Cupid has been banished to live on Earth and he finds a way to challenge his match-making abilities.

Word Count: 2838

Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four - Part Five

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“Hey, Eric!” Molly skips up to my locker, where I’m currently putting my books away. “Do you have Mr. Finn for World History?”

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“I can’t find my notes for the Greek mythology quiz tomorrow. Can I borrow yours?”

Ah, yes. The only unit I never take any notes for. I pretend to dig around in my backpack and say: “I don’t think I can find it right away, but I’m quite the history buff. I bet I can help you even without my notes.”

“You’re the best, Eric!” She gives me a quick hug. Over the past few weeks, Molly and I have become good friends. There have been a couple of times that I almost let my godly identity slip, but I have been able to catch myself before she’d figure it out. Or so I hope.

We make our way outside to the parking lot. Molly scans the rows and rows of SUVs until she spots her lime green vintage convertible. Soon, we’re seated in the Wendy’s parking lot, eating cold Frosty’s to combat the sweltering Nevada heat.

“You’re not telling me something,” She says out of the blue.

“What-- what do you mean?”

“Something’s a little off about you. I mean, you showed up out of nowhere in the middle of the semester, you never pay attention in class, but you’re a star student, and every time I ask you questions about yourself you always change the subject or say something super vague.” Molly pauses to eat another spoonful of her ice cream, then turns to face me. “Who are you?”

I take a deep breath. Should I tell her the truth? “If I’m going to be honest with you, you have to promise not to tell anyone, okay?”

Molly nods.

“And you can’t laugh.”

“Okay, I won’t,” she chuckles.

“I… am Cupid, the god of love and attraction.”

I can already see the sarcastic look of disbelief growing on her face.

“I’m serious, Molly! Zeus is mad at me for some untold reason, and now he’s banished me to be a high schooler for who knows how long.”

She stares at me, the smug grin still fixed on her face. “Prove it.” Her eyes scan around the edge of the parking lot, where a couple desert animals wander around. “Make that frog and that snake fall in love.”

I sigh and pull out my bow and arrows from my bag. I shoot the two creatures and their brawl ends abruptly. The snake coils around the frog, but it isn’t violent, but rather a loving embrace.

Molly stares at the two animals in shock. “Okay, so you really just did that.”

“Believe me now?”

“Uh-huh.” She pauses for a moment, then adds excitedly, “Can you make Cooper Bradson fall in love with me so he can ask me out to the Spring Fling Dance?”

“Sure,” I reply, my voice giving away my hesitation. Then, I’m struck with an idea: “That would be too easy.”

“What?”

“If I were to shoot the both of you with my arrows, you’d fall in love and that’d be all. I want to challenge myself.” I drink the last of my now melted Frosty before continuing. “There’s three weeks before the Spring Fling Dance. Let me try to do this the traditional way. I’ll get Cooper to ask you out without any magic.”

“And what if he doesn’t like me back?”

“I guess I could use my arrows if he absolutely despises you, although it feels a little wrong. How does that sound?”

Molly grins. “Looks like we have a deal.”

Now I need to figure out how I’m going to pull this off. My dating experience is pretty limited, and I tend to search for the easiest ways to do what I want. For this reason, I have to work extra hard to make two virtual strangers like each other.

“So, our first step is to figure out what you and Cooper have in common, or better yet, why you like him.” I grab a pad of paper and a pencil from my bedside table and write “Why Molly Likes Cooper (and why he should like her)”.

She spins around in my desk chair and sighs, “Oh, where to begin! He’s so kind and considerate: I heard he volunteers at three different charity organizations, just because he likes to help others. And to top it all off, he still has time to be captain of the robotics team. One time, in biology class, I dropped my pencil and he picked it up for me and, get this, he knows my name!”

“Okay, so he’s nice and he likes robotics,” I say, jotting it down, “What else?”

“Now, I don’t want to bore you but I think he’s so cute!” Molly then proceeds to list off everything she finds attractive about him, and I write it all down. Pretty soon, we have a long list of similarities and differences between the two of them. Now we have some idea of how to go about these next few weeks.

“I know what I can do!” she squeals, “I’ll start volunteering at the animal shelter at the same time he does! Then he’ll have to talk to me.”

“That sounds like a good starting point.”

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Part One - Part Two - Part Three - Part Four - Part Five