Orchid

Upside Down

Of course, I didn't know then. I just sat down in my simple desk(not supporting left-handed people, thank God that I'm right-handed) and patiently waited for Ms. Amphitrite to get up from her desk. She has this long, wavy brown hair and pretty blue-green eyes. She looks like twenty, twenty-one, the youngest maybe nineteen. 

 When the last student enters the room, Ms. Amphitrite closes the door and takes attendance. "So....Xander Jackson is missing. We will start class without him," she says, adding the last part as some girls start raising their hands to say Xander isn't here. The girls slump down in defeat and despair, whining to themselves. I snicker. Those girls aren't very popular. Well, not including Lucy, who's trying to comfort  herself down. 

 After five minutes of copying Roman gods' names down, Xander bursts into the room, sweat beaded on his forehead. "Sorry, mam," he apologizes. "I had to run an errand for Mr. Burke." He sends me a quick wave. The girls all sigh because they thought the wave was directed at them. 

 As he sits down beside me and opens his binder to get his notebook, I think I see a hint of a black shiny thing and a case of stuff. Maybe his clarinet folded up with his reeds? I forget about it soon as I focus on his dazzling icy-blue eyes and his high cheekbones.

  "Time's up," Ms. Amphitrite announces. "Now, can anyone tell me who Jupiter is?

  "Is, mam?" Obnoxious Jenna's up correcting her again. "Jupiter is a myth. He wasn't really in this world."

  Ms. Amphitrite narrows her eyes, but she manages to cough out, "Yes, Jennifer. Thank you." The teachers are the only people who can't call her Jenna. She learned it the hard way when she told a test proctor her name. The test proctor disqualified her. "But who...was he?"

 "The Roman God of lightning and the king of the Roman gods," Jenna answers politely, folding her hands and sneaking a glance at Xander. Yes, unfortunately Xander's spell took effect on Jenna. Xander widens his cool, casual half-smile and winks. Jenna's cheeks color and she looks away.

  "Correct." I barely hear Ms. Amphitrite's voice as I dreamily stare at Xander's gorgeous dark skin. "Now, Orchid, who is Prosperine?"

  I jerk my head forward. "What?"

 "I asked, who is Prosperine?" Ms. Amphrite angles her head disapprovedly. "In the future, Orchid, please do not stare off in the distance like you're asleep with your eyes open."

 The class bursts into laughter. Even Xander cracks a smile. "Don't worry," he whispers under his breath. "They won't be laughing anymore soon."

  I laugh with him, sorta confused. Xander's charm doesn't work on everyone. A choice few are unaffected, like Rose Summers. She just remains quiet and still to herself, like a lone rose flower. How ironic that she's not in love and her name is the flower choice of love. I answer the professor's question. "Uh...she's that unfortunate kidnapped goddess's daughter, right?"

  "Close enough, Orchid. I'll accept that. Pluto, god of the Underworld, kidnapped Prosperine, Ceres's daughter, or the goddess of the harvest. Prosperine herself is the goddess of springtime and the queen of the dead. She ate six pomegranate seeds from the dead's garden before Mercury brought her back to the land of the living so Jupiter proclaimed she had to stay for six months every year, or winter and autumn, when Ceres grieves. Spring and summer are the six months she joins her mother again." She moves on with her lecture.

  I look out the window and see the snow drift down like feathers swirling through the wind. Apparently, Prosperine is spending her time with her forced husband right now.

 "Xander Jackson, who is Mars?"

 "Oh, Ms. Amphitrite," he gushes, running a hand through his wild dark hair. "Mars is my most favorite god of all time. He's the Roman god of war and battles. Son of Zeus and Hera and brother of Hephaestus."

 "Good." Ms. Amphitrite nods in approval. "Now, everyone, I want you to draw a family tree of the Roman gods. The twelve major ones."

 "Not including Vesta, right?" Lily oozes to her.

 "No, at least not right now." Ms. Amphitrite flashes her a quick and weary smile.

 As we scrawl our lines connecting the gods, Xander reaches into his binder. "Gotta get a pencil," he says tightly. But by the way his hand flattens and widens, I know he's not getting a pencil. A pencil you can grab with your fingers.

 And I'm right. He's not getting a pencil.

 In his hand is a terrible thing that is not the trick of the light.

 It's a weapon of destruction, doom, and ultimately death.

 It's a gun.