The Boy Who Sang About the Stars

Chapter 12

The washroom was dirty and the odor of unwashed bodies oozed from every surface. I stood hunched over the sink trying to scrub the black goo off my face with a towel that was supposed to be white but had been permanently stained brown from age and use. There mirror above the sink was cracked and I looked up and past my reflection at the girl who was standing in the corner, I had told her to wait outside but she insisted on following me in. She was eyeing me and to be perfectly honest it was very unsettling.

"What's I Am mean?" She asked cocking her head to the side. I put the towel down onto the side of the sink and turned around to face her rather than her reflection.

"What are you talking about?"

"Your shirt, it says I Am. You're what?"

I looked down at my chest to see that I was wearing my old black and white baseball tee that I had printed the words I AM onto a couple years back.

"Oh that, uh it's from a song"

"What song?"

"A song I wrote"

"What's it about?"

"...Stuff"

The girl squinted her eyes and took a step closer to me tilting her head up so she could see my face.

"There's still gunk on your cheek"

"I know" I said grabbing the towel off the sink and dunking it back into the shallow pool of water I had created. I brought it back up to my face and started to scrub away at the substance but it only smeared across to the other side of my face and didn't appear to be going everywhere.

The girl tugged on the hem of my shirt again and I stopped scrubbing to look down at her.

"Kneel" she demanded. I didn't understand why she was asking me to do so but I didn't argue. I got down on both of my knees so that I was at eye lever with her. She snatched the towel from my hand and spit into it and then wiped it across my face where the black stuff was.

She stopped wiping my face about a minute later and pulled back the towel that was now covered with the black goo that had been on my face moments before. I took the towel back from her and stood up and dunked it back in the water to rinse my face off after having a child's saliva wiped across it.

"What's your name?"

I turned back around to face her again.

"I'm Adam"

"Oh. Well my names Clara, Clara Oswin Oswald. My daddy is the captain of the ship" she said with a smile spread across her face.

"Well thats...cool." I said doing my best to return the smile.

"You want me to show you around? The control room is super boring right now since all they're doing is waiting for the Cybermen to come so they can fight them back...Professor River says the guy who brought you here can help us get rid of them, do you think he can?" Clara looked at me inquisitively demanding an answer.

"I'm pretty sure he can."

"What makes you say that?"

"I've seen him do some pretty incredible stuff"

"Like what?"

I sighed "Do you ever stop asking questions?" I pressed the button on the wall that caused the door to slide up into the ceiling and grant me access to the hall outside. I stepped out onto the metal grating with Clara on my heels and closed the door behind her. Clara grabbed my wrist and started pulling me down on of the many entwining paths.