Born in Beauty

by Melody Rose

  The other thing that the notice said that I hadn’t expected was the announcement of two outings off-campus for students so they could find appropriate costumes. They were actually letting us out into the mortal world for this.

  Tené and Fiona went above and beyond, which made me all the more suspicious considering what hardasses the Olympic Officials had once been. I wondered what they were like now that some of them were Love Struck. Big softies, maybe? Did the General turn into a gooey teddy bear due to the effects of Eros’s formula?

  The mental image made me shiver a little bit, and Violet misinterpreted my reaction, thinking it related to her comment. Like a wilting flower, she shrunk down immediately as her enthusiasm left her.

  “Oh,” she said, her voice practically a whisper. “I thought you all would be excited.”

  “If you want to talk to someone excited, talk to Benji,” Darren said with a jerk of his head in the direction where Benji sat on Zach’s lap.

  Both Violet and I looked over at the wrong moment. Zach fed Benji grapes, and our friend bit down on the Gi soldier’s finger and sucked. My face contorted into a grimace while Violet blinked back her surprise.

  “I don’t want to… uh, interrupt them,” Violet reasoned, turning back to our group.

  “You’re not excited, Darren?” I asked. I was interested to see what my friends thought of the dance, considering this was the first time I had seen either of them since the announcement went up.

  “Not really,” Darren said with a shrug. “I mean, I didn’t like dances in high school. Why would I like them here?”

  “You don’t think this will be different?” Violet wondered, wistful and full of hope.

  “No,” Darren said pessimistically. “There will be loud, annoying music, people grinding everywhere, people will get drunk, and then you’ll get made fun of for being a wallflower. Not my scene.” Darren took a sip of his coffee as if to emphasize his point and conclude his argument all at the same time.

  “I liked dances,” Violet said with a little shimmy. “It was a great time to hang out with your friends and just party. And you got to get all dressed up. But I’ve never been to a masquerade. This should be exciting!”

  Darren rolled his eyes. “Maybe I’ll volunteer to take a shift at the med bay that night.”

  “You will not!” Violet demanded, holding out her hands defiantly. “Because you’re coming with me to the dance.”

  Darren nearly spat out all of his coffee. “I am?”

  “Well, I mean, not just me,” Violet rushed to correct. “I mean, all three of us are going together. As friends. Right?”

  “Actually,” I said, drawing out the word with hesitation. Because I could finish, the daughter of Hebe jumped in with a whine.

  “Oh no, not you too, Cheyenne!” Violet complained, her face contorting into a pout. “I know you both think being Love Struck is complete shit, but I think it’s going to do some good for the Academy. Bringing some much-needed fun. And you two are being curmudgeons for not seeing it.”

  Violet huffed out a sharp exhale and then crossed her arms over her chest. Darren and I shared an exasperated look and let her wallow in her dramatics for a moment before I spoke up.

  “What I was going to say,” I pushed my annoyance into my voice without shame, “is that I’m actually in charge of the dance.”

  “You’re what?” Violet blinked in complete astonishment, her hands falling away from their tight place across her chest.

  Darren’s eyes bulged out of his head. “How did you land that job?”

  “It’s a long story,” I said, doing my best to wave off the details for now. “But I get to make a committee of people to help with everything, and I thought…” I trailed off, hoping they would fill in the blank. Unfortunately, Darren looked completely clueless and stuck out his neck, indicating I should finish. At least Violet seemed to be on the same page because she was absolutely buzzing with excitement. Though she clearly wanted me to ask her outright.

  “You all could help me?” I asked, my voice rising on every word.

  “Yes, yes! A thousand times, yes!” Violet shrieked like she was accepting a marriage proposal. She promptly hopped up from the bench and dashed around the long table so she could collapse into my lap, yanking me into a hug. “This is going to be so amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  Violet rocked our bodies back and forth, almost giving me motion sickness. This new position forced me to look directly at Darren, who wore a completely unamused expression. I widened my eyes and turned my lips down into a pouty frown.

  “Please?” I mouthed at him as Violet continued to squeeze the life out of me.

  Darren shook his head in response.

  “I’m just so excited because this is the perfect excuse for all of us to hang out together again,” Violet chided, still hugging me. “I’ve missed not having class with you all.”

  I glanced over at Violet’s head, making my eyes wide and my expression apparent so that Darren could read me loud and clear. Was he really going to say no to spending time with all of us? Especially our dear friend Violet? Who hadn’t gotten drafted in the first round and really needed this right now?

  The healer huffed and rolled his eyes as though I were torturing him instead of simply asking for a favor. He rolled his lips over his teeth and scrunched up his nose like he smelled a skunk. Finally, Darren’s expression softened, and he adjusted his glasses.

  “It should be fun,” Darren sighed.

  Violet gasped loudly and swiveled her body so she could include Darren in our bone-crushing hug. I felt her chest bounce as she laughed with reckless abandon. A smile crept onto Darren’s face, too, and I whispered, “Thank you,” to let him know I appreciated him doing this even though it clearly wasn’t his thing.

  Darren’s expression softened, and he wrapped Violet and me in his long arms, squeezing us once before letting us go. Violet sighed contentedly, now in between the two of us. She pulled her tray over to our side of the table and chose to remain there for the rest of the meal.

  “So,” Violet said as she scooped up a forkful of scrambled eggs. “Who else is going to be on our committee?”

  “And are you going to tell us how you got assigned to do this?” Darren asked, leaning back on the bench so he could see me when he asked the question.

  “Yes,” I answered Darren first. “Just not here. And I don’t know. I was told I have to include someone named Oliver Patel, but I’ve never heard of him.”

  I could barely finish the rest of my sentence because upon hearing Oliver Patel’s name, Violet gasped.

  “What? What?” I prompted, suddenly worried. “Is that bad?”

  “No, it’s amazing,” Violet said through her hands on her mouth. “I just didn’t know he was on campus. I thought he stopped teaching.”

  “Who is he?” I ventured the question, though it felt oddly dangerous to ask.

  “He’s the old drama teacher,” Violet reported, showing off her own knowledge.

  “The Academy had drama classes?” I balked. “That seems so counterintuitive.”

  “I know, right?” Violet agreed. “But it’s true. It used to be a thing, but instead of performing, we just study drama now. Oliver didn’t really quit because of the Academy equivalent of tenure or something, so he went traveling for a while, or so the rumors say, but apparently, now he’s back.”

  “The drama teacher is going to help me plan a masquerade ball?” My lips pinched together skeptically. “Great.”

  “It’s going to be great,” Violet hugged me with the same enthusiastic fervor as before. “Can I be in charge of the menu?”

  “Absolutely,” I agreed. “You can handle all of that.”

  “Yay!” Violet clapped her hands together. “I can’t wait to pick fresh new fruits and veggies from my garden.”

  “How is your garden going?” Darren asked, apparently desperate for a change in subject.

  “Really well,” Violet croone
d like a proud mother. “I know the Agriculture class is going to help us harvest it when the time comes.”

  “Oh, that’s good to know,” I said, appreciating the insight. “So, I’ll make sure I’m sick that day.”

  Violet shoved me playfully. “Stop. You’ll have fun, I promise.”

  “Just as much fun as Darren is going to have planning this dance with us,” I joked.

  Darren’s face fell into a scowl while Violet and I burst into laughter. Darren playfully scooted down the bench away from the pair of us.

  “Cheyenne,” someone said, interrupting our fun.

  I recognized the voice right away and wished I could stay in the moment just seconds before where I was laughing and enjoying my time with my friends before I had to face Ansel. I hadn’t seen him since being at the med bay together. I didn’t even bother to go looking for him afterward, too wrapped up in my own thoughts about the dance and the planning process.

  Still, I swallowed my nerves and turned on the bench to face him. “Hi Ansel,” I smiled brightly, though I knew the look didn’t get all the way to my eyes.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked with a vulnerable look in his eye.

  Ansel’s eyes were open and asking. It startled me to see the wall down in such a public venue. It made my heart thump faster, and my mouth go dry.

  “Sure,” I answered, surprising even myself.

  Ansel held out his hand, and I took it, like a princess stepping out of a carriage. I could feel the dozens upon dozens of eyes on the pair of us as I rose to my feet. I looked into his deep green eyes, and the rest of the cafeteria melted away. I couldn’t recall the last time I felt like this. We were back up in the sky, just the two of us in the chariot, with nothing else up there with us but the clouds and the blue vastness.

  The soldier released my hand once I rose to my feet, and everything fell back into place. The whispers rippled around the room, and I felt them shiver down my skin. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, out of the judgmental eye of the soldiers and students, so I picked up the pace and fast-walked out of the cafeteria.

  Once outside, Ansel caught up to me and walked side by side for a moment. We felt the full effects of the changing seasons right away. Fall had crept its way into the atmosphere. The grass paled and grew stiff, breakable with a single step. The trees on campus started changing colors to bright reds and oranges, with still some green ones hanging on. The wind was crisp and brisk, catching on my sash. I had to adjust it as I walked along, to make sure it didn’t flap off.

  When my hand dropped back to my side, Ansel slipped his hand into mine.

  Shocked and stunned, I jumped back and away from him as if I’d been electrocuted.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, appalled.

  “I’m sorry,” Ansel said as he tucked his hands behind his back, clasping them together officially. “I should have asked first.”

  “I thought you wanted to talk to me about something,” I said as I stopped in my tracks. I didn’t mean to come off as defensive, but I took a step back and crossed my arms.

  “I do,” Ansel said as he also stopped and faced me. “I wanted to see if you would like to go to the dance with me.”

  “What?” the word escaped my lips, propelled by surprise.

  “Would you like to go to--?” Ansel repeated, but I held up a hand and cut him off.

  “I heard you, I just don’t know why you’re asking me,” I said. “I thought we agreed not to do this. Whatever this is.”

  I held up my hand and waved it around his body. Images of his torso, abs, and shoulders brightened in my mind’s eye, and I blinked them away. However, it only came into focus the more I thought about it.

  “But I thought that was because it was against the rules,” Ansel said, his own eyes blinking rapidly in confusion. “Not because we didn’t feel something for each other.”

  “I mean yeah, but…” My breathing grew heavy as I thought about the possibilities he was offering. I could hold his hand, run my hands through his hair, kiss him again.

  Ansel must have seen the shift in my eyes because he took several steps closer to me so that our breaths were mixed into one another with the crispy air. I didn’t pull away. I let him approach and let him put his hands on my neck. I was memorized by his eyes and his closeness. We pulled together against the wind, and I relished in his warmth.

  I ran my hands up his arms and felt the muscles I had so admired in the med bay. As I thought back to that moment, I wondered what his results showed. Since I never caught back up with him, I had no idea how it turned out for him. Was the sudden surge of affection a cause of being Love Struck?

  Suddenly scared, I pulled away from Ansel. My breath was short and labored, like I had just run a marathon as the panic took hold of me. As much as I wanted this, wanted him, I didn’t want it if it wasn’t real. The affection might have been there originally, I knew that much. But I didn’t need something spurred by whatever impulsive and infatuated disease Eros caused.

  “What is it?” Ansel asked, worry in his eyes.

  I put a hand to my throat and tried to slow my breaths. “I can’t, Ansel.”

  “Cheyenne,” Ansel said my name like a prayer, and I wanted to answer it, more than anything. But I wanted it to be real, not some false infatuation.

  So I took a step back.

  “Did you test positive?” I snapped, my tongue a whip as it lashed out the words.

  “For Love Struck?” Ansel wondered, as if he had never heard the term before.

  I tried to search for it in his eyes, tried to see if this really was because he liked me and not because he had been struck with some sort of supernatural love arrow. But I couldn’t see it, I couldn’t tell, and I didn’t know if that was worse.

  “Yes,” Ansel said, but his gaze didn’t falter from me as he admitted it, “but that doesn’t mean anything. Everyone has a taste of it.”

  “Not me,” I said through a tight throat. “I don’t.”

  Ansel cocked his head to one side, his hair flopping over. “What do you mean?”

  I held out my arms, wide and vulnerable. “I had no signs, tested completely negative. They even said I was immune, but everyone else is caught up in this thing, somehow.”

  “Cheyenne, that doesn’t change how I feel,” Ansel tried to argue, but I wouldn’t let him.

  “Yes, it does, Ansel,” I insisted. “Don’t you see? All of this is going to go away. That’s what we’re trying to do, get things back to normal. When it’s normal, all of this is going to be done, and the rules will return. Then where will we be?”

  Ansel blinked as though he hadn’t thought that far ahead, and I bet he hadn’t. I stepped away once more and held myself.

  “When this is all over if you still feel this way and there’s a chance,” I said with a sigh, “then we can do it. We’ll go for it, and I’ll kiss your damn face off.”

  At least that line made him chuckle, and while I relished in his laugh, I continued on.

  “I’ll do more than kiss you,” I said, unable to hold back my own giggle. “But it can’t be now. Not while all of this is going on. It’s too much and too unreal.”

  “I don’t believe that,” Ansel said as he shook his head. He pulled down the long sleeves of his black uniform shift to block out the cold. “I believe my feelings are real, but I’ll listen to you. We don’t have to do anything romantic or physical.”

  Relieved, I felt like I could breathe again. Even though the air was cold, it felt like a refreshing glass of water. However, I watched a resolve come over Ansel as he made up his mind on something.

  “But I don’t want to avoid you,” Ansel demanded. “I want to hang out, to get to know you more, to be close to you.”

  I thought about his proposal. I could manage that. It would be great to be around him when we weren’t fighting monsters or falling out of the sky. I felt a smile grow on my face, and I felt the warmest that I had since stepping outside.
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  “Be on the dance committee with me,” I offered.

  “The dance committee?” Ansel said like it was a joke, a snort at the end of his sentence. But then he realized I was serious, and he looked stunned. “How did you get on the dance committee?”

  “Immunity, remember?” I said with a cheeky point at myself. “Which, if you could not share that information, that would be great.”

  Ansel pretended to zip his mouth shut. “Your secret is safe with me.”

  It was a funny moment as it occurred to me that the roles had reversed. Around this time last year, Ansel had asked me to keep a secret for him. The fact that he had exploded in a burst of sun fire when the Academy thought he had it under control. Now here I was, asking him not to tell anyone that for some unknown reason, I couldn’t be claimed by Eros’s Love Struck. It strengthened the bond between us, and I appreciated the comradery it brought.

  “So, what does this dance committee involve?” Ansel said as he sauntered up to me and closed the gap once more. This time, however, we weren’t within kissing distance. There was a foot between us, and I was grateful that he’d listened to my wishes.

  “Well, the first line of business is trying to recruit the elusive Oliver Patel to help us,” I said as I bit the corner of my lip. I didn’t know what kind of reaction Ansel would have to hearing Oliver’s name, but I wasn’t expecting full-on panic.

  You would have thought I brought a python or some other big scary thing out of a box, Ansel’s eyes got so big. The muscles in his toned body tensed defensively, like a deer ready to run.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked wearily.

  “Oliver Patel is back on campus?” he asked in a whisper like he was muttering Macbeth in a theatre.

  “Apparently,” I confirmed.

  “Shit,” Ansel cursed through his teeth. He turned away from me and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as if he could erase the curse word. “You’re trying to recruit him to help with the dance. Of course, you are, it makes sense.”