Chapter 5: The Deal

 Chapter 5: The Deal

Cora’s POV

When did I find out Clara liked Jace? Let’s just say there wasn’t a time when I didn’t know. She’s my twin.

I could see how her eyes lit up whenever Jace was around. She never looked at Kael the way she looked at Jace. Never.

“You knew?”

I nodded, and she immediately lowered her head.

“He didn’t ask me to be his girlfriend… or rather, his real girlfriend,” I explained with a shrug.

“What do you mean?” she asked, lifting her head to look at me.

“Remember Lydia? Jace’s crazy ex, the one who wouldn’t leave him alone? She’s back at it again, and you know how she hates being replaced. Jace came up with a plan… He wants us to fake date. That way, she can leave him alone. That’s what you heard… that’s why he was asking me to be his girlfriend. I think it’s a stupid plan, though.”

I grabbed her hand and helped her sit down. Then I tucked her hair behind her ear, studying her face. I could see so much hope and pain in her eyes all at once.

I hated our parents for putting her in such a tough position.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Jace. I was ashamed…” She paused, swallowing hard before continuing. “Jace never looked at me, and I thought maybe he liked you and not me. I was also supposed to be devoted to Kael. It wasn’t proper for me to be in love with another man.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I just wish there was something we could do,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around her.

I had never seen Clara so helpless. She was bawling her eyes out, and I was struggling to hold back my own tears.

“What if I talk to him? Kael?” I asked, pulling away slightly to look at her. “He doesn’t look like he wants this either… Does that make sense? Can we do that?”

“He will never listen to you. You know that…” Clara sat up, sniffing back her tears.

“There’s got to be something we can do. I should talk to Jace. We can come up with something to help you, although he is kind of upset that I refused to help him with his stupid plan.”

I wasn’t thinking straight. I couldn’t. My sister was being forced into a marriage she didn’t want, and I felt I had an obligation as the older twin to help her.

Jace had come up with a stupid plan, and I had refused because I couldn’t see myself dating him, whether it was real or fake.

“You refused to date him? Why?” Clara asked, looking at me in surprise. “Jace is going to be a great boyfriend.”

I saw her blush, and I smacked her shoulder lightly.

“Clara… we are both in a critical condition. This isn’t the time to blush over that ugly little thing.”

“He is not ugly…” she mumbled.

She was blushing again.

“Ewww… Focus! What can we do?”

We both stood up and started pacing around our room, trying to think of a solution. A knock came on our door, making us pause.

“Cora… have you seen your sister?” my mother called from the other side.

“No,” I responded quickly.

I heard her walk away, and I waited until her footsteps faded before turning back to Clara.

“Cora… I have a plan.”

I immediately turned to her, eager to hear what this plan was.

“Remember that one time Mom switched us? When she was sick and lost her sense of smell, so she couldn’t tell which one of us was which?”

I nodded, unsure where she was going with this.

It happened when we were just pups. It was also why Dad had decided we could have different hair colors. We were so identical that the only way to identify us was by our scents, and even those had similarities.

That was why we got different hair colors.

What was she suggesting?

“Yes, I remember… Where is this going?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.

“Remember how we used to switch places all the time before you got your hair colored?”

My eyes widened. I think I knew where she was going, and when she saw that I had figured it out, she nodded.

“Clara…”

“Just for the academy year,” she interrupted, leaning forward. “You don’t want to date Jace, but I do. I can do it for you. You don’t have to do it.”

“And what about Kael?” I asked, staring at her in disbelief. “You know how much I hate him, so what do I become? His fiancée? No way!”

“Exactly! You hate him, and I do not want to marry him. What if you make him rethink his decision? He thinks I’m the perfect match, and you’re not… no offense.”

I scoffed. “Oh, no offense taken.”

“He would have chosen you if you were like me… He said it himself.”

“He did?” I asked, my irritation growing at the thought.

I could never imagine myself being his Luna. We had nothing in common, and the thought of spending my life with him made me want to scream.

“Yes… He was drunk, but he did say it.” Clara moved closer, her expression becoming more hopeful as she explained. “Imagine what he will do when I start acting like you? I can help you fake date Jace, and you can help me chase Kael away. You hate him, so it’s going to be easy for you to make him go away. You can misbehave all you want, but it’s going to be me  misbehaving…”

She paused briefly, watching my reaction before continuing.

“You can be the Golden Girl, and I will be the Rebel. Let’s switch places! We are going far away from our parents, and my training is different, so we will be in different branches in school . It’s going to be hard for Kael or Jace to figure it out if we are in separate school buildings. It’s just for the session , and when it’s time to go home for break, Kael must have had enough reason to cancel the engagement, and Lydia must have gotten over Jace.”

Clara said it all in one breath.

I stared at her for a moment.

I know I said I was the rebel, but I could have never come up with such an idea.

“Oh, sparks… You just thought of this?”

She nodded eagerly.

 I could do anything for my sister, but being Kael’s fiancée was going to be a hard task. I hated that man so much.

“You know I hate Kael… He hates me too,” I reminded her.

“You can just be me, then gradually start to execute our plan. He is not going to suspect a thing.” She reached for my hands, looking at me pleadingly. “Please, Cora. I don’t want to marry him. Please, we can pull this off.”

“What about our scents? That will give us away.”

“I can mimic scents. I learnt it in school. I can do it tonight. We leave in two days, so we have enough time. We just have to change our hair colors.” She squeezed my hands. “I will tell you all you need to know, and you can tell me all I need to know.”

“You really think we can pull this off?” I asked, searching her face for any sign of doubt.

She nodded.

I wasn’t joking when I said I could do anything for my sister. She loved Jace, and it would be easy for her to be his girl. I hated Kael, so making him miserable enough to end their engagement would be easy for me.

“I like this plan,” I said, a slow grin spreading across my face. “I was thinking about what would make the school year fun…”

Clara smiled, looking relieved.

“So, it’s a deal?” she asked, holding out her hand.

I looked at it for a moment before taking it.

“Let’s do it.”