Starcrossed

jingling away cheerily with every step and sway of her hips.
    “Oh my gods, I love that!” she exclaimed, reaching out and touching the charm Helen always wore around her neck. “I always say, if it isn’t plastered with diamonds it isn’t really jewelry.”
    “What?” Helen asked, puzzled, looking down. Pandora was chugging from a bottle she took from the fridge and didn’t hear.
    “The workout room is all yours,” she tossed back over her shoulder at Hector. Helen fingered her heart necklace and wondered why Pandora had mentioned diamonds. There were no diamonds on her charm.
    “You ready for a beating, Princess?” Hector asked once his aunt had danced out of the room.
    “Do you have to call me that?” Helen huffed, wondering if being a dick was part of his strategy or if it was just his personality baseline.
    “Well, now I do,” he smirked, pleased with himself for hitting a nerve.
    “Let’s go before I wreck Noel’s kitchen with your big, stupid face.”
    “That’s the spirit,” he said encouragingly. Helen had to laugh. He really could be quite charming when he wasn’t trying to kill her.
    Hector and Lucas started Helen out on the heavy bag, thinking that it was the most basic place to begin. She didn’t get it. She tried to follow through with her hips like they told her, but she kept positioning herself strangely at the last moment and taking all of the momentum out of her swing. She just didn’t like to punch things. It didn’t come naturally to her. Hector couldn’t even watch.
    “You’ve got the killer instincts of a houseplant,” he groaned, covering his face.
    “Maybe we should move on to grappling. It’d probably be more useful for her, anyway, considering all of her attacks have been close-quarter struggles,” Lucas suggested.
    Helen readily agreed. She was a terrible fighter, but not even Hector could deny that she was trying . The boys gave her a brief rundown of dojo etiquette, and then she entered the ring with a bow, as she had been taught. She was expecting Lucas to be her teacher, but he stood back and let Hector go into the dojo with her instead.
    “I thought this was your specialty,” Helen said uncertainly to Lucas.
    “It is. He’s way better on the ground than I am,” Hector replied for him with a grin. “Now get down on your hands and knees. You know, like you’re a dog.”
    Despite the fact that Hector was deliberately trying to get Helen’s back up, she stayed calm and focused on the instructions she was given. Jujitsu was part physical, which was fun, but the main part of it, the real challenge, was mental. She felt like she was trying to solve a puzzle, trying to unwind out of the human pretzel that Hector had made out of her. A few times she pissed him off by giggling and shying away from the sexually suggestive shapes he was trying to bend her into, but he gutted it out and kept working with her rather than let Lucas take over the lesson.
    “Nah-uh!” Hector said when Lucas tried to enter the ring. “You. Out.”
    “You’re not breaking it down step-by-step for her, Hector!” Lucas called from outside the cage. He wouldn’t come in the ring and break the rules of the dojo, but he could still yell from the sidelines. “She doesn’t know the first thing about pulling guard!”
    “Well, tough,” Hector replied as he raised himself up from between her knees. “There’s no way I’m letting you in here, brother, so just forget it.” He gestured meaningfully at her prone body and open legs, and raised his eyebrows. Helen started laughing hysterically.
    “You have nothing to worry about, Hector!” she managed to choke out. “Trust me!”
    That got Lucas blushing. Helen heard a familiar laugh from outside the ring. “Giggles? Is that you?” She propped herself up and shoved Hector off of her.
    “Yeah, it’s me. I gotta say, Len, I would have thought it would be harder to get between your legs, but Hector doesn’t seem to be having any trouble at all,” Claire teased.
    “What are you doing here?” Helen said, surprised.
    “I tried to stop her, but she just barged in and . . .” Jason began, his voice fraying with frustration.
    “I really wanted to see you do demigod stuff!” Claire said, cutting him off. “I’ve never gotten to see you do all your tricks on purpose before.”
    “Tricks? We’re not show ponies, Claire!” Jason yelled at her.
    Helen looked at Hector and shrugged while Claire and Jason continued to