10th Muse: Blade of Medusa. Darren G. Davis
the details,” her
father said. “ You need to focus on getting good grades first.”
“And being on time,” her mother reminded her, “so you bet-
ter get moving.”
With a heavy sigh, Emma grabbed her backpack and left the
house.
On the days that Emma was not late for school, she met her
friends on the benches by the flagpole. Today, they didn’t have
much time before homeroom, but still enough time for Emma
to complain.
“I can’t believe my dad wants me to work at the courthouse
this summer,” she whined to her friends.
“That’s so cool,” they said at the same time.
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T H O M A S J . M I S U R A C A
“Did my parents pay you to say that?” she said.
“No,” said Brett, “but this is an opportunity for you to get
experience in what you want to do.”
“Yeah, you get to see justice in action,” Dawn said.
“I am justice in action,” she reminded them. “Besides, I’ll
be an intern, the bottom of the barrel. My days will be filled
with jammed staplers and paper cuts.”
As she spoke, Grayson Bishop was making his way past
them toward the school building, winking at Emma along the
way.
“At least you won’t have to deal with Grayson Bishop,”
said Dawn, trying to look on the bright side.
“I’ll remember that when you guys are tanning at the
beach.”
“I don’t tan,” Dawn said. “I burn too easily. Though I do
love to go to the beach and read.”
“You’re not helping,” Emma said as she started inside.
“I hate the beach,” Brett said.
“Sure you do.” Emma wasn’t buying it.
Out of the corner of his eye, Brett noticed Gloria getting out
of a luxurious town car. She appeared more stunning than the
• 28 •
C H A P T E R T H R E E
previous day. Even though she was dressed in jeans and a pink
blouse, her looked like she was heading out for a night on the
town.
Emma and Dawn entered the building without much
thought of Gloria, but Brett stopped and held the door open for
her.
“Thank you,” she said, stepping inside.
During homeroom, the principal made his usual morning
announcements about lunch menus and afterschool activities.
But then, his voice turned somber:
“I received a call this morning from the Legion of Honor. It
appears that during our visit, one of their artifacts was stolen.
They do not accuse our students of stealing it, but they would
like any information you may have in locating it.
“The sword was stolen from the Greek History room—”
In three separate homerooms, three separate pairs of ears
suddenly perked up.
“I would be very disappointed to learn any of my students
were involved in such reckless theft,” the principal continued,
“but I will happily hear in confidence any information that may
• 29 •
T H O M A S J . M I S U R A C A
help regain this artifact.”
As the PA crackled off, mumbles of suspicion began rum-
bling through Emma’s homeroom.
“Who’d steal a sword from a museum?”
“Bet it was Grayson Bishop.”
“Or Derek Archer…didn’t he go nuts earlier this year?”
“How’d they sneak it onto the bus?”
“Are they saving it for the medieval fair this summer?”
The vocal questions that spun around Emma were nothing
like the ones in her head. Was this just a coincidence that some-
thing from the Greek History room was stolen? Or did this
mean that something big was brewing?
Dawn and Brett couldn’t catch up to Emma fast enough
before their first class.
“I know, I know,” Emma greeted them before they could
say anything. “I’m thinking the same thing.”
“Do you have any idea who would steal such a thing,” Brett
said, “and not get noticed?”
“There had to be security cameras,” Dawn said. Her father
was a cop, and from the sound of it, most places with valuables
had security cameras.
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C H A P T E R T H R E E
“It could be a coincidence,” Emma said, trying to look at the
situation for all angles; the debate club had taught her that.
“Still, the idea of somebody walking around with a sword is not
very appealing. Somebody could get hurt. Probably me.”
“We’ll keep our ears to the ground,” Dawn said. “People are
sure to be talking about it. So if it was a student, somebody’s
gotta slip up.”
As they walked into history class they thought it seemed
noisier than usual.
“She is so hot!” one of the guys exclaimed.
“It’s like one of my fantasies came to life!” another sighed.
Emma and Dawn glanced at each other out of the corner of
their eyes. High school boys were usually pretty obnoxious, but
this was too much.
“What’s going on?” Emma asked nobody in particular.
“Gloria,” Brett sighed. “ That’s what happened.”
“Gloria?” Dawn asked. “The new girl?”
“Mmmm hmmm,” Brett said with a nod of his head.
“I guess spring is in the air,” Dawn said.
“Sounds like a lot of that is going around,” Emma said.
“Brett,