When she wakes up again she's lying on her back, her arms held out to her sides. She stares up at the ceiling, breathing slowly. In one quick movement she tosses her blankets aside and rolls off her bed, landing in a crouch on her feet. After looking around slowly she spots a pair of underwear on the floor, stands up and slides them on. She walks to her window and leans against the frame, spending a moment looking out, then imagines a newspaper headline: "Topless girl spotted in 2nd floor window!" She grins to herself and turns away.

Stepping into the hallway, she finds the rest of the house quiet. She walks to the bathroom and closes the door, then leans against it and sighs lightly. She pulls her underwear off and turns on the water in the shower, then steps inside. Her eyes close as the slightly cold water pours down her body, and she breathes in deeply.

As the water heats up she concentrates on the sound it makes; almost like rain, but not quite the same. There's not enough of it. It's contained in this tiny space, instead of being everywhere, covering everything. The closest you can get without actually being in the rain is a movie theatre. The sound of rain in movies – they always ruin it with dialogue or sound effects, when all I want is the sound of rain...

She runs her hands absently across her body, thinking. They used to play japanese cartoons at the university sometimes; the only reason I went was for the occasional times when they'd break the usual routine and play some of the drama shows. I could really identify with the characters, far more than on any american television shows. There was always an annoying undercurrent of japanese culture and tradition, and I hate culture and tradition, but it wasn't hard to ignore it. And once past that, the motivations, the actions of the characters seemed so much more genuine than what I'm used to seeing. For instance, you never see people alone on american tv. It's an important state for people to be in, it's a yardstick: How do people behave when they're alone? These shows didn't ignore that. And it was easy to step into the place of almost any one of those anime characters, alone in their room, staring out their window into the rain...

If I could, I'd get my own theatre; I'd sit in the middle, in the dark with my eyes closed, and just listen to a soundtrack of rain... Actually, if I could I'd just stay in this shower. I could stay here for hours, if only the water stayed warm. But it doesn't. She shrugs and decides she'd better get out.

She steps out of the shower and stands in front of the mirror, drying herself off. As she towels her hair she glances up, then freezes. She drops the towel and walks to the glass, staring at herself, smiling. At first there are no thoughts to communicate how she feels, and then she thinks, Oh thank god, thank god–

It's finally back.

Her smile breaks into an even wider grin as she looks at herself, a massive feeling of relief sweeping through her. Her knees go weak for a moment and she has to hold on to the sink to keep her balance. I don't even know where it went, I don't know how it came back, oh god; she presses her forehead against the glass. Never leave me again.

Her eyebrows raise slightly. I love mirrors. You can never lie to a mirror, because your reflection will never lie to you. When things aren't right, when something about your life is off-center, your reflection will tell you. You'll feel uneasy, you'll want to look away. But when your reflection makes you glad, when it makes you proud and fills you with excitement at the knowledge of who you are and what you can do, that's when you know that everything's all right. From the outside it's incomprehensible, it seems like it can never come back, but when it does... I never want you to go away, I always want to feel this way...

She touches her cheek, then moves her hand to the mirror. Her eyes never leave themselves. Everything she will be, all of the things she'll do are reflected back on her; there's no guarantee how long this will last, but for now at least, she can examine these things, she can scrutinize herself and smile. When was the first time I felt this way? It wasn't as a child, it wasn't the same. But it was a long time ago, and it's come and left a lot of times since then. It's awful waiting for this feeling to come back to me, but when it does, it's so incredible to know, to be absolutely certain that nothing will ever stop me... She closes her eyes and stretches, then turns slowly around, savoring the sensation of being inside her own body.

There's another test: Imagine a perfect clone of yourself, standing beside you right now. How does that idea feel to you? Would it be an annoyance? Would you want to get away from this person who knows everything about you, who knows everything you've thought and everything you've done? Or would it be one of the greatest things that could ever happen, another copy of yourself, someone to see the things you see, to help you do the things you'll do, to understand things the way you understand them? To finally have someone you can trust, someone you can count on. I don't think most people feel that way about themselves.

She opens her eyes to find herself face to face with the mirror again. She's drawn directly to the center of her eyes, mesmerized – I can shape universes with this... all of reality, everything that exists I can modify, I can change... everything...

Liam rolls over in bed. Saturday... hmm...

He reaches for his nightstand and grabs a stack of comics, then reaches under his mattress for some pornography. Ah... god bless the weekend.

Ugh, Monday morning. These are getting harder and harder every week. Jennifer looks around the classroom at the few students who have already arrived. All are tired-looking and minorly disheveled. This is ridiculous; nobody actually wants to be here. We should all go home and sleep for a couple more hours.

Her door creaks and she glances over to see Elizabeth walk briskly into her class. She's smiling and seems confidently at ease, and Jennifer watches her intently as she walks across the classroom. She stops in front of Jennifer's desk and beams. "Good morning, Ms. Cantrell!"

"Good morning. You're in good spirits today."

"Definitely. So much so that I almost didn't come to school this morning. But I wanted to apologize to you for the way I acted on Friday; I'm sorry if I seemed a little stand-offish. I wasn't myself."

"That's all right." Jennifer leans forward slightly, looking at Elizabeth's face. She really does look good, happy... Jennifer finds herself smiling a little just by looking at her.

"Oh, and I brought you something," Elizabeth says, reaching around to her bookbag. She pulls out an apple and places it in Jennifer's hands. "Here you go."

Jennifer grins. She looks at the apple, then up to Elizabeth's lips, then to her eyes. "Thank you."

"No problem." She smiles. "So, I'll see you later."

"Sure."

Elizabeth nods and walks from the class, Jennifer watching her go. She leans back in her chair and observes her classroom, noticing that the listless students have taken little note of her conversation. She takes the apple and walks to the window, sitting on the pane and running her fingers gently across the apple's surface, watching the students who walk past.