Chapter 19

19

The next morning, Jordan crawled from bed, stiff, sore and exhausted. Her mother commented that she wasn’t looking well, but Jordan shrugged it off and finished up her morning routine for school. She hadn’t heard from Stacey and once Jordan reached school, found that Stacey was not there that morning. Quickly she pulled out her phone and texted her to see if she was OK. Seconds later a text came that quieted Jordan’s worry. Stacey had just stayed home that day. The fire had caused minor damage to their garage and the police suspected arson.

Arson! Who would do such a thing? When she had reached her home last night, she’d quietly showered and buried her clothes, reeking of smoke, down in the wash pile in her room. She mentally made a note to do her own wash later that day. She had powered up her computer and went online to her blog. At the time she had no idea how the fire had started, only that the mirror had once more foretold this disaster.

This is getting serious, she keyed in, how much longer will I be able to do this? The mirror is a blessing and a curse and I’m afraid at some point I will not be able to keep this up. What if it shows something I can’t stop? Like my dad’s plane going down. How could I stop something like that? Tonight it helped me save my best friend. What will it be next?

She heard her parents moving around downstairs and knew they were readying for bed. They’d be coming up to check on her, so she had quickly logged off and sprang into bed. Now she stood in school, looking around like it was an alien nation. She felt like she was on the outside looking in. Stacey was gone for the day and she’d have to wander through the day alone.

Jordan progressed bleary-eyed through school, barely noticing those around her. Fifth bell took her to art class. She wasn’t the best in art, but this project involved a 3-D image of something you loved. She’d picked her dulcimer to draw, something she loved to play and as she worked on her sketch, it brought bitter sweet memories of Bethany. She had contemplated drawing the mirror, and a small image of it was sketched up in the corner, but she had quickly chosen the larger image of her dulcimer instead. She sat, lost in concentration, working on the minute details of her drawing while thoughts of Bethany and the mirror swirled in her head.

“you’re looking sad this morning,” Jordan looked up to see Teresa standing over her, scrutinizing her drawing.

“Yeah, well it was a rough night,” Jordan replied, focusing on her drawing again, hoping it was a hint to Teresa that she really didn’t want to talk.

Teresa didn’t get the hint and she plopped her books down on Jordan’s, sitting beside her. Jordan eyed Teresa warily.

“Your friend’s not here,” Teresa stated, as though Jordan didn’t know.

“yeah, well she and her family had some trouble last night. She’s fine though.”

“What’s with the mirror?” Teresa asked, pointing to the smaller image in the upper corner.

Startled, Jordan felt her face flush red and she stumbled on her words, “Oh, uh just something that was given to me by an old friend.”

“Strange symbols on it,” Teresa stated, moving in for a closer look. Jordan quickly covered the drawing and countered, “Just flights of fancy, decoration…”

“Hm,” was all Teresa replied, then she grabbed her books and left with a “see ya around.”

Puzzled, Jordan watched Teresa leave the room just as the bell rang to end the day. Teresa had popped up quite a bit again lately and Jordan made a mental note to start keeping an eye on her.

Later that day, Jordan ran up to her room and dropped her books on the bed. She hung her purse on the post of her bed and ran down for a snack. She chatted with her mother for a bit, helped with a few chores, started her wash and then returned to her room for homework. She had a project to do and needed to check the due date so she rummaged through her purse looking for her small notebook. It had all her important information in it, phone numbers, passwords for websites, stuff she couldn’t possibly remember when it was needed.

The more she searched though, the more frustrated she got. The little book was gone. When had she seen it last? She knew she had it at school, she had entered the project due date only that morning. Jordan panicked as she thought about the information in that book. Her mind strayed to Teresa. Her purse had been on the floor sitting right between where she and Teresa sat, yet the girl would have to be a magician to have grabbed the book in the moments they sat there. Jordan decided she’d have to check the bus and lost and found tomorrow at school before she panicked.

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Across town, Teresa logged in to Jordan’s blog account and began reading in earnest. It was a cinch to grab the little book from Jordan’s purse. It was nestled on the top and in plain sight. Teresa didn’t really know what she’d find, but she had seen Jordan scribbling down passwords to user accounts for Virtual library in English class in that little book, and she wondered if maybe other information was in there as well. She hadn’t really  planned to grab the book, but when she saw it there, she knew she had to try. What luck when she stumbled on Jordan’s blog account scribbled in a corner of the back cover. The blog had originally been an English assignment, meant to be private; however, students were encouraged to start one for everyday writing. As Teresa plowed through the most recent blog additions, a smile crept across her face. She knew it! She knew Jordan was hiding something and that mirror was more than just a gift from an old friend. It allowed Jordan to foresee the future and Teresa aimed to have it for her own.