Part 13 (1/2)
I put my head in my hands. After several long minutes, I felt someone sit down next to me. I half expected it to be Jack, but when I looked up, I saw Mary. I'd never seen her outside the soup kitchen before.
”Mary,” I said. ”Hi.”
Mary was looking straight ahead. She scratched her arm a few times, as if something there were bothering her. ”I come here a lot too.”
I grimaced. ”Where? The Shop-n-Go?”
”Yes. I come here for supplies. The cas.h.i.+er doesn't notice things.”
Great. She just admitted she's a shoplifter.
She patted my knee. ”Okay. I have to go. I'm late.”
”For what?” I asked.
Her face went blank, as if my question made no sense, and she scratched her arm again. ”I hope you find it.”
”Find what?”
”What you were looking for.” She looked at me like I was the one suffering from dementia. She stood up and wandered down the street, pausing only to ask a couple of tourists for some spare change. I hoped they gave her plenty.
THIRTEEN.
NOW.
School. Less than three months left.
Mrs. Stone read through a rough draft of my paper, and one day after school she sat in the desk in front of me. ”Nikki, you seem to have a chip on your shoulder when it comes to ancient myths.”
”What do you mean?”
She smiled. ”You place an inordinate amount of blame on some of the central figures of Greek mythology.”
I was quiet for a moment, unsure of how to answer.
”Don't get me wrong. I love how you've seamlessly planted characters such as Persephone in a modern high-school setting. Superb.” She placed the stack of papers on my desk. ”But you, as the author, are letting your disdain show through.”
”How?” I asked.
She gave me a wry smile. ”Like when your modern Demeter, and basically everyone else who's even nice to your Persephone, gets killed or maimed by random acts of violence.”
Oh yeah. I nodded.
”Now, if you intended to offer a scathing indictment of heroes, well, you're succeeding.”
”I just think they were foolish,” I said. ”Made irrational decisions in hopeless quests.”
”Maybe. But don't forget that what we can glean from these stories is not the string of decisions that got them into harrowing situations but what sacrifices did they make? Did Demeter give up when Persephone was kidnapped? Did she ever lose hope that she would get her daughter back?”
”That's just it, Mrs. Stone. She shouldn't have let herself hope, because she didn't really get her back. Persephone ended up ruling the Underworld anyway. I don't know why she wasted her time.”
Mrs. Stone paused. ”Now you're asking the right question. Why do we hope when all hope is lost? What if Orpheus had given up hope?”
”Who?”
”Orpheus. We'll talk about him later in the unit, but in a nutsh.e.l.l: The love of Orpheus's life, Eurydice, was taken to the Underworld. He was desperate to get her back, but no one ever comes back from the Underworld, right? Orpheus didn't give up, though. He followed her and pleaded with Hades to let her go. He played music for Hades and touched his heart, so much that Hades released Eurydice on one condition- that Orpheus never look back as they left.”
Goose b.u.mps appeared on my arms. I wasn't familiar with the story, but Cole said most myths were rooted in some truth. Could it be that a mortal girl who was bound to the Everneath escaped? I stayed quiet, anxious for Mrs. Stone to go on.
”I'd like you to ask yourself, Who loses hope first? And who never gives up? Because it's not the supernatural abilities that set mythical characters apart.” She leaned forward. ”It's the decisions the human characters make, in impossible situations, that have us still talking about them centuries later. Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with.”
I didn't tell her my opinion about the existence of heroes. I wanted her to talk about Eurydice again. ”So this Eurydice escaped the Underworld?”
”Yes.” Mrs. Stone paused. ”For a moment.”
”What happened?”
”Orpheus couldn't help looking back to make sure she was behind him. She was sucked back down.” She smiled and patted the papers in front of me, as if she hadn't just obliterated my little ray of hope. ”What you've done here is fine work. Good structure. Solid voice. But I think you can dig a little deeper.”
I nodded, no longer paying close attention. No one could escape.
”Okay. We're good here. I can't wait to see your next draft, Nikki. Don't shy away.”
When I left Mrs. Stone's cla.s.sroom, I couldn't get my mind off the story of the two lovers. Which is why I didn't notice, at first, the small group of students gathered around something at the edge of the football field.
I watched the crowd as I walked toward the parking lot. I wouldn't have stopped, only I saw Jules standing there, and she turned to stare at me. Something in the way she looked at me made me want to see what was going on. As I walked closer, a couple more students turned to watch. As if they'd expected me.
Then a voice rang out from somewhere in the middle of the fray. Jack's voice.
”Leave her alone!”
Another voice. An all-too-familiar voice. Cole-as the dark-haired Neal. ”She got to you, didn't she? And you want more. They always do.”
Oh c.r.a.p. I picked up the pace and pushed my way into the center, where Jack and Cole were facing off. I wanted to grab Jack, to wrap my arms around him and pull him away. But I didn't feel like it was my right, since he was angry with me.
So I stood in front of Cole.
”Stop it.” I put my hand on his chest. Despite being an immortal, he had the physical strength of a regular boy my age, nothing more. He still could have flattened me, but he gave way and stepped back. And I realized my mistake. The way he gave in to me made it look like we were together.
Everyone watched. My face was sweating.
”I can't help it, Nik,” he said with a smirk. ”He's such an easy target.”
Jack made a lunge toward Cole, but I stood my ground in the middle. I was about to get squashed.
”Jules!” I called out, as Jack collided with us. He tried to strong-arm me out of the way, but then Jules was there, tugging on his arm, trying to pull him off. I wondered why she hadn't tried to stop it before now.