Mirror of Ages: Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Disturbance at Dawn and the Beast



         Bang! Bang! A distant shout came from behind the bedroom door. “Callie, you sleep monkey! Wake up! We’ll be late!”

         Instead of getting up like I was supposed to, I decided to stay in bed. School can wait.

         “Don’t make me get Mom.” threatened my horribly annoying brother, Mark.

“He wouldn’t.” I whispered to myself and dropped my head back into my soft white pillow. I tried to drift back into the amazing dream I was having only moments before this rude awakening.

         I knew I had a choice to make; stay here and possibly get yelled at by Mom, or get up from my warm cocoon under the plush soft blankets on top of me. Before I could make my decision, I heard my mother’s heavy footsteps coming up the old wooden steps, heading straight towards my bedroom door.

         “Catherine Anne Pellegrino!” screamed my obviously angry and infuriating mother.

         “He did not!” I whispered. “That sorry excuse for a brother!” I shook my head. Mark was going to pay.

         “Get your lazy butt out of bed right now, young lady or ….” By that time, I had already tuned her out. I didn’t care to hear what else she threw my way.

         I slowly got out of bed and went into my bathroom to wash up. I had to hurry before Mom blew her top and called Dad.

         “Has the beast been awaken yet?” Mark called from behind the door. He said it with that snobby British accent he uses to insult people with.

I stopped the impossible task of getting my jeans on. He said the word: the name I dreaded most, “The Beast.”

Others would have just let it pass, but I didn’t. I was called that when I was a munchkin because I was forced to play the part of the beast in my elementary school musical, “The Beauty and the Beast.” I did everything I could to get out of playing that part. I even attempted to jump off a flight of stairs. Despite my efforts, my family made me, thinking that it would be a nice way to get me “get involved.”

I sucked as the part of the beast. I wasn’t the greatest singer in the world and on the premiere night, I abruptly had a sore throat on stage. The voice that came out of my mouth sounded like a dying horse. People said that it suited the beast, but I knew that they were laughing inside. Since then, I’ve never set foot inside a theatre, besides the movies, and I hated the word “beast”. Mark knew it and now he had to shell out. Big time. 

I looked at my alarm clock. It read 7:10 and the school bus came exactly at 7:20. I only had about a three minute window to get back at my brother. I still had to eat breakfast and head to the bus stop by my house, so this had to be swift.

I quickly looked around me for a reasonable weapon while I wore my jacket. A book? No, that’ll only give him a bump on the head. Scissors? Na, too gruesome.  I didn’t feel like stabbing him today. I had to make him hurt but not too much.

Clothes, books, and papers went flying during my search as the desire to hit Mark grew. I haven’t cleaned my room in ages! I was lucky Mom didn’t walk into my room when she attempted to wake me up earlier. She would have had a fit, then probably call Dad, who would ground me; and, while he was busy listing off my taken away privileges, Mom would be giving me the traditional “responsibility” lecture. I don’t know which is worse, the lecture or being grounded. 

I finally found the perfect punishing tool, my school bag, which was previously hidden under a pile of clean laundry. The backpack had two of my heaviest textbooks in it. If I put just enough momentum into it, I could really do some damage. If Mom managed to ask why my older brother was in pain, I could just say that I was rushing out of the room and accidently bumped into him.

“Yeah.” I said. “That should work.” I took a glimpse at the clock. 7:12. I had only one minute to spare.

With a big grin on my face, I threw open the door and found just the person I was hoping to see.

“Yes! Finally! Now let’s go--?”

I swung the bag at him.





“So, you swung your school bag at your brother?” Sharon asked me while we were at our lockers.

Sharon Marshal has been my best friend since she moved from Ohio, two years ago. Since then, she has been the miracle that I have always been asking for.

Shortly after Sharon joined the grade, she was quickly liked throughout the student body for her pleasurable and outgoing personality. Greatest of all, when she became my friend, she stopped people from bugging me. I am not a big fan of cheerful people. However, most of the people in my school were so hyper and preppie, I swear that they were on crack or something when they walked through the school doors in the morning. 

“Yeah!“ I continued my tale. “I put the exact amount of arm and it hit him, like, right in the side! You should have seen him! He was like…” I mimicked my brother pained expressions. When I was done, I glanced up at Sharon and froze.

“What? He had it coming.” I tried to reassure Sharon but that didn’t stop her from continuing to give me the “disappointed” look. Not only was it making me feel guilty but was freaking me out a lot.

There were a large group of windows that ran along the wall in front of us. The bright morning sunshine was shining brightly into the hall but it made the front of Sharon look eerily dark. Sharon’s long, dirty blonde hair made the shadows on her face look darker than the rest of her body. Plus, since she was about six inches taller than me, it seemed like she was looming over me.  I cringed in the sight of her given that it appeared like she was going to kill me.

I wasn’t the only one to be scared. A group of boys approached Sharon to greet her but quickly walked away when they saw the look on her face. I could guess what was going through their minds, “What the heck did Callie do to Sharon?!” I sighed. If only they knew the whole story.

I understood their thoughts though. Sharon wasn’t the type of person who would get flaming mad at someone without a reason to. She was the goodie- good type who never spoke badly about people. She always believed in the “good” in them, or that is how my parents put it.

“That was probably a bad idea, wasn’t it?” I asked her, succumbing to her stare down and not wanting to upset her too much.

Content that she made her statement, she unfolded her arms from her chest. “You think?” she said.

We both mentally decided to let the subject end there. I closed my locker and we started heading towards our first period class. Even though we had dropped the topic, disapproval about my actions was still written all over Sharon’s face. With each moment, it made me feel guiltier and guiltier. Nevertheless, I won’t apologize for smacking Mark with my school bag. I chuckled in remembrance of the incident as we walked to history class together.



Author note: If you liked it, please read more at http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6920603/1/bMirrors_b_of_bCreation_b_The_bMirror_b_of... or at Booksie.com under my author name Nikkilover101. You can search it in the search box. Thanks!