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Don't tell Zima, but Gummy has a secret.
She thinks Zima's eyes are the prettiest she's ever seen.
Mind you, she's not exaggerating. Gummy has always liked looking into people's eyes, and they're typically the first things she ever notices about a person. Whether they're kind eyes, gentle eyes, wild eyes, or cruel eyes, she tends to remember them. She's met countless people since coming to Rhodes Island, and she's seen about twice that number of eyes. Still, she thinks that none of them come close to Zima's.
The first time Gummy looks into those eyes, she's startled by how cold they are.
Zima is a girl who fits the color red. It's actually the first thing Gummy sees, when Istina throws the classroom door open, and the girl standing inside turns to face them. There's red on the ground, red on the walls, red in her hair. She waves something in their direction, and Gummy's gaze hones in on the sharpened tip of what looks to be a metal chair leg. Bright red, screaming red.
Red, as a color, makes Gummy think of anger. It's the color of blood, of danger, and of warning.
Those things match Zima well.
It comes as a bit of a surprise, then, when Gummy finally meets Zima's gaze and realizes that her eyes are blue.
It's not the bright, vivid shade that's sky blue; nor the pale, watery shade that's ice blue. But it's a shade that reminds Gummy of sunlight shining through frosted glass in winter.
Suddenly Gummy thinks she might understand why Zima's nickname is the "Winter General." Long after the other girl turns away, the striking color continues to linger in her mind.
It's strange, how a girl so fierce, so alive, can have eyes like a scene from frozen January.
It's strange, too, how those same eyes can turn out to be so gentle.
Not many believe Gummy when she tells them this second fact. She gets why they don't, but she'll never stop insisting that it's true.
They don't believe her because they can't see what she can, when the dormitory lights come on, and the darkness flees to the furthest corners of the room like banished demons. As she sits in a world once again suffused with color, her blurring vision captures the familiar silhouette in the doorway. She doesn't know if it's the brightness that's dazzling her eyes, or if it's the tears that are flowing down her cheeks, but she'd know that familiar shade of blue anywhere.
"Come here, Gummy." Zima always says. And Gummy always goes. Even if she knows that she can dry the tears herself. Even if they both do.
Gummy loves Zima's eyes. She thinks they're the prettiest she's ever seen, the prettiest she'll ever see. Even if Zima herself disagrees, that won't change her mind.
In fact, that's the entire reason you can't tell Zima. Gummy doesn't want her to find out, because if she finds out, she's sure to disagree. That would make Zima wrong, and Gummy doesn't want Zima to be wrong.
Do a girl a favor, won't you? And keep it a secret from General Winter.