Road Trip Wednesday is a blog carnival, where YA Highway’s contributors and readers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s take on the topic.
This week’s prompt was: Pick two of your favorite YA characters and write a dialogue between them.
I thought for a moment about the hilarious encounter that would happen between Lestat and Edward, but I figured that would be cheating since Lestat isn’t from a YA book. Sorry to tell you there will be no Vamp War today on the blog. I know, you’re crushed.
Instead, I picked Jace Wayland from Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series and Cassia from Ally Condie’s Matched trilogy. If you’ve read the books, you know that Jace can act like a douchebag most of the time. Sorry, but that’s the best word I could come up with. He’s confident, sarcastic, is always in the middle of the action—plus, he’s hot and knows it. Cassia, on the other hand, is introspective, a poet, and doesn’t really do much action adventuring.
So I thought, what would happen if Cassia and Jace got to talking? Here’s the encounter, told from Cassia’s point of view:
I stood at the fork in the road. To my left, the dust the horses had turned up settled back into the ground. Brown leaves swirled in the fierce wind. My father would be waiting for me at the end of the road, ready to bring me to the Watcher. Ready to sell my happiness for enough silver to save the farm. I stepped away from the downtrodden path.
“I’ll just wait here in the freezing wind while you contemplate your impending doom, no problem.” I turned to the second path where Jace stood, clothed in black Shadowhunter gear, with his hands on his hips.
I sighed and joined him, rubbing my thumb over the worn parchment in my pocket. “Okay, I’ll go with you.”
“Usually when a girl says that there’s some groping involved,” he said, arching one eyebrow. My cheeks burned. This was right, Jace and me. I could feel it in my skin, the way it heated despite the chill. It had been this way since we’d met at the tower. That day, the setting sun had just dipped below the horizon when he walked through the gate, all muscle and blond hair. We didn’t speak, but I felt his green eyes pierce me. I knew he felt it, too.
And now we were here, on a path trod by so few. Just like the poem said. I pulled the parchment from my pocket.
“Two roads diverged in yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood”
“Remember that dagger I showed you earlier?” Jace asked before I could finish reading the first stanza.
“Of course.”
“I’d rather drag it across my forehead than hear another line of that poem,” he said, glaring at me. “And you know how much I love my face.”
I huffed. Of course Jace wouldn’t take the poem seriously. There were three things he cared most about and all of them were Jace Wayland. “But I was just getting to this part—”
“The part where we finally make out?”
“And why would we do that when you’ve done nothing but insult me for half a mile?” It was strange how even now he shone like the sun. I held him with my stare as if looking away would break this moment into pieces.
“Because of my wit, charm, and rugged good looks?”
“I think your dark soul does more to repel me,” I lied and hoped he assumed my cheeks were rosy from the cold. “This happens to be one of the Old, lost for centuries. It’s probably one of the most important documents I’ll ever touch.”
“By all means, don’t let me stop you from this momentous occasion,” Jace said. “I’m sure high school students everywhere are heartbroken to never have had a pop quiz on this particular work of art.”
I smiled. Even his incessant sarcasm made me melt. “I thought I’d miss my home, coming here with you. But I think it’s like the poem said: ‘I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.’ You’re my home, Jace.” I took a breath. His lips rose into a smirk that made my heart race. “I love you.”
Jace stopped short. “Well that’s unfortunate, considering my dark soul lacks the depth to truly love.”
Aaand it goes on from there. Spoiler: They don’t end up together. Which two YA characters would you like to see face off?
By the way, I’ll be posting the Mad Libs query on Friday, so stay tuned.
