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Luna is the one to approach Cho.
Luna is the one who gathers all her acceptance, all her integrity, all her wisdom and forgives Cho, forgives her bully for something she has not yet apologised for. In a way, forgiveness is selfish - entirely reliant on the forgiven and not the forgiven but Luna forgives Cho and that’s that.
"I like swans." she says, once she takes the empty seat beside Cho who sits only with Marietta nowadays.
Marietta raises her head, as though she is getting ready to defend her friend but lowers it again when her eyes fall on Luna. Clearly, she thinks whatever she is going to say is either deserved or nothing bad.
She is right.
Luna pauses as if waiting for an answer but shows nothing when there is no response. Instead she continues: "They look graceful-" she says and Cho is tripping over her own feet in the hallways, make-up smeared.
"-and so we expect them to be beautiful and then get angry when they’re not." Everyone laughs and the word etched on Marietta’s forehead, this scared child’s brand. All of Cho’s friends turn away when she does not recover quickly, unequipped to deal with this sorrow.
Then Luna turns casually back to her meal as if this act was nothing, as if Cho and Marietta deserved it.
They say nothing.
They say nothing but perhaps Luna notices Marietta’s aborted sob or Cho’s sharp intakes of breath and perhaps that is why she lays a hand on their shoulders. It is gentle, light as though at any moment she expects them to strike.
"Maybe we do not earn others’ forgiveness," Luna ventures, direct now even as she continues, "maybe we earn our own.".
And then she leaves and her steps are heavy, as they’ve always been, but she walks as though swaying in the wind - a leaf there for some time then blown away.
Or maybe she is a swan taking flight for Cho feels the urge to spread her wings too, to catch up to her. Marietta’s head raises, ever so slightly.
Swans are ugly babies and they learn how it feels to be ugly first before they learn how it feels to be beautiful. Maybe there is no difference. Maybe it is the question of a sliver of beauty, a sliver of kindness.
There is a wind rustling now and soon, soon they will take flight.