Complications

Brody’s eyes lit up. “ There’s a victory tour after the Games?” he said. “ Cool! ” But Julia was horrified by the news. “ What do you mean?” she asked Artemis. The goddess shrugged. “ Just what I said. The Olympic champion always travels with his sponsor afterward. ” “ The tour gets mortals quite excited, ” Hermes added with a grin. He looked at Brody. “ You’ll enjoy seeing more of the world, won’t you, boy?” “ Sure! ” Brody said. “ It sounds like the parade after the Super Bowl! ”

Julia was staring at Hermes in alarm. “ But you said we could go home right after the Games. ” “ Of course you can, ” Hermes told Julia soothingly. “ Don’t worry so much, mortal girl. ” Julia glanced away, trying to calm down. What if Hermes had been lying about letting them go home? What if they got stuck here forever? “ This could be bad! ” she whispered to Brody in a panic. “ What are you talking about?” Brody asked. Julia kept her voice low. “ What if Hermes is planning to keep us here?

He and Caerus made it sound like the passage will eventually close. We could be stuck here forever! ” “ Whoa! ” Brody said. For a second Julia thought she’d finally made him realize how serious this situation was. Then she saw that he was staring across the agora. “ Who’s that?” he blurted out. Another goddess was approaching them. She was blond and gorgeous, with big blue eyes. “ Greetings, Aphrodite, ” Hermes called. “ Come and meet my champion! ” Aphrodite held out one pale, slim hand. “ Hello, champion. It’s a pleasure. ”

“ Uh, guh . . . , ” Brody said. “ I mean, me too. I mean, hi! I’m Brody. ” “ Brody, ” Aphrodite said with a musical laugh. “ What a charming name. ” Julia moaned to herself. She could tell that Brody was already in love. Why were boys so easily distracted by a pretty face? “ Have any of you seen Zeus’ champion yet?” Aphrodite asked the other gods. “ I hear he’s very handsome. And strong. ” “ Nobody has seen him, ” Artemis replied. “ Zeus is hiding him in the hills. ”

“ That reminds me. ” Hermes grabbed Brody by the shoulder. “ It’s time for training. Let’s go. ” “ Are you sure we can’t stay?” Brody was still staring at Aphrodite. Hermes pulled Brody away so fast that Julia and Markos had to run to keep up. Once again the gymnasium was filled with athletes. Hermes ordered Brody to start stretching. Brody dropped to the ground and touched his toes. “ What are we working on today, Coach?” he asked.

“ We need to build your endurance for the dolichos and the hoplite, ” Hermes replied. “ They are the longer and more difficult races, and I wasn’t impressed with how quickly you became tired yesterday. ” “ Quickly?” Brody sounded wounded. “ You made me run for two hours straight! ” “ We should get out of the way, ” Markos said to Julia. “ It’s strange enough to have a girl here. We don’t want anyone to think you’re trying to compete or something. ” He laughed as if that was the funniest thing he’d ever imagined.