ROSE

I began shaking my head profusely. "Um, no. There is no way in Zeus' name that I would ever sign up for a pageant, Aphrodite is not worth that much."

Geneva rolled her eyes. "Relax Rose, I'll sign up for it instead of you. I figure as a daughter of Hebe, I might have more luck in a beauty-related tournament. But we need to do this or else we won't get a chance to talk with Aphrodite."

"Good, but do we have any time? I can't tell what's even going on in the pageant right now," I asked.

Geneva grabbed the flyer from her pocket and held it up in front of me. "Yes, we have about an hour to register according to the flyer. So far they have only done two age groups and the next one is ours."

I nodded, reading the page myself to confirm this. "Good. Hopefully this doesn't take too long."

We headed back into the crowded lobby to register for the competition. We walked past the bar and arrived at a massive array of white clothed tables. Each table had about two people sitting at them and security guards stood around the lines and tables, surveying the scene. Paranoia told me they had somehow caught wind of our being here, but I shifted my thoughts away from this and focused on what to do from here.

Above each of these tables was a poster that labeled the purpose of each of the tables. One of them read 'Inscription', with an English translation provided after a slash, being 'registration'.

We walked into the line for registration and waited a few minutes before we reached the table, where Geneva signed herself up for the pageant. After we did this, the lady told us to head to a few of the other tables and sign Geneva up for a few mandatory categories and one optional.

In the pageant there are a total of eight categories, five of them being mandatory. These categories are public speaking, interviewing, formal wear, talent showcase, and on-stage questions. Each mandatory category can give you up to ten points. Then there are the other three categories, these ones being optional. These include model runway, casual wear, and photography. You can only sign up for one of these optional categories and if you win in your category, you can earn an extra five points.

We skipped over the optional categories tables as we resigned to just letting Geneva do the main five, heading up to our room and rigorously looking over the schedule in hopes of memorizing it.

"So, it looks like the public speaking portion is up first," Geneva observed. "Apparently, I have a one minute time limit in which I walk up to the stage, introduce my name, age, what I want to do in the future, and one or two fun facts about me. There's only two hours before the event, so I gotta think of what I'm going to say."

"Let's start brainstorming then," I said.

We began furiously writing down things Geneva could say, trying to make them as witty but informative as we could. We went through several papers, but the time flew by and before Geneva could memorize her entire speech and get down all the criteria we needed to meet, the event was beginning and contestants were going up the second floor to where the event was taking place.

"Oh crap, what am I going to do?" Geneva asked, pacing around the room like some wild conspiracy theorist. "I've barely memorized the speech and I'm literally wearing a hoodie!"

I began biting down on my nails. "Well you signed yourself in as Geneva Rose so you still have a while before they call you up, if they go off last name basis. Just go to where all the contestants are heading and I'll try to find something for you to wear."

Geneva nodded nervously. "Ok, just hurry."

With that, she blended into a crowd of girls, all of them wearing short, but fancy dresses with their hair tied up in an array of gorgeous styles. I quickly ran to the women's bathroom, an idea coming to my head.

The women's bathroom was crowded with girls, with some hogging the sinks and doing their makeup or in the stalls dressing into whatever attire they had. This is where my plan would come in. For the short while I had been at the hotel, I noticed that most of the girls had been carrying their clothes in clothing bags and backpacks so that they could change in between events. Since the bathroom would be one of the hotspots for people to be carrying their clothing bags, all I had to do was create a ruckus and steal someone's bag in the chaos.

As I casually went up to one of the marble sinks, I began looking for something that could create a distraction. The girl closest to me was looking at herself in the mirror, applying blush on her cheeks. She had an open makeup bag next to her, filled with lipstick, mascara, foundation, etc. I noticed that standing to the left of the girl was a girl wearing a blue dress who was texting on her cellphone. Suddenly, I had a great idea as to how to make a distraction.

Putting my attention on the open makeup bag, I raised my finger quickly in an upward motion and flicked sideways, lipstick telekinetically lifting from the open bag and smacking the cellphone girl on the back of the head.

The girl's face instantly turned to anger as she looked around to see the thrower of the lipstick, setting her eyes on the open makeup bag. She stormed over to the girl next to me and started yelling at her in French, gathering the attention of the other contestants in the bathroom.

As the girls' argument turned into a screaming contest, with more people getting involved, I began surveying the room for someone with a similar figure to Geneva. I very swiftly laid eyes on a slim girl with a similar height and body type as Geneva stationed near the entrance, spotting her bag laying next to her feet. I moved a little closer to her before looking for the light switch in the bathroom. Upon finding it, I flicked my finger downward, the room now in complete darkness.

The contestants in the room began freaking out as I snuck toward where the slim girl with Geneva's body figure was. I quickly grabbed the girl's bag and exited the bathroom, the light hitting my eyes as I ran to where the event was taking place.

There, a large stage was put in place with red curtains, black flooring, and several rows of seats with what seemed like a good hundred people spectating. In front of these seats was a large white table, with a total of six people sitting down. Among them was the one and only Aphrodite, smiling deviously as she talked with the other judges about the contestants.

She was wearing a knee length, red dress with red heels and her dark brown hair in curls. She was wearing a beautiful face of makeup and had the eyes of all the judges on her. From what I gathered, Aphrodite's a very respected person in the fashion industry, evidenced by the multitudes of posters featuring her face across the city and especially near the pageant.

I sprinted over to Geneva, who was anxiously waiting in a large line of girls. She was now wearing a numbered pin, as were all the other girls in front and behind her.

"Geneva, I got you clothes to wear!" I exclaimed as I shoved the bag into her hands.

"Finally!" Geneva said in relief. "My number is coming up soon so I was starting to worry. I'll be right back."

I took the place of Geneva in the line as she ran to get changed. A lot of the girls I saw in the bathroom soon took their place in line and after a few minutes, numbers started getting called and girls started their speeches. One or two girls spoke their speeches in English, while a few others spoke in Spanish, Portuguese, etc. Diversity like this would be expected of any major international tournament, but it was still nice to see.

I heard footsteps behind me as I turned and saw how Geneva looked. She was absolutely gorgeous, rocking a knee length blue dress with a silver belt and sequences showering the bottom half of the dress. She had pulled her hair down from her bun and left it to curl around her shoulders, making her look even more stunning.

"So, how do I look? The dress was a bit small and there weren't any shoes in the bag, so I'm stuck wearing these tennis shoes, but it looks okay, right?" Geneva asked.

I chuckled. "You look amazing, like drop-dead gorgeous amazing."

"Thanks, Rose," Geneva said, looking a bit more confident.

I waved Geneva goodbye as I walked out of the line and took a seat not too far away from the stage.

After a couple of minutes, Geneva's number was called and she walked up to the stage.

Geneva hesitantly walked to the middle of the stage, fumbling with the microphone given to her and sweating profusely. She was breathing deeply into the microphone, creating a not-so pleasant sound that made the audience and the judges alike cringe. Aphrodite rolled her eyes, making a face that sent the message of, 'Oh, brother, one of these people? Let's make this quick'.

When Geneva finally got settled, she took a deep breath and began speaking.

"Um, hi. My name is Geneva Rhod-Rose, and I am fifteen years old. I'm from, uh, um, the United States of America. I, um, uh...wanna be a fashion designer? Um, yeah, I wanna be that. So, I like to, er...wear dresses and I don't know, I, uh, like animals a lot, so thanks. Thanks for listening."

Yikes. That was one of the worst things I had heard by far. It was so bad, I could compare her speech to a cat getting dragged down a highway and thrown into a dumpster. Even though I wasn't the one speaking, I could still feel embarrassed as Geneva awkwardly waved and walked down the stage, her eyes looking down to her feet. I could even see the judges blinking in embarrassment, shaking their heads and whispering amongst themselves as they assessed her speaking. I wasn't even there, and I could make the bold assumption that she didn't score very high.

Geneva sat down next to me and began fidgeting with her hands, her face as red as a tomato.

"Well, I butchered that one, didn't I?"

I nodded. "Yeah, you kind of did."

Geneva groaned and slumped in her seat. "Great. I just screwed up our chance to talk to Aphrodite."

"Don't worry, let's just see how the other girls do. Someone's got to screw up, right?" I said, trying to comfort Geneva.

Luckily, my assessment was correct. Out of the ten to twelve girls that talked after Geneva, three of them screwed up their speeches and made embarrassments of themselves on stage. Still, most girls had done well with their speech, so we'd have to hope the other categories went a little better.

Once all the girls had spoken, Aphrodite delivered a speech entirely in French to send everyone off as girls made their way out of the stage room. I swore Aphrodite had winked at us as she spoke, meaning that she at least knew we were here, but why she did it I have no idea.

I put the thought aside as Geneva and I tracked back to our room, needing to get prepared for what was next to come.

"Well, you butchered that one, but it's fine," I said optimistically as we set our stuff down in the room. "There's like five other events left, so just try to do good on those ones."

Geneva sighed and pulled out her schedule. "Let's see. It says formal wear is next, which is where I have to put on a fancy dress, walk on stage, and wave at the judges before turning around."

I rubbed my chin. "Okay, well you're probably gonna need a change of clothes then. Your dress looks amazing, but it's not very formal. The bag got anything?"

Geneva nodded and zipped open the duffel bag, dumping all the clothes inside onto the bed. In the bag, there were a total of three outfits. There was a long, sleek red dress that appeared to be a ballgown, with a heart shaped neckline showered in beautiful sequences. The bottom half of the dress was covered with ruffles and there was a rose placed at the waistline.

There was also a simple white dress, that was about knee length and had a golden necklace to make the dress less bland. It was laced at the top and a golden bow was placed near the waist area. The last outfit appeared to be a women's business suit, with a pastel pink tuxedo, a white shirt to wear underneath, and trousers.

"Hmm, these are nice outfits," I said, analyzing each outfit laid out in front of her. "For formal wear, I think you should wear the red one."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Looks like the one that would most dazzle the judges."

I nodded. "Is there anything else you need to prepare for?"

Geneva shrugged. "I don't know. If there is, I think I'm just gonna wing it and see what happens."

I pressed my lips together. "I mean, that's not the worst strategy. All of this is so woefully unspecific, isn't it?"

"Well, they probably expect participants to already know this stuff beforehand, in fairness. Let's just see how it goes."

For the next hour, we just laid in bed as we watched television. We didn't understand it since most of the channels were French, but it was something to do. When we finished up our break, we turned off the television and started getting ready for the next event.

Geneva went into the bathroom and changed into the dress, taking a little longer than I would've liked. When she came out, she looked flawless, her hair straightened using the hotel's straightener and her face radiant with her Hebe abilities. The red dress looked stunning on her, and the way the dress fit perfectly on her complimented her body."

"Wow, you look great, Geneva!" I beamed.

I grabbed a rose from the vase on the desk and put it in Geneva's hair to complete the look.

"Thanks, Rose," Geneva said. "Let's hope I don't bomb this event."

"You can't be thinking like that just before the big event. You got this, alright?"

She nodded, and a quick checking of the time revealed that the event was just a few minutes from starting. We took the elevator down to the second floor again and began following the mass of girls.

As we walked back to the stage room, I noticed the eyes of some of the contestants on Geneva. Her Hebe powers were in full flow it seemed, as she truly was the best looking of all the girls here.

Who knows? If the girls, who mostly seem focused on themselves and winning the event, took notice of how Geneva looked, then the judges would certainly be impressed.

I theorized saying something to Geneva about this to raise her spirits a little bit, but quickly stopped myself with the realization that maybe that'd make things worse.

As we reentered the stage earlier, I noticed that the lighting of the seating area was quite dim while the lights on the stage were extremely bright, presumably to put more focus on the contestants as they showed off.

I wished Geneva good luck as she went into line and the event started. This time though, the girls headed backstage as the judges introduced the event, again doing so in French. After they finished, they called the first girl up to the stage.

She entered from stage left and began walking towards a small white circle on the stage, locking her eyes with the judges. She began walking around the circle whilst waving at the judges, showing off her magenta dress before walking back and leaving the stage.

Four of the five judges applauded her, while Aphrodite audibly scoffed and crossed her arms. She was like the Simon Cowell of this pageant, just less funny and far harder to impress.

I shuddered nervously. If that wasn't good enough for Aphrodite, then would Geneva even be okay for her? I held my breath as the next girl was called, seemingly doing well, but still getting the same reaction from Aphrodite as the first girl did.

The time seemed to pass by slowly as the next few contestants were called up, each not satisfying Aphrodite. One case was so bad the girl started crying after Aphrodite loudly said something in French, all because the girl tripped slightly as she walked. Eventually, I heard Geneva's number called and I slowly retreated into my seat, panic filling me.

As Geneva approached the stage, I noticed this strange confidence on her face and in her posture, as if she had been preparing for this her entire life. I had expected her to be just as nervous as the other girls, but instead, her eyes were keen with determination.

Geneva began walking to the circle, her body swaying from side to side and her hair gently blowing behind her. She had a beaming, but confident smile on her face as she locked her eyes dead straight on the judges. She began walking around the circle in a smooth manner, her eyes never leaving the judges. She then did her wave, her arm in perfect coordination with her body as she turned around and walked back.

To my immense surprise, the judges, including Aphrodite, began applauding Geneva, writing in their notepads and murmuring to themselves. The rest of the contestants were good, but none of them got a reaction out of Aphrodite quite as Geneva did.

As the judges waved everyone goodbye and girls started getting dismissed, Geneva walked toward me, her eyes filled with excitement and a sense of victory.

"That was incredible, Geneva," I exclaimed. "You even impressed Aphrodite!"

Geneva blushed. "Thank you, Rose. I'm not sure what happened up there. I was so nervous as the other girls began walking up the stage, but then I thought back to something Arthur told me."

"What was it that he said?" I asked.

"Well, about a year ago, Arthur and I were on a date at the place we met, Central Park," Geneva explained. "I'm not too sure what we were talking about, but I remember him telling me how he wished I was more confident about myself, because when I was, it was one of the most breathtaking things to see. When I thought about what he had said, it gave me some sort of strength, like if I had just a bit of confidence in myself, then I could accomplish this one hard task, and somehow, make him proud."

Geneva's eyes seemed to get a little teary as she said this, so I quickly changed the topic and went back to complimenting her.

We soon left the stage, and, hungry as we were, used a trick Alexander and Kai taught us to steal snacks from a vending machine in the lobby. We stuffed our load of snacks in Geneva's duffle bag and headed up to our hotel room like a bunch of criminals.

"Man, it feels nice to not have to pay for this crap," I said, munching on a pack of M & M's.

Geneva nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's just hope we don't get caught by security. We've already stolen so many things today, and we're also fugitives."

We finished eating our food and Geneva immediately crashed, wanting me to wake her up whenever the next event began. I set an alarm for twenty minutes before the event as I turned on the television to watch some more French TV shows to pass the time, which side note, are so incredibly wacky, at least the ones I saw. The CGI is horrible, the green screen is visible in almost every shot, and things just happen without any buildup or context, which made it all the more enjoyable to watch.

But, eventually, the horrible quality of the show was no longer entertaining and rather exhausting so I turned it off. Instead, I just laid down on my bed as the cool sheets, soft whirring sound of the air conditioner above, and the quiet of the room made me feel at ease and left me peacefully with my thoughts, which by contrast, were quite wild and busy, serving as the main reason behind my not being able to sleep.

This was by no means a first, as the craziness of the quest made it hard to not think about something and truly rest. Thoughts of Arthur, Kai, Erebos, Hecate, Marianne, camp, and Athens all filled my head, but the main thing on my mind was Geneva.

She'd been through a hell of a lot more than me these last couple of months, and seeing her happy was a positive in contrast to all the negatives we'd endured over the course of the quest. It was also nice seeing her open up again, so I could definitely cross that off my list of worries for the quest, right up with my impending death and someone else's to their own fire.

Oh.

Just the prospect of not just potentially dying, but guaranteedly dying was a lot to take in, which is why, up until this point, I haven't really thought about it.

And I didn't really get a chance to think about it as the alarm I set rang and it was time to wake Geneva up. I didn't have to do anything however as she woke up anyway, looking ready as it were with her hair perfectly straight as she went to change. I yawned loudly, closing my eyes for just a few seconds, and when I reopened, Geneva was already dressed up and ushering me to get ready as well.

After I did so, we set out for the second floor as I got my brain back in the game.

The upcoming event was onstage questions, where the judges quizzed contestants on their stances on politics, world issues, tidbits about their lives, and various other topics. There wasn't a whole lot of preparation one could do, as it was more a matter of how the participants answered and whether they could do it in the allocated time frame of a minute.

I blinked and suddenly Geneva was waving me goodbye as she headed for the stage, the two of us now inside the packed stage room. I couldn't remember if we'd even entered the elevator as I took a seat near the back.

As the judges introduced the event, I tried my absolute hardest not to doze off as in a flash, girls were coming up on the stage and answering questions. The first three did relatively well, answering each question concisely, but beyond that, I have no idea, because I promptly fell asleep after the fourth contestant came up on stage.

I was woken up some time later by Geneva. "Hey, Rose. Wake up."

I rubbed my eyes and stretched out my legs. "Sorry about that. What did I miss?"

"Not much," Geneva summarized. "I think I did okay on the questions, though the time limit was hard to get by. The good thing is that a few other girls struggled more than I did, so I think I'm fine."

"That's good," I said, rubbing my eyes as I noticed that I had somehow fallen asleep and missed the entirety of the event, parents now leading their kids out of the stage room as judges waved goodbye to the contestants.

We followed right after and made our way back to the sixth floor as Geneva checked her schedule.

"So next is the interview, which is in an hour or so. I guess I should wear the business suit for this one," Geneva said as we approached the elevator.

"Sounds good," I said. "Should I ask you sample questions for this or something?"

Geneva shrugged. "I don't think that'd work, considering I have no idea what they'd even ask us about."

"Good point," I said. "We'll just have to wait and see. Just try to be professional and stay calm. An one-on-one interview shouldn't be as bad as talking on stage, so you should have this in the bag."

We relaxed the rest of the time we had, talking about some of the girls and how they were doing.

It was pretty nice to talk with Geneva like we used to prior to Arthur's death. After he died, we just stopped talking and she had basically hid herself from everyone. I knew Geneva wasn't close to getting over Arthur's death, but it was nice to see her just enjoying herself for a moment, even if it wouldn't last. I'm really glad I listened to Kai's suggestion about bringing Geneva on this quest, or else things likely wouldn't have changed for her.

Eventually, our time was up and Geneva went to the restrooms to change. After she was dressed up, we headed over to the elevators, but one of the contestants and her family were going a different direction. Upon further investigation, we found that other participants were doing this too and just followed the pack. This led up to us going up a few escalators before entering a medium sized room packed with contestants, guards, and staff members alike.

The place was littered with seats and tables, similar to some sort of waiting room. There was a nice view of the city via a triplet of massive windows and several rooms and hallways where most of the hotel's staff probably had their offices. Geneva and I headed over to a glass table with two white chairs and took a seat.

"I wonder how this interview is going to work," I said, glancing around the room.

Geneva nodded nervously, her breath labored and some sweat present on her face. "I'm really anxious for how this is going to go. I really don't want to screw things up."

"Don't be scared, Geneva. You'll be just fine," I comforted.

After a few minutes, a woman in a slim gray dress with glasses walked to the middle of the room and began speaking through a microphone. We weren't able to understand what she was saying since it was in French, but we assumed that it was over the instructions of how the interview was going to work.

The lady then walked over to a door nearby the waiting room and called out a total of five names, five girls getting up and standing in line outside of a nearby hallway that had five doors. The woman guided each girl to a certain room in that hall and let them enter each room.

After about ten minutes or so, the girls that were previously called exited their rooms and headed back into the waiting room. The lady then called the next group, calling Geneva's name first with four other names.

I wished Geneva good luck as she walked over to the lady and was guided to the third room in the hallway. After each girl was given a room to be interviewed in, they entered inside.

Since this event was pretty important and I wanted to be able to monitor how Geneva was doing, I used a spell I learnt from camp to be in Geneva's head, able to see and hear what Geneva was doing as if I was actually inside her mind. I'd used the spell once or twice with Kai and Alexander as my guinea pigs for the experiment and it worked both times, so I was confident it'd work this time.

I grabbed a magazine nearby and held it over my face as I reclined, not wanting anyone to see the process or what would happen afterwards. I could feel my consciousness splitting off from my body as I casted the spell, gaining consciousness inside Geneva's head.

She was currently sitting down on a chair in a mostly empty room. The walls were a bleak, eggplant white and the carpet was navy blue. In front of Geneva's chair was a small brown table, with a middle aged man sitting across from her.

He had short blonde hair and grayish-blue eyes, with a faint mustache and a pair of dark gray glasses. He wore a white plaid shirt with a pair of jeans and brown shoes, and carried a piece of paper and a pencil in his hands.

"Avant de commencer, voulez-vous que je parle Français, Anglais, Espagnol, ou autre chose?" he asked.

I wasn't sure what the guy was asking exactly, but I assumed that he asked her what language she would want him to speak in.

Geneva thought the same as me, answering, "Anglais."

The man nodded. "Okay then, my first question is simple one. What is your favorite color?"

"My favorite color is midnight blue," Geneva said, sitting up in her seat and straightening her back. "I like this color because it gives me a feeling of calm and peace. My boyfriend had-has similar colored eyes, so it reminds me of him."

The man smiled, satisfied with Geneva's answer. He wrote something down on his piece of paper before the timer went off and he asked the next question.

"What are your plans for the future? Do you plan on getting a job, attending university, or do you plan of doing something else?"

Geneva rubbed her chin. "If I'm being honest, sir, I'm not all too sure. My future is a bit foggy, and a bit unclear, but I plan on spending it by doing something I'm passionate about, like fashion or beauty perhaps."

The interviewer wrote something else down on the paper as the timer went out. "Why do you want to win this pageant? And what do you plan to achieve out of this?"

"Well, like I said earlier, I'm passionate about fashion and modeling. Doing this pageant will increase my experience in these fields and help me become better at the things I want to achieve. This pageant has also helped me grow as a person and given me a goal to achieve."

Just as the interviewer was about to pick up his pen and write something down on the paper, a repeated knocking was heard on the door and a security guard entered the room.

The interviewer got out of his seat and greeted the security guard. "Bonjour Thomas, de quoi avez-vous besoin?"

The security guard, or Thomas, leaned over the interviewer's shoulder and whispered something that I couldn't hear. The interviewer nodded before turning around and saying to Geneva, "Thomas here would like to ask you questions, Geneva. I will be back in few minutes to finish the interview."

Thomas walked over to where the interviewer had sat and faced Geneva, putting his hands together like a businessman would.

"So, Geneva Rose. From what I heard at the public speaking event, you are from the United States. Is this correct?"

Geneva gulped. "Uh, yeah, I am."

"May I ask then, how you got into the country?" he asked.

"Um," Geneva stuttered. "I, er, took a plane from New York."

As the security guard stared curiously at Geneva, I began panicking. Why did the guard get involved and interrupt unless he knows something he shouldn't?

"How about your friend, the girl that is traveling with you and is here for this competition? What is your relation to her?"

Geneva shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "She's my sister. We came here together."

"What's her name then?"

"It's Ro-Amethyst," Geneva stammered.

Thomas furrowed his eyebrows. "So her full name is Amethyst Rose?"

Geneva nervously chuckled. "Y-yup."

The man stayed quiet for a moment, writing something down in a notepad he had been carrying in his pocket.

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you asking me these questions?" Geneva asked, licking her lips anxiously.

Thomas looked Geneva dead in the eye. "Because, Geneva Rose, two worldwide criminals, originating from New York, named Geneva Rhodes and Rose Morgan Evergreen, are rumored to have entered Paris. Are you telling me you know nothing of these criminals, despite having flown here from New York and having similar names to these fugitives?"

Geneva scratched her head and began fidgeting with her hands. "Well, I think I have heard of them, I..I'm not sure. But it sure is a weird coincidence that we have similar names, right?"

"Quite coincidental indeed," Thomas said. "What's more interesting is that your sister, Amethyst Rose, matched the exact same facial description of Rose Morgan Evergreen. Any explanations as to how that occurred, or is that yet another coincidence?"

"Well, that's not the first time someone's looked the same as Amethyst. She has a very common face, in fact many of my friends have a similar face structure to her! Rose might be like her doppelganger or something."

"That's plausible," Thomas said. "Let me call Marquis back in so you can finish your interview. Thanks for your time, Geneva."

Thomas exited the room and a few minutes later, the interviewer walked back in and took his place. The rest of the interview seemed to go by in a blur, as Marquis asked a few more questions to Geneva before giving his thanks and sending her out the room.

As this went on, I seriously began to wonder why Thomas didn't just detain her on the spot, given how poorly Geneva defended herself and I and the stacks of evidence against us.

Before I could think about this for too long, Geneva came back to me in the waiting room, so I took myself out of Geneva's head and gained back consciousness of my body.

"Holy crap, Rose," Geneva said panickedly. The interview went so wrong!" she exclaimed, pacing back and forth.

I grabbed Geneva's shoulders. "I know, Geneva. Let's talk about this more in the hotel room. Let's try avoiding security as we proceed," I said.

We fast walked over to the escalator as I filled Geneva in on the spell that I did. We ended up running to the elevator in the lobby so we could get to the elevator, but it took us longer than anticipated due to the large crowd of people.

We took the elevator up and locked the door of our room, shutting the blinds and making sure no one saw us.

"So, you saw everything that happened?" Geneva asked, biting down on her nails and pacing back and forth.

I nodded. "Yeah, I did. What do we do now? They know that we're here."

"I don't know," Geneva said. "But there's no way we can leave and quit the competition now. We have to talk to Aphrodite."

I sighed. "Yeah, you're right. We're going to have to be much more careful now. The only hope is that they only recognized me as opposed to you. But that's probably not likely, considering the names."

Geneva shoved her face into a pillow as I groaned out loud.

"Well, let's just see if they'll at least let me finish up the pageant. May as well try before they go and get us," Geneva said after a few minutes of silence.

I put my hand on my head. "Yeah, let's hope."

For what seemed like an eternity, we nervously sat on our beds, not saying a word to each other. We were in a cycle of checking the time and then going back to hiding in our beds. When an hour had passed, a sense of dread passed through me.

"Well, it's time to get ready for the talent portion, Geneva," I said. "Go ahead and get changed."

Geneva went into the bathroom and changed back into the blue dress she had worn for the public speaking event earlier. She tied her hair up into a princess braid and applied some lip balm provided by the hotel.

Even with the limited amount of materials we had and the stress of the situation, she looked stunning, but that wouldn't matter. The moment that Geneva stepped on that stage, Thomas and his cronies would pronounce her and I as fugitives and have us arrested. The only hope is that we could somehow win the pageant before they arrived at the scene, but even that was improbable. This really was a hopeless situation.

We made our way out of the room and to the second floor, entering the stage room once again for the talent showcase. The amount of security guards in the room was indescribable. We found two seats in the middle of a rather packed area, hopefully concealing our locations to the guards before they inevitably outed me and Geneva.

We watched as a few girls did their acts, a variety of different sports being done. Some of the girls did dancing, musical performance, acrobatics, and a whole range of activities. I had no idea what Geneva would do when her turn was called, but something told me the guards would out her before she could come up with a talent to showcase. The only reason they hadn't exposed us yet was that they hadn't ascertained our exact locations in the crowd.

The moment of terror struck when Aphrodite called up from the judge's stand, "Geneva Rose!". Geneva made her way through the crowd, still mostly concealed, and I could feel the anticipation amongst the audience and in the guards, who began shuffling closer and closer to the stage.

When Geneva made her way onto the stage, one of the guards called out, "Advance, men! The fugitive has been found!"

Well, this was just one heck of a situation to be in, wasn't it?