My Date From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, #2)

What's another god at the party? (Part 2)

Ten minutes later, I came to.

"Idiot," Theo said.

"To be fair," Hannah said, checking my vision for signs of a concussion, "it wasn't the stupidest idea to not do nothing about it."

"Thanks for the support." Still a tad woozy, I laid down to try and reduce the number of bedrooms in my vision from two to one.

"I'm just saying, you didn't have to try and detonate your head. We could have formulated a plan given the results of the small exploratory probe." She gathered up her books and waited for me to get my stuff so we could go to class.

I pushed myself off my bed and scooped up my binder and books.

Theo gave a smug smile. "In other words, what I said. Idiot."

"Pretty much," Hannah agreed.

My glare was somewhat lame. I couldn't really argue that fact even though I still thought it had been worth a shot.

Wondering about the how of the memories got me thinking about the who. Specifically, who knew what. "How come you don't know any of the plan?" I asked Theo as we headed to Biology, having dropped Hannah at her math class. "Weren't you close to Persephone?"

He thought it over, shifting his books from one arm to the other as we walked. "We were friendly. Not tight like you and me though. Only she and Kai knew what was going down exactly. I just knew she had a plan that could help humans." He reached out a hand to stop me. "Soph." He paused, looked away, and sighed like he was annoyed.

I tensed. "What's wrong?"

Theo met my gaze. "I know that you feel used by what I did. Strong-arming you into my agenda to save humanity. Not being upfront with you. But I also did it because it was going to save you. Because I honestly believed, and still do, that defeating Hades and Zeus is the only way you'll get to live. And now that the 'you' means Sophie, not just Persephone? Well, I'll do whatever it takes to make sure that happens."

Whoa. That was a huge outpouring of emotion for Theo. But I knew he wouldn't want me to make a huge deal about it, so I just nodded. "I know. I love you too, Rockman."

He frowned at me and entered the room as the bell rang.

I spent the rest of the day trying to come up with an alternate plan. For the memory retrieval, for possible candidates for Bethany. Anything that felt productive and kept me from worrying about why Kai hadn't shown up. Since I still needed the numbnuts to defeat Hades and Zeus.

Among other things.

Finally it was time for English, last class of the day. I liked Mr. Locke and knew he wouldn't be doing anything too challenging our first week back from break. Plus Theo and Hannah would both be there.

I passed Cassie, who I'd always thought of as a kooky loner. My becoming Persephone had triggered her into full-on Oracle mode, resulting in Delphyne kidnapping her for her own nefarious agenda. Turned out that crazy dragon had guarded the original Oracle, Cassandra, an ancestor of Cassie's, and was desperate for a replacement. We'd been able to save Cassie. The trauma of being new members of the Greek family had bonded us.

She bounded over to me and we hugged. "Theo told me. Glad you're back in one piece," she said.

I stepped back and looked her over. "Me too. You look great." I was happy for her.

She winked. "Ativan."

I was a little taken aback, given how Delphyne had drugged Cassie with anti-psychotics.

She knew what I was thinking. "Not the same. Just a small hit of anti-anxiety to keep the visions at bay."

I didn't share the unease I felt at this. I was all for Cassie being able to cope, but I worried that suppressing that side of herself might just cause it to explode in ways she couldn't control.

Goddess heal thyself, right?

Her best friend and roommate, Jessica, a tiny Romanian girl, showed up and nudged Cassie along. "We're gonna be late, Crazy."

I flinched at that word but Cassie just laughed. "Okay, Psycho." With a small wave at me, she and Jessica moved off. I stared after them, making a mental note to talk to Cassie a bit more about this, but the bell jarred me from my thoughts.

I scrambled into the classroom just before Mr. Locke shut the door to indicate class had started.

"No lesson plan today," Mr. Locke told us. "Instead you're in for a treat."

Hannah, Theo, and I wedged in together on the comfy sofa (no boring desks in our classes), looked at him expectantly.

"Bethany has kindly agreed to share with us a unique look at uh ..."

"Gaia's hidden treasures," she finished for him, stepping to the front of the room.

"Of course. Well, we're all looking forward to this." He actually looked excited as he pulled down the screen and left her the floor.

Great. Mr. Locke was under her influence as well.

"Namaste," Bethany said, bowing with hands pressed together. She wore yet another pandafied outfit, this one consisting of black yoga pants and a paprika red baby doll top.

Kill me now, I scrawled on a note for Hannah and Theo to read.

Bethany clicked on Mr. Locke's laptop and snapped her fingers. "Lights."

Four students almost broke their necks rushing to do her bidding and flick the switch.

The first slide, complete with Beyonce soundtrack, showed Bethany being fawned over by an army of hair, wardrobe, and make-up people on a beach. A sliver of turquoise water was visible behind her. "This is Manuel Antonio National Park. In Costa Rica," she added with an emphatic rolling of her "R".

Think I preferred having my liver eaten, Theo wrote.

Brutal. This from Hannah.

The liver? I wrote.

No. B.

The photo of Bethany laughing in the open door of a private jet with a tree in the background in which you could just barely make out a monkey, was, she informed us, "Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo."

Where we @ for horrible candidates? Me.

Theo's response was Got a shortlist. But is anyone truly awful enough?

"... And this is me with the photographer in a Roman Bath in Algeria. She's shot all the supermodels and said she'd never seen bone structure like mine," Bethany said, smugly.

Yeah, reptilian, Theo wrote.

If pressed, I'd have to say it was a toss up as to which was more painful: being zapped by lightning, manacled in the torture cuffs, or sitting through the rest of that class.