Aru Shah fanfic and stuff

The Key

Aiden's POV:

Sliding the key into the lock should have been simple. 

It should have just showed a vision from Aiden's childhood, or an old photograph of his parent's wedding. Some kind of test or truth he didn't want to face.

But it showed Aru.

She was staring at herself in the mirror. Aiden felt a strange sensation, and suddenly he was in her body, reading her thoughts. But Aiden didn't like those thoughts.

Ugly

Worthless

Why would anyone ever like me? Why would anyone ever like this face? Poppy was right, I really do need a plastic surgery or something. 

In that moment, Aiden felt all his insecurity vanish. He wanted to call out, tell her what he had always thought, but he was whisked away before he had the chance.

In the next vision, he found himself at his school, but he was again in Aru's body, at Aru's locker. Her reflection looked younger in the mirror hanging from the inside of the door, about seventh grade, he guessed. Looking over, he saw Poppy, Arielle, and some of the other popular people from her class strutting her way, and felt dread rise up in him. Whether it was his or Aru's, he didn't know.

Arielle slammed her shoulder into Aru's, knocking all her books too the floor. Pages crumpled and textbooks cracked at the spine. Aru looked at Arielle with confusion and anger.

"Oops sorry, I didn't see you there." Arielle said, a faked smile on her faked cherry red lips. 

"Oh, are you that blind?" Aru fired back.

Poppy flipped her hair. "We just don't pay attention to losers, that's all."

"How could you say that, that's so rude!" Said a boy coming up behind them. Dylan, his name was. Aiden recognized him from geometry, although now he had shaved the pathetic peach fuzz wilting under his chin. Arielle scowled.

"Obviously you need to some tutoring or something. You're getting the words "loser" and "liar" mixed up. Aru isn't a loser, you just can't trust her with anything, that's all." Dylan smirked down at her as the annoyance melted out of Poppy's eyes.

Aiden felt a sharp pang of hurt, and the world grew a blurry for a moment. 

"What's wong?" Another girl, Shanna, put her carefully manicured hands on her knees and leaned down to peer at Aru with exaggerated sympathetic eyes. "You gonna cwyyy?"

"Of course not, only losers cry." said Thomas. They had formed a half-circle around her now, their Louis Vuitton shoes thoughtlessly trampling her books. 

"Imagine being so trashy that the only way to clean yourself was with your own tears." Smirked Poppy. They all laughed. 

"Imagine being so poor, you get picked up every day by your bike because your mom is out working."

"Imagine eating the same meal every day."

"Imagine no one trusting you."

"Imagine having no friends."

"Imagine having no life."

The vision didn't stick around to see the rest. Their sneering faces grew distant as Aiden was swept into yet another dream. He was so angry in that moment. He fought to hold on, furious that she was being treated in such a way. But the vision did not relent.

This time, a much younger Aru sat at the kitchen table, glancing at the clock. She had on bright blue overalls over a pink shirt with llamas on it, and pink shoes. It was her favorite outfit, and she was ready to go.