Reese had found his calling.
He was sure of it this time.
The uniform fit. The mop felt right in his hands. The power to cordon off a wet floor with a single yellow sign was the kind of authority nobody had ever trusted him with before and he intended to use it responsibly.
Mostly.
"Why would you ever go home?" Reese said, genuinely meaning it.
The senior janitor looked at him the way people sometimes looked at Reese, like they weren't sure if he was joking.
He wasn't joking.
Then came the thirty day speech.
Reese listened. Actually listened. Then he said the only thing that made sense to say.
"What if there was a mess so big and sticky and disgusting that it was impossible to clean up in less than thirty days?"
The senior janitor stared at him.
"There's no such thing as a thirty day mess."
Reese nodded slowly.
"Yeah," he said. "They also said they'd never put a man on Mars," he muttered to himself as he watched the senior janitor walk away as a plan began brewing inside his head.
...
Three hours later.
Reese stood back and looked at what he had made.
He wasn't sure exactly when it had stopped being a plan and started being art.
It had begun with the industrial cleaner. Then the wax stripper. Then the thing under the sink that didn't have a label, which in Reese's experience meant it was either very dangerous or very useful, and in this case had turned out to be both.
The barrel was his centerpiece.
He stirred it slowly, the way you were supposed to stir something that deserved respect. The layers moved in a way that was genuinely hypnotic. There was texture. There was depth. There was a smell that had caused a passing biology teacher to reconsider her career choices briefly.
Reese had never been called an artist.
He had been called a lot of things. Mostly by principals. Occasionally by judges. Once by a marine biologist who had been visiting the school on an unrelated matter and had simply made the mistake of being nearby.
But standing here now, stirring this barrel, Reese felt what he could only describe as pride.
This was his.
He had made this.
It may have burnt his nose hairs when he smelled it.
But he would be damned not to be proud of what he created.
Nobody had helped him and nobody had told him to and it was perfect.
He stirred one more time and something on the floor caught his eye.
Just at the edge of the barrel's shadow, it was small, catching the light in a way that floor things weren't supposed to catch light.
Reese squinted.
He reached down and picked it up.
It was warm. Too warm for something that had been sitting on warm soil.
Then it dissolved into his palm.
Reese felt no pain, no flash of light, no heat.
Just warmth spreading up his arm and a feeling Reese had never felt before in his entire life.
Like something had just decided he was worth betting on.
Reese stared at his empty hand for a long moment.
"Huh?" he muttered as he quietly stared at his empty palm for a few moments.
The moment had barely passed, and Reese's attention immediately shifted back towards his "30-day mess" barrel.
Standing up, he paused for a moment.
In his vision, something had appeared.
A holographic screen had appeared, along with a grey, circular thing quietly hovering beside it.
"What is that?" He said, waving his hand towards the screen, but his hand just passed through it.
After several attempts, he was silent as he realized that his hand could not touch it at all.
Finally, he took a deep breath.
Shrugged his shoulder and glanced away, but it did not leave his vision.
A frown appeared on his face as he quickly rubbed his eyes, yet it remained.
Looking away once more, it still managed to always remain at the center of his vision.
"This is so stupid."
"It must be a prank," he muttered as he bent down, grabbed a rock, and threw it at the holographic screen.
But as expected, it simply passed through.
At this very moment however, the circular grey ball floating beside the empty holographic screen suddenly came to life.
A yellow color filled it as a mouth, and eyes appeared on it.
A smile appeared on the yellow ball's face as it stared at Reese.
"Welcome! I am Li, and I have decided to make you the greatest force Hollywood has ever seen," it spoke, but Reese remained unmoved for a few moments as an unimpressed frown hung on his lips.
"Yeaa right... which one of them set this up? Was it Dewey, no, was it Malcolm?" Reese casually asked.
"Did you not hear what I just said? I am a magical system, and I have the power to make you the greatest force Hollywood has ever seen!" The ball exclaimed but Reese casually turned away.
Only the empty holographic screen that was mostly see through remained at the center of his vision, but the ball did not follow.
"I am too busy crafting my masterpiece, don't bother me," Reese said with a grin as he grabbed the stick and began mixing his art.
The ball quickly followed as it glanced towards the inside of the barrel.
Although it had no nose, it had vision, and what it saw inside the barrel immediately caused its yellow body to drain into a gross green color as a disgusted expression appeared on its face.
"What is that!" it exclaimed as it flew a bit of distance away from Reese.
"My masterpiece, this is going to ensure they don't immediately fire me as a janitor after 30 days," Reese said.
"Isn't it awesome?" He asked as he kept mixing.
"No! Stop that!" it exclaimed, but Reese ignored it and kept going, trying to make it perfect.