Heaven Sent Read Free Page B

our house and all the cool stuff in there.
    Polly sent me the don’t-be-so-optimistic glare. Still, we all went inside.
    Inside. Inside our new home. It wasn’t so bad. There was this furlike stuff on the ground. Almost like grass but not as cool to the touch. And the walls were a marvelous blue color, more the shade of Era’s eyes, a deep and hazy grayish blue. Fluffy seats curved around a black box that looked like a shiny ebony rock from deep in the ocean, only it was almost perfectly square.
    Polly sat down by the fireplace. I knew what that was. Although I had no knowledge of how to actually build a fire. Era sat in one of the big chairs. Neither of my sisters even looked around. It was like, if they didn’t look and see any of this, maybe it would cease to exist. Polly continued to read, and I forced myself to sit down at the kitchen table to listen. “‘Please, girls, follow Hera’s rules—do not let anyone know you are goddesses, and please, do not use your powers.’”
    Polly took a break from reading this wretched news to point a wretched finger. “Well, we all know Thalia will not be following that rule, don’t we?”
    “What is that supposed to mean, Polly?”
    “If you can’t get what you want, you simply use your powers with no thought or care for anyone else.”
    “That is not fair!” I exclaimed. “Are you having a memory lapse, dear sister? Because you seem to forget that if you hadn’t used your powers back in Olympus, we wouldn’t be here now. It took all three of us to get us here!”
    “Oh, my head!” cried Era, rather dramatically, I might add. Polly continued reading.
    “‘There is one more rule that Hera did not heretofore mention. And it is extremely important. As you are the human equivalent of teenagers, you must now go to high school every day. If you fail to do so, Zeus will be forced to reconsider your punishment, as the whole point of your life on earth will be to work hard at improving yourselves. Here is a map telling you how to get to school.’”
    “Whoa, what does that mean—reconsider our punishment? And when did this become, like, work?” I asked. It had never occurred to me we’d have to go to a school, like mortals. We were Muses, goddesses—what did we possibly need to learn? And besides, weren’t only boys supposed to go to school?
    I looked over at Polly. She had a curious expression on her face. At first I didn’t know what it meant. But it looked a little to me like delight. She had turned a pink punch color, and she had a twinkle in her eye.
    Even Era looked a tiny bit more hopeful. “So we’ll get to continue learning dance and song like before?”
    “I think mortal school is different from that, Era,” Polly said slowly. “I think you learn all sorts of things, like poetry and philosophy and science.” The corners of her mouth turned up into a tiny smile as she said this. “At least, that is the way it was in Greece.”
    Era slumped farther into her chair and let out a breath. “Oh, great,” she murmured.
    “Yeah, great,” I repeated, thinking of how horrible it would be to be stuck at school all day when I could be out exploring the world.
    Polly shot Era a glaring look, turned to me, sent piercing arrows of hatred toward my heart (or at least it felt like that), and then read on:
    “‘Zeus, unbeknownst to Hera, asked me to unearth a few of modern life’s ins and outs for you, his beloved daughters. So I have conducted some research by watching some fine TV (that’s that black box in front of the chairs. It’s magical!) and have compiled it into a top-ten list (they’re very popular here).
10. You must get milk.
9. If you get in an accident, call 1-800-THE LAW 2. Use the phone. It’s that hard thing with numbers and the curly wire. It sometimes makes a ringing noise, and when it does, you should pick it up.
8. If you have large thighs, it is important to hide them with vertical stripes.
7. See yourself in Feria.
6. Earth, too, has