Mira hurried across the college campus, clutching a map and timetable. Wind rattled the first-day banners and lifted loose leaves from the path. A gust snatched the timetable away. “Wait!” Mira called, as the campus bell rang and the paper skittered beneath a stranger’s notebook.
The stranger lifted the notebook, and both students grabbed the runaway paper. They tugged from opposite sides. Rip! The timetable tore neatly down the middle. Mira examined one half, then held out the campus map. “Maybe this will help,” Mira said, while the fountain splashed beside them.
Mira followed the stranger toward the lecture hall. Unfortunately, every door looked exactly alike. One opened onto a broom closet. A mop tumbled out like a sleepy monster. Mira whispered, “Not our class,” and both students scrambled back into the corridor.
Then Mira spotted a bright noticeboard at the corridor’s end. The missing room number gleamed in red letters. Footsteps buzzed all around them. Mira pointed, and the stranger nodded. Together, they raced toward the lecture hall, following the new clue.
At the open lecture-hall door, the stranger’s torn timetable slipped from a pocket. It sailed upward like a paper bird. Mira reached for it, but the breeze carried it through the doorway. The stranger lunged after it, while the professor’s empty lectern waited beyond.
Mira caught the timetable just before it landed on the front desk. Then Mira held the door wide. The stranger slipped inside, grinning, and pointed to two empty seats near the window. Mira followed with the paper safely tucked beneath the campus map.
The professor asked everyone to find a partner. Mira and the stranger placed their torn halves together on the desk. The ragged edges matched. Lines, buildings, and paths joined across the paper. “Look,” Mira said. “We’ve made a map.”
The two halves formed a perfect map of the campus. Mira traced the path from the lecture hall to the gardens, while the new friend traced another toward the library. Outside, the bell finished ringing. Inside, their joined map waited between them, ready for the journey ahead.
