Box of Terrible Evils

"You didn't have to do that."

Zeus was leaning on the railing on the roof of the school building. This was his favorite spot to hang out on the academy grounds. From here, he could see everyone and everything. He felt...

Like a god.

"Do what?" he said innocently.

"You were the tiebreaker. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have won." Athena said.

"And?"

"What do you want? You never do anything without other intentions."

"What if I told you I don't have any?"

Athena glared at him.

"I don't care if you're my cousin, but I still don't trust you."

Zeus shrugged.

"You are aware of how he feels about you, right?"

Athena sighed.

"Yes."

"What do you think?"

"He's to soft. I don't care if he likes me, but he shouldn't have held back."

Zeus smiled. His cousin was still the same as ever.

"It's not every day a girl can talk about their crush without fidgeting or breaking eye contact."

"Watch your mouth. I don't think my Aunt Rhea and Uncle Cronus would like it if you went back in pieces, now would they?"

Zeus backed away from Athena, until he was leaning over the railing. That was when he noticed the commotion that was happening below them.

"So it's begun." Zeus said, smiling his Cheshire smile.

"What did you do?" Athena ran to the railing.

People were screaming and pointing at a boy and a girl. They seemed quite a bit older than Athena. They were probably seniors. What could have been the reason for a bunch of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors to provoke the seniors?

"Nothing. I just disposed of an annoying bug."

"You found him, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did." Zeus said, a smile of victory creeping onto his face. "I found Prometheus' brother."

"Gods, you little-"

"If you want to have a chance to stop what's about to happen, I would recommend that you start running now."

Athena gritted her teeth. Now was not the time for this. She ran towards the rooftop exit.

"Oh, and by the way,  he's coming back."

Athena spun around, almost tripping.

"I thought he was supposed to be studying overseas until the end of the year! Why is he coming back now?"

"I guess they decided that he served his time." Zeus shrugged. "You better hurry. There are some things in there about you and your precious boyfriend in there."

Athena had almost forgotten about the commotion.

"Poseidon's not my boyfriend!"

She ran off into the building.

"Sure he isn't."

Zeus leaned back on the railing, basking in the glory of a plan well executed.

Earlier...

Pandora opened the box.

Nothing happened. The box was empty, except...

A big red button.

Even though she knew that she shouldn't touch something that wasn't supposed to be hers, Pandora could not hold back her curiosity.

She pressed the button.

Back to the present...

Athena finally managed to get to the place where the commotion was taking place. She noticed that someone, no, something, was speaking. She looked around the cafeteria until she found the source of the sound. It was a speaker. Now she knew why everyone was so mad at Pandora and Epimetheus. Somehow, Zeus had managed to gather all these rumors and information about everyone. There were rumors about students and teachers alike, ranging from simple whispers in the halls to gossip only known to select people.

Suddenly Athena remembered what Zeus had told her. She quickly ran over to the speaker and shut it off. One threat averted. Now, how was she supposed to deal with the giant mob of people still crowding around Pandora and Epimetheus?

"So you managed to find my secret little hiding place."

Athena spun around to face Zeus, who was standing behind her, leaning casually on the wall.

"So what are you going to do about it?" she asked him.

"They'll just get suspended or expelled. After all, there were quite a few bad rumors about Aphrodite in that speaker. With how powerful and rich her family is, they probably won't let something like this slide."

"You really are evil, making a recording of bad rumors and gossip and blasting it throughout the school."

"Oh, it wasn't all bad. If you had let it play all the way through, there would have been something nice at the end. Let's just call it...a shred of hope for now."

Athena glared at her cousin.

"As feisty as always. You're still the same. So predictable." Zeus said, snatching the speaker out of Athena's hands.

He walked away, smiling. Things were going to go just fine.

Soon, everything returned to normal. Although Pandora and Epimetheus were expelled, nothing really changed in Athena's school life. She joined a few extracurriculars, and life went on as it usually did. If only she had known what was waiting for her in the weeks to come.