A Goddess Wears Orange

Chapter 8

By Saturday evening, Yumi was completely exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally. She lay splayed out on her bed while Ren straddled her desk chair and flipped through the pages of his “official Goddess-training” clipboard. He was also wearing his “official Goddess-training” glasses again, but Yumi was too tired to do anything more than have a private, little laugh over it. 

He lowered the clipboard and nodded with satisfaction. “You’ve done pretty well, all things considered. Great work on your training.” 

“Ren, I’m barely alive. My brain feels like it’s been boiled and left on the counter for a month. And I still get nauseous when I read more than two people in one sitting, so I can’t imagine how I’ll do with fifty or a hundred. How the heck can you say I’ve done well?” 

Instead of replying, he rolled the chair over to her bed and picked up her limp hand. Out of habit, she raised her orange shell around her to block out his threads. “Tell me what you’re feeling from me,” he demanded. 

“What?” She looked at him as if he was crazy. “You want me to tell you your love-fortune now?” 

“Yeah, something like that. So what do you feel? What are you reading in my threads? What do you—” 

“I don’t know, okay?” she growled, yanking her hand out of his grasp. “Read your own threads and let me die in peace.” 

Laughing, he punched one fist upward and did a victory spin in the chair, ignoring her muttering “you freaking loony” underneath her breath. When his epileptic fit had ended, he took out a pencil and his clipboard again, and checked a few items. “Okay, just one more thing before we take it to the next level tomorrow,” he pronounced. 

That did not sound like good news to her. “There’s a next level?” 

Instead of bothering to explain himself, he jumped out of the chair and left the room, only to return with Ate Tala in tow. “Oh, great,” Yumi grumbled, unable to muster the energy to at least be civil. 

Her sister didn’t look overjoyed to be brought into her presence either. Her brows were drawn together in annoyance, making a line appear in her otherwise flawless skin, and there were dark shadows underneath her eyes. Even her mermaid tresses were looking frizzy, as if she hadn’t had time to properly condition and style her hair lately. Tala was feeling the school fair crunch, all right. “What’s this about, Ren? And does it have to be now? I’m in the middle of something,” she complained. 

“Just one favor, Tala. Just one tiny, little one. It won’t take long. Please?” he coaxed. 

If he bats his eyelashes at her and says, ‘Do it for me?’, I’m really going to hurl, Yumi thought sourly, pushing herself up to a sitting position. 

Tala crossed her arms and regarded both Ren and Yumi with open suspicion. “Will this involve insects, slime or breaking and entering into other people’s property in any way?” 

“Sheesh, Ate, that was just one time. And besides, we were nine years old. It didn’t exactly turn us into juvenile delinquents, did it?” Yumi pointed out with a roll of her eyes. 

“Actually, it was more like two times,” Ren murmured, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. 

“Three,” Tala corrected flatly, then threw her hands up in surrender. “Fine, I’ll bite. What do you want me to do?” 

“Take her hand,” Ren said. 

Tala actually backed up a step, the color draining out of her face, leaving her looking ashen and oddly translucent. At the dread and revulsion she saw in her sister’s face, Yumi felt something inside her crumple. Ren had looked at her the same way three years ago, but Tala was different. Tala was family. Her rejection wounded Yumi in the core of her being, and she turned aside before either Ren or her sister could see how shattered she was.