A Goddess Wears Orange

Chapter 12

Oddly enough, it was Tala who gave Yumi the chance to finally give her ever-vigilant Goddess-trainer/attendant the slip. 

It was their second day of business, and already word was spreading that two strong contenders for the position of best sophomore class booth were emerging—their booth and the “Fair Games” booth. The news must have reached even the senior student council, who’d decided that a closer inspection was warranted. That, at first, was the reason Yumi’s classmates came up with for the unexpected appearance of no less than the senior student council president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer at their fruit-shake café. 

At least until Yumi emerged from the “shrine” and stopped at the sight of the visitors, her grip tightening around the orange. “Hi, Ate.” 

“Hi, Yumi,” her sister responded with equal enthusiasm. The expressions on the faces around them suddenly cleared, and Yumi could imagine what her classmates were thinking. Oh jeez, I forgot. The gorgeous Tala Muñoz is Yumi’s older sister. I still can’t believe they’re related. 

As the student council president and secretary lined up to place their orders at the bar, Tala approached the shrine the way a rookie zookeeper would approach the tiger’s cage. Audrey, the senior student council treasurer, followed close behind her. 

“This is pretty.” Tala gestured at the shrine, sparing a pointed glance at the familiar-looking throw-pillows. “How has business been going?” 

“It’s been okay, thanks for asking,” Yumi replied, just as politely. 

Just then, Ren came out from the curtained-off “kitchen” area dragging a cooler full of ice. Straightening, he spotted Tala, and a smile lit up his face. “Hey, Tala. It’s about time you dropped by to visit,” he said, wiping his hands on his apron and walking toward her. 

Tala smiled back at him with genuine warmth. “I know, I’m sorry. Audrey and I would have come sooner, but we’ve been so busy. You know how it is. But we’ve been hearing a lot of good things about your café. Keep it up until Friday and Saturday, everyone. You’ll be getting a lot more customers during the school’s open-house.” This, she said to the rest of the class, and Yumi rolled her eyes at the way the boys’ heads all bobbed in sync. 

Just then, the senior student council secretary called out: “Tala, Audrey, come over here. We’re trying to decide what shakes to get so we can get our love fortunes read. Prez says we don’t have time right now, but I’m sure the three of us can convince him. I’m getting a large strawberry-mango-kiwi shake. What about you?” 

“Just a small papaya shake for me please,” Audrey said quickly. 

“The same goes for me,” Tala put in. 

“Small? But that’s not enough to get you a love-fortune reading. It’s got to be a large.” 

Tala shook her head. “No, it’s all right. I’m not really into that sort of thing, anyway.” 

Yumi stared down at her feet while the student council secretary pouted. “Fine. I’ll just ditch you guys later and get my love-fortune read. One small strawberry-mango-kiwi shake for me, please.” 

“Here you go, ladies. At least rest your feet for a while.” Ren pulled out chairs for both Audrey and Tala then swept into a gallant bow before her sister, oozing so much charm that Yumi felt like tossing a mop at his head and telling him to clean up the floor. 

“Why, thank you, sir,” Tala said with an answering laugh. “And look. How fair is it that my own hair accessories look better on a guy than on me?” She reached up to playfully tug at the rhinestone-star hair-tie holding Ren’s bangs back.