The Lost Mirror

Chapter 1

Jade sighed and pressed her face against the car window to look at the clear blue sky. She watched silently as a flock of birds flew through the sky, all perfectly in line like the tip of an arrow. What she wouldn't give to be one of those birds. The car she was in had become almost suffocating, her legs had gone to sleep, there was the corner of a suitcase sticking into her side and her biggest grievance was that her ipod was dead. Now she was stuck listening to the classical radio station, which her Father had generally graced the car with and the occasional short lived conversation between him and his wife.

Where were they going exactly? Jade didn't know. She had made it a point of not showing any interest in their new home. She had not wanted to move and she wasn't afraid to show it. Not that it changed anything. They were still going. Her Dad had gotten a high paying job in the city which meant uprooting the whole family and moving, as far as Jade could see, to the middle of nowhere. They had driven through the city her Dad was going to work about an hour ago and they just kept going. There was nothing about, just fields and the odd animal grazing on some grass. Jade yawned and reached for her phone. No new messages. She looked at the top of screen. Not even a single bar. Jade sighed for the 100th time that hour and gently threw her phone down. She had promised her best friend Katie that they would keep in contact but that seemed more unlikely to actually happen by the minute. Of course it wouldn't have been a problem if she had been asked how she felt about the move. She would have said she didn't want to move, she would have convinced her parents that it was a bad idea...somehow. She would have been sat at home on her bed, probably talking to Katie about something unimportant but instead she was stuck in a stuffy car with her hope of ever having a social life again dwindling by the second.

"Are you positive that we have gone the right way?" Her Dad suddenly inquired, gaining himself an eye roll from his 18 year old daughter. How many times were they planning to have this conversation?

"It's a straight road Phil. Where else do you plan on going?" Jade's Mum replied, the growing agitation very present in her tone. Maybe she was as sick of having this conversation as Jade was of hearing it.

"I just think that we might have taken a wrong turn somewhere in the city. I mean we're in the middle of nowhere."

"In case you hadn't noticed our new house is in the middle of nowhere." Jade watched as her Dad gave her Mum an annoyed side glance.

"We didn't have to live in the middle of nowhere. YOU insisted that we didn't live in the city."

"We've had this conversation a hundred times already. I grew up in the city and that's not the kind of environment I want Jade in." Jade let out a small sigh yet again. How she loved it when they talked about her like she wasn't there.

"Jade's 18, she can take care of herself. Besides she's going to university soon, it might be a good idea for her to find somewhere to live in the city. I'm going to have to get up at half 5 in the morning just to get to work on time and I highly doubt she wants to get up at that time to catch a ride in with me." There was a short pause in their conversation as Jade's Mum glared at her light brown haired, stocky husband.

"I'm not having this conversation with you right now." She stated and turned her head away from him to look out the window. Knowing the conversation was over Jade's Dad didn't say another word and drove in silence. Jade put her head back against the seat. University. She hadn't really thought about it. She had been planning to go to the same university as Katie, they had made plans to live in the same hall and everything. Sure they would be doing different courses. Katie wanted to do drama while Jade wanted to do art, a subject she had always has a natural talent at and loved more than life. For her there was something beautiful about putting a pencil to a blank page and creating something out of nothing but your imagination. Of course that had all gone out the window now. She would still go to university to do art but it wouldn't be the same without her red-headed, hyperactive friend by her side.