Hi all! This chapter was originally planned as two chapters, but I like them better combined. I originally wrote this six months ago (wow, it doesn't seem that long) but I've been revising it this past week or so. It's kind of a play on the old "describing yourself while looking in the mirror" cliché.
Red. Red is perfect.
As Kara Davies slid into the dress, she slid into another era. The neckline lace trim draped her bare shoulders as her petticoat rusted under the tiered skirt with every movement. In dim Ravenswood Manor, the dusty white gloves glowed pristinely. She smoothed the lush fabric and beamed into the mirror, full-length, ornate silver, and as much an antique as the dress.
I feel like Anna Karenina. Not that she knew much about Anna Karenina. Well, she was Russian, hot, and wore gorgeous dresses like this.
She would descend the grand staircase alone, and everyone below would freeze to watch her in awe, as if she were made of diamonds like the glittering chandelier. At this ball for the Fairy Realms' elite, she would dance with the most beautiful princes and nobles, surrounded by flowers of every color and intoxicating smell. All faces she met would smile, because just her glance was a blessing. It would be perfect; it would be beautiful. It would be everything Kara wanted and wanted herself to be.
Then she saw her tan lines, stark white in the mirror. Her fantasy was snuffed out to a wisp of smoke. By the dusk light from the window, she saw the smudges and dust on the mirror, the aging white sheets draping the bedroom furniture, and everywhere that the dress didn't fit her. Unlike Kara, Anna Karenina didn't tan at the beach in a bikini and didn't wear dresses too loose in the bust that she found in an attic wardrobe.
She wasn't a princess going to a ball to dance with royalty—she was a high school senior going to homecoming to dance with Stonehill boys who substituted cologne for a shower. Sure, she would be the prettiest girl there, she would have the best dress, and she would mean absolutely nothing to almost everyone else in the universe.
Saving the magic web puts everything in perspective. Her unicorn jewel pulsed soft orange as she stripped off her gloves. And Stonehill social life at the bottom of perspective. What does it matter if I'm homecoming queen, when I could have been fairy royalty?
A knock on the door stirred her silence. She flinched.
"Hey Kara, still like those dresses?"
"Yeah," the crack in Kara's voice surprised even herself. It was Adriane. Kara felt like she hadn't seen her in weeks, even though they'd had English class together yesterday and they texted all the time about managing Ravenswood.
"You okay? Can I come in?"
"I guess."
The door swung open, Adriane had barely marched inside before she stopped and stared and Kara.
"Wow. Some dress."
"Wow. Some shoes," Kara threw back.
Adriane glanced at her new boots, dark grey, knee-length, laced, and round-toed with a slight heel, worn over her jeans. They matched her jacket, a pea coat that was a present from Kara last Christmas.
"Want to borrow them for homecoming? They totally match your dress."
"Ha-ha," Kara turned to the mirror, smoothing some stray blonde hairs. Behind her, Adriane's reflection was checking her cell phone. Most of her dark hair was up in a loose twist, with the very front free and framing her face. That's so pretty, Kara thought. Great for a dance. She whirled around with a sudden idea.
"Hey, you should go to the dance—with me! We'll go together."
Adriane looked up from her phone, arching her eyebrow. "What? I hate dances. And didn't Marcus ask you?"
"I said no."
"I thought you liked him, what the hell?"
Kara played with a piece of hair. "Not after I really thought about it. I kind of made myself like Marcus, to feel better about Lorren after, well, you know. And then Marcus asked me out and asked me to the dance at the same time, and he's been my friend for years, so I mean I really care about him. And if I went out with him even though I never liked him that way, it would be wrong. It wouldn't be fair to him. So I told him that I really, really liked him as my friend, and that I didn't want to screw up his friendship with Kyle by going out—which is true."
Kara had been staring at the floor, but looked up to find Adriane looking almost astonished.
"I know, Kara Davies turns down a cute boy. The universe is ending," Kara forced a little smile.
"No, it's not that. It's just...you're so different now from when I first met you."
"Considering how much you hated me then, that's a total compliment."
"I never hated you," Adriane's gaze drifted from Kara's eyes to their reflections in the mirror. "I was only—"
Kara's jewel flashed, lighting the room on brilliant silver fire as she recoiled and shrieked. It blazed behind her shut eyes, before it faded to black just as suddenly as it had flared.
She opened her eyes to a world in dark purple, blinking rapidly, and after a moment could see Adriane moving opposite her.
Adriane's voice rang sharply, "What was that?"
"I-I don't know. It wasn't on purpose," Kara tried to step forward, but her leg gave out. She didn't realize that she fell until she felt Adriane catch her, and didn't realize that she'd screamed until the cavernous room echoed it back. Her head was heavier than her body, full of such loud buzzing that droned out all thought.
Then she blinked, and knew all at once that the room was dimmer, the dusk at the window a deeper orange, that she had collapsed to her knees and that Adriane had one arm around her waist, another hand at her shoulder, and Kara's head rested at her neck. She took a breath that felt like the first in ages, and everything was silent but Adriane's voice.
"Kara! Kara, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Kara's own voice was so faded in comparison.
"Fine? The hell you are!"
Kara sat up and turned to face Adriane, whose eyes were so wide that they were almost circles. She looked scared.
"Yeah, not fine. I'm okay now, but just for a second...I don't know what that was."
"More like thirty seconds. What did it feel like?"
"Dizzy, weak, confused," Kara became suddenly aware of how close they were, of how Adriane's arms were still loosely wrapped around her. Adriane must have realized it too, because she drew herself back, looking down with a relieved smile.
"It's probably just your magic. It happened to me in July when the protection spells around the glade were acting up and I was running around like a chicken on fire. Tweek said something about level three being sensitive to magical oscillations and…unstable emotions. It was probably because Storm was trying to fix it and we have that paladin connection."
"What? Why didn't you tell me?"
Adriane looked away. "It was nothing. And besides, it was the end of school. You were busy. I didn't want you to worry you and you didn't seem affected by it. Maybe your jewel is weird now because of some fairy or unicorn magic going off. We should ask Lorren and Zach..."
Yeah right! You've been avoiding me on purpose ever since you broke up with Joey at the end of last school year. What are you so afraid of? Why won't you look at me?
"You're going to the dance with me," Kara said, standing up slowly. "And after the dance, we're going to talk."
"What? I told you, I'm not going. If you want to talk to me, do it right now."
"But you won't talk—you never talk to me!"
"I talk to you all the time!" Adriane stood up and took her messenger bag from the floor.
"You text me all the time, and only about Ravenswood and school—never about…"
"About what?" Kara saw through Adriane's mask of a steady voice; she knew what Kara would say.
"The elephant in the living room."
Adriane reached for the door. "I don't know what that means, and I have homework—"
"You know exactly what I mean! And you know what else? You're different now, too. You would've never walked away like this before."
The other girl dropped her hand from the doorknob and turned back to Kara. She wasn't furious and scowling as Kara had expected, but held her head down and her mouth in a firm line. She swallowed and took a deep breath.
"Yeah, I am different," Adriane said. "Do you know what I am? I'm tired. I'm so goddamn tired of fighting over everything—for everything. It's not worth it anymore. It never was worth it."
"What do you mean?" Kara felt her voice rising, cracking, tears pooling in her eyes, but she didn't care.
"I mean you—you and me and those stupid fights. I..." Adriane sighed, "It's just not worth it, so okay, I'll dance with you. Hell, you know what? Let's have our own dance right now. We'll talk about your stupid elephant."
"Are you serious?"
"Sure, why not. A big pink Barbie Dream Elephant."
Kara stared at the floor. "Do you remember what we were talking about right before that…thing? About how you didn't hate me?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you remember that time?"
"That's a huge elephant," Adriane said warily. "So what do you say?"
"Okay," Kara wiped her eyes, smiling. "On one condition: you dress up too."
"Are you serious?"
Kara crossed her arms and stared at her defiantly, trying to hide a triumphant smile. She's not in the mood to fight me on this one.
Adriane sighed, defeated with barely a struggle. "Fine, give me an hour," she took her iPod from her coat pocket and handed it to Kara. "You set up the music."
"Deal. There's makeup in my purse, and seventy years worth of dresses and shoes in the attic!" Kara snatched a pair of red slippers from the floor, beaming as she gathered her matching skirts and slipped out the door. Her heart beat like a stampeding elephant. "See you in an hour!"
Adriane couldn't look in the mirror. She stood with her back to it, staring defiantly at the dusty sheet-covered furniture, as if it was trying to goad her into turning around.
Among the mass of fabric, hangers, and mothballs in the attic wardrobe, she had gravitated to a dress that could have dated from anytime after the 1920s. It was blue-green satin, so dark it was almost black, and fell to just above her knee. Two thin straps held it up, while a wide band of the same fabric cinched in everything between the bust and hips. She couldn't imagine how ridiculous she looked in it, especially compared to Kara.
Her phone glowed in her hand, saying that she had only fifteen minutes left. I have to do my makeup—Kara would be pissed if I didn't. But since when do I care about what Kara thinks of my looks? Her wolf stone shifted silver and gold swirls as she rubbed it absentmindedly. Because I want to make her happy.
She frowned. There, I admit it. That time in the library burned so brightly in her memory, when she had kissed her, how soft her lips were, how they had pressed against each other. It wasn't supposed to be…sexual. It was an impulse! I was just trying to prove that I trusted her, that I didn't hate her. I enjoyed it too much—but she liked it too! She put her hands on me, she pulled me in, and she kissed me back…
Okay, I can't stand it anymore. How bad is it? In an instant, she whirled around and stared down the girl in the mirror.
The girl staring back wasn't her. She had her face with its almond eyes, full lips, and high cheekbones. She had her long legs, her twiggy body, and her tan skin. But this girl was older-looking, elegant, and haughty with her simmering gaze, daring everything to try to impress her.
Adriane raised her jewel and backed away, but her not-reflection stayed frozen-still like a photograph. Magic. What the hell? Who's doing this? Who are you? What do you want? Adriane looked frantically around the room, until she caught sight of her own frightened reflection. The woman was gone.
She cautiously approached the mirror and ran her fingers across it, feeling a familiar magic swirling around. Kara's magic, left over from that flare. Relieved, she thought: But what was that? It was me…but it wasn't. Why would Kara's magic do that? Magic only creates what your mind sees...She almost gasped at a sudden thought. Is that how she sees me? Is that really me?
She stood back and looked at herself, a nervous and confused self who was nothing like the stoic woman from the vision. Even without a Kara-filter, the dress seemed to belong on her. It fit her snugly, its shadowy folds matching her shadowy eyes. But that was the only similarity.
Adriane fumbled for Kara's mascara on the little table next to her. With a trembling hand and her face just inches from the mirror, she brushed it onto her eyelashes.
Why am I so nervous? What do I expect to happen? She imagined Kara's lips on hers, her hand stroking the back of her neck. What do I want to happen?
It was a stupid question; Adriane knew exactly what she wanted. She'd known ever since that day. However much she tried not to, she'd thought of Kara when Joey asked her out, again two years later when she broke up with him, when Zach was being so distant and avoiding her...Then when she discovered the reason, she was so happy that it almost scared her—and not just happy for Zach.
She capped the mascara and gave her hair a final pat, barely noticing her shoes pinching her feet, or how her legs were tingling cold in stockings.
Into the great unknown.
And that's chapter two. Please review!