Through a Clouded Mirror by Miya T. Beck

Author:Miya T. Beck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2024-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

9

In the Second Round of the Contest

As Yuki stowed her insulated lunch bag inside her locker, the bell rang. How was that possible? She was never tardy. Running down the hall with the rest of the late kids, she dashed into science class, where the other students were already hunched over their desks. Mr. Krash had given them a pop quiz. Krash was short for Krashenninikov. On the first day of school, he’d written his name across the entire dry-erase board and said, “The second n is silent.” She’d been the only one to laugh. Yuki slid into her seat at the end of the row where the test was waiting for her. The first question read, “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. Explain.”

Her heart revved with panic. She’d already failed an English assignment. She couldn’t fail this quiz, too. Yuki raised her hand.

“Excuse me, Mr. Krash,” she said. “I’ve been absent so I can’t take this test.”

“Have you ever looked in a mirror?” he asked, folding his hairy arms.

“Well, yes,” she said.

“Then you can take the test,” he said.

A cow lowed behind her. When Yuki turned in her seat, she found Ava wearing a cow head like the Egyptian goddess Hathor. Ava was looking at a phone with Zoe.

“You think I should be nipped in the butt?” Zoe said. “Oh, Yuki, that’s mean.”

That had been in a private chat with Julio on LVLup. How could Zoe know about her list?

“Let me see that,” Yuki said, trying to grab the phone from Zoe’s hand. But Ava mooed a warning at her.

“Oh, didn’t you know?” Zoe said. “Julio invited us to join the chat.”

Zoe cackled and Ava mooed and Yuki woke up in an unfamiliar room. Next to her, Izumi snored softly. Shōnagon was also asleep, one silk sleeve flung across her forehead. After the party, they had all gone to bed in a room connected to the empress’s inner chambers.

The celebration had gone on until dawn amid a flood of congratulatory letters for Yuki and Shōnagon. Some letters came with a sprig of white flowers from the branch that the magpie had been pictured with (viburnum, Shōnagon informed her). Others had a feather attached. Shōnagon also had several admirers come up to the veranda to visit, and Yuki enjoyed listening to their banter. In the wee hours, Yuki and Izumi had played a game similar to backgammon on a beautiful hand-carved set. The playing pieces, in dark and light wood, felt substantial in her hand, not cheap and disposable like the plastic ones she was used to. Yuki suddenly understood Momo’s rant about how people here spent every moment trying to make the world more beautiful, while modern-day life was small and limited to a rectangular screen. The palace was not perfect. But she loved that at court everyone aimed for perfection.

Rolling to her side, Yuki touched the peony, which had been a tight ball when Nobu gave it to her but now resembled a ballerina’s frilly tutu.

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