𝐎𝐏𝐀𝐋𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒༄ • Jᴀsᴏɴ Gʀᴀᴄᴇ

Chapter 37

"Okay he's pretty," Said Freya. 

Hazel took a sharp breath. "He's gorgeous," she corrected. 

Around them, the nymphs squealed and clapped in agreement.

 "I am," the young man murmured dreamily, his gaze still fixed on the water." I am so gorgeous."

 One of the nymphs showed her iPhone screen. "His latest YouTube video got a million hits in like, an hour. I think I was half of those!" The other nymphs giggled. 

"YouTube video?" Leo asked. "What does he do in the video, sing?"

"No, silly!" the nymph chided. "He used to be a prince, and a wonderful hunter and stuff. But that doesn't matter. Now he just...well, look!" She showed Leo the video and with difficulty, Freya looked away from the handsome dude and at the phone. It was exactly what they were seeing in real life—the guy staring at himself in the pond.

 "He is sooooo hot!" said another girl. Her T-shirt read: MRS. NARCISSUS."

"Narcissus?" Freya asked. Oh. She remembered the story about him.

"Narcissus," Echo agreed sadly.

 Freya had forgotten Echo was there. Apparently none of the nymphs had noticed her either.

 "Oh, not you again!" Mrs. Narcissus tried to push Echo away, but she misjudged where the camouflaged girl was and ended up shoving several other nymphs. 

"You had your chance, Echo!" said the nymph with the iPhone. 

"He dumped you four thousand years ago! You are so not good enough for him." 

"For him," Echo said bitterly.

 "Wait." said Hazel, who was also having hard time tearing her eyes away from Narcissus, but in the end managed it. "What's going on here? Why did Echo bring us here?" 

One nymph rolled her eyes. She was holding an autograph pen and a crumpled poster of Narcissus. "Echo was a nymph like us, a long time ago, but she was a total chatterbox! Gossiping, blah, blah, blah, all the time." 

"I know!" another nymph shrieked. "Like, who could stand that? Just the other day, I told Cleopeia—you know she lives in the boulder next to me?—I said: Stop gossiping or you'll end up like Echo. Cleopeia is such a big mouth! Did you hear what she said about that cloud nymph and the satyr?" 

"Totally!" said the nymph with the poster. "So anyway, as punishment for blabbing, Hera cursed Echo so she could only repeat things, which was fine with us. But then Echo fell in love with our gorgeous guy, Narcissus—as if he would ever notice her." 

"As if!" said half a dozen others. 

"Now she's got some weird idea he needs saving," said Mrs. Narcissus. "She should just go away." 

"Go away," Echo growled back. 

"I'm so glad Narcissus is alive again," said another nymph in a gray dress. She had the words NARCISSUS + LAIEA written up and down her arms in black marker. "He's like the best! And he's in my territory." 

"Oh, stop it, Laiea," her friend said. "I'm the pond nymph. You're just the rock nymph."

 "Well, I'm the grass nymph," another protested. 

"No, he obviously came here because he likes the wildflowers!" another said." Those are mine!" 

"Well I'm the daughter of Poseidon, so currently you're all in my territory." Freya interrupted, her voice hard. She was getting sick of all these shallow, chattering girls. The nymphs fell silent. They stared at her shamelessly enough that it made her regret saying anything. She didn't usually use the parentage card, but she couldn't deny how good it felt to have them all shut up.