The Mirror Key

Chapter 3: Nice Day, My Ass

Chapter 3: Nice Day, My Ass

Xanthe gritted her teeth as she walked into class. Jackson Clements already put her in a bad mood, and she knew it was only going to get worse.

As she sat in her assigned seat, she noticed some of her classmates looking at her expectantly.

She raised a brow. “Can I help you with something?”

“Did he give his present to you yet?” Leslie, a cheerleader, asked her curiously.

“I heard he gave you a bouquet of roses,” Brian, the vice-president of the Physics club, added.

“No way,” Jo, a basketball player, shook his head. “He told my brother he was going to give Xanthe chocolates.”

Xanthe was starting to have a bad feeling about this.

“Um… guys, I’m not trying to sound dumb here,” Xanthe began cautiously. “But who are we talking about?”

“We’re talking about Jack,” Jo answered, looking surprised.

“Damn you, Jackson,” Xanthe muttered under her breath, and then raised her voice. “Whatever he told you, is probably a lie.”

“So he didn’t give you a gift?” Leslie said, seeking for some confirmation.

Xanthe gave her a pointed look. “Even if he did give me a gift, I would never accept it.”

“Oh,” Leslie said, as Jo and Brian refrained from saying anything else.

Xanthe slowly exhaled a breath as she focused on her clenched hands. She was aware that most of the student body knew that Jackson was chasing after her, and as a result, she was both embarrassed and furious whenever the topic came up.

That Jackass ruins everything, Xanthe swore mentally. Breathe in… breathe out…

So she waited for her Homeroom Teacher to enter the classroom, her breaths slow and even. She ignored her classmates, and they, in turn, (finally) ignored her. That was her everyday routine; that’s how it worked.

“Good morning class,” Mrs. Santos, their homeroom teacher, greeted, entering the room. The students mumbled out their greetings in turn.

“Now, the first thing we will tackle for today is-” Xanthe tuned out, her teacher’s words going in one ear and out the other. Xanthe could always ask someone else about what the petite teacher was going on about.

Putting on her best I-am-listening expression, she propped her elbow on her desk and rested her chin on her hand. Her other hand held onto a mechanical pencil, and her notebook was on her desk. She had the image of an attentive and note-taking student down pat. Her thoughts, on the other hand…

A Cheshire Cat named Ries and an annoying guy named Aster talked to me yesterday. Xanthe mused. Aster told me not to enter any bathroom, acting like a pompous know-it-all wannabe the whole time, and Ries healed my bruise- which, by the way, was Aster’s fault.

Xanthe’s hand twitched, and she absently twirled her pencil. Opening her notebook to a random page, she began to draw.

Shades and lines and curls, her mind whispered. They don’t matter. Just draw to your heart’s desire.

I bet that Aster guy couldn’t draw anything, she mentally said. He’s too much of a waste of space to be able to draw a single thing.

She started to fume silently. And, well… that’s when her thoughts took a violent turn.

You know what? Aster’s plain irritating, Xanthe told herself. Who on earth would give him the right to barge into my room? And what’s up with him ordering me to stay away from bathrooms? Bossy much?