Alyssa turned when she heard the boy...Charlie was his name, whisper to her. She turned and shushed him. "Great now I've lost my
concentration."Alyssa thought to herself. "Where did he pop up from anyway?"

"Oh bother, I've got to do this all over again." Alyssa was getting grumpy which she knew wasn't good because she knew that she needed to be at peace and calm, AND try to clear her mind, in order for her to be able to read anything in the water....if there was any!!

She closed her eyes again, and breathed slowly, trying to calm herself and to empty her thoughts. After a couple of minutes of breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth, she was ready to try it again. She leaned forward and looked back down at the pool of water. She waited patiently knowing that things like this take time.

As she looked, she saw a slight movement coming from the right corner of the reflection. She peered closer and saw a bird. "A bird? What are birds doing up in the sky at night? I thought birds didn't fly at night except for owls?,"Alyssa thought to herself. She decided to keep on looking in the reflection because she was afraid that if she looked up in the sky, she would lose her point of reference. As she continued looking, more birds appeared flying in a V formation. "Must be geese migrating," she thought to herself....and sure enough she heard the quacking sounds coming from above. "That's what it is, geese migrating late at night."

She followed their reflection in the water as they moved from the right to the left portion of the pool. Then they flew out of sight. "Ah well, so much for looking for a meaning in their flight pattern." Alyssa sighed.

But then, as she was about to look away, she saw another lone bird fly from the right. It seemed like it was trying to catch up with the other birds. "Poor bird must be so tired that he's gotten left behind. I hope that the others will slow down or he'll get lost," Alyssa thought to herself as she saw the bird's reflection slowly fly by, and off to the left of the pool of water below her.

She looked up in the sky. There was nothing there. She looked all around her and discovered that besides the boy and her, everyone had left. "Guess I was too late to return to class. Everybody has left. Might as well pack up."

As she leaned over to start picking up the stones, she looked at her reflection in the pool, and suddenly it dawned on her. There could have been a meaning to what she just saw.