I was shaking. I tried not to show it by running my hands through my hair, but I was shaking. My hands were unsteady and my breath came out in shudders. Tomorrow, I take the test. I will sit in the kitchen and wait for the Hermes to come knock on the door. Then I will sit in the long white government bus with all the other fifteen year olds shaking and worried, biting nails or muttering under their breaths. I clutched my stomach. I took deep breaths. This test meant everything. You fail, and you get kicked out of Olympus. You get a weeks worth of food and a knife. You have to fend for yourself. I shook my head. I couldn't imagine not living in Olympus. Everything was perfect. But if you failed the test, you were not perfect enough to be in Olympus, you would disturb the peace. My mom knocked on the bedroom door three times like everyone does in Olympus. Anymore was rude, and any less was disrespectful.

"Come in." I said, my voice wavering. My mother opened the door. She was wearing her work clothes. She worked for the bakery down the street, and she had just come home, so her fingers, face, and clothes were smudged with flour and dough. I tried to smile, but it came off as more of a grimace. Mom's hair was coming out of her bun and her face was filled with worry.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, pressing the back of her hand to my forehead.

"Much better, thank you. The medicine you got me worked very well." I said formally. She closed the door behind her as she came into the room all the way. She sat down on my bed and I sat down beside her. We didn't say anything for a while, but she put her arm around my shoulders and I put my head on her shoulder. She smelled of cookies and warm bread. She stroked my hair.

"It's terrible you had to get sick right before your test. You'll be okay, though, I promise. You come from a long line of test masters, you know." She said.

"That's what I'm worried about." I said. Mom hugged me and kissed my head.

"Peace. You'll be okay. Would you like me to braid your hair tomorrow?" She asked. I nodded my head.

"Do you want dinner?" She asked. I looked at her.

"What is it?" I asked. She smiled.

"Well, you're father isn't home, so I brought something home from the bakery." She said. I sat up straight.

"Bagels?" I asked excitedly. Mom nodded.

"You're favorite, Parmesan cheese with a lot of butter." She said with a laugh. I jumped to my feet and raced into the kitchen. Mento, my golden retriever, followed me, his tail wagging. On the counter was a box from Mom's work. Ambrosia Bread. Almost everything in Olympus was based off the Greek Mythology from thousands of years ago. I glanced at Mom and she nodded, so I opened up the box and carefully picked up one of the warm bagels. I bit it and my mouth was covered in butter. Mento pawed at me and I threw him a bite.

"Food fit for the gods!" I said after I swallowed the bagel. Mom smiled. That was Ambrosia Bread's motto. Mento whined and wagged his tail.

"Why don't we take Mento for a walk? We might run into Soda and Annie." Mom suggested. Annie Artemis Lowe was my best friend. She had a little brown dog named Soda. Anytime Mento and Soda got together they went insane. Thus we named them Soda and Mento. I nodded and grabbed the leash. I snapped it onto Mento's collar and he dragged me to the door. I gave the leash a slight yank and Mento glanced back at me. I gave him a look and he stopped pulling, but his tail was still wagging. My mom threw her hair up into a ponytail and we walked out onto the sidewalk. All the houses looked the same, and many people were walking dogs or playing outside. Everyone got along, everything was perfect. Suddenly, there was a shout. Mento snapped his head around, his teeth bared. I followed his gaze.

"Uh, Mom?" I asked. There were two boys, around seventeen years old I'd say, and they were fighting. Mom turned around and grabbed my arm.

"Oh no." She said. They were punching each other, throwing rocks. All of a sudden, the Hermes showed up. They jumped off their hover boards and surrounded the men, their guns trained on them.

"Peace be with you! Drop the rocks and step away slowly!" One of the Hermes shouted. One of the men turned around and threw their rock at the Hermes. It collided with his helmeted head with a clunk and he fell over backwards. The Hermes shot at the man and he was bound in glowing ropes. The other man was pinned to the ground. Everyone was stone still, not daring to move. The Hermes that got hit by the rock was back on his feet. His shoved something into the boy's hand. It was a knife. Mom's grasp tightened on my arm. I knew what was going to happen. The Hermes gave a knife to the other man, then thrust a bag of food at both of them. Then he pulled something from his belt. It looked like a normal black rod, but everyone in Olympus knew what it was. Everyone seemed to breathe at once as the Hermes waved the rod in front of the boys, almost like he was searching them for weapons. But when he pulled the rod away, the boys dissolved into nothingness. All that was left was the ropes. They were outside Olympus and fending for themselves. Everyone began to move, but the Hermes raised their hands.

"If everyone could please stay calm and remain still, everything will be okay. Are the Silverstream's present?" One of them asked. Every eye was on us. I gulped, but my mom straightened up.

"Yes." She said, her voice strong. I wish I could be as brave as her. I was shaking terribly. The Hermes walked up to us.

"Cory? Mrs. Silverstream? Come with me please. I'm afraid I have some bad news." He said. Mom nodded and I handed Mento's leash to our neighbor, then we followed him to his hover board. He clicked a button and two more appeared. The Hermes showed me how to mount it and control it, did the same for my mom, then mounted his own and we took off. The hover-board reminded me of a motorized scooter my dad had shown me when I was little. We had snuck off to the edge of the city and he showed it to me. You twisted the handles backwards and you sped forward. You leaned the way you wanted to go. That was before he changed jobs. He didn't come home and sweep me off my feet anymore, he was tired all the time and always glancing over his shoulder. Two nights ago, when they thought I was asleep, I heard Mom and Dad talking. Dad was urgently telling Mom something. Something he had learned. A gust of wind jerked me back to the present. I leaned up and to the right to avoid the airstream. By the time we reached the government building, my hands hurt from twisting back the handles. Mom jumped confidently off the hover board, but I was still shaking, my legs felt like jelly. The Hermes walked over to me and helped me down, his firm hands pressing into my sides. I stood still for a second before I could walk again.

"How do you do this everyday?" I asked him incredulously. The Hermes smiled slightly.

"You get used to it. Follow me this way, please." He said. He led us into the government building and down hallway after hallway. We came to a door at the end of the hallway and the Hermes opened it for us. I followed my mom in the room, wondering what was going on. Another Hermes walked in, looking grim. He was holding three objects in his hands.

"On this day, August 24, 3048, Ray Ares Silverstream was found dead in the control room." He said. Mom gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. I put my arm around her, a numbness spreading across my body, a dull, choking ache pounded in my head and throat. Surely they were kidding. "Whoever committed this heinous crime will not have the liberty of being expelled from Olympus, but will be executed. We believe Mr. Silverstream had expected this attack, seeing as he kept a will on him. This will had only three people mentioned, and three objects. The will is as follows." He continued. Then he brought out a crumpled piece of paper.

"'To my lovely wife, Maria Nike Silverstream, who's love follows me to the grave and keeps me forever youth-full, even in Death's hands, I leave the bobby-pin you wore on our first date, it fell out of your hair on your way into your house that night and I cherished it forever.'" He said. Then he handed Mom a pin with a diamond flower on the end. It glistened in the light. Mom clutched it to her chest, tears in her eyes. The Hermes continued to read.

"'To my dog, Mento, I leave my new invention, so that he will never be separated from Cory, whom we both love deeply.'" He said. He handed me a collar. It was made of silver and on the inside, there were computer chips and wires and stuff. There was also a small dog paw with a button in the middle. My throat was aching and my eyes hurt from trying not to cry. I took a shuddering breath when I saw my Dad's signature. I bit my lip and slipped the dog paw into my pocket, draping the collar carefully around my arm. The Hermes continued. "'And to my daughter, Cory, I leave the necklace my father gave me years ago. May it give you the strength it gave me in times of need.'" The Hermes handed me a necklace. I didn't look at it. I already knew how it looked. Dad never took it off. I slid it around my neck and felt it's cool metal against my chest. I closed my eyes, picturing it on Dad the night we snuck to the edge of the city. His eyes alight with excitement. His hand wrapping around the necklace, an involuntary movement. His laugh when we zoomed about on the motorized scooter. From far away, the necklace wasn't much, but when you examined it closely, it was covered in intricate swirling designs and a empty space in the shape of an ancient symbol from one of the society's that had survived until they had a famine a couple years back, making Olympic the last one. The symbol, I believe, was called the Eye of Horus, and the pendant itself was in the shape of a falcon, which, if I'm not mistaken, was the Egyptian god Horus's sacred animal. I wrapped my hands around the necklace and took deep breaths. The Hermes re-folded the will and handed it to my mother. She took it and wiped away tears with her sleeve.

"We promise we will find who did this, Nike, and they will be punished appropriately to their crime." He said. Mom was shaking, so I nodded for her. When addressed formally, people in the societies were called by their godly name. That way we knew where they came from. Even though the two other societies, Egypt and Rome, were extinct, we still use that formality. The Hermes nodded back to me.

"Peace be with you." He said. Then the Hermes from before led us back to the hover boards. Something in the Hermes voice when he said that. "Peace be with you" is a common phrase used in Olympus, but he almost sounded annoyed by saying it. I tore my thoughts away from that and focused all my energy on keeping Mom from falling off the hover board, she was shaking so bad. The Hermes dropped us off at our house and we went inside. I put Mento's new collar around his neck and led Mom to her room. She shook her head at me.

"I'll sleep on the couch." She said. I hesitated for a second, then led her back into the living room. I gave her a blanket and a pillow and she fell asleep almost instantly. I stood there for a minute, wanting to say something, but nothing came to mind that would sooth the ache. I let out a painful sigh and touched my fingers lightly to my lips then to her forehead, a motion we had used in my family for generations.

"Peace be with you." I said. Then I crawled into my bed and fell asleep without even changing out of my clothes.

How could he be dead?