My eyes snapped open to some clinking and clanking coming from somewhere in the room I was in. I closed my eyes again, not too concerned knowing that no one could see me from where I was laying in the flowers. But the ruckus just wouldn't stop, and I sat up, taking a look around. My eyes scanned the room which had now decided to be dead silent. But another clash came from the right corner of the space and my head whipped around to see Parker halfway inside one of the garden tool chests, digging for something that was apparently important.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, and Parker shot up, his head hitting the top of the box.

Parker rubbed the sore spot on his skull and looked at me with squinty eyes, as if the impact had impaired his vision. "Me?!" He asked, pointing to himself in confusion. "What about you?" His finger turned to me.

"If you must know, my evil mirror twin escaped and is running around campus wrecking havoc upon my life. Your turn." And just like that, there was no turning back. Parker's eyes widened and he lowered his hand from his head, and walked over to come and sit next to me.

"What?" Parker whispered, his sky blue eyes trying to catch mine. I continued to stare at the ground, avoiding his gaze.

Finally, I told him the truth. The whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Parker's facial expressions amused me throughout the whole story. When the Guidance Counselor Fiasco of Grade Four came up, his eyes seemed to smile in some special way, and when I told him about the Slick Seven he started shaking his head and laughing.

"What?" I asked.

"Of all the cliques in a sports team, you chose the Slick Seven of lacrosse?" Parker was laughing hard now, baby crow's feet appearing at the outer corners of his eyes.

"Yeah, so?" I crossed my arms. I thought the Slick Seven were pretty cool.

"They're not even a whole team!" Parker continued chuckling until he realized I wasn't laughing, and he coughed and settled back down. I wrapped up the Leira story and he sat, stunned.

"But, what do we do now? How do we get rid of her?" Parker asked.

I pursed my lips in thought, trying to remember if Leira had ever told me of a way to get rid of her. The only thing that came to my mind was when I was eight and was fed up with Leira and asked if she would ever go away.

"Once, like seven years ago, I asked Leira if she would ever go away. The only way she could go away was for her to fall into a place of reflection." I shrugged, figuring it couldn't help much.

"Fall into a place of reflection?" Parker repeated.

"Yep, that's the line."

Parker was still for a minute, not showing any expression. I was ready to wave my hand in front of his face when he stood and held out his hand for me to take, waltz style. "I have a plan, and will explain on the way."

Apparently, Parker's plan involved more walking than I thought. It was eighth period, fifteen more minutes left in the school day. I sent a three paragraph long text to Annabelle, practically in MLA format, explaining the whole Leira thing and Parker's plan. What did she text back you ask? "K." The work ethic of some people.

Right after we- or rather Parker, with me waiting outside -had left the boy's locker room to talk to the Slick Seven, the bell rang and everyone ran to the buses. Five minutes later the school was cleared, every footstep I took echoed in the halls.

Annabelle and Leira were standing right in the middle of the main hallway, where I told them to be. They seemed to be in an argument, their hands flailing in the air. 

"Hey," I called from down the hall, my voice sounding big and powerful with the acoustics of an empty school building.

"Hello." Leira started to walk over slowly to me, her heels clacking in the same fashion that mine did because, well, they were mine. I did the same, and we started to circle each other, Old West style. 

"Hey Parker!" Annabelle called from the far end of the hallway to Parker, who was across the way. "Catch!" She hurled a lacrosse ball at Parker and it soared through the air, creating a diversion, the start of the Leira Extermination Plan. That's when I ran. The second that I took to look back I saw Parker holding up the ball like a trophy, and I smiled to myself. 

My feet pounded as I darted up the stairs, ditching my heels at the landing. Leira followed, and when the sound of her footsteps switched from clacking to thumping, I knew she had taken her shoes off too. Copycat. Well, she always had been anyways.

When I reached the top of the roof, Annabelle and Parker were already there. She ran track and he was a linebacker, of course they were fast enough to make it to the elevator and beat us. Without hesitation I followed the plan and jumped right off the roof, Leira following behind me. The Slick Seven were there waiting for me, holding one of their lacrosse nets up high in which I fell into. They threw me off to the side- gently, of course -and a moment later I heard Leira screaming, followed by a splash.

The air was dead silent as I stood up to investigate the scene. Professor had helped me up and Parker and Annabelle were leaning over the roof railing that I had just jumped, looking down on us. I walked slowly over to the puddle lying in the grass in front of me, and Leira's solemn reflection was staring back at me. 

"You did it, Ariel." Leira whispered, giving me a thin lipped smile. "I've fallen into the place of reflection." She was starting to pixelate, dissolving into the water below. I touched the puddle with my fingertip, and Leira disappeared, and only the ripples of water my finger had caused were left.

I sat still, hunched over the puddle for a minute, looking at myself. This was the first time ever that I could look at myself in the mirror and know that Leira would never show up there, whether she wanted to or not. Two pairs of footsteps were increasing in volume behind me, signaling they were coming closer. I stood and turned around to greet Parker and Annabelle.

"You okay?" Parker asked, his expression showing he didn't really know what to do.

"Better than ever." I smiled, and before I could even think about it, leaned forward and kissed Parker, which I would say was the best I've ever had. Cue the fireworks.