USPadmin

Through the Looking Glass

by Kat

“Okay, just be careful!” I heard mom yell, but I was already out the door. It closed behind me with a heavy thud. I was already running late and I was going to have to hurry if I wanted to meet the rest of the crew on time.

“Cassie, where are you going?” A small, light voice asked. I turned to find my little sister, Mari, looking up at me with her lavender eyes. She was half my age, and always trying to go on adventures with me. Sometimes I let her tag along, but we were going to the docks. Mom thought I was going to Flint’s, so I couldn’t risk her falling off into the water and telling mom. I’d never be allowed anywhere ever again.

“Hey Mari. I’m going to hang out with Flint and Jenaca. Flint’s mom is making one of her famous casseroles.”

Her little eyes widened and she took another step in my direction. She opened her mouth to speak but I interrupted her before she got a sound out.

“No Mar, you can’t come this time. It’s the one with all the peppers. The one you don’t like. And I think mom wanted your help in the kitchen anyway.” In a stroke of luck, I heard my mom call Mari’s name from the kitchen window. “See? You better go see what she wants.” I reached out and ruffled her blonde hair and watched as she gave me a sad look but headed inside. Once she was in the house I turned and jogged in the direction of the docks.

I made my way through town, waving to a couple people who called out to me. As I approached, I saw that there were already two figures waiting for me. A boy and a girl.

“Sheesh, Cassian, it’s about time you got here,” said the boy. He was a few inches shorter than me with short brown hair and dark brown eyes. Flint. He had been my best friend since I could remember. I gave him a light shove and he broke out in a laugh.

“He’s joking, we just got here about a minute before you did,” Jenaca said. Jenaca was a tall, willowy girl with dirty blonde hair and green eyes. “I hope you don’t mind,” she continued, “we invited Jasper as well.”

I felt my stomach drop, but plastered a smile on my face. “Oh, good. The more the merrier.” I looked around the empty docks. “Where is he?”

“Here.” Said a voice behind me. I turned to look at the most beautiful boy I had ever seen.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d had crushes before. I was 12, I wasn’t a baby. But Jasper was the first boy I’d ever had a crush on and I didn’t know what to make of that. As far as I knew, you were supposed to pick boys or girls, not both.

“Oh, hey,” I said in a voice that came out weaker than I would have liked. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Well now that you’re finally here we can get started. As we’ve talked about in the past, without you Jasper, sorry, the dock has the best hiding places in all of Perle. So I suggest we play a game of hide and seek. Since Jasper is the newcomer, he will seek first.”

Jasper gave me a look I couldn’t read. He turned around facing away from the water. “I’ll count to thirty. ONE- TWO-“

My friends and I scattered across the docks. I watched Jenny climb into a large cubby, usually used for storing the catches of the day. Flint disappeared behind the fisherman’s cabin and I stopped to look around at my options. I didn’t know if I wanted to hide in the cabinet that stored the fishing poles or in one of the rowboats tied to the posts. There was one that was partially under the dock that would do beautifully.

“EIGHTEEN- NINETEEN”

I had to choose now, I was running out of time. I ran toward the rowboat and lowered myself into it. I climbed to the part that was covered by the dock and made myself as small as possible. Jasper finished counting and I slowed my breathing as I heard his steps echo on the wood of the deck. I closed my eyes, hearing his steps get closer and willed him to turn the other way. I couldn’t be the first one to be found, my reputation would go out the window.

“Found you.”

I opened my eyes to see Jasper’s bright blue eyes staring at me, upside down. I sighed and lowered my head, moving to crawl out from my spot when the boat rocked. My head shot up and I saw that Jasper was now in the boat beside me.

“Oh, uh, you don’t have to touch me or anything. That’s not how we play. You win by just seeing the other people.”

“I know,” he said, crawling closer to me. I felt my cheeks heat up as he got close to my face. “When are you going to tell your friends that we’re dating?”

“Is that what we’re doing?” I asked, fumbling for words as he somehow got even closer to me. “We kissed, like, one time and then we didn’t talk again.”

“Well, I’d like to do it again. If that’s okay with you.”

I looked into his eyes, feeling my cheeks burn even redder. I nodded and closed my eyes as his lips covered mine.

I felt flutters in my stomach as I leaned into the kiss, reaching up to put my hand in his thick, curly hair. He drew back before I was ready and I found myself following in the direction of his retreating lips.

“That was nice. But we need to go find the others now.”

I nodded in agreement and followed him as he went to climb onto the dock. I held the boat steady as he climbed up and he turned to give me his hand. I wiped my sweaty hand on my pants and reached for it, stepping up on the side of the boat to hoist myself up.

This, it turned out, was a mistake. A stupid one at that. As I shifted my weight onto the edge of the boat it lurched, and I felt Jasper’s hand slip out of mine as I was plunged into the cold Leifandian water.

I forced my way up to the surface, gasping for air once I broke through the water. Jasper’s concerned face turned amused as I swam over to the dock. “Watch your step,” he said in a smug voice.

“Yeah, ha ha. Now I get to be wet and cold for the rest of the time because you can’t properly grab someone’s hand.” I reached the dock and grabbed onto the rainbow colored fluorite that supported the wooden docks. Suddenly, I felt a force tugging me back into the water. I grabbed tighter into the rocks, looking up to Jasper in a panic. “Help!”

The concern returned to Jasper’s face as he laid flat on his belly on the deck extending his arm in my direction. I reached up for it again but the tugging became too strong and ripped me off the rocks. My hands clutched onto the pieces of fluorite that had come off with me as I was plunged into the water once again. I spun in the circles of a huge whirlwind unable to escape or reach Jasper’s outstretched hand. The last thing I heard was my name being called as I was sucked deep into the water and everything turned black.

I woke up gagging, salt water spilling from my mouth onto the sandy ground beneath me. Looking around me, it seemed that I was on a beach, but not one that I had seen before. The ocean water was dark and murky, the sand dirty and covered with trash. I rose myself into a sitting position and took stock of my situation. Where was I? What had happened? How would I find my way home?

I turned, planning to use my arms to push myself into a standing position but stopped as I looked at my two hands pressed into the sand.

My right hand was normal, familiar. The same tanned skin that I was used to and had been in possession of all my 12 years. My left hand, however, was not how I was used to it. Where my skin had been there was now a mix of purples, blues, and greens. My eyes trailed up my arm seeing that it wasn’t just my hand that had changed but my entire arm. I pulled up the hem of my shirt to see that there was a jagged, diagonal line where gem met skin across my chest. Most of my left torso was now made of fluorite.

I felt my lungs expanding and contracting at a rapid rate while my brain raced to figure out what happened to me. I needed to go somewhere else. I needed to find help. I was only 12 and there was no way I could handle this on my own.

I scrambled up from the sand and stumbled away from the water. I walked off the beach and made my way to a small building I saw down the road. It looked like a store of some kind, maybe a bookstore?

I pulled the door open with my good arm, and shuffled inside. A bell sounded alerting whoever was in here that I had arrived. I vaguely saw someone come out from the back room but my vision began to blur and tunnel. I stumbled up toward the counter and heard a voice say “Hi! What can I do for you?”

“Please, help me,” I managed to say before I collapsed to the floor and everything went black once again.