“Before the bell rings, I’d just like to remind you to bring back your signed permission slips by tomorrow. Do you hear me?” The teacher’s eyes pierced through my soul. “Yeah, I’m looking at you, Minghao. Don’t be the reason I stay behind to chaperone a single-person detention.” Students giggle as a wad of paper strikes the back of my head. “As for everyone else—” She is interrupted by the final bell. “STAY SAFE!”

Books and papers fly into the air as the door opens, releasing our trapped souls into the outside world. I throw my backpack onto my shoulder and make my way to the front of the class. It may not seem like it, but I’m actually a really good student. This morning, I made sure my mom signed my permission slip because I knew Ms. Ren would ask for it. I guess you can say that I’m sort of a psychic. Who else would magically think up an event that later on comes true? Physics, that’s who.

“Yes, Minghao?” Ms. Ren fixed her glasses as she focused her attention onto me. “Are you going to throw a fit because I called you out in front of everyone?”

“No,” I held back my frustration and opened my backpack. “I brought the permission slip... signed!” My hands felt around for the piece of paper. That’s not right.. There’s nothing here. My eyes shot down to my empty backpack. At the bottom, a giant tear allowed me to see the floor beneath.

“I’m waiting.” She leaned her head up against her hand and yawned.

“Tomorrow.” I let out an awkward laugh and she waved me away.

I guess now would be the perfect time to tell you that I’m extremely unlucky. As weird as that may sound, it’s the truth. A normal kid would only need one backpack a year; this is my fourteenth backpack… this semester. Not only that, how many kids do you know of need to visit the doctor’s office for a slight case of the flu? NONE! Unless you know me; then that would be: one. You may be asking yourself “Why is Minghao so unlucky?” Great Question! I also have that question.

Though, I do have my suspicions. A while back, about the time I was born, my father vanished into thin air. Ever since then, my mother is always screaming things like “YOUR FATHER HAS CURSED THIS FAMILY!!!” and “DEAR LORD AND SAVIOR, PLEASE PROTECT MY BABY!!!” Sometimes I’m not sure whether or not she means me or our new puppy, Lily. Either way, it’s pretty strange.

“Hey, Minghao!” A voice called out from behind me. To my surprise, a wild Hoshi appeared, his hair flopping in the wind as he ran towards me. “Whew! You sure walk fast.” Hoshi stretched in place while holding onto a piece of paper. “So I found the place your backpack went BOOM!” His hand extended out in front of me. In it, a sheet of paper.

PREMISSION SLIP

“Great,” I snatched the piece of paper and placed it inside my pocket. “It’s not even signed. If my mom didn’t sign the permission slip, what did my mom sign this morning?” I tried to remember this mornings’ encounter with my mom. She had prepared a wonderful breakfast consisting of: burnt toast, runny eggs and sour milk. Usually, our breakfast would consist of an exploding microwave followed by a shattered window caused by a rogue rock flung by the prestigious lawnmower owned by the friendly, and not at all rude, Mr. Nickels.

“Hello?” Hoshi’s hands waved across my face. “Earth to Minghao.”

“Oh, sorry. I was trying to remember what my mom signed instead of my permission slip.” I scratched my head in confusion and we walked towards the bus.

“With your luck, she probably signed a napkin that she wiped her expired jam on.” Hoshi and I laughed.

On the Brightside, my route home wasn’t filled with a boatload of people. The only people that went the same direction as me were Hoshi and this extremely shy girl. Not only that, but on the opposite side of the street, a new ice cream shop opened up just recently. On hot days like today, I’d usually stay out an extra hour with Hoshi. However, since I need to get this permission slip signed: no ice cream today.

I took out the permission slip from my pocket and gave it a blank stare. How could this happen? The wind picked up and the slip of paper flew into the heavily-populated street. Cars raced by as the permission slip went windshield to windshield.

“NO! I NEED THAT PAPER!” I stood up from the bench at the bus stop and practically charged at the crosswalk. The sign on the other side of the street had a giant red hand telling me to stop. Cars zoomed by as the piece of paper played hopscotch. The signal light went from yellow to red, stopping all cars. The permission slip landed softly onto the crosswalk, waiting to be picked up. Without thinking, I ran over to it and picked it up.

Suddenly, a bright light came flying my direction at a high speed. As it got closer, the light lessened and a car became visible. In the front seat, a lady was talking on the phone and not paying any attention to the road. Instinctively, I ducked my face in between my knees and threw my hands over my head, like a turtle.

URRRRRT!!! CRAAAASH!!!

With one eye open, I peaked to see if I was alive. The traffic was still at a stop. I glanced over at the ice cream shop and saw a man wearing all white in the reflection. By the looks of it, he was standing behind me. Quickly, I spun around to see a car smacked into a pole; no sign of the mysterious man in all white.

HONK!! HONK! H-O-N-K!!!

“What are you doing? Get out of the road!” Hoshi hollered over to me from the bus bay.

I ran back over to the bus bay, allowing the cars to continue their daily commute. The car that had crashed into the pole seemed to have disappeared.

“Did you see that man?” I looked over at the ice cream shop to see if I could miraculously see the man again.

“What man?” He asked as the bus arrived. “You’re so strange. You know that, Minghao?” He dragged me onto the bus and we went home.

Did I already tell you about Hoshi? I’m so easily distracted; you’ll have to forgive me. Hoshi is my best and only friend. I met him when he moved in next door when I was about two years old. We went to preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle school, junior high and now high school together. The entire time, Hoshi has been ‘Mr. Popular’ while I’ve been ‘Don’t-talk-to-that-weirdo-or-you’ll-catch-something’. Despite what everyone says about me, Hoshi seems to never leave my side. He understands me and I understand him; which is why we’re best friends.

The bus dropped us off near our neighborhood and we walked the rest of the way. Hoshi told me about how he had a crush on one of the girls in homeroom. Honestly, everyone likes Hoshi. At one point in my life, I even confessed my undying love for him. (Same) Just my luck, he politely rejected my offer of fleeing the country to get married. Thankfully, it was just a faze and we quickly fixed our friendship. When I arrived at my house, Hoshi said his goodbyes as he walked over to his house that was directly next door to us. (Opposite side of Mr. Nickels)

Upon walking into the house, a funky odor filled my nose. It was a combination between stinky socks and fertilizing sewage. (TheSmellOfMeBecauseImTrash) That meant my mom was cooking dinner.

“Mom, I’m home!” I tossed my backpack onto the chair planted right next to the door and made my way into the kitchen. “Smells great; what are you cooking?”

“Your favorite: ramen.” She wore gloves as she tossed the green noodles like a salad. “They seem.. to have.. a mind of their.. own!” She struggled keeping the noodles from going rogue. I picked up a wooden spoon and began smacking the life-infused noodles. After a good beating, the noodles rested peacefully in the boiling water.

After a few minutes of my mom cooking, we had enough ramen to feed the two of us. The taste of the ramen wasn’t delicious; it was edible.

“How was school?” My mom forced herself to stop eating the atrocious meal.

“You know that permission slip I asked you to sign this morning? I think you might’ve signed a napkin instead.” I felt for the slip of paper in my pocket, but it wasn’t there. My eyes widened as I tried remembering what happened to the paper. Did I really almost get hit by a car for the sake of this permission slip, only to lose it anyways?

“Honey, don’t worry about it. I’ll just call it in.” She smiled weakly and fed the remainder of her food to the dog. “If you manage to find it, let me know. I’ll be sleeping.” She stood up and left the kitchen.

I feel bad for my mother. She works all day only to come home to rotting food, broken appliances and a son whose head is wanted on a stick by LIFE. I hope that one day, all of our bad luck will be erased and we can live happy lives.

I made my way into my room and sat on my bed. The window flew open and rain poured onto my bed. Quickly, I tried pulling the window down to stop the rain water. As soon as I managed to close it, the window broke, allowing the water to come in without anything to stop it.

“WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS?!”

“Nothing.” A voiced called out behind me.

“Who’s there?” I turned around with my fists at the ready. “I know martial arts; don’t mess with me.”

“I’m not messing with you.” The voice said. I looked around but saw no signs of intrusion, despite the broken window caused by bad luck and heavy winds.

“Where are you?” my voice cracked.

“I’m right here.” The voice had almost no emotion, almost sounded confused.

I wandered around my room, lifting sheets, opening drawers and peaking into the closet. Somehow, there was no sign of a person in my room. Am I going crazy?

“You’re not going crazy.”

“How are you doing that?!” I tripped on a broken floorboard and landed safely onto my muddy bed.

“Doing what?”

“Reading my mind? Being everywhere but nowhere?” I hid underneath the wet covers.

“Oh, whoops. I forgot to make myself visible.” A bright light shined throughout my room as I sat uncomfortably underneath the covers. “There we go; see me now?”

I peeked through the tops of my covers to see the man from earlier. Only this time, the man had a glowing golden ring around his head accompanied by small dove wings on his back. His white outfit looked untouched, almost like he modeled for it in a commercial for dry-cleaning. The color of his hair ranged from a bleached coloring to a golden brown.

“Who—who are you?” I said with half of my face poking out from the covers.

“The name’s Jun. I’m your Guardian Angel.”