Blizzard Girl ©

Chapter Twenty:

The next morning I awoke with the relief that I took precautions against Percival's reflections. By covering each reflective surface I had with clothing. The downside is that it made my room appear abhorrent. Since I'm not the kind of person to crave chaos, my hands were itching to throw all of my clothes in the hamper I emptied out last night.

Which is why I immediately left my room, shut the door and went to welcome the morning and everyone else in my pajamas. Charlie was eating cereal and had the same peculiar smile on his face as when he came home last night. Jason begged for some details while Charlie gave him the brush-off by saying, "It's none of your business, rebel."

Jason kept on silently eyeing Charlie as he ate his cereal. "Jason, your cereal is going to get soggy if you don't eat it," I replied. He reluctantly started picking at his cereal to take small bites.

I too, ignored Charlie's sunny disposition with the best of my ability. However, when Charlie and I maintained eye contact, his face became blank and uncomprehensible to me. It felt like that look was a knife to my chest because I was able to read Charlie's looks with such accuracy that at times it appeared I could read his mind. I stopped chewing and looked down at my cereal bowl as a hard lump formed in my throat.

The only background noise I heard was from the television on in the living room. By the sound of it dad was watching a travel show. He usually looked for either travel shows or public broadcasting programs to watch most weekends. The silence didn't break until mom breezed into the dining room with her breakfast choice--a ham and cheese sandwich. "Whose ready for some mandatory shopping?" chirped my mom. She was the only person at the dining table not in pajamas.

Charlie raised his spoon in question. "Is it mandatory for me as well?"

"No. Only for my kids, Charlie," she said in a warm tone. "You can come with us if you want."

Charlie glanced at Jason before he said, "I think I'll pass." After he said that he walked away from the table with his empty bowl.

When mom looked back at Jason and I she said calmly, "Get ready soon. We leave in thirty."

Jason's eye, noticably had a bruise. That shiner wrapped around his eye like a crescent moon. It looked awful and so out of place on my geeky little brother. Not to mention he was also starting to exhibit a myriad of other bruises--oh, and I shouldn't forget that split lip no concealer was going to fix.

Even though I arrived for breakfast later than Jason, I still left the table first. When I opened my bedroom door again, I sighed. I only picked up the clothes after I changed into some fresh ones for our mandatory trip.

I then put my hair into a sloppy ponytail because I didn't want to stand in front of a mirror at all. I wanted to kill Percival for what his henchmen did to Jason. However, I wanted to avoid the murder altogether by avoiding him...death for Percival Griffith would be too good an end for him. When I went back downstairs, Jason was running upstairs.

Mom raised her eyebrow at me as she asked me, "So, your hair isn't cooperating, hmm?"

"No, it's not but oh well," I replied with a shrug.

"I could help you tame your hair, honey. Let's just go to the bathroom and--"

"No."

"No?" asked my mom softly. "Why, no?"

"I just want to dress casually. I want my hair to be casual too." I took a deep breath before I added, "Besides, after the night I had, casual sounds terrific."

Mom rubbed my upper back in clockwise motions. "Okay honey--but are you sure I can't help tame it. We don't need a mirror to get it done either, you know. It'd be so easy!"