Goddess Boot Camp

That tears her attention away from him. “Of course not.” She looks at me like I just made her eat a lemon. “Xander is a counselor. Besides, the boys’ camp doesn’t start until July.”

“Then why is he here?” I ask. “Shouldn’t Goddess Boot Camp be girls only?” Like my shame would be any less if there were only girls present to witness my humiliation.

“Daddy made an exception,” she says, although she doesn’t seem too unhappy about the resulting situation. She scowls at me. “For your sake.”

Before I can ask what she means, my watch starts buzzing. I quickly punch off the alarm I set last night.

“Ten o’clock,” I explain.

Suddenly, happy, cheerful Stella is back.

“Time to start,” she announces. “Let’s all form a circle in the middle of the courtyard.”

She glances at Xander, who looks completely uninterested in the proceedings of the camp. But when Adara herds the ten-year-olds into position, he deigns to join the group. Stella scoots in next to him.

I hover outside the circle, still not certain whether I’m participating.

“Welcome to Goddess Boot Camp, girls,” she says, pulling on her head-goddess-in-charge persona. “My fellow counselors and I are going to make sure this is one of the most memorable experiences of your young lives.”

When Stella emphasizes the word young, I roll my eyes. If she thinks those little digs are going to get to me, she’s wrong. Compared to cross-country trash talkers, she’s an amateur. Rather than rise to her bait, I just cross my arms and hang back. She can say whatever she wants, but I am not going to lose my cool. I am implacable.

Until Adara says, “Make room in the circle for Phoebe, girls. She needs all the help she can get.”

My face feels like it’s on fire.

Now, Stella can goad me all she wants. I’ve learned to ignore her for the most part. But there’s just something about Adara—maybe it’s my tweak over her friendship with Griffin or her generally superior attitude—that makes me want to fight back. So, when she makes her little snide comment, instead of walking away, I walk into the circle. I take the position directly across from her—which happens to place me between Stella and Xander. I can feel Stella fuming next to me, but I don’t care. I’m busy staring Adara down.

“Can we start already?” Xander asks in a bored tone.

“Right,” Stella says, snapping out of her minisnit and brightening at the sound of his voice. “We’re going to start off with an overview of our schedule for the next two weeks. Dara”—she nods across the circle—“the welcome packets please.”

Adara pulls a rainbow stack of stapled papers from her bag and hands half to the girls on either side of her. The girls each take one and pass on the rest.

“These packets contain vital information for camp.” Adara holds up a rainbow packet. “Besides the schedule, there are handouts, work sheets, and study guides. The most critical is the Dynamotheos Study Guide.”

“This guide explains the powers passed down by the twelve Olympians to all hematheos. It is the foundation for our training,” Stella explains. “We expect you to study it thoroughly. Tonight.”

I take the packet Stella hands me and flip through it. This seems a lot like homework—something I was looking forward to not doing this summer. As if a work sheet is going to help me control my powers.

“Yes, Larissa?” Adara says.

A blonde girl to my right lowers her raised hand and asks, “Um, if dynamotheos comes from the twelve Olympians, why is Hades there? He doesn’t live on Olympus.”

“No,” Stella explains. “But he is one of the six original children of Cronus and Rhea. Demeter gave up her claim to a dynamotheos, preferring to pass on her agricultural abilities through outreach and education.”

“Oh,” Larissa says with a shy smile. “Okay.”

“Now let’s go over the schedule. And after,” Stella continues, “we will do some icebreaker activities so we can all get to know each other a little better.”

Even though she can’t look at him without being totally obvious, I’m sure Stella means she wants to get to know Xander best of all. The idea that Stella has a crush and I might get to witness her acting like a lovesick puppy makes me happier than it probably should, but a girl has to take pleasure where she can.

Maybe this won’t be the worst two weeks of my life, after all.

“My name is Pandora. I’m a descendant of, well, Pandora. I usually live with my mom in Geneva, but she’s doing relief work in the Congo and sent me to stay with my dad on Serfopoula for the summer.”

Everyone in the circle says, “Hi, Pandora!”

I swallow a groan. This is like the first morning of every cross-country camp I’ve ever attended. Only at cross-country camp I at least had hard-core running to look forward to. I don’t think I’m lucky enough to hope that after the icebreakers Stella’s going to say, “Warm-up’s over. Let’s run.”

We’re just over halfway through the circle, with three girls, the counselors, and—joy—me still to give our introductions.

“Welcome, Pandora.” Stella smiles sweetly at the frizzy-haired blonde. “What are your expectations for Goddess Boot Camp?”

“Well . . .” Pandora says, chewing on her lip as she thinks. “I’d like to be able to turn my little brother into a toad.”