This was it: the day of the big dance recital – the most important day of Hebe's life. Her future depended on it. If she performed well, she could fulfill her dream and go to the Athenian Academy of Performing Arts. That was the goal. Like Phil used to say: keep your eyes on the target. But before she could do that, she had to get rid of any possible distractions and, since yesterday, Hebe had been distracted by thoughts of Alexa. She couldn't wait to see her again, so they could talk things through.
When Hebe went to join her parents in the kitchen for breakfast, they noticed something was different. "Are you all right, honey?" Meg asked as she watched Hebe blankly stare at her plate. "You've barely touched your breakfast."
"I think I know what's going on," Hercules said and Hebe froze, finally looking up from her plate. What did he know? "You're nervous about the recital, aren't you?" he said and Hebe relaxed.
"Yeah," she admitted, even if it was only half true. To be honest, she was more excited than nervous. She just couldn't bring herself to show it at the moment. Hercules smiled and gave her a gentle pat on the back.
"Don't worry, you're going to do great. We'll be there to cheer you on. Just remember to have fun, okay?"
"I will," Hebe promised and promptly finished her breakfast, even though she didn't have that much of an appetite, but she knew she needed the energy.
Right before Hebe left for school, Phil showed up to wish her good luck. "Break a leg today, kid!" he said and playfully jabbed at one of her legs. "Or whatever it is you artists say to wish each other good luck."
"Thanks, Phil," Hebe chuckled. "You're coming to see me, aren't you?"
"Wouldn't miss it for the world," he assured her and Hebe knelt down to receive a hug from the old goat man. Normally, he wasn't the hugging type, but he would always make exceptions for Hebe, no matter what it was. She'd had him wrapped around her finger since the day she was born and she looked upon him as the only uncle she had. Hercules and Meg went to hug their daughter as well before waving her goodbye and sending her off to school. As soon as they'd gone back inside, Hebe picked up her pace to get to Alexa's house.
Hebe's heart was pounding in her chest as she raised her fist to knock on the door. As usual, it was Jacinda who opened it and she greeted Hebe with a smile. "Good morning, Hebe! Alexa will be out in just a minute, if you care to wait."
"Sure," Hebe said with a nod of her head and Jacinda let the door stay open while she waited. Hebe remained where she stood, anxiously rocking back and forth on her heels until Alexa appeared in the doorway.
"Hi, Hebe," she said with an awkward, yet cute little crooked smile, as though she were uncertain of how to greet her friend after their unusual parting yesterday.
"Hi," Hebe said, probably with an awkward smile of her own. "Ready to go?" Alexa nodded and bid her mother goodbye one last time before they left.
They began to walk in silence, neither of them knowing exactly what to say. After a short while though, both of the girls began to speak at the same time, resulting in the two of them laughing awkwardly. "You first," Alexa insisted and Hebe gathered herself.
"Alexa, I'm sorry about yesterday. I felt awful leaving you like that."
"No, you don't have to feel sorry," Alexa said. "I am sorry for not being more supportive. I admire you, Hebe. You know I do. I should have made it clearer when you told me what you'd done. Will you forgive me?"
At that moment, the girls stopped walking and looked at each other with great love and affection. Hebe was close to tears. "Of course I forgive you," she said and threw her arms around Alexa who reciprocated the gesture. There they stood, in the middle of the road, holding each other tightly without caring what others might think, though eventually they had to pull apart and move aside to let a carriage pass.
"Hey, ya can't block the road like that!" the driver reprimanded them as he passed. "Are you trying to get yourselves run over?!" Since he didn't stop, but kept going, they figured he wasn't expecting a reply and so they only laughed at the incident before continuing down the road.
Now that Hebe was certain that she and Alexa were still friends and that Alexa admired her for the sacrifice she'd made, she didn't really care anymore about what anyone else thought of her. She was prepared to remain an invisible loser and did not expect to receive any attention anymore. It seemed, however, that Hebe was the one person everyone at school was talking about.
If Hebe's classmates had distanced themselves from her yesterday, it was nothing compared to now. As she and Alexa passed the other students in the courtyard, they were met with looks of pure revulsion and when they reached their lockers, a group of students that stood nearby immediately fled. From afar, Hebe could see people talking to each other all the while looking her way. "Are people still discussing what happened in the cafeteria?" Hebe asked and exchanged a worried look with Alexa, although somehow she had a feeling that wasn't the case.
"I have no clue," Alexa earnestly replied. "But whatever it is, people really need to start minding their own business." Hebe concurred and the girls grabbed their math scrolls, getting ready for class.
As they approached the classroom, Hebe could hear her classmates murmuring, but as soon as she made her presence known to them, they fell silent. She could feel their eyes on her as she went to sit at her desk and the students closest to her moved their desks and chairs as far away from her as they could, like she was carrying a contagious disease they were afraid of catching. A minute later, their teacher entered the classroom, but he paid no attention to the rearranged furnishing in the room or the palpable tension hanging over it. Instead, he set his students straight to work and everyone took out their scrolls.
Hebe pretended to be hard at work, but in her mind she wasn't calculating numbers – she was asking herself why everyone was acting so cold towards her. It didn't take long for her to get an answer. From the corner of her eye, she noticed that one of the boys was trying to get Alexa's attention. When she finally gave it to him, he passed her a note and gestured for her to pass it on to Hebe. The boy was persistent and so Alexa reluctantly accepted it before their teacher noticed and gave it to Hebe. Alexa advised her not to read it, but Hebe was too curious and desperate to know what this was all about. Discretely, she unfolded the small piece of parchment. Only two words were written on the note, but they were enough to make her blood turn to ice: Devil's worshipper.
Hebe quickly scrunched the note in her fist as she felt the walls caving in on her. The truth was out. Everyone knew what she had done, but as she'd feared, no one was praising her for it. She wanted to scream and run until she fell off the edge of the earth, but that was not an option. If she ran away now, she would be showing herself weak in front of her classmates, and she couldn't do that. She couldn't let them know how hurt she was by them. So she stayed where she was, pretending as if she didn't care, even though she was on the verge of tears. She would make it through this class and then… Then there was no telling what she would do.
Disguised as a couple of students, Pain and Panic had been sent by Hades to watch Hebe for the last couple of days and keep him posted about what was going on and yesterday they had eavesdropped outside the changing rooms while Hebe told Alexa about her secret. Apparently, Hebe didn't want anyone else to know about her deal with Hades, but the god himself had different plans. He ordered his minions to go back to Hebe's school the following morning and spread the news until everyone knew about it. By the time she stepped onto that stage to perform her dance recital, even her dear parents would know and that's when he would make his move. He would steal their precious daughter away from them right before their eyes and there was nothing they could do about it. Revenge would finally be his.
When math class was over, Hebe was desperate to get away from everyone and everything. She stormed away so fast that Alexa had trouble keeping up. "Hebe, wait!" she called after her friend, but Hebe showed no intention of stopping anytime soon. Alexa ended up following her all the way to the old playground outside the school premises where Hebe finally stopped to sit down in one of the swings. Her hands held on so tightly to the ropes that her knuckles turned white. More worried than ever, Alexa demanded to know what had caused Hebe to run away like that so she could do everything in her power to make her feel better.
"Hebe, what did the note say?" she firmly inquired, knowing it was the only way she would get through to her. "Tell me." Hebe sighed and reached into her pocket.
"Why don't you read it yourself?" she said and handed the note to Alexa. This had to mean it was bad, otherwise Hebe wouldn't have asked her to read it. Alexa feared what it might say, but took the scrunched up note anyway and tried to straighten it out one wrinkle at a time. When she saw the inked letters before her, she was wondering if her dyslexia was playing a trick on her, but no matter how she turned them around, they always seemed to spell out the same thing and it was just as bad as she had feared.
"That's so mean," Alexa said and scrunched the note herself. "I bet Demetrius wrote it. He probably wants to get back at you for what happened yesterday. But how did people find out? I swear to you Hebe, I didn't tell a soul!" she hurried to add and Hebe believed her.
"I know you didn't," she said. Alexa was incapable of betraying her like that. "I guess someone must have overheard our conversation in the changing room. Serafina, for instance. She would have a good reason to reveal my secret, if she hopes it will make me withdraw from the recital. Then she'll have a bigger chance at winning that scholarship." Alexa didn't want to believe Serafina would do that, but it would make a lot of sense.
"You're not actually going to withdraw, are you?" she asked, suddenly alarmed. "Our choreography depends on all members."
"No, I'm not going to withdraw," Hebe reassured with a shake of her head. "I've been looking forward to this recital for weeks. My family is looking forward to it as well. I can't let them down."
"You couldn't let them down even if you tried," Alexa said, sounding more than convinced and Hebe actually smiled. "You just have to make it until two o'clock, but you won't be alone." She knelt down in front of Hebe and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I will be right by your side," she promised. "Always."
Hebe wiped a tear from her eye and chuckled at her own sentimentality. "Now look what you made me do," she said and Alexa laughed along. "Thank you, Alexa. I don't know what I would do without you."
"The feeling's mutual," Alexa replied. "We'd better go now, or we'll be late for Mr. Cleon's history class. I think he's back from being sick now."
"I sure hope so," Hebe said as Alexa helped her out of the swing and they started walking back towards the school. "I don't think I could handle another impromptu fieldtrip with Mr. Podium."
Back at the villa, Hercules and Meg prepared to receive Alcmene and Amphitryon who were coming all the way from Arcadia just to see their granddaughter perform. While they were there, Hercules would try to persuade them once more to move closer to Thebes. Arcadia was much too far away for his liking and his parents weren't getting any younger. They didn't get to see each other that often these days and he hoped they would agree that moving would be beneficial for all of them.
His parents arrived in the gold chariot he'd bought for them fifteen years prior, still in good shape, but it was no longer being pulled by old Penelope who had passed away about six years ago. Now his parents owned two young and strong horses instead, which made their journey so much faster. "Ma! Pop!" Hercules greeted his parents with open arms. "It's so good to see you!"
"Hercules! We missed you, son!" Amphitryon said, embracing the man he'd raised. His wife did the same and even received a kiss on the cheek from her son.
"Indeed we did!" she said, wearing a proud and loving smile.
Meg, who had been watching the sweet reunion from a short distance, eventually came to join them. "Can I get a hug, too?" she asked with a playful smirk and her father and mother in law did not ignore her request.
"Megara, dear, how are you?" Alcmene and Amphitryon always called her by her full name, but Meg didn't mind. They were the sweetest parents in law anyone could ever ask for.
"I hope you're hungry," she told them. "Lunch is almost ready."
"Oh, we're starving," Amphitryon admitted. "It's been a long journey. I bet the horses would like something to eat as well."
"I'll take care of it!" Hercules said and offered to take the horses to the stables. Pegasus would surely like the company. In the meantime, Meg escorted Alcmene and Amphitryon into the house.
"Hebe is going to be so happy to see you again," she told them as they sat down by the kitchen table. "She hasn't been able to stop talking about it." She fetched a ceramic pitcher with cold water and filled their cups to the brim. "Here, you must be thirsty."
"Thank you, dear," Alcmene said and took a sip from her cup. "We've been looking forward to seeing her again as well. It's been so long now." In that moment, Hercules walked into the kitchen.
"Well, you'd probably get to see her more often if you lived closer to us." His parents exchanged a strange look which he didn't quite know what to make of. Eventually, his father said, "Well, son… I've been doing some thinking and… I think you're right."
Hercules stopped dead in his tracks. He had not expected to hear his father say that even in a million years! "Are you serious?" he asked. "You're going to move closer to us?"
"Yes. As a matter of fact, we're going to go look at a property tomorrow morning." It was more than Hercules ever could have hoped for. He embraced his father and mother where they sat.
"Pa, that's great! You have no idea how happy this makes me! And Hebe will be more than thrilled! Ma, how much convincing did it take you before he budged?" he asked and Alcmene smiled knowingly.
"Quite a lot, but not so much as you might think. He eventually came to his senses all on his own."
Later, Phil came and joined them for lunch and they spoke of many fun and heartwarming memories they'd shared over the years. Mostly, though, they spoke of Hebe and how far she'd come in life. They were all convinced she would do great at the recital, having no clue as to what she'd had to go through for the past twenty-four hours.
A normal school day wouldn't end until three o'clock, but because of the annual spring dance recital, there were no more classes after lunch time and that gave the dancers one whole hour to warm up and go through some of the choreography one last time if needed. In the changing room, all of them got dressed in matching white chitons and put their hair up into high ponytails. As expected, the other girls avoided Hebe and Alexa until it was time to move towards the stage. Before they left, Serafina had a statement to make.
"Listen here, loser," she said, addressing Hebe. "I know we're supposed to be a group and all, but I don't want you anywhere near me, okay? If you touch me, even by accident, I'm going to make you regret it for the rest of your life, so watch your step, okay?" Hebe had told herself to stay calm and ignore anything people might say to her, but Serafina had just managed to infuriate her and she simply had to let off some steam if she wanted to stay focused on stage.
"It's not like I'm infected!" she yelled back at her. "I sold my soul to Hades, so what?! I did it to save Mr. Pancras's life! That's what a true hero would do!"
"That's right!" Alexa said, backing up her friend. "Hebe is a hero! What have you ever done to help someone in need, Serafina?" Contrary to what they'd hoped, Serafina did not display any sign of guilt or jealousy. All she did was roll her eyes and groan.
"Like I care. Not everyone has to be a hero, you know. That's all you ever talk about and we're sick of hearing it. Right, girls?" The remaining members of the dance squad were standing behind Serafina and they all voiced their agreements in unison. Even Clarissa.
"Serafina is right," she said, even though Hebe could tell it pained her to admit it as she didn't want to hurt Hebe's feelings, "being a hero isn't for everyone. It was cool that you ran into the fire, but selling your soul is taking it a bit too far, don't you think? I mean, you didn't even know that man."
Hebe could tell Clarissa only meant well and that she was trying to see it all from a reasonable perspective, but it still hurt. "All right," Hebe said and raised her hands in defeat. "I won't touch any of you, if that's what you wish. Just tell me one thing: Who spilled the secret?" Serafina shrugged her shoulders non-committedly.
"I don't know. I heard it from Demetrius who heard it from some random guys. He didn't know their names."
"So then it wasn't you?" Hebe asked, incredulous.
"No, it wasn't," Serafina said, sounding both annoyed and offended at the same time. "I've had quite enough of this conversation. It's time to get on stage. Come on, girls, let's go." Like dogs, everyone followed Serafina out of the changing room and Hebe and Alexa made sure to stay at least two feet behind the others lest they upset them even further.
They made their way backstage where Ms. Penelope was waiting for them, more excited than they'd ever seen her. "There you are! You look absolutely amazing, every single one of you! The amphitheater is starting to fill up! Oh, this is going to be great!" Hebe wished she could be as enthusiastic as her dance teacher. Behind them, the school band was warming up their instruments to provide them with music for the show. Some of the members were shooting glances at Hebe, so in order to escape them, she walked up to the curtain to take a peek at the amphitheater. It was the worst thing she could possibly have done.
Ms. Penelope was right: the place was crowded with people – students and family members alike. That was when her nerves really started to kick in. If she'd still been an invisible nobody, it would have been fine, but now that basically everyone knew who she was and what she'd done, she began to doubt that she could do this. She searched for her own family in the audience, but couldn't find them. It was making her dizzy and she had to step back from the curtain. She was breathing heavily and Alexa went to support her.
"Hebe, are you okay?" she asked solicitously. "What's wrong?"
"I can't do it, Alexa," Hebe answered, feeling as though she was going to hyperventilate. "I can't… I can't go out on that stage. I can't take the humiliation." Alexa looked her friend straight in the eye.
"Yes, you can! You have to show them that you won't back down! And remember, I'll be right beside you. In case you faint, I promise I'll catch you, okay?" That last part was supposed to be a joke, but Hebe knew there was more to it than that. Alexa would be there for her, no matter what.
"Okay," she finally said. "I'll do it."
"That's the spirit! Here, drink some water. It'll make you feel better." Alexa grabbed a bottle of water that stood on the floor and gave it to Hebe who was starting to feel a little better. She had to be strong and have courage. She would get through this performance and she would come out of it victorious. Little did she know that a certain deity was about to ruin it all.
A/N: Here's the new update! How do you think Hebe's recital will go? You'll have to wait until next week to find out ;)