Revelations
I got a decent start on the report, doing the easy part first by explaining Athena's sphere of influence as a city patron and protector, the goddess of wisdom, handicrafts, and strategic warfare, usually portrayed in art with a helmet and weapon, and naming her main symbols of owls, olive trees, snakes, and the Gorgoneion, the head of Medusa on her shield or aegis. I thought about the myth of Medusa (or was it a myth? Maybe Mom would know) and shuddered. Those ancient Greeks were a bunch of rapey bastards. But that was extraneous here. I described a few of her most applicable, less-gross myths, not just the most famous ones, and moved on to the compare and contrast with Odin. I shot Grandma Alex an email asking about her impressions of Odin as a battle god and a god of wisdom. Also if maybe he had any hobbies that could further equate with Athena. It was worth asking; after all, if Uncle Bucky, the legendary Winter Knight, could be an ace knitter, who knows what Odin got up to, gardening? Embroidery? I wrote fairly steadily until it was time for pre-dinner.
Deri wasn't home; she'd been invited to a party by one of her new friends after school that included a buffet of snacks. She'd gone as a black cat, and I'd helped her make cat ears out of fuzzy black paper that we glued together so that both sides were fuzzy and sewed them to a headband. "How were parent-teacher conferences, dearest?" Mom asked Dad.
"Predictably, Lys's teachers love her," he said, smiling at me. "I saw some of her work in photography class. Really well done. Her teacher thinks she has a good eye."
"Excellent, dear," she praised me. "And how are you feeling about your friends? Emma called earlier." I scowled. This right there is why you shouldn't tell adults anything. Thank the gods I'd kept most of it to myself.
"Emma didn't call me," Dad said pointedly. "What happened, Lys?
"They hacked my school records to find out if I was your daughter, searched social media to find out why I was in public school."
"That's intrusive," Dad said. "How do you feel about his?"
"Intruded on."
"Lys--"
"Dinner is ready," Alan said. My hero.
Dad didn't give up. "What are you going to do about it, honey?" he asked. "Do you want me to call their parents?"
"No," I said, horrified. "It'll work out or it won't."
"But what are you going to do about it?" he pressed.
"I'm going to let it ride," I said, irritated.
"That's awfully passive," Mom said.
"I'm sixteen years old," I snapped. "I am doing the best that I can."
"Lys--" Mom started.
"Is this your life? No, it is not. It is my life and I will do what seems right. Don't you have your own things to do?"
"Lysippe." Dad's voice was stern. "Don't talk to us this way. We're trying to be helpful."
"Well, you aren't. If I want help I'll ask for it."
And so there was this disagreement where I was sent up to my room after dinner. Good. I can live without coffee and dessert. I crutched angrily to my room and almost, but not quite, slammed the door. Alan had come and gone; there was my thermos with coffee and some jack o'lantern and bat cookies on a china plate, waiting for me. I let go of some of my mad at his thoughtfulness and got to work on the report again.
Grandma Alex said in her email that as far as she knew, Odin was just kind of a grumpy, deadly old man with no known hobbies, but did provide some details about his character that enlightened me a little. She added that Athena had high expectations from the mortals she deigned to speak to and it could be difficult to please her, but she had a lot of respect for Athena's abilities. From Grandma Alex, that was quite a commendation. Didn't help my report any, but it was fun to know. I was ready to proofread when there was a tapping at my door and Deri came in when I yelled.
"How was the party?" I asked.
"Really fun," she said brightly, and passed me a goody bag filled with mini candy bars.
"Wow, thanks." I offered her the plate; there were two more cookies. She took one and bit into it. "So what's got Mom and Dad all riled? They're muttering in the library."
"They were intrusive and giving me unwanted, unhelpful advice," I scowled as I spoke. "By the way, don't tell Aunt Emma anything you don't want to get back to the parents."
"Where did you see her?" Deri wondered, taking the last cookie.
"I went to pick up your present," I said, and she gasped in pleasure. I grinned. "My school friends hacked into school records and online and found out who I am. She called Mom." I felt oppressed. "I'm sick of people telling me how I should feel and act."
"How was the parent-teacher conferences?"
"Fine, apparently, my teachers were nice. But now they know who I am too."
"Why do you want to act like you're not in the family?"
"Because I'm tired of people just wanting to be friends with me for what they can get out of it. Besides, Lys is a loser. I was hoping that a new approach would make things different."
"Lys--" I waved a hand to cut her off.
"So how are things going with Van?" That did the trick; her pretty face lit up.
"She's coming for a sleepover Friday," she said eagerly, and I encouraged her to say more about that, successfully diverting her, but I was also interested in how their friendship was going. Soon she went to her room and I proofread my essay and saved it before submitting, going to bed early.
I got up reluctantly the next morning, causing me to rush, and I slipped and almost fell in the shower, putting me in a bad mood to begin with. I made my smoothie quickly and headed out as Mom was trying to get Deri down the stairs too. Dad was going in to the office, resuming his full work load again because he was bored waiting to heal. His bones weren't in as bad shape as my ankle and were healing well. He had a doctor's appointment on Deri's birthday and he might get a walking cast, lucky. I scooted into my pod before I had to talk to anybody. AI Tony just reminded me that I was scheduled to bring my pod in for servicing after school, and I said that I remembered, then it turned off and I could listen to popular music for the rest of the drive.
At school, I went to math lab and worked on trig; there was a new tutor, Archer Palmer. He was also a current trig student, but unlike me, really got it and actually enjoyed it. Sicko. But he was nice and after working with him felt like I understood the assignment better. And he said that there was a review group at lunch for the trig test in two days, so that killed two birds with one stone. Imogen looked vexed that we couldn't talk; I made it into chemistry right before the bell and then there was the study group at lunch. Well, tough toenails. I was sick of trying to make everybody else happy. It would be novel if anybody went out of their way to try to make me happy.
On the way to Uncle Tony's workshop, I checked my personal email to find communications from Aunt Emma, Uncle Bucky, Grandma Alex, Aunt Dagny, Aunt Serena, Grandma Selina, Aunt Barbara, and Uncle Dick. Iris had been in touch with them and they were offering to come have me shadow them at work for my fake badges. Damn Iris anyway. I could do that myself if I really wanted to. I just leaned back in my seat until we got to the workshop and the pod let me out. Uncle Tony was there with a hug and Aunt Ann and Grandpa Damian, who had hugs of their own for me. Uncle Tony was advancing on my pod with a scanner and a purposeful look, so I followed the others down the hall to Grandpa's office. "I have black and white cookies, honey," he said. "Alfred sent them along special when he heard you were dropping by today." And Aunt Ann came in with a fresh cup of coffee.
"How's your paper coming along?" Grandpa asked. "Alex felt bad that she couldn't be more helpful."
"It was a longshot," I said. "I appreciated her effort, though. I finished the paper and turned it in early. It's a pretty easy class, all things considered. The cookies are delicious," I added.
Although I loved Grandpa and Aunt Ann, I wish they'd have left me alone so I could have taken a nap. I was really tired. We chatted until Uncle Tony showed up to tell me that the pod was done. He walked me out after a round of goodbye hugs. "I replaced the coolant sensor, just in case," he said, draping his arm over my shoulders. I wished he wouldn't; he was muscular and his arm was heavy. The crutches were a big enough pain in my ass without added weight. "And I added a couple of tweaks to the programming. The door won't open from the outside once you're in the pod unless there's a public safety employee requesting access, like a police officer, fire fighter, EMT. And you have to request it, but there's a feature that if you're in a kidnapping situation again, a knockout gas will emanate from the pod on both sides. It should be effective for about a half hour, so use it with care."
"Thanks, Uncle Tony," I said with as much sincerity as I could come up with. I gave and got a hug, and he held my crutches until I was settled in. The door closed, we waved at each other, and my pod moved out. It was snowing hard, making it darker than it should have been, and to surprise, he'd improved the lighting inside as well, with a wider range of colored lights that could also be made to flash with various rhythms. I played around with them until we were at the launching pads, then I turned them off.
"Don't you like them?" AI Tony asked immediately.
"They're really nice," I said, "I'm just not in the mood for them."
"Do you want to talk?"
"Not really, thanks," I said, and after a moment, the AI turned off.
I let my mind drift until I got home, then trudged inside. I had just enough time to put my stuff down upstairs before it was time for club soda and interrogation. Excuse me, conversation. But Mom had a new thingie to mess with at work, Dad was making progress with Mongolia, had a feeler out from Tibet, and Deri was practically vibrating in her eagerness to finally be thirteen. All I had to say was that I'd found a really good trig tutor and that my pod was fine. After dinner, I had coffee and some left-over Halloween cookies, still delicious, then went upstairs to do some English reading. We were starting Russian literature. Just selections, fortunately. I got bored around nine and went down the back stairs to get a snack. We were out of cookies, so I had to settle for a healthy apple. I was in the hall when I heard Dad mention my name. I stopped, then crutched as quietly as possible over to the utility room, which was between the library and the dining room. It wasn't quite close enough, but there was an area back by the cupboards that sounded clearer.... I cautiously moved a few things and found an old door behind the shelving. It wasn't boarded up, just obscured for some reason, and I opened it, hoping that the hinges wouldn't shriek. They didn't, and I had about an inch of sight into the library, looking over the top of some books. Interesting. Tomorrow I'd have to check this out from the library side, but now I wanted to listen.
"-- either. Tony called after she left today, he's worried about her. So is Ann. And Damian called separately." Dad sighed.
"What did Tony say?" Mom asked, sounding worried.
"He's made it so her pod's AI reports anything notable to him, and the AI has noted that she's moody and tired a lot. Snappish too, but still polite." Uncle Tony! I was furious. I'd thought the AI was just for fun, not to spy on me. Stupid me. I knew he was devious; I just thought he'd reserve it for worthy adversaries, not beaten-down teenagers. I silently closed the door, moved the things back exactly, and went back up the stairs. I should have taken the elevator, but I was getting worried that I was getting weak since I was sitting so much. Maybe tomorrow I'd hit the home gym. I could do upper body work, and there had to be some way of working my uninjured leg. At least I'd be able to work some of the mad out.
As I crutched along to my room, Deri's door opened. I gurgled around the apple in my mouth and she turned, smiling, then came up to take the apple. "Are you done with your homework?" she asked. "I'm bored." I considered her. She was really working hard to shed the sense of entitledness she'd had and was pretty much back to the little sister I loved.
"If you put the apple in my room and help me with something, I'll give you something," I said, and her face lightened with interest. She sped off to my room and back. We took the elevator up to the attic, where she helped me wrestle the second armchair onto the furniture moving disks and into the elevator--well, actually, she did the work, while I went over to my sewing room and opened it. She hustled in after me, and I jerked my chin toward the table. I'd made her three big pillows using the extra white from my bed curtains and a blue toile that was almost the same color as the walls in her room. I'd stopped by work earlier in the week, missing the people and the work. I'd also gotten some white fringe instead of piping, and some cute pink pompom edging for one pillow to vary the look. I smiled as Deri squealed. "I thought they'd be pretty in your room, and the top bunk doesn't have a lot of cushions."
"Thanks, Lys!" She gave me a hard hug and stroked the fabric, playing with the different edging. "They're so pretty!" Downstairs, she slid the chair down the hall and into my room, her pillows on the seat, then trotted back across the hall, clutching the bounty. I closed my door with my crutch and angled the new chair by the fireplace. The fabric was an ugly gold chintz, worn through along the front edge, too unsightly to keep. I was mad at my parents for having people spy on me, and thought that maybe I'd just make a slipcover rather than asking for a favor. I made a series of careful measurements, repeated once for caution, then went to the store's website to place an order for a heavy-duty pewter polished cotton. It would be easy to sew and I could stop by on the way home, quickly, to pick it up. On the comments section, I noted that I was making a slipcover and asked if somebody could pull some appropriate thread that would be a good color match. Then, somewhat mollified, I got ready for bed early again and fell asleep immediately.