Epilogue
SERIOUSLY? ARE YOU NOT DONE studying yet?” Fifi throws herself across her bed. “The exam isn’t until next week and I’m starving now.”
“I told you to eat more at dinner,” I say without looking up from the essay I’m reading for our ethics class. “And you can totally go to the kitchen without me.”
“But I don’t want to go without you.” She pouts. “You’re my best friend.”
“I am,” I agree. “But that doesn’t mean we have to do everything together. I’m pretty sure you can make a sandwich without me watching over you.”
“I can’t. I’ve forgotten how.”
“Ask someone down there. I’m sure they’ll be able to help you out.” I stop to highlight a particularly important quote before moving on to the next page.
“Come on, Ellie!” This time she throws herself across the bottom of my bed. “Pleeeeeeeeeease.”
I lower the book so I can look her in the eyes. “We’re going down to make a sandwich and get a drink. We are not going down to talk to whoever is around for the next three hours, watch a movie, and play group Scrabble all at the same time. Agreed?”
“Of course I agree. I mean, when has that ever happened?”
“When has it not?” I snort as I reach for my bookmark and slide it into my textbook before dropping it on the nightstand next to my bed. “Twenty minutes.”
“I’ll only need ten, I swear!” She bounds up from my bed and slips her feet into her slides.
“Somehow I doubt that.” I shove my own feet into the giant flamingo slippers Fifi got me as a present. As I do, I glance at the ketchup-stained list above my bed and can’t help but smile.
I haven’t gotten all the labors done like I planned.
And I still haven’t even completed the lightning storm one, though it definitely feels like I should have.
But I’ll never forget how good it felt to come back to my room after the festival—and everything that happened there—to find labor number nine crossed off. “Create a pattern from chaos.”
Or how good it felt to actually help Prometheus and Pandora after all those centuries of lies and suffering.
I head for the door, then reverse course and grab my phone. Just in case my twenty-minute time limit miraculously turns into two hundred minutes. I’m sick of getting stuck down there without anything to do while Fifi talks to everyone in the entire dorm. No exaggeration.
“I think I want some candy,” she tells me as we step into the elevator.
I shoot her a look. “I thought you were hungry, not snacky.”
“I can be both.”
“True, but maybe we should hit the kitchen first, then the candy room? Just so you can, you know, get some nutrition?”
“Where’s the fun in that, I ask you?” As soon as the doors open, Fifi links her arm with mine and starts propelling me down the maze of hallways that leads to the gaming lounge and—eventually—the candy room.
“There is none,” I say, giving in. Mostly because Fifi is an unstoppable force of nature and I’ve learned to pick my battles, but also because I could really go for a bag of M&M’S. I don’t care what my mother says—being an Aphrodite has taught me that chocolate really is brain food.
Except after going down two hallways, Fifi takes the hallway on the right instead of the left.
“Hey, the candy room’s the other way,” I tell her.
“I know.” She continues forging ahead and pulling me along.
“Tell me this isn’t a Scrabble ambush. Tell me—”
“You’re going to want to smile,” she says. And then she lets go and pushes me straight into the gaming lounge.
Where, it turns out, every single person in Aphrodite Hall is waiting.
Confetti gets thrown, a disco ball gets spun, and the whole room fills up with cheers.
I freeze. Like, literally freeze. Because I may have been an Aphrodite for months now, but I’m still not very good at dealing with this level of effusiveness.
“I think you made a mistake,” I tell Fifi. “It’s not my birthday.”
“I know it’s not your birthday, silly. This is something else.” She nods toward Dr. Dione, who is walking toward me, a brown chest in her hands.
“What?” I hiss, trying to get a heads-up from my so-called best friend. But Fifi has already melted into the crowd.
“My dearest Penelope.” Dr. Dione comes to a stop in front of me.
“This morning brought the official announcement that Aphrodite Hall has won the hall competition for the first time in more years than any of us wants to admit. When the news came in, Levi, Elysia, and I knew right away that the victory belongs to you.”
“That’s not true,” I tell her, stepping backward. “The victory belongs to all of us. It’s for Aphrodite Hall.”
At my words, Dr. Dione’s smile grows even warmer. “Be that as it may, we as a hall have voted. And we’ve decided this Pandora’s box belongs to you.” She lowers the now empty trunk, and I see that she’s had my name engraved across the top of it.
Happy tears shimmer in the backs of my eyes, but I blink them back. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Of course we didn’t. But we wanted to. Right, everyone?”
More cheers fill the room as Levi and Elysia move to flank my sides.
“You’re going to have to face it sometime,” Levi tells me. “You’re an Aphrodite now, and we’re not giving you back.”
“I’m not planning on going anywhere,” I answer. There’s a part of me that will always feel a little like an Athena, but my heart—and the rest of me—belongs to Aphrodite now.
“Good.” He takes the chest from Dr. Dione and drops it on the nearest side table. “Because you’re stuck with us. And also because we got you a cake.”
The other students part to reveal the biggest, most delicious-looking chocolate cake I have ever seen. It’s ten layers high and big enough to feed the entire hall. I can’t wait to dig in.
“This is amazing,” I say as Fifi hands me the knife to cut the first slice. “But where’s everybody else’s piece?”
“And you really thought you could be an Athena girl,” she teases right back with a roll of her eyes. “I hear they get apple slices for celebrations.”
“Good thing I’m an Aphrodite then, isn’t it?”
“Darn good thing,” she agrees.
We end up spending two hours downstairs, but I don’t mind. It’s kind of fun to hang out and play video games every once in a while.
When we finally make it back to our room, I drop the box on my bed, throw my arms around Fifi, and say, “Thank you! You really are the best.”
She pulls out her phone. “Can you say that again so I can record it?”
It’s my turn to roll my eyes. “You guys did get one thing wrong, though.”
“Oh, yeah?” Her eyes go big with alarm. “What is it?”
“My name’s not Penelope. It’s Ellie.” I run my hand over the box and watch as a bunch of sparkles fill the air around it and change the engraving to read Ellie.
As I do, a peacock feather falls from the ceiling and onto the bed next to the box. Fifi and I look at it and then each other with wide eyes.
“Something tells me this isn’t over,” I whisper.
“Are you kidding, Ellie? It’s just beginning! And I can’t wait to see what happens next!”