"Are you alright?" Leo asked, helping me to my feet. Jesse did not come with us. "No." I could hear someone hissing, like Lord Voldemort. I bet it's Hypnos the Sleep God. "So, that precious daughter of yours is worth your life, isn't it? Well, too bad, Helios. I'm going to send you into a Parallel Universe, where you won't even exist as a God… Apollo will obliterate you before you were born…" I was so angry, I whizz myself straight to where Hypnos and my father were. I'd forgotten that Gods can "evaporate". Like, gradually ease from this place into the next, like water evaporating and water vapour condensing. But I'm still a Godling, so I "evapowhizz"ed myself there. "Family reunion, aren't we? Come to join your father into exile? Come to think of it, I'll sent the whole load of them there. The three Mediators and your boyfriend Terminator won't even exist there." Hypnos sneered contemptuously.
I was real frustrated. First, he tried to kill me. Then he threatened my father. I'm so sick of traveling between Universes, I was getting jet-lagged. Or "universing-lagged". So I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.
I smiled sweetly at him. "I've got a surprise for you." I snapped my fingers. "You will travel across the Crossways and go to the Universe where you hypnotized yourself to sleep and never wake up! You will sleep for eternally when you see the Moon and Dawn together!
And my Victory sign will be when a falling star in the heavens, you, fall across all the Universes for all eternity!"
And then he was gone.
"He's gone? Just like that?" Father Dominic asked eagerly.
I shifted back in my seat. "Yeah. You know, in that Universe, the principal wasn't you. It's a stout, weedy-looking guy called Father Donovan. And Sister Marie-Rose was even worse than Sister Ernestine. Oh, and Suze don't exist. Jesse is still a ghost. And Dopey likes me." Leo scowled a little. Susannah raised an eyebrow. "But he still likes you now." "You know what he said to me that helped me remember? He was singing, 'Oh Susannah, don't you cry for me'. He also called Sister Marie-Rose 'querida'. That reminded me of Jesse." "So, Hypno's dead now. What do you plan to do?" Leo asked my father, Helios, who took on the form of a wizened old man. "It's time for you to choose your destiny. Which Goddess part you want to be dominant. You want to win, or to travel from the Underworld to the Earth, be hopeful, or be silent and eerie. Shooting stars have hopes, asteroids travels, comets are a form of bad luck, and constellations always win. What are you, daughter?" He peered into my amber-coloured eyes, as though he could see the stars inside. They've got it wrong anyway. I don't have blonde hair. I have brunette hair. And I don't glow like a star, I'm only tanned. The only part of me that is slightly yellow is my eyes (well, amber, but that's a type of yellow). They might do better suggesting Leo as a star, I mean, besides being a Horoscope sign, he also have blonde hair, and he looks hot, way cuter than Brad Pitt. Or Dopey. I shrugged. "I'm not sure, dad. But I don't think I'm hopeful, or silent and eerie. I mean, no, definitely, NOT silent. I talk WAY too much. But I don't know if I'm bad luck. Being Me-Gladiators—" "—Me-Gladiatrixes," my father corrected. I ignored him. "Being Me-Gladiators and all, we attracts bad luck. And I'm already travelling a lot between the Spiritual Plane and Now, or between Universes and Zones. I am not a sore-loser, and I have a high sense of Sportsmanship, so I don't think I'm either of them. Maybe I'm a combination of them all." My father was agitated. "But you must choose! The prophesy!" "Do I give a damn about some prophesies? This is my life! This
might happened before and it might not, but I'll make sure that when it's MY time, I'm making MY choice, and MY choice is that I'll be the Star, all four combined together. Anyway, it's supposed to be all four combined together, not separated into a 1D person. I'm a 4D person, even better than 3D people, so I don't care what this poxy prophesy say, I'm doing what I want." My father looked troubled. "Never, in all eons of eternity, has anyone come up with such an absurd theory. But you're my precious Star, and I'll always be behind you." Aww, dad, that's sooo sweet! But of course, tough ole' me won't say that. I smiled. "Thanks, father." Somehow, I still preferred the formal way of "Father" to the flippant "Dad". I mean, surely you would revere your father if he's a veteran God turned Grim Reaper and sacrifices his life for you? Father Dominic coughed. Now, I call him "Father" for a completely different reason. One, he's a priest. Two, he's so dignified and all, you don't want to embarrass him by calling him "Dad". "Susannah, Star, shouldn't you two get back to class?" So Susannah (I didn't call her "Suze" as everyone else, because "Suze" makes me think of "Shoes", and "Susannah" sounds so nice. Better than the weird name "Starissa", so I prefers being called "Star" instead) and me got back to class. Even though I practically spent one whole day in a Parallel Universe, I got back at exactly the same second.
"So…" Susannah was saying, "do you want to be a Goddess?" "No." I was surprisingly thoughtful. "It's enough being a Me-Gladiator and an Intern Grim Reaper, not to mention being a Goddess. Plus I had to choose which Goddess, too." Susannah nodded sympathetically as she reached for the door to the Geometry class, taught by Sister Mary Catherine. "I totally understand…" I suddenly blurted out of inner thoughts. "Plus, being a Goddess, you have to take a vow of celibacy. And I really… you know, like Leo. Even though it is basically against the law of Underworld for a Me-Gladiator and a Terminator to get together, as they're supposedly on a lower scale of existence, but Leo's way too smart and hot to be a Terminator…" We were cut off by Sister Mary Catherine, who was glaring at us, saying, "Are you coming in or not?" So we came in for the lesson.