Mirror of Dreams

Prologue

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" My brother screams. That was his way of making sure I was always out of bed on time by being my own personal alarm clock.

"Ugh... Just leave me alone!" I groan, pulling the blanket over my head and rolling away from him.

"Sorry sissy! No can do!" he said, "mommy says you have to get up for school!" He screamed, moving the blanket away so the scream reached my ear.

"Tell mom I'm tired and I'm sleeping in, okay?" I groaned, my voice muffled from being pressed against my pillow.

"No can do. Mommy says you need to get up. No excuses!" He said with a giggle.

"Fine! Fine! I'll get up, okay Kent?" I asked rolling over and opening my eyes to look at him. "Mommy says she's making pancakes!" He answered before running out of the room.

He didn't close the door when he left, his footsteps echoing throughout the house as he ran downstairs to the kitchen. I rolled out of my bed and trudged to my closet where I put on light blue jeans and a pink floral top. I ran a brush through my dirty blonde hair, leaving it down. I couldn't find my backpack or phone anywhere so I walked downstairs to find my backpack sitting on the black leather sofa with my phone right next to it.

"There you are," I mumbled to myself. before grabbing my phone and looking on it.

"What are you doing Milae?" Kent asked, walking over to me with a half-eaten pancake in his hands.

"Oh I'm just trying to remember the phone number of who we adopted you from." I said casually, not looking up from my phone.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because we want to give you back." I said

"Milae! Stop scaring your brother!" My mother called from the kitchen.

I sighed, "Mom! You're killing all of the fun!" I exclaimed

He suddenly let go so that me and him could race to the kitchen table. Of course he won, but that could because he's on a sugar high or that I didn't even try. Both effected my performance. The only downside to not winning is that I don't get the first pancake.

"Come and sit down Milae. There are plenty of pancakes for everyone." My mom says as she ushers me over to the chair across from hers.

"Do I really have to eat?" I say as I question her authority.

"Yes, of course you have to eat! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

"But why?" I whined.

"I made chocolate chip pancakes." She said in her I-know-I-just-won-so-don't-argue, voice.

"Ok fine. Maybe I will eat a little." I sighed.

"There's a good girl." She says in almost a rewarding type of way.

Does my mom really have to treat me like a dog? Sometimes her words can be like a dangerous ticking time bomb. If I say one wrong word it all blows up in my face. And I know I don't need that on a Monday of all days.

After I finish my pancakes, I dash to the bathroom so that my teeth don't look brown from the chocolate. On most occasions, Kent beats me there, but today he seems to be taking his sweet time which is perfectly fine by me. I turn to look at myself in the mirror and find a huge, fat pimple on my nose. Crud. This day literally couldn't get any worse. I try to cover it with foundation, but the redness is still there. Oh well, it's the best that I can do.

I brush my teeth with the time I have left and run to the end of our street. The bus was thankfully still there yet the bus driver did not look happy at all. I walk down the skinny isle and slump myself next to my best friend, Amity.

"Hey, your lucky I told him to wait for you." She stated in a factual manner the second I sat down.

"And that's why you are my best friend." I pointed out.

"Yeah whatever," she says while looking back out the window and rolling her eyes.

At the same time, we plug our headphones in and play the game, "guess the song". The idea is that someone chooses a song and you have to say the title and artist. Amity usually wins because she's more of a music nerd than I am. We play a couple rounds and once again, she wins. Totally predictable.

"If you listen to a lot of genres of music constantly, you'll soon get it." She says reassuringly as if I actually cared about the game.

The bus drops us off at school too soon for my liking. Amity and I walk slowly to the entrance, the same as everyone else surrounding us. Clearly, no one wants to go inside anytime soon. There seem to be teachers and administration everywhere as I look around. I feel like there must be some sort of deal. They always seem like they want something bad to happen. It was like they get a raise whenever they find someone breaking the rules in any way.

"Come on in guys!" The principal exclaims loudly.

His voice brings an idea to my head where the principal is an evil cannibalistic clown and the school is the torture chambers and the students are like sheep that are being pushed into a fenced area. I really need to stop staying up until 3 in the morning reading fan fiction.

When I get inside, I find my locker and unload all my junk. I looked at the schedule off of my folder. Crap, I have math first. I snatch my hot pink math binder and swim my way out of the stampede. Sometimes, in the morning, there's a mass of 7th graders passing our hallway. I wonder what they eat for breakfast?

"Hey Milae! Sit next to me!" Screams Amity. My math class is super loud and talkative so the only way you can communicate with people is by yelling louder than everybody else. I sit beside her in a desk that's towards the back of the room. That way, the teacher won't call on me. For most of class and the whole school day, I sit at my desk, doodling. Everything they talk about I already seem to know as if I learned it yesterday. Funny, isn't it?

At lunchtime, I sit with Amity and her group of friends. Halfway through, we end up laughing so hard, I think the people in Japan could hear us. Sometimes being nerdy can make you laugh a lot.

I sigh of relief escapes my lips when I come home with no homework. This gives me the opportunity to Skype Amity for the rest of the afternoon.

"Sissy!!!" My brother squeals. "Your home!"

"Yep." I say. "And tired too." I add

"Awwww. No playtime?" He asked, disappointed.

"Sorry Kent. I need to take a nap." This is the excuse I use when I don't want to hang out with him.

He always believes me because he doesn't know that not everybody takes a nap.

When I get up to my bedroom, I find my laptop and decide that instead I will listen to music like Amity suggested. I close my eyes and think about happy and uplifting things. I clear my mind with ease and just drift to........

I slowly open my eyes. I can hear my neighbor's lawnmower in the distance and the soft and gentle sound of birds singing. My room is lit with sunlight. Shouldn't it be dark outside? I look at my clock. It just turned to 6:00. Isn't my brother usually in my bedroom by now? I reject my feelings of suspicion and twist the closet door nob open. My closet seems different. The look, the feel, almost everything seems like someonelse's closet. I let my eyes wander around and then I notice something. The mirror was big. It was tall. It was beautiful. I bring my hand closer and touch my reflection.

The last thing I remember was my reflection smirking at me before I was pulled forward into a swirling hole through the mirror.