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jelloman44, in a PM to me wrote:Hey MIC. Please notify me if this works for the story collab "theme".

REFLECTIONS

“Wow, does she even know how stupid she looks?”

“There’s the perfect example of a waste of space.”

“Look what the cat dragged in…”

They thought she couldn’t hear them, hear their hateful comments and scornful jokes. She could hear them, and very clearly at that. What did they think she was? A brick with no feelings to be broken?

She sat alone at lunch, her table being her only companion. The days dragged on at a snail’s pace. And at home, it wasn’t any better. Her parents had been on the edge of a divorce for at least 3 years now. She came home almost every day to yelling, angry bickering, and even the occasional throwing of something. Today was no different.

Sarah kept her eyes contently focused on the cracks on the sidewalk during her walk back from the torture she called school. The wind whipped her long chestnut hair around her face. She was a very pretty girl, however, it was her low self-esteem and lack of an emotional barrier that caused the taunts from her fellow classmates. She arrived shortly at her house and stepped over the threshold, only to hear the familiar sounds of a face-off between her parents. For the first time, Sarah took charge.

“Stop it! You two are breaking my life into pieces! Just quit it!” The tears welled up in her eyes and she frantically rushed to the bathroom, locking the door behind her. Her parent stared guiltily at each other and stood there, speechless.

In the bathroom, Sarah cried until she couldn’t anymore over the vanity. She saw her reflection in the mirror, and tentatively reached out to touch it.

“At least you’ll always be here for me.” She said to her inanimate reflection. Suddenly, she felt her hand slip through the surface of the mirror. “What?”

She pushed against the mirror more and she felt her forearms dip past the shiny surface. She thought for a second, until finally letting her face slip into the mirror. She gasped as she saw another bathroom on the other side. Predictably, everything was opposite. Finally, she let herself fade to the other side, climbing onto the shelf below the mirror and crouching through as if in a small tunnel.

The bathroom gave her a small sense of vertigo, everything being switched and whatnot. She was too ecstatic to stay in the bathroom. She had to go around the house to see how the reflections affected everything, but what if her parents were still fighting? She decided to take the risk and slid the door open.

Her mother and father were curled up on the couch together, tranquilly watching a soap opera and kissing each other on the cheeks frequently. Sarah, who was both very happy and very uncomfortable at the sight of it, slowly eked back into the bathroom.

“Sarah, honey, what are you doing in there? Come on out here and watch this with us! It’s getting to the good part! Oh, and Spencer is going to make us some popcorn soon, right honey?” inquired Sarah’s mother. Sarah’s father nodded compliably.

Sarah stepped out of the bathroom, “Er…um, I think I’ll just go upstairs and do my homework…” Sarah did just that.

“What is wrong with them? Where did this joyful attitude come from?” she thought. The night passed by in the same way, and when they had dinner (spaghetti and meatballs, Sarah’s favorite) Sarah’s parents acted like love-struck teenagers, playing with each others food. Sarah fell asleep confused but satiated with her parents new attitudes. Her sleep was dreamless.




With an awkward send-off, Sarah was on her walk to school again. Walking into school, she saw them, the people who had taunted her all her life, in pink aprons
.
“Sarah!” said Johnny, their ringleader, “Guess what we made for you? Speechless? We made you cookies!” Johnny held out a tray of fresh cookies.

“Why?!” Sarah exclaimed. This was 10 times weirder than her parents changing. Then it hit her. “Not only were objects reflected in the mirror…but so were personalities…” she contemplated out loud.

“What mirror, silly?” asked Johnny. Sarah had to admit that Johnny, the star football player of her class, looked ridiculous in his rose apron and flowery oven mitts.

“Never mind,” replied Sarah.

The day continued, and soon, Sarah was losing her interest in this weird attitude all the students had attributed. At first she loved the comments about how beautiful her hair was and how lovely her outfit matched her eyes, but the extra attention was about to drive her insane. At lunch, the floodgates opened:

“Stop it! You people are making this un-enjoyable…I need space! Just quit it!” The crowd around her just laughed dismissively. Sarah recognized the words that just came out of her mouth. She had said similar words before.

On her stroll back home, the crowd just tagged along. Soon, Sarah just sprinted the remaining way. When she got inside, she again locked herself inside the bathroom. But this time is was to make a decision. Should she stay or go home?




“I’ve almost got it…Aha!” Sarah’s real father proclaimed as he unlocked the door and swung it open. He and his wife looked around the bare room. “Where is she?! Sarah?!”

Sarah’s mother looked in the mirror over the vanity and her heart skipped a beat. “I think I found her, Spencer…” she said.



Sarah had made her decision. She was going home. She missed her real parents. And she had decided to finally alert a teacher about the incessant bullying from her peers. Then she noticed something. The mirror had become transparent, and she could see her parents standing there on the other side.



“Quick Spencer! Break it and get her out!” screamed Sarah’s mother, Alice. Spencer quickly ran and got a bat from the garage.

“We’re going to save you, honey!! Don’t worry!” said Alice when Spencer came back. Spencer swung the bat and it shattered the mirror into shiny shrapnel.



Sarah hid under the sink when the glass came shooting in large shards. She screamed and stood up after it was all over. She ran her left hand over the blank wall behind the shattered mirror…She was trapped.

She cradled her head in her hands, slid into the corner of the room, and cried. Reflections couldn’t save her now.

Thank you
---Jelloman44