Chapter Fourteen
Just before dawn, Lucas touched her face to wake her up.
When she opened her eyes, he kissed her forehead and told her he’d be back in a bit to take her to school.
Then he jumped out her window and flew away.
Helen decided there was no way she was going to be able to fall back asleep, so she got up and made a big elaborate breakfast for her dad.
“You okay?” Jerry asked between mouthfuls of pancake, syrup, and bacon.
“Considering? I’m great,” she answered honestly as she sipped her coffee.
“How are things with you and Lucas?” he asked cautiously.
“Weirder ’n hell,” she replied with a smile. Then she shrugged and laughed. “But what can you do?”
“What can you do?” her father repeated. His chewing slowed down as an all-consuming thought hijacked his motor skills.
Helen knew he must be thinking about Kate, but an instinct told her to let him be. He still needed more time, and when he was ready he would come to her to talk about it.
Lucas picked her up as planned; they sparked and blushed at the sight of each other.
Just sitting in the same car with him put Helen in such a good mood that when one of her favorite songs came on the radio she danced in her seat and somehow convinced Lucas to sing along with her as they drove to school.
He would deny it later, but he got really into it, and Helen stopped to listen to him with her mouth hanging open.
“What?” he said, stunned when he noticed he was belting out the refrain all by himself.
“You have a beautiful voice! Is there anything you’re not good at?” she asked with exasperation as she hit his arm playfully.
“Apollo also happens to be the god of music. Now quit complaining and sing along with me,” he said, turning up the volume until the bass was rattling the car windows.
Helen’s voice was not nearly as pretty as his, but she made up for her lack of skill with sheer enthusiasm. They finished the song together, and even stayed in the car after they had parked to play the instrumental ending. Lucas was on steering-wheel drums, and Helen was lead air guitar.
“God, we sound amazing! My guitar solo was just inspired!” Helen enthused as she hopped out of the car.
“We should tour,” Lucas agreed as he took her hand and led her into school.
They were getting stares, but Helen didn’t care.
She didn’t feel stomach pains anymore. She could relax now that she knew the Curse Cramps would only come as a result of her using her powers in front of normals and not from any other kind of attention.
She began to wonder how many of her past episodes had been real, and how many had been brought on by the fear of them.
It was a relief to know that she had some control over the curse, and for the first time in her life, Helen felt like it might actually be okay to be a little bit different.
“Aren’t we old news yet?” she asked him with a sly glint in her eye.
“I don’t know. Let me check CNN,” Lucas said, pulling out his phone and pretending to open a browser. Helen gasped and clapped a hand to her mouth.
“Oh no, my phone! I forgot to tell my dad it’s broken again!” She stopped dead in the hall as she remembered how Hector had made her take a little swim with it.
“Hector will buy you another phone. A better one,” was all he’d say as he kissed her forehead. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“That sounds really bad,” Helen groaned, but the bell rang and she had to run or suffer Hergie’s wrath.
The rest of the day was as near to perfect as a day spent in high school can get.
Helen felt hugely energetic, Claire was a ninety-pound ray of sunshine, and Ariadne, too, seemed in fantastic spirits as Matt helped her with her golf swing in the auditorium at lunch.
Matt was the captain of the golf team, and Ariadne was thinking about joining, although first she had to learn how to play.
“No, you’re still gripping the club too tight,” Matt directed her gently. “Think of it as a rapier, not an ax,” he said, unwittingly hitting the metaphoric nail on the head for her. Her swing instantly improved.
“Cassie, why don’t you put that book down and come learn how to golf?” Ariadne called to her cousin.
In response, Cassandra opened another book.
“What are you looking for, anyway?” Matt called.
“Charms or spells in ancient Greek myth that protect against wounds,” she said as she wiped a hand over her face. The gesture reminded Helen of Lucas. If Matt found Cassandra’s response strange, he let it go easily enough and focused on Ariadne and her “stance” instead.
“How much longer do you think we have before we get caught in here?” Claire asked.
“Who cares? This is one of the best ideas Lennie’s ever had. We should enjoy it while we have it and not ruin the moment worrying about losing it,” Matt answered serenely.
Claire looked at Helen and they both nodded, surprised by Matt’s wise answer.
“To Matt Millis. Friend. Philosopher. Golf Pro,” Helen called back, saluting him with her thermos.
“Here, here,” called Claire. She raised her soy milk in a lazy toast. Matt took a dignified bow and blushed when Ariadne smiled at him.
“Hey, Len? Did you get a new necklace?” Claire asked, reaching out to touch the charm that Helen always wore.
“No, it’s the same old same old. Are you going crazy again, Gig?” Helen responded, trying to eye her heart charm.
“It looks like a strawberry, not a heart. Or maybe it’s just shinier. Probably I’m crazy.”
The next few days were blissful, and Helen felt a peace she hadn’t experienced since the Deloses had arrived on the island.
It was as if someone had put a combination of Spanish fly and Prozac in the water.
Helen kept up her training in the afternoons, but as the days passed with no sign that Creon had returned to the island, Helen found herself forgetting about the danger.
The only person who seemed immune to the good cheer in the air was Zach.
He kept trying to talk to Helen alone but she was avoiding him, which was easy enough when she was being guarded by a family of demigods.
Still, each time she dodged him she could tell that he got more and more resentful.
She was hoping that if she put the whole situation off for long enough no one would even remember how she had collapsed as she chased some shirtless stranger.
Hoping that if she stalled him long enough, Zach would let it go.
But instead his attitude was becoming more and more urgent.
The last thing Helen wanted was to tell Lucas and make an issue out of it.
After the whole “Hector tried to drown me and ruined my phone in the process” incident, Lucas had happily beat the stuffing out of his cousin in the newly finished arena, and an hour later a toothless Hector had given Helen a new phone that she was pretty sure had enough computing power to put a satellite into orbit.
But Zach was making it impossible for Helen to protect him.
The more he kept trying to corner her, the more suspicious Lucas became, until the inevitable happened.
After school on Wednesday as Lucas walked with Helen to track practice, he saw Zach wandering around nearby.
When Zach saw Lucas he changed direction and went to the boys’ locker room, but not before his suspicious behavior was noticed.
“Is Zach after you?” Lucas asked with wide eyes.
“Oh, not really. He wants to talk to me about something, I think,” Helen said as if it wasn’t important. She shut her mouth before she could say too much.
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Lucas said with a sneer, his blue eyes turning nearly black as he sensed her untruth. “Is there any reason for Zach to think that you might be single?”
“No! Wait, what?” Helen stammered, not understanding Lucas’s anger.
“Did you tell him that you and I weren’t really a couple because I won’t . . .” he trailed off, and ripped a hand through his hair as he paced around in a circle. “What are you telling people about us?” The outline of his body began to smear as he scattered the light around him in agitation.
“I haven’t told anyone anything!” Helen said, her voice pitching up to an unnaturally high register.
“Are you trying to make me jealous or are you just so frustrated that you’re already looking for someone else? Someone who’ll give in to you?” He was so angry Helen could barely see him as he began to blur himself out, but she was angry, too.
“I am NOT looking for anyone else!” she howled at him.
Lucas took an involuntary step back as he stared at the halo of pale blue light crackling around Helen’s head and hands. Her lightning didn’t seem to respond to Lucas’s light control, and as the distortions he created were thrown back by Helen’s metallic glow he was forced to shade his eyes.
“Oh, boy,” she tittered nervously. She felt like she was going over the top peak on a roller coaster—and she was just about to drop down.
She threw an arm out to the side to steady herself. Lucas took a step forward to grab on to her, but wisely stopped himself before he touched her and got electrocuted. Then the blue light went out like a switch had been turned off and Helen plopped onto the floor like a half-baked soufflé.
“I feel awful,” she told him, a bewildered look on her face.
“Are you . . . grounded yet?” he asked her, practically vibrating with worry.
Helen looked at the floor and giggled insanely as the electricity running around her body tickled her brain.
“Nope. Linoleum,” she said, slapping the palm of her hand against the nonconductive floor. Her vision swam in static. “You were r.r.right. I should have learned to u.u.use this.” She had to get rid of the energy, stat.
“Luk.k.k. Run.n.n,” she said, her jaw jittering uncontrollably with energy as her bolt demanded to be released. She had held it too long.