She skipped around the smooth grey pavement of the new house; her blond pigtails bouncing off of her childish shoulders. From a distance, one could presume that the young child was having fun running around on her driveway, but the expression on her face was sour with distaste. After a few minutes, the young girl ran inside to talk to her mom; clearly upset about something.
“How do you like the new house, Etienne?” the mother asked, smiling.
A groan escaped the little girl’s pink lips, as she gave her mom an annoyed stare. She puckered her lips to resemble a duck, and marched off to her room with her arms crossed over her chest. She stomped her way up the carpeted steps scanning the hallway.
“I hate this house, it is so dark and yucky!” Etienne screamed. With a small tantrum, she ran to her room and sat at the bed looking down.
The mom let out a scowl that could barely be heard in Etienne’s room. She marched up the stairs and pounded on the bedroom door.
“I paid a lot of money for this house, Etienne Kearney! You should be grateful that it is slightly larger and newer than our old house,” Mrs. Kearney was clearly disgusted with her daughter’s attitude.
“I don’t care how much you paid, I miss my old house. It was happy and near all my old friends, Etienne said.
Mrs. Kearney began walking down the stairs and hollered back, “Maybe if you weren’t so grumpy, you could make new friends in this neighbourhood.”
Etienne stayed in her room as she heard her mom walking down the stairs. She let her lips relax, and looked up into the huge mirror in front of her. The mirror’s frame was gold and inscribed with words in Latin, as well as intricate patterns. Something was different about this mirror; the reflection seemed to be brighter in some way. Etienne flipped her head around and consequentially hit her face with her hair, in order to see the real life version of the mirror’s reflection. Her eyebrows crunched down as she realised they were not the same. The mirror’s reflection had a certain sparkle and enlightenment versus the real version was so dark and ugly.
The little girl sat on her bed in her denim overalls and white shirt, puzzled by the mirror. To her, the mirror looked so much happier than real life. Unconsciously she stood up, and walked towards the reflection. Her hand slowly raised and encircled the golden frame.
“I wish I could read Latin,” she mumbled to herself.
The seven-year-old girl’s hand moved from the frame to the actual glass part of the mirror. The girl’s hand rebounded off instantly.
“Hot!” she muttered instantly. She turned her palm over and her eyes bulged as she read the red marks on her hand, which formed in scratches to write the word, ‘Enter.’ Etienne looked up at the mirror once more, and gasped as she realised that the mirror’s surface was vibrating out waves slowly like a gentle ocean. Her chin was dropped, revealing an open mouth.
Etienne fearlessly plunged her hand into the mirror, before she realised what she was doing. The force she used to push her hand in made her petite body fall into the mirror after her hand. She stumbled on a dirt path, scraping her hands on the small dirt particles.
“Get up, lady!” a harsh voice of a man said, “Where do you come from?”
Etienne stood up and looked around, the man who had spoken to her was pulling a cart of fruit ready to go to the market. Something was different though; he was wearing a rather interesting outfit. It resembled that of a joker in a palace. Etienne refrained from laughing, and politely answered the silly man.
