The Rule of Won by Stefan Petrucha

he smiled. “But I understand. It’s easy to have doubts.”
    â€œYou don’t seem to have any.”
    â€œNope,” he said. He went back to his cleaning. “Except maybe whether this stain will come out or not.”
    You have to understand, I hated the guy because Vicky liked him, but, unlike Moore, who just annoyed me whether he was right or wrong, Ethan had this air of calm authority I respected and, well, feared a little. Part of me believed he
did
have all the answers.
    â€œHey, Ethan, can I ask you something?”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œRumor is your dad lost his job and the house.”
    He raised an eyebrow. “And you’re wondering why I just don’t imanifest more money for myself and my family, get back what we lost?”
    â€œWell, yeah. Why don’t you?”
    Hearing it out loud, I felt stupid for asking, like I’d just asked a priest, if God was all-powerful, could he make a rock sobig he himself couldn’t lift it? That always struck me as a good question, but it was an insulting one, one a kid would ask.
    Ethan buffed the paper towels against his pants like he was shining shoes.
    â€œWell, Caleb, the human mind’s a funny thing,” he began, which made me feel even more like an idiot. “We think of all sorts of things. Millions of thoughts a minute. The thoughts we’re aware of are just the tip of an iceberg. Can’t control
all
of them, right? I’m sure everything in my life happened because part of me wanted it to, but I can’t be sure why. I think it happened maybe because it was part of my bigger purpose.”
    My mind flashed back to the day the gym collapsed. Had I been there for a reason?
Was
I secretly ashamed of being a slacker?
    â€œI don’t get it. You think you’re subconsciously punishing yourself?”
    He folded the paper towel in fours, tossed it out, and straightened his pant leg. “No. No, no, no. I think maybe I sent myself here to help out people like you, who really need it. I mean, look around. Who needs help more than Screech Neck? Some of you guys don’t even have cell phones.”
    He had on this half grin that might’ve been sheepish, but if you looked at it another way, it was smug. If he was trying to joke with me, I wasn’t laughing.
    â€œCell phones?”
    The grin got wider. Smug. Definitely smug now. “Sure, you act like it’s okay, but it’s like you’re not part of the twenty-first century. If you ask the kids what college they want to goto, most don’t even know. And that’s the
seniors
. I mean, unless you have some idea of what you want to do with your life, you’ll never do anything, right, Caleb?”
    â€œRight.”
    Only . . . my ambition is to float.
    He slapped me on the shoulder on his way out. “If I’m here talking to you, you must have wanted me here for some reason, too. Maybe I’m here to help fix everybody.”
    I had another question, but the door closed behind him.
    I asked anyway, to myself, “Dude, are you sure we’re broken?”
    I stepped out in the hall and made my way toward the gym. There weren’t many people around. There never were when the Basket Cases played, but even so, this crowd was anemic. Searching for snacks, I spotted a nice old-fashioned corn popper in a red wagon in front of the gym doors. Even their freaking popcorn was special. Remembering my deal with Erica, I plopped down four bucks for two bags.
    As I reached the gym doors, which, of course, are these beautiful polished things that made you feel like you were entering the Emerald City from Oz, I spotted a familiar figure at the school entrance. It took me a while to realize who it was, because he wasn’t dressed in black and didn’t have undead eyes or black lips. Still, that size and shape could belong to only one man: Landon, the Goth who craved an Xbox, which sounds kind of like the title of a fairy