Chapter Text
Niya
Niya walked into her history class ten minutes after the bell rang. The class turned around to look at her, and the teacher just rolled her eyes.
“Find a seat, Niya,” she said with a sigh.
Niya looked around, scanning for an open desk. Her usual seat was taken by Ocelo, who clearly wanted to sit closer to Xochi for once. They sneered at Niya and she narrowed her eyes at them. The only open seat in the classroom was Ocelo’s usual seat. Next to Auristela.
“Great,” Niya muttered under her breath. She was so excited for the next two weeks to go by quickly, because they had a whole week off from the Academy after that. She was planning to spend time in La Cumbre with her brothers and dads and spend the last day in Quetzlan.
When she sat down, she noticed Auristela’s new bright red water bottle. It was from her newest brand deal; Niya had seen the sponsorship video Auristela had made when she was hate-stalking Auristela’s Instagrafía page. It was from a Puerto Cascadas–run business and has her name engraved on the lid. Not that Niya cared.
“So, what’d I miss?” Niya asked, leaning closer to Auristela than she already was.
“Piss off,” was all that Auristela replied. Niya rolled her eyes and hunched over in her chair, sulking. She didn’t hear any of the lesson, and only noticed the bell ringing because Auristela shoved her out of the way to get around her chair. As Niya watched Auristela leave the classroom, the heat deep in her stomach that only ever appeared when Auristela was around roared to life like one of the flames that Lumbre’s daughter herself could ignite. It was the most intense feeling Niya had ever felt: hatred.
Niya had lunch next, so she sat down at her usual corner table and put her headphones on. She cranked up the volume to the max and pulled out her phone to text Teo.
Niya: hey birdbrain
After a few moments, Teo replied.
Teo: wassup im in the bathroom skipping gym
Niya: i cant stand those lumbre kids
why are they so fucking annoying
Teo: what did they do this time
Niya: just auristela actually
i had to sit with her in history and she just pissed me off
Teo: aww. sorry. pico and peri say hi
[image.jpeg]
Niya: awwwww they’re so cute cant wait to see them
Back in the real world, Niya looked around the cafeteria. At the next table over, Atzi, Xochi, Dezi, and Marino were animatedly signing to each other. Niya caught “party”, “dress”, “lots of floof”. Hmm. Suddenly, Niya’s eyes widened. Xochi’s gender confirmation ceremony! Her official ceremony was last Sunday, but her party was this Saturday. Two days. That gave Niya something to look forward to.
Auristela
The nerve! Of both Ocelo and Niya! Auristela fumed down the hallway with Aurelio to their next class, which was a free workout period. Auristela stomped over to the back door of the gym and went outside to the track. As she ran, her thoughts raced along with her.
How dare Ocelo abandon her to flirt with Xochi! Can’t they take the hint that Xochi just isn’t interested? It seemed obvious to her, but maybe that was just because Auristela was more observant than a simple predatory animal. But Niya! Auristela just hoped that Niya couldn’t see how red Auristela’s face was when she realized that Ocelo’s usual spot was the only open seat. Niya was so dense. Auristela felt like her infatuation with Niya was obvious, and so she combated it with glares and insults. Auristela mentally slapped herself. Why Niya? She’s lazy, annoying, and hates Auristela’s guts. But still, the second she strolled into history without a care in the world, Auristela’s breath hitched and she couldn’t think straight. Not that she ever did anything straight.
Oh my gods, that was a Niya joke, Auristela thought to herself. These are MY THOUGHTS. She’s not even here!
Auristela’s heart raced and she couldn’t tell if it was because of the running or Niya. She finished her third lap and checked her watch. It had only been four minutes. Her feet slapped against the paved track as she began to run harder and faster.
Literally anything other than Niya. Think of anything else, she thought to herself.
Xochi’s gender confirmation party was this weekend, and she had invited Auristela and Aurelio. Auristela could wear that new top she was sent from the Casa de Corazon company that was sponsoring her videos next week.
I wonder what Niya will wear, her thoughts creeped in against her will. Would Niya even go? Is Niya friends with Xochi? Is Niya friends with anyone? Why was Auristela in love with such a loser?
By the time the bell rang, Auristela was out of breath, which never happened. She had also decided that Niya was going to be at Xochi’s party. She had to be.
After all, I’m not friends with Xochi either and I’m going. Auristela rolled her eyes at herself as she opened the door to the gym. Aurelio was sitting on a weight bench, waiting for her. He furrowed his brow at her and stood up to leave.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, heading toward the door.
“Doesn’t matter,” Auristela shook her head and walked past him. They were silent for the rest of the walk back to their dorms.
As Auristela pulled her key card out to let herself into her room, Aurelio spoke.
“Stela, do you want to eat dinner in my room tonight? I can order food from that pastry place in town that you like,” he said softly.
“Sure, thanks. I’m going to unwind and shower though, I’ll come over at seven, okay?”
“Mm-hmm,” Aurelio hummed as he disappeared into his dorm room next to Auristela’s.
After a few hours, Auristela knocked on her brother’s door. He opened the door and smiled.
“They were having a buy-one-get-two-free-special night, so I got way too much food and you’re gonna need to help me eat all this,” Aurelio said, and she peeked around him to see a huge spread of pan all over his bed, table, and floor.
“Relio!” she swatted his arm playfully, laughing. “You know this means no sneaking down to the kitchen for midnight snacks, because this is all we’ll need to eat for the whole week!”
“I know, I know,” he said, turning around and facing all the sweets. “Oh! There’s a new episode of that show you like out tonight! We should watch it during dinner.”
Auristela smiled. “I’d love that.”
“Okay, I’ll admit that they are, but just a little bit, cute together now,” Auristela admitted, talking about the mortal reality show that they had just finished the newest episode of.
“See! She’s been head over heels for him the whole season!” Aurelio told her.
“Um, no,” Auristela said, raising her eyebrows. “She is way too good for him. And she knows it. And she clearly hates that she likes him and that
he’s such a loser and doesn’t deserve her but still can’t helpthatshelikesheroopsimeanhim.”
Aurelio turned the television off, leaving them in the dark except for the moonlight from Aurelio’s open window. “What’s this really about?”
“Nothing, Relio. I’m just tired. Bad sleep,” Auristela lied. She just really needed to lay down by herself for a bit. She stands up to leave. “I’ve got to get a good night’s rest. Love you.”
She kissed him on the cheek before turning around and leaving the room.
Niya
Niya was bored. So bored. She didn’t have a roommate this year since she was considered an upperclassman. Everyone else she knew was happy to not have to share, but Niya never minded sleeping with other people nearby. Made her feel cozy.
She sighed and pulled her phone off its charger, the bright light nearly blinding her. She mindlessly scrolled on Instagrafía for a couple of minutes before one of Auristela’s videos popped up. She smiled at the camera with a smile so big and animated that Niya had never seen her smile like that in real life. She clicked on the profile to scroll through Auristela’s past videos even though she had seen all of them already. In every one of them, Auristela had her perfect high ponytail, a set of glamorous red nails, and a different crop top. In half of her videos, she wore her Academy training uniform, the same one Niya saw her in every day. Niya actually thought it looked better on her in person than on camera. She tries way too hard.
She’s already gorgeous, she doesn’t need this, Niya thought. Why do all the hottest people have to be so mean?
If Niya was being honest with herself, Auristela made her more sad than angry. Niya just wanted her to be happy. She never seemed happy. But she had tried to be nice to Auristela, and it never worked. She was iced out almost immediately.
Whatever, Niya thought to herself. She thought about texting Teo, but decided that he needed sleep even more than she did. She shut her phone off and plugged it in again. For a bit, she tossed and turned in her bed, but eventually she fell asleep.
She woke up to an alarm and flashing lights in the middle of the night.
Gods, not again, she thought to herself. Another training run. She rolled out of bed, her braids still messy, and pulled on her uniform as fast as possible. As she left her dorm, she saw Marino duck into Dezi’s room across the hall from her own to make sure he woke up. By the time she rounded the corner to head down the hall to the meeting place, they were right behind her.
“Hey, Niya!” Marino called to her. He and Dezi jogged up to her and they switched to signing.
“Midnight drills suck,” Dezi signed, with Niya nodding in agreement.
“I bet the twins are already down there rolling their eyes at how late we are,” Niya signed back as they went quickly down the stairs.
Marino sleepily nodded and hummed in agreement.
Once they reached the meeting place, a section of the courtyard just outside of the back hall, they were assaulted with teachers yelling out assignments. From what Niya could gather, they were being randomly paired up to go get something from the mountains just outside of the main parts of Sol City.
“MARINO OF AGUA, XOCHI OF PRIMAVERA,” a teacher called out. Niya strained to hear if her name was called over the alarms and general noisyness of two hundred semidioses chattering.
“OCELO OF GUERRERO, AURELIO OF LUMBRE.”
“ATZI OF TORMENTOSO, DEZI OF AMOR. WILL SOMEONE ALERT DEZI OF HIS PAIRING, PLEASE?”
“NIYA OF TIERRA,” Niya’s ears perked up upon hearing her name. She looked around at the crowd of demigods, most already being paired up. “AURISTELA OF LUMBRE.”
“URGH!” Niya heard an outraged scream from across the courtyard. She looked over and saw Auristela with her hand clamped over her own mouth, and Aurelio beside her, eyes wide. Niya marched over to her, arms crossed.
“Hello, Auristela,” Niya said, a painfully fake smile plastered onto her face. After about two seconds, it became unbearable, and Niya resumed looking miserable.
Auristela just grunted in response. She watched as Aurelio walked away from her and joined Ocelo.
“Did you catch our assignment?” Niya asked Auristela. She glared at her and then rolled her eyes. Niya had no clue how Auristela had managed to have her high ponytail so perfect at this hour. Niya could barely even see it, the night was so dark.
“We have to go up that mountain,” Auristela pointed to the one closest to the Academy, over Niya’s shoulder, “and get a book from a cave at the top.”
“Fun!” Niya said sarcastically, then spun around dramatically. “Let’s get climbing, then!”
Auristela
Figures. If Auristela was less scared of possible treason against her mother and the rest of the Golds, she would assume that the dioses just had it out for her.
She took off running toward the mountain without even checking if Niya was behind her, but eventually they got far enough from the Academy crowds that Auristela could hear Niya’s heavy footsteps falling just behind her own. Auristela wondered why Niya hadn’t tried to catch up to run alongside her. Niya was more than capable.
Whatever, Auristela thought, and ran faster as they approached the base of the mountain. Auristela surged forward, her foot hitting a rock larger than she expected. She stumbled more than she would have liked to at all, much less in front of Niya. She blew air out of her nose, exasperated.
“Careful, princess,” Niya said, matching Auristela’s pace and running abreast to her.
“Don’t call me that,” Auristela replied flatly. She lit a fire in one of her hands to light the way.
Auristela wished she had been paired with Aurelio or Ocelo. She knew how to work with them. And she liked being able to watch over Aurelio. Sometimes it felt like she was his older sister and not his twin, but maybe that was just their mother talking. They both knew that Auristela was the favored one by their mother, because of Aurelio’s deficiencies. He needed help sometimes, and Auristela was the only one who could really help him. Ocelo wasn’t nearly powerful enough to have any impact besides slowing the two of them down. But she was stuck with Niya, so she might as well get the mission over with instead of complaining to herself.
“It’s in a cave at the top,” Auristela said, turning to face Niya while still running.
Niya looked distracted, staring down at something.
“What?” she said, shaking her head and looking Auristela in the eyes.
“The book? That we’re here for?”
“Right,” Niya said, trailing off. Getting distracted again.
“What is wrong with you?” Auristela asked, stopping mid-stride.
Niya snaps out of her daze immediately. “What’s wrong with me? Maybe that I was woken up from my sleep in the middle of the night for a useless mission, only to be paired up with the biggest bitch in the whole Academy who has done nothing but yell at me all night!”
Of course she was upset that she had gotten paired up with Auristela. “You’re seriously sulking that you got paired up with me? Figures that you’d be that immature.”
Auristela was on the defensive, just replying without really thinking.
“URGH!” Niya cried in outrage, imitating Auristela, then just sprinted off into the night, as fast as she could up the mountain. Auristela was frozen for a moment, but then ran after her, not to be left behind. Niya didn’t look back at her the whole way up the mountain. When they arrived at the cave, Niya grabbed the book and didn’t stop moving, doing a 180 turn and running back down the mountain leaving Auristela to follow after her again.
Once they arrived back at the Academy, Auristela steeled herself to have to interact with people again. She returned a stony expression to her face and caught up to Niya so that they were side-by-side once people could see them.
They walked toward Matías, a son of Verano who had graduated the Academy years ago and now trained younger semidioses. Auristela grabbed the book out of Niya’s large hands before he could see them clearly.
“Hey!” Niya whispered, and tried to grab the book back. Auristela just calmly walked up to Matías and presented him with the book. He placed it off to his left, starting a pile. They had completed the mission first, but other pairings were starting to return from their mountains. Dezi and Atzi weren’t too far from them.
“Oh, I see what this is,” Niya said loudly to Auristela, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Little Miss Princess needed to look good to stay mommy’s favorite, didn’t she?”
Auristela fumed and opened her mouth to retort, but Niya continued.
“You just can’t let anyone else take credit for anything, can you?” she shouted, her words echoing around the rapidly filling courtyard.
Auristela forced a cocky laugh. “You think that I need to look good for people? Literally all of Reino del Sol knows who I am, Niya. I’m ranked first in the whole school. You’re still sitting down at number seven. Now who did you say needed credit, again?”
“Oh, my gods. You’re so fucking arrogant, Auristela. How attention-seeking does someone need to be to throw a tantrum in public about who turns in a school assignment?”
Auristela’s yelling now, too. “I’m throwing a tantrum, now? YOU WERE THE ONE WHO STARTED YELLING AT ME, NIYA.” Auristela’s sweat from the run started evaporating off of her skin into clouds of steam as her body temperature rose in anger.
“ONLY BECAUSE YOU NEEDED TO FUCKING SNATCH THE BOOK OUT OF MY HANDS TO IMPRESS YOUR MOMMY, WHO’S NOT EVEN HERE.” Niya’s eyes were locked on Auristela’s face, and the ground beneath them started to rumble. Auristela glanced around, noticing that Matías had backed away from the two girls and that a good number of semidioses had gathered around them, watching. Waiting for this to blow up.
“Fine,” Auristela said quietly, low enough for only Niya to hear. “Whatever.”
She walked away, striding back into the school building, ready to just go to bed.
Auristela shoved her shoulder into her door, wanting to be alone before anyone tried to talk to her. She ripped off her training uniform and tugged her hair elastic out of her hair, letting her long locks fall messily over her shoulders. Then she pulled on an oversized Academy-branded tee shirt, fell down onto her bed, and began to cry.
Niya
That was not how Niya wanted the night to go. Anger rolled off of Niya in waves as easily as steam rolled off Auristela’s perfect skin. After Auristela had stormed back into the building, she was left with the aftermath of their little argument. Atzi approached her after turning in her and Dezi’s book, a look of awe on her tiny face.
“Uh, hey Niya. I, uh, don’t usually, like, talk to you—” Atzi started, before cutting herself off when she saw Niya’s unamused face. “But, uh, that was crazy. You’re kinda cool, y’know.”
Niya resisted the urge to throw Atzi as far as she could, but then remembered that it was Auristela who she was angry at, not Atzi. She just mumbled something at her before quickly walking away, following the path that Auristela took. Niya was too far behind her to see or hear her, but she still knew where Auristela’s dorm room was. She just felt the overwhelming urge to keep talking to her. Niya couldn’t tell if she wanted to apologize or keep yelling, but all she knew was that she still wanted to be near Auristela, even if she was still angry. Niya arrived at Auristela’s door and hesitated for a moment, unsure if it was really a good idea.
Fuck it, you only live once, Niya, she thought to herself.
She knocked softly on the door. No response. She knocked again, three hard raps on the white-painted wood. After a moment, she heard a muffled response.
“Not right now, Relio,” she heard Auristela call out, her voice nasally. Odd.
Niya decided it was best if she just let Auristela be, so she slunk back to her own dorm room and lay down, mind racing.
Niya ended up getting about half an hour of sleep that night. Her six o’clock alarm went off, blasting Teo’s voice out of her phone’s speakers.
“NIYAAAAA! GET UP, YOU LAZY ASS! GET UP!” the phone screamed, waking her easily from her light sleep. Usually she needed much more time before she even thought about waking up, as she was usually a heavy sleeper. Last night though, something was amiss. She gathered her toiletries and stepped out of her dorm, drool probably still on her face, heading down the hall to the communal bathroom she shared with the other kids in that dorm wing. Thank the dioses, it was a smaller wing than the ones she had lived in previous years, and she knew all the kids who she had to share with.
“What the hell happened last night, Niya?” Marino asked her when she walked in, his mouth full of toothpaste. He spit it out and then formed a small ball of water in midair in front of his mouth. He ate the water ball and swished it around in his mouth before spitting out a second time.
“You tell me,” Niya said, turning the sink next to him on and splashing the cool water on her face. “Honestly I don’t even remember what happened.”
It was a total lie. She had been replaying the whole night over and over again since she had gotten to her room last night. Auristela’s outrage at their pairing, Auristela noticing Niya lagging behind to stare at her ass, Auristela’s flippant retorts to Niya’s insults. If Niya had cared what other kids thought of her, she would have been humiliated.
“Seriously?” Xochi asked over the flush of a toilet, stepping out of a stall and moving to the other side of Marino to wash her hands. “I think everyone else definitely remembers it. I heard a crowd of boys behind me chanting ‘fight, fight, fight, fight’, and like half the school recorded it.”
“Great,” Niya said, sticking a tooth brush in her mouth.
“I’m honestly curious what she’s gonna do to you when she sees you in class today,” Marino said, eyes wide with amusement.
Yeah, me too.
Dezi walked into the bathroom, hair perfect as always. Marino’s eyes lit up at him, and he signed a quick, “Good morning! How are you?”
Dezi just smiled back and went over to Xochi to give her a little side hug before signing, “Bitch move, I need my mirror time.”
Xochi side-eyed him but complied, and Dezi threw a makeup bag into the sink. He pulled out an eyelash curler and used it on his left eye, staring at Niya with his other eye. He had a smug little grin on his gorgeous face.
“I can tell,” he signed with his free hand, then turned back to the mirror.
Tell what? Niya thought, her eyes going wide. Dezi’s smile in the mirror just widened.
“Wait, tell what?” Marino said and signed. Dezi gave him a look that was incomprehensible to Niya.
The same grin spread across Marino’s face. “Ohhhh.” He giggled, looking between Dezi and Niya.
“You two are infuriating, you know that?” Niya said and signed, glaring at the boys. “I wish I had a girlfriend to share stupid looks with.”
Both boys busted out laughing, and Xochi looked amused as she brushed her hair.
Niya dramatically turned on her heel and left the bathroom, opting to redo her braids while walking to her first class.
Niya stepped into the Specialization Gym, scouting out who else was there. Atzi, as always, was warming up her arms in the back right corner, next to the water. A child of Serpiente whose name Niya didn’t bother to learn was right next to Atzi, practicing their shifting from snake to human form.
Niya walked over to the large patch of rock ground in the back left of the gym and started stretching. After a few minutes, she tried to focus on manipulating the stone, but there were too many thoughts racing through her head to concentrate.
Does she hate me? Does she hate me? Does she hate me? Does she hate me? The question looped in her mind, louder than anything else. Niya squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the voice.
Why do I care? I hate her. She hates me. That’s okay, she tried to counter herself, but the louder thoughts just yelled back, NO, IT’S NOT.
Rather than sit down and examine just exactly why it was not okay if Auristela hated her, Niya opted to scream.
All of the heads in the suddenly very full gym swiveled towards her. Xochi, who was over by Atzi, had her brow pinched in concern. Ocelo, who was across the gym from Niya, smirked, his golden eyes glinting.
Niya narrowed her eyes at Ocelo, raised them her middle finger, and left the gym, leaving her schoolbag where she had been standing. She stomped all the way across the Academy and into the library. Once there, she slunk into the back corner, shoved her earphones in, and mindlessly scrolled through TicTac, just waiting for the bell to ring for her to go to her next class.
But you know people in your next class. They’ll have heard about this by then. You just threw a tantrum, in class, because you’re mad at Auristela, Niya’s thoughts said, once again louder than anything else.
Just then the bell rang, and Niya muttered to herself, “Whatever.”
Niya walked on autopilot to her next class, not even consciously remembering what she had until she walked through the door into history, then saw the twins and Ocelo standing by their desks and chatting.
Xochi came up to Niya while she was still distracted watching Auristela talk to her friends. Xochi tapped Niya on the shoulder and then waved Niya’s schoolbag in front of her face.
“Hi,” Niya said, snapped back into reality. She took the bag from Xochi and threw it over her shoulder, the bag barely weighing anything.
“What the hell happened?” Xochi said, louder than she needed to. Niya could see other kids from around the room turning to stare at them.
“You weren’t even there!” Niya whined.
“Yeah, but Ocelo was filming their workout routine to post on TicTac and got it on video. Everyone’s seen it by now,” Xochi said, pulling up @oceloopaloasis on TicTac. A video showed Ocelo flexing at the camera, and over their shoulder, Niya was in the background. Her eyes got bigger and bigger, and she balled up her fists, and then she opened her mouth super wide, almost like a snake. Xochi’s volume was off, but Niya could see other people in the background of the video jump when Video Niya’s mouth opened. Video Niya glared at Video Ocelo, then turned and stomped out of the gym.
“Yay,” Niya said, more annoyed than she already was. Then, as if her day wasn’t bad enough already, Auristela sauntered up to her and Xochi. Her pretty face was contorted in what looked like was supposed to be a smile, but her lips were too tight and it didn’t reach her eyes.
“Hello, Xochi,” Auristela said. She pointedly ignored Niya.
“Wassup,” Xochi replied, checking her texts on her phone.
“I was wondering what the dress code was like for your party tomorrow?”
Wait, Auristela was invited? Why? Xochi didn’t even like her very much.
“Uhh, sort of whatever you want. I’m gonna wear a big floofy dress but I wear big floofy dresses everywhere. Marino’s probably gonna show up in pajamas.” Xochi looked Auristela up and down. “You’d look good in anything, to be honest.”
Auristela’s eyebrows shot up so high Niya thought they might fly off her face. Niya just smirked, but there was an unsettling feeling in her stomach. Auristela spun on her heel and walked back to her seat.
Niya opened her mouth to ask Xochi why Auristela was invited to her party, but the bell cut her off and their teacher entered the classroom.
“Niya? On time? This is new,” the teacher exclaimed.
“Yeah, yeah,” Niya grumbled as she slid into her seat beside Xochi. She laid her head down on her desk, but her mind was too awake to sleep, even with the boringness of history class as white noise.