After a short walk, Lenexa and myself arrived at the wooded area of campus, where I had found the tiara just two days before.
“Does this place look familiar?” I asked.
“Should it?” she responded.
“It’s where I found your head-wear.” I explained to her.
She leaned down and stuck her hand in the snow. It made no impact, she was like a ghost.
“There is no reason why my armor would be here, of all places.”
“Armor?”
“Ceremonial.”
“Do you have any idea why I found it here?”
“It might have been dropped by Hermes, or some other carrier of divine objects.”
“Right. It’s a heavenly object.” I said in a dry but mocking voice.
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“It is a warrior’s headgear, which finds daughters worthy to fight alongside me, and gives them the skills needed to compete in battle against inhuman horrors.”
“It chose me.”
“Then it is an honor.”
“I’m a man.”
“It has been a long time since it has chosen a champion, times have changed.”
“It made me change, against my will.”
“Perhaps it did err. No other candidate was a whiny as you.”
The conversation continued back and forth like this, for a few minutes, before we both became frustrated and I went to the lunch area of the student center. I was hungry. Arguing with strange mystical amazon ghosts will do that to you.
That was a mistake, I should have returned right to my bed.
The cafeteria was surprisingly busy. A few study groups huddled together for their exams. Some loners sat with their laptops, hiding in plain sight from the world around them. The walls were plastered with posters and advertisements. Some teenybopper superstar hung on the largest one. Melissa Redwood; a woman who just turned 18, whose music was auto-tuned to ridiculous levels, and used her skimpy outfits, and over-sized breasts to get sales. The poster had her in some ridiculous outfit, with her mouth over the microphone in a position that looked like she was going to start sucking it. Her red hair was photo shopped to look like it was blowing in an epic breeze thanks to the power of her music.
“Do women dress like that?” Lenexa asked.
“Only the desperately rich ones.” I told her.
As a walked over to get some food from the counter, Lexina stopped right behind one of the losers on the laptop.
“This one has a picture that is moving.” she said.
“That’s video, it records actions and plays them back for us.” I explained.
“He has a picture of Hermes!” she cried in excitement on seeing a picture of a painting of the god.
“He’s probably studying for a Greek history exam.”
“You must talk to him! He knows more of my people.”
“He knows nothing. The exam later today is for first year students. This is basic stuff. You know more than he does.”
“We must talk to him!” she pouted as she stomped her foot.
“FINE! What do you want to talk to him about?” I asked.
“Me.” she said.
I took a deep breath and walked over to the guy. “Excuse me. Are you studying for today’s Greek exam?” I asked.
“Yes.” he said in a frustrated reply.
“Me too.” I lied. “I think I have it all down, except for the part about Lenexa.”
“Len-who?”
“Lenexa. The warrior amazon.”
“We didn’t go over that in class.”
“I think we did. You might want to look it up.”
He looked at me, I’m pretty sure that re realized I wasn’t in his class at that point. “Go away.” he said as he turned his back to me and went back to studying.
“I told you he was useless.” I said to her.
“Maybe he’s threatened by you.” she said, trying to justify her unsatisfactory outcome.
“Yes, that’s it. I’m so intimidating that people won’t talk to me unless they want to lay with me.” I said in frustration, and hunger.
“Maybe another tactic is needed.” she said with a mischievous grin on her face.