seen from South Korea
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Indonesia
seen from China
seen from Estonia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Estonia
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Germany
Ok my dude so there were two about sodas there was Cherry Soda (which reminded me more of Valerie) and Sodas and Skateboards I figured you meant Cherry Soda but I drew Lilith in Sodas and Skateboards just in case So I present to you Soda Twins Also I made Valerie’s fake fangs way too big rip @powerfulwarriors (their freckles are stars!!!)
I apologize for the lateness in the next chapter I am going to work on it more this week to see if my writers block has worn off In the mean time I have started the next book so hopefully there won't be any long breaks like this one
Blind Angels
The lunch bell blares and students scurry out of the classroom. Rising from her seat, Ada packs up her book and waits for Megumi at the doorway. The clock on the wall read eleven fifty five, they have forty five minutes for break.
“Ada,” Megumi’s singsong voice carries through the air, dancing around as she saunters over to her best friend. “Ada did you see Raphael today?” she drags the word “see” out for far longer than necessary. “Ada he was positively breathtaking,” her dreamy sigh starts before finishing the last word and her eyes flutter closed in delight.
“He was okay,” Ada retorts, not too keen on Raphael’s appearance today. He wore khakis and a red flannel with black sneakers—nothing to be enchanted by.
“‘Okay’? ‘Okay’!” Megumi flings her scrawny arms into the air above her head, “Ada he was more than just ‘okay’!” Her pink-nailed fingers clung to the sleeves of Ada’s forest green tee-shirt, “Ada he is absolutely stunning! He’s the most handsome guy in the school—on the planet! Ada you can’t deny this, this is a fact.”
Ada rolls her eyes on Megumi’s emphasis on “fact”. “Megumi, that’s your opinion,” and Megumi gasps and holds at her chest, grasping her heart. “Some people aren’t going to agree with you, and I’m one of those people,” the two leave the classroom and head down to purchase food.
“Ada,” Megumi’s voice is void of its usual melody, “a lot of the boys in this school are fucking hot, and Raphael takes the goddamn cake.” She picks up a sweet roll and slams it onto her tray, “we’re fifteen, there has got to be some guy you like!”
“One: just because we’re fifteen doesn’t mean I like some guy, and I don’t. Two:—emphasis on the two—even if I did like someone it wouldn’t necessarily be Raphael just because he’s, and I’m quoting you on this, ‘drop-dead gorgeous’.”
“Ada that is complete and utter bullshit I have seen your history notes and they’re completely covered in hearts. You cannot fool me, we have been best friends for, um,” Megumi takes out one hand and starts counting on her fingers, lips whispering ages, “for ten years! Stop laughing at me, you know I’m not good at math!” Ada’s laughter is soft but contagious, and soon Megumi is laughing along with her, voice ringing and rebounding off of the walls.
“Ten years I’ve had to put up with you,” Ada nudges her shoulder into Megumi’s, “and all I’ve got is a major headache.”
“Hey!” Megumi feigns offense at Ada’s mock insult. “I’ll have you know I’m a great friend and an expert on romance advice, so,” she pauses and smiles up at Ada, four inches taller, “so you can tell me things, you know. Like who you have a crush on.”
“It’s ‘whom’, Megumi, and I already told you I don’t,” Megumi’s eyes bare into Ada’s with skepticism, “okay, so maybe I do, but it’s no big deal, alright? Now stop talking about it.”
“Alright, alright,” the girls sit down at an empty table against the wall, “and by the way, Nikki and Beth are heading to a club later tonight and invited us, you up?”
“Hell yeah, I haven’t snuck out of the house in a while, do I have to bring my own cigarettes?” Ada laughs, shoving a slice of apple into her mouth.
“Ada, you’re the go-to girl for when people are out, so I’m pretty sure they’re expecting you to bring your own,” Megumi joins in in the laughter, entertained with the thought of Ada being sans cigarettes.
The girls quiet down and eat their food without speaking. Around them, others buzz with gossip about the latest hook-ups and whether that guy is cheating on which girl and who was seen running naked last night outside the public library. Jocks are hustled in the center of the cafeteria, shoving at each other and ignorant to the food flying from their trays. Ada rolls her eyes at the sight, ‘boys,’ she scoffs internally.
Ada finishes her lunch before Megumi, so she’s stuck without a conversation partner for a minute or two before the both of them go to hand in their newly-emptied trays. With just under twenty minutes left in the break, the two stroll across the garden outside.
The garden is well-kept for a school full of chaotic teenagers, and decorates the building to make it appear newer than it really is. It isn’t too large, however it’s big enough for a picnic with around twenty people with leeway. There’s a two large pine trees stretching from the earth in the center—the mossy green pins canopying sculpted earth. Under the trees, flowers have not been planted as to leave room for students to rest, but a little ways outside of the shadows start the floral beds of blues and yellows.
Megumi blathers on about Raphael’s hair and the way his arms danced when he flexed to take notes. She’s absolutely infatuated with him, and Ada feels her heart clench tightly together to hide itself. It is weird, Ada thinks, how almost every girl in all of her classes has a boyfriend. And the girls that are single are constantly fawning over some boy with his shirt pulled up, exposing some of his flesh. Ada finds it disgusting, not the fawning, but the exposed skin right above the boy’s groin.
“And his eyes,” Megumi gushed, “Those lilac blue orbs that shimmer in the sunlight, they’re just perfect. I feel like I’ve grown wings and am soaring in the sunny sky when I see them. Ada, he’s absolutely perfect!” Ada groans much loader than she initially intends to, but gets her frustration across to Megumi who crosses her arms and sticks out her bottom lip in a pout.
“Megumi,” Ada whines, “you barely even know him. Have you ever even spoken with him?” Megumi looks away and hesitates before shrugging. “Megumi,” Ada peers down at her friend, “Megumi tell me the truth: you never have, have you?”
“No, but,” Megumi shoots around and her eyes are wide as she raises her voice, “but he’s just so,” her arms flail around as she looks for appropriate words, “like, you know, you’ve seen him!”
“Yes,” Ada looks ahead of her and down at the flowers they will be passing, “and I have to say, I’m not impressed.”
“Ada,” Megumi stops walking.
Ada sighs before also stopping and then turning to face her friend. “Megumi.”
“Ada you are head-over-heels in love with someone.”
Ada’s struck aghast, “I’m sorry?” she stutters.
“The fact that you can’t acknowledge Raphael’s perfection,” Megumi points out, “clearly goes to show that you’re far too in love with whatever guy you like to even think about seeing Raphael in that way!”
“Megumi,” Ada draws out and flicks her friend’s forehead, “it’s not like that. I just don’t find him very attractive.”
“Lies!” Megumi looks absolutely scandalized.
“It’s the truth,” Ada turns and starts walking down the path again. Megumi treads up next to her and for once stays silent. There’s an uncomfortable air before Ada speaks up again, “I’m not mad at you, you know.”
“Oh,” and Ada snorts at Megumi’s soft and innocent reaction. Megumi’s hunched shoulders straighten as she regains her vibrant smile. “Oh!” she giggles, “of course.”
The two girls chat on about the history exam they took earlier that day and how exhausting it was. They stop at a bench just outside of the garden on sit to resume talking. Megumi does most of the chatting, Ada only adding a few snarky remarks when she deems them appropriate. The bells sounds and the lunch break is over, so the two bid each other farewell and leave for their next classes.
Ada makes it to her math class mere seconds before the bell rings again, which would’ve signaled her lateness. She slides into a seat near the back of the room and takes out her workbook and some graph paper. The lesson for today was scheduled to be inverse trigonometry, but at the moment the teacher was too busy fussing to herself over her shitty personal life—which she allegedly had. Ada hears her mumbling something about her husband and “her”.
Eight minutes past the class’s starting time, the teacher is finally calm enough to begin her lecture on arcsine. “For starters, we begin with a right triangle, with sides X and Y and hypotenuse Z, and corresponding angles x, y, and z,” she draws said figure on the board in front of her. “We already learned that sine of y is Y divided by Z, so arcsine—the inverse of sine—of y is Z divided by Y.
“The same goes for arccosine and arctangent. The arccosine of y is Z divided by X, which is the reciprocal of cosine: X divided by Z. And arctangent is the same, where instead of Y divided by X, like in tangent, arctangent is X divided by Y.” She walks over to her desk and retrieves a pile of papers from the top. “Now,” she asks, “are there any questions before I hand out practice sheets for arc-trigonometry?” With no questions, or at least no raised hands, she passes out a smaller pile to the first person in each row, which they then pass behind them.
The practice sheet is actually a packet of three pages, each with five questions—fifteen questions in total. After writing her name and the date, Ada’s eyes scan the first paper. She lifts the eraser of her pencil up to her lips as her eyebrows furrow in concentration for the first problem.
The school day ends on a fairly regular note, the only notable difference being a pop quiz in art history. Ada slams her locker and peruses the hallway for Megumi. She spots her near the front entrance flirting with Raphael. Rolling her eyes, Ada glides up to the two and wait for them to be done with their escapade.
“Oh, Ada!” Megumi hums as she spins around to greet her friend, “you know Raphael, right?”
“We’re in the same history class,” Ada deadpans, not wanting to elongate this conversation.
“Well,” Megumi interjects, “we were just chatting about this and that, and I thought, ‘wow, I’m sure Raphael would love to go to the club with us,’ so I invited him and he’s tagging along!” She squeals, “Isn’t that just absolutely fantastic?”
The gold that rims Megumi’s blue-green eyes sparks delightedly as her pupils dilate. “Well as long as he brings his own shit, I’m not supplying for extras.” ‘Fantastic,’ Ada thinks, ‘some groggy-ass dude to interrupt my fun time out.’ She scowls, ‘fucker.’
Megumi waves and her smile shines as she and Ada finally leave Raphael and walk out of the school building. “He’s a great guy,” Megumi sighs.
“The best.”
“Ada,” Megumi whines, “you are missing out on so much! I almost feel bad for you, but it means more for me.” She bumps her hip into Ada’s and adds a little skip to her step. “Remind me to thank Mr. Dreamy.”
“The only ‘Mr. Dreamy’ is that one blanket detergent’s mascot,” Ada rests her hands behind her head. “Unless we’re talking about your Mr. Dreamy: Sir Raphael of that one public high school in the asscrack of nowhere, Germany.” Ada’s comment of their school gets a laugh from Megumi. “And apparently my math professor’s husband is pretty hot—he keeps hooking up with side hoes— from what I hear her complaining about during class.”
“Well,” Megumi retorts, “I’m not going to fuck a mascot or an old guy, so I’m sticking to Mr. Dreamy the Second: Sir Raphael of Asscrack, Germany.” The two of them laugh for quite a while, but Ada feels her chest contort and squeeze uncomfortably the entire time.
The two wait at the bus stop for a good six minutes before Megumi starts belching her high-pitched voice in a whine that the world’s finest connoisseur would rate even more exquisite than taking five shots of straight vodka in a row. “This fucking bus,” Megumi pinches her words as if she had picked up a worm. “I don’t have time for this! I have to get home, shower, get dressed, put on the best makeup you’ve ever seen, sneak out to the club, have a hell of time, sneak back home, and then copy some nerd’s homework answer.”
“Sounds like you’ve got a full schedule for tonight.”
“Yeah, and if all goes well I might have to add Raphael to that list.”
“Good luck,” Ada scoffs, throat dryer by the second and breath shorter.
The bus doesn’t arrive for another four minutes, and when it enters sight Megumi shouts obscenities at it. The two find a seat in the front with Ada next to the window. Megumi immediately strikes a conversation with the people seated across from them. Her animated talking contrasts drastically to Ada’s lack of movement: breathing forced. The two were uncomfortably close—Megumi’s thigh pressed firmly against Ada’s, their shoulders were snuggled together, and their arms were practically intertwined.
Staring out of the window, Ada can hear the giggles and hollers from the other bus riders. Megumi’s voice is the loudest—reaching out to all ends of the bus and echoing in everyone’s ears; she’s charming. Everyone likes Megumi: adults, children, and teenagers. With adults it’s easy for her to play the most innocent person to ever walk the plant, and in some ways she really is. Megumi is gentle and polite when the situation demands it, and the adults that gather around her respect that.
Megumi is fun; her brilliant smile is an infection that infests itself into the bloodstream of everyone around her, leaving them with the symptom of smiling. Her cheeks always flush a light pink when she truly laughs, not caring about if she looked weird—when it’s just Megumi and Ada. Her sweet, singsong voice welcomes children to her with open arms in a bubbly embrace.
But teenagers love her for an entirely different reason, a reason so drastic from the gentle fairytale princess the adults and children saw. Megumi is ruthless—no one dares approach her if they aren’t approached first. The exceptions to this rule are Megumi’s friends and everyone she deems worthy of her attention. She isn’t the queen of the school, she isn’t nearly popular enough, but she may as well be leader of a mafia. It’s this fear that everyone holds for her that causes their blood to evaporate into little puffs of adrenaline and eroticism.
Megumi not only entices people with her royal personality, but with her voluptuous physique. Her flaming hair strikes numb the minds of the hapless victims she glides past. Her eyes glimmer in honey hues that skirt around cerulean oceans with waves of raging power. Her lips perk with an orange rose that leaves viewers breathless and their throat dry. Staring too long at the oasis of lust can give its audience the most sensual of mirages. Megumi is the vicious fire that spit malice on your flesh and eats you alive. She is the ocean that hums you lullabies to a slumber you will never wake from as her grasp leaves you drowning. She is the desert that renders you hot and in need of just one sip of water to feel yourself overflowing with desire.
But right now, Megumi is the city at night—bright in places that would be dark if she had not introduced herself. Her eyes crinkle as her laughter injects the bus with a withdrawal that leaves you clawing at your skin. And the people on the bus laugh with her. The bus thuds along the street, causing bodies to jerk up and bob to the side, but nobody seems to mind. In this moment, Megumi is their savior, and she leads them through a pathless abode of trees.
Ada doesn’t invest herself in Megumi’s chatter, it always makes her uncomfortable. Strangers trying to interact with Ada at all makes her queasy and leaves her lips strung down tighter. Megumi’s leg pushes harder against Ada’s and Ada’s eyes flicker down at the contact briefly.
It takes around three minutes for the bus to stop on Megumi’s street. “Bye Ada,” she waves and blows a kiss at her best friend, leaving Ada both chilled and warmer than she’d like. Megumi practically skips down the few steps and onto the sidewalk, and as she meets Ada’s eyes as the bus resumes moving, she winks. It’s small, Ada almost misses it, but Ada smiles in return before her face contorts into a distressed contour that rivals ancient marble busts.
Just only two minutes later, the bus stutters to a stop—the stop closest to Ada’s house. Standing up, Ada’s eyes angle slightly down, not wanting to converse with anyone. She limps out of the bus, muscles still clenching firm in discomfort. The walk to her house takes another four minutes, and Ada spends everyone second of it thinking about tonight.
Nikki and Beth are both in their last year of high school, and if it wasn’t for Megumi’s reputation, they probably would have never met Ada. The two are troublemakers, not even attempting to sugar up to the teachers. Nikki wears fraying skirts that barely hide her ass and shirts that have collars loose enough that if she bends down you can see her cleavage staring back at you. Beth wears denim shorts so short that the pockets hang below the cutoff, or tight spandex shorts that hug her figure, and a graceful top that almost tricks the mind into believing that she is an elegant, proper lady of society.
Ada’s personal opinion of them is that they’re lifeless and dull. Yes, they know of some tremendous parties and have intel on where to get what, but their personalities have nothing once you extract the lawlessness. Nikki and Beth are delinquents, and Ada and Megumi are as well, but the latter two know how not to get caught. Nikki and Beth have a record that triumphs over the rest of the school, but Ada and Megumi would have the high score if authorities knew.
The walk ends and Ada steps across the concrete path that splits through grass families and bleeds into the off-white door. Sighing, she creaks the handle to the left after unlocking the door and strides inside. Ada and Megumi aren’t scheduled to meet up with Nikki and Beth for another six hours, so it’s a bit alarming that Megumi said there wouldn’t be enough time for her to get ready. Ada trudges up to her room and plops onto the wooden chair sat at her desk.
Ada’s parents aren’t supposed to be home until approximately nineteen o’clock, so that gives her three hours of peace and quiet to attempt to complete the shitload of homework she was given. Trigonometry, despite Ada’s good relationship with math, proves to be the most difficult out of all of her classes. It’s laborious and irrational in hindsight, and she audibly groans at the prospect that she is going to have to complete the three-page handout. Wanting to delay the inevitable battle with trigonometry, Ada settles to complete the rest of her homework first.
It’s quarter past the nineteen hour when her mother returns home, and another six or seven minutes before her father does. Ada can hear her father’s loud voice complaining about the lack of voice, and if she struggles she can hear her mother’s muffled voice retort that she had only just got home. And then there’s stomping, growing louder and more violent until the sound abruptly ends at Ada’s door, and a pounding fist thrusts against her door as knocking replaces the footsteps. ‘Well,’ Ada thinks, exasperated, ‘so much for trig.’ She had only managed to finish the first two questions and was halfway through working out the third when her father began banging on her door.
Ada plasters a small smile on her face as she softly opens the door before it breaks. “What took you so damn long you Hell child,” her father roars, “were you taking your sweet time to hide your books of witchcraft and Satan-worship?”
Ada shakes her head and points to her desk, “I was doing homework.”
“And you think homework is more important than your father?” His eyes dance in fury, “I am your flesh and blood! All I’ve ever done is love and care for you, but now you don’t even deem me worth your time.”
Ada wants to sigh, she can’t even be angry at her father’s idiotic attempt at logic, honestly she’s surprised he’s still a lawyer. But instead she shakes her head again and declares, “I love you more than anything, Papa, and I was doing my homework to make you proud.” At your final statement, Ada sees her father’s shoulders relax and his lips form something not quite a smirk, but still more harmful than a polite smile.
“Well,” he begins, “of course I’m proud of you, Ada, I love you. You’re an angel, always doing what you’re told.” His boisterous chuckle hurts Ada’s ears, but she keeps a smile "glued to her face. “Good job with your homework,” he turns and starts to leave the doorway to Ada’s room, “keep it up.” And with that Ada shuts the door, being careful to not make much noise, and retreats to her wobbling chair and picks up her pencil.
At around half-past the twentieth hour Ada gets an email from Megumi: ‘u think Raphael would prefer the short blue skin tight dress or the flowy pink 1 w out a back’ it reads. Ada grinds her teeth—she hates this informal typing style, most likely because she was scolded when her grammar was ever slightly off as a child. But she replies to Megumi anyway: ‘The blue one.’
Megumi doesn’t reply for a while, so Ada takes the opportunity to try completing the final page of her trigonometry homework. There are only two questions left, but both questions are split into at least four parts. Ada taps her pencil and her desk, creating a tick-tack rhythm that distracts her mind from the math work. The page itself is littered in smudges and ripped from erasing with too much pressure.
She works for another fifteen minutes until she’s able to finally start the last problem. The treacherous black letters sneer at her. A ding soon drags Ada out of concentration however, signaling that Megumi has another message for her. Opening it up, Ada is met with a blurry picture of she assumes is Megumi—the head is cut off in the picture—in a sapphire dress that wraps around her torso like a serpent straggling its prey. Along with the picture, the message says, ‘good enough 4 Raphael?’ and Ada fists her hands.
Megumi is constantly trying to impress someone, and while Ada is too, Megumi tries to please the people that Ada doesn’t think deserve her attention. And she doesn’t want Megumi wasting all of her time getting ready to seduce Raphael. Although, Ada admits, she’s pretty sure that Megumi is not going to have a very difficult time accomplishing that. Ada send Megumi a message reading: ‘It’s perfect, but I have homework left to do. Trig’s a bitch.”
At twenty one o’clock Ada decides to start dolling up for the club. She paints her lips a deep crimson and her eyelids a pale blue. Her cheeks become decorated with the slightest hint of an orangey-pink. The dress she chooses to wear is deep purple and stops halfway past her thighs, with a split from the hip down on the right side. The dress is held up with a thin strap on both sides and dips below her shoulder blades. Ada digs around her drawers for some pins and ties her hair up into a semi-organized bun.
Ada’s clock now reads twenty minutes until the twenty second hour, and her dark room fills her with adrenaline. Her parents, despite Ada being in high school, gave her a curfew of nine o’clock sharp. So now, while Ada is presumed to already be fast asleep, her parents don’t even think to spare her a second glance. Ada is aware that her parents are still awake, they have too much work to rest, so Ada’s escape has to be very well planned.
Megumi had sent her a message to meet her at the crossroads by the garbage dump, that way they’re less likely to be seen. Ada grabs a black shoulder bag and throws in some extra makeup, toiletries, and her white heels. Glancing once at where her bedroom door is situated, Ada glides her window up and climbs out onto the minimal roof right below. Closing the pane, Ada shuffles towards the tree a few steps away, and when she reaches it she careful mounts one of its large branches and scrambles down.
The garbage dump is about three minutes away from Ada’s house. When she arrives she calls out Megumi’s name in a soft tone. She waits and replaces the sneakers on her feet with the low heels in her bag. She squats low and begins strapping them onto her feet when a slender finger pokes her cheek.
“Found you,” Megumi sings. “We’re meeting Nikki and Beth a few streets down and then Beth is going to drive and pick up Raphael on the way to the club.”
“Alright,” Ada stands back up once her shoes are latched to her feet, and follows Megumi to their next meet-up. Only about one minute has passed before the two of them spot the other girls.
“Hey girls,” Nikki punches her hand onto her hip and waves with the other one. Beth opens her mouth into a grin displaying her somewhat-large teeth and winks.
“The car’s over here,” Beth spins around and leads everyone to her car. Beth naturally slides into the driver’s seat, and Nikki glides on the seat beside her. Ada sits behind Nikki with Megumi squished besides her.
They drive for almost two minutes before they pick up Raphael, who squeezes into the small vehicle, pushing his body into Megumi’s in order to fit. The one thing about this small space is that Ada is also now pressed firmly against Megumi, and she’s not sure whether this makes her uncomfortable or not.
The car ride last eleven minutes—eleven minutes of flirtatious chatter directed solely at Raphael: eleven minutes of Ada reevaluating her entire life up until this point. She steps out of Beth’s car once it’s parked, and is a tad disappointed at the loss on heat on her left side.
The building they enter is ginormous, and Ada is genuinely shocked that Nikki and Beth know enough people to be able to be invited. It’s loud, Ada knew it would be, but the excess space allows for excess people and excess people and therefore extra noise. The five enter a dimly-lit room and Ada feels suffocated. The room is filled with men groping around women and women rolling against men. She’s used to this though, which is why she typically stays along the walls with the dealers.
“I’m going to look for some single men to get funky with,” Nikki cheers and hollers as she bobs her hips side-to-side while walking into the crowd of love.
“I’m not staying either,” Beth lifts her hand in farewell as she saunters over to a man that appears to be alone.
“I’ll,” Ada forces the words from her throat, “be over there.” She points to the wall and Megumi nods at her and mouths ‘wish me luck,’ before Ada makes her departure.
Against the wall, Ada can feel the music vibrate down her spine. It’s comforting, but she feels uneasy knowing that Raphael is here as well, and with Megumi no less. She sighs and takes out a cigarette. Dangling with the threat of falling, the stick is lit with a small flame from Ada’s lighter. Inhaling, Ada closes her eyes and waits.
Ada and Eve
“Our father, who art in Heaven,” glossy lips protrude outwards and curve over each syllable of the prayer. Dark hair is tightly swept up into a bun and pulls at facial flesh. “Ada, dear, repeat after me please,” her mother’s voice leaks no ill malice, but her eyes speak nothing but disgust. Messy, navy blue hair bobs up and down as the small child nods and repeats the holy words. Her mother approves of her memory before leaving to start preparing the family’s next meal. Ada, scarcely four years old, watches her mother’s retreating back enter the kitchen.
The child treads up the stairs to her room and plops onto her bed. “In the name of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” she rests the palms of her hands together and starts to pray, “Dear God, thank you for this day,” she hesitates before continuing, “it was not my favorite day, but I know that you will make tomorrow better. Mama says that you do everything for a reason, so I believe her. I love Mama and Papa very much, and I know they love me too. Thank you, Amen.” As Ada glides her right hand over her body in a cross formation, she hears her father enter through the front door after a long day’s work.
Ada’s father was a tall, strong man, with a good way with words. He was a lawyer, so the time he spent with his family was limited. As he entered into his home, he could smell his wife cooking, and he greeted her before hanging up his coat. With crisp documents in his hand, he walked over to his home office to sort details of client, never bothering to say hello to his only daughter.
Ada stays on her bed, lying down to stare at the ceiling. She could see shapes and animals start to form in the swirled wallpaper. Her green eyes danced across the lines and curves, and she giggled as she could see different scenes playing out before her. She was particularly interested in a bunny rabbit chasing a flower. Its paws shot out and in as it hopped around her ceiling, trying to catch the moving flower. The rabbit opened its mouth to pounce and whack! Ada sat up to the pounding on her door.
“Ada,” her father’s voice was slightly muffled from behind the door, “your mother is working by herself on dinner and you’ve locked yourself in your room to worship the devil. He is going to corrupt your spoiled mind more than it already is if you don’t come downstairs this instant and help your mother.” Ada stood up and wobbled to the door. She reached for the handle and opened the door, looking up at her scowling father. “Thank you Ada, you are truly God’s child.” He left back to his office and Ada went to the kitchen.
It didn’t take long after Ada joined her mother for dinner to be finished. After calling for her father, Ada and her parents sit at the table, say grace, and begin to eat. “Ada, take your elbow off the table,” her mother scoffs, “honestly, you don’t bother to try and help me until I’ve already finished everything. If you’re not going to do anything then don’t take any credit. But I love you anyways, and you love me.” Ada smiles warmly at her mother and nods. “Ada!” her mother screeches, “you devil incarnate, don’t open your mouth when it’s full of food, that’s utterly disgusting!” Ada quickly shuts her mouth and quietly apologizes once she has finished chewing. “I’m sorry for yelling at you, I know you’re only four and doing your best,” at her mother’s words, Ada perks up again and resumes eating.
Around eight o’clock, Ada’s mother tucks her into bed and kisses her forehead, “I love you,” she whispers sweetly, “even when you’re useless and annoying. I will always love you.” She kisses her head again before exiting her child’s room, leaving Ada feeling giddy at her mother’s praise.
Ada wakes up to screaming that morning. There was banging at her door and her mother’s voice could barely be heard over it. “It’s Sunday morning, you ungrateful child! God has done so much for you and yet you refuse to thank him!” The clock on Ada’s bedside table reads only a minute past seven in the morning. “Your father and I already went to mass. We had trusted you to go to seven thirty mass but to do so you would’ve had to wake up at seven and you didn’t! Were you up late talking to Satan?” Ada’s door opens with a thud as her mother storms in. “You sinful child! You’re not a baby, you should know better than this!” she stops and bores her eyes into her daughter’s.
“I’m sorry Mama, I won’t do it again,” is Ada’s reply, and her mother scoffs before turning and leaving. Ada closes her door quietly and throws a floral-patterned dress over her nightgown. She hurriedly brushes her teeth and combs her hair before rushing downstairs before seventy twenty. “I’m ready for church Mama!” she called as she reached the bottom of the steps.
Her mother looks up at the beaming child, clearly proud of herself for getting ready in time. “Oh, Ada,” she goes over to her daughter and smiles at her, “I’m sorry for yelling, you know I love you.” She pushes her daughter out the door, “God is thankful that you are his child,” and with that Ada is outside in the cold.
It’s November and leaves are littering the ground. Across the street Ada can see other children jumping into raked piles of brown and gold, laughing with each other. It looks like fun, but Ada continues to walk towards the church. Wind nipped at her ears and nose. She had forgotten a hat and regretted doing so, but she was already outside. She has yet to leave the lawn of her house, she could easily turn around, but she fears her mother would yell at her for being so forgetful. Of course, she had every right to yell, what four year old would forget something so important? Clearly only someone as dumb as Ada.
As she walks, leaves crunch beneath her boots and dogs wail behind fences to greet her. The dogs were cute and begging for her attention, but Ada continued forward. After a few minutes, she reaches the end of the street. She looks down at where the sidewalk bleeds into the weathered tar of the street. She has to look both ways before crossing the street, she remembers for mother telling her so. However, Ada doesn’t look up. She can’t remember whether she was supposed to look left or right first. ‘Mama said that if I look the wrong way first,’ she thinks, ‘it will summon the devil and he will take my soul to Hell.’ She stands there for a minute, worrying, before deciding to pray. After her prayer, she gathers the courage to look right. There are no cars and no devil coming her way, so then she looks left. When she was safe to cross, she runs as fast as her little legs can handle to the other side of the street.
On her way home from mass, Ada deems it safe to pet the dogs that barked hello. The first one she greets has black fur and leaves its tongue dangling out. It licks her hand, which is kind of gross, but she giggles and pets the dog’s head. The next two dogs she sees are very small compared to the last one, and much less slobbery. When she makes it to the street her house is on, she has already stopped to pet six dogs. After petting one last dog, Ada is standing in front of her house, engulfed in its towering frame.
A tiny, cracked hand reaches for the gate and opens it. She places her left heel directly in front of her right big toe. Then she puts her right heel directly in front of her left big toe. Again and again she walks this way until she has counted thirty six steps. So raises her hand and knocks on the large, tan door. After seventeen Mississippi’s, Ada’s mother opens the door.
“You’re late!” is screamed into Ada’s face as she is dragged inside. “Your father and I have been looking everywhere for you! We called the neighbors and asked them if they had seen you, and now that you’re here, after doing God knowns what, we have to tell them to forget everything. Do you know how embarrassing that it? Never in my life have I done something so utterly humiliating. What in Heaven’s name were you doing?”
Ada looks away before answering, ashamed of what she had done. “I stopped to pet some dogs.” She looks up briefly, but long enough to see her mother appalled.
“Dogs? Dogs! Were they rabid? Creatures of the devil I bet they were. He was trying to tempt you to pet those dogs. He wanted to make your father and I suffer. He has never liked us because we are loved by God. God favors us because we have never sinned. But the devil never stopped trying. And because of you he succeeded! Now we can no longer be God’s favorite. Hellish child! What have you done?” Ada’s mother is seething with rage, her face becoming more crimson by the second. Ada is horrified. She must have looked the wrong way when crossing the street, and the devil had tricked her! Now she is doomed to an eternity in Hell.
Ada looks up at her mother and starts to apologize, but before she can, a loud thwack can be heard and she can feel a cold, stinging sensation in her right cheek. Never in her four years of life has Ada been hit. Her cheek burns now, and it leaves a horrid sensation in her face, which is beginning to numb. Ada can feel tears forming in her eyes, bet she refuses to cry. She had deserved to be hit, her mother was giving her God’s punishment for obeying Satan.
Ada’s mother sighs before kneeling down to be closer to Ada’s eye level. “Oh, Ada, I’m sorry. You know I didn’t mean to hit you, right? I love you Ada. I would never want to hurt you.” Ada feels her mother’s arms around her before she knows she’s being hugged. Ada was hit for the first time and had for first hug within the same minute. The sensation is surreal; her cheek is warm, but her body feels cold, even with her mother’s warmth surrounding her. And she is scared.
Not long after, Ada feels even colder as her mother unwraps her arms from her torso. Her cheek is cooling down, but there remains a tingling feeling. Her mother apologizes again before asking her about mass. Ada had payed attention during mass, she could’ve easily repeated the entire Homely, but in this moment, her mind is blank. As her cheek throbs, so does her chest; she feels sick. But she smiles at her mother before apologizing for petting the dogs, and then proceeds to her room. Ada was scarcely four years old when she first starts doubting what she knows.
Ada’s alarm blares as it hits seven thirty. She kicks up her legs and throws off her covers. November sixth, more commonly known to Ada as “my birthday”. Ada is turning six today, and she’s never been more excited. After kindergarten last year, she started first grade with four good friends: Megumi, Lola, Lin, and Erika. They’re coming over tonight at six for Ada’s very first sleepover. The pitter-patter of Ada’s feet turns into obnoxious thumping as she speeds down the stairs.
“Mama!” Ada calls from the hallway. She peers into the kitchen to see her mother making pancakes. “Mama, Mama! Guess what?” she slides over to her mother and stares up at her with wide eyes and an even wider smile. “It’s my birthday!”
Her mother glances down with a soft smile on her lips. “I know, dear. I’ve ordered a cake from the place you saw in the magazine the other day. It should be here before your party starts.” Ada jumps up and cheers before thanking her mother and rushing away.
Back in her room, Ada tries deciding on whether to wear her light blue dress with the pink and purple flower pattern, or her frilly red shirt with her poofy black, sparkly skirt. They are both beautiful outfits and it’s extremely hard to choose one over the other. The dress is cute and girly, but the skirt screams elegant and mature. She is definitely the most mature one of all her friends, so wearing the skirt should obviously be the right choice. However, she is also most definitely the cutest of all her friends, so this choice remains a difficult one. After much consideration, Ada picks the dress and quickly changes into it.
“Dear God,” she starts to pray after changing, “thank you for helping me choose what to wear today, and for my friends, and for the cake, oh and for Mama’s pancakes! But also I want to thank you for watching over me on this fabulous and most important day. Amen!” She skips back downstairs and sits at the table.
Watching her mother cook, she remembers the time she herself once attempted to make pancakes. The whole ordeal ended in a complete mess and her mother yelled at her for a good five or so minutes. After reminiscing for quite some time, pancakes are placed are the table. Ada thanks her mother and waits for her father before saying grace.
“Ada, your father has a very important case to work on today so he left early. You can start grace now.” And so Ada starts grace and immediately following her words her mouth is stuffed with delicious pancake. Her mother talks about their plans for the day and Ada hums in acknowledgement, mouth to full to form coherent words.
At four o’clock the doorbell rings and Ada answers it. Above her stands a man with a large, white box cradled in his hands. “Mama!” she yells, “the cake is here!” She runs out of the way when she sees her mother approaching. She takes the box and hands it to Ada, telling her to place it in the kitchen, before reaching out her hand and giving the man his payment plus a tip.
The box is heavy, Ada can barely hold it. It’s so big that she has to strain her neck to see. She walks slowly and carefully into the kitchen. She can hear her mother thanking the cake man as she reaches the kitchen doorway. In front of Ada lies the table where her cake is to be placed; this is a big moment. Her feet inch closer to the piece of furniture and she can practically hear dramatic movie music playing. The moment of truth is upon her now; she reaches upwards and gently lowers the large box. She hears the front door shut closed behind her. The click-clank of her mother’s heels grows louder as she approaches. Ada removes her hands from below the box and sucks in a breath. The box is safely on the table.
Ada turns to look at her mother and smiles, and her mother returns her smile. “Mama, what does the cake you ordered look like?” Ada asks, impatient and needing to know. Her mother just shakes her heard before declaring it a secret. A secret that just has to be spilt.
Ada’s mother leaves the kitchen to go decorate the family room for Ada’s party. And this is the real moment of truth, for Ada is determined to see her cake now. She peals the lid of the box up slightly and peeks inside. In the box is a circular cake with light pink frosting. Around the circumference of the cake are frosting flowers, and in the center reads “HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADA” in blue lettering. Ada smiles at the cute cake and closes the lid.
Ada turns around to leave the kitchen and notices her mother glowering over her. She gulps, and goes to apologize, but is stopped by her mother. “I don’t care if it’s your birthday, you had no right to disobey me. I told you not to look at your cake. I wanted it to be a surprise and now you’ve ruined it!” Ada wants to tell her that she never told her not to look, but decides against doing so. “You rude child! I have done nothing to deserve this attitude of yours, and frankly I’m disgusted you act in this way. You had best be better around your friends because if your ugly self rubs off on them and I get a call from one of their mothers to complain things will be nothing but downhill for you!”
Ada shifts her eyes away and stares at the floor, “I’m sorry.” But instead of forgiveness, Ada is met with a hand slap across her cheek. Footsteps can be heard dissipating and angry muttering is muffled by the walls. She wants to cry, but she deserved to be hit, she had disobeyed her mother. Her cheek stings in a way that it hasn’t in two years. And Ada sits in the kitchen for half an hour before deciding to go to her room.
In her room, Ada kneels down and laces her fingers together, “Dear God,” she starts to pray, but is interrupted by a hiccup, which is then followed by uncontrollable sobs. She sobs for a while, almost too long in her opinion, and apologizes. “Dear God,” she stutters, “I know you do everything for a reason, and I don’t mean to question you, but,” she stops and bites her lip. She thinks about what just happened in the kitchen and sniffles. “But I want to know why you did this. Why did Mama hit me? I know she loves me, but does she have to hit me? I’m sorry, I’m sorry for questioning you. Mama hasn’t done anything wrong. Thank you for watching over me.”
At five fifty Ada’s friends start to arrive. Each girl brings an over-night bag and a gift into the house. Megumi is first to arrive and hugs Ada immediately upon spotting her. “Ada, Ada! Happy birthday!” she sings. Her bright red hair is pulled back into a blue scrunchie, and her pale freckles dance across her nose as she smiles. Lin and Erika arrive together, having carpooled, shortly after Megumi did. Approximately ten minutes past the scheduled time, Lola arrives and her mother apologizes profusely to Ada’s mother for being so late.
The five girls walk into the family room to set up their sleeping bags. There is chatter strewn about as the guests discuss the decoration and how beautiful they are. The sleeping bags are set up so Ada’s in the middle with Megumi on her left and Lin on her right, with Lola next to Megumi and Erika next to Lin. Once the sleeping arrangements are agreed upon, and the presents are piled in the corner, Ada’s mother brings in pizza, potato chips, and soda. She reminds them to say grace before eating, and then leaves them to enjoy the party.
“Ada!” Megumi calls, “what movie do you want to watch?” Her eyes glitter with anticipation and adrenaline. “I think we should watch one with really cool action and fighting!” Megumi punches her fist upwards to elaborate on just what kind of movie she wants.
“What?” Lola draws out, “No way! Fighting movies can get really scary!” she pinches her eyes shut. “No matter what, it has to be a princess movie. One where she swears a really pretty dress and her animal friends sing with her and she dances with a prince!” Lola giggles and holds her face.
“I think a romance would be good,” Lin starts her opinion before Erika chimes in.
“One with mermaids and fairies! And werewolves and they have to fight for the hearts of the princess of the sea.” Erika is now standing, posed with a dramatic expression and hands clenched tightly to her chest. Lin sighs and shakes her head in exasperation with her next-door neighbor.
“Erika, we should watch a romance between humans, not mythical creatures,” Lin emphasizes the word human and watches as Erika plops back onto the ground with a pout.
“What! Lin, no way!” Megumi shouts, “Mermaids and fairies are totally real!” Erika and Lola nod angrily at the nonbeliever. “You just can’t see them because you don’t believe!”
Lin looks skeptically at the three girls, one eyebrow quirked higher than the other. “Well,” she begins, “if you do believe if them, why haven’t you seen any?” Lin smirks as they glance at each other, hoping someone else has an answer. “See? They’re not real.” The other three whine.
Ada chuckles behind her hand as her four friends argue about the existence of mythical creatures. ‘They’re so silly,’ she thinks in the noise, ‘they can’t exist because God didn’t make them. Didn’t their mamas tell them so?’
“We can watch a romance movie with princesses, but no fighting!” Ada decides. “Fighting is a sin, and all who hurt someone else will be punished by God and go to Hell.” Ada leaves the room to grab some movies with those qualifications, and returns shortly after with three DVD cases.
After a short debate, the five girls choose a movie about a princess that loses her memory and has to travel back to the palace with her true love. Ada places the disc into the DVD player and sits onto the couch next to Lin.
Just over halfway into the movie, Lola and Erika are fast asleep. The princess is just about to reach the palace when Megumi also begins to nod off. Lin helps her to her sleeping bag before she completely dozes off, and then returns to her place on the couch.
Two empty popcorn bags are crumpled on the floor, next to a mostly empty box of cheese and pepperoni pizza. The bag of chips is snuggled between Ada and Lin, forgotten ten minutes into the movie. Pink and gray cups are scattered on the surface of the glass coffee table, surrounded here and there by small puddles of carbonated liquid. Napkins are hastily thrown across numerous places of the carpet, trying to hide where soda has been spilt.
“Oh, Kevin,” the television blares, “I don’t know if I’m truly ready to return to the palace. Are you really sure I’m the princess?” The girl on screen looks longingly into Kevin’s eyes, a quaint frown possessing her lips. Her eyes water as she embraces her love, breathing softly into his shoulder.
Kevin squeezes her tightly, a delicate smile gracing his lips. “Of course Ashley, I’m absolutely sure that you’re her.” He lifts up her head and stares into her tearful eyes. His own eyes flutter closed as he leans into her, kissing her lips softly. The two breathe into the kiss and the stars above them glisten even brighter.
Ada squirms as the scene plays out; it makes her rather uncomfortable. She looks over at Lin who seems to be enjoying Ashley and Kevin’s passionate kiss. It’s weird, Ada thinks, she has never seen her parents kiss or even hug, but the characters on the screen do it so easily. The man in television shows always ends up kissing the girl, and they fall in love. Every show and movie ends with the man and the woman together and they live happily ever after.
It’s weird, Ada thinks, because she knows God created Adam and Eve and they probably kissed. It’s weird because one female and one male of every animal species was put on Noah’s ark. ‘Mama says every little girl grows up and get married to the boy of her dreams,” she thinks, ‘she says God created one girl for every boy.’ It’s weird, Ada thinks, because Kevin’s friend doesn’t fall in love.
Ashley and Kevin’s embrace releases and they clasps their hands together before walking towards the palace again. The two are illuminated by bright streetlights and music starts to play. They start to sing and dance in the street about their love and how happy they are to be together. Ada leaves to use the toilet.
When Ada returns, Ashley and Kevin are at the palace talking to the king and queen. Lin has bundled into her sleeping bag with her hand propping her head up. Ada copies her friend and the movie finishes with them snuggled close and yawning.
Ada feels choked, and a young woman approaches her. Her eyes are a deep brown and her hair is a fiery orange, tied together tightly in braids and wrapped around her scalp. Ada has trouble looking at the stranger, her body is a hazy blur but her face is sharp and saturated with vibrant, pink cheeks. The woman walks over to Ada and kneels beside her. Her bloodied lips trace out the name “Eve”, but no words escape her lungs. A wrinkled hand stretches out from the blurry cloud of body the woman possesses, nails curved like serpents and smiling with apple dangling from their teeth.
“‘Your desire will be for your husband’ he told me, and he has ruled me ever since,” the woman speaks with a raspy voice, as if there is no air in her lungs. Her teeth, Ada notices, are rotted apple slices, and her lips are peeled apple skin. Her eyes are dry and hollow, barely focusing on Ada. The blurred body shifts into a long, thin strand, and the cloud disperses to reveal a snake. Her lips, plump and red around her face, slither up and quirk a sly smile. “Eat the apple,” her slimy, green torso wiggles to push her upwards. “Eat the apple, Ada, it’s good,” the serpentine body is a woman’s nude and peachy flesh now, curved and smooth at her hips and breasts.
“God made us, Ada, to be partners,” she saunters closer, “so eat what I have eaten and join me.” The two stand above a cliff, mere inches away from the edge. “This, my dear,” the woman rests her petite hand on Ada’s bare shoulder, “is the story of Ada and Eve.” The wind whips and lashes at Ada’s face as she’s pushed from the garden at the top of the cliff. Her heart clenches tight against her ribcage and she sows her eyes shut.
When Ada awakes it is still dark outside. Her hand is pulling tightly on the chest of her dress, feeling her pounding heart grope across her ribs. Her breath is raged and her eyes are wide. She is scared, terrified, and wants to cry. Ada pulls her legs up and cradles her knees. Her breath starts to slow and the wind outside throws a branch at the window. Rubbing her eyes, Ada makes her way to the bathroom, bumping into walls along the way. Starring into the mirror, Ada looks everywhere but her reflection. A small, shaking hand grasps and pulls a handle and water slowly trickles down into the sink. Gradually, the water gets angry and shoots and yells into the drain, splashing remnants of its battle onto the countertop. Ada forcefully scrubs water on her face and quickly shuts off the faucet.
Waddling back to her sleeping bag, Ada digs into her brain to try and recall why she was so scared when she woke up. The shadowed walls do nothing to help her remember, only cause her to stub her toes here and there. ‘If I was so frightened,’ she reaches her hands in front of her body to guide herself through the hallway, ‘I must have dreamt I was with the devil.’ Sneaking back into her sleeping bag, she thinks on when she looked at the cake without permission. That action must have called Satan to her.
Green eyes pierce into the dark and soft breathing drum along the walls. Ada stares up at the ceiling, unable to return to sleep. She is tired, but far too afraid of meeting up with the devil to enter a slumber. Her friends’ sleepy breaths are music in the otherwise quiet room. “In the name of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” Ada prays, “I’m sorry for sinning, please do not let the devil take me. Amen,” and she closes her eyes.
It’s Ada’s first day of sixth grade, only one more year until her parents will let her go to a public school with Megumi. She bows at the nuns she passes and makes her way to the classroom. The room is stuffy and wooden desks are aligned in rows facing the blackboard. Pale dust skirts across the board as it has not been properly cleaned in a while, and broken, white chalk is lined on the metal reaching out from where the board ends. She has had classes held in this very room for five years and most of the girls in the room now have gone with her.
The school’s uniform consists of a dull gray blouse with a faded red skirt, along with thin black tights and tan loafers. The collar of the shirt reaches tight across the base of the neck, and the sleeves stop midway down the forearm; the skirt stops just short of the knees. Ada finds the outfit utterly uncomfortable, but is forced to deal with the scratching fabric. However, the uniforms have one positive side effect: the tight cloth sculpts every girl’s figure to perfection.
Ada sits down at her desk, in the second to last row, three seats from the right. She takes out some paper, a pencil, and an eraser, before taking her books out of her desk. She waits until the bell chimes and girls scurry to their seats, a nun marching into the classroom.
“Silence, girls,” the wrinkly nun snarls, “open your bibles to Genesis 2:4.” The nun writes “ADAM AND EVE” across the blackboard and coughs after inhaling chalk dust. “We’re starting off the day with a lesson in the symbolism in the story of Adam and Eve.” She paces across the front of the room and then returns to her desk, “does anyone volunteer to start reading aloud to the class?” Her sagging eyes squint as her neck cranes her head at an uncomfortable angle to inspect the room. With no arms raised, the nun lands her eyes to a head of dark, unruly hair, “Jakaba, you start.”
Ada stands up and brushes off her skirt before picking up her bible and scanning the words. “‘This is the account of the heavens’,” her voice glides across her chapped lips in a flowing manner, gracing her peers’ ears with a melodious tune. She reads until just after Eve is created and then takes her seat again while the nuns calls on another girl to read the next passage.
The girl the nun called on was named Ilana, if Ada remembers correctly. She’s shorter than Ada is, with the top of her head around Ada’s nose. Ilana’s hair is long and tied up in braids which are then wrapped around and pinned to her cranium. She has large, brown eyes with sunken bags underneath, showing a lack of sleep. And her lips, Ada stares, are round and almost red, forcing each word from them to penetrate the air. They gloss and shimmer, Ada assumes Ilana broke the no makeup rule and applied lip gloss, but in this moment she doesn’t care. Ilana’s lips are positively breathtaking, Ada can’t help but stare, completely missing every word being spoken, but knowing what was said solely from the articulate motions performed from those glorious lips.
As Ilana sits down after reading, Ada continues to eye her. Her face is soft yet crisp, expanding from behind her hairline. Her neck is elongated and tiny beads of sweat can be seen sliding down the long slope. Her blouse pushes out slightly at her forming breasts, leaving Ada’s mouth drier. Her arms are thin and move smoothly as she writes down notes.
Notes. Ada hurriedly picks up her pencil and starts writing what’s written on the blackboard and what she can hear the nun saying. She was so entranced with Ilana that she missed what was being said about the story’s symbolism. Even while writing Ada keeps catching herself glance over at Ilana’s plump lips, ripe and juicy as apples. Suddenly, she feels cold, colder than she should be inside a building in September. Her breathing gets choppy and her mouth is void of saliva. She feels guilty.
It’s ten minutes until five when Ada returns home from school. In her room, she throws her bag onto the floor and she plops down onto her bed. She buries her face into the sheets and feels like screaming, but hesitates in doing so because she fears her mother will hear. Ada turns onto her back and drapes an arm over her eyes. She’s tired, more so than she normally would be at this time, but she can’t help a yawn from escaping her mouth.
Staring into the blackness of her eyelids, Ada can see shapes form in hesitant colors. Nothing coherent, but she tries to follow the misplaced lines. She sees a deep purple oval just before her mother bursts open her bedroom door. “Ada Jakaba!” she roars, “I’ve just received word from the school, but you were daydreaming during class!”
Ada uncovers her face and sits up to see her mother retreating into the hallway. Moments later, she returns with her husband who glares at Ada. “Your mother tells me you’re not paying attention during school,” he crosses his arms and steps into Ada’s room. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I was paying attention,” she squeaks and all of a sudden she feels warmth shattering into her left check. She’s grabbed by the collar of her blouse and hoisted up by her father.
“Sinful child!” he bellows, “You sin on holy ground and now you lie to your father!” He throws her onto the floor, stomping onto her side when she refuses to get up. “You are the devil’s child!” leaves Ada on the floor and exits with his wife in tow.
Ada’s head is pounding and her body is sore. She squeezes her eyes shut and grits her teeth as she winces from the pain that shocks her body when she tries to get up. Moving her head, she sees small drops of red smeared into the carpet and licks her lips: blood. She must have cut her lip when she was punched. Slowly, Ada raises her arm and pushes her limp body into a sitting position. Grappling onto the wall, she lifts herself up and stumbles to her bed.
“Ada,” her father’s voice is lowered as he reenters his daughter’s room. “Ada, I love you, you know that, right?” He strides over besides Ada and pats her head, rubbing her hair. “I love you with all my heart,” and with that, he kisses the top of her head and leaves, closing the door behind him.
“In the name of The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,” Ada chokes out once her father has left, “I know that you do everything for a reason, God, at least, that’s what Mama always said. But,” she stops, unsure what to say. “But, lately I’ve felt like there’s no reason for all of,” she glances at her side, sore from the stomping, “this.”
Ada lays back, crumpling her uniform even more, and turns her head to the side. ‘Is God even real?’ she asks herself, ‘If He does, why does He hate me? What did I do to make him so mad at me?’ Her breath catches in her throat and she stutters. “And,” she continues her prayer, “am I really the devil’s child? I didn’t mean to stare at Ilana! I didn’t.” She closes her eyes and inhales a shaky breath, “Amen.”
Ada wakes up to a throbbing pain in her side. She groans and slowly gets up, realizing she had slept in her school uniform. She staggers downstairs and the hallway lights are still off. Looking outside, the sun has barely started to rise above the horizon. The fiery hue reminds Ada of Ilana’s orange hair, and she frowns. Limping into the kitchen, Ada grabs an apple from the fruit bowl and takes a bite from its blood-red skin. Her teeth dig into its juicy flesh and rip some out.
She really hadn’t meant to zone out while starring at Ilana, she was just so pretty that Ada couldn’t help herself. She did, however, manage to salvage most of what was being said about the symbolism. The red of the apple was meant to show lust and its sinful control, much like Ilana’s hair controlled Ada’s attention. Ada supposes that Ilana was much like Eve in that sense. Both of them had tricked someone into temptation and the tricked ended up punished. Ilana’s almost-red lips were like the apple that Eve tempted Adam with, having him devour the fruit.
By the time Ada reaches the core of the apple, the sun is almost fully nude behind the buildings of her neighbors. The sky is bluer, with pinks and oranges still leaping across the horizon. Tossing the apple into the trash, Ada hobbles back to her room to get ready, even if her uniform was dirty.
Classes today start with mathematics— numbers are strewn across the blackboard in threatening white chalk. Lines and shapes skirt around the numbers, intimidating a majority of the students. Pencils move furiously as each girl tries to keep up with the equations stabbing the air past their ears. Formulas are spat at the girls as they race to remember them.
Ada eyes dart across the room to look at orange hair. Ilana looks less tired than she did yesterday, but her eyes still look sunken, almost guilty. Hair falls in front of Ada’s face and she rushes to pull it back behind her ear, momentarily taking her eyes off of Ilana. The papers on Ada’s desk have scare marks littering its surface, almost empty of any notes.
Ada brings her eyes to her blank paper, tapping the tip of her pencil onto it. The edge dances in curved motions and leaps every so often to start a new pattern of curves. The pencil swoops down and quickly turns around and traces out an elegant, elongated figure. Now etched into Ada’s paper is a rough drawing of Ilana’s face in a three-quarter view. Immediately, Ada swaps out the paper with the one underneath it, and hurriedly jots down the information on the board.
Just before Ada turns thirteen, she starts attending a public school. She enters in seventh grade, missing the first year of public middle school to finish with the religious school. She isn’t in the same classes as Megumi, she learns when she gets to homeroom, and pouts at her seat.
Next to her, a girl with black hair cut just below her jaw reads a book, holding it between her ring finger and pinky. The girl’s legs are crossed and her raised foot is tapping along to an internal beat. Her thin lips are a pastel pink and they’re drawn tightly but quiver slightly upwards, trying not to smile.
The girl soon puts her book down, and when she looks at Ada her mouth loosens and the threatening smile turns into a foreboding frown. Her eyes glance down and then back up along Ada’s body, and she clicks her tongue in disgust. “What’s with your hair,” her nasally voice chokes Ada, “don’t you own a brush?” She laughs to herself and resumes reading her book.
Ada wants to say yes, that she does own a brush, but ignore the girl and waits for the teacher to start introductions. ‘Dear God,’ she prays in her mind, ‘if you’re really real, please don’t make this school suck. Thanks, Amen.’ She doesn’t often pray anymore, declaring to herself that if God won’t be nice to her, then she won’t be nice to God. Ada then sees a red-haired girl sitting across the room and she flinches. This girl reminds Ada of Ilana and she wants to throw up and her head starts to throb.
Kiyoko’s Bio
Birth Name: Kiyoko Honda
Preferred Name: Kiyoko
Gender: Female
Birthday: 17 May
Age in Book 5: 18
Height: 6’ 1”
Weight: 183 lb.
Blood Type: A-
Nationality: Japanese
Family: Mother, Father, Zura (girlfriend)
Likes: Balls and fancy parties
Dislikes: Boys flirting with her
Romantic/Sexual Orientation: Homoromantic/homosexual
Occupation: Heir to a rich family
Taeko’s Bio
Birth Name: Taeko Nanami
Preferred Name: Taeko
Gender: Demigirl
Birthday: 5 July
Age in Book 5: 19
Height: 4’ 11”
Weight: 99 lb.
Blood Type: O
Nationality: Japanese
Family: Mother, Sister (younger), Resi (girlfriend)
Likes: Arcades, jokes
Dislikes: Tense situations
Romantic/Sexual Orientation: Panromantic/demisexual
Occupation: Unemployed
Zura’s Bio
Birth Name: Emerald Tanaka
Preferred Name: Zura
Gender: Female
Birthday: 4 February
Age in Book 5: 18
Height: 5’ 1”
Weight: 113 lb.
Blood Type: B
Nationality: Half Japanese, Half English
Family: Ada (adoptive mother), Meine (adoptive mother), Resi (adoptive sister, friend), Kiyoko (girlfriend)
Likes: Make-overs
Dislikes: Small, dark spaces
Romantic/Sexual Orientation: Demiromantic/pansexual
Occupation: Assassin
Resi’s Bio
Birth Name: Resi Jakaba
Preferred Name: Resi
Gender: Female
Birthday: 21 January (adopted)
Age in Book 5: 18
Height: 5’ 3”
Weight: 124 lb.
Blood Type: AB
Nationality: German
Family: Ada (adoptive mother), Meine (adoptive mother), Zura (adoptive sister, friend), Taeko (significant other)
Likes: Languages, quiet
Dislikes: Dressing up fancy
Romantic/Sexual Orientation: Biromantic/gray asexual
Occupation: Unemployed
