I Didn't Sign up for This War.

Chapter 7

I turn off the sink immediately and wipe the water off my face with my sleeve.

I look down and see that the baby pink satin is stained with purple and gold powder. Just great. Why would anybody use this stuff? It just goes everywhere.

I look in the mirror and the question of who spoke to me is immediately obvious. A boy standing just outside one of the stalls, staring at me curiously.

He has hair in a bright orange that looks almost unnatural. Freckles break up his pale skin and his cheeks don't match at all with his broad shoulders and arms. When I squint, I see a huge pimple on the tip of his nose. Mother Gothel used to say that boiling water mixed with cucumber juice was good for those. I wonder if he knows.

Something about him doesn't seem quite right. I have to think for a moment before I realize what it is.

"What are you doing in the girls bathroom?"

"I could ask you the same question." He backs up for a moment and opens the door to one of the stalls: a toilet with a cubical opposite it. "This is the boy's bathroom."

I'm in the boy's bathroom. My cheeks heat up with embarrassment and I move toward the door, stammering an apology.

"No, don't go. I didn't mean it like that. Nobody is in here anyway, no harm done really." He chuckles nervously and looks all around the room as if looking for an escape route. Why is he being so jittery?

"What's your name?" I ask him because I may as well try to make an awkward situation less awkward.

"Oh, it's Pascal."

"Pascal..." I mull over the name, enjoying the way the strange consenants feel on my tongue.

"I know," he says, misunderstanding the repetition. "It's a Never name."

I didn't know that there was a difference between Never names and Ever names. Is Rapunzel a Never name? Is that why all the Good kids at my school used to make fun of it?

"I come from an Ever family but they raised me in an Evil town. They gave me a Never name because they wanted me to...fit in, I guess? It didn't work though."

'These Evers. All they care about is fitting in. Why would you want to worry about that, Flower? Who needs to fit in when we have each other?'

I lean against the smooth cold sinks. "I've never been to a Never town, what's that like?"

"Well, that depends. What's it like being the same as everyone else?"

"I wouldn't know." I let out a small sigh. The bathroom smells like perfume, floral and sickly sweet. Nothing like how a bathroom should smell and definetly nothing like home. I'm tired of all these new smells, new tastes, new places.

"I'm just the opposite. My Mother is a Never but she raised me in a Never town." I still don't understand why. "I'm not Good enough for them and not Evil enough for her."

"Well, you're here. They're not. I think you're more Good than you think."

"I guess so." Why does the thought make my stomach twist itself into knots?

"I know so."

A bell from outside clangs to get our attention. I cringe and cover my ears. What is it with this school and loud noises?

"What's that bell for?" I look at Pascal, he stares back at me in confusion before comprehension fully dons on his face.

"It's for the Introduction Ceremony!" He slaps his head with his own fist. Is self-harm supposed to be a Never thing or an Ever thing? "I was supposed to be there five minutes ago."

I remember Eugene mentioning that: 'I can walk you there if you want.' I didn't realize it was a real thing though. Why are we not being warned about these things in advance?

"Did it start five minutes ago?"

"No, but the Princes were supposed to prepare some kind of entrance? I don't even understand it either but we were all going to leave the feast five minutes ago. And there are no clocks here so I lost track of time and-"

"Hey, it'll be okay." Instinct urges me to comfort him, though my head urges me to get as far away from him as possible. "Where is it?"

"All the Princesses will be heading there now. We should probably just follow the crowd. It'll be fine. They won't miss someone like me anyway. I'm not Eugene or something." He seems to be talking to himself now. He laughs at and runs his hands through his hair like he's going a bit mad, still looking every which way. 

I open the door to the bathroom and look outside.

An overwhelming flood of people and chatter meet my ears and eyes.

I close the door immediately.

"Seems like everyone's going somewhere," I say conversationally, trying to get him out of his own head for a moment.

"Yeah." He considers, running his hand through his hair once more. "Look, we should probably go with them. I'm not really sure of the way and I heard they're giving out failing ranks to people who miss it."

'Typical Prince. All they want is for you to be a sheep. Follow the group. Follow orders. Have I truly raised you to be so compliant Rapunzel? Men are useless and Princes are even worse.'

I'm just trying to survive, Mother. I don't want to be a plant you put into your garden and forget about.

"All right. Let's go then."

We open the door and join the flood of Evers moving like a herd through the halls.