is it happening to me?
My breath catches in my throat. My stomach twists andturns. Every cell in my body goes on high alert as I wait to see how Dr. Themis will respond.
At first, it doesn’t look like she’s planning on doing anything. But after a few excruciating seconds have passed, she finally bends down and picks up the red ball. Then, without so much as a glance in my direction, she slips it into the pocket of her long, shimmering gold coat.
I stare at her in shock, unable to move, as murmurs break out all over the amphitheater. Until, finally, she gives me a pained smile and says, “Go ahead, Penelope. Open your ball.”
I stare down at the green ball in my hand like it’s suddenly become one of those snakes on the bridge that seemed so desperate to bite me.
I want to tell her no, want to ask for the red ball instead. But the truth is, I have no idea which of these balls issupposedto be mine. If I ask to trade and I get the wrong hall, what am I going to do?
At the same time, if Idon’task to trade and the green ball doesn’t have an owl in it, what will I do then?
“Open the ball,” Dr. Themis says again. Her voice is kind, but she still looks a little rattled, which does absolutely nothing to calm my own rampaging fears.
Desperate for any kind of reassurance, I search the Athena stands until I find Paris. His eyes lock with mine and in them I find the calmness I need.
“It’s going to be okay,” he mouths. “Just open it.”
Paris can be a pain, but he knows me better than anyone.He also knows exactly what’s at stake for me here, and he’d never steer me wrong on purpose. Which is why with Dr. Themis, Paris, and the entire school looking on, I do the only thing I can do right now.
I twist the ball open and wait for an owl—my owl—to fall out of it.
Only that doesn’t happen. Instead, a smallgolden applefalls straight into my palm.
