Mirroring

Crystal

Crystal's only hope was Andromeda if she wanted to solve the mirror mystery. However, tomorrow was a Saturday, and she was going snowboarding.

Suddenly, Crystal heard three small, almost inaudible knocks on the door. She bumped into her desk, almost toppled the key again, and rushed for the front door. She was so overwhelmed and excited when she opened it.

"Andromeda! Just the person I was looking for—" Crystal fought the urge to slap her hand over her mouth. She quickly suppressed her happiness by maintaining an indifferent face.

"I-I mean... Hi. What're you doing at my house?" Crystal quickly corrected. "It's almost dinner, and I'm talking to Kimberly at the moment, so..." Crystal would've said "get out", but she needed Andromeda's wits. "...make it quick." Crystal finished with minimal hesitation. Why didn't she think before she talked? She couldn't ruin her profile this way...

"Hi Crystal. Ms Hawthorn said you wanted to give me something?" Andromeda tilted her head, her eyes innocently wide. "She said it was in your room." Andromeda's eyes bounced around like ping pong balls, looking left, right, up and down. Crystal saw she was fidgeting. She seemed more nervous than usual, as if she knew something big was going to happen.

"Oh..." Was she talking about the glass key? Crystal's mind spun as she quickly ushered her in, and hurried her along the hallway upstairs to her room.

If she'd looked behind her, she would have noticed even further how Andromeda seemed overjoyed but nervous at the same time. Her hands constantly clenching and unclenching, and her eyes determinedly fixed upon Crystal.

The stairs up to Crystal's room had never seemed very long, but somehow this time the steps seemed to have multiplied, leaving a breathless and sweaty Crystal wondering what on earth Andromeda had come for. She certainly didn't want any witnesses for what she was about to do, or what she already did. Letting Andromeda in her house was a big red flag for anyone that knew Crystal.

Bang. Finally, they had reached the top floor. Crystal ran into her room, and once Andromeda was inside, slammed and locked the door firmly.

Andromeda's eyes sailed over to the glass key, and she looked around Crystal's room with bright curiosity. However, Crystal wasn't feeling so relaxed. Her eyes were silts, shooting daggers at Andromeda.

"So, Meda, about mirrors as Jeshan said-" She started, before being abruptly cut off by Andromeda.

"What's that?"

Crystal didn't even have to look at where Andromeda's finger was pointing to know what she was implying. Andromeda's eyes flitted to the mirror subtly in her peripheral vision, her eyes focused on the glass key, and Crystal was inclined to follow, but remembered why she even let Andromeda in the house. However, that made her suddenly look like cold and confident Kimberly.

With a sniff, Crystal ignored the question entirely. It was, after all, her interrogation, and she wasn't about to let herself get sidetracked. "Back to my question. What do you know about mirrors?"

Crystal stalked up to Andromeda, standing as tall as she possibly could, and held her hands on her hips, and said in her stiffest and most demanding tone, "I need to know now."

Andromeda barely seemed to notice. Her eyes continued to wander around the room like a cloud, light and carefree, which infuriated Crystal. How dare she not take this seriously!

"If you really want to know things, you should probably be more polite with me..." Andromeda said serenely, with another hint of Kimberly. They were oddly similar now. She pushed Crystal aside and snatched the glass key. Andromeda didn't want to deal with Crystal right now, and Crystal could tell. Carefully stepping over Crystal's discarded clothes, she pushed open the door with her free hand. "Hey, this is my house. You need to answer my questions—" but before Crystal finished, Andromeda was already out the door, her hair swishing behind her as she hammered down the stairs. A second later, the slam of a door rang through the house. Glancing from the window, Crystal saw the key glinting in the twilight, clenched tightly and safely in the fist of Andromeda as she strode away confidently, standing taller than Crystal had ever seen her. What Crystal didn't notice was a pair of slitted blue grey eyes stalking Andromeda's movements down the street, every once in a while also glancing up at Crystal's window.