The Blood of Athens (6 page)

“
Yes m'am,”
Peter added.

“
Bed check
in thirty minutes. You might want to head up to your floor, boys.”

After Mrs.
Matthews left, Lewis came out of the bathroom, carrying a stash of
shampoo bottles in the bottom of his shirt. “Everyone takes two.
Don't mix them up with actual shampoo. Zach won't appreciate it if he
misses Greece
and
we feed him
soap.”

They each took
their bottles and stuffed them in pockets or luggage.

“
Alright,”
Lewis said. He grabbed Peter by the arm and yanked him to his feet.
“Ladies. We'll be back.”

“
What?”
Penny asked.

Lewis pushed
Nick out the door and looked back over his shoulder. “We have to be
there for bed check. Then we'll be back.”

“
Guys--”
Minnie started to say that this was a terrible idea. Lewis cut her
off.

“
Stop
worrying, Mins. Live a little. See you at ten-thirty.” Lewis winked
and shut the door. Minnie and Penny heard the boys laughing as they
ran up the hall to the elevator.

“
Wit is
educated insolence.”

-Aristotle

viii.

The
child-god Hermes took up the dead tortoise
and with a silver
scoop, he carved out its shell.
He stretched an ox skin over its
hollow side
and let the hide dry.

Next
he fastened on two segments of bamboo
and tied a third of the same
as a crosspiece.
He strung the frame with the guts of a heifer:
a
new instrument.

When
he strummed the strings of his new invention,
The satyrs about him
all began to dance.
None had ever heard such a beautiful sound.
It
soothed their spirits.

So
when Hermes fell in a spot of trouble
for the thievery of the sun
god's cattle,
the tortoise shell lyre became a perfect bribe
to
please Apollo.

“
Not what
we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”

-Epicurus

VIII.

There was a
knock on the girls' door just after ten-thirty.

“
Is it
them?” Minnie asked. She was in the bathroom, changing out of her
pajamas from bed-check and back into a fitted t-shirt and jeans.

Penny
stretched on her toes to look through the peep hole. It was Lewis. He
wore a pair of black cargo shorts and a white Hawaiian shirt with a
white texture palm tree print. It was as dressy as Lewis got without
going to a funeral.

Minnie slipped
her shirt on and went to her luggage. “Alright,” she said,
“Answer it.”

“
Good
evening, ladies,” Lewis said. “The boys are waiting by the ice
machine on the first floor. Are you ready?”

“
This is a
terrible idea,” Minnie said.

“
Then don’t
come and see what trouble we get up to without your supervision.”
Lewis said.

They joined
the boys on the first floor. Evan, Astin, Lewis, Peter, and Teddy
were dressed for a night on the town. Evan wore a black collared
shirt and a pair of brown dockers. As always, Teddy wore purple
(tonight it was purple skinny jeans and a white polo). Astin wore a
leather jacket, jeans, and an Alabama Shakes t-shirt. For Peter,
dressing up meant a simple black t-shirt and a pair of jeans that
fit.

“
Where are
Nick and Diana?” Evan asked.

“
Diana has a
mortal roomie,” Astin said. “That girl, Alexis, from track. She
decided not to risk it.”

“
Boo,”
Teddy said. “What a downer.”

“
Well...”
Astin started, but shrugged off the end of his thought. Astin and
Diana hadn't been too friendly the last six months. Diana was still
grieving, and she hadn't forgotten that Astin had basically murdered
her boyfriend.

“
And Nick?”
Minnie asked.

“
He said he
had other plans,” Teddy said with a shrug. “I didn't ask.
Probably got some kinky European porn.”

Penny wrinkled
her nose. “Gross.”

Astin had his
guitar strapped across his back, and he took out his cell phone to
film himself.

“
What are
you doing?” Peter asked.

“
It’s for
my Youtube channel. A hundred thousand followers. I need to upload a
video this week.”

“
Does your
phone get service here?” Peter asked.

Astin rolled
his eyes and stopped recording. “No, but Wi-Fi is the same
everywhere.”

“
Actually,”
Evan said, “they are slightly different standards, but most devices
support bo--”

“
Alright. If
someone's late, they missed out. Let's go,” Lewis said.

The latch to
the emergency exit had been blocked by Teddy’s piece of tape. They
pushed it open, avoiding the bar that would set off the alarms, and
wandered out into the alley.

“
So, where
are we going?” Teddy asked.

Lewis pointed.
Up the street from their hotel, a line was forming for a club. “That
looks like the place to be in Athens tonight.”

The Pantheon
got in line. Around them, young twenty-somethings in club wear
checked their faces in compact mirrors and chatted to each other.
Penny could tell that she was under-dressed in her black denim skirt,
pink tights, and black screen-printed t-shirt. “I wish you had
given us a better idea of what to wear,” she said to Lewis, who
hadn't exactly dressed for his own plans.

“
It'll be
fine,” he said. He stepped up to the door man. “Hey,” he said.

The doorman
shook his head. “We have a dress code.”

“
Oh, come
on,” Lewis said. “We're only in town for a few days. We want to
spend some money and have a good time.”

He shook his
head and stuck his thumb out, gesturing for them to step out of line.

The group
gathered together.

“
We could
buy some new clothes?” Teddy whispered.

“
You could
buy new clothes,” Peter said. “I’m broke.”

Minnie added,
“And retail won’t be open at this hour.”

“
This can't
be the only club in town. Come on,” Lewis said. He waved at the
door man. “Hey, thanks anyway, buddy.”

Lewis started
down the street. The others followed. Lewis was gone for an instant.
He reappeared ahead of them in under a second and a breeze whipped
around the crowd. “What the--?” the doorman said, somewhere
behind them.

“
What did
you do?” Astin asked.

Lewis clapped
his hands together, dusting them off. He pointed to a restaurant sign
across the street that had been smudged by someone's hand. “I put a
chalky handprint on the back of his black t-shirt. Guy was a douche.”

“
He was just
doing his job,” Evan said.

“
Well his
job was to be a douche.”

Celene
returned to her hotel room after bed check. She had taken the first
half of the boys' floor. After getting visual confirmation that each
of the boys was in his own room and that nobody was hiding in the
bathroom, she had gone to get a bottle of water from the vending
machine.

As Celene slid
her key card through the lock on her door, Candice Matthews stopped
at the door to the room next to her. “Having a good trip?” Celene
asked. She was trying to be friendly, despite the fact that Candice
had been nothing but cold to her since she'd become involved with
Jason Livingstone.

Candice
Matthews nodded. “It's a very nice city. The kids are having fun.”

Celene nodded.
She wished she had said “goodnight” instead of asking a question
that had the potential to turn into an awkward conversation. “Penny
does seem to be having fun,” Celene said. Maybe she could end it
here.

“
A little
too much fun, perhaps. Be careful.”

Celene raised
an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“
That Mercer
boy was in her bathroom not too long before bed check, and there was
a lot of loud stumbling around before I came in.”

Celene had a
hard time imagining anything elicit going on in the hotel room while
Minnie was there. She nodded her head. “Well, thank you for the
warning, but I've been a mother long enough to know that teenagers
being noisy is nothing suspicious. It's when they get quiet that you
should worry.”

“
Hmm,”
Candice said.

Celene opened
her door and entered her room. She threw her key card down on the
night stand and collapsed on her salmon-colored bed.

Penny had
visited her room before bed last night and had filled Celene in on
their mysterious disappearance at the Acropolis. She knew about the
nectar and about the throne room.

Lewis didn't
seem like natural company for Penny or Minnie. Celene sat up. She got
the sudden feeling that maybe Candice wasn't just being paranoid.
Maybe something else was going on.

Celene took
her key card and left the room. She walked up the hall to Penny's
room and knocked. No answer.

“
Nobody
home?” a voice asked. Celene spun around to find Nick leaning
against the wall behind her.

“
Nick! What
are you doing on this floor? You should be in your room.”

“
Yeah, and
so should Teddy, but he's out for the night.”

“
Out? Nick,
where did they go?”

Nick shrugged.
“Dunno. Don't really care. But, I suppose, if you're curious, we
could go look.”

Celene lowered
her voice. “How many of them left?”

Nick shrugged,
“It sounds like Lewis was planning a Pantheon party. I didn't feel
like hanging out with Minnie, though. She's been really on my case
this week. Thinks she's the new Zach.”

“
So all of
them, then? The whole Pantheon just walked out of this hotel?”

Nick leaned in
close. He whispered, “One of the employees sneaked out back to have
a smoke and Teddy taped the door.

Celene rubbed
her eyes. “They're going to draw all sorts of bad attention to us.”

“
Well, then,
let's go find them before they cause trouble.” Nick rubbed his
hands together. He was all-too-eager to get Minnie into trouble.

“
No, you're
going back to your room, Nick. I'm not walking out of here with a
student.”

“
I could
always go and get Ms. Matthews for you.”

Celene shook
her head. “No. That won’t do. Just show me that back door and
keep your thoughts to yourself.”

Nick grinned.
“My pleasure.”

They were
admitted easily enough at the second night club they tried. The
bouncer seemed more concerned with filling the club with attractive
young people than checking to make sure everyone was legal to drink
in public. This place, which was lit up with neon and black lights,
had a much looser dress code that the club next to the hotel. There
was a DJ up on stage. All around them, people were wearing glow stick
bracelets and holding brightly-colored drinks.

“
Think I
could get a mixed drink here?” Teddy asked.

“
The
drinking age is eighteen,” Minnie said.

“
So... yes?”

“
You're not
eighteen,” Minnie said.

“
I know.”
Teddy smiled and walked away.

Minnie and
Penny went to find a table. The DJ shifted the music to a trance beat
as someone walked on stage. They reached down and flicked a switch
and an array of lasers came up from the floor and fanned out. The
crowd fell quiet and the DJ made an announcement.

“
What are
they doing?” Astin asked as he slid into a seat at their table.
Evan followed behind him with a glass of cola. He sat down and began
to pick lint-- all too visible under black light-- off of his Iron
Maiden shirt.

“
I think
it's some kind of laser harp,” Minnie said.