Athena's Enigma

3 - No Turning Back

I brought up the idea with my mother one last time thinking that I could go back to my original plan of ‘blinking my puppy dog eyes’ as Porus had put it. I had thought to use the Porus plan as proof that I had thought everything up and I could easily live on Earth with no harm to her. I didn’t get even two words in before she shot me down.

“You are staying in Olympus with me and that is final. I don’t want to talk about this subject anymore Avena!”

That was that and I quickly dropped the subject.

Weeks went by and my routine quickly returned to normal. The idea of going to Earth started to seem like an unreachable goal. I gave it up. I had put it mostly out of my mind when Porus showed up at my doorstep once again.

Athena was out of the house. I was in my pajamas which were just simple sweatpants and white t-shirt. This was an outfit that I sported a lot lately. My hair was in a messy bun held together with a small clip making the shorter hairs fall out and frame my face. Basically, I looked like a great big mess that wasn’t expecting company that day.

Porus walked in the house as if he lived there and spotted me quickly since I was just passing by the front door to go back to my room. I had a laundry basket on my hip. That was about the only chore Athena made me do myself.

“Can I help you?”

“Avena: just the person I came to see,” Porus greeted waving around a white envelope in his hand.

I shook my head and turned to continue walking to my room. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

Porus was hot on my heels. “I have some exciting news!”

I set down my basket on my bed and began pulling out clothes and folding them neatly. I faced away from Porus not at all eager to hear what he had to say.

“Don’t you want to know what it is?” Porus asked. I didn’t have to look to know that he was bouncing in place.

I shook my head. “As far as you’re concerned, no I don’t want to know.”

I heard the ripping of paper and finally my curiosity got the better of me. I turned to face Porus who was opening up the envelope in his hands.

“Okay, I’ll bite.” I sighed. “What do you have to tell me?”

I watched Porus’s magnified eyes search over the small packet of paper. “Congratulations Avena Randell, you have be accepted into Westclover University.”

“What?!” I grabbed the paper from his hands and read over it myself.

Porus looked pleased with himself. “It seems that your amazing fake transcripts did you some good.”

“I can’t go,” I stated moving aside my small pile of clothes to sit on the bed. I threw the papers back at him unable to look at them.

“You can’t go because you don’t want to or because your mother won’t let you?” Porus moved over to sit on a chair facing my bed after he picked up the papers that fell to the floor.

I let out a deep breath. “My mother won’t let me.”

“She’s gone half the day anyway. You would barely be missed.” Porus set down the papers on a nearby table.

“Thanks,” I muttered sarcastically.

Porus shook his head realizing his mistake. “That’s not what I meant. Of course she will miss you but after a while she will realize that this is good for you as well as her.”

I kept silent since I had nothing else to say on the matter. “Send the college my best but I’m not going.”

Porus raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He stood up, walked over to my closet, and got a suitcase out. I watched him with confusion until he set the luggage on my lap and started setting the clean clothes into it.