For Luck

Following their first day in Heaven, the applicants were a-buzz with excitement. They were supposed to be asleep by now, but they were all too busy chatting about their day and tossing around opinions to care about the curfew. On and on the chatter went until one of the girls, the redheaded one named Courtney, spoke up louder than the rest.

"Do you guys want to cast badges?" she asked.

"Cast badges?" Natalie, the tall blond, asked, looking to the shorter girl in confusion.

"Casting badges!" Alexis, the short blond, echoed eagerly. She looked up at Natalie before explaining. "It's a little game where you take your badge, your armband, and toss it up in the air and whichever way it lands tells your fortune!"

"What?" Amy, the dark-skinned girl, sounded incredulous as Alexis explained the rules of casting badges.

"It's just a silly little ritual! But Publicist told me about it!" Alexis said. "And you all know how old he is! He said that they were casting badges for luck when he was just an applicant like us!"

"What? Back when Jesus still roamed the Earth?" June joked and the others laughed.

"So shall we do it now?" Amy asked eagerly once everybody understood what casting badges meant.

"Yeah!" the others cried, busily removing their armbands and heading towards the heart of the dorm room.

"Who'll sing the prayer?" Natalie asked, looking around the small group.

"I will," Cora offered. Together, with badges held tight, they shut their eyes and bowed their heads.

"All children of Heaven sing 'Alleluia', born of blood and cast of wing, alleluia! Alleluia, alleluia, always alleluia!" Cora sang.

Once the last note had dissipated into the air, every girl tossed her armband over her shoulder with her eyes still shut. Then, somebody began counting. Once she got to seven, everybody opened their eyes and turned around and checked their armbands.

"Ooh! I got a good one!" Amy cried delightedly.

"Awww, I hope this doesn't mean I've gotta wash floors forever!" said Alexis, frowning at hers.

"Well, I think I'll be right there with ya!" Natalie joked. Cora looked at her own armband mutely, excitement surged through her body. Her badge had fallen face up with wings pointed away from her, a sign of wonderful fortune. (The rules were that the more of the wing you could see and the further away it faced from you, the luckier you were).

"What'd you get, June?" Courtney asked, turning to the blond. June was staring blankly down at hers and had not made a single sound since agreeing with the others to perform this silly little ritual. Such a silence was unusual for the hotheaded blond and that was why Courtney asked. The moment she and the others saw June's armband, however, they understood why she was only staring at the piece of cloth and not even trying to pick it up. It had landed totally facedown. That was already a pretty unlucky position. But none of the girls could stand the suspense so, finally, Natalie bent over and picked it up. The wings were pointed inward at June. The ultimate bad luck.

"Oh, June..." Cora's delight at her own good fortune vanished when she realized what was wrong with June. All the other girls made similar noises of sympathy as June could only stare at the piece of red cloth in Natalie's open palm. The tall blond handed the armband back to the smaller blond with an awkward and sympathetic smile. Her own armband hadn't exactly landed in the best position either, but it certainly hadn't been so unlucky as June's had been. But as the seconds rolled on, June began to shake her head.