Jessica stood under the flow of the showerhead, the water pounding into her back and shoulders as she massaged her head with the fruit-scented shampoo. It felt so lovely to wash her hair, to be in a shower, to be clean for the first time in a few weeks. Amber had been so easy to convince once she saw that Jessica had the cash on her; she agreed readily to the offer of letting Jessica stay in her apartment, no questions asked, for ten thousand dollars in cash.

As the suds washed down her back, Jessica let her mind drift to the events earlier in the afternoon. She had recognized Siwon and Yuri as two of her lesser cousins; neither of them were high enough in Olympus’s eyes to achieve full Godhood but they were loyal to her father. If they caught Jessica then they would not hesitate to drag her kicking and screaming back to Olympus. 

The problem was that unless she accepted full Godhood, she wasn’t powerful enough to resist them. But since she was resisting them to NOT have to become a full fledged Goddess, she had to use the few powers available to her; those being strength, resilience, and her teleportation. Unfortunately Siwon and Yuri had those same powers, though, so she had to be more careful. Now that she had somewhere to stay, though…

“Hey, I put some towels for you here on the counter,” Amber’s low voice came through the shower curtain, and Jessica found herself smiling brightly. 

“Thank you!” She piped cheerfully, and received a hesitant chuckle in return.

“Um… yeah… oh and I put a toothbrush and some toothpaste here too…”

Jessica’s nose wrinkled as she thought automatically of how her breath must have smelled, and she blushed lightly in embarrassment. “Thanks,” she said again, though this time more abashed than cheerful.

“Yeah… you’re welcome.” 

There came the soft sound of the door closing, and Jessica couldn’t help but let out a giggle. The tomboyish girl was so awkward! With a final rinse, she pushed back the curtain and stepped out of the shower, grabbing the towels from where Amber had placed them and wrapping one around herself. The other she used on her hair, and once it was satisfactorily secured on her head, she used the toothbrush that the other girl had kindly left her. A quick rummage through her backpack showed that she had nothing clean to wear, and since she was clean she didn’t want to ruin that by putting on grungy clothing again. 

Opening the door, she made her way down the hallway into the one bedroom in the back of the apartment. The room was darkly lit but she could make out a large, perfectly made bed in the center of the far wall, and across from it what she was searching for. She opened the closet doors and was surprised to see that the majority of clothing was oversized tees and sports wear. She had assumed that Amber had been dressed as she was because of work, but looking at this it was obvious that the girl simply preferred it. With a shrug Jessica grabbed the first shirt that she could reach, then closed the closet without another look.

‘Ten thousand dollars is sitting in my backpack. Ten thousand dollars.’ The thought kept spinning through Amber’s mind as she tried to focus on cooking dinner, but after several failed attempts she finally settled on making simple instant ramen. Jessica’s accent spoke clearly that she was a native English speaker, though she had an odd tinge to some of her words that made Amber curious as to her birthplace. ‘Ten thousand dollars is sitting in my backpack.’ 

With a look at the said backpack, Amber let out a sigh and crossed the room to open it. The bills lay there neatly, the sight of the mass of it making drop once again. She couldn’t believe that anyone would throw around ten thousand dollars… 

It actually made her believe that Jessica truly was running from something bad. Why else would she give away this much money when she could simply go stay in a hotel for a lot cheaper? Amber knew that the other girl would ask her to not tell anyone she was staying here; it only made sense. There were quite a few things that Amber would sleep easier if she knew the answers to… but she wasn’t going to ask. Ten thousand dollars paid for that.

“That smells g