Lately, she was obsessed with the mirror. Ever since she started high school earlier last year, she was attached to the mirror by the brain. It was found with her everywhere she went. I would come home from school, and there she was, in front of the bathroom mirror. Every time I looked over at her on the stands from the soccer field, there she was looking at herself with a compact mirror. She never seemed to be anywhere without it, like her friends. It never seemed to show her the truth, the truth of what is truly inside, like her friends.

They would always meet up after school on the bleachers, trying to see if they can blind the football players with their beauty instead of letting them focus on their upcoming game. On Wednesdays, after lounging on the bleachers, they would always come to our house and sit in her room, laughing, gossiping, and of course, looking in the mirror.

I don’t know what happened to her. We used to really close for siblings of the opposite sex, especially her being one year older. But it’s like when she became a freshman, her personality instantly changed.

She used to not care what others thought. She always used to leave her hair down, barely doing anything to it. She would wear whatever she wanted, from a nice shirt and jeans to sweats. She never used makeup, and would always let her light-brown freckles be seen by the world. She was perfect the way she was.

She would always help me with my work. We would sometimes stay up late talking about the future. She would always spend time with our family, us going out in public and being our weird, normal selves. Nothing else mattered but being with each other.

But, then she made new friends. Friends who exposed her to the new world. The new world of Barbie dolls.

Now, she actually cares what other people think. She always does something with her hair, even if it’s just putting a bobby pin in it. Now, all she wears is skinny jeans, long sleeves, and fur coats, even if it’s hot out. Now, she wears makeup; her light-brown freckles went from being exposed and free to being confined and trapped. Now, she’s not the same person she was. She’s not the same person I used to know.

She doesn’t help me with my work, I had to get a tutor. We don’t talk about the future anymore, she talks about social media. She doesn’t spend time with our family anymore, she always spends time in her room with her mirror and her friends. Now, all that matters is her mirror and friends.

Everytime I walk past them in the hallways, they confidently strut past everyone, smiling to themselves as they hear compliments from place to place. It’s like they feed off of compliments like savage-animals who haven’t eaten in years.

Man, they all worshipped this thing like a god. They all thought that beauty was the most important thing in the world and that it would actually get you somewhere. But it doesn’t. They don’t know that it doesn’t show what’s truly inside. Sadly, the mirror couldn’t show my sister how her heart had been damaged, how it had changed from good to bad.

I thought that this was it. This was the way my sister was going to be. She is going to be a self-loving, isolated, careless person all because of a stupid mirror. I thought I had lost my best friend.

But one day, it all changed. She changed back. But, not right away.

It was like any other day at school, or at least it was supposed to be, when a shooter came in and threatened to kill everyone.

This happened when I was walking past my sister and her posse, where they would hear the usual compliments, get their heads inflated, have their confident smiles and struts.

But then he came in, and c***ed his gun.

I don’t really remember what happened. It all happened so fast, I was scared for my life, my sister’s life, everyone’s lives. I was scared of someone getting killed.

Luckily, no one got killed, one person just got injured. The shooter got arrested and everyone went home early, but still distraught and unease at what could’ve happened.

However, that one person who got injured, was my sister.

When the shooter was trying to prove how serious he was, he tried to shoot a locker.

That locker was right next to my sister.

At first, we thought she was fine, her ears were just ringing since that bullet hit the locker right next to her ears.

But as time went on, the ringing never stopped. Her hearing seemed to get worse and worse.

The compliments she would always hear started to fade. The gossiping and laughing that her and friends would do started to fade.

And then it faded until she couldn’t hear it at all.