Awesome Sauce

“Stop picking on her!”

“Why? What are you going to do, stop me?”

“Yeah, loser! You’re just some fat, dumb person who doesn’t even go to prom. Like you ever matter or ever will.”

“Why do you guys have to be so mean? She’s just someone who’s come all the way from another country.”

“Well, we don’t really understand why she’s got to look like that.”

“It’s just a birth defect. Besides, if you were born like that, wouldn’t you hate it when others ostracize you?”

“Yeah—but I’m not!”

“So stop telling us what to do.”

“I’m not.”

“Yeah you are.”

At lunch…

“Hey.” She sat down opposite her, a gorgeous Asian Indian girl of thirteen or fourteen. “Thanks for sticking up for me.”

“You can always be brave, too, you know.”

Cheeks burn with embarrassment. “Yeah—but where I come from, I can’t. I don’t know how because I have never been able to.”

“Well, we Americans are always learning to be brave and stand up for each other.”

“I’m not really sure how to do that.”

“You can learn!”

“How?”

At home.

“The first thing you do when others mock you for your birth defect is by ignoring them. Pretend they’re not even there.”

“Won’t they keep mocking me?”

“Yeah—because you’re not answering.”

“But I’ll just get angrier.”

“Just don’t let it get you angry. And if you do, shoot them back with a retort, like this. ‘Hey, Charlie. What’s with all those T-shirts in your room? You’ve come a long way just to be obsessed with a piece of fabric!”

The girl giggled. “I like that one.”

“Well, I hope it works.” She shrugged. “Look, I’m heavyset, but I don’t let it get me down.”

Later that night…

“Hey, Mom, why was I born like this?”

“I can’t say.”

“Why?”

“Just accept it. You’re always inquiring!”

“I want to know—”

“Stop worrying.”

The girl walked away up to her room, shut her door and ignored her brothers’ constant banter back and forth about who played video games last. When she was about to fall asleep, the girl opened her eyes, got out of bed and went over to her phone. Unlocking it, she smiled. I’ll tell Amira I ignored my brothers’ annoying fighting about the Xbox. I guess that’ll help!

Amira picked up her buzzing phone. “Huh?” She rubbed her eyes, and sat up, grabbed it and opened it. Texting back, she grinned. Setting it down after telling her she’s going to bed, Amira fell onto her pillow and closed her eyes.

The girl didn’t say anything back. Much, much later, the girl got out of bed, opened her window and, with her rope of pillows and sheets tied together, secured one end to her desk and threw the other end down to the earth below. Way below.

The girl gripped the line of sheets and pillows and, swallowing and then taking a huge breath, made the downward descent to the green grass below. “Bye, house! Bye, family.” And she jumped off, and cut out a rectangle, impatient to open it. Once she had gotten below, she walked up to the mirror. She saw her reflection.

 “What do I do?”

It was completely dark inside. Like pitch black. Like if you had turned the lights off, and closed the door to your bedroom. And it was night.

But the girl stood there, wanting her beautiful gown to become blood-red of color, with tinges of orangish-yellow peeping through. Her chocolate-colored hair boasted of singes of lava orange. Whatever she wanted was what happened.

“I just can’t stand up for myself! Why?” She sighed. “I guess…I don’t have what it takes?” She looked away. “Why can’t I just have the same confidence as I do here? Is it because I’m not here—in my home?”

“In your comfort zone.” Her reflection talked back.

“Yeah.” The girl nodded. But then she said that she was just talking to her reflection. She wasn’t getting anywhere. So she left—forever. The reflection’s nerves gave way to heated revenge—she was lonely. So she set out to make a mess of things. First, she disguised herself as the girl so that when Amira sat with her at lunch every day, Amira thought she was her. Then she answered her phone, Amira thinking it was her. Then, one night, Amira wondered why the girl wasn’t in her room. “Rickie—where are you?”

Then she saw her down on the ground. On the floor of the earth. “Rickie!” She yelled down outside her bedroom. She had seen the cotton sheet rope the girl had made. When she had climbed down, she jumped down and asked Rickie whether she was okay.

“I’m not Rickie.” The reflection turned around. Amira jumped, and then furrowed her eyebrows. “I’m her reflection. She deserted me. I’m not her.” Then she laughed, and Amira shivered. It was light but cold. As cold as this creepy woman looked, with her beautiful but intimidating black-as-soot pin-straight hair and ugly-yellow dress. She looked like she desired to be queen of the world.

The wrong ruler for a beautiful, pure world. Such destruction she’d cause, touching innocent red roses with her pale fingers to suck all life from them, them falling to the ground, all black and lifeless! Amira stood her ground.

“You can’t steal my friend! She has no one at school—”

But the reflection laughed, light and cool. Amira’s hands clenched, she was so upset. Who does this witch think she is? Playing around with such an innocent person is not right. She told this to the girl’s reflection, who scoffed and told Amira that maybe she goes to her reflection because she doesn’t even believe Amira. Why would she want to visit me every day if she has a friend? Why can’t she just go to you, a friend?

Because she’s not your friend! You may think so, but she—

“Stop lying to me!” Amira screamed, but Rickie came out from behind her. She spun around, and lunged at Rickie. “Rick, don’t believe it. She’s a lying fool. You need to believe me.”

But Rickie went over to the fire, cuddling up to herself and saying she wished she had some marsh mellows and chocolate and graham crackers to snack on. What a treat in this cold environment! But, she admitted, when Amira went over to her, she had a friend. She was her only friend. It wasn’t like she had anyone else—not anyone else who made her be herself.

“What does that mean?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I want to know.”

“Please—leave me alone. I hate school.”

“Me too.”

“Why does that matter to me?”

“Because, Rickie, I’m standing up for you! Can’t you see that? You can’t just hide.”

“I’m not. I’m with someone I know. My reflection here—”

“Can’t befriend anymore. You don’t get it. You need to be brave.”

“I can’t!” And she disappeared into the forest beyond, her footsteps squelching mud and then suddenly hooves sounded—Amira assumed she was riding a deer. Amira shivered, and sat closer to the fire. “I just wanted to help.”

“You were.” The reflection said, but Amira knew it wasn’t friendly. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Amira got up.

“You don’t fool me!”

The girl snickered and walked in the direction of the woods, but Amira watched her closely. She soon was lost, looking for the girl. Whatever! Amira defeated the reflection, but she wondered where the reflection came from. When she went down into the earth, she saw the mirror. It showed just her. She waved. It waved back at her.

“It won’t work for you. You’re not her.”

Amira spun around. “Oh.” She sounded bored. The reflection didn’t care. She walked up to Amira, put an arm around her shoulders and told her how beautiful she was. “What do you want?”

“Obviously a better body. And prettier features.”

“I can make that happen!” The girl brought out beautifully colorful cupcakes. Amira asked whether she baked those herself. The girl rolled her eyes. “Does it even matter? If you eat the purple, it’ll make your hair long and flowy. If you eat the pink, it’ll change your physical features—make you a lot skinnier, beautiful clothes and awesome words that only you can say. If you eat the orange, you’ll have beautiful things—nice car, nice house and nice friends. And if you eat the yellow, you’ll have awesome powers—like talking all languages, teleportation—”

“Like, I can go places just like that?”

“Yes.” She shoved the cupcakes right in front of her, and Amira, in her excitement, bit into all of them. Then she looked at herself in the mirror. She had long wavy-curly hair, was about twenty pounds lighter and had a red and black plaid hoodie with slits for the thumbs. The girl smiled.

“Do you like it?” The reflection asked her, looking at her in the mirror after she had put the cupcakes down on a table beside the mirror.

“I feel like I would be if I were looking at myself in the mirror on my wedding day!”

As Amira sighed, the reflection nodded. “Yes, you can do the same thing.” And as Amira was smiling to herself as she studied her new self, the reflection looked into the mirror. And then she grew sad. Amira suddenly noticed. “What’s wrong?” She asked innocently.

“Oh.” The reflection lied. “I’m prettier than you. Don’t you want to be as pretty as me?”

“Oh, yes!”

“Here you go.” The reflection handed to her a purple cupcake. “Eat it.” When Amira refused, she encouraged, “Just eat it.”

Ok, ok! Amira grabbed it, and shoved it in her mouth. After gulping it down, she saw that she was as pretty as the reflection. Then she squinted. “Wait…” She widened her eyes. “You…you’re just lacing these with magical poison so we—”

“I’m sick of being Rickie’s reflection! All I do is live in a mirror. I want to be free. Don’t you? Like at school, with your friends. Don’t you want to be free to live your life instead of defend someone all the time? Come on; what a boring life. Rickie doesn’t even appreciate you!”

“She…” Amira thought. “Well, she did thank me—”

“For that stupid birthday present.”

“Yeah.” Amira blinked. “But—”

“How many times has she ever said ‘thank you’ for standing up for her?”

“None.”

“Right. So that’s nothing.”

Amira pursed her lips and then said, “I guess that’s why she ran away.”

“Because you’re not doing a good job of defending her as a friend. You see, if you had the right words, you’d get her to be your friend. She’d thank you.”

“She would?”

The reflection nodded. “Yes! Don’t we all want those friends?”

“Yes.”

“So go find her.”

Amira went off, looking for Rickie. The reflection stayed behind, watching her go. She was soon off, jumping upon a buck who nodded as she rode off with it, it leading her to Rickie. When the reflection turned back to the mirror, she talked to herself. Telling the girl to come outside the mirror, she told her to tell Amira they could be friends now.

“Because she’s as pretty as she’s stupid.”

“Why?”

“Because of these.” She showed her the cupcakes. “When she goes back to school, she’ll see that she’ll need those cupcakes to—”

“Make her beautiful again?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“And powerful and knowledgeable and ready for anyone. She’ll face anyone.”

“Yes!”

“Every time she eats them…”

“She’ll become the opposite. They only last for her to look at herself. Then they start working backwards. She’ll be such a fool in school, right?”

“But—”

The reflection turned on Rickie. “You’re not her friend, are you?”

Rickie gulped.

“Are you?”

But this voice came from Amira, whom the reflection whizzed around to see. She was asking genuinely. “I heard everything. And, Rickie, if you care at all about me, you’ll listen. Please—just defend yourself. It’ll be so much easier if you do.”

Rickie didn’t say anything, but her reflection tried to reason with Amira. When Rickie suddenly grabbed her reflection’s royal robes and shoved her right into her own mirror, screaming and threatening, Rickie smiled. “Nope! Bye.”

Rickie waved, and Amira, who Rickie turned around to see, ran to her. “That was awesome!” They hugged and returned to school. Amira stopped one day and told Rickie that she couldn’t let go of those cupcakes. Not only were they delicious but they also allowed her to have special powers. She was starting to doubt the reflection’s words. “I know she said—“

“Don’t bother.” Rickie said firmly, and Amira wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or to just satiate her desire for the things she needed to go to school. “Just…let’s be friends, okay?”

Amira nodded but she stood before the cupcakes.

“Wow, you’re back! Smarty-pants.”

Amira jumped a little, and looked behind her. Rickie’s reflection was standing there, glad she had returned. “Oh, don’t bother me. Just go ahead.”

Amira turned back to the cupcakes. She stared longingly at them, biting her lip. Finally, she grabbed one. Just as she was about to put it to her mouth, she heard Rickie calling, “Put the stupid thing down!”

Like she was stopping Amira from marrying an evil prince or something right as they were about to kiss.

“If I’m your friend, you’ll listen.”

Amira turned to Rickie, and tears welled in her eyes. “I just…”

“Amira, please. It took all my strength to fight back, and I did! If I can, you can.”

“Amira, if you don’t look, act, think, sound or be the right version of you, you’ll never be the best friend Rickie needs you to be.” It was pretty crazy how good Rickie's reflection acted, sounded and looked like her--though she obviously wasn't. Amira's hatred for this vile girl grew hot. She turned away.

Amira stared at the cupcakes. She knew what they’d do, but Amira shook the memory of what Rickie’s reflection told her. “Remember what she said?” Rickie said, but her reflection ordered her to be quiet. Amira looked back at Rickie. She stormed up to the cupcakes, threw them down on the ground (Rickie’s reflection screamed in protest), and shook Amira by the shoulders. “Wake up! She’s just trying to get you—”

Rickie’s reflection, obviously having calmed down, told Amira in an innocent voice that made Rickie want to slam the mirror with something so that it would break that she would eat it and be okay. No more Opposite Day, okay? Just eat it!

Amira blinked. She grabbed the stupid cupcakes and slammed them down, to Rickie’s reflection’s horror. As her face twisted into horror and shock and defeat, Rickie’s friend watched in satisfaction as Amira grabbed the stuff and rubbed all over the mirror, causing Rickie’s reflection to scream in protest. But Amira didn’t listen. She even laughed, enjoying herself.

Rickie stood there, arms crossed. “Make it pretty—like you already are!”

Amira smiled after turning to her when she was done. “Thanks, Rick.”

“Thank you!”

Amira and Rickie walked out of there. When they were gone, Rickie’s reflection watched them through a corner of the mirror. “Bye.” She said before reappearing in reality as Rickie’s mother. When Amira and her friend were in the kitchen, getting a midnight snack, her mother walked in.

“Hey girls! Having something to eat?”

“Yeah.” The two girls sat down, but the mother asked who else was at the table.

Amira looked over. “Uh…you?”

Rickie’s eyes immediately went wide, Amira saw, and she lunged at the woman. “Get away from her!” She shrieked, and the woman had transformed back into Rickie’s reflection.

“Stupid idiots!”

Rickie dashed away to the mirror, with her reflection trying to claw herself off of her, but it was fruitless. “You’re going back!” Rickie struggled but managed to shove the stupid person in the mirror. She won, the girl screaming and banging her fists against the mirror. Raging, she tore at her hair, her eyes mad with hate and wild rage. Rickie just shrugged, and then grabbed the frame and dashed the mirror to pieces. Rickie’s reflection wasn’t there; just a million shattered shards.

“There.” Rickie walked away, assuring her mother she wasn’t to be afraid anymore. Her mother took a while to adjust, and then went back to bed, but Amira and Rickie looked at each other.

“Nice!”

“Thanks!” Rickie retorted.