Chapter 37

A white envelope popped in front Opal's face as she wrestled to free her lunch box from her bag hung in her locker. She ceased her struggling to send over a curious glance, Herry returned it with a smirk.

"What's this?" she asked and gently took it from him.

"You wanted to go out again, Arch gave me a good idea," he sent her a crooked smile before he turned to walk down the hall, as he strolled away he called, "Dress up." Opal watched him go in confusion. Tickets, it was probably tickets, she realized looking back down at the envelope, but to what? Curiosity peaking she wormed her thumb under the edge and began to rip it open. About halfway open someone placed a hand on her forearm and she jumped in surprise.

"Hey Opal," she looked up to see Jay smiling at her.

"Oh, hey," she offered politely.

"Are you busy right now?" he asked.

"Umm," she looked down at her envelope and then shook her head with a sigh, "not really."

"Good, I want you ask you something, come back to the secret wing with me?" he asked gently.

"Okay," she ventured slowly, folding the envelope to place in her back pocket. Quietly she followed Jay through the halls of the school, watching his confident strides. He led her to the back of the school and through the janitor closet's portal. It was still breathtaking on her second visit.

"I want you to meet Hera," he told her as they rounded corners.

"Oh," she managed to respond. The Queen of the Gods Hera, oh dear lord why did he want to bring her to Hera? He came up to a double door and pushed their high and heavy frame open. Lounging on a couch under a draping canopy in the middle of the sunlit room was The Queen of the Gods, stroking one of her peacocks.

"Jay," she said and rose to her feet.

"Hera," he bowed his head and then gestured over to Opal, "This is Opal."

"Yes," she gave the girl a warm smile, "Jay seems to think you would be a good addition to my team of heroes."

"What?" she asked quietly and unbelieving, "Like the defeat Cronus team?"

"Yeah, I think you'd be a great addition," he nodded.

"Oh, I don't know," she held up her hands and stepped back, "I've seen you all fight, I can't do that."

"You returned from the underworld," Jay said.

"That's different," she defended, "He was in trouble, he needed me…" and I failed him.

Jay sighed, his shoulders hunching as he held out his palms, "Opal, I am sorry about your father, I really am, but only heroes step up like that. If there's any way to get some kind of revenge for his death, it's by defeating the source of all this, Cronus."

"We'll have Athena set you up a room in the brownstone," Hera stated, like the decision was made.

"What?" she snapped, her heart starting to pound, "My mom just lost my father, I can't leave her too."

"Yes, I can respect that, you don't have to live with us to help us," Jay patted her on the shoulder, "We could really use you. How about you come to our next training session?"

"I guess," she mumbled, "Umm, can I go back now?"

Jay exchanged glances with the goddess and she nodded. Gently Jay led her out of the room and back to the public section of the school. Alone in the hall she leaned against the wall, mind numb. What was she going to do about this? There was something in her gut that was nagging; telling her she had to, it was a duty. The same feeling she had when her father was in trouble, the conscious of a hero. She shook her head and pushed off of the wall, they didn't need her. There was little she could contribute to Jay's team.

With a sigh she reached back to her pocket and tugged out the envelope to open the rest of the way. She pulled out a pair of admission tickets for the New Olympian Auditorium. A broad smile pulled across her face when she read the title of the show, Tchaikovsky, a famous Russian composer from the nineteenth century, one of the classics. This was obviously all for her. She highly doubted Herry had a burning desire to attend the performance of a classical symphony. And orchestra seats, impressive Herry. With a gleeful smile she tucked the tickets back into the envelope and started off for her locker. She should use the last ten minutes of her lunch period to actually eat lunch.

The afternoon of her day couldn't have gone more slowly, Opal couldn't wait to get home. She wanted to look through her closet for something. She loved wearing cute little dresses, but never had a reason to. This was such a nice distraction from her grief. She would not feel guilty about going on with her life even if her father was no longer in it, she just had to keep reminding herself that. Rounding the corner of the hallway with her locker she spotted Theresa leaning against Herry's. Two of her other friends were there, Atlanta and Neil, so she just assumed they were waiting for him.

As she was walking up to her locker, keeping to herself, Theresa turned to her and said, "So, Herry's taking you to the auditorium?"

"Yeah," she replied shortly, a little irritated with the interruption of her quiet privacy.

"Atlanta and I were thinking you might need something to wear," she continued, "we can all go to the mall together."

"Ah," Atlanta butted in, "No, you thought that and dragged me along."

"Actually, I don't need anything," Opal said to Theresa.

"But you have to have something new for a date," she insisted.

"She is right about that," Neil added, snapping his fingers.

"Whatever losers, I'm with her on this one, you don't need to get a new thing for every occasion" Atlanta scoffed at her two friends, turning to Opal she said, "I want to get to know you better, Herry's like my brother, I need to make sure you're not going to stomp on his heart."

Opal pressed her lips together as she thought. She really didn't need anything, but she should make an effort to get to know Herry's friends, and Theresa was so adamant about ramming into her life. She offered a small smile and said, "Sure, I'll go."

"Really?" Theresa said, dumbstruck for a moment, "Alright, let's go then." She linked her arm with Opal's and led her out into the parking lot of the school for her car.

Opal quietly looked through a rack of dresses, seeing nothing that really grabbed her. Atlanta was leaning against the rack that Theresa was looking through, on a tangent about how dresses are so restricting. How are you supposed to fight monsters in them?

"Atlanta, you don't have to wear the dress," Theresa responded to her rant.

"I'm just saying," she straightened and began flicking through the garments on the racks, "And where did Neil go?"

"Over here," he called and Opal followed the other girls' gaze over to the model posing in the mirror by a hat stand. He grabbed a pink toque that was clearly meant for a woman as he turned to face them. He stuck the winter hat on his head and struck a confident pose, hands on his hips and sent them a smug smile.

"Oh yeah Neil, looks good," Atlanta said sarcastically.

"That's because I look good in everything?" he dismissed her with a sigh and placed the hat back on the rack. He strutted over to where Opal was and looked at the dress she had pulled out from the others, "Oh, honey, no. That colour just wouldn't go with your skin tone, you need something soft." He began shifting through the rack and quickly found one. He pulled out the light pink garment and handed it over to her.

"I don't know Neil," Theresa said and brought over a black dress, "Classic, can't go wrong with a black dress."

"Nope," Neil shook his head, "it's too dark, I'm telling you that one is perfect."

Theresa glared at him.

"Why don't I just try them on," Opal suggested quietly, before the two fashion experts bit each other's heads off.

"Perfect," Neil broke into a wide smile and guided the small girl over to the change rooms by her shoulders. She sent him a wide eyed look from over her shoulder, but he didn't seem to notice her discomfort with his proximity. He nudged her into a stall and closed the door.

"Okay," she breathed out quietly, what a weird guy. She put both dresses on the hooks on the wall and decided to try the black one on first. It clung to her tightly, accentuating her curves, especially her hips. She looked at herself in the mirror, standing awkwardly as she picked at the frills of the miniskirt. It was a cute dress, and on someone that had a more confident body image it would look beautiful, but Opal just couldn't hold herself high enough to pull it off. Quickly she tore out of it and took up the pink one. She had passed this one on the rack, hadn't thought twice about it because there was nothing about it that really made it stand out. She slipped the cool silk over her head and straightened out the soft material of the skirt before she looked up to the mirror.

Her breath caught in surprise, was that really her? Unbelieving she stepped closer to examine herself. It fell flat on her stomach, sat gently on her hips. Opal lifted her arms to see better how it lay on her body. The soft design and fabric complemented her figure and round features magnificently, creating a smooth hourglass. The dress was spaghetti strapped with a scooped neck line that didn't show a great deal of cleavage, coming down to just above her knees. The skirt waved gently around her legs from her hips down as she moved. Everything about it was perfect, made her actually feel like she looked amazing.

"You got it on Opal?" Theresa called from the other side of the door.

"Uh, yeah," she answered.

"Well come on, let's see," she prompted.

Nervously Opal sucked in a breath and twisted the doorknob. She stood in the doorway, clasping her hands in front of her and looking down to her flip flops, the blue of her shoes not complementing the dress in the slightest.

"See," Neil brushed up to her and tossed an arm around her shoulders, squeezing her to his side, "I told you it was perfect." Opal shrank down into herself with Neil's contact. Did the man not understand personal space and how you generally respected it with people you didn't really know?

"Yeah Neil, good pick," Theresa admitted reluctantly, crossing her arms over her chest and huffing out a breath to blow her bangs from her eyes.

He turned Opal around holding her upper arms in either hand and sent her a broad smile, "I know I'm a genius. You look great."

"Really?" she gave him a small smile, and reached up a hand to twirl a curl around her finger.

"Yeah," he winked, "Herry won't be able to keep it in his pants."

The blood in her face dropped all the way down to her toes, leaving her ghost white.

"Neil, stop tormenting her," Atlanta pulled the boy away and swooshed her back into the change room. She took in some deep breaths before she changed back into her regular clothes. She brought both dresses out with her, but dropped the black one with a pile of other rejects of the day.

"Let's go get some food after this," Atlanta said as she leaned against the counter while Opal checked out.

"But I need to get to check out Wonder's new clothing line," Neil protested.

"We can go after," Theresa scoffed and rolled her eyes. Neil pouted and followed them out of the store in a brood. They found an empty table in the buzzing food court and sat with their meals.

"Thanks for taking me," Opal said to them quietly.

"No problem," Theresa smiled sweetly and popped a fry into her mouth, "do you need anything else?"

"Don't think so," she shook her head, "I can take a pair of my mom's shoes."

Theresa nodded, "Now we just have to worry about Herry."

Atlanta spurted out her drink in a choked laugh, "He should have been the one you worried about in the first place, if he shows up in anything other than cargo shorts I'll be impressed."

Neil snickered in agreement.

"Anyways, I want to hit up the music store before we go," Atlanta remembered the errand she wanted to run, "Archie decided he wanted to learn guitar so I was going to pick up some music sheets for him."

"Aww, so sweet, getting your boyfriend gifts," Neil taunted.

"He's not my boyfriend," she said, tossing a finger in his face, cheeks flushing.

"Yeah, sure looks like that when you're kissing on the roof," he said with a smirk.

She rolled her eyes and looked to Opal, "Do you know how to play guitar?"

"Yeah," she said and added with a bit of remorse, "I have my own now."

"Good, Archie just got one, let me tell you he could really use all the help he can get, my ears would thank you if you would," Atlanta said and Opal laughed. The girl quickly covered her mouth with her hands. This was actually turning out to be kind of fun. She felt herself loosening up with these people. She never would have thought a simple shopping outing could plant the seed to a friendship.

"Alright," Neil said, interrupting Atlanta and Opal's conversation, "If you're done eating, can we go. I have things I need to get done."

"Neil," Atlanta rolled her eyes and got to her feet, "you don't need to get them done." Opal surprised herself when she found herself laughing along with Theresa. Maybe, just maybe, they were starting to become her friends.