Queen of the Clueless #2 of 3 (COMPLETE)

Chapter 9

"...I know it sounds weird, but I swear it works. It's my sister's new favorite thing. And I think you should try it. I wouldn't mind taking you. The closest I think is in Alabang, but I can ask your tita if you're worried that she won't let you go with me. Or we can go after a school thing, like your museum trip? Will she be okay with that?"

The weird thing was? I heard every single thing Robbie said. I was aware of where we were, and what I was doing. In fact, I might actually have been talking back, and to him it probably looked like we were having a perfectly normal conversation. Except? I didn't know how I got there.

It was like being in one of my goddess dreams. But this wasn't a dream, because it was humid and I was sweating, and my dreams were never as uncomfortable.

"Sure," I heard myself tell him. "Of course she will. She likes you."

Did I just say yes to a date with Robbie?

It wasn't that I didn't want to go out with him, but it was totally weird that I seemed to be there and not there while this was happening.

We were sitting on the steps of the front porch of my aunt's house. I lived with her during the regular school year, because it was just a short walk from her house to Ford River. My home in Manila was too far and stressful a trip, but I still went back to visit my mom every two weeks. Or she'd come over and see me.

It was right on that porch where Robbie and I had a moment, months ago, when he had saved me from a riot at a seedy club and drove me home. It was the right place to be having another one, and Robbie probably knew that when he asked me out.

His face lit up as I kind of said yes. He was about to say something else, but it got drowned out as a car screeched to a halt right in front of us.

Quin and Diego practically leaped from the car. If they were that coordinated on the basketball court, we'd win more games.

"Robbie, Coach is looking for you," Quin said. That was all it took for regular mortal boy to stand up, wave goodbye to me, and leave me alone with my two gods.

"Hannah?" Quin's face hovered above mine, and it was full of concern.

"What did he do to her?" Diego paced in the background, entering and leaving my peripheral vision.

"Nothing, if you had just stayed with her." Quin was talking to Diego but concentrating on something else, like he was pulling light out of the sky, and it formed into a ball in his hand. I couldn't help but stare at the glowy thing, and then it kind of exploded in my face.

I squealed, and jumped, half expecting something to feel a burn. Instead I landed right into Quin's arms, and my mind felt free and clear.

"What just happened?" I asked. (And let me just say, Quin's embrace felt exactly like it did in my goddess dreams. Not that I was sure it was him there with me.)

* * *

"I already told you how it happened."

"Tell me again."

"I said hi to Neil. And then he said hi. And then he shook my hand. And then everything sort of faded to white, but only for a second. I think we... We were talking, and then Robbie dropped by, and asked if he could walk me home, and now we're probably going to this restaurant that serves peanut butter spaghetti. That was real, right? Because that just sounds weird now."

I was trying to recall if Diego had ever been here at the house before. Tita Carmen greeted him with less warmth than what Quin usually got. Diego didn't even sit down; he was standing by the living room window the entire time, and even said no to my aunt's offer of cupcakes. I thought that was rude.

"It's the handshake," he said.

Quin, sitting across the table from me, kept his eyes on my face the entire time. I noticed. It was a bit intense. "Of course it's the handshake, but how could he have done it at all? You were aware of everything that was happening?"

"Yes," I said. "Except, I kind of knew that I was also separate from it somehow. Like my goddess dreams."

"Goddess dreams?" Quin's voice perked up a tiny bit.

I coughed. "Yeah, I told you about the dreams, right?"

"Not in much detail."

Well yeah because of the PDA. "It wasn't like the dreams, just the feeling of being in a dream." Don't blush, don't blush. "Like I was watching myself. And I had a plan, I was supposed to talk to him about some things, and I ended up not talking about them at all."

"Does he know you're a goddess now?"

"I don't think so. I haven't even told Sol."

"Coffee, Quin?" said Tita Carmen, from the kitchen.

"Yes, Tita, also for Diego please," Quin answered.

"So is he one of us?" I asked, nearly whispering. "One of you, I mean? Who else could have messed with my head like that, right?"

Quin shook his head. "If one of the other gods showed up here, we would have known."

"Maybe he's good at hiding."

Quin didn't buy that. "None of us can hide from one another."

Diego shook his head. "You'd like to think so."

Tita Carmen, a more petite version of my mother, arrived with a tray that had three mugs. We were silent as she served each of us. I couldn't wait until she left, because I wanted to hear Quin and Diego argue again. I was learning a lot more from it than a regular training day.

Quin remained silent though, just watching as Tita Carmen returned to the kitchen. He stirred, maybe to speak, but instead tapped my wrist. Reassuring, but not informative.

So I spoke up. "Maybe he's a new guy? Because it's possible, right? If you could make me into a goddess..."

"He is not a new god," Quin said, as if the very idea were impossible. "There are no new—"

"Well he's something." Diego straightened up, ready to go. "I'll find out what."

"What do I do?" I asked.

"Nothing," Quin said. "Stay away from him."

"But if he's a dangerous new god I have to keep him away from Sol—"

"Hannah, stop it. You can't do anything about this. You're going to have to let me handle it. And he is not a new god, absolutely no way, because if he were he wouldn't have been able to overpower you. You would be a generation above him. That's just how it works."

Does it? I had to bite my tongue so I wouldn't wind up arguing. Because you broke the rules already when you brought me along for this ride. You mean no one else can do the same?