Only Everything (25 page)

“Wait! Your bags.”

The woman hefted two heavy bags up onto the counter. I grabbed them and started, again, for the door.

“Wait!” she shouted again.

“What?” I snapped back.

“Were you going to pay for those bracelets?” she asked, her eyes flicking judgmentally toward my arm. I groaned and looked at Hephaestus.

“Have I mentioned I hate this place?”

Hephaestus handed the woman two more bills. “Keep the change,” he said with a wink.

“Oh, no. I couldn’t. It’s against store policy to—”

“Oh, I think you can,” he said.

He shot her one last grin as he rolled toward me, taking one of the bags and hanging it from his chair as we made for the door. I walked right over to the closest bench and sat, hanging my head in my hands.

“How do you do it? How do you live here?” I demanded as
Hephaestus caught up with me. “The clothes don’t fit, you have to pay for everything, when you take what you want people take offense. It’s impossible.”

“You get used to it,” Hephaestus said with a laugh.

“I don’t want to get used to it,” I told him as a woman pushed two screaming babies past us in a stroller. “I want to complete my mission and get the hell back to Mount Olympus. And back to Orion.”

“So that’s what you’ll do,” Hephaestus said simply, smiling at a pair of women who blatantly checked him out as they strolled by in their ridiculous high heels. “Tomorrow everything will start to turn around. You’ll see.”

“What makes you so positive?” I asked.

“After a couple hundred years living on this Earth, you realize there’s no surviving it without a good attitude.”

“I did it! I secured a job!” Aphrodite was striding toward us with a triumphant grin. I hadn’t seen her look so awake, or so upright, since we’d been banished here. She’d consented to a shampoo and haircut, and her shiny blond locks now swung around her cheekbones. Every man in the immediate vicinity drooled as she swept by. One of them even tripped over a potted plant. “You said it was not possible, but I’ve proved you wrong,” she declared, lifting her chin haughtily at me.

“I’m duly impressed,” Hephaestus said. “Where is it?”

“It is at a very brightly lit establishment called . . . Perfumania,” Aphrodite said, reading from the name tag in her palm. “It smells putrid, but the women working there are universally beautiful, so it was the only place I felt comfortable.”

“Well, this is fantastic,” Hephaestus crowed. “A new beginning for everyone.”

I reached for Orion’s arrow and hoped he was right. Because the timer was running low, and my heart couldn’t take much more uncertainty. I had made Orion a promise, and with Hephaestus’s help, I might finally figure out a way to keep it.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Katrina

I jogged down the stairs toward Ty’s car on Monday afternoon, feeling about ready to skip. It was over. My English presentation was over. And according to that last note from Charlie, I’d done great. In spite of Stacey. I thought I’d bounced back from that pretty well. Thanks to Charlie. Cara had even caught up with me in the bathroom afterward and congratulated me. It was like I was my old self again.

Honors English. I was doing it. I was really turning things around. I felt as if the sunlight on the back of my neck was actually my dad smiling down at me.

“Hey, Ramos!”

I paused at the sound of Raine’s voice. Even as my heart slammed a nervous beat, I gave her, Lana, and Gen a big smile.

“Hey! What’s up?” I asked.

“Where’ve you been?” Raine asked, glancing past me toward Ty’s car. “It’s like you’ve dropped off the face of the earth.”

“Is it true you moved in with Ty?” Lana asked excitedly.

“I . . . how did you hear about that?” I asked.

“Raine told us,” Gen said, popping her gum.

I narrowed my eyes at Raine. “How did you hear about it?”

“Not from my best friend,” she said coolly. “Ty came into Pizza City the other day. He told me about it while he was having a slice.”

“Oh. He didn’t tell me he saw you,” I said, feeling this icky sourness inside my stomach.

“I guess he has secrets too,” Raine replied, crossing her arms over her chest. “So why have you been avoiding me?”

Ty leaned into his horn. I jumped inside my boots. “I haven’t been avoiding you,” I replied. “I’ve been really busy. I had this huge fight with my mom, and then I had an English project due today. I haven’t had time—”

“For your best friend?” she said, making Lana and Gen squirm.

My heart felt sick.

“Yo, Katrina! Let’s go!” Ty shouted.

“Looks like you don’t have any time now, either,” Raine said, lifting a shoulder. “Guess you’re too good for us with your honors classes and your live-in boyfriend.”

She turned and started back up the stairs, the other girls trailing behind.

“Raine!” I called after her. “Look, I’ll meet up with you guys in the bathroom tomorrow. I’ll bring the doughnuts.”

Raine paused. She turned slowly and looked down her nose at me. “Don’t bother. In fact, don’t bother coming again. It’s not like we have anything in common anymore anyway. Have fun hanging out with the dorks again.”

I was still processing what she’d said when she and her friends disappeared over the hill. She didn’t want to be friends anymore. Raine had dumped me. In front of Lana and Gen. She didn’t care about me or how I felt. And at that moment, I started to wonder if she ever had. Would she have done for me what Charlie had done
for me in class today? I almost laughed trying to imagine it. But she was always cheating off my tests, getting me to bring her food, criticizing my opinions and decisions. Suddenly I felt like a complete idiot. For eleven years I had been friends with someone who only cared about what I could do for her.

Ty leaned into his horn for a good thirty seconds. My eyes hot with tears, I tromped down the stairs toward his car. But I refused to cry over Raine. She was right. We didn’t have anything in common anymore.

“Hey,” I said brightly as I got into the car, trying to regain my good mood. I leaned toward Ty for a kiss, ready to tell him about the presentation, but he didn’t turn toward me. Feeling awkward, I kissed his cheek anyway.

“Hey,” he said flatly.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He gunned the engine and peeled out, almost running over a herd of cheerleaders on their way to a bus. I sunk down farther in my seat.

“Gino hired some new dirtbag in a wheelchair who now thinks he’s running the place. He showed up for his shift at two o’clock and started changing everything,” Ty said, his jaw working as he took a corner like we were in the middle of a NASCAR race.

“Ty, what’re you doing?” I asked. “You’re gonna crash.”

“Don’t tell me how to drive!” he barked.

I held on to the door handle, news images of my father’s accident flitting through my mind. “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I said, hoping to calm him into slowing down. “Gino wouldn’t hire someone who wasn’t cool, right?”

“Yeah. That’s what I thought,” he said. “Until the asshole looked at the sixty-seven job and said we had to do it over again. And Gino agreed.”

The light up ahead had been yellow for half a minute, but Ty wasn’t slowing down. “Ty! Stop!” I shouted.

“What?”

He flew right through the intersection as the light turned red.

“You just ran that light!” I blurted, glancing back over my shoulder.

“Don’t shout at me when I’m driving!” he said through his teeth. “God! Do you know how dangerous that is?”

I
was putting us in danger? Was he kidding? And had he totally spaced on the fact that I’d lost the most important person in my life to a car accident?

After a few seconds, he finally started doing the speed limit. I gritted my teeth and sat back. Tears stung my eyes, so I stared out the window. Clearly, now was not the time to tell him about my honors English triumph. He wouldn’t care and I’d feel worse. I’d learned my lesson after calling my mom with the news of my moving up last week. After Raine’s reaction to my switching classes. Sometimes it was better to keep my mouth shut.

I reached into my bag, fiddled with the spiral on my poetry notebook, and thought of Charlie. I saw his messages to me, his big smile, his double thumbs-up, and felt a flutter in my chest as I remembered him turning to that last page in his notebook, the huge letters scrawled across the page.

You were awesome!
it had read. A smile tugged at my lips as I leaned back in my seat.
You. Were awesome.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

True

For the first time since I’d arrived on Earth, no one was staring at me as I made my way to the front door of the school on Tuesday morning. They were staring at Hephaestus, who had moved into the first-floor guest room at the house yesterday, unpacked his meager things, and declared himself “home sweet home.” Aside from a few stacks of trendy clothing and some manly toiletries, all he had with him was a large mirror with an elaborate metal frame. It looked like something he would have forged back in his Mount Olympus days, with its delicate interweaving vines and leaves and flowers, hewn of metals that varied in texture and color. The piece was stunning. When I asked him where it had come from he’d shrugged and said, “Antique store somewhere.” And then he’d promptly changed the subject, which, I assumed, meant he was lying. I wasn’t sure why he’d felt the need to fib about furniture, but for the moment, I didn’t care. All I cared about was the fact that he was pulling attention away from me. A welcome relief.

Unlike my mother, I’d never been a glutton for the notice of others, and now that I was dressed “like a normal human being” as Hephaestus had put it, and was wingmanned by a gorgeous guy,
the onus was off me. As I yanked open the front door so Hephaestus could wheel through, I actually saw one of Darnell’s friends lift her phone to snap my picture, but she hesitated and looked crestfallen. Guess she couldn’t find fault with the red sweater and tan cargoes. Success was mine.

“The office is down here,” I told Hephaestus as we entered the main hall.

A woman was pinning a notice to the bulletin board and dropped a stack of papers right in front of me. I kicked a few out of the way and opened the office door for Hephaestus. When I looked back, both he and the woman were staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

Hephaestus narrowed his eyes. “Sorry. My friend woke up on the blind side of the bed this morning.”

He reached down and gathered what he could of the papers, handing them back to her. She smiled and thanked him, then shot me an unreadable look as she bent to pick up the rest. Hephaestus shook his head as he joined me.

“What?” I asked again.

“Nothing,” he said lightly.

Inside, a line of three kids waited at the desk in front of Mrs. Leifer. I groaned. We didn’t have time for this. I wanted to introduce Hephaestus to Charlie before first bell. I walked up to the desk.

“My friend needs to register,” I told Mrs. Leifer.

She barely glanced up. “One minute, hon. It’s a bit busy this morning.”

“Yeah, and I was here first,” said the girl at the desk. She looked familiar.

“Weren’t you the one who called me Vomit Girl the other day?” I asked.

“Yeah? So? That doesn’t mean you get to cut the line.” She glanced back over her shoulder at Hephaestus. “No matter how hot your friend is.”

I rolled my eyes.

“True, it’s fine. We’ll wait,” Hephaestus said, angling his chair behind the last kid in line, a guy with spiked blond hair.

I groaned and sat down on the vinyl couch next to the line. It took forever for Mrs. Leifer to sort out whatever these kids needed her to sort out. My foot bounced beneath me and I sighed, watching the clock on the far wall ticking its way toward first bell.

“All right, new student?” Mrs. Leifer said, glancing at Hephaestus.

I stood up, slapping my hands against my thighs. “Finally.”

“Watch the attitude, Miss Olympia. I’m doing the best I can,” she said.

“Clearly you need to set higher goals,” I muttered.

“What?” she snapped.

“Here are my transcripts,” Hephaestus interjected, lifting a brown folder toward Mrs. Leifer. “My name is Heath Masters. I’m a senior. Moved here from California over the weekend.” He gave her one of his smiles and she was so startled by it, she snorted.

“Oh, well.” She opened the folder and looked it over. “Excellent grades, Mr. Masters.”

“Thanks,” he said smoothly. “I do what I can.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Well, we’ll need to take your picture for your ID and get your schedule together. You’ll probably spend first period in the office, I’m afraid, since we had no advance notice of your coming.” She quickly tapped a few buttons on her computer. “And we’ll have to set you up with a senior guide.”

“Oh, thank you, but I don’t need a guide,” he said. “I’m pretty good at navigating my own way.”

“Good luck with that,” I said under my breath.

“Well, it’s school policy,” Mrs. Leifer told him. But her tone lacked conviction. Wait a minute. Was she going to cave?

Hephaestus angled his chair so he could lean his arms over on the edge of Mrs. Leifer’s desk. “Mrs. Leifer,” he said in a low, charming voice, “take a good, long look at me. I have no parents. I’m moving in with my cousin and my aunt. I support myself by working a full-time job, on top of getting straight As in every one of my AP classes. Do you really think I’m the kind of guy who’s going to let someone else lead him around like a puppy dog? Do you think I’d be comfortable with that?”

Mrs. Leifer stared into his eyes for a good fifteen seconds. “No. No, I don’t.” She cleared her throat. “Okay, then. I think we can make an exception this once.”

“Ha!” I blurted.

She was clearly annoyed with me as she bustled to the end of the counter. “Come on over and we’ll take your picture.”

Hephaestus struck a pose, then wheeled back over to the couch to wait for his schedule. I sat down next to him, my jaw hanging open. “How did you do that?”

“That woman clearly hasn’t had sex in about ten years, plus she has a soft spot in her heart for people who triumph over adversity,” he said, nodding at her desk. For the first time I noticed that her wall calendar was from the Special Olympics. Next to it hung a colorful thank-you card handwritten by about a dozen kids. It read,
Thanks for coming to read to us in the children’s ward at St. Mary’s!