“I’m surprised to hear someone from Zeus Hall say that,” Arjun comments as he and Fifi move to flank me. “Aren’t you guys as competitive as Athena Hall?”
“We’re competitive. They’re…” He trails off like he’s trying to think of the right word. In the end he settles for “something else. Besides, I’m pretty much a Zeus in name only. I’m there because my dad, mom, and aunt were all in Zeus Hall when they went here.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I just nod and look away. Which Fifi takes as a sign that she needs to get me out of here.
“Well, nice talking to you, Sullivan!” she says with a smile so big I’m pretty sure it’s fake. And then she and Arjun all but march me off the field.
“Can you believe that?” Arjun says as soon as we’re out of the earshot of anyone else. “You got the first object!”
“I’m pretty surewegot the first object,” I tell him. “This was definitely a shared triumph.”
“You don’t have to say that.” But he straightens up a little anyway, his face lighting up with obvious pride. “So where do you think we’ll find the next one?”
“The next one?” Fifi looks confused. “We aren’t reallygoing to do this scavenger hunt thing, are we? Levi says Aphrodites never win the hall competition, so we gave up trying years ago.”
“Yeah, but that was in the past. We’re already up by one this year! Don’t you want to at least try to parlay that into a victory for Aphrodite Hall?” I ask.
Fifi looks skeptical, which definitely doesn’t help with the guilt I feel even as I say the words. On one hand, it felt really nice to be cheered on by all the other Aphrodites in class—and I really do think it would be cool if I could help win this for them after such a long losing streak. But the other half of me can’t help wanting to win because I’m even more sure now that it will impress Athena.
“It can’t hurt to try,” Arjun agrees. “Besides, who knows? Maybe Ellie will end up getting another object before the day is over.”
“Pretty sure that’s impossible,” I tell him. “But thanks for the vote of confidence.”
As one, we turn back to Fifi. “So, what do you say?” Arjun asks. “You really want Ellie and me to do this without you?”
“Obviously not,” she answers with a roll of her eyes. “But I reserve the right to change my mind if we don’t find anything else this week.”
“This week?” I squawk. “The competition is supposed to last for months!”
“Yeah, well, you’d better get cracking then, huh?” she teases. “But for now, we’ve got to get to logic. Charlie says Dr. Vicenzio gets super mad over tardies.”
As it turns out, we make it to Dr. Vicenzio’s class with three minutes to spare. I don’t find another object in the class, and neither do any of the other Aphrodites. We do, however, get assigned our first speech—a five-minute informative oration about one of Anaximander’s contributions to philosophy and/or astronomy.
I think I’m going to do mine on his view on the apeiron—the very first time the concept of infinity was ever introduced. Fifi says it’s a boring topic compared to his advancements in astronomy, but I think it’s interesting and can’t wait to dig into the research.
The rest of my day—the rest of my week, actually—goes much more to plan. Meaning there are no close encounters of the vine kind. There are no upside-down waterfalls trying to drown me. And I get one hundreds on all my assignments—including my homework.
All in all, it’s gone pretty well, if I do say so myself.
There’ve only been two dark spots to mar my otherwise very good week—I hesitate to call it perfect because of the way it started.
One, my mom had a phone delivered to me on Tuesday, which would normally be a very good thing—I’ve missed my reading and music apps more than I thought possible. Unfortunately, though, she has taken every opportunity since then to blow up that same phone with helpful tips on how I can get myself out of Aphrodite Hall and into Athena, where she constantly reminds me I belong. All of which means I have to tell her at least five times a day I’ve alreadytried suggestion number fill-in-the-blank and why it hasn’t worked, or why Ican’ttry her suggestion because itwon’twork. This has led to a series of very uncomfortable phone calls where she doesn’t bother to hide her disappointment even as she lists off the five people throughout the history of Anaximander’s who have actually been able to change halls.
The fact that she thinks that’s an encouraging statistic considering how many students are here every year shows just how desperate she’s become.
The other dark spot is the fact that, with the exception of Arjun and Fifi, I haven’t been able to getanyonein Aphrodite Hall on board with my plan to win the Pandora’s box competition, which means I’ve pretty much been going it alone so far. Not a great feeling when both Athena and Zeus Halls are regularly tearing up the campus looking for their artifacts.
I know their objects are hidden in different places from ours—but still. I could really use the help of someone who knows something, anything, more about the school than I do. So far, though, there’ve been no takers. And my independent searches have turned up absolutely nothing.
I’m so desperate that I’ve considered chewing one of my pieces of gum in the hopes that Calliope could help. The only thing that’s stopped me is I don’t think she knows this campus any better than I do. And I don’t want to waste any of my pieces this early in the semester if there’s a way I can avoid it.
Which is why I’ve finally come up with another plan. And why I’m going straight back to the dorm after my last class of the week instead of heading over to the Stoa to hangwith Paris for a little while. There’s a mandatory hall meeting today, and I plan to use the “student concerns” section to talk everyone at Aphrodite into joining my quest.
I’ve been practicing my speech all week. I just hope they don’t say no.
I turn left at the Hall of Legends and start the trek past the amphitheater, hoping I’m going in the right direction. Today’s map was the most mixed-up yet, so it’s pretty much been hit or miss on whether or not I get where I’m going.
As I walk by the front of the amphitheater, I glance inside. And am shocked to see PT tinkering with the cauldron.
