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Romance Cupid, more commonly known as Roman for a multitude of reasons, pulled his hextbook out of his full sized locker. It was the same one that he'd had since the beginning of Senior year, and, while he was glad that he could now fit all of his things in to his locker, he missed the old one. More specifically, he missed dropping things on his best friend's head.
Over the past three years, Roman had dropped more items on Joy's head than he could remember. The first time it had been on purpose. He couldn't think of a way to talk to the cute girl who had the locker right under him, so he'd dropped his book on the floor. It had ended up hitting her head.
For some reason, Joy didn't hate him for that. In fact, it became an inside joke, and whenever it happened they would laugh about it. The two had quickly become best friends, even though they were an odd pair. Joy was smart, pretty, and introverted, while Roman was the biggest extrovert at Ever After High.
He had dragged Joy to social event after social event. She would usually stand in the corner and refuse to dance with anyone until he was blue in the face from trying to get her to, but even that was fun.
They hung out together, just the two of them, as well. In fact, they hung out so much that some people thought that they were a couple. A conversation with either of them would correct that, 'not a couple, just best friends'. No matter how much Roman wanted it to be otherwise, it was always that way.
"I went to Headmistress White to ask for a different roommate," Joy said as she yanked open her locker, "And do you know what she said?"
Roman didn't answer. Joy just wanted him to listen whenever she was ranting.
"She said, 'It will be good for you to room with someone you're not best friends forever after with'. This is all because Lily graduated a semester early. If she had just stayed for the rest of the year like a normal person, then we wouldn't be having this problem."
Roman laughed. "This is your problem, not mine," he said.
Joy crossed her arms and stared at him. "Oh, really?" she asked, and Roman got the feeling that he was going to regret saying that. "Do you remember what happened freshman year whenever we tried to hang out?"
Unfortunately, Roman did. He also didn't want that to happen again. The last thing that he wanted was for Starling Hood to butt in on each and every one of their conversations whenever he was in the room. He was aloud to hang out in his best friend's room, and Lily hadn't had a problem with it, but Starling would. That, or she'd try to kiss him again. He couldn't decide which one was worse.
It wasn't that Starling was unattractive. In fact, she was quite beautiful, with long red hair and grey eyes. But no amount of outer beauty could erase her tendency to put people down when they didn't agree with her. And Joy didn't agree with her a lot.
"Do you want that to happen again?" Joy asked.
"No," Roman said, closing his locker. "We could always hang out at the library, or at parties."
"I hate parties," Joy said.
Roman knew this. It was a fact that Joy repeated at least four times a week.
"I'm just so..." Joy tried to search for the right word.
"Angry?"
"Frustrated," Joy said.
"Why don't you just ignore her?" Roman suggested. He started to walk towards Science and Sorcery and Joy joined him.
"Been there, tried that," Joy said, "And it's not just that she hates me. It's like she's trying to get close to me to-"
"Yoo-hoo!" came a voice that resembled that of a bird's. A really annoying bird.
"Quick," Joy said, "Do something."
"What?"
"I don't care. Anything."
Roman grabbed Joy's hand and dragged her down the nearest corridor, trying to ignore the tingling feeling that ran through his arm as he did so. Without thinking, he pulled her in to the boy's locker room. Thankfully, it was empty.
Holding their breath, they listened as Starling's footsteps echoed through the hallway outside until they disappeared entirely. Roman glanced over at Joy. "You want to tell me what that was about?"
Joy sighed. "She's trying to be my friend."
"That's a good thing, right?" Roman wasn't quite sure how Starling no longer hating Joy was a bad thing.
"No," Joy said, "The only reason that she's trying to be my friend is so that she can hang out with you?"
"Why would she do that?"
"Sometimes, you're really thick," Joy said, "It's because she likes you."
"Oh," Roman didn't know what to think of that.
Roman was not as thick as Joy thought that he was. He knew that he was attractive, it was just one of those things that came along with being a god. He also knew that there were plenty of girls that liked him-a couple of them even managed to work up the courage to ask him on a date. He alway turned them down nicely.
It wasn't that Roman didn't like the girls that asked him, most of them were very nice and polite. It was simply that Roman had had a crush on his best friend since he had met her. There was something different about Joy. Roman supposed it was the way that she made him feel. Complete. Happy.
"Wait," Joy said, "Do you like her?"
"No," Roman said quickly.
"Why not?" Joy asked, "She's pretty, and a great singer."
"You don't like her either," Roman said, "So, don't get all defensive."
"Who do you like, then?"
Roman stared at his friend. Why did she care who he liked all of a sudden? She'd never had any interest in his relationships before.
"I mean, everybody likes someone," Joy said, sounding like his mother.
"Yes," Roman said.
"Yes, you like someone?"
"Yes," Roman said again.
"Who?"
Roman didn't answer.
"Fine," Joy said, "I'll figure it out myself."
Roman watched Joy as her mind went through the possibilities of the girls in their grade. He wondered if the idea that it could be her ever crossed her mind. Probably not. Joy was oblivious to anything that had to do with other people liking her.
Joy sighed. "Can you give me a hint?"
"No," Roman said.
"Please, please, please." Joy begged, "Just one?"
"Fine," Roman said, "It's a girl."
"Wow," Joy said sarcastically, "I didn't know that already. Give me a real hint."
"She's a princess," Roman said.
"Okay," Joy said, "That narrows it down to about half of the population. Can you give me a better hint?"
"I already gave you a hint." Roman said.
"No, you didn't," Joy protested.
"Yes, I did."
"No, you didn't."
"Yes, I did."
"No, you-"
"Mr. Cupid, Ms. Charming, is there a particular reason that the two of you are sitting on the floor of the boy's locker room?" Roman's head snapped up to find the doorway occupied by Headmistress White, her face kind yet terrifying at the same time.
"Um..." Roman began.
Thankfully, Joy came to his rescue. "My brother said that he left his spell book on the floor, but, as usual, it seems like it was all just a prank. I'm so sorry if we caused any kind of trouble."
Roman stared at Joy, speechless. He could never get over how the quite Joy Charming could come up with a believable story in mere seconds.
Headmistress White turned to him. "Is that right, Roman?"
Roman stopped looking at Joy, his eyes focusing on the headmistress. "Yep. You know Gal. I honestly don't understand why we still believe him at this point."
Headmistress White studied them for another moment. "Okay," she said, "I believe you, but I'm still informing your parents. This is the first time that the two of you have been caught sneaking around. Make sure that it doesn't happen again." She nodded to them and left like she was leaving a throne room and not a stinky boys locker room.
Once they could no longer hear her heels, Joy turned to him. "Do you think that she meant never sneak around again or never get caught again?"
"The latter," Roman said.
"That's what I thought too," Joy said. Standing up and dusting off her jeans, she offered him a hand and pulled him up. "Oh," she said, "and don't think that I've forgotten about your confession. You finally admitted that you like someone. I will get to the bottom of this."
Roman smiled. He doubted that Joy would get to the bottom of her mystery, but part of him wanted her to. Part of her to figure it out all. Maybe he'd hide clues for her, Joy loved that sort of thing. He glanced at his friend at the walked out of the locker room, ignoring the stares. No doubt, some freshman would think that they were in there kissing. Maybe he'd just tell Joy. No. That'd be too easy.
"Good luck," Roman said, " You're going to need it."
"In your dreams, Roman," Joy said.
"Yes, you are," Roman muttered under his breath.
Joy snorted.