Chapter 3

I watched as the waves crashed into the shore and tickled my feet as I wandered the coastal line.

"Hey, Heather," I heard someone say behind me. "Are you alright?" She adjusted herself to face me. Artemis.

"Hi, Artemis. I need your advice," I told her.

"As your aunt or as your friend?" She asked.

"As a friend," I answered.

"Okay,"

"I think I'm falling in love with Ares," I confessed, biting my lip.

Artemis didn't get mad. "Does anyone else know about this?" She asked me in a concerned and motherly way.

"Nope," I answered. "You're the first one I've told."

Artemis smiled. "I think you should go for it. That is, if he likes you back."

I smiled. "I'd better get back to Mom and Dad. They're gonna get mad if I don't come in the next few minutes."

"Why on Mount Olympus would they do that?" Artemis asked.

"Shame, Artemis. You forgot your own niece's birthday! How could you?" I cried in disbelief.

Artemis laughed. "Sorry. I'm just caught up in all this other stuff like protecting the forest and the animals that reside in it and all."

"Enough to forget a family member's birthday?!"

"Yeah, kind of," She told me, shrugging.

I laughed as well and hiked towards my house when someone else caught up with me.

"Hey! Heather, wait up!" Erichthonius called. I whipped around and smiled at my half-brother.

"Hey, Eric, what's up?" I asked him when he caught up with me. I addressed Erichthonius as Eric because it was just easier to say.

He put a hand on my shoulder and said, "Let's walk to Dad's house."

"I was just on my way there," I told him – yes, Erichthonius knew.

"Cool," He remarked. "Happy Birthday."

I punched him playfully in the arm. "Please don't do anything embarrassing today. PLEASE!"

"Why not?"

"Because then I will never be able to show my face on Mount Olympus – ever again." I said with a straight face.

Erichthonius agreed with me. "Sure,"

"So, how've you been?" I asked him.

"Alright, I mean, it's not like I'm still King of Athens. I still get bored. But, things have been better after Zeus granted me the latitude to visit you guys on Mount Olympus." Erichthonius replied.

When we reached Dad's house, Mom was testing the karaoke machine – wait, we have a karaoke machine?

"Mom? What's with the karaoke machine?" I asked anxiously.

"Well, what do you think it's for?" She said into the microphone. It sounded all scratchy so she hit it with a dainty hand. "Hephy, dear, can you give me a hand here?"

Dad emerged from his mini workshop in the back of the house all sweaty and stinky. When Mom saw him she said, "Never mind," and looked away. Dad noticed Erichthonius.

"Erichthonius! How are you doing, son?" He exclaimed, limping towards him. When he finally got to Erichthonius, he patted him on the shoulder.

"Hey, Dad," Erichthonius greeted as I went over to my mother and helped her with the karaoke machine. When we got that all fixed up, Mom zapped (or, at least, that's what I call it) the house and it turned beautiful – not that it wasn't beautiful to begin with. I mean, Dad made it and he's the creator of beauty.

Just then, there was a pounding on the door. Mom opened it and giggled. I saw who the guests were. The guests were the worst people that could be there – they were the rest of the Olympians. "Oh, please, Mom, no! Why would you do this?" I yelled and ran into my room.

From my room, I could hear Mom gossiping, Zeus proclaiming random things, Hermes bumping into anything possible, Dad working on something in his mini workshop, Artemis crying, Apollo singing karaoke, Athena saying useless facts, Hera screaming out at the sight of anything out of place, Ares destroying anything Hermes didn't, Poseidon making small tremors with his triton, Demeter mourning on about Persephone who in fact is NOT dead and Dionysus belching. It was absolutely, positively the worst day of my life.

"Must they always do this?" I cried out to no one in particular. At that point, I wished I could just die. I couldn't. I'm immortal. "Why me?" I screamed.

Well, someone heard me scream because I heard footsteps approach my room and knock on the door. "Heather, open up!"

"No!" I screeched, jumping on my bed to cry myself to sleep. I wept and wept until my eyes went sore.

"You can't just stay there until you die, sis," Erichthonius called from the other side of the door.

I pouted. "What if I want to?" I said shakily.

Erichthonius knocked on the door again. "You can't do that because-"

"Because of what?" I interrupted rudely. "Because then you'll tell Dad? And then you're gonna whine your way off Mount Olympus and beg to be King of Athens again?"