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Misguided Perception
by Matthew Stephen Hyder
(August 27, 2011 Saturday A.D.)
Part 3

Last night I didn't dream about anything too important. It was strange though. I dreamt that I was like Lady Liberty, carrying the torch of freedom everywhere I go. I was sailing over the ocean against thick fog, which I'd like to believe symbolized doubt, because I couldn't tell where I was going, even with the torch. I then went to a cave, which I was still scared to go into even with my torch. When I went inside, a giant bear was in the way, sleeping. Not wanting to wake the beast up, I left. I wonder if this means anything to... Maybe there's a great danger I have to avoid soon. I wonder what that could be...
I went downstairs and ate some breakfast and went to school as usual. I didn't expect much to happen at school, and I was kind of right, except that I could see my friends being picked on for being friends with Monica and Ashley, those two lesbians. Don't these people have anything better to do?
"Stop!" I said, rushing to help my friends. It turns out the bully was Bianca, the most popular girl in school. To me, she's nothing more than a stripper. Whenever she's not in school, she always wears all this makeup, mascara, finger nail polish and some kind of sexy clothing I'd rather not know. She's not even in high school yet. I wonder why she's already acting all big and tough already. Maybe there's something more to her health that's causing her to act this way... Surely people don't just do this kind of stuff for kicks do they? Because that's really sad... I wish I could find some way to stop it all.
"Oh, hello there Rose. I see you're nothing but a lesbian too." said Bianca, acting like a know-it-all. "Who says I have to be a lesbian to be friends with lesbians? That's a really stupid thing to say." "Whatever. All I'm saying is you're not going to be very popular at school if you hang out with these kind of people." "I don't need help on being popular, Bianca." "Oh, you may not think it's a big deal now, but just wait until you get to high school. It's a dangerous world out there. You should be more like me. Then, everyone would fall in love with you." "They don't love you. They just want you for... Whatever it is you do. You can't possibly be friends with everyone in the school, since I for one am not your friend." "That's okay. I don't need someone like you in my life anyway. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be late for class." "Yeah, well, that's your fault isn't it?" "Watch it missy. If you say one more thing like that, I'll give yo hell." said Bianca, and she walked off like nothing happened.
"Geez, what a no good b***h" said Rachel, who was the one being bullied. "Hey, hey, calm down. Maybe she has her reasons." "Pft, who cares about her reasons. She can't just do whatever she wants, especially at that age." said Rachel in disgust. I could see where she's getting at. Well, let's just get to class and we could find out what to do later today. It's finally Friday. Tomorrow will be Saturday, and then after Finals it will finally be Christmas soon." "Alright, and I guess we can bring Monica and Ashley too." "Yeah, those two are pretty cool, huh? It was nice for them to want to buy clothes for us all of a sudden." "Yeah, that was pretty cool." So we went to our classes and nothing else really happened until after school.
Once school was over, I started to see posters of some famous fortune teller that came to town today. I don't really believe in fortunes, but I thought it would be fun anyway. My dreams at least seem to be pretty odd lately, so maybe these kind of clairvoyant powers are real. If they are, I can imagine if fortune tellers are considered evil too, like witches. What could this fortune teller possibly do to me? It's not like she can change fate just by telling me what's going to happen to me, right? So I went in search for the fortune teller.
The person was all cloaked and mysterious, like every typical fortune teller is. The fortune teller seemed to be a woman though, who sounded quite young. I figured that she would be old, with many years of life experience but I guess not. Still, if there's posters of her everywhere, she must be pretty good. Hm... Fortune Telling... making someone famous? Now I started to get worried that people really can have supernatural powers somehow. The bible says that magic is evil, but then what kind of powers is God said to have? What's the different between that and magic? What would you call it?
Anyways, I went up to the lady and she greeted me by saying "Would you like your fortune told?" "I hesitated, not sure what the outcome of my fortune will be. but I then said yes. She then spread out a bunch of weird looking cards, and told me to pick one. Why can't she just tell me what it is, instead of leaving my supposed fate up to chance? There were 5 cards, just like a poker game and I picked the one in the middle, not really caring what card it was.
The lady picked it up and read it. "I see, so you got The Hermit." "What's that?" I asked. "Well, you see, there are these cards called Tarot, and they are divided by the Major and Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana consists of 22 cards, 0-21 and the Minor Arcana are like suits, which are Swords, Chalices, Pentacles, and Wands. The Major Arcana is more commonly used for fortune telling." said the lady, not surprised that I don't know anything about this. "So, what does Hermit mean?" "The Hermit means you need to spend more time by yourself to think some things through. You need to find out what you truly believe in. You see, the Major Arcana represents the stages in life a person goes through. It also has to do with maturity. People can die before reaching their full potential." "Oh... well, I hope I reach my full potential." I said, feeling hopeful. "I hope you do too." said the lady. I wasn't even going to ask her what card represents her right now. I bet she would like to keep it a secret. As curious as I am, it's probably best not to invade one's privacy, even if I'm sort of asking her to invade mine, in a way.
I paid her the money she needed, being only $5 and left. My own path... What I truly believe in... Needing to spend time alone... I still haven't finished the book I got from the bookstore. Even though it's just a story, it's made in such a realistic manner that I feel like I could decide things better if I finish it.
Oh, this is too much for me! I'll think about it tomorrow. Right now I need to get home. So I walked on home, talked to my friends on the web, read some of my book, and went to sleep... Tomorrow will be Saturday, and they'll only be a week left to Christmas... I can't wait. But for now I have to take my finals after the weekend. I'm so glad I get to have two days off before having to do something so tiring... I hope I pass them all.
As I keep an optimistic mind set, I tried to go to sleep... Which reminded me of the dream I had last night. What was that bear supposed to represent? Surely it couldn't have been that lady... Is it better for me not to know about these things, so as to not go against my religion?
I shrugged these thoughts and nodded off into dream land...