by Karin Biggs
I stared at the floor far, far below me. I could still see Ari with Heather at his side. “No. I’m ready.”
The odds were in my favor. They had to be. Otherwise, I would be committing suicide just to prevent Ari from kissing Heather in the Sugar Crash Room.
Karl patted my back. “Okay, Sky Diver, meet you on the other side.”
Another Sugar High employee stood with me on the platform as we waited for Karl to take his position on the catch bar.
Hold forward. Hook knees back. Release on ‘hup.’
Breathe. Focus. Breathe.
The employee and I watched as Karl mounted the catch bar. She pressed a button and the net below lowered and moved under Layla’s net. The DJ shouted something to pump up the crowd. My heart threatened to leave my body before I forced it into a deadly stunt.
“Don’t worry,” said the employee. “There’s an invisible net to catch you if you fall.”
Hold forward. Hook knees back. Release on ‘hup.’
Breathe. Focus. Breathe.
Invisible net.
Karl signaled with his hand. The employee next to me nodded and lifted her arm. “Okay, Sky Diver. Time to fly.” She handed me the fly bar.
Hold forward. Hook knees back. Release on ‘hup.’
Breathe. Focus. Breathe.
Invisible net.
Let go.
The first thing I noticed when Karl tossed me into a pit of foam on the other side was an overwhelming feeling of peace. I wanted to do the trapeze again and experience the sensation of flying all over again. But when I climbed down the ladder, adrenaline flooded my veins from the celebration of the crowd. I accepted my t-shirt and coupons as if I had been named queen of the planet.
“You didn’t mention the invisible net,” I shouted to the DJ.
“Invisible net? Who told you that?” he shouted back.
Then my stomach twisted at the realization that the employee lied to me for a final boost of confidence. There was no invisible net—there was only me, flying over a crowd of people.
The court shouted my name and a couple boys lifted me on their shoulders and tossed me into the air. Heat engulfed me with the crowd of bodies and adrenaline continued to run wild in my veins. Everyone was happy for me, except for one person. I left my celebration to grab a glass of plain water from the table beside Ari. “Aren’t you going to congratulate me?”
“No Paris, I’m not going to congratulate you. That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen. You could have died!”
I chugged the water and slammed the glass down on the table. “So what? It’s not like you would have cared, with how wrapped up in Heather you’ve been.” I turned away. “Honestly, Ari, I’ve heard of rebounds, but—”
Ari spun me around and pulled me against his chest, closing the distance between us. His heated bare chest pressed against the thin layer of my leotard, allowing me to feel the intense rise and fall of his chest against mine, paired with the reverberation of our beating hearts. His lips brushed against mine as he held me so intensely close. The light tease of his lips sent a surge of desire through me that I could barely contain. I wanted to feel the crash of his mouth against mine and savor the taste of his tongue. I wanted to let go and give myself completely to Ari, but I restrained my desire with the few remaining brain cells that held true to logic. Even though I was experiencing a delirious high from my death-defying trick, it still wasn’t enough for me to forget that I was the Capalon Princess.
“Ari?”
We stepped apart to see Heather staring at us.
The DJ’s voice boomed over the speakers. “If you’re a member of the King’s 100, it’s time to go!”
Heather’s eyes welled with tears and she disappeared inside the crowd of exiting court members.
Darden appeared as Heather darted off. “Come on seat-mates, we gotta get going or the bus will leave without us.” He waited for a beat. “Did the sugar water put you two in a catatonic state?”
Ari and I finally moved and dressed ourselves without speaking one word to each other. It wasn’t until we boarded the bus that I heard Ari talk. “I’m okay to take my window seat back, Darden.”
Knowing that Ari hadn’t suddenly overcome a fear of being driven off the side of a mountain, I angrily reached for my book. But reading a Drake and Daniella novel wasn’t an ideal choice when anytime I saw the word lips, I would be reminded of the sensation of Ari’s lips brushing against mine. The word hands took me back to how he held me so close—like we were performing our own death-defying trick.
I glanced over to see Ari’s head resting against the window with his eyes closed and mouth partially open.
“That guy can sleep anywhere,” Darden said.
I returned my attention to my book as if Ari’s partially open mouth didn’t stir up a craving so intense I had to press my fingernail into my thumb to fight it.
Darden closed his brand-new notebook and folded his hands. “You know my magic requires me to be extremely observant, right?”
“Are you talking to me?” I asked, not bothering to soften the edge in my voice.
Instead of responding to my question, Darden continued. “And you don’t have to be me to know what’s going on. But because I am me and your friend, I think you’re making a mistake.”
“I appreciate your eagerness to discuss my mistakes, but I’m not really in the mood,” I said, not taking my eyes off my book.
Darden leaned his head back against the headrest as if he was ending the conversation but he continued speaking. “My mom has an obsession with birds. Her favorite one is the bird of the kingdom.”
“Good for her. So patriotic.”
“Do you know what our kingdom used to call the bird before the Ancient Data was recovered?”
I didn’t answer and kept my eyes focused on my book, hoping Darden would just get to the point and leave me in peace.
“Black-winged-red-bird. She told me some Mondarians were so connected to the name, that they protested its real, given name. People would put signs in their yard; ‘save the black-winged-red-bird!’ They had rallies and marches. It was ridiculous, all for the name of a bird. If you ask me, scarlet tanager is a much cooler name and easier to say.”
Darden pulled my book down and met my eyes. “But it doesn’t matter what you call it because it’s the same beautiful bird either way. And if you talked to a certain friend of mine and told him the truth, I think he would see it that way too.”
“Weren’t you the one who told me it’s better to hide behind the truth?”
He nodded. “I see how I might be contradicting myself, but I think it’s different for you and…” he looked over at Ari, whose mouth was wide open.
I shook my head. “No, it can’t happen. And that’s the way it’s going to be.”
“But—”
“Enough, Darden. One more word and I swear I’ll drive this bus off the mountain myself.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Darden closed his eyes.
I turned my head and wiped my cheeks.
“I can hear your tears, Miss Marigold.”
I shook my head. “Darden…how did you know so early on—that night at Grape Stomp?”
He took a deep breath and then a long exhale. “The same way I know when a trick has worked.” Then he opened his eyes to look at me. “Whenever you were around, he looked at you like you were pure magic.”
Darden handed me a clean handkerchief from his pocket.
“And did I look at him the same way?”
“No. You looked like a girl who was starved of a certain kind of love and found the one person who could give it to you, but you refused to do anything rational about it.”
“Wow. I don’t get a pretty little metaphor?”
“No, ma’am.”
“You know you could take a note from your earlier bird story. The queen of hearts might be willing to trade her king in for a new suit.”
Darden adjusted his glasses. “Ah, now who’s mastering
the metaphors? I’m comfortable where I am. But you, clearly, are not.”
“I’m doing the right thing, Darden. I don’t want to hear any more about it, okay? You should think about other things like where your notebook wandered off to.”
“You’re right, Miss Marigold. I’m done talking now.”
“Thank you.”
Darden leaned into me. “But just remember that you almost killed yourself for the attention of a boy, not the person you came here for. If you were to ask me, I’d say your priorities have shifted.”
I hardly remembered walking up the stairs to our room and collapsing on the bed. I think Agnes stopped by our room to ask if we had seen Little Bernie again, but what I distinctly remember is the sound of Heather’s biting voice just as I drifted off to sleep.
“I thought you and Ari were just friends.”
Peeling my eyes open, I found Heather standing at the foot of my bed.
“We are, Heather.” My thumb and index finger squeezed the bridge of my nose.
“Then why were you trying to kiss him?”
Wind pounded against our window as I failed to produce a reasonable explanation.
She crossed her arms. “I know what you’re doing.”
“Trying to sleep?”
“Now that you’ve been rejected by both Darden and Reese, you want to move on to the next court man and steal him away from me.”
I sat up. “That’s not—”
“You’re jealous. You might not have liked Ari before but you do now because you see that he likes me and you can’t stand it.”
“Heather, please just listen, I—”
“Ari hardly has any free time and whenever I get a chance to see him, you just happen to show up.”
Layla returned from the bathroom and shot me a confused look behind Heather.
I scooted to the edge of the bed. “Heather, if you would listen to me, I can—”
“You just need to back off, Paris, because Ari doesn’t like you—he likes me.”
Anger flooded my veins, and I squeezed my fists. “Okay, you’re right. Ari doesn’t have any free time. You know why? Because the only time he has to spare is early in the morning and up till a few days ago, he’s been spending that time with me. And I wasn’t trying to kiss him—he was the one trying to kiss me. He’s not interested in you but you can’t seem to get that through your dense, blonde head.”
Heather clenched her jaw. “I thought you were a nice girl, Paris, but I guess your bitch of a roommate has rubbed off on you.”
Layla proudly nodded.
My fingers dug into the edge of my bed. “You lied to Ari about me behind my back after I went to the maestro’s office and fought for you. If I’m a bitch, then you were a bitch first.”
Heather reached for the closest thing to her, which happened to be Ari’s moose, and hurled it at the wall behind my head. To avoid injury, I bent forward, only to see Little Bernie tear out from under my bed. In his nervous escape, he took a strap of my bag with him and flung my hidden Capalon coins all over the floor.
I watched in horror as Heather picked up and examined a coin. “Why do you have Capalon coins in your room?”
I stood frozen, not knowing what to say. My eyes darted to Layla and her face reflected the same fear in mine.
Layla picked up a coin. “One of the Thirds hazed us and left a sock full of fake Capalon coins around our door handle.”
“These don’t feel fake,” Heather said.
Layla faced Heather. “And how would you know? Wait…Heather, are you Capalon?”
Heather dropped the coin. “What? No!”
“If you don’t mind, we need to get to bed,” Layla said, opening the door for Heather. “We have this little thing called the New Year’s Eve Ball tomorrow. And the bitchy court ladies need the most sleep.”
Layla slammed the door behind Heather. “I thought I told you to get rid of these things.” She bent down to help me gather the coins and put them back in the bag.
“I can’t just throw them in the trash! Somebody will inevitably find them and then it will be a Mansion-wide Capalon-hunt. I’m leaving in two days, anyway.”
“What do you mean you’re leaving? You never said anything about leaving.”
“I’m not doing anyone any good by being here, Layla.”
She handed me the coins. “Why are you here?”
I exhaled as I shoved the bag back under my bed. “I came to Mondaria to find somebody.”
“And?”
“And they’re here, but they don’t exactly want to be found or they can’t be found because somebody’s holding them captive. But I said I’d be back home in time for my match ceremony whether I found my…the person or not.”
Layla blinked as if everything I had just said bored her. “Did he really try to kiss you?”
I sighed and moved on to the moose debris, swallowing my anger toward Heather with the touch of each piece. “Yeah, and I wanted to kiss him so badly. But you even said yourself that love isn’t worth the pain.”
Layla plopped on my bed. “Look, I know I said that, but maybe I’m wrong. You’ve made it this far without being caught, so isn’t it worth a try to tell him who you are?”
I tried to speak, but my throat swelled. I shook my head, unable to fight the tears.
Layla moved down to the floor where I sat. “I know I might be bitter about love right now, but I at least had the chance to feel what it’s like to love someone and have them love me back, even if it was for a short time. Before you leave this kingdom, you might as well take the chance.” She stood to get me a tissue. “As Heather pointed out, I might be a bitch, but I still like to believe that sometimes things happen for a reason.”
I laughed and blew my nose. “Thank you, Layla. I’m so lucky you were assigned to be my roommate.”
“Hey, don’t do that. You’re not leaving yet. I’m not good at goodbyes and we are not saying goodbye right now. And it turns out my prediction about you was right.”
“What prediction?”
“I said you would become a wild woman with bite. And after the events of tonight, you’ve blown my prediction out of the water!”
I groaned and buried my face in my hands. “Mondarians are so complicated.”
Layla wrapped her arms around me. “Yes. And it takes one to know one. Congratulations, Paris. You’re officially Mondarian.”
I headed to the maestro’s office after breakfast the next morning to tell him the Winter Showcase would be my final show with the court, whether the king kept me for the following season or not. But when I approached Maestro’s office, Captain Murphy stood in his doorway.
“Captain Murphy, what gives me the disgusting pleasure of seeing your face in my office?” asked the maestro.
“A Records Room key has been missing for a few weeks and I wanted to see if you know anything about it.”
Oops. I needed to add ‘return Records Room key’ to my list of things to do before leaving Mondaria.
“Oh, you lost something and you’re blaming it on me, how nice of you,” Maestro said.
The captain sighed. “I’m just doing my job, Bernie. This is an important matter.”
“If it’s an important matter, then you should focus on your group of dimwits you call ‘guards’ and not me so I can do my job.”
“So, you haven’t been in the Records Room recently?”
“No, I have better things to do than play in the Records Room. Now please remove your sweaty body from my office before your stench settles into the carpeting.”
I heard the captain shift his weight. “A guard spotted you coming down the hallway of the Records Room early this morning. So, I’ll ask one more time, do you know anything about the missing key?”
“No. And I’ll tell you one more time that your guards are lying sacks of—”
“Maestro!”
Both their heads turned as I stepped into the maestro’s doorway. “You left this in the Rehearsal Room this morn
ing.” I handed him a copy of sheet music I dug out of my bag. “Thank you again for agreeing to meet me so early.”
“He was with you this morning?” asked the captain.
I nodded. “Yes, sir. Maestro was helping me with my solo. I’m so nervous to perform it in front of the king for our Winter Showcase.”
Captain Murphy looked from me to Maestro and sucked in a deep breath through his wide nostrils. “You’re not off the hook until I find that key.”
The maestro and I stood in silence until we watched the door click behind the captain. The sheet music I handed over came flying back at me. “Take your music and get out.”
“I was just helping—”
“You didn’t need to help with anything. Now go.”
I took a deep breath. “I’m leaving after the Showcase. You can tell everyone the king put me on his dismissal list.”
Maestro bent his head down over some notes and shooed me away with his hand.
I sighed. “Happy New Year, Maestro.” I turned to leave.
“Miss Marigold.”
I stopped as the air seemed to thicken. Maestro’s face softened just enough for me to think he held words of gratitude in his head. “Close the door when you leave.”
“Yes, sir.” I closed the door and headed to the Ladies’ Dressing Room to get ready for my final ballroom show at the Mansion, but when I pulled out my chair, a lavender rose urged me to read its message.
Go to the hallway of the East Courtyard thirty minutes before the start of the New Year’s Eve Ball. It’s time for us to meet.
I completed my hair and make-up in record time. I didn’t even take the time to soak in the details of our New Year’s Eve gown. Layla said something about it looking like a shattered mirror. My brain could only process that it was a silver dress with a low, exposed back that required an extra set of hands on the zipper. After Genevieve zipped me up, I bent down to pull out the photograph Maestro gave me from my bag. I folded the photo and stuffed it in the hidden pocket of the dress. I wanted my mother to see the photo of herself when she was so young. I put the rose in the bag, but removed the message, clutching it tightly in my fist.