The Mirror
Bethany rolled over, got up, stretched her arms, and put her hand to her forehead to shield her eyes from the morning sunshine. Her first stop took her to her full length mirror. The 5’ by 2’ glass stood tall on the back of her door surrounded by a stained, cherry red frame. “You are stunning! Don’t let anyone tell you different. You should wear those cute jeans Mom bought you back in December,” her morning pep-talk began. She plugged in her iPod and started playing “I love it,” by Iconica Pop on replay. Back in front of the mirror, she told herself, “You are alive and happy to be so.”
She watched herself in the mirror struggle into the skinny jeans, “So what if some rude girls who don’t know how to mind their own business said they make you look fat on Face Book. Prove them wrong. Strut in those skinny jeans.” She exaggerated her cat-walk, making silly faces. She couldn’t help but giggle at the girl in the mirror.
She continued her spiel into the bathroom while she washed her face. “They are just jealous of you. I know it is hard to believe, they cowardly fight all their battles on social networking,” she said to the second mirror as she patted her face dry with a towel
On the floor still looking in the mirror, she sat tying up her laces, “You have more to you. You are not the average teenage girl either. You are unique!” She jumped up with the beat of the song and danced around the room brushing her sleek auburn mane. She watched herself pull it into a ponytail.
She unplugged the sound, allowing silence to flood the room.
Through the mirror, she saw herself, silently, put the hair brush down, grab her bag, and take one last look. She knew today was a new day, but she wasn’t going to change, those girls weren’t going to change. Today might have looked like a new day on the calendar, but she knew exactly how things were going to go, how they always went, and there was no changing that.