Making of a Mortal
Mirror, mirror on the wall...
Sleep flowed off of Maria like a satin sheet. Her spine curled up into a sitting position, and her eyes met her reflection. Brown locks clumped together to form a nest on top her head, which floated above her white nightgown. A light breath escaped from her lips as she chuckled at her disheveled appearance. She compelled her body forward, and picked up the bible besides her bed. Proverbs 15:33, shone in front of her for today’s morning reading: "The fear of the LORD touches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor." Maria's lowered her eyelids to commune to whatever higher power would listen to her. "God allow me to pursue you today in everything I do. I hope to bring people closer to word. Amen." Hands folded, she resembled something out of a Charles Burton Barber painting.
Maria rounded her legs to the outside of the bed. Her pale soft feet graced the floor as she glided across the wooden panels towards the bathroom. She drifted as a maiden washing in a river in a rainstorm. The fragile gloss of the pool broke as the white creature entered. Tall emerald mountains surrounding the spring. Hot water rain water hit her delicate skin. Waves rushed gently against her. Lightening could be heard, but from somewhere far off in the distance, and Maria felt no reason to fear. As she lowered herself deeper into the water, the sea crept into the crevices of her body. She lightly padded herself with a cloth, ringing it out once it became to soaked to clean her. Once Maria felt clean, she lifted herself out of the water, and floated onto the brilliant tile floor.
Turning, Maria faced a circle framed in silver. The etchings in the casing crept as two bodies around the looking glass, slithering towards the top where they met. The reflective layer underneath them was covered with a glossy mask due to the steam from Maria's morning cleaning ritual. She placed her hand across the surface to move the fog out of the way, and she could see a face staring back at her. Maria smiled and turned her attention towards her makeup, which she left neatly along the counter. A pale foundation squirted onto her tan sponge, and she pressed it lightly against her cheekbones and then spread it to the rest of her face in order to cover up the few imperfections in her skin pigmentation that existed. Next she took the puff shade of her Glossier cloud paint collection and placed a dab against her check. Her elegant fingers skated the pigment across the sides of her face in order for the pink hue to pervade through her skin. She checked her mirror in order to ensure the proper construction of her mask. Satisfied she grabbed a thin brush and dipped it in a purple ring inside her eyeshadow palette. Her eyelid felt the cool tip of the brush as the plum danced around the amber of her eyes. Maria was absolutely radiant, but something was still missing. She wrapped her hands around the liquid liner, and with on stroke created a dramatic line across the point where her eyelid met the whites of her eye, sharp enough to cut if anyone had dared to cross her stare. Satisfied with her new face, Maria brushed down the tanned mane atop her head. Her hair was naturally straight, but Maria was always bothered by the way it normally sat, so she would take her straightener and apply pressure and heat to ensure everything was to her liking. Once completed, Maria could divert her attention to what she wanted to present herself in.
Walking out of the bathroom, Maria drapped herself in towel and waltz back towards her bedroom. A cool spring day, a brisk wind flowed into the room from the small opening that Maria allowed from her window. Her fingers fiddled with the different clothes that lined her closet, before she settled on a short lavender dress. The neck line came down in V-shape to encase her medium sized breasts. The two chiffon sleeves came sweeped down the lengths of her arms, enlongating them. Sewn into the dress was a design of dripping red flowers. Maria pulled the garment over her head and down her spine. The end of the outfit came to about halfway up her thigh. She grabbed her standard white and magenta sneakers to finish the look. She blew a kiss at the mirror in front of her bed before picking up her current pleasurable read, Frankenstein by Marry Shelley, throwing her bookbag over her shoulder, and heading outside.
Standing on her porch, Maria could smell the Potomac a little ways away. The waves the gently crashing of the water against the rocks was a little too far off for Maria to hear this morning, but she could see the fog that rose up from the river a little off in the distance. The trees had returned to their normal stage of green, and the flowers had begun to bloom with the recent coming of spring. Maria would be certain to go down to the mall to see the cherry blossoms with her friends before their beauty faded in the coming weekes. Moved by awe from the abilities of mother earth, she entered her car to drive herself to school.
She drove past the "Horae Highschool" sign on her way into the parking lot. Horae was the major exclusive private school in the country, meaning it halls were filled only with those parents with some influence. In pratice, this included several politicians children, and those with enough money to be even morw powerful than the leader of the free world. Though a large portion of its students lived in the district, the school was located a little ways across the river in Arlington. Ostensibly the school was episcopalian, but all that amounted to was some crosses above the dorways, and a mandatory ethics class for freshman.
Maria levitated into the common area shortly followed by everyone's eyes turning in her general direction. Maria felt a little stunned because, while she was popular and beautiful, she typically did not grab a rooms attention simply by her presence. Her confusion, however, quickly dissipated when she realized that it was not her they were staring at, but her best friend Abigail behind strutting through the door behind her.
