by Adélie 2/18/2015, 9:19 am
"Oh, are you mocking scientific terms now?" she asks coolly, with one eyebrow raised. "Well, since you seem so confused, let me tell you why professionals and academics still use those complicated, italicized words that are so difficult to understand." Her voice practically drips with sarcasm, but she makes no attempts to hide it.
"Split hair is such a general term - what if I had trichorrhexis nodosa, or bamboo hair, and my hair tips were similarly split at the ends? Well, obviously I don't exhibit extreme hair loss, but if you just said split ends then it could send the doctor on the wrong track or even lead to a misdiagnosis," Saskia says scathingly. "So yes, excuse me for clarifying."
She doesn't know why Cleopatra is still styling her hair. Was this normal for Aphrodite children - this never leave any hairdo unfinished mentality? It's clear that she doesn't like Saskia, and the reverse is also true, but for some reason she's still attempting to help. It all seems rather paradoxical. Possibly the strangest case of people pleasing that Saskia's ever seen. For the first time, a thought dawns on her. Maybe Aphrodite children aren't as shallow as people make them out to be. Cleopatra, who's practically the poster child for Aphrodite shallowness, shifts between different personalities, and Saskia finds herself thinking that Cleo's possibly one of the most complicated people that she's ever met.
"Dating being with someone you love?" she scoffs. Such a typical Aphrodite response. No, they're still shallow, she decides. "'Love' is nothing but a chemical reaction in the brain. Chemicals like oxytocin and dopamine trigger certain responses that create a sense of love. True love is much harder to come upon. Have you ever met a couple that were inseparable, able to accept each other's every imperfection, that knew their partner inside and out like the back of their hand? Maybe after fifty or sixty years together, but definitely not for a couple that's still dating. That's not love, that's just infatuation."
But then Cleopatra surprises her. Suddenly talking about societal gender roles. "Um, yes, societal pressure on women is definitely a problem." On that they can agree. "But, based on that argument, shouldn't all women in camp be similarly pressured, leading them to try and fit into the societal expectations?" That idea itself is ludicrous. As if Athena children would fall into the same category of shallowness, parading around camp in scintillating garb and gossiping all the while.
But isn't that what you're doing? she thinks, taking a guilty glance into the mirror. Before she can say anything else, Cleopatra's gone in a flash, leaving Saskia alone in the Aphrodite cabin.
Interesting, she thinks, continuing to stare in the mirror. Dusk is falling on the camp, and the dance will be starting soon, according to the wall clock. Aphrodite children are nonsensical; that is her conclusion. She waits a few more moments to make sure that she won't run into Cleopatra again and then walks out, heading to her cabin rather than to the Mess Hall, deciding that she won't go to the dance after all. Gods forbid that she ever get such a foolish notion stuck in her head again.