Goddess Boot Camp

once she has approved their request, she either sends an aide to retrieve the book or goes herself. Which means…'

'It had to be a student,' I shake my head. 'Why would a student want to steal my dad's trial record? Or any record? I mean, it's not like it's breaking news or anything.'

'There could be dozens of reasons,' Troy says. 'Like someone looking for a loophole in an Olympic ruling, for example.'

His hazel eyes flick to Nicole.

'Or someone wanting to uncover a secret,' she snaps. 'Or do a research paper. Or write an article for the Chronicle.'

The Chronicle?The school newspaper? A puzzle piece falls into place.

'Adara writes for the Chronicle.'It would be so typical for her to torment me like this. 'She could have done it.'

'Don't jump to conclusions,' Troy says. 'Don't accuse her without-'

'She never worked in the library,' Nicole interrupts. 'But there's another possibility.' She pulls a computer printout from her back pocket and sets it in the middle of the table. 'Read this.'

Troy and I both lean forward to see where she's pointing.

Electronic Catalog and Historiography of Olympus REPORT

Search String: past student employees

Time Frame: 5 years

Query Results: 11 entries

'How did you get this?' Troy asks as I scan the list. 'Access to ECHO is insanely restricted. You remember what happened in eighth grade when I tried to change my failing algebra grade.' He shudders at the memory. 'Sometimes my fingers still tingle when it rains.'

'I didn't access the system,' Nicole says. 'Philipoulos left the printout on her desk when Mr. Sakola asked for help finding the Atlantis collection in the map room. You'd think he was Adonis, the way she dropped everything and-'

My eyes pop out when I see the third name on the list.

'Did you sec this?' I point at the third name.

Nicole breaks off and says, 'Yeah.,I thought that was kind of interesting.'

'What?' Troys spins the paper around. After a quick glance, he says, 'Holy Hades!'

'Tell me about it.' I slump back against the vinyl seat. 'And just when I thought we were getting along.'

The third name on the list is Stella Petrolas.

***

As we walk through the village-a little aimlessly because I'm not so eager to go home and face Stella-I know I shouldn't jump to conclusions. Just because Stella could have stolen the record doesn't mean she did. I mean, she was with me when the note arrived. Even Stella isn't powerful enough to be in two places at once. Of course she could have gotten someone else to leave the note. Or she could have stolen the record, but not have been behind the note. Or she could have nothing to do with anything. Or-

'Let's go to the bakery,' Nicole says.

'No thanks,' Troy grumbles, looking miserable.

'Come on,' Nic says with a smile. 'If anyone can make delicious sugar-free treats Lili can.'

'Huh-uh,' I say, pulling myself out of my Stella ponderings. 'Bakery's closed. Griffin and Aunt Lili went to Serifos today to get a fresh stock of berries.'

'That's weird,' Nicole says. 'I could have sworn I saw…'

She trails off, her dark blonde eyebrows scrunching down into a frown.

'What?' I ask.

'Nothing.' She shakes her head, like she's trying to forget whatever she thought she saw. 'Never mind.'

'What, Nicole?' I demand. I can tell from the way she's evading that it's bad. A burning ache starts low in my stomach, 'tell me what you saw.'

'On my way here'-she gives me an apologetic look-'. . . . I saw Griffin.'

No. That's not possible. He's at the farmer's market on Serifos. That's why we rescheduled our run for this morning. That's why I got up early on my summer vacation. Griffin wouldn't have done that to me for no reason. He wouldn't lie to me. Even when he wanted to hate me when I first got to Serfopoula, he didn't lie to me.

But Nicole wouldn't lie to me, either. Not about this. There must be a reasonable explanation.

Confused, I look up at her. Her blue eyes look sympathetic and a little wary. Nervous.

'What else?' I ask.

She shakes her spiky blonde head, like she doesn't want to tell me. The burning ache takes over my entire stomach, making me regret my hasty consumption of Demetrius's White Russian.

'Just tell me.' I take a deep breath. I know she wouldn't be all concerned like this for no reason. 'Where did you see him?'

'Going into the bookstore.' She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. 'With Adara.'

'Oh,' I say quietly.

I'm not surprised. After the way he's been behaving-to me and to Adara-this is not completely unexpected. He's been spending as much time with her recently as he has with me. I've been busy the last few weeks-forced into servitude over Stella's graduation, helping get Mom and Damian out the door for their honeymoon, learning how to wield my powers while surrounded by ten-year-olds. He's been busy, too-helping out Aunt Lili in the bakery full-time, getting math tutoring so he can take calculus next year, swapping spit with his ex- girlfriend.

Stepping back from the ledge of conclusion, I make myself consider other possibilities. It could be totally innocent-they could have coincidentally arrived at the bookstore simultaneously and decided to walk in together.

Or, the part of me that still stings from jerky Justin's betrayal screams, it could be totally notinnocent.

Griffin, I tell myself, is not Justin.

'I'm sure it's nothing,' I say, trying to sound like I believe it. They probably just ran into each other.'

'Yeah,' Troy says.

He's a horrible liar.

'I'm sure you're right,' Nicole agrees. 'It's nothing.'

She's a much better liar, but has much lower tolerance for self-deception. The friend part of her wants to reassure me. The Nicolepart of her wants me to be prepared for the reality of the situation.

But whether he ran into Adara or was actually meeting her, the truth is Griffin didlie to me. I try to convince myself that he wouldn't. Maybe they got back early. Maybe there was a change of plans. Maybe Aunt Lilli decided to go another day. Or alone. Or maybe she didn't want the berries after all. For the moment I am not going to jump to condemn Griffin. After everything we've been through,