Starcrossed

in here?” Claire asked.
    “Who cares? This is one of the best ideas Lennie’s ever had. We should enjoy it while we have it and not ruin the moment worrying about losing it,” Matt answered serenely.
    Claire looked at Helen and they both nodded, surprised by Matt’s wise answer.
    “To Matt Millis. Friend. Philosopher. Golf Pro,” Helen called back, saluting him with her thermos.
    “Here, here,” called Claire. She raised her soy milk in a lazy toast. Matt took a dignified bow and blushed when Ariadne smiled at him.
    “Hey, Len? Did you get a new necklace?” Claire asked, reaching out to touch the charm that Helen always wore.
    “No, it’s the same old same old. Are you going crazy again, Gig?” Helen responded, trying to eye her heart charm.
    “It looks like a strawberry, not a heart. Or maybe it’s just shinier. Probably I’m crazy.”
    The next few days were blissful, and Helen felt a peace she hadn’t experienced since the Deloses had arrived on the island. It was as if someone had put a combination of Spanish fly and Prozac in the water. Helen kept up her training in the afternoons, but as the days passed with no sign that Creon had returned to the island, Helen found herself forgetting about the danger. The only person who seemed immune to the good cheer in the air was Zach. He kept trying to talk to Helen alone but she was avoiding him, which was easy enough when she was being guarded by a family of demigods. Still, each time she dodged him she could tell that he got more and more resentful.
    She was hoping that if she put the whole situation off for long enough no one would even remember how she had collapsed as she chased some shirtless stranger. Hoping that if she stalled him long enough, Zach would let it go. But instead his attitude was becoming more and more urgent. The last thing Helen wanted was to tell Lucas and make an issue out of it. After the whole “Hector tried to drown me and ruined my phone in the process” incident, Lucas had happily beat the stuffing out of his cousin in the newly finished arena, and an hour later a toothless Hector had given Helen a new phone that she was pretty sure had enough computing power to put a satellite into orbit.
    But Zach was making it impossible for Helen to protect him. The more he kept trying to corner her, the more suspicious Lucas became, until the inevitable happened. After school on Wednesday as Lucas walked with Helen to track practice, he saw Zach wandering around nearby. When Zach saw Lucas he changed direction and went to the boys’ locker room, but not before his suspicious behavior was noticed.
    “Is Zach after you?” Lucas asked with wide eyes.
    “Oh, not really. He wants to talk to me about something, I think,” Helen said as if it wasn’t important. She shut her mouth before she could say too much.
    “Yeah, I’ll bet,” Lucas said with a sneer, his blue eyes turning nearly black as he sensed her untruth. “Is there any reason for Zach to think that you might be single?”
    “No! Wait, what?” Helen stammered, not understanding Lucas’s anger.
    “Did you tell him that you and I weren’t really a couple because I won’t . . .” he trailed off, and ripped a hand through his hair as he paced around in a circle. “What are you telling people about us?” The outline of his body began to smear as he scattered the light around him in agitation.
    “I haven’t told anyone anything!” Helen said, her voice pitching up to an unnaturally high register.
    “Are you trying to make me jealous or are you just so frustrated that you’re already looking for someone else? Someone who’ll give in to you?” He was so angry Helen could barely see him as he began to blur himself out, but she was angry, too.
    “I am NOT looking for anyone else!” she howled at him.
    Lucas took an involuntary step back as he stared at the halo of pale blue light crackling around Helen’s head and hands. Her lightning didn’t seem to respond to Lucas’s light control, and as the distortions he created were thrown back by Helen’s metallic glow he was forced to shade his eyes.
    “Oh, boy,” she tittered nervously. She felt like she was going over the top peak on a roller coaster—and she was just about to drop down.
    She threw an arm out to the side to steady herself. Lucas took a step forward to grab on to her, but wisely stopped himself before he touched her and got electrocuted. Then the blue light went out like a switch had been