“The Butterfly Effect”

Lexi Justus
1st Draft

She was a Goddess walking among the people. Many mortals know her as Aphrodite, others
have known her as Venus, but now, she was just Aurora. A simple woman roaming the earth in search of
the one thing many have prayed to her for.
Love.
 My story began like many of my kind. I was made with a purpose, even before I was
born it was known I would be the Goddess of love, of beauty. When I walked my first steps I
could hear the prayers like hymns buzzing in my head. This was my life, this is what I was
destined to be. Raised on some little island on the coast of nowhere I was praised for my beauty.
Zeus soon took notice and decided to offer me a seat by his side.

I was young, too naive to understand, so without thought, I agreed. And I took my place
sitting on the Mountain of Olympus, Goddess of love, beauty, and passion. I was ​worshiped​,
temples were built in my honor, women and men of all ages prayed to me day after day.

And all I felt… was boredom. Everyday I sat upon my throne listening to endless
prayers. Until I met ​Hephaestus. Even though I was the Goddess of love, personally I had never
experienced it. Looking back on it now, it was puppy love. I had never had such attention and
he was entrapped by my beauty. I had thought it was love, so when he asked my answer was
immediate.

Our marriage was on a downhill ​slope​ before it even began. Tensions were still high
between Zeus, Hera, and Hephaestus. Anger boiled just below the surface, Hephaestus would
spend most of his days locked in his cave, working and forging the metal to bend to his will.
While I would spend my days with Zeus, him lecturing me about relationships, like he had the
perfect marriage.

“You see my Beauty, relationships have a certain ​function​ to them. There are many
variables that go into it, many ​factors​, sometimes they don’t always work,” The almighty Zeus
bellows from his grand throne. I snort in response.

“Ahh, I suppose you are the ​parent function​ then? The very beginning, the simplest
form?” My joke gets a wicked side glare and nothing else. This is how I would spend my days.
Hours and hours upon end, sitting on grand marble thrones. Other Goddesses seemed content
here, not me.

“I see Hera and then I look in the mirror and I see ​inequalities​, we are not the same, one
does not equal the other, I am not her!” My voice echos loud through the vaulted ceilings, “I
cannot sit up here and waste away any longer, I just can’t,” Though my request was a simple
one, neither Zeus nor Hephaestus wanted to grant it to me.

“Going to Earth won’t solve your boredom, if anything it would heighten it,” Zeus’s tone
seemed reluctant. But I was standing my ground, this is something I had to do and I would not let
some big headed men stop me. All this telling me no was having an ​inverse​ effect of me and it
made me want to see it so much more. Finally after days of discussion they both finally agreed
knowing I was much more tenacious than both of them combined.

~~~

It’s been only a few years since my arrival to this mortal world. I go by Aurora in this
place, and I don’t allow myself to stay in one place for too long. It would be too easy to settle
down and live a mundane mortal lifestyle and I want to see every last bit of this planet before I
return to my throne in the sky. I’ve made my way through Japan, China, Korea and then traveled
along the coast to Iraq and Pakistan.

In every place I go I see myself there, in the eyes of two young lovers on their wedding
day, in the gentle caress of a mother's hand on her babies cheek, and sometimes I see in places I
never would’ve expected. After traveling over the great pacific sea I made my way through
Mexico and into the US. It was there I first met ​him.​

I was drawn to the airport that day, the sweltering heat made it hard to be outside but I
knew had to be here. When I arrived it was evident what my purpose here was. Bunches of
families huddled together in nervous anticipation, wives, husbands, children all glowing with
bright loving smiles. The terminal doors opened while the emotions ​ranged​ once again. When
the first woman walked through the door one family erupted into screams and smiles, running
over faster than hounds to greet her. My first thought was one of confusion, this woman wore
the clothes of a soldier.

More and more soldiers walked through the door and bursts of love and excitement filled
me. Scanning over the crowd I saw ​him,​ Ares, at the back of the room watching over the
interactions. At first I was shocked, didn’t he belong in the front line? Wasn’t his natural place
the brutal lines of war? Then after the shock wore off I noticed he was in fact very beautiful,
perhaps even as beautiful as me. This gave me another round of shocks. When I glanced up he
was staring at me too, we met eyes across the room and he gave me a small nod. He scanned the
room again with a soft smile on his face then walked away.

After the families went home and the excitement had drained from the air I stayed there
thinking maybe Ares would come back. Why would the God of war care if these soldiers came
back safe? I’ve been told terrible stories, been warned to stay away. The man I saw today does
not look like the crazed monster I’ve imagined in my head.
 “It’s like i’m an​ imaginary number​ to you! You see me then remove me from the
situation when it’s convenient for you!”

“As long as you love someone it doesn’t matter, that’s the ​absolute value​ of love I guess.
Doesn’t matter if its a positive or negative type of love. It just happens regardless of whither you
want it to or not.”

“That’s the ​root ​of it then, ain’t it? The answer was there the whole time, you just
couldn’t see it,”

“Honey, you have to look at it in ​relation​ to things, sometimes a different ​vertex​, a

different vantage point can make all the difference,”

“Our path won’t be easy, won’t be a safe, ​linear​, well worn trail, we will have to take the
road less traveled my Beauty,” Ares says to me.

“Violence plus violence does not equal anything but more fighting, its ​composite​, it only
ends if someone changes something,”

“I’ve seen this situation years ago, same ​system of equations​, same variables same ​end
behavior.​ It all works the same, you have to learn to make it work, learn to compromise, that’s
the only way any of you will get out of this with your sanity,”
Imaginary numbers​,
roots​,
inverse​,
linear
Vertex​,
inequalities​,
Relation​,
factors
Composite​,
slope​,
Range​,
absolute value
System of equation​,
real number,
radicals,
function
Domain,
end behavior​,
irrational number,
parent function