The Pandora Principle
by Noree Cosper
Chapter 1
“I’m not going.”
I carefully lowered the mascara brush from near my eye lash to avoid a black nose and glanced at my roommate Serenity, now leaning against the bathroom door. Her tanned legs were bare except for a pair of pajama shorts, and she stood with her arms crossed in over her Dallas Cowboys t-shirt. Despite the fact the team hadn’t won a SuperBowl in almost two decades, she still clung to her fandom. She always did love an underdog.
“You have to.” I widened my eyes and gave her a pleading expression. “You can’t just abandon me with all those tech heads. I’ll have no idea what they are talking about.”
Her rich, husky chuckle bounced off the blue tile walls. “You’ll be fine, Cassi.”
“No, I won’t. This project is a chance that we can have something classish together.”
“Classish? Is that even a word?” She shook her head, and mahogany hair cascaded over her shoulders in a tumbled mess.
“I’m a writer. I can make words up.” I waved my hand dismissively. “Besides, you’re avoiding. Why now? You were so excited about this.”
Her brown eyes narrowed at me, and her jaw was set with her pouty lips pressed together. “That’s before I realized Mercer Chaplin would be overseeing this.”
I sighed, and my insides tingled just at the thought of his picture. “That was a surprise. A good one. You can get some guidance from one of the Social Media geniuses of our age.”
“That’s more of what you want,” Serenity said. “I’d be fine without anything from him.”
“Why not? He’s fascinating. Only twenty-nine and he’s one of the biggest names in the industry. This is our chance to get some bonus points before we get thrown out into the world.”
“I don’t want bonus points from him.”
“What about the other two companies?” I tugged on her arm. “Come on, this is your chance to show the world your talent. I bet you’ll be running this project by the end.”
Serenity smirked. “Not with Mercer there. He doesn’t let anyone steal the spotlight. Probably why he’s the only representative for all three companies.”
“What do you have against him?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “You’ve seen the interviews. He’s an arrogant asshole.”
“So is the football team. They don’t stop you from doing what you want.”
“If they were in charge, they might.”
I sighed and let my head droop. “I was really looking forward to this. It won’t be the same without you. Would you really leave me alone?”
Serenity raised an eyebrow. “This won’t work.”
“I don’t see what you are worried about. This this is so big, I doubt Mercer will have much time to spare more than a few words for either of us.”
“You have no idea.”
“Are you really willing to give up the intern credit just because you hate him? This is something you’ve been dreaming of since our sophomore year.” I crossed my arms. “Seems kind of stupid to me.”
Serenity chewed at her bottom lip. Got her. I kept the triumphant smile from my face and gazed at her with the question hanging in the air between us. If there was anything Serenity hated in the world, it was being called stupid.
“Fine,” she grumbled.
I grinned and bounced on the balls of my feet. “Good. Now hurry up and get ready. We’re going to be late.”
“You better be done getting ready before I am. You have a head start,” she called as she hurried to her bedroom.
I finished applying my mascara and took a brush to my mass of red hair until it hung in a silky sheet down my back. A kiss of fire, an old boyfriend had called me. Little had he known how much of a role fire had played in my life.
I sat the brush down on the granite counter with a click that echoed through the bathroom. No, it had played with my old life, not here and not now. Once I graduated, my family would swoop in to pull me back into their world filled with flame and myth. Until then, I planned to enjoy every minute of college life I had left.
My hazel eyes changed to amber as I smacked my lips, now glittery with gloss, and grinned into the mirror. Something was beginning today. I could feel it.
Serenity stopped outside the door, now filly dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that read “Nerd Girls are Sexy.” “What are you doing still playing around in the bathroom?”
I giggled at her and sprinted to the door, grabbing my keys along the way. We hopped into my car and took off to the University.