Eros, Apollo and Dad put their arms around me. “Aphrodite, you can tear this house apart if you like,” Dad shouted up at her. “But you still can’t leave it. Not until your house arrest is up.”
That explained why Aphrodite hovered in mid-air. It was the closest she could get to leaving the house.
“Eros and Apollo, I’m going to need your help,” Dad whispered. “She’s draining her powers. Together, we can bring her down.”
“Don’t bother,” Aphrodite said. She had to have the final word, as always.
We watched as she floated back down to the floor of her room. “Helen’s right,” she said, once her feet were fully on the ground. “There’s no point in giving the odious Council members an excuse to strip us of our powers.”
Dad took a deep breath, as though he was calming himself down. Eros hugged Aphrodite while the rest of us stood back, still dazed. I shivered in my pyjamas.
“We have some cleaning up to do,” Dad said.
We all pitched in. Aphrodite used what was left of her powers to mend the furniture. Eros and I hung her clothes back up in the wardrobe. Apollo and Dad transformed the rubble on the bedroom floor into the roof.
By the time we finished, the only traces of the night’s activity were the cracks in the ceiling corners. It was quite a satisfying task, actually. And the first time we’d worked together as a family.
Dad turned to me. “Helen, you need to be in bed.” The cold air and excitement meant I was far from sleepy, but I wasn’t about to argue with him.
“I have a plan,” Dad said, once we were outside my bedroom. “I’m going to conjure high winds and a thunderstorm just over the house. It’s a highly improbable event to occur naturally, but it should explain the noise to our neighbours.”
“Do you think it will get back to the Council?” I asked.
Dad sighed. “We will find out soon,” he said, squeezing my shoulder. I walked into my bedroom.
“And Helen?” Dad said. “Thank you for tonight. It takes a rare skill to get through to Aphrodite. I’m so pleased you were here to help.”
“No worries, Dad.” Weirdly, tonight had made me feel closer to my family than ever. A small part of me finally understood why Aphrodite acted the way she did. I nearly felt sorry for her.
TWENTY-NINE
Dad stuck to his word. Everyone at school was talking about the freak storm on my road. It was kind of exciting, being so close to the source of school gossip (at least when it’s not about Apollo).
I rushed out of the school gates, eager to meet my friends. They’d been a bit frosty with me since my disappearing act on Friday night – I never did make it to the sleepover. I knew I had to make it up somehow, so I promised I’d treat them to salted caramel lattes.
As we dawdled home with our lattes in hand, I noticed a message from Marco.
M: How are you, beautiful Helen? x
It was the first time he’d called me beautiful!!! I reread the message several times, trying to absorb the full gravity of what he’d said. He was calling me, Helen Thomas, beautiful. Not pretty or cute or nice.
But beautiful.
H: I’m all good :) Bit tired cos I was so close to that storm. Soooo loud, it kept me up all night ha! x
“What’s the matter, Hels? You giving us the silent treatment?” Noor asked. I’d been quiet for a few minutes, enjoying Marco’s last message.
“Huh? Oh, no. I’m fine,” I said. “Marco’s in the area so I’m gonna head back and meet him at Cafe Gio’s.”
I looked up. Three pairs of eyes drilled into me. What did I say?
“Seriously, Helen?” Noor said.
“What’s the matter? We’re all going home anyway,” I said.
Daphne sighed. “It seems like you skip any chance to hang with us!”
“And you don’t say anything in the group chat any more. Even when I post awesome GIFs!” Yasmin said.
I rolled my eyes. Why were they giving me such a hard time? If only they knew how much I had to deal with at home. Then maybe they’d understand.
Daphne gave me a hard look. “Look, Helen. We’re dead excited that you have a boyfriend and all. But we’re still your mates. You can’t abandon us for him.”
“Plus you’ve been so secretive lately,” Yasmin said. “It’s like you’re hardly here at all.”
I had been distant, I guess.
“I get it. I do, honestly,” I said. “But I can’t talk right now. I need to go—”
“Let me guess. You’re going to meet Marco?” Daphne asked.
I couldn’t deal with them right now.
“I’d better get going,” I said, ducking away from the main road. They shouted after me, but I didn’t turn around.
The cafe seemed even busier than normal, full of people my age and young families with prams escaping the winter cold. I found a table in the middle, right by the counter.
Marco walked in and caught my eye. For the first time, seeing his face didn’t make me want to collapse with lust. I was worried that I’d really annoyed the girls. I had been distant lately, but so what? Did I need to reply to every single message in the group chat?
He smiled and mouthed “coffee?” at me from across the cafe. I nodded. Not that I’d be drinking it. As much as I tried, coffee still left a gross feeling in my mouth.
Marco returned with an espresso for him and a milky latte for me. “I thought this might be more to your taste,” he said, after giving me a kiss on the lips. If it was any other time, I would have appreciated the sweet gesture. But the sickly smell of hot milk made me queasy.
“Helen, I saw the weirdest thing last night,” he said, eyes wide with excitement.
“I’m fine, thanks, how are you?” I said, smiling. It was unlike him to forget the pleasantries.
He laughed. “Honestly, once you see this video you’ll totally forgive me for being rude.”
“Show me, then! Unless it’s something gross?” I asked. You could never tell with boys.
“Not gross, just … extremely weird.” He handed me his phone and I pressed play.
The video was shot at night, and I couldn’t see much at first because it was dark. Then I noticed a column of white light hovering in the sky. The video zoomed out to show a house on a street.
My street.
Marco had seen and filmed Aphrodite floating above the house.
When I realized what I was watching, I nearly dropped the phone.
The video zoomed back in again, close enough to see a face and long dark hair. It wasn’t recognizable as Aphrodite unless you knew her face.
Which thousands of people now did, thanks to her aggressive self-promotion.
Marco watched my face for my reaction, as I desperately tried to hold it together.
“Strange, right? I saw that round the corner from here. I thought I was losing my mind!”
“Um, it certainly looks strange,” I said. “But I’m sure there’s a rational explanation for it.”
“You think? It sort of looks like a UFO. I bet some newspaper will pay good money for it,” he said.
I wanted to throw up. If this video made it to the national press, someone was bound to recognize Aphrodite. And how on earth could she explain floating in mid-air? The Council would be on my family like a ton of bricks.