Friendship and Fights

"What does this mean?" Emily screamed at the mirror. Candice appeared, laughing and dancing.

"Dita's future," Candice explained calmly, drawing out the syllables so Emily would understand. "This time you know when it’s going to happen. It’s your turn. Are you going to intervene?"

Exam week... Emily thought. That meant those rehearsals would be in the afternoon. She wasn't sure if she wanted to intervene. Dita was never particularly friendly to anyone. Besides, Emily was in seventh grade, and Dita was in ninth.

"How should I even approach her?" Emily asked Candice, trying to solve the problem. "She's in third year. If she speaks to me, it's only to insult me or mock me."

"It's your turn," was all Candice responded, without a drop of emotion. She only watched as Emily grew more worried, her anguish rising steadily. "Ask her for advice on something. It's time to change the future now! Its time do do something!"

Candice vanished. Emily closed her eyes to try to clear her mind. Her head ached. She was just about to fall asleep when her bedroom door open vilently.

"Emily, you silly girl! I've been calling you for a while now," Sandra, her mother, was standing there at the entrance to her room. Without getting up, Emily looked at her mother. "We're home. Did you eat yet?"

"Yes, Mom, I already ate," Emily said with annoyance.

Her mother rolled her eyes, frustrated and exhausted from being at the Social Security office all day. She closed the door again, leaving her daughter alone. Emily heard her grandmother and mother talking about something she didn't want to know.

On Sunday, the friends gathered to study. Exams would begin mext Monday, followed by the two-week vacation. They started by studying for the history exam.
Thanks to Lucía's help, they managed to concentrate and retain some information that would be useful for the test. Naomy even made up stories and jokes to make the information easier to remember.

"Mayans like panuchos and quetzales," Naomy began to recite. "Panuchos are from Mérida and quetzales are from Guatemala. Easy, right?"

Karla and Emily laughed at their friend's antics, but Lucía remained serious. Emily, following the flow, even found her own way to remember.

They didn't notice it, but Candice was watching them. The tiled floor of Lucía's room reflected more than just the furniture and the girls' silhouettes. Candice's figure was there. She watched solemnly as the girls had fun and laughed while trying to study.

With a certain air of nostalgia and jealousy, Candice watched them. She shook her head slightly to return to her reality. She had to concentrate. Her plan was to show Dita's future to the other two girls who had summoned her. Dita's future disturbed her, and she wanted to prevent it.

She saw Lucía stand up, apologize, and go to the bathroom. Candice waited, and while Lucía was washing her hands, Candice appeared. Lucía attributed seeing Candice to exhaustion.

"Wait, don't go!" Candice shouted, making Lucía freeze as a chill ran down her spine. "I need you to help me, can you?"

Lucía ran out of the bathroom without closing the door and returned to her friends. One down. Her only chance was to wait for Naomy to see her again and ask for her help to intervene with Dita.

Candice waited almost all afternoon, but finally, she saw Naomy in the bathroom mirror. Naomy was also tired of studying all day. For her, doing that—especially on a Sunday—was a nuisance. And now, they were asking her to approach Dita?

"That future is horrible!" Naomy told Candice. Terror was evident on her face. "Is it really going to happen?"

"It is the most likely future," Candice commented with a sad gaze. "I want you to help her. Emily saw that future too."

Naomy laughed a bit and looked at Candice with indignation.

"I won't help you, and I won't help that bitch!," Naomy stated as she walked toward the bathroom door. "Dita isn't... friendly. She's stuck-up, haughty, selfish. She always insults me. She doesn't deserve my help."

"You chose to see the future," Candice commented calmly, pointing at Naomy. "Now it is your turn to carry the responsibility. That gil needs your help. Not just to avoid that ending."

Candice vanished. Naomy complained out loud. She left the bathroom and went with her friends to eat some burgers. Karla noticed her friends looked quite serious and decided to ask what was wrong.

"What's up with you girls?" she asked. "You look worried, and I think is not because the exams."

"What would you say if I told you I saw a woman in the mirror?" Lucía said, unable to contain her worry.

Karla couldn't hold back a nervous giggle. She couldn't believe it and attributed it to spending too much time with Emily. She began to recite advice laced with religious superstition.

"Shut up already, Karla!," Naomy told her, fed up with her always bringing that up. "I saw her too. And the worst part is she told me a terrifying future."

"Liar!" Karla shouted. She already regretted asking. "I'll remind you that lying is a sin, and not just that. I'll remind you that no one can know the future, only God. It seems to me we should have other hobbies instead of the ones Emily imposes on us."

"Don't drag me into this," Emily defended herself, raising her voice. "It's not my fault you don't have your own  hobbies beyond what your families impose on you."

The fight continued for a while longer, and the friends ended up splitting up. Naomy stayed with Emily, while Karla and Lucía left separately, returning to their respective homes alone. On the way to Emily's house, the two of them talked.

"Did Candice show you Dita's future?" Emily asked her friend.

Both were trying to calm down. The day had been horrible because of the study session. The last thing Emily wanted was for her friend to speak to her and scold her about the only subject she ever mentions.

Naomy told her what she had seen, and Emily confirmed it was exactly what she had seen too. Finally, Emily had the chance to talk about the Pablito situation more calmly. She told her she had seen two possible futures that Candice had given her. This horrified Naomy.

"You saw the accident through the mirror?" Naomy asked. "Tell me you're lying."

Emily silently shook her head. Now she understood that the guilt her friend felt was genuine, and not one imposed by her teacher. She understood they had to approach Dita.

"What I wonder," Naomy said, "is why she wants us to help that stuck-up bitch."

Emily said nothing. But she thought, she meditated. Pablito needed help; he needed real friends. At some point, she remembered a movie they watched at school. She remembered the main theme was about loneliness, about how some people prefer to remain silent.

"Maybe Dita needs help," Emily said.

"What kind of help?" Naomy asked, curious mostly because her friend began to behave in an unusual way.

"There are many things we don't know about people," Emily concluded. "It could be that Dita needs to be rescued."

"Rescued? From what? also, why Dita. She's ok, I can't see what's the problem" Naomy said. "What do you want to save someone from when they insult you and look down on you?”