Mirror Image

NoV: I got two shiny new reviews for the prologue! You know what that means!

Bisho: Cocktail weenies for everyone!!!

NoV: What?? No. It means that I'm starting on chapter one. 0.o

Bisho: …..oh.

NoV: Anyway, on with the story!

(BMW)

It was the Monday morning after Eric had introduced Erica to the family. Eric, Corey, and Topanga sat in their Creative Writing class, the one class that they had ever taken together. It was being reluctantly taught by Mr. Turner, who had been forced into it by the school board when the minimum number of students had signed up to take an extra writing course. Normally, Shawn took the class as well, but he was shockingly absent this day.

"Corey, where is Shawn?" Topanga wondered when the late bell rang.

"I don't know," Corey admitted. "Hey, Mr. Turner!"

The young teacher looked up from a stack of papers lying on his desk. "Yes, Matthews?"

"Is Shawn sick or something?" Corey asked. "I mean, I know it isn't a rare occurrence for him to be missing, but I figured I'd ask."

"Actually, Shawn's got food poisoning," Mr. Turner explained. "He threw up half a cheeseburger and a box of animal crackers. Can you get his math and history homework for him?"

"Sure," Corey replied, shocked that his friend was home sick and not skipping for once.

"Okay, let's start off by reading Journal #8," Mr. Turner said, getting out his grade book.

"When was that assigned?" an anonymous person demanded.

"Two weeks ago," Mr. Turner responded. "Any volunteers want to go first?"

"I'll go," Topanga offered, opening her notebook to a very worn page.

"Good, thank you Ms. Lawrence," Mr. Turner said, gratefully. "I believe the topic was 'A day that was especially fun for me,' right?"

"Right." Topanga cleared her throat. "A day that was especially fun for me was the day that Corey and I started going out. I will never forget how relieved I was that we were finally in a relationship the likes of which I had dreamed of for years. My first serious relationship with the opposite sex with a great guy I had known most of my life. Come what may, I will always look back on that day with joy and exhilaration."

A few students politely clapped. Mr. Turner said, "Nice job, Topanga. Corey, would you care to go next?"

"Uhh…..sure," Corey said, nervously. In all reality, Corey had written about the day that the Phillies had won a baseball game against their greatest rivals, against all odds…..but after Topanga's journal, he knew he had to think fast. Staring straight through his paper with baseball doodles all over it, he said, "Um, well…..A day that was especially fun for me was when I started dating Topanga…..she means the world to me, and we really are in love….a lot…..uh…..and in conclusion I'm sure that next year we'll be able to win the world series…..I mean—d'oh!!":

Topanga snatched Corey's journal from him and glanced over it. "Nice try, Corey," she said.

Mr. Turner shook his head, and wrote down a suitable grade. "Okay, who's next?"

"I'll go," Eric proposed. "A day that was especially fun for me was when I didn't have to come to school anymore and I wasn't a failure and disappointment to my parents and people didn't have to take drugs to have any feelings whatsoever and my car wasn't falling apart and Corey wiped that stupid grin off his face and my pants fit and I was talented and my Right Guard didn't expire before noon and lunch was hot and delicious and cigarettes didn't cause cancer and I could walk considerably fast without coughing up charred lung fragments and my friends didn't want to use me and my left shoe didn't have gum on it and the cast of 7th Heaven got food poisoning and died and I didn't hear anymore voices and this coffee stain came out of my shirt and my books weren't so heavy and there wasn't a hole in the ozone layer and I felt like shaving and I wasn't so sleepy and my cell phone didn't go on roaming in my back yard and all girls with red hair were pretty and my joints weren't so stiff and painful to move and my best friend didn't have social anxiety and Steven King still wrote good novels and my bathroom wasn't haunted and Subway wasn't so expensive and I wasn't so cheap and waves of euphoria washed over me as I did my homework and watching T.V. didn't make me want to scrub my eyes with paint thinner and my alarm clock wasn't so painfully loud and Corey Feldman was still cool and everything I ate didn't give me indigestion and I slept all through the night without being disturbed."

The class stared at him, dumbfounded.

"I wrote that before I started dating Erica," he explained. "She's my soul mate, you know."

"Oooooooooookay," Mr. Turner commented. "Next??"

(BMW)

NoV: I know, I know…..that was short too, but they'll get longer as I develop it. This was kind of just a chapter to get everyone in character for me. So, next chapter, Corey visits Shawn at home, and Erica gets better acquainted with Alan and Amy! Stay tuned, and happy new year!