Fall into the Mirror

The Night Market

Summer had just overpowered the town. Everything was brighter, bolder, and more delightful, especially now that school was over. The graduation was held in the hall of Cypress High, right in the middle of the day. Everyone looks joyful in their black graduation cape, except for maybe Danielle Morrison. She sat down on her seat next to her parents and her little brother, looking all pouty and upset as she folded her arms. She looked up to Karenina, her "rival" who managed to become a valedictorian. She had taken Danielle's chance of becoming a valedictorian since she knew the word. She could sense something evil in Karenina and no one would ever figure that out – even though she herself couldn't figure out what made her hate Karenina so much – because everybody loved Karenina and her poetic life so much.

When Karenina finished her speech, Danielle put on a big, fake smile and gave her a standing ovation just like everyone else. She gave another smile to Karenina who thought that it was genuine enough to support her. And just when she looked away, Danielle rolled her eyes, couldn't believe how naïve Karenina was.

The graduation went pretty boring for Danielle. She threw her hat in the air, took a lot of pictures with her friends, got congratulated for her graduation – but that was it! There's nothing else intriguing for the day, except that it was freaking hot and Danielle barely even survive if there weren't any air conditioner. Her mum couldn't believe how uninterested Danielle was with her own graduation. It was a once in life time moment and Danielle acted as if it would happen again for the second time.

Danielle was only waiting for the prom, which would be held in a couple of weeks. She, however, assumed that it would be just as boring because the committee was the popular girls who would only think of the fun their clique would be having. All the fundraisings that they'd done were only involving the cool kids. She was only interested in a fact that there would be free foods. Her friends didn't understand why she was very cynical about graduation and prom, and she would only shrug when they asked her about it.

All she knew, this year's summer would just go by like any other summers did. People would be having fun – beach party, visiting families outside town, cruising in a brand-new yacht, and all other fun activities any other people would do in summer. She had a lot of to-do-lists going on in her head throughout this semester, but she would end up working for extra money, just like what she did for years.

After all, there weren't much to see in their small town. There were only two malls – one of them wasn't even exactly a mall as it was only a huge department store with a few restaurants inside. There was a beach and a pool nearby which would get extremely crowded in summer. You'd end up swimming in a puddle of people's sweat instead of the fresh and cold water you expected. So Danielle would rather avoid going there during summer, and choose autumn for the perfect time to swim in the public swimming pool. Or she could go to Sophie's house, one of her best friends whose dad were a king of his business empire and owned a private swimming pool in their house.

The exciting news was that there would be a night market on every third week of the month. There would be cotton candies, circuses that showcased people with weird abilities and trained exotic animals, crappy do-it-yourself stuff, and cheap outdated fashion on sale. There would also be fun, yet ridiculously hard, games. In order to win a stuffed animal, or whatever the kiosks had, participants, mostly kids, had to throw a slippery dart into its board, shoot a poor gun toy into a target, or try to knock down stacked cans with tennis balls. There would also be challenging games where you would have to risk your life because you only have to pay for ten dollars to get inside the night market.

Truthfully, it was the risk Danielle would forever take.

***

Danielle was reading a novel she just bought last week when she got a sudden phone call. Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men rang extremely loud from across her room, startling her and made her book almost flew away from her hands. She made a small growl and got up from her bed to get her phone.