Golden Girl

~33~

"You know why his bow has cobwebs?" Leo continued. "He uses it to hunt for dates, but he can't find one!"

One of the nymphs laughed. Aurelia intensified that amusement, and some of the nymphs were trying not to giggle as well.

Narcissus turned and scowled at Leo. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Super-sized McShizzle, man!" Leo said. "I'm Leo Valdez, bad boy supreme. And the ladies love a bad boy." Leo winked at Aurelia and waved her over to do something. 

"Love a bad boy!" Echo said with a convincing squeal.

"Absolutely," Aurelia said, forcing an amazed look on her face as she stared at Leo. Her powers pulled focus onto them as she took his face in her hands and pressed her lips to his cheek. She let out a convincing giggle as she pulled away.

The nymphs were shocked, and slowly they all started to turn their backs on Narcissus.

Leo took out a pen and autographed the arm of one of the nymphs. "Narcissus is a loser! He's so weak, he can't bench-press a Kleenex. He's so lame, when you look up lame on Wikipedia, it's got a picture of Narcissus—only the picture's ugly, so no one ever checks it out."

Narcissus knit his handsome eyebrows. His face was turning from bronze to salmon pink. For a moment, he'd truly forgotten about the pond. Aurelia could see the sheet of bronze sinking into the sand.

"What are you talking about?" Narcissus demanded. "I am amazing. Everyone knows that."

"Amazing as in pure suck," Leo said. "If I was as suck as you, I'd drown myself. Oh, wait, you already did that."

Another nymph giggled. Then another. Narcissus growled, which did make him look a little less handsome. Meanwhile Leo beamed and wiggled his eyebrows over his goggles and spread his arms, gesturing from applause.

"That's right!" he said, taking Aurelia's hand and spinning her once. "Team Leo for the win!"

"Team Leo for the win!" Echo shouted. She'd wriggled into the mob of nymphs, and because she was so hard to see, the nymphs apparently thought the voice came from one of their own.

"Oh my gods, I am so awesome!" Leo bellowed.

"So awesome!" Echo yelled.

"He is funny," a nymph ventured.

"And cute, in a scrawny way," another said.

"Scrawny?" Leo asked. "Baby, I invented scrawny. Scrawny is the new sizzling hot. And I GOT the scrawny. Narcissus? He's such a loser even the Underworld didn't want him. He couldn't get the ghost girls to date him."

"Eww," said a nymph.

"Eww!" Echo agreed.

"Stop!" Narcissus got to his feet. "That is not right! This person is obviously not awesome, so he must be ..." He struggled for the right words. It had probably been a long time since he'd talked about anything other than himself. "He must be tricking us."

Apparently Narcissus wasn't completely stupid. Realization dawned on his face. He turned back to the pond. "The bronze mirror is gone! My reflection! Give me back to me!"

"Team Leo!" one of the nymphs squeaked. But the others returned their attention to Narcissus.

"I'm the beautiful one," Narcissus insisted. "He's stolen my mirror, and I'm going to leave unless we get it back."

The girls gasped. Aurelia lost her grip on them. One pointed. "There!"

Hazel was atop of the crater, running away as fast as she could while lugging a large sheet of bronze. "Get it back!" cried a nymph.