Jayden The Janitor

• Oztin Chris Baluyot, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2022

Crash! Water spilled everywhere. Mops, brooms and dusters were scattered across the floor. There laid a man face flat on the floor, not moving and unconscious. Students gathered around him checking if he was okay, they checked his pulse; but his arms were cold and heavy. People started yelling and asking for help from the teachers and eventually the principal was called down. Teachers lifted the man up, his face covered in water, and was brought into the principal’s office. It was Jayden.
Jayden is a janitor at Broad River Middle School. He was a tall young man with long brown hair and dark, soulless eyes. His clothes were plain and simple, a grey shirt and blue pants that didn’t fit him well. He always wore the same clothes every day. He was liked in school for his simplicity and was very polite to the students even if they were mean to him. He was known to not like or dislike anyone at all.
After Jayden’s incident, students started to worry. Every time water was splashed onto his neck he would collapse. Was he allergic to water? No one knew. He was okay to touch water but if even the tiniest drop hits his neck, he would be out and unconscious. Students decided to investigate.
The next day, Jayden opened the janitor’s closet to find that all his tools had been carefully arranged and sorted. He had no expression on his face and picked out the tools he needed to clean the hallways. As he was doing this, students wanted to know more about Jayden, so they decided to follow. They noted down that Jayden barely talked to anyone and only spoke to people who approached him. They also noticed - Jayden never left the school. This was very suspicious.
A day passed, Jayden walked down the hallway and students sneakily followed him. Today was the day he cleans the school bathrooms. The students felt sorry for him as the school bathrooms were always ruined with graffiti, toilet paper and water splashed everywhere. Jayden went inside the toilet and there were some kids hanging out. These kids weren’t the nicest of people and were very mean to Jayden. They started harassing him, yelling at him and calling him names. They grabbed him by the neck and shoved his head down the toilet. Zap! Crackle! Whirr! There was a loud scream.
Screams, the sounds of mechanical whirring, and smoke building up in the bathroom. Kids ran away while others gathered around the bathroom to see what had happened. Ring! Ring! Ring! The fire alarm went off. Everyone was evacuated from school. Firefighters arrived but were shocked by their discovery.
A man was dragged out. Everyone saw everything. All were shocked, horrified and disgusted. They realised it was Jayden. Students were curious but the teachers stopped them. Jayden looked lifeless, there were cogs and wires falling out of his neck and electrical sparks were sparkling brightly. Jayden was a robot?