Chapter 25

25

     Jordan sat at the end of the day looking at the two quizzes she been handed back, both with big fat “Fs” on them boldly stroked in red ink. Why did teachers use red ink anyway? Hadn’t she read somewhere that it was psychologically disturbing to students? The fact was that she had been psychologically disturbed for the last few weeks due to the mirror and it was showing in her grades.

     “What’s up?” Stacey asked as she plopped down on the bench beside Jordan. It was starting to get cool out and the back area by the ball field, its sturdy wooden picnic tables, was all but deserted already. Most kids took flight at the mere intonation of the end of day bell, and Jordan met Stacey here each day for her ride home.

     Without a word Jordan handed the two graded quizzes to her friend, followed by a low whistle and a nervous stare from Stacey.

     “Are they going to let you retake them?” Stacey asked.

     “That’s why I’m still sitting here; I decided it best to go ask before they leave for the weekend. My parents are going to kill me!”

     “I can wait for you if you want,” Stacey offered and Jordan offered her a weak smile of thanks.

     It didn’t take long to visit both the math and English teachers to beg her case and she walked out into the hall with a grim smile of determination. At least they had both agreed to allow her to retake them. She made up a lot of her excuse, but it boiled down to stress and they bought it. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to repeat her story and she really hoped the two teachers didn’t trade stories at some point. She wasn’t exactly sure if her stories had been the same.

     Lost in thought she stopped at her locker to grab the two books she’d need to study, closed the locker door and jumped a mile. Teresa stood there, a grin on her face, her arms crossed; her very posture said it all.

     “What do you want?” Jordan huffed, she knew she sounded rude, but she’d had all of Teresa she could take.

     “I guess you know I came to your house,” Teresa stated matter-of-factly.

     “yeah, that was a stupid move. What did you want?” Jordan tried to keep her voice even so as not to reveal her deep nervousness. She wasn’t much into confrontation and she wished Stacey were by her side.

     “You know what I want. I want in on the mirror.” 

     “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jordan replied turning to leave. But Teresa wouldn’t have it. She grabbed Jordan’s shoulder and spun her back around.

     “You know exactly what I’m talking about. The mirror- it tells the future. Do you realize what you could do with that? What we could do with that power?”

     Angry now, Jordan took a step toward Teresa, glancing around nervously to be sure they were alone, “You stole my notebook! You invaded my privacy! How dare you!”

     Nonplussed, Teresa just smiled. “I can make your life a living hell. I bet people would want to know what you’re hiding and I could plan a lot of action to keep you busy for a lifetime. You’ll be so stressed trying to figure it all out, you will beg me to take that mirror before it’s all over!” At that Teresa pushed past Jordan and left the building. Jordan just stood there, clenching and unclenching her fists, trying to slow her breathing before she too went out to the parking lot to meet Stacey.

     “She what?” Stacey exclaimed when Jordan recounted the encounter in the hallway. “That bitch! What are we going to do?”

     “I don’t know, Stace.” And Jordan didn’t know. She was relatively certain that revealing the secret to the public was a stupid idea. I mean who in the world would believe a story like that? However, she didn’t doubt that Teresa could keep her busy and if it involved people Jordan knew and loved, she would be forced to act- a puppet on a string. Jordan had no doubt that Teresa had already put that theory to the test- her suspicions growing concerning the fire at Stacey’s.

     “Basically, it means that the mirror’s got to be destroyed. That’s all there is to it. If we destroy it, then it’s over.”

     But it wasn’t that simple and later the next day, Jordan would be exceedingly glad that she hadn’t acted rashly when it came to immediate destruction of the mirror.