Through The Mirror?

Chapter 2: What was that!?

It's there. It's there! It's right there! It looks different, shorter even?  Whatever, it doesn't matter, I actually have a soulmate!

Roman raised his hand and the shadow followed. It was shorter than him by a few inches, thin frame. Roman also saw his message and... a message in black marker. It read "Oh, didn't know you existed.".

They know I exist! I've met them! Now, all I need to do is... find them in this somewhat big school. Yippee.

Roman washed his hands quickly and excitedly rushed to the table again, sitting back down quickly.

Ro- "Guys! You won't believe what just happened in the bathroom!"

Re- "What happened-?"

Ro- "My shadow appeared! I've seen my soulmate!"

Pat- "That's amazing kiddo! Oh, that reminds me. Virgil, do you have your shadow?"

Vi- "I mean... I've gotten messages but no..."

Lo- "That's common, Virgil. You might get your shadow soon."

Ro- "Yeah stormcloud! You'll meet your shadow soon!"

Just like that, the bell rang. They all packed up as Patton swept Virgil away again to their class. Roman couldn't help but wonder what messages Virgil was talking about. He tries to forget about it during his next class but it always stuck on his mind.

~Time Skip Brought To You By Its Storytime~

As Roman approached the classroom door, he saw the art teacher with a big smile on his face. He was standing next to the chalkboard on the wall next to the classroom door, big decorative letters and designs with the agenda of today. It spelled 'Painting Planning Starts Today!".

The teacher, Mr. Timan, was a childish yet wise person. Roman thought he was like Patton's fatherly instincts with Logan's advice and a pinch of Remus' good craziness. The perfect kind of teacher to adopt you and be your therapist at the same time.

He had bright red-to-pink dyed hair that was 'as wild as a bronco horse' as he said. Mr. Timan always had colorful outfits and fun color schemes to try to get people's imagination flowing, along with giant, circle glasses with big, lava lamp type frames that glowed different colors. 

He always had some kind of smudges or splatters on his hands and clothes, and kept a pocket full of brushes and pencils, making sure to tuck a few behind his ear or in his fluffy, fiery hair.

He waved excitedly to Roman as Roman waved back and walked into the colorful room. The room was covered in weird, jokey posters and art from students and alumni of many years past. The back was an empty floor to put easels and other art equipment that required a lot of room like a clay kiln to be rolled into the middle of the room.

Roman loved anything that let him be creative, one of those things being theatre. Art was a close second though. He walked in and sat at his table, getting out his small journal excitedly as other students came up to talk to him. 

As the bell rang and everyone sat down, he noticed the door opened again, Patton walking in and making a beeline for the Mr. Timan with an excited expression as he saw Roman.

Huh, never knew Patton was in this class. I thought he had History with Logan, did he switch?

Patton talked quickly to Mr. Timan, soon waving to the open door, Virgil walking in and being a bit more comfortable as he saw the many pieces of art along the walls. Mr. Timan introduced him to the class and looked around the room, his glasses scanning the room.

Mr. Timan- "Well now, you may sit next to... Roman!"

Virgil shuffled over to the table and gave Roman a small nod as the teacher explained the new project. It was a new painting concept about imagination. The teacher explained the first part.

Mr. Timan- "You will all begin sketching today and will finish by the end of the week. All designs must be approved by me by Friday. Next week, we will start the painting process, which will take up to 2 weeks. Now, get creative!"

Roman glanced at Virgil, who had gotten out his sketchbook and was flipping through many pages to a blank one. Virgil noticed Roman staring and raised an eyebrow, Roman going a small shade of pink.

Ro- "O-Oh, sorry about that! Just wanted to see if you started drawing yet."

Vi- "Seems fine. Wait, is that your sketchbook?"

Roman looked to the small book he was gesturing to, it had a white and gold decorative cover with a streak of red across it like a sash. He had made it look like a prince outfit when he was 13 and it just stayed that way.

Ro- "Yes, I designed it myself 2 years ago and I loved it so much, I've kept it that way!"

Vi- "You never told me you were that good!"

Ro- "I didn't have my sketchbook on me in theatre!"

Vi- "Can I look? It's ok if not..."

Ro- "No no, be my guest!"

He passed Virgil the small book and watched as he excitedly flipped through page after page of his drawings of what Disney Princess dresses would look like as suits, his fantasy creature replicas, various set designs from previous plays he stared in, nature scenes, and a few spooky Halloween drawings since October was near.

Vi- "This... is incredible work. How? HOW!?"

Ro- "Imagination and practice. And believe me, I practiced!"

Vi- "No kidding, no one can draw Jack Skellington that accurately without practice!"

Roman saw what page he was on, it was a drawing of Jack and Sally he did just a day or 2 ago.

Ro- "Yeah, I had a reall- wait... YOU KNOW DISNEY!?"

Vi- "Of course, I'm not uncultured."

Ro- "We gotta have a Disney Halloween movie night!"

Vi- "Uh... sure. We have to watch Nightmare Before Christmas though, or I'm not showing up."

Ro- "Say no more! Say, do you have any Halloween drawings in your book?"

Virgil smirked and flipped to a random page in his book, a drawing of Dracula mid-transformation from a bat with a full blood moon in the distance shows. Roman's jaw dropped.

Vi- "That spooky enough for ya?"

Ro- "Uh, YES! How the heckity heck did you manage that blending technique!?"

Vi- "Practice, Princey. Practice. Now let's get drawing before we go too deep."

Roman nodded and got out a pencil, flipping to an empty page as he started drawing a prince in an enchanted garden, a sword in his hand, dragon by his side. He was so absorbed in his work that he'd only gotten done with a highly detailed prince when the final bell rang. He silently groaned as he looked at Virgil's drawing. His eyes widened as he saw a girl clutching a rose, her back to a forest, an outline of a wolf started.

Ro- "Excuse me stormcloud, but how did you do all that in 40 MINUTES!?"

Vi- "Uh- it's called drawing?"

Ro- "Thanks Captain Obvious."

Vi- "No problem, Captain Oblivious."

Ro- "Hey-!"

Vi- "I've drawn these types of things many times before, it's a piece of cake."

Ro- "Well, we can't all be talented."

Vi- "So I was right that you aren't talented?"

Ro- "Hey, you twisted my words, Grim Reaper!"

Vi- "And you twisted your pencil too hard. It's broken now."

Roman looked down and saw that his pencil tip broke on the spot while he was talking as he turned pink again. Virgil giggled as he packed up, walking out the door with Roman not far behind as they met up with the rest of the group.

As the group walked out of the school building, they split up to separate cars, Remus and Roman hopping into the blue car they shared. As soon as they got in the car and Roman started driving, Remus' face twisted into a crazy smirk.

Re- "Sooooo, Patton told me about theater and art! What happened~?"

Ro- "What do you mean? It was normal."

Re- "You baboon, with the new kid. With Virgil! What happened~?"

Ro- "We talked with Patton, then he left us alone to talk to the newest teacher... and he let me see his sketchbook? It's normal human behavior, Remus!"

Re- "Ok ok ok! Don't bite my head off when we're almost home!"

As they got into the driveway and into the house, Remus headed straight to the kitchen where his mom was and Roman went to his bedroom. After a few hours of homework, their mother called the twins down to dinner.

A while later, well into the evening, Remus and their mother had gone to their separate rooms, leaving Roman in his room. As Roman got into his Beauty and the Beast onesie, he walked into his bathroom, the mirror reflecting the previous, now faded conversation he had with his mysterious soulmate earlier.

Roman started brushing his teeth and doing his skincare. As he brushed his hair, he noticed a small sliver in the mirror. It was getting bigger.

What the heckity heck is happening...?

As he looked at it more, it was slowly getting bigger until...

The crack suddenly made his mirror look completely shattered in the bottom corner. Roman ran his fingers along with the illusion of the crack before speaking to himself.

"What was that!?"

Hey! Sorry for not posting for a long while! School and holidays are hectic, am I right? Please enjoy the new chapter!

Words: 1534