House of Mirrors

Why is it that every time I make a perfect, beautifully sketched out plan, it all goes to hell? I guess it's a part of being me, then. This is probably hard to process, isn't it? Then let me start from the beginning...

My name is Sapphire Wicke and here I am at Southwest High. It was a normal day to be honest. Constantly having to be on your guard through the hall so you don't get tangled into anything messy. You have your jocks, nerds, goths, and all those types. Typical high school, right? I guess it was fine. But the days dragged on and on, the same routine every single day,the same butter on my bread! I had no idea how I was going to change things, in the very least. I'm what's considered an 'outcast' to be nice about it. No friends, hardly any family, so it's a bit depressing. Of course there have been small changes in my life. Moving to a different house, a vacation, but none of them stuck with me. Not until I found where I was supposed to be.

"Sapphire," A woman's voice whispers in my ear.

"Mmm?" I felt sleepy, so I choose to ignore it and try to go back to sleep.

"Sapphire,"

I groaned and lifted my head. "What do you want?" Light surrounded my vision, and I leaped back in shock.

"Woah! Where am I?"

"Changes..." The voice whispered again, this time echoing around me.

"What?! Changes? What the hell is going on!" I cried out.

"Find your place, Sapphire." The voice slowly drifted away. I squeezed my eyes shut and chased after the sound that was slowly ebbing away.

"Wait! No, stop!" I opened my eyes only to realize that my nose was pressed firmly against a desk. "Huh...?"

"So glad that you could join us again, Miss Wicke. It's been a while." The bitter voice of my home-room teacher loomed over me.

"Oh, uh.. was I g-gone?" I stammered out nervously.

"For about half an hour, Miss." She slammed the book in her hand shut, staring down at me menacingly.

"How about we call that one lunch detention for snoozing on the job, again might I add. As I was trying to say earlier, the art of poetry. There are many famous poets out there..." I let out a deep sigh. Detention? For accidentally falling asleep? Not fair, at least not in my books. Speaking of books, that's why I was up all night. I just barely managed to finish one of my favourite manga series. But hey, it was the book's fault in the first place for getting me hooked. I glanced over at the other kids in my class; they were whispering to each other and snickering at me. The usual. I think everyone here somehow has something against me. Yippee.

After a long and more excruciating day than normal I began the usual trek home. Not too far of a walk, only a couple blocks. It gave me a bit of time to think about stuff, you know. The universe, cats, that sort of stuff. I thought about that weird livid dream I had earlier. The woman had mentioned something about change. Why now? Well it was bound to happen eventually, though I think that it will only be something small, like a surprise dinner of stir fry or something. I looked up, noticing the faint outline of my house. It was a cute kind of place. Small, but cute. I lived with my Grandpa Kue since my parents died in some sort of freak accident way back when. I was three at the time so I don't even remember anything about it, so my Grandparents took care of me ever since. I shook the thought away, I didn't want to deal with it now.

"Grandpa? You home?" I kicked off my shoes at the doorstep and went upstairs to hang my bag in my room. No answer. He might have fallen asleep in his armchair again or was out shopping.

I popped my head into the main living room. There he was, reading some sort of slip of paper in his hand. His eyes quickly darted from me then right back to the paper.

"I didn't hear you come in, Sapphire." He slid the slip of paper into his shirt pocket as he spoke.

"I called out to see if you were home," I said, fixing my eyes on the corner of paper visible from his pocket. "Did you zone out again, Grandpa?" I smiled hesitantly.

"Er...yes," He answered. Kue seemed so out of it today. He's never been like this before, something big had to be on his mind for him to act like this. I turned towards the doorway.

"Well.. I'll just go then." I stated awkwardly. Just as I was about to leave I heard Grandpa's raspy voice call out to me.

"Actually, there is something I need to talk to you about Sapphire." I spun around instantly. "Yeah?"

"It's about this." He pulled out the folded piece of paper and handed it to me. It was a brochure for a private school.

"Ackley's?" I said quietly. "You're going to send me away?" Grandpa Kue looked shocked. "Send you away? Of course not! I only want what's best for you, Ackley's has a great reputation and I know you're not having much luck here at Southwest." He sighed. "Look. This is what all of them would have wanted for you. Your Mother, Father, and Grandma." I must've still looked pretty bummed out still so he spoke again.

"I'll come visit."

I lifted my gaze and looked him in the eye. "Promise, and we have a deal." I smiled for what felt like the first time in an eternity. I was finally leaving the place that I always hated since the beginning of the school year.

"Deal." He gave me a toothy grin and pulled me into a quick hug. "Thank you for understanding, Sophie."

I left for the school that same weekend, a new life was just waiting out there for me! I could taste it. This was going to be fun, I just knew it!