Subject Zero: Mirrors (Book 2)

Chapter 1: New Beginnings

Wednesday, May 15, 1985
11:05a.m.
Norwood High School
Norwood, Maine

Voices fill the cafeteria, as well as the smell of what some consider to be the revolting school lunch. Three high schoolers, with their food, sit down at the end of a table — Naomi, Alio, and Klaus.

Naomi looks at her lunch as she sits down at the end of the table. She scowls at the sight of her food and sighs. "Well, mine's got fuzz." She pushes her tray away.

"...Mine's got lips," Alio commented with a disturbed look on his face while he looks at the food on his tray.

She turns to look at Klaus, who's sitting next to her. "Hey, Bagman. Rough life being an only child, huh?"

Klaus doesn't say anything as he opens up his bag of lunch he brought from home. His mother always packs his favorite foods for him, including Nilla wafers and M&Ms.

"Yeah, rougher life being an orphan, which is what I am as of last night," Alio randomly stated.

A hint of concern growing on his face, Klaus looks up from his food and at him to ask, "What happened?"

He sighs. "I dumped my family, my family dumped me. It was mutual. They're keeping the apartment. Gonna live with my grandma in the trailer park."

Naomi gives a sympathetic look. "Well, we're here for you."

"Thanks. You're my new siblings. Which reminds me, I want my jacket back, Naomi."

"No."

Then, one of the teachers walks in, his demeanor being serious. "Students, may I have your attention?" he called out loudly enough so that everyone can hear him.

A large majority of the students look over at him, while the others continue talking quietly.

When he catches almost everyone's attention, the teacher then says, "I know the school year is almost over, but I do have an announcement about next school year. I'm afraid the entire football season next year..."

Alio's face straightens, faltering as he listens with anticipation. "...Oh, no."

     "...Canceled."

     "But that means—"

The teacher sighs in annoyance. "Yes, Mr. Niccals. No cheerleaders."

Alio sighs in disappointment and glumly lays his head on the table.

Klaus leans over and looks at him. "Alio, we have to make sacrifices."

     "But he's taking my girls."

     "Why can't we just sacrifice you?" Naomi scowls at him.

Alio shoots a glare right back at her.

3:05p.m.

Alio, Naomi, and Klaus all walk out of school and over to their bikes, seeing four other kids waiting for them — Jesper, reading a book while leaning against the wall; Norman, sitting next to him; Anne, biking around in a circle in attempt to cure her boredom; and Rei, sitting next to the two boys.

     "Hey," Naomi greeted.

"I wish it was summer break." Rei groans as she slumps down the wall a little.

Jesper closes his book and leans off the wall. "Same here."

3:20p.m.
(Norman & Naomi's House) The Snicket Household

The kids are all in the basement, scattered around the room — Rei and Alio on the couch, Jesper standing by the door throwing darts, Naomi sitting in the sofa-chair, and Norman and Anne sitting on the floor: There's another kid with them at the coffee table in front of the couch — a girl named Zero. Like Jesper, she has a bandage wrapped around her neck, as well, but she keeps scratching it due to how itchy the material is.

She's drawing, but isn't really sure what she's drawing yet. She's just scribbling on the paper with a green crayon, and hoping she can spot a shape or two in the scribbles, so she could use the shapes to determine what the drawing will be.

"I still can't believe there aren't 12 year olds here anymore," Alio sighed. "You kids are growing up, man." He dramatically sniffles, as if to imitate the sound of crying.

"Um, I'm still 12," Anne said as she looks over at him. "Klaus' birthday is next, right?"

Glumly, Klaus just sighs and nods his head. "I'm not excited to turn 15..." He's always been pretty open about his fear of growing up. He cried on his thirteenth birthday, but his friends reassured him that everything will be okay because they're at least experiencing growing up together.

  "Eh, it's fine. Nothing special. But I get it. I don't like being 16 now," commented Naomi with math homework in-hand. "Wait, Alio, how old are you?"

Alio pauses, contemplating for a moment as a curious look forms on his face. "Uh, it's May of 1985, right?"

     "Uh, yeah?" Jesper furrows his brows in confusion when he sees him get up to look around the room.

He finds a calculator and picks it up, inputing a few numbers. "Ah, I'm still 16," said Alio.

Naomi glares at him, looking at him in a way that one would think she's glaring at the embodiment of stupidity. "...Did... Did you just have to calculate your own age?"

     "Well, I didn't think I'd make it this far."

Rei giggles at his comment.

     "So, what do you guys wanna do? I'm up for a board-game, or just watching TV," said Norman.

     "Oh, yeah!" Naomi sits up, putting down her homework next to Zero. "Norman and I found a treehouse yesterday. We haven't gone into it, but it's in the middle of the woods, and we haven't heard anyone in it yet," she said. "We could check that out."

     "I don't really wanna go back outside. It's too hot," Rei complained. "Besides, the middle of the woods? No way am I going there. I vote TV."

     "Agreed." Alio nods.

Jesper nods his head in agreement and so does Anne.

Naomi sighs and leans back before she says, "All right, that's fair."

Anne realizes something and looks at Rei. "TV? But you... You're..."

Rei is blind.

Norman holds in his laughter. "C'mon."

The kids all get moving to get upstairs.

He stops in the middle of the stairs and looks at Zero, who's still concentrating on drawing. "Hey, Zero, you coming? You can draw upstairs."

She looks up from her paper and crayon and looks at him. These last few months, she's had a certain look in her eyes, one that makes it seem like she's not... all there. She quietly replies, "Yes." She stands up, taking her things and following Norman and the others upstairs.

{ End of Chapter 1 }

"It's all forgotten now."