by Melody Rose
“I think we’re good,” I concluded.
The three of us finished cleaning the kitchen with Violet, who had volunteered after the feast for a chance at solitude. Thankfully, we were more productive than we were silly because there were several moments when we flung bubbles at each other from the dish soap or broke out into dance and terrible song.
The sun had long since set after dinner and our cleaning spree. We ventured out of the kitchen to a warm summer evening. Crickets chirped from somewhere nearby, and stars blinked up in the bright sky. The campus remained illuminated despite the dark hour, thanks to the Eternal Flame lanterns. We reached the middle of the quad when the four of us realized we were all going in different directions.
“I’m not scheduled to work breakfast tomorrow, so I’ll see you all then?” Violet asked.
“Definitely,” I agreed.
“Oh yeah,” Benji added.
We bid each other goodnight before we took off along different paths. I opened the folder Ansel had given me, with my new schedule and my dorm information. According to the sheet, I was on the third floor of the Fotia dorm in Suite 303.
The minute I walked into the building, I could instantly tell it was nicer than the general student dorms. The carpet was clean and crisp, with new furniture placed in the communal areas. There was also a pool table, ping-pong table, pinball machine, and foosball table, all of which baffled me. The main color scheme was grey and black, with accents of orange and yellow. There were a few Fotia members in that area, playing cards, but I didn’t say anything to them as I made my way over to the elevators.
I ascended to the third floor and quickly found my room, the second door on the right side of the hall. I tapped the key card against the handle, and the click permitted me entry. When I opened the door, I was met with a cry and one of the most shocking sights of my life.
9
I dropped everything in my hands and quickly covered my eyes. Unfortunately, the image of Janet and a guy naked on the couch burned into my retinas, and I couldn’t see anything. I quickly backed out of the room and shut the door with a loud slam.
I lowered my hands down from my eyes and stood in shocked silence. If I thought I had my quota for the evening of surprises, I was completely wrong. Despite all of the drafting drama, the sight of Janet and that guy was the ultimate surprise.
Just to make sure, I looked at the room number on the door and checked that, yep, it was indeed Suite 303. I released a puff of air and looked up at the ceiling.
“Why me?” I begged of any god that was listening.
I groaned and went to open the door again, hoping that they were dressed. However, it was locked. I looked down on the floor and realized that I didn’t have my key. I had dropped it inside the room, which I consequently locked myself out of.
“Shit,” I muttered to myself.
Without another choice, I knocked on the door. “Janet?” I called out, putting my mouth as close to the crack in the door as I dared.
I could hear their frantic whispers on the other side as they tried to shush each other. Fueled by annoyance, I knocked again.
“Janet?” I called once more. “Open the door, Janet.”
“I’m busy, Cheyenne,” Janet responded.
At least that was something.
“This is my room, Janet,” I reasoned.
“You must have the wrong room,” Janet called back. “Because this is my room.”
I put my forehead on the door, but the cool wood did nothing to comfort me. Curse the gods. Of course, I got Janet as a roommate.
“It’s my room too,” I said, pushing my voice through the door.
“The paper said nothing about a roommate,” Janet squealed, her voice rising an octave in surprise.
“Mine didn’t either, but you can check it,” I pointed out. “It’s just right in there. By the door.”
I waited as I heard her whisper something to her male companion. Then there was a patter of feet as Janet maneuvered over to the door. A rustle of papers. I lifted my head from the door and crossed my arms, expectantly.
“Oh fuck,” Janet growled from beyond the door.
“I’m still here, Janet,” I reminded her.
After another round of whispers and low voices, Janet pulled open the door. She was wrapped in a blanket, though her shoulders and legs were still exposed. Her dark hair, thick and wavy, was a stylish mess, looking as if she’d just stepped out of bed. Her lipstick was smudged, and a hickey was forming on the side of her neck. Despite all of the embarrassing signs, Janet’s face was one of complete confidence as she opened the door and let me in.
I had a moment’s hesitation. Part of me just wanted to say I would come back later, but I really didn’t want to get kicked out of my new dorm on the first night. So I crossed the threshold and ventured in.
Immediately after I entered, Janet shut the door. She slammed my papers into my chest and ventured down the hall into the suite. I followed behind her wordlessly.
Unlike my first dorm with Violet, which had only been one room total, this one had a communal living area with a couch and table and various counter spaces with a sink. It wasn’t a full kitchen, more like something out of a hotel room, but the extra areas were nice. There was also a balcony with sliding glass doors across from the entrance. However, the curtains were pulled shut at the moment, surprising no one.
There were two doors on opposite walls, one with each of our names on it. I made a quick dash for the one that had my name until I nearly tripped on something on my way over. I looked down to see the thing that caught on my shoes.
It was an orange sash, and at first, I thought it was Janet’s new one. I made a mental note that she was going to be a messy roommate until I noticed something that made my stomach fall to my feet. It was the insignia that declared their sash to belong to a graduated soldier.
Even though I hadn’t wanted to look at our unwelcome guest before, my eyes couldn’t help themselves now that I knew who he was.
I didn’t recognize the soldier. He was one of the new campus guards, that much was certain. He had caramel-colored skin and an admirable physique, as most of the male soldiers did. He had brown hair, buzzed along the edges, but the top was flushed with curls. His rectangular face turned in my direction, and our eyes met.
My mouth continued to stay open as all of the pieces fit together. Pointedly, I ripped my eyes away from the soldier who had yet to cover himself up all the way. From out of the corner of my eye, I saw Janet throw something at the soldier which I sincerely hoped was a pair of pants.
“I’m just… I’m just gonna go in my room,” I announced. I pointed lamely at my door and reached out to take the handle when Janet’s voice stopped me.
“No, Cheyenne, wait. Please.”
It was the “please” that did it for me. I wasn’t sure I had ever heard Janet use the word please in the entire year that I’d known her. It was the plea of a girl who knew she was in trouble, someone begging me to hear her out.
I let out a long exhale and turned on my heel to face her and her soldier. “What’s up?” I said, unable to think of anything else to say.
“I…” Janet sighed, also unable to think of what to say.
The soldier rose to his feet, now wearing boxers, thank the gods. He wrapped his arm around Janet’s shoulder, and to my surprise, she let him. He kissed the top of her head and then extended his hand to me over the back of the couch.
“Hi, I’m Rick, son of Hermes,” he said with a melodic voice, unphased by the tension between Janet and me.
I didn’t take his hand. “Hi.”
I wanted this conversation to end as soon as possible. I didn’t want to be a witness to this rule-breaking. More than anything, I wanted the last five minutes to be completely erased from my memory. I seriously considered going to the general dorms and begging Violet and whatever new roommate she had if I could crash on their floor tonight.
Then a surge of confidence struck me like lightning. This wa
s my dorm, too. I deserved to be here as much as Janet did, with or without Mr. Naked Soldier Man. Even though I would probably never ever sit on that couch, no matter how many times it was cleaned. Ultimately, I wasn’t the one breaking the rules. She was!
I tucked the papers under my arm and crossed them across my chest. “Let me guess. You want me to pretend I never saw anything and keep your little… tryst a secret?”
“That’d be nice,” Janet admitted as she bit the corner of her lip.
I released my hands and groaned, my conviction draining out of me like air out of a balloon. “What the hell, Janet? Seriously? What are you doing?”
“You wouldn’t understand, Cheyenne,” Janet said. She still managed to undercut me in her tone, even though she was the one in trouble here. “When Rick and I saw each other, there was this…” Janet’s voice trailed off as she looked up into Rick’s eyes.
“Connection,” Rick finished her sentence before leaning down and kissing her.
My eyes widened in horror at the public display of affection before me. Within seconds, their tongues dove into each other's mouths, and I nearly gagged on my own.
“Ahem,” I coughed, trying to get their attention.
It was like I wasn’t in the room anymore. They didn’t hear me and continued their intense game of tonsil hockey. I looked around the room for inspiration and spotted the pillow Rick’s head had been on moments before. I reached over the back of the couch and lobbed it at the two of them. The shot smacked Janet in the head, and she reeled back in surprise.
As if she were seeing me for the first time, Janet looked at me, surprise and annoyance on her face.
“What the hell?” I repeated, waving my hand up and down, indicating the pair of them.
“I know it’s against the rules, but I can’t help myself,” Janet said. Her voice dissolved into a whine as she spoke. She looked up at Rick with wide, tempting eyes, and they nearly started kissing again before I threw the other couch pillow at the pair of them.
Now out of ammo, I really hoped that last shot would keep them apart. “Janet, this is serious,” I said, keeping my voice stern, like a parent scolding a child. “You know you could get kicked out, right? You too.” I gestured to Rick. “You really think a one-night stand is worth that?”
“This is more than a one-night stand,” Rick insisted. “This is...”
“Something more,” Janet swooned.
“You’re literally killing me,” I growled.
“You don’t have to like it,” Janet snapped at me, her sweet demeanor suddenly gone when she addressed me. “You just have to accept it.”
“Actually,” I said slowly, the realization hitting me. “I don’t. I could report you, and then I would never have to think about you ever again.”
The daughter of Hermes’s face fell so fast that you would have thought that I smacked her with a dead fish instead of a pillow. I waited until it dawned on her who actually had the power in this situation. Her eyes grew slowly as the realization hit her.
“You wouldn’t,” Janet challenged me with a gruff voice, almost like a dog’s growl.
“Try me,” I said back, calling her bluff.
Rick looked between the pair of us as if he were watching a tennis match rather than two grown women staring each other down. Janet had to know she’d lost this round. I held all the cards here. She had nothing on me, and the minute I walked in on her and Rick, I had everything I ever needed on her.
Maybe this roommate situation wasn’t going to be so terrible after all.
“What do you want?” Janet relented, though her voice remained harsh and spiteful.
“I don’t actually give a damn what you do in your free time,” I admitted with a casual shrug. “I don’t mind keeping your secret, but keep your goings-on in your room, okay? Don’t be gross out here in the shared space.” I made big, sweeping gestures with my arms to indicate the room we stood in. I snatched up my papers before they fell to the ground again.
“Goings on? Tryst?” Janet scoffed. “What are you? Eighty?”
“And that, you’re going to have to stop that,” I demanded.
“Stop what?” Janet asked, faking innocence.
“Making fun of me, jabbing at me, all that,” I said with a nod. “Sound good?”
Janet hiked up her blanket dress and bit down on her tongue. Her face looked pained, as if it physically hurt her to keep in her mean comments. I waited patiently for her to agree, knowing she had no choice to not.
“You’re going to lord this over me all year, aren’t you?” Janet reckoned with a sneer.
“Not if you don’t make me,” I said with a falsely sweet smile.
Suddenly, there were two small pops as though two kernels transformed into popcorn. Khryseos and Argyreos appeared on either side of me. Their ability to teleport from place to place was rather useful in general, but right now, my favorite part of that power was the looks on people’s faces when they suddenly popped into existence.
Janet’s face grew wide in disgust at the sight of them. But it was Rick’s reaction that really stole the cake. He leapt about a foot in the air and ducked behind his lover. The reaction surprised both Janet and me so much that we couldn’t do anything but stare at him incredulously.
Khryseos and Argyreos joined in with Janet and me at looking at Rick, but both of them looked more amused than offended at Rick’s response to their presence.
“What?” Rick asked defensively. “I’m allergic to dogs.”
As if on cue, Rick let out a violent sneeze right into Janet’s hair. I barked out a laugh as Janet’s body rippled away from Rick, completely disgusted. She held up her hands and stepped away from him, out of sneezing range. However, her unconscious thought of holding up her hands meant she released her blanket, revealing her naked self all over again.
I slapped my hand over my eyes for the second time that evening. “Janet!” I cried.
However, my new roommate was too consumed with her partner’s heavy sneezes, which continued once, twice, three times more until she ushered him into her bedroom. She left the blanket on the floor and slammed the door behind them.
I lowered my hand and released an emotionally drained sigh. I looked down at Khryseos and Argyreos, who smiled up at me as if to say, “What was that all about?”
“I have no idea,” I admitted. “But I can tell you one thing.”
“What?” the dogs seemed to respond with their loose tongues and cocked heads.
“I hope I don’t have to see another naked body for a while,” I said with a shiver as I ventured into my room.
As the universe would have it, I got no such luck.
My first class of the semester was Grecian art, and anyone who knew anything about Grecian art knew that the Greeks like their nudity. I walked into the art studio the next morning and was met with an onslaught of statues, vases, and paintings all featuring breasts and penises.
When I first found out I had this class, my first hope was that it wasn’t in the same art studio that I worked in with Esme. I hadn’t stepped foot in there since I went to retrieve the scythes that ended up breaking during the harpy battle. I wasn’t sure I could face that room and would request a transfer immediately if it turned out to be there.
However, that was one small mercy that when I entered the art building, the studio where this class was held was on the other side. Though, that was as lucky as I was going to get all day.
The classroom was set up with twelve easels, all placed in a circle. There was a round stone platform in the center of the circle, though there was nothing on it at the moment. The easels were equipped with large canvases, and black pieces of charcoal awaited us on the shelf.
I nearly stopped in my tracks as I entered the room. After my night yesterday with Janet and Rick and my vow of celibacy from Ansel, I was not ready to face this kind of class.
“Come on in and take a seat,” the teacher encouraged us.
I felt an arm slip throu
gh mine, and I turned to see Benji with a bright smile on his face.
“Oh, thank the gods,” I sighed. “I don’t have to endure this by myself.”
“Cheyenne Paulos,” Benji said with a mock gasp. “Are you a prude?”
“Not in the slightest,” I said defensively. “I just… hate drawing.”
“Uh-huh,” Benji said doubtfully, a raised eyebrow emphasizing his skepticism. “I’m sure your baffled expression has nothing to do with the onslaught of boobs and dicks scattered about the room.”
“Not at all,” I grumbled, reluctant to confess anything.
Benji released an amused laugh. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”
We found a pair of stools next to one another and settled in with the other students. I recognized a few students from last semester, second years who still had yet to be drafted. There were also two new recruits, as evident by their red sashes with no black stripe. I was surprised to see them in this class, but not as surprised as I was when Janet walked in the door.
I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of my new roommate this morning and was hoping we could keep it that way the entire year, but as it would turn out, Tyche was determined to keep me tremendously unlucky.
Janet shot me a glare, hot as a rod of iron straight from the forge. Then she sat down at the last available seat, the one directly across from me.
Benji hid behind his easel and looked at me, expecting an explanation for Janet’s coldness. I rolled my eyes and waved my hand, indicating that I’d tell him later.
“Welcome everyone to Grecian Art!” the teacher said with a level of enthusiasm that only morning people could possess. She had a puff of brown curly hair that formed a perfect sphere of an afro atop her head. She held it all out of her face by a large polka-dotted headband. Her dress was a tea-shaped and matched the same white and blue polka-dotted pattern of her headband. She wore bright red lipstick, and the whole ensemble made her look as though she popped out of a 1950s movie.
“My name is Gwendolyn, daughter of Athena,” Gwendolyn said with a polite curtsy. She stood on the center of the cement stool and turned to address all of us. I wondered how she didn’t get dizzy from turning so much.
