Born in Beauty

by Melody Rose

  It was the yawn from my mentor’s mouth that brought me to a stopping point. While I technically had keys and could lock up, I knew Ruby didn’t want to leave me alone. So I reached a stopping point so that both of us could end this day.

  When we walked out of the forge, Ruby bid me goodnight. But I couldn’t let her go without saying something important.

  “Ruby,” I said.

  “Hm?” she muttered through tired eyes. “What’s up, girl?”

  “Thank you for your advice,” I said sheepishly. “And for your listening ear.”

  “Oh, Shy,” Ruby said as she waved a hand at me, brushing me off. “Don’t be so mushy. I’m just glad I can help you with something since you’ve gone beyond my level in blacksmithing.”

  “That’s not true,” I said, even though the evidence suggested otherwise.

  “Don’t placate me,” Ruby scolded. “You were the better blacksmith the minute you walked on this campus. Even in my heyday, I never could have made twenty scythes and two rapier blades in the matter of one afternoon.”

  I scoffed and tried to play down her compliment. But she wasn’t wrong. The speed at which I had blasted through those blades was impressive. She and I both knew it.

  “Don’t spend too much time thinking up here,” Ruby said as she reached over and touched my temple. “Spend a little more time down here.” Predictably, she pointed to my chest, to the left of my sternum, right above my heart.

  “I’ll try,” I promised. “But I don’t think I can be with him right now.”

  Ruby sighed. “I hope you can find it in you to change your mind, but we’re different people.”

  “That we are,” I chuckled.

  “Try to get some sleep, Cheyenne,” Ruby advised. “You’ve got a big tomorrow.”

  “What’s tomorrow?” I said, burying down in my memory and not finding anything special.

  “Don’t you get to go off campus to go shopping?” Ruby asked. “Though I’m the old fart who could be mixing up the day.”

  “Oh no, that’s right, you’re right,” I said with a groan. I closed my eyes and tried to picture my calendar in my head. We were only two weeks from the dance, and tomorrow was the second of the two trips into the mortal world to get outfits and supplies.

  “Sorry to put another thing on your plate, kiddo,” Ruby winced. “But if anyone can do it, you can.”

  As my mentor walked away, it was nice to know that someone believed in me. But at that moment, I sure as hell didn’t.

  21

  Violet and I were hopelessly lost.

  I didn’t know why I thought we could do this whole dress shopping extravaganza by ourselves. We weren’t exactly the most fashionable people. Thank goodness the Academy made us all wear the same things. Even on the weekends, when we didn’t have to be in uniform, I kept my outfits simple.

  My wardrobe was ordinary, and mostly from local thrift stores. And not the hipster, cute vintage thrifting. Like the local Goodwill or ARC, depending on who had a sale that day. My style consisted of clothes that were easy to move in, and that I wasn’t particularly attached to since most of them got ripped, burnt, or covered in ash.

  I didn’t go to my high school dances, so shopping for something that level of fancy was entirely outside of my realm of know-how. Mom and I did go to a couple of weddings, but I always ended up wearing this one pale blue sundress with a small, short-sleeved white sweater over it. The ensemble was easy and always looked good. Plus, I’d stopped growing in the eighth grade, so I stayed the same size. There was no need to get anything else.

  It wasn’t as though my mom was particularly fashionable either. She had her Ren Faire costumes, which were her most prized clothing, but everything else was sweats, some long sundresses, and the same two pairs of jeans that she switched off wearing depending on what was clean. And she was a teacher. It wasn’t as though we ever had the budget for more than the Salvation Army.

  Violet wasn’t much better. Her clothes were covered in flour and sauces of all kinds. She focused more on her makeup and hairstyling than her fashion sense. I still argued that she had more of one than I did because she at least knew what coloring looked best on her. With my bright blue eyes and violent red hair, it was difficult for anything but black to not wash me out.

  As I stood in front of the boutique mirror in a skimpy lime green number that looked attractive on the hanger, I cursed every curve and lump in my body. While I had gotten stronger over my time at the Academy, I still had more cellulite than I wanted. It was also the first time I hated my broad shoulders and muscular upper body.

  I put my hands on my hips and pressed my fists into my skin. “I look like a man in a dress.”

  Violet walked out of the dressing room in a purple floor-length gown with one shoulder strap. It hung off her awkwardly and engulfed her small frame. She hoisted it up so she could shuffle forward and share the mirror with me. It was a three-paneled mirror, so we could see multiple sides of ourselves.

  My friend flapped her arms up and down like a bird, moving the excess fabric in her hands.

  “At least your dress doesn’t look like it’s eating you,” Violet commented. “Om nom nom,” she joked as she swirled the purple dress around her.

  I giggled, but my reprieve was brief. I caught another glimpse of myself in the mirror and groaned. “I don’t think I’m going to find anything I like.”

  “This is why I don’t wear dresses,” Violet said in defeat. “They never fit me.”

  “We should go butch and wear tuxes, like the boys,” I said as I turned my head from side to side as if that would help fix the ugliness before me.

  “I don’t know if they make tuxedos for short women with big butts,” Violet said as she turned her back to the mirror so she could examine her backside.

  “I just think it’s stupid that it’s so easy for them, and we’re expected to do all of this maintenance,” I complained as I gestured up and down to my body. “I’m telling you that a son of Poseidon is going to show up in a surfer’s shirt and khakis, and no one’s going to bat an eye.”

  Violet released a laugh, though she tried to cover it with her hand. “It’s really not fair that the standards are so different.”

  “We should do something about it,” I said defiantly, finding a sliver of confidence within myself. “We should show up in pajamas or something.”

  “Bodysuits!” Violet joined in on the joke.

  “Or butt naked!” I added, unable to get rid of the giggle in my throat.

  “As long as the men are naked too,” Violet said with suggestive eyebrows.

  We bent forward, laughing at the thought of an all-nude dance party. When our laughter died down, both of us found ourselves sighing at our reflections in the mirror.

  “I really want to look pretty, though,” Violet admitted softly.

  “Me too,” I confessed. “It would be nice to feel good.”

  “Looking good, feeling good,” Violet said in a low singsong voice.

  This time I didn’t reward her with a full laugh. Instead, I offered a half-smile and another sigh. “Well, I definitely know that this isn’t the one. I’m going to try to shimmy out of it.”

  “Oh no,” Violet said suddenly.

  “What?” I whirled around, afraid I had broken the zipper or gotten something on the dress so I would have to pay for the expensive thing without even planning on wearing it to the dance. “What did I do?”

  “Not you,” Violet said as she pointed in the mirror to something behind us.

  The bell chimed over the door as someone else entered. When my eyes landed on her, I felt the immediate dread that Violet experienced when she noticed who it was. My new roommate, Janet, walked in the door, flipping her blonde hair over her shoulder. She raised her sunglasses atop her head and looked around the boutique. Already successful in her shopping adventures, three large white bags with logos I didn’t recognize hung at her elbows. Janet adjusted her scarf as she moved to a rack of dre
sses.

  “Quick,” Violet shoved me, but I didn’t move right away. “If we get in the dressing room, she might not see us.”

  “She’s not that bad,” I defended.

  “You’re saying this about the girl who’s sexiled you out of your dorm room last night?” Violet said, eyeing me.

  It was true. When I got back to my dorm at one that morning, there was a sock on the door. At least I didn’t walk in on them this time, but I was severely irritated that there had been anything on the door when they had their own damn room. That brought on visions of them doing it on the couch, the rug, against the sink counter.

  Khryseos and Argyreos popped out from the other side of the door, appearing next to me. Both pups whimpered and shook their heads at me. They looked rather traumatized, and that gave me enough reason to find alternative lodging for the evening.

  I ventured to Violet’s room and woke her up, begging for a place to stay. Luckily, her new roommate was with her Love Struck companion, so Violet had my old bed open and ready for use. Unfortunately, the sock stayed on the door throughout the morning, so I’d had to wear the same uniform as the day before and borrowed Violet’s toothpaste, brushing with my finger.

  Needless to say, I was not happy with my new roommate this morning.

  But amidst all of my grumbling, I didn’t move fast enough to avoid Janet. When she spotted Violet and me, a bright smile spread across her lips, and she headed straight for us like a bullet out of a gun.

  “Oh, we’re in for it now,” Violet muttered as she ducked behind me, shielding herself.

  “Hi, Cheyenne, Violet,” Janet said sweetly. “Are you enjoying your time off-campus?”

  “Yeah,” I said, trying to match her high pitch and happy tone. “It’s a nice break.”

  “Right?” Janet said with a giggle. “I’ve been anxiously waiting for these shopping days. Packing my closet with cute things to wear on the weekend. I swear, I’ve found at least four different dresses to wear to the dance, and I don’t know if I’m going to be able to pick one.”

  “Oh, that sucks,” I said, trying to be sympathetic while feeling an intense swell of jealousy and irritation in my belly.

  “Maybe I’ll do a costume change, halfway through,” Janet said with a shrug.

  “That seems like a lot of extra work,” Violet commented offhandedly.

  “Well, I might need a back up once Rick sees me in the first one,” Janet said. Her cheeks flushed with red, and her eyelashes lowered like a coy dame. “He’ll just want to rip it right off me. You know how he is.”

  “I do,” I said flatly, unable to pretend anymore.

  Janet’s eyes caught my monotone and my hard expression. Suddenly, she gasped and raised a hand to her lips. Her eyes rounded to the size of softballs. My roommate leaned forward and put a hand on my forearm, one of her bags sliding forward and banging me in the leg.

  “Oh my gods, Cheyenne, you didn’t try to come home last night, did you?” Janet whispered.

  “I was working late at the forge,” I answered, my voice still all one-note.

  “Gods, I’m so sorry,” Janet said with a squeeze of my arm. “When you didn’t come home at your usual time, I thought you might be spending the night elsewhere. Rick thought Ansel and you might have finally bitten the bullet.”

  I pulled away sharply from Janet. “Ansel and I aren’t biting any bullets.”

  Violet shot me a confused look. I clarified. “Ansel and I aren’t… we’re not doing anything like that.”

  “It would be okay if you were,” Janet reassured me, compassionate and considerate. “Especially if he makes you as happy as Rick makes me.”

  The tone nearly knocked me off balance. Janet was being… nice to me? Had she forgotten about our feud last year? Ever since the relations rule got dropped, I didn’t have anything hanging over her anymore. So she had no reason to be nice to me. Even though we were roommates, our interactions were limited to class, and the few times we’d bumped into each other. The more I thought about it, the more I realized there hadn’t been any aggression from her since that first night in the dorm.

  Was it possible that being Love Struck had changed Janet?

  “She wasn’t with Ansel,” Violet piped up as she stepped out from behind me. “She stayed at my place since I had a free bed.”

  “Thank you so much for taking her in,” Janet said sincerely to Violet. Then my new roommate wrapped my old roommate in a hug. The big bags banged into Violet’s back, and her short arms stuck out straight like sticks, not knowing what to do as Janet embraced her. I mimed hugging, and Violet sneered at me. Slowly, she bent her elbows and matched Janet’s hug. Soon, the daughter of Hermes released the daughter of Hebe and hugged me.

  Stunned into silence like Violet, I just stood there, but I was quicker on the uptake to hug Janet back. Over Janet’s shoulder, I could see Violet standing there with a look of disgust on her face like she just fell in a vat of toxic waste rather than just hugged a fellow demigod.

  Janet released me and then put her hands on my shoulders. “I am so sorry, Cheyenne. It was so rude of me to sexile you last night. Let me make it up to you.”

  “You really don’t have to,” I said, unable to think of anything that Janet could give me that I wanted.

  “No, I insist.” Janet put a hand over her heart. “Why don’t I help you with finding a dress for the dance? Both of you.”

  Violet and I exchanged an apprehensive glance. My friend looked down at our ensembles, and while I knew that a day with Janet was one of the last things either of us wanted to do, we were completely clueless when it came to fashion. Someone like Janet, with her expertise, would be immensely helpful.

  So I swallowed my pride and my irritation with one enormous gulp. “Thanks, Janet. We could really use some help if you couldn’t tell.” I gestured to our mismatching ensembles, and Janet winced.

  “Yeah, you said it, not me,” Janet replied.

  “But you were thinking it,” I confirmed.

  “The minute I walked in the door,” Janet said. She set her bags down on the ground and spun me around towards the dressing room. “Take those off and hang out in for a bit. Let me pull some stuff. And it might not be what you normally pick, but you’ve got to trust me, okay?”

  Considering the situation I was in, I didn’t really have another option. So, to my utter surprise, I put my trust in Janet.

  She had been absolutely right. Nothing that she threw over the top of the dressing room would be things I picked out for myself. One of the dresses had so many crisscrossing straps that I just got confused and gave up right away. One of them was a midnight black with no straps, but my breasts weren’t large enough to keep it up. The whole thing kept sliding down.

  Janet forced us to come out and show her every single dress.

  “I’m a visual person,” she claimed. “I have an idea in my mind, but I need to see it on you to see if it works.”

  Violet and I put on our very own fashion show for my roommate. Janet propped her long legs up on a footstool and settled herself in an armchair outside of the dressing rooms. When I ventured out for the fourth dress, a navy blue number with an itchy crinoline that came to my knees, the woman behind the counter was handing Janet a cup of tea. Her straight black hair hung in front of her face, but I could see pale hands with knobby knuckles and black painted nails pass the cup onto the daughter of Hermes.

  “Thank you so much,” Janet crooned. “Styling these two is hard work. I appreciate it.”

  “It’s no problem,” the shopkeeper said with a one-shoulder shrug. “You’ve certainly got your hands full.”

  “Don’t I?” Janet said as though Violet and I were huge burdens on her time.

  The shopkeeper patted Janet’s shoulder and walked back to her counter at the front. Now, while this might have been a local boutique, there was no way this was the kind of fancy place that served its customers tea on a regular basis. I put my hands on my hips and widened my stanc
e.

  “Did you swindle that out of her?” I accused.

  “Swindle?” Janet said, baffled at my choice of words. “What am I? A pirate?” She took a sip of her tea and eyed me over the teacup. I held her gaze and cleared my throat. Janet set the cup on its saucer, and then rested it on the end table beside her.

  “If you must know, I only asked,” Janet defended. “No magic involved.”

  I crossed my arms across my chest. The tightness of the back pulled at my upper arms, but I fought against the pain in order to show my disapproval at Janet’s actions. My roommate held up her hands in surrender.

  “There was no magic, I swear,” Janet insisted. “Plus, I don’t even have those manipulative abilities like some of my siblings do.”

  “Uh uh,” I replied doubtfully.

  “There’s no hurt in asking for things, Cheyenne,” Janet informed me as she took another sip of her drink. “The worst that can happen is they say no.”

  Suddenly, Janet set her drink down and let the cup clatter against the saucer. She held a hand up to her mouth, and a squeal emanated from it. “Oh, Violet! You look like a dream!”

  I whirled around to see my friend standing in front of the mirrors dutifully in an elegant white tea-length dress. It was accented with a red ribbon around the middle, cinching in her already little waist. The collar was also red, as well as the tulle that stuck out at the bottom. The dress was patterned with little red dots that, when I looked closer, noticed they were little apples.

  Janet bounced out of her seat and rushed over to my friend with a pair of red laced gloves.

  “Put these on,” Janet commanded. “They will match perfectly. Oh, you look so good! And you can wear that necklace you’re so fond of to match.”

  Violet fiddled the gold chain on her neck and looked in the mirror, anxiety written all over her face.

  “I look good?” she asked in the form of a question while her eyes searched mine for confirmation.

  “You look great, Vi,” I said with an enthusiastic nod. “It’s the best one you’ve tried on so far.”