Goddess Boot Camp

ultimate test. That is why I would like to accelerate your training.'

'Why?' I shift nervously in my seat. 'When exactly is summer solstice?'

'The precise date is… ah-hem… the twenty-first.' He readjusts his tie. Again. 'Of June.'

'The twenty-first of June?' I leap out of my chair and start pacing. 'That's only…' I count down on my fingers. 'Sixteen days away.'

'The gods do not prize patience as a great virtue.'

'You think?' I ask, pulling out my best sarcasm.

I am not even pacified by the fact that he looks embarrassed.

He should be embarrassed. Even if this isn't his fault.

Why does this stuff happen to me? I mean, I barely make it through what should have been my skate-through senior year with a B average. Now, after deciding to stick around an extra year to work on my powers-and to spend another year with the previously mentioned amazing boyfriend, Griffin-I find out I have to pass a test that proves I know how to control my powers first. Talk about a contradiction.

'What happens if I fail?' I ask. 'Do I have to repeat Level 12, or what?'

'You will not fail,' he says, way too eagerly. 'You have my word.'

'Okay,' I agree. 'But what if I do?'

'If you do?' More paper shuffling. 'You will be placed in a kind of… remedial program.'

There is something more he's not saying, I can tell. I've learned to read him pretty well since he became my stepdad. But, at this point, I'm not prepared to dwell. I have an extreme imagination for coming up with all kinds of crazy punishment scenarios, but in this world-the world of myths and gods and dynamotheos powers- sometimes even my worst fears pale in comparison. Prometheus getting his liver pecked out daily by a giant eagle comes to mind. I don't want to know what he's not telling me.

'I will not allow you to fail,' he says again.

'How exactly are you going to make sure I don't? Do you have some kind of magical get-out-of- Hades-free card?' I pace back and forth in front of his desk. 'You and Mom are leaving in the morning for your honeymoon. You can't exactly work with me from Thailand, can you?'

'Of course not,' he answers smoothly. 'I have already arranged for an alternative training program.'

I silently hope this means even more private lessons from Griffin, but I know I'm not that lucky. And Damian's not that considerate of my love life.

'No, not private lessons,' he says, proving again that he can read minds. 'I have enrolled you in Dynamotheos Development Camp. You begin in the morning.'

* * *

'Now I have to pass this mysterious test before summer solstice or I'll get held back a year.' I flop back next to Nicole on my bed, staring at the white plaster ceiling while my feet dangle off the edge. 'Or locked in the school dungeon or chained to a mountainside-'

'You're being melodramatic,' Nicole interrupts. 'No one's been chained to a mountain in centuries. And those rumors about the torture devices in the dungeon are completely fabricated.'

At my panicked look, she relents. 'I'm teasing.' She grabs a pillow and smacks me over the stomach. 'Lighten up, will ya?'

I try to relax with a deep breath and a heavy sigh. It doesn't work.

Nicole is so much better at the whole go-with-the-flow, leave-your-worries-behind thing. Me? I'm like a poster child for stressing about stuff you can't control.

I don't know what I'd do if she weren't staying on Serfopoula for the summer. Of course, she stays on Serfopoula every summer-it's one of the contingencies for allowing her back on the island to attend the Academy after her parents were banished by the gods. She can't leave until she graduates.

That sucks for her, but I'm glad she's here.

'Does Petrolas have a plan to boost your training?'

'Yeah, I sigh, wishing I was a little more spiky-blonde-haired extremist girl, instead of long-brown- ponytailed worry girl. 'He's sending me to Dynamotheos Development Camp for the next two weeks.'

'Goddess Boot Camp?' she gasps. 'Seriously?'

Goddess Boot Camp?My stomach knots at the thought of a military-style training program. Multi-mile marches at dawn. Rope climbs in the rain, instructors standing on my back while I do a million push-ups. A far cry from the cross-country and wilderness camps I've experienced.

'Is there something wrong with that?'

'No.' Nicole starts laughing uncontrollably, practically rolling off my bed. 'Nothing'- laugh, laugh, laugh-'wrong'- laugh, laugh, laugh-'with that.'

'What?' I demand, shoving her shoulder so she doesroll off the bed. 'I'm going to be turned into a goat, aren't I? How can I train for the Pythian trials with four legs?'

I follow her off the bed and start pacing.

The Pythian Games are a huge deal. Apparently, the Olympics weren't always the only games in town. When the last ancient Olympics were held in the year 393, the Pythian Games became restricted to hematheos competitors and went underground. They've been held every four years- except during World Wars I and II-since forever.

Griffin and I were invited by the coach of the Cycladian team-who also happens to be Coach Lenny- to try out for this summer's games.

We're supposed to start training today. In fact-I check my watch-he's supposed to be here any second.

'Relax.' Nicole says as she pulls herself off the floor. 'It's not so much scary as…' She smiles. 'Embarassing.'

'Great. That's just what I need.' I flop into the giant squishy chair Mom and Damian bought for my birthday, sinking into the turquoise velvet softness. 'Another reason for everyone to make fun of me.'

Being the new girl at a school full of descendants of the gods is no cakewalk. You'd think once I found out I was a descendant, too, they would let up. But no. Most of them still treat me like a total outsider. An interloper who can't control her powers. An intruder. Especially after I 'stole' Griffin-as if you can steal someone who doesn't want to be stolen-away from cheer queen Adara Spencer. And don't think she has ever let me forget it. When we had to give our final speeches in Oral Communications two weeks ago, she made every word I said come out in pig latin.

Partly, Damian says, it's that I'm closer to Nike than most of them are to their gods. They're jealous, he says. Right. And jerky Justin dumped me because I was too good for him.

'Don't worry,' Nicole says, trying to be reassuring after laughing herself into hysterics. 'Maybe no one will find out you're in boot camp.'

'Really?' I ask, hopeful even if she's just trying to make me feel better.

'Sure.' She takes a seat an my bed. 'Usually it's just a couple of upper-class counselors, a faculty director, and about a dozen, um, campers.'

My racing heart calms down. A little.

'Okay.' I say, breathing a sigh of relief. 'That should be okay. Maybe the counselors will be friendlies.'

Not that there are many. Besides Nicole, our good friend Troy Griffin, and a couple of my cross- country teammates, there aren't many kids at the Academy I could call friendly, let alone friends.

With my luck, they'll be a couple of Adara's groupies who can't wait to expose my embarrassment