Book of the Day – Divergent by Veronica Roth. Really cool, book one in the Divergent Trilogy. Book three comes out this fall! Why do I have to waaaiit? :( Young adult dystopian.

XIII

HAZEL

"Sweet, aren't they?" a woman, who was sitting at a vanity table, applying makeup, sighed. She was busy putting on mascara at the moment, coating her eyelashes, already thick with black. "They're one of the top on my 'Cute Couples' list! They're so adorable—especially for monsters! But, of course, I called it from the beginning. . . ."

Hazel squinted as her blurry dream-vision came into focus. She recognized the woman immediately. She had gorgeous 1940's Audrey Hepburn-styled hair, a pearl necklace around her throat, was wearing a pretty, sleeveless wrap dress, and her face . . . her face looked a little bit like Hazel's mother's, Queen Marie. Hazel had also seen the woman only recently.

"Lady Venus?" Hazel said.

The woman stopped applying mascara to gracefully swivel her head around and smile at Hazel, her eyes flashing luminous different colors. "Aphrodite, actually, sweet girl," the goddess of love and beauty gently corrected. At Hazel's puzzled look she quickly added, "I know, it's so confusing, this changing back and forth between Greek and Roman forms. Sometimes I am not even sure who I am at the moment."

Hazel nodded mutely along to the goddess's chatter, entranced by this woman's beauty.

"Surprised to see me, are you, dear?" Aphrodite asked, giggling. "I did so enjoy our last meeting, the tea party in Virginia. I love tea parties! Any parties, actually. And having you sweet bunch of girls there, my daughter included, was so lovely. . . ." She trailed off and gave a sigh at the memory, looking off into the distance, lost in thought for a moment, before turning back to her table and beginning to add blush to her cheeks.

"Thank you, Lady Aphrodite, I enjoyed the tea, too," Hazel said politely. "But can you please tell me why you are here?"

"Here in your dream, you mean?" Aphrodite asked. She finished blushing her cheeks, reached for a lipstick tube, and began to open it. "I had wanted to speak privately with you for a while now, darling, and thought that this was finally an opening."

Hazel was transfixed by the goddess's ever-changing appearance, and had barely been following the conversation, but now she immediately became alert and gulped. The goddess of love wanted to speak with her privately? This could not be good. She'd heard stories about these kind of meetings at Camp Jupiter: Girls returning from meetings with Lady Venus under heavy love spells and having to pay a large price for it later; girls given beauty potions and, after a while, having the mixture backfire on them, making the girl uglier than before . . .

Hazel gave an unintentional shiver. She had always stayed a distance from the children of Venus for a reason.

She forced herself to clear her throat and ask, "What did you want to speak with me about, my lady?"

"Love, dear. What else?" The goddess gave a dreamy sigh, then finally opened the lipstick tube she'd been having trouble with, pursed her lips, and rubbed red on them. Hazel watched awkwardly, wishing she would wake up. "I actually wanted to discuss your personal love life, Hazel, and I have a few things to tell you," Aphrodite informed her.

Hazel felt sick to her stomach. This was not good. She had to get out of here before she became cursed with a love or beauty potion, or worse: she actually became curious in the conversation.

"I'm sure there's more interesting things to discuss," Hazel tried, careful to keep her voice level, picking at a nail. She suddenly snapped her fingers. "I've got it! You wouldn't happen to know the location of the Doors of Death, would you? See, we've been trying to find them—"

Aphrodite smiled, a little sadly, and Hazel faltered by the perfect beauty of her expression.

"All in good time, dear," the goddess said. Then she rummaged around in one of her table's drawers before coming up with a bottle of face cream. She opened the lid and began to dab small circles of the cream onto her forehead with her finger. "But, sweetheart, as I was saying—about you love life."

Hazel groaned inwardly.

Aphrodite raised an eyebrow at her. "Frank Zhang, hmm?"

Hazel blushed.

The goddess flashed a grin and giggled. "I knew it all along! In fact, Hera and Artemis bet me that you wouldn't risk getting your heart broken, especially after last time, but I turned out correct—love is too strong! It cannot be resisted!"

Hazel felt embarrassed and uncomfortable around the Aphrodite. She was talking about Frank, Hazel's boyfriend, as if he was nothing more than a bet—tossing aside the small details, such as what a sweet, caring, and loyal person he was.

And all this mushy love stuff really wasn't Hazel's thing.

"Um, Aphrodite?" Hazel asked. "Did you call me here for any other reason than discussing my . . . love life?"

"Hmm." The goddess looked thoughtful and tapped her nose. She had finished creaming her forehead and the skin now appeared even smoother and paler than it already was.

Hazel thought the goddess was going to stay lost in thought forever, and maybe, hopefully, she would wake up from this dream before their conversation went any farther, but Aphrodite surprised Hazel by suddenly whirling around on her swivel chair, away from her vanity table, so that her whole body was facing Hazel, a serious expression on her face. "I said I wanted to discuss your love life, Hazel, and tell you some things. One of the things is gravely important and I suggest you listen closely."

Hazel felt spooked by the goddess's sudden, strange transformation from bubbly and excited to grave and earnest.

"Wh . . . what is it?" Hazel whispered fearfully.

"It is a warning, not to be taken lightly, dear," Aphrodite said, more gently. She paused before saying, solemnly, as though deciding Hazel's funeral, "Your love life, Hazel Levesque, is about to become dramatic, through tragedy."

"What?" Hazel gasped, trying to understand the words that had not quite made contact with her brain yet. "What are you talking about? Explain it to me!" She rushed toward the goddess, but Aphrodite snatched up a large bottle of pink powder and, with lightning speed, poofed it all over Hazel.

"Goodbye, my dear," Aphrodite said sadly. "And in reply to your earlier question, which I was going to mention anyway: You won't learn the location to the Doors of Death from me, but from someone else, and quite soon. And no need to fret about it: fret distracts one from love." She sighed happily, back to her old, sappy self.

The pink powder was clouding Hazel's vision, and her dream dissolved into black.