Goldfish Prophecies

Maya's new haircut was a disaster—cropped unevenly, like she'd let a toddler attack her with safety scissors. She spent the entire school carnival **running** between booths, ducking behind the cotton candy stand whenever anyone approached.

"Fortunes! Get your fortunes read!" called Chen, the senior who'd somehow transformed a card table into a mystical-looking booth with purple fabric and battery-operated fairy lights.

Maya hesitated, then sank onto the folding chair. Chen took her **palm**, studying the lines like they contained the secrets of the universe. His brow furrowed.

"Interesting," he said. "You're going to face something... powerful. A **bull**, perhaps?"

Maya laughed nervously. "Like, the animal? Or—"

"Or maybe something else." Chen's eyes twinkled. "Could go either way."

Before Maya could ask what that meant, a shadow fell over the booth. Tyler, the school's actual **bull** in every sense that mattered, loomed behind them. "Fortune tellers? Really?"

Maya's heart kicked into overdrive. This was it—the moment her miserable freshman year reached peak humiliation. Tyler would mock her **hair**, Chen would defend her, and she'd be the center of tomorrow's lunchroom gossip.

"Hey," Tyler said unexpectedly, pulling a plastic bag from his pocket. Inside swam a single **goldfish**, won from the ring toss booth. "My mom'll kill me if I bring another one home. You want it?"

Chen burst out laughing. "The prophecy! The bull... brings a fish."

"What prophecy?" Tyler looked genuinely confused.

Maya stared at the orange fish swimming in its tiny bag, then at Tyler's awkward expression, then at her own reflection in the booth's mirror. Her ridiculous haircut caught the fairy lights, creating a kind of halo effect.

"Sure," she said, accepting the bag. "Thanks."

"No problem." Tyler shrugged and wandered off.

Maya walked home with the goldfish, its plastic bag swinging gently, suddenly okay with the hair, the awkwardness, the unpredictability of it all. Some prophecies worked out in ways you never saw coming.