"No!" Julia cried as Heracles disappeared. She leaped forward and grabbed at the temple wall with her fingers.
But there was nothing there except solid stone. The rift had disappeared too.
She sank onto the floor, hardly believing what had just happened. Heracles was gone.
And now Julia and Brody were trapped in ancient Greece . . . forever!
Brody looked stunned too. "I can't believe that just happened," he murmured.
Julia saw him staring at the wall behind her. "Whoa!" he cried. "What's going on?"
Julia looked up. A faint spark of light was coming through a tiny crack in the wall.
She stood and backed away, not daring to hope.
Then a hand pushed through the wall, and another.
Julia gasped. "Heracles!" she cried.
They all stared at the wall in disbelief as the hands struggled to push the wall apart.
Julia could hear Heracles grunting with effort.
"He's doing it!" Brody shouted. "He's opening the rift back up!"
"Impossible!" Hera moaned.
It did seem impossible. But sure enough, Heracles was prying open the time passage that had just closed behind him!
Soon the rift was wide enough for Heracles to wedge his upper body into it.
Brody just stood there, staring in amazement.
"Brody, help him!" Julia cried. "We have to get him through!"
She grabbed Heracles' hand and pulled as hard as she could.
For a moment nothing happened. Then Brody grabbed the hero's other hand.
Heracles grimaced with pain as his broad shoulders scraped against the wall.
"Don't pull me all the way through yet." He gasped out the words.
"You have to get through the passage before it closes again!"
Julia realized he was right. "But how can we fit through while you're in there too?" she asked.
"Just give me a moment . . ." Heracles grunted and groaned, flexing the muscles in his powerful legs.
He spread his legs apart, pushing the walls farther to the sides.
Soon there was enough space—barely—for a person to duck between his legs.
"Come on, Brody!" Julia cried.
"Hurry," Heracles said through gritted teeth. "I don't know . . . how much longer . . . I can hold it open."
"Thank you!" Julia cried, diving for the opening between Heracles' feet. "Thank you so much!"
Brody still looked confused, so Julia grabbed his hand.
She pulled him after her through Heracles' legs—and through the rift.
Behind them, Julia heard Hera ranting. "You'll pay for defying me, Heracles!" she screamed.
"Trust me, you won't have an easy day for the rest of your life, mark my . . ."
Snap! Julia tumbled out of the rift onto the sidewalk near the school gym.
"Ow," she said as her elbow scraped the pavement.
Brody was lying on the ground beside her.
He sat up and looked at the brick wall of the school building. Julia looked too.
The wall appeared normal, with no sign of the rift.
She stood up and gazed around. Actually, everything looked normal.
Brody looked at Julia and grinned. "I guess we're not in ancient Greece anymore."
A few days later, Julia pushed open the door to the school library and went inside.
She had a math test the next day, and she needed to study.
As she passed a table, she saw a copy of the school newspaper lying there.
She picked it up, glancing at the photograph of Brody on the front page.
Below the picture was the article she'd written about him.
"Yo," a familiar voice said behind her. "Admiring your greatest article ever, huh?"
Julia looked up. Brody stood there, grinning at her. A book was tucked under his arm.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I didn't think you even knew where the library was!"
"Ha-ha!" Brody laughed. "Good one!" Then he held up the book to show her. It was about ancient Greece.
Julia raised an eyebrow. She looked around to make sure nobody was close enough to hear them.
"Don't you know enough about that topic already?"
Brody shrugged. "You can always learn more about stuff, right?
Anyway, some of those myths you told me were interesting."
He stuck the book in his backpack.
"And I want to find out more about what happens to Heracles later."
Julia nodded. She couldn't stop thinking about Heracles herself.
He was going to have a hard time with Hera; Julia knew that from the myths she'd read.
Had Julia and Brody made things even worse for him? She hoped not.
But she supposed they'd never find out for sure.
"We've only been back for a few days, but it seems like longer, doesn't it?" she said.
"Sort of," Brody replied. "It's weird how no time passed while we were gone."
Julia nodded again.
When they'd returned through the rift, she and Brody had quickly figured out that only a few seconds had passed in their time while they were away.
That was definitely strange, because they'd been in ancient Greece for a couple of weeks.
So many things had happened to the two of them during those weeks!
But now that they were back in their own time, it was as if nothing had changed.
She shrugged. "I guess that's how time travel works. Who knew?"
Just then several popular kids came into the library. They spotted Brody and waved.
Suddenly one of the girls noticed Julia standing there.
"Hi, Julia!" she said, hurrying over. "I've been meaning to tell you, I really like your article about Brody."
"Thanks," Julia said shyly.
"Julia?" The other girl hurried over too.
"I'm having a party this weekend. It's Saturday night at eight. I hope you can come."
"Yeah, Julia, you should go," Brody put in. "I'll be there."
"Thanks," Julia said. "I . . . um . . . I think I can probably make it."
"Great!" The girl smiled.
Julia was smiling too as the girls walked away. She was wrong.
Some things had changed since she and Brody traveled to ancient Greece!