"Ariel, you're late." My geometry teacher had hated me all year, and she never missed an opportunity to completely critique me.

"Actually, Mrs. Verhasst, I was one second early." With a toothy smile, I plopped down in my seat, which happened to be in the front row surrounded by a bunch of gee- I mean, uniquely intelligent people. 

"Anyways," Mrs. Verhasst moved on from my 'interruption', as if I was the biggest problem in her life. "Today, we are focusing on how to find the tangent of a line!" That lady spoke with so much enthusiasm about math I didn't know how I would survive till the end of the year. "First, you are going to take the derivative of the function f(x)..." And that's where I stopped paying attention. No wonder my mom wondered why I had a D- in geo. 

"Hey-d, hey-d ho! It's off to work we go!" Leira appeared in my reflection of my glossy pencil pouch, her voice that of a singsong tone. That was never a good sign, but I didn't have the energy to focus on it. Giving her a rude hand gesture, I returned to pretending to focus on the assignment while really planning Josiah and my date for Thursday. 

"You really should be paying attention to me..." Leira's voice mocked me from the back of the class. Moments later, she appeared on the screen of my graphing calculator. I wasn't quite sure how she did that, it wasn't much of a reflective surface, but she did. "Ignored? That's like leaving your bestie," She did a little dance to which I cringed. "on read. So rude." 

The worst thing about Leira showing up like this was she knew I couldn't respond during class. I had tried that once when I was in fourth grade, and was sent to therapy with the guidance counselor for a whole month to try and help me with my 'overactive imagination'. Yes, take me away from my real friends at lunch to sit in a barren room with a guidance counselor to work out my problem of a lack of real friends. The intelligence of the school system, ladies and gentlemen.  

My bitter Leira thoughts were interrupted by the bell ringing. "I expect pages 87-91 to be completed for homework!" The class groaned at Mrs. Verhasst's request. "Evens only!" Mrs. Verhasst said even more enthusiastically, as if this would change the class's view on her and the assignment. Nonetheless, the entire room erupted into cheers. 

And here came the part of my day that required the most effort: Walking down a hall full of students while still looking like the queen I had built myself up to be. One misstep, one slip-up, and I was done for. These were the downsides of having a junior boyfriend, who had upperclassmen friends, whom you had to impress if you wanted to make it. 

I strutted into the hall with the poise I was known to posses. It was a slow-moving day, so I slowed my internal metronome down to 90 beats per measure. I know, I know, it's weird, especially for someone who lacks musicality and can't dance for her life, but I can sure walk to a beat when I hear one. At least it's something. My mood and perfect stride was shattered when chaos broke out about ten yards down the hallway.

"Everybody clear away!" The principal, Mr. Streng, was waving his arms around, trying to get everyone away from the broken glass. Glad I got past that. I thought to myself. Couldn't have broken glass tearing my dress. 

"Hellooooo!" Someone, who sounded too familiar, appeared by my side, crashing into me and almost knocking me over.

"Hey, watch it, would ya?" I growled, gathering myself. When I looked up, I almost fell over again. "Leira?" I whispered. There was not a point of reflection in sight. Without a second thought, I grabbed Leira's shirt and yanked her into a nearby janitor's closet.

Once we were inside, I flicked on the light switch and locked the door. I knew this closet well from when Annabelle, my best friend, would have secrets she needed to tell me in "complete closure". 

"It's not very nice to pull people's clothes." Leira pretended to scold me with a hurt expression, smoothing out her perfectly ironed clothes. I would know, mine had the same careful creases.

"It's not very nice to invade my day. Who got you out here anyway?" I looked her up and down, still not sure if she was real. Leira had been trapped in my mirror for so long, I didn't think I could take her in the walking life based on what she had shown me in my reflection.

"You mean you didn't know?" Leira batted her eyelashes sweetly.

"No, I didn't! Do tell!" I think that was the most sarcastic line I've ever pulled. Leira rolled her eyes and continued talking.

"When I was gifted to you," I gagged at her emphasis on gifted. I knew I was 'special' for some reason because of her, but that wasn't of her causing, it was of mine. Or my parents. But either way, she was a curse, not a blessing. "I had possessed the power to break out of my place of reflection eventually. You just didn't know it yet. But thanks to years of practicing cracking mirrors, I've finally been able to break through this flimsy reflective paper you all call glass. Quite surprised I could never get it before, really." Leira flashed me a toothy, innocent grin, to which I sneered at. 

"Okay, yay, you conquered the task of breaking a reflective surface and ruining Ariel's life! Now go back to where you came from." I gave her the same fake smile she had given me moments ago and reached towards the door handle.

Leira grabbed my arm mid-air and held it tight. "Not so fast. After years of being held back, maybe I should be let go for once?" Leira smirked. This couldn't turn out well.

"What do you mean?" My voice caught just imagining all the havoc she could reign upon my life. 

"I don't know, you tell me." And with that, Leira let go of my arm and slipped out of the door with grace I knew I didn't possess and couldn't guess where it had came from. I growled, yanking the handle. And, since nothing could ever go right in my life, it didn't open. Great. Leira had locked the door from the outside. 

That's when I completely lost my cool. I pounded on the closet door, begging for someone to please let me out. Finally, Annabelle came to my rescue. 

"What were you doing in there?" Annabelle asked, flicking off the light switch as she pulled me outside of the closet.

"Uh, just... Tidying." I reached back inside the closet and grabbed a random duster off of a shelf and started to pretend to dust a stray pot. Of course, a spider crawled out of the feathers and onto my hand. "Ah!" I yelped, chucking the duster across the room. It landed with a clank into a metal bucket.

"Smooth." Annabelle remarked. I stuck my tongue out at her in response. An adolescent move, but nonetheless funny and effective. 

The halls had died down, and I was surprised Annabelle was even still in the hallway. She was always on time for every class, usually three to four minutes early. I don't know how she does it. "Who's that?" Annabelle pointed to Josiah, who was walking down the hallway in front of us. 

"Josiah...?" She had known who he was since he asked me out on the last day of eighth grade. Josiah had been a sophomore then. 

"No, her." Annabelle shifted my view to the girl who's waist was being held tight by Josiah. It took me but a second for my anger to boil down when I realized what was happening.

"Okay bye!" I called to Annabelle before pushing her into the stream of people heading the other way. Keeping my head low, I followed Josiah and Leira down the hall.