The Mirrors of Fate (6 page)

“
Again with this language! You’ve changed so much lately. This is a Christian household, Maria.”

Maria sighed and gave up. She slumped back on her bed and mumbled, “Well, people change, Mom.”

“
What was that? Don’t you dare mumble! Speak clearly.”

“
I said people—change—Mom.”

Her mother became speechless for a moment but retaliated. “And you wonder why your father hates you so much. Just look how you’re behaving like a spoiled brat with no good upbringing.”

Maria bit down on her bottom lip, trying to seal away the same rage she had unleashed on Mr. Lohan earlier that day. Her voice lowered and a frustrated sigh left her. “I don’t care, Mom. I don’t care about anything. Yes I’m selfish. Yes I’m spoiled. I’m really not worth much when you look at it.”

Maria rolled onto her stomach, pulling the pillow over her head.

“
Oh so you’re just going to ignore me now, is that right? Fine then. You don’t need any dinner, I think.”

Her mother slammed the door behind her and Maria cursed silently. She wasn’t going to apologize for her actions. Not now, not ever. But damn, couldn’t Mom have left the food?

•

It was way too early on Friday morning to start any type of forced manual labor, but regardless of that fact, the next day Maria found herself in the gymnasium, putting up decorations with the few members in the decoration committee.

The hoopla was for some school pep rally...No, actually for a concert or something like that in the evening. Whatever it was, she didn’t know or care. She didn’t have any real intention of finding herself in attendance at such a stupid thing. She would’ve rather been doing that eye-straining senior project on forensic science due soon, and that was saying a lot. All Maria knew was that once an announcement came over the intercom informing all interested persons to go to the gymnasium and help set up with the committee, she had to find herself there. Her participation in the preparation was for an entirely different reason, of course—ditching class.

Maria took a moment to stretch lazily and put her hair back in a ponytail.

“
No slacking off, Maria!” A pair of blue eyes targeted her. Trisha, the committee leader, pointed an accusing finger at Maria
from across the room. “If you don’t want to help then give your duties over to someone else! We’re low enough on people as it is!”

“
Calm down Hitler,” Maria mumbled to herself.

“
Hello? Maria? Did you hear what I just said?” came Trisha’s annoying voice again from across the room.

Maria bent forward, holding her back in mock pain. “Wh-Why yessum m-massah! I-I be sure to get on it right quick for ya!” Maria tossed back.

The scattered students around the gymnasium burst into laughter. Trisha threw down her notepad on a desk and stomped over to Maria.

“
Very funny, but I wouldn’t have to act like a slave driver if you didn’t slack off. So you think you’ve done a lot of work, huh? Show me what you’ve done so far.”

This was just too dramatic for eight-thirty in the morning.

“
I...cleaned the bleachers.”

“
How many rows?”

“
A lot.”

Trisha squinted at her. Her pointy nose crinkled.

“
Really, I cleaned a lot. Like a good...Let’s see here...” Maria’s voice lowered considerably. “Okay, maybe one. Or maybe just a single bench
in
a row. But I can guarantee you that the one I did—wait for it now, this is the best part—
everyone
is going to want to sit on that one I cleaned.” She tried to hold back a smile.

Trisha’s pale blonde eyebrows slanted together. “Don’t waste my time this morning, Jaghai. I don’t have the tolerance for it.” Trisha looked up at the gymnasium walls. “The walls are naked. Make yourself useful and put up some balloons. Now.”

When finally Trisha walked away, Maria chuckled to herself. Aggravating such a hardworking girl really was wrong, but if there was so much work to be done, adding humor into the mix wasn’t a bad idea. But when she looked up at the walls and saw the challenge Trisha had intentionally placed before her, laughing was the last thing she felt like doing. Were the gym walls always this high and wide?

After locating a large cardboard box of deflated balloons sitting on a desk in the middle of the gym, Maria pulled the box near to her to begin. No ladder was around, but she could worry about that later.

She picked up a red balloon first, blew it up and then set it down. She did the second and third with similar ease. Ah, not so daunting at first. How tiring could it be to blow up a few balloons? But by the time her lips were on the sixth one, her face was swollen and painful. The task was too overwhelming for one person. Damn that Trisha. She knew exactly what she was doing.

“
Do you need some help?” a deep velvet voice said from behind her.

A familiar heat shot up her face. She turned abruptly.

“
Hey you,” Alan greeted softly when her eyes touched his.

Caught completely off guard by his presence, all she could manage was a breathy “Hi” in response.

Alan smiled a sexy casual grin. “You’re a part of the decoration committee?”

Maria shook her head all too quickly. “No, no. I’m just helping so I can skip class.”
Wait a second! Don’t admit that!
Maria smiled her embarrassment away. “Wait, that wasn’t what I meant to say.”

Alan rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Well, even if it was what you really meant to say or not, it seems you and I think alike. I’m skipping class too.” He glanced back at Trisha. “That girl said I should help someone. I think she meant herself, but...” He looked at Maria and connected his sparkling eyes with hers. “I’d much rather help you if that’s all right.”

She fought away redness threatening to stain her cheeks. Maria looked over her shoulder and glanced at Trisha, who was giving her a deadly glare.

“
Hmm, well I’d
love
the help,” Maria insisted, intensely satisfied with the image coming to her of Trisha foaming at the mouth from seeing them together. “Blowing up these balloons is giving me a serious headache.”

“
Really?”

Without another word he valiantly took the deflated balloon from her hands, slightly brushing her fingers in the action. She fought back a quiver.

“
Wait, hold on,” she interrupted with a guilty smirk. “We don’t
both
need the wrath of Trisha on us. I really think she intends for me to do this one solo so she can see my blood, sweat and tears.”

“
That’s too bad for her. I want to help you. I can blow them up and we can hang them together.” His eyes told her he’d accept nothing less. If his insistence hadn’t come off as chivalrous she would’ve written him off as being too bossy for her own liking.

Quickly he finished up her balloon and began work on the others. Maria stood for a moment considering where to put them on the wall, but she couldn’t help stealing a handful of glances at Alan’s handsomeness in the process. Oh God, even his profile was amazing. He looked as good as he had yesterday, and with this being the third time she had seen him, she mentally gave him points for knowing how to dress. His quarter-sleeved, red and blue cotton t-shirt revealed tanned and toned arms, and another pair of loose-fitting jeans did well to compliment what kept his beautiful body standing at such a gorgeous altitude.

She soon came to realize there was something different about his appearance, something she hadn’t picked up on before. His all-blonde hair now had a single black lock at the side.

“
Let’s put some of them up now,” he said, holding the box now full of balloons.

She stared inside the box. Amazing. To get six done had taken her forever and already the box of twenty was finished after merely a minute or so.

“
You have some seriously good lungs,” Maria said, impressed. But the black streak in his hair, now more visible to her because he was closer, came back to her attention. He was worth giving a warning to. “Hey, I didn’t notice before that you had a streak in your hair.”

“
Oh. Yeah. I just put it in. Yesterday afternoon after I saw you, to be precise.” His green eyes flickered something strange.

“
Yeah...it looks cool, but it’s against the rules to dye your hair. They go crazy with that rule.”

His eyebrows barely rose. “That may pose a slight problem for me. I’ll be changing quite frequently while I’m here,” he said with a slight airiness. Alan turned away from her and assessed the wall. “So how are we going to get these up? We may need a ladder for this.”

“
Yeah I know, but all our ladders are broken up crap. But if you stood on something, you could probably get to a respectable height, since you’re already tall.”

He took a masking tape roll from his pocket and then knelt on one knee in front of her. “Get on.”

“
Get on where?”

“
On my shoulders.”

“
You’ve got to be kidding.”

“
No, I’m not.”

“
Are you crazy? I’ll fall.”

“
No you won’t. I have no intention of dropping you.”

She raised a doubtful eyebrow. “That may not be your intention, but gravity holds no conversations.”

He smiled. “What’s there to worry about? Didn’t you ever sit on your father’s shoulders?”

She dismissed the question mentally since she already knew the answer, but she was still reluctant. Nervously her gaze fluttered about the room to other students. Quickly, without giving away her real intent, she evaluated the girls who were smaller and slimmer than she was. Inevitably she resorted to scrutinizing herself, her deceptively thin arms crossed over a stomach that pushed against her shirt, and her bottom that filled jeans a few sizes larger than those worn by girls like Trisha. If he lifted her up he would realize how much heavier her body really was.

“
I promise I’ll hold on to you,” he said, getting her attention once again. His smile was so warm and inviting. “What? You think I’d readily stomp all over the fair maiden’s trust? For the moment at least, trust me, all right?”

With those kind of eyes, who couldn’t? Maria finally agreed and sighed dramatically. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she expelled with a breath and a smile.

He bent his upper body low and she carefully positioned her thighs over his shoulders.

“
Hold on.” He stood up with considerable ease.

She tilted forward unexpectedly and burst out loud with laughter, locking her hands together around his neck for security. “Oh God! Don’t you dare make me fall!”

“
I won’t if you don’t choke me to death,” he strained to say.

Realizing her grip was too tight, she relaxed her fingers. He easily handed her the tape for the balloons and they began working. They did well as a team, although she wasn’t about to express her uneasiness caused by the back of his neck putting a specific pressure between her legs. But eventually she was able to relax on his shoulders, even with his hands clutching on to her thighs to keep her steady. He joked and talked with her as they worked and she loved every second of it. This Alan Kristinsson person truly was a good addition to the school, after all. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed with a boy.

“
Good, that’s it. Put the other one there,” he directed.

“
What are you two doing?” Trisha interrupted from behind.

Alan turned with Maria on him. They stared at the resentful blonde girl.

“
Do you want me to get in trouble?” she continued. “That’s what they call PDA.”

“
Do you see us sharing saliva?” Maria argued, upset at her integrity being challenged.

“
Did you con our poor new student into holding you up? You’re going to break his shoulders, Maria.” Trisha smiled at Alan conspiringly, hoping to draw mutual agreement from him. “And anyway, there are things called ladders, you know.” Trisha pointed to one barely peeking out from behind the bleachers.

“
Well, you couldn’t have expected us to see that! Someone practically hid the thing there.”

“
It’s all right,” Alan intervened easily. But the detached calm in his voice did not go unnoticed by Maria, or Trisha who helplessly responded to the sudden tension with a hesitant quarter smile.

He let Maria down carefully and came back with the ladder a few moments later. Both of their jaws unhinged as they watched him. Alan easily picked up the large metal ladder by one of the rungs and slung it over his right shoulder as if it were no heavier than an empty suitcase.

“
Satisfied?” He shot Trisha a glower and dropped the ladder so close to her feet that she shifted back in her open-toed sandals.

The clang of the ladder’s legs upon the gymnasium floor drew everyone’s attention. Trisha wobbled for a moment and was silent for the few seconds that it took to regain some semblance of composure. She left quickly, her legs unsure and confused when she retreated.

“
Wow.” Maria was breathless. “Congrats. You’re the first person I know who was able to scare away
Trisha the Terrible
.”