Most parents judged their young child's growth with a chart, or a door frame, marking the height with a marker as they watched the child grow up too fast.
That's what normal people did.
She defied normalcy.
Once upon a time Ashley Magnus had a giraffe growth chart that her mother kept semi-religiously until it was eaten. Ashley was six She had fed it to the abnormal.
But Ashley still sort of charted her growth in the back of her mind, using the mirror in her Mother's bathroom. She was rarely allowed in her mother bathroom's, as the jars of sweet smelling soap lining the shelves were too expensive and breakable to be entrusted in the care of her alone. The mirror was too high for the admittedly short kindergartner to see her self in, but by the beginning of second grade (the next time she had been allowed in) she could see her muddy hands waving in the mirror (as she had been sent to wash off after learning mud cakes were not to be made inside) Grade school progressed, and her head began to show over the bottom of the ancient frame. She could clearly look at her forehead in fourth grade, having snuck in to put salve on a blooming bruise caused by trouble she didn't want her mum to find out about. By sixth grade her face was in the mirror enough to antagonize over the zits that only brought more teasing on her, and were not helped by the multiple mysterious medicines stored in the drawers. By seventh grade they were gone and she was still teased. In another few years and a growth spurt her entire face was scowling in the mirror as her mother insisted on helping her with her make up for prom.
She still hadn't told her mum she had no date for the prom, and was not going.
Years went by and the next time she was in her Mom's bathroom she was twenty-three and the daughter of a serial killer, fetching medicine to put on the cut on her neck that had been his good-bye present. She studied her face, wondering if her eyes looked like his, and whether she had his nose, or if she just got his bloodthirstiness. She ducked below the mirror, disgusted with the present and preferring the past, where she couldn't see her bloody reflection in the high, ornate mirror and didn't know her father.
A/N Hope you enjoyed, please review!