Mike's Sorting

"It'll be fine."

Mike bowed his head. He was taking deep breaths but it didn't seem to be working. It was ironic, that he had only just plucked up the courage to talk to Rose, when suddenly he had to leave. Octela Academy for Weirdos. Even worse, sometimes it seemed like she liked him too. Didn't matter anymore.

She looked genuinely concerned for him. She reached over and held his hand in hers.

"Y-you don't know that..." This wasn't right. Wasn't it meant to be the other way round? Wasn't the guy meant to comfort the girl about dumb problems like these? Mike didn't want to be the girl in this would-be relationship.

Rose didn't look all that comfortable, either. She lingered, brushing a strand of dark red hair behind her ear with her free hand. "Look, you'll probably be home soon. You're only going away so they can check out what you can do, right? Then you'll come back?"

He gulped. He hadn't told her the full Octela story. "Uhm... Sure? J-just don't expect me back too soon."

"Okay. Okay. Okay, just... Be careful, will you?" Her lower lip quivered.

Mike looked back. His mom was calling him. "I'll do my best, alright? I've gotta go."

A tear slid down Rose's cheek. She looked like she was about to say something, but then she leaned forward and kissed him instead.

That memory. It kept coming back, and Mike was by no means stopping it. Most of that day he had sat silently in his seat on the train trying to remember what has name was.

He couldn't go there now, though. It was sorting time. He closed his eyes, and knocked.

"Come in!" Callissa called. "Mike valentine correct?"

Mike nodded tentatively.

'Stop thinking about Rose,' he told himself.

"This is the sorting, right?"

"Yup, so uh tell me about yourself," she told the boy.

He frowned. "I... Uh... I live in the past. Literally. It's my power. I can go into memories and relive them. I could stay in the past forever if I wanted to. And maybe I will someday, when the present gets too hard for me."

He thought about that for a moment, "I'm friendly, I guess. A little distant, but I'm not rude or anything. If I'm with the right people, then I'm pretty fun to be around, sometimes. I don't know."

"Have you read up on the houses?" Callissa asked. "How does Ceballeran sound?"

Mike frowned, trying to remember. He put himself back into the memory.

"I don't fit into any of these categories!" Mike whined, showing the papers to his mom, "How am I meant to get sorted?"

Mom looked at the sheet for a while. "What about Ceballeran?"

He frowned, "I'm not fun."

"You are with your friends."

He sighed, "Fine. I'm probably gonna be a greenie then."

Mike blinked a few times. The problem with this memory thing is that when he comes back, no time has passed. It can be awfully disorienting.

"Um, sure."

"Ok. Ceballeran it is. Dismissed."