Chapter 4: First Dance
Jarith...Bekka liked him a lot more than she had before they'd left on this insane journey through space, searching for Corinn, so that Jarith could have some kind of fight with Corinn. Bekka still didn't quite get the whole thing; Corinn had invoked some kind of rule that said she had to be there, or the battle couldn't take place. And Jarith and Corinn claimed to be older than the universe itself! Well, they sure didn't act like it.
But that was part of Corinn's charm. Bekka found herself blushing as she remembered him. It just wasn't fair...he was off somewhere while she was stuck with Jarith! Well, maybe not exactly stuck, but still, she'd rather be with Corinn--at least, she thought so. That brought her back to thinking about how he'd gotten her involved in this whole crazy galactic-battle thing--without even asking her first! But he'd been so nice before that...Bekka blushed again. He really had been nice, much more polite than--
"You're blushing. Are you thinking about him again?" Jarith asked, interrupting Bekka's train of thought.
"Umm, well, uh...yes?"
Jarith sighed. "I told you, Corinn only cares about himself. He was only using you. You don't mean anything to-"
"I know what you've said! But people can change! Maybe Corinn's changed! Maybe he's not like you remember him!"
I don't even know why I bother trying to change her mind, thought Jarith. He decided to change the subject.
"Bekka?"
"I know. You've known Corinn for eons, he hasn't changed in--"
"Actually, that wasn't what I was going to say."
"Oh."
"I was wondering..." Jarith hesitated. "I mean, I know you've been kind of bored lately, and there's going to be a dance tonight. Would you like to go?"
Bekka's face turned bright red. "D-dance? I've never been asked to a dance, sure I'd like to go!"
Later that night, Bekka was in her room getting ready for the dance. She'd never been to a real dance, even though she was in high school. And that one that Kiara had dragged her to in seventh grade hardly counted; there had been more people eating pizza and talking than actually dancing.
Right then, Bekka was worrying about what to wear. She'd acquired a few new outfits in the week they'd been traveling, all of them "fashionable" by the standards of outer-space culture. As she walked back to her room after dinner, she went over the list of clothes she owned. None of them seemed to be the sort of thing you'd wear to a dance, though. They were all casual outfits, judging by what she'd seen other people wearing.
Once she got to her room, Bekka opened her small closet, ready to try to figure which of her outfits would be the nicest. To her surprise, hanging in the front of the closet was a white dress with a note attached to it.
"Bekka-
I realized that you don't have any fancy outfits. I thought you might want something special to wear to your first dance. I hope you like it.
--Jarith
Bekka blushed. "How nice of him. He really is being as nice as Corinn was...maybe he was just worried about me. Maybe..." She took the dress out of the closet. It had a purple sash and a long flowing skirt. When she tried it on, the skirt came down almost to the floor.
"I wonder where Jarith got this, and how he put it in my closet?" Bekka wondered. "Of course, I suppose it wouldn't be that hard for someone who can teleport between planets."
Bekka heard a knock at her door and hurried over to open it. It was Jarith, of course.
"You look beautiful," he said. Naturally, Bekka blushed.
"Thank you for the dress, it's really nice," she said, blurting out the first thing that came to mind. "I-I guess we should go now, right? Don't want to be late after all!"
They arrived at the dance just in time. Bekka was surprised to notice that the music was a lot like music on Earth.
"You're a pretty good dancer," Bekka said to Jarith after their first slow dance.
"I guess so--I've had thousands of years to practice, after all," he replied.
"Oh...yeah. I keep forgetting about that," Bekka said. "It's kind of hard to believe, that you're, well, immortal, kind of. I mean, you don't seem that different from other people."
"I am really just a normal human, in this lifetime. The only difference is that I have a job to do, that lasts longer than just one lifetime."
"I know, you have to destroy Corinn," Bekka said. "But let's not talk about that, not now. I've told you that I think it's wrong, but I guess there's nothing I can do right now."
All too soon, the dance was over. Bekka went back to her room, happier than she'd been since this whole crazy thing started. She walked into her room and flipped on the lights. Nothing happened.
"What's going on?" she asked, flipping the lightswitch on and off.
"Don't bother, the lightswitch isn't the problem," said a strangely familiar voice from a dark corner of the room.
"Who--who's there?" Bekka asked nervously. "Is that--"
The lights glowed, just enough for Bekka to see the person in the corner.
"Don't you recognize me, Bekka?" asked the person. It was Corinn.
Image Gallery: : Characters: : Theme Song: : Link "Darkness and Light"