Amber & Ice

Chapter 10: A pop vote princess

“Successful?” Cress asked as Athena stomped back into the flat, a small current of rain water trailing behind her.

“What?” she asked her friend as she stopped to take of her snow boots.

“Did you manage to get the thing for your mum? Can I see?” Cress was curled up on the sofa under a blanket, with a text book open on her lap. Classical music drifted through the flat. Classical music was Cress’ one exception to pop voting. She followed every other result religiously, but she loved her music and wouldn’t give it up unless there was a vote to outright ban it. It had been popular when she was a child, and her musical mother had taught her to play the piano and violin. Cress still had both instruments in her bedroom.

When they had first moved into the apartment at the beginning of the year, Cress would only play when Athena was out, until Athena had returned early one evening and heard her. Girl bands were the pop music of the moment and Cress had been embarrassed, but Athena had reassured her that it was fine. She had encouraged her to keep playing and Cress had become more and more relaxed about it.

Athena had forgotten all about her cover; it seemed so long ago that she had left Cress in the snow. “No luck. It was sold out when I got there.”

“Oh no! So you got soaked for nothing then!”

Athena shrugged of her coat and walked toward her room; her hair was dripping and her jeans contained more water than fabric. Even her jumper, which should have been protected beneath her coat, was damp.

“Have you replied to Daphne yet?” Cress asked, her eyes back on her textbook

“Replied to what?”

Cress looked up, her forehead creased. “The party, silly! Have you not been checking the feeds?”

Athena realised with a start that she hadn’t looked at the feeds once since the lecture that morning. She had been so caught up in everything that had been going on with Dyo…

“They are going to announce the result of the Health Vote tonight, via the feeds. Daphne’s going to host a party, so that we can all be together to celebrate. I already said that I would go.”

“Sounds good, what time does it start?”

“Six. We can grab some food with Demi and Dora after.”

“I had better get dried and changed then!”

***

Athena stared skeptically at the contents of her wardrobe for the second evening running. Getting dressed never used to be this hard; fashion and style were things that Cress were obsessed with. Athena just wanted to blend in.

But now she was in two minds. The soft pink dress her mum had bought her was safe, yet with the afternoon she had just had, what she really wanted was comfort and that meant a bottle-green top and jeans.

When, a few minutes later, she was still stood in front of the wardrobe with the dress and the top in her hands, she realised that she was going to need help.

She opened the door to her room and Cress looked up. “You okay, Athy?”

Athena shook her head. “I’m having a clothing crisis. Would you mind if I borrowed something of yours?”

Cress grinned back at her wickedly. “That sounds like a lot more fun than reading. Come on, we’ll make you look like a proper pop vote princess!”

When they had moved into the flat, Cress’ room had been an underwater oasis of teals and periwinkle, with the walls a soft duck-egg blue. But over December it had been transformed into a palace of pink. Technically, the colour vote was really only supposed to be about clothing; people had grown frustrated with the constantly changing fashions in shops and designers’ tendencies to control trends and bring back items of clothing which no one really wanted to wear. The colour vote had been a way for shoppers to have more of a say. It was one of many regular fashion votes, but it was by far the most important. It also minimised everyone’s difference, creating a society where everyone could blend together. For people like Cress, however, the colour vote had become a way of life. Not just her clothing but her entire room had to match it.

Cress sat Athena down on her bed and went to open all five doors to her wardrobe. Each section was overfilled with pink clothing. Athena had seen pictures of Barbie dolls in her secondary school history classes and looking at Cress’ clothing was giving her definite flashbacks. Maybe this had been a bad idea…

“Now, Daphne is turning tonight’s result into the biggest party of the term. She says that we need to celebrate after everything that has happened. We can therefore afford to dress you up a little bit…” Cress trailed off as she leafed through outfits on the rails. One of Cress’ most endearing talents was that she had a knack for knowing what would look good on people. Athena knew that she wouldn’t have to try on countless outfits, nor would she risk looking awful. All she had to do was sit back and let Cress take control.

“Why is the result itself being announced over the feeds in such a low-key way?” Athena asked, leaning back on the bed.

“Everyone’s a little bit jumpy. They decided that it would be safer to announce it over the feeds. Of course, the early warning meant that we could still arrange a get together to celebrate. After all that work, it would be a pity just to sit at home and read it the results on our own. Ah, here we go.” The dress Cress pulled out of her wardrobe had mesh panelling across the shoulders and collar bone, with a fitted waist and flared skirt.

“It’s lovely,” Athena said. Suddenly, her reservations about wearing pink had disappeared. The dress was perfect.