Mirror

A Sage's Power

"Hey now!" Camy's voice startled me.

"What?" I asked.

Camy let out an exasperated sigh. "I've been trying to talk to you for hours now. Have you even heard a word?"

I nodded as I craned my neck and stood on tiptoe to see over the crowd of people in the hallway.

"Mhmm." Camy dragged out the sound to voice her disbelief. "Are you looking for someone?"

I laughed sheepishly as I dropped back onto flat feet. "I'm sorry, I haven't been listening at all. I met a fortune teller and she said I would meet someone today," I said, finding no harm in blatant honesty except having to admit that I'd been ignoring her for the past four class periods.

Camy stared at me with her mouth open slightly for a second. "A fortune teller." She wasn't amused. "You've been ignoring me because of something like that? You know they only telling you things that could be vaguely true to get your money, right? In fact, it's probably already come true and you didn't even know it. You meet new people every day."

"But, she sounded like..." my voice trailed off.

Camy nodded smugly. "Well tell me tomorrow how that goes for you. I gotta catch my bus."

I watched Camy leave and left for creative writing club still believing her to be very wrong.

By 4:30 I wasn't so sure. Kya needed to be picked up from a birthday party before Mom could come get me so I still had to wait, but I was forced to face the reality of Camy's assumption. I didn't think Kylee had lied to me, but more than likely I had placed too much significance on the results. If I thought back on my day it became clear that I had already met a good number of new people, but the short exchanges of words had been so ordinary that I hadn't even registered them as relevant.

I strolled back toward the main entrance of the school to wait for Mom, feeling silly. The hallways were empty by then, save for the occasional teacher hurrying to get home.

"Watch out!" A voice from behind me cried as I walked down a flight of stairs to the main entrance of the school. Before I had a chance to turn around something swept my feet from under me and sent my world spinning. I tumbled to the bottom of the stairs and heard quick frantic steps follow me down. As soon as my shoulder collided with the floor I picked myself up and checked to make sure I was all in one piece. I was, or at least my body was, to say nothing of my pride.

"Are you all right? I'm so sorry. It was a complete accident," A man's voice stuttered from a few steps above me. I nodded and looked at the janitors mop bucket that had stolen my balance. Then I turned to see who it was that had sent the bucket sailing down the stairs. It was a boy no older than seventeen, tall and lean, wearing a janitor's suit and holding a mop and a washcloth. His sleeves were rolled back exposing well-defined forearms, like those of a practiced climber or gymnast. I blinked.

"Are you-" I started.

"A janitor?" he completed my question for me. "Yes," he answered, "and no, I'm not a drop out. This is my official part-time job. I always stay here after school."

"That's cool," I replied partially because I didn't know what else to say, but also because I meant it.

"You're sure you're okay? Good thing the bucket wasn't filled with water."