Uranus and the Bubbles of Trouble by Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams

Author:Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aladdin

CHAPTER SEVEN

Who’s the Fairest?

Apollo, who was sitting by Hera, reached for the golden apple. “I think it’s plain to see, that the fairest of us is me,” rhymed the blond-haired, blue-eyed boy.

Hera slapped Apollo’s hand away. “No way! Eris was talking about one of us girls.”

“Yes,” Aphrodite agreed. “Girls are fair. Boys are handsome.”

“But which girl?” Poseidon asked, and his question hung in the air.

“Who did you mean the apple for, Eris?” Zeus asked, sensing that trouble was brewing. But he turned just in time to see their strange host disappear. As she glided from the room, he noticed feathers poking out of the back of her sleeveless dress.

“Feathers!” he hissed to Athena as the other Olympians continued arguing around them. “I think Eris has wings!”

Athena’s eyes narrowed. “That’s it!” she exclaimed. “I just remembered why her name is familiar. Eris is the winged goddess of discord!”

“Discord?” Zeus asked. “As in disagreement and conflict? And in making Olympians argue?”

Athena nodded worriedly. “She’s a Creature of Chaos. She can even cause wars!”

“That apple is obviously meant for Aphrodite,” Hephaestus was saying now. “She’s clearly the prettiest one here—prettiest in the whole world, even.”

“Yeah. Like he said!” Ares echoed.

Aphrodite started to reach for the apple but drew her hand back when Hera snapped at her. “Leave it!” Hera glared at Aphrodite’s two supporters. “What do you two know, anyway?

“Yeah, Hephaestus. You lived on an island full of hairy guys most of your life,” said the normally good-tempered Athena. “And, Ares, your best friends were a flock of metal birds.”

“Well, since Eris isn’t here to ask who the apple is meant for, I suppose we should just leave it on the table and be on our way,” Zeus said. Eris was obviously trying to start trouble among them with this apple. If he didn’t stop it, who knew what could happen?

However, before anyone could second his suggestion, Aphrodite grabbed the apple. “Since I am very pretty, I should be the one to take it.” She batted her long eyelashes at the group.

Hera looked at her sisters, Hestia and Demeter. “Can you believe she just said that? I mean, I’m pretty too, but I don’t go around saying it.”

“But you just did say it!” argued Hades.

Zeus jumped up. “We should just leave the apple and go,” he commanded. “I couldn’t eat another bite!”

“I could,” Poseidon said. His plate was empty. It was so clean, he must have licked it. Now he began heaping more food on it.

Gesturing a hand at Zeus, Hephaestus snorted and spoke to the others. “There’s your leader, running away again! I’ll show you what a leader really should do. Make decisions. And I have decided that Aphrodite should get the apple!”

“You’re not our leader,” Hera snapped. “And the apple landed closest to me, Aphrodite, and Athena, so it could belong to any one of us.”

“I bet it’s for you, Hera,” said Hestia.

“Yes, I vote for Hera to get the apple,” agreed Demeter.

“ ‘Fair’ does not have to mean a pretty face.

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