copyright 2013 Faeriemage
Mirror, Mirror on the web...

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: I blame my daughter for this one. She loves princesses, and while I've told her some stories that I made up on the spot, she prefers the classics. Well, if any of you know me, which I should say that many do, then you know that I can't just tell a classic. I have to make it my own. Now, I have no plans for anything TG in this story, since that's not the story that is coming to me this time.

I hope you'll not hold it against me.

Tell me, should I continue this, or not?

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Karen stared out the window, wondering how you come back from the death of a parent. It’s supposed to happen, sure, but it’s not supposed to happen when you’re in high school, and definitely not supposed to happen twice.

Not that it happened the previous time while she’d been in high school. Her mother had been a beautiful woman, even when she had lain there in the hospital bed, unable to get up.

They’d thought everything was fine when Karen was born, and for Karen it was, but the strain had been too much for her mother’s heart. A defect that they hadn’t known about earlier had failed, and for six years her mother had been in and out of hospitals before her heart had finally stopped altogether.

Even though Karen had known that her mother was dying, nothing truly prepares a six year old for that moment. She remembered crying when they lowered her mother into the ground and thinking that she skies should be cloudy and rainy and not the beautiful clear cloudless blue that they displayed that day.

“I hate the sun,” she said as she walked away with her father.

“Why, Karen?” her father asked distracted by his own grief.

“Because it’s smiling. It should be sad just like us.”

Her father had taken her into his arms and just held her as she cried.

“Who’s going to hold me now?” she whispered quietly to the glass.

Behind her the well wishers talked quietly to her stepmother, but Karen didn’t pay attention. The Woman, which is how she called her stepmother in the quiet of her own mind, was smiling and greeting all her friends.

This wasn’t supposed to be a party, but for the Woman it was. At thirteen Karen never really thought about how her father made a living. He went to work and provided for her. She loved when her dad had been here. He’d always had time for Karen, even after he married the Woman two years ago. He didn’t have any time left for her because the drunk driver had stolen all of his remaining moments.

The Woman ran a website. Karen’s friends thought that she was so lucky to have the creator of Mirror Mirror in her home with her. Karen got to see the ugly side of the person some people called ‘The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.’

Like how she was treating this solemn occasion as if it were her own personal coming out celebration. She wasn’t even wearing black.

“Karen, you know how washed out the color black makes me look. I have to keep up appearances.”

As far as Karen was concerned, the Woman had no shame.

Karen scowled at her stepmother for a moment or two more, but then gave up and looked back out the window. At least today it was raining.

Karen looked up at the sky through her tears as the rain continued to come down, “It’s not enough,” she said to the sky, “the rain, I mean. From now on, the only weather I like is snow. It’s cold and pure and maybe, just maybe, it will stop me from caring that everyone that I loved is now dead.”

***
The last guest finally left and Jean walked up to her room and booted up her computer. “Why are people so stupid,” she said to the emptiness of her room. The clock on her bedside table said it was just after eight in the evening. This ‘event’ was supposed to have ended three hours ago. They were supposed to have met this morning for the viewing and eulogy, dropped the body off at the cemetery at noon and then proceeded to the home for well-wishes and condolences until five.

“Well, that didn’t really work out, now did it, Jean,” she said with a rueful smile. Her computer was up to the desktop so she started the chat program and logged in. Mephistopheles was already in so she joined him in a private chat room.

QueenMab: Mirror-Mirror, on my site, who is the prettiest tonight?
Mephistopheles: Well, my lady, so it seems, that you’re the queen of ‘memes’.
QueenMab: I’d prefer to be the queen of dreams, Meff.
Mephistopheles: Not something I can do for you, directly, but the site is truly putting you out there.
QueenMab: Good. The money from the insurance will go a long way toward giving us a persistent advertising presence.
Mephistopheles: You are pretty cold hearted, you know that? Didn’t you just put him in the ground today, and already you’re talking about how to spend his money?
QueenMab: It is the reason he died, after all.
Mephistopheles: LOL. Like I said. Cold. :)
QueenMab: I know you love me.
Mephistopheles: I love the effect you have on my bank account. Nothing more.
QueenMab: Night, Meff. I need my beauty sleep.
Mephistopheles: Don’t we all.

Jean signed out, and shut down her computer. The design of the website was all hers, of course, but Mephistopheles ran the back end. It was always good to have an IT drone to do the dirty work for you.

She changed for bed and shut off the light. For a moment or two she just lay there, smiling at the ceiling. Everything was going according to plan. The police were sure that her husband had been killed by a drunk driver. When he’s a banker, which in some people’s mind is tantamount to a thief today, they don’t look too closely at the circumstances. Especially when said drunk died on the way to the hospital.

He’d been paid in alcohol, so there was no real trail back to her. She was amazed, looking back on it, that he’d lived long enough to run into her husband. Giving him just enough to kill him, but not enough to knock him out...that had been pure magic. The injuries he’d sustained helped. It’s always sad when a seat-belt fails to lock into place.

She smiled even more broadly up at the ceiling.

Truly sad.

***
Karen sat on her bed, staring at her mirror. Her clothing, like any normal teen girl, was colorful. There were pinks and blues, reds and yellows, really any combination of colors you could really think of, but there were colors. Colors weren’t doing her any justice. Colors said life was normal, and life wasn’t normal anymore.

She grabbed a black t-shirt and a black pair of jeans. She grabbed her dress shoes, the only black pair of shoes she owned, and put those on.

Her hair was naturally black, so she didn’t have to worry about that. She didn’t wear any makeup.
Unfortunately, her backpack wasn’t black. It was a pale cream color. She searched the bottom of her closet for a while before she found what she was looking for. One of her cousins had given her a black denim bag for her birthday. At the time, she’d liked the style, but the color hadn’t really been something she wanted.

Now, however, the color was perfect. Karen transferred her books from her backpack into the bag and walked out the door to go to school. James, her driver, was waiting for her at the front of the house, the door to the rear seat of the car held open for her.

It had been their little joke for the longest time, even though he was more bodyguard than driver, truth be told. Karen didn’t even smile at it this morning.

“Anything you want to talk about, Kid?”

Karen just shook her head and James slid into the front seat. “I like the new look,” he said, looking at her face in the rear view mirror.

“I thought it was time for a change.”

“I cared for your father a lot as well, Karen. He was one of the best men I’ve ever known.”

“Sounds like you had a crush on him,” Karen said with an almost smile.

“He was like family, and so are you, Kid. It will get better.”

“What, are you going to tell me you were an orphan as well now? That you know what it’s like?”

“No, I wasn’t an orphan, but my twin brother was hit and killed while we were walking to school one day.”

“James, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re hurting. I get that. It will get better.”

“I’ll forget the pain? I’ll forget what he meant to me?”

“You never forget the pain, Karen. It’s a part of you. It will just, step by step, hurt less. Eventually it will have been a part of you so long that it will just be a part of the background. You’ll be sad, but it won’t take away your happiness anymore.”

“I don’t want to be happy.”

“You say that now…”

“I’m not going to be happy ever again,” Karen said with vehemence.

“Well, my little goth princess. I’ll not interfere gain,” he said with a smile.

“What’s goth, James?”

“Look it up tonight when you get home.”

***
Karen hated how the other students looked at her. The whispering was bad, but the looks of pity were worse. This was a private school, and only the privileged were capable of going to school here. They didn’t know loss the way that she did. They didn’t understand. It didn’t fit into their view of the world. That was fine, because they didn’t fit into Karen’s worldview right now either.

Karen was going through the motions at school, going from class to class, not really paying any attention.
Lunch passed without even registering itself. She ate food, but there was no pleasure in it. After lunch, in another class that meant nothing to her, an announcement came over the PA into her room.

“Mr. Fielding?”

“Speaking,”

“Could you send Karen King down to the main office please? Her driver is here to pick her up so she’ll want to clean out her locker on her way down.”

The school served grades k-12, so she’d been here for eight years already, and expected to be here for another five. That being said, she’d heard that message before and knew what it meant. She was no longer a student here. Last week, she would have been embarrassed. Last week, she would have had friends to say goodbye to.

This week she was ‘that orphan girl’ who people avoided. It’s not like they had to worry about catching something from her, but children can be cruel, and cruelty never really needs a reason.

She pulled out the few things she kept in her locker and put them in her bag and then went to the front office. She didn’t even notice the look of concern on the secretaries face as she arrived.

“Where will she go?”

James spoke up, “She’ll be going to Wood’s Point Junior High for the next couple of years.”

“The public school,” the Secretary said as if she were swearing.

James just looked at Karen, hoping for some response from the girl. He felt sorry for her, he really did, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. She needed a parent, not a body-guard. Mrs. King wasn’t any kind of a parent.

“Surely you must be joking. Her father paid for all of her schooling up front, so there isn’t an issue of…”

“Apparently Mrs. King wants a refund of those unused moneys. She is having her lawyer draft a request.”

The Secretary’s face turned sour, and James simply nodded.

“She wouldn’t...couldn’t...be so selfish, could she?”

James sadly nodded.

“You take care of her, then. She shouldn’t be kicked out into the world in this state.”

“Don’t worry. Even if Mrs. King fires me, I’ll still protect her for as long as I’m able.”

James escorted Karen out to the car. She never once looked up as they drove away.

***
“We need a better name than AV Club,” David whined.

“How about the fairies,” the twins chimed at the same time. Candy and Mindy played up how much they looked alike. Someone who knew them well, as the other five in the room did, could tell the two of them apart. Mindy’s hair was a shade or two lighter. Candy had a small freckle on the left side of her nose. They were consummate actors, however, and made sure that even if you knew there were differences, and what they were, that you questioned which one was which.

“I’m not going to be a fairy,” Brad stated with a scowl on his face.

“Not sure anyone would believe you were gay anyway,” Able said with a grin as he adjusted his coke bottle glasses.

“Well, there are seven of us,” Harry said. The other’s threw wadded up paper at him and he just grinned as he ducked. All, that is, except for Thomas who sat there quietly, thinking.

“Why not?” Thomas said. His voice was never that loud, or never really seemed to be, but somehow it commanded your attention. Thomas was always heard when he spoke, even if he seemed to be speaking in a conversational tone up in the booth and you were on stage doing a check.

“Why not what,” David whined. Somehow, no matter what he was saying, David whined. It’s not that he was an unpleasant person, just that he was unpleasant to talk to.

“Why not the Seven Dwarves.” Thomas said seriously. Of the seven people in the room, only David really looked like the traditional ‘AV Geek.” Candy and Mindy were sporting 80’s chic. It was currently very popular at school and the two girls didn’t look out of place. Thomas wore polo shirts, so on some level he would be considered a geek if it weren’t for his good looks and perfect hair and skin. Brad and Able, even with the heavy glasses, wore standard Skater attire, as that was where they spent their time outside of school and one of the two dragged the other to the first meeting at the beginning of the year. David wore white button shirts, but they were in a heavier canvas material, and he lacked the glasses and bad hair the stereotypical nerd was supposed to wear. Harry was an odd duck, even in this group. He changed his style on a weekly basis. This week he was wearing tank tops and camo pants. Last week had been a duster jeans and a fedora. They had one thing in common, however, their love of the technical aspects of stage and film.

What none of them were, however, was short. A couple of them were average height, but the rest were at least above average, if not outright towering like Harry.

“How can we be dwarves,” David...well...whined.

“It isn’t about how tall we are,” Thomas said, “Dwarves, traditionally, were the crafters in norse mythology. They made the gods look good. They hid in their darkness, under the mountain, and provided the tools, weapons, and wonders that the gods needed.”

“You mean, like we make Angelica look good.” Mindy said Angelica’s name with a little sing-song whine that had the others laughing.

Thomas smiled in a way that made Mindy blush, “that’s exactly what I mean,” he said.

Before he could say something else, Zack stuck his head into the room. “Guys, someone just pulled up in a limo. You’ve all got to see this.”

The seven of them piled out and headed to the front of the school. After hours on a Friday most kids had gone home, especially when colleges weren’t looking at your extracurricular activities in Junior High...yet.

The driver got out of the car and walked to the back. It was like what happened in one of those movies, where the famous person shows up at some normal place. A girl of around their age got out. She didn’t seem to be a goth, she wasn’t wearing any of the makeup. Maybe she was a proto-goth, though, as she had straight black hair and every stitch of clothing she wore was black.

“She’s hot,” Harry said to general laughter. “Well, she is,” he defended.

“Let’s leave the girl alone,” Thomas said and the twenty or thirty people at the doors began to disperse. People like her usually didn’t go to school at places like this. Not that it was an inner-city school by any stretch of the imagination, but she had a driver, and Thomas was willing to bet that her clothing, simple as it appeared, all sported designer labels.

“You sure about calling us the Seven Dwarves,” Able said quietly to Brad.

“It seems cool to me,” Brad replied, “why do you ask?”

“Because I think that we just met Snow White,” Thomas said thoughtfully. The rest of them looked at him with varying states of shock showing on their faces. When comprehension dawned he gestured for them to follow him inside.