The Aldean Chronicles: Spotlight (Part 2)

It's uncomfortable being on this side of the room.

Like last year, the pledges all stand on the stage and listen to the head talk about the hard and perilous journey ahead.

That isn't what makes me scared. It's all the people looking me over. I feel like they're judging us, and placing bets on who will make it and who won't.

"In your hands is your scroll. The last few people to pass the first phase will be eliminated." Colette is walking up and down the stage. Her blonde hair is in curls today. "You can go now. You begin tomorrow." She stops at the podium. "Get out."

The other initiates rush off. I try not to scowl and am the last to leave.

"Wasn't that interesting?" Sara says as soon as I exit through the door behind the stage.

"Yeah." We walk back to our room.

"Can I see your scroll?" I hand it to her and she compares it to hers. "It's the same. What do you think it means?"

I shrug. "Maybe it's a map, or a treasure hunt, or a maze. Who knows what's going on in Colette's twisted, little mind."

Sara rolls her eyes. "I bet it's amazing. Colette is really smart. Whatever she came up with will be amazing as well."

I say nothing for the rest of the walk.

I skip dinner that evening to hang out with Tristan on the fire training field.

We lay on the clean-cut grass and stare at the orange sky.

"What did you think?" He asks.

"Like I'm probably not getting in."

He smiles. "Everyone feels like that."

"Not everyone is like me."

"Not smart, powerful, and possessing the dragon's flame?" He asks. "Yeah, you are surely at a disadvantage."

"Tristan." I sit up and stare at him. "I have to show you something."

He sits up as well. "What's wrong?"

"It's my magic." I stare at my hands. "It's been different since the pledge."

"It's supposed to be. That's the point of the pledge."

"It's not better. It's..." I try to summon a fireball. As expected, it flickers before dying out.

He frowns. "What did Seb say?"

I look away. "I haven't told him. I haven't told anyone. And you can't either."

"Cass, you need help. This has been going on for three months. I don't think it'll get better on its own."

"Forget it." I hide my hands in my Jumper's pockets.

"I'm serious. You need to get it looked at."

"Drop it."

"Cass, you can't fix it by yourself."

"Don't you think I know that?" I yell.

He stares at my face, then at my stomach. "Cass?" He points at my Jumper.

I groan when I see that it's ruined. I burned the pockets and now a huge chunk of the middle is gone.

"I can't tell them," I whisper.

"They can help you." He whispers back.

"I don't want them to know," I admit. "I don't want them to think there's something wrong with me. For a long time, I was always the odd one out. Back home, at school, with my family. But I'm finally starting to fit in. Things are finally looking good for me. I don't want to go back to being the weird one."

He gives me a big hug. "You were never the weird one."

I sniff. "Oh really? A year ago today, you hated me."

He sighs. "I didn't hate you."

"Please. You hated that you had to spend your Saturdays with me."

He pulls away so he can stare at my face. "I loved spending my Saturday mornings with you. You were the highlight of my week. It's why I invited you to Blue Rose meetings. And why I always asked about your week. And why I took you with me to the hotel." I try to look away again but he holds my cheeks in place. "You were never, and will never be the weird one, Cassandra Flores. You have always been smart and funny and amazing, and the only difference between then and now is you know it."

"If you make me cry, I swear I will break up with you." I blink tears away.

"Your magic will be fine. And so will you."

This kiss isn't deep. I just leave my lips on his for a few seconds then pull away.

"I really, really like you, Tristan."

"I know you do."

"Wow," I roll my eyes playfully. "I should go. I have a stupid early start to my Saturday."

He gets up first, then offers me a hand. "You'll get in."

I don't turn back when I say, "stop being encouraging."

The sound of his laugh is the only thing I hear as I head for the dining hall.

***

"Cass, it's starting."

I grumble and open my eyes. "Did you say something?"

Sara is standing in front of her bed and staring at her scroll. "Quick, get yours."

I force myself out of bed and to my top desk drawer.

At the bottom of the scroll, words are being written in golden letters.

When the invisible pen stops moving, I read the clue. "What the hell is The Butterfly and The Monkey?"

Sara shushes me. "We're not supposed to help each other. We'll get eliminated if they find out."

Sara picks up her water bottle, her book bag, and heads for the door. "See you later, Cass." I didn't even notice she was dressed.

I check my phone for the time. It's 6:30. What time did she get up?

I want to climb back into bed and go to sleep but I don't. I have to get into this stupid club. As much as I complained about it all week, I was always going to try. I couldn't be the only Harrington who isn't or wasn't a member.

I take a quick shower and change into yoga pants and a sweatshirt.

A quick online search tells me that The Butterfly and The Monkey is a proverb that originated in Calais. It's popular throughout Illyria. This is my first day hearing about it.

Apparently, The Butterfly and The Monkey were friends. One day, the Butterfly decided he wanted to fly away. The Monkey didn't want the Butterfly to leave, so she attempted to cut off his wings.

She didn't succeed and the Butterfly was angry about the Monkey's betrayal. So he went to meet their mutual friend, the Parrot (I take a break there to roll my eyes).

Anyways, the Parrot avenged the Butterfly by cutting off the monkey's wings (apparently they used to have wings) and cursed the monkey to jump around for eternity.

Yeah, I have no idea how this relates to my scroll. I walk around the room, trying to think. Monkeys and butterflies, what do they have in common? Or is this clue about the Parrot? I know they're all animals, they're all...living things?

Nope, this isn't working.

I take a break and go get some breakfast. On Saturdays, breakfast runs from eight to ten.

After a quiet meal at an empty table, I go to the library and search the Zoology section. I select the most popular book on Butterflies and examine it. Written on the last page in yellow neon marker is the letter A. I check the most popular book on Monkeys and see the word E. I do the same with the Parrots and see C.

Aec, what does that mean? I scramble the words and come up with Ace. I know there's an Ace at the Blue Rose building.

It's in the entrance room. I put the books back where I found them and walk to the Blue Rose building.

I search all the portraits and smile when I see Aces all over one of the frames. I take it off the wall and find ten new scrolls behind it. I take one and put it in my pocket.

"Princess Cassandra?" Colette walks into the front room from the main hall. She watches me put the picture back. "You figured that out quickly."

"It wasn't really hard."

She folds her arms across her chest. "You didn't waste time pondering the philosophical and moral factors of the Parrot's revenge. Or the justified selfishness of the monkey?"

I wipe some of the sleep out of my eyes. "I just found out about the proverb today and went to the library."

She gives me a murderous glare. "Not even surprised. Things have just always been easy for you, haven't they?"

"Are we still talking about the tests?"

She shakes her head. "The second one's on Wednesday. You're supposed to have it done by Saturday so we can move to the physical portion."

Hearing about the latter makes my heart drop to my stomach. I instead put on a confident smile. "Can't wait."

She glares at me again and stalks off.

***

My ringtone wakes me up at noon.

"What?" I don't look at the caller ID.

"Have you seen Rachel?" It's Kat.

"Who?"

"Caroline's little sister. You're supposed to go to her room and help her unpack."

"Kat, you just woke me up."

"I'm just letting you know she's here. She's in room 310, and she's your problem now." And she ends the call.

Sometimes, I really hate my cousin.

I put on some shoes, brush my hair, and walk up the stairs to Rachel's room.

I knock on her door and wait for a response.

"Come in." A faint voice calls from behind the door.

I let myself in.

One half of the room is done up with pictures and fairy lights, and the bed is covered with multicoloured pillows.

The other looks the same as when we all moved in.

"I'll be right out." The same voice says from the bathroom.

I wait five seconds for Rachel to walk into the main bedroom.

"Hi, Princess Cassandra."

"Cass."

She nods. "Thanks for coming, but you don't have to be here."

I yawn. "No, It's alright. I know how scary starting a new school is."

She rubs her arms and lets her brown eyes dart around the room. She faces me fully and I get my first proper look at her face.

She still has a big nose and tiny ears, but it doesn't look nearly as bad as Cass described. It kind of suits her.

She's certainly not as good-looking as her elder sister, but she's still very pretty.

"You can go if you want to. I'm sure you have other things to do." She tells me.

On cue, I get a text on my phone. It's Grey. He wants to hear how my Blue Rose thing went.

"I have to go now," I say to her. "But I'll give you my number. You can call me if you need anything."

"I will." She gives me her phone and I put my number in.

"Your roommate looks friendly." I glance at her done-up side.

Rachel's smile is tight. "She's not."

"Oh. Okay."

I leave the room and meet Grey in the dining hall for lunch.

I sit beside him at his empty table.

"Here." He hands me a bottle of apple juice and a chicken salad.

"Thanks." I take a few sips of my juice and pick at the salad.

"So, Blue Rose?"

"I was not asleep all afternoon because I'm being unserious with it." I defend. "It's because I'm free till Wednesday."

He smiles. "I know. The whole club's talking about it. You cracked Colette's code in two hours."

"It wasn't hard." I defend. "It was in the most popular books in the library and they spelled Ace."

"Yeah, but you remembered where you saw Aces."

"Only because I've been in the building a thousand times. Seriously, it's not a big deal. It's not like I'll pass the next test."

"Give yourself credit. You did well." He insists.

"Grey." Two guys sit opposite us at the table. "Grey's sister."

"Let me guess. Lance and Stick. The ones who aren't pieces of shit?" I ask.

They nod. "That would be us." The blonde one says.

"And which one's Stick?"

The blonde one squares up. "Let's hear them. And you should know, I've heard all the jokes and insults a person can come up with."

"Well, then I'll have to surprise you," I promise. They both laugh. "How did you come to Stick anyway?"

"I didn't. It was in Preparatory School. I was really bony and one day, my friend held up a stick and said I kind of look like it."

"Really? So it has nothing to do with Stanley?"

"Nope."

I turn to Grey. "You didn't tell me this."

The other guy, the one with red hair snorts. "Not the only thing he isn't telling you."

"What? What aren't you telling me?" I ask Grey. My smile quickly disappears.

His friends laugh, he and I don't.

He shakes his head. "Nothing serious."

I try to hide my frown. "Sure, whatever."

He gives in. "Fine, it's just a girl. Like I said, nothing serious."

My smile comes back. "That's nice. Do I know her?"

He stops himself from talking. "She's a good person, and I like her. That's all I want to tell you right now."

I smile. "I'm really happy you found someone."

His friends laugh. "I wouldn't say he found someone. She rejected him."

"She didn't reject me." Grey defends. "She just didn't say yes when I asked her out."

"That's rejection." Stick reminds him.

"You'd know. The two of you have been well acquainted over the years."

Lance laughs. "Good one."

"I have one for that. I just haven't thought of it." Is Stick's response.

"We're here when you do," Grey assures him.

I pick at my dinner and watch their interactions with a soft smile on my face.