My heart began beating at an unusual pace as the stranger stood in the middle of my room, having just appeared out of, literally, nowhere. I know I’m not the strongest, or the smartest person around, but I had no other ideas on how to react to such a situation. How many times do you get to meet your supposed ‘Guardian Angel’? As nice as it sounds, the answer is probably a solid: zero.

“MOOOOOOOOM!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs while tossing my wet and muddy blanket onto the intruder. Within seconds, my mother was in my room with a wooden bat at the ready.

“What is it?” She looked around until she saw the broken window. “Why is the window broken?”

“UH,” I gestured over to the floating blanket with the man underneath it.

“What?” She looked over to where the man was standing but didn’t react. “Where’s your blanket? Did it fly outside the window? Oh, Minghao. I’ll buy you another one tomorrow; survive the night, alright?” She yawned, gave me a kiss on my forehead and went back to her room.

By this time, Jun had taken the blanket off, folded and dry-cleaned it. Maybe he is an angel; that would explain his white clothes, halo, wings, and the ability to dry-clean on command. The question is: Why is he here and what does he want? With caution, I crept over to the nightstand holding my blanket and snatched it before Jun could make a move.

“Why are you here?” I made my bed while keeping an eye on him.

“I told you: I’m your Guardian Angel.”

“Wonderful; why are you here?” I realized he wasn’t the smartest angel.

“To protect you.” He blinked, finally showing some human characteristics.

When I was a little kid, my mother used to tell me stories about how the angels were protecting me. She described the angels as very macho men with spears dipped in holy water to ward of demons. Jun, in a way, is sort of macho? Muscular would be the right word. Not muscular like body builder, muscular like... VERY NICE. She said that every good little boy and good little girl would be assigned an angel, almost like Santa Claus giving out presents to the good. The only difference was that angels weren’t going to be passing around coal to bad kids. They’d just let them get devoured by demons, is all. Never would I have imagined an angel being so.. rookie. Is that rude to say? I mean, he has baby dove wings. Can he fly? Are his baby dove wings built in with mammoth strength?

“I brought your permission slip back.” Jun took out a slip of paper from his white pants.

“WHERE DID YOU FIND THIS? I’VE BEEN LOOKING—” I grabbed the permission slip and he disappeared. The window had fully repaired itself, keeping the water outside. My bed was made and completely cleaned. The furniture around the room looked brand new. Even the smell of my mom’s cooking had depleted. “Jun? Where’d you go?” I waited for his angelic voice to fill the room, but it never came.

While holding the permission slip in my hand, I remembered that it still needed to be signed. Instead of waiting for morning to come, I ran over to my mom’s room, woke her up and forced her to sign it. This time, I watched her as she signed her signature on the dotted line. There was no way I was going to mess it up this time. When she finished signing it, I went back to my room and fell asleep holding the paper like it was my child.

In the morning, I was awoken by the smell of my mother’s cooking. Immediately, I thought last night had been a dream and I had imagined everything. However, I was still holding onto the signed permission slip, the window wasn’t broken, my bed was clean, and the furniture in the room still looked brand new. The only piece of last night that was missing was Jun. To be completely honest, I’m not completely sure he was real. I’m not even sure angels are real; Guardian Angels were stretching it.

“Mom, what do you know about angels?” I asked her as I ate cereal without sour milk.

“I know that if they exist, they are definitely helping in ways we don’t see. Why do you ask?” She wiped the dirt off the table, revealing cleanliness. “Wow, it actually came off.”

“Oh, no reason. Just curious is all.” I finished my cereal and ran out the door with my permission slip in my hand. On the way out, Hoshi bumped into me.

“Hey! I see you have your permission slip.” He moved his head in real close. “But for how long?” He whispered while glancing left and right in suspicion.

“I will not let go of this paper. We will go on this field trip together!”

At school, I received a full serving of education accompanied with traces of bad luck. Nothing I’m not used to; I was just hoping that my ‘Guardian Angel’ would do his job and PROTECT ME FROM ALL OF THIS BAD LUCK. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. Trust me, I am incredibly thankful he restored my lost permission slip and fixed my bedroom to peek performance, but what about the rest of my life? What about my mom? Where is her Guardian Angel? AM I JUST CRAZY?

“Minghao, I take it you don’t have your permission slip. I’ll see you in detention.” Ms. Ren fixed her glasses and began taking attendance.

“Wait, I have it.” I held the paper up in the air like it was a trophy.

“Bring it here.” She didn’t seem amused.

I stood up and made my way to the front. On the way there, a student threw a banana peel onto the floor, directly onto my path. Luckily, I stepped over it. Sadly, I stepped into the puddle of water in front of the banana peel and ended up doing the splits. The permission slip fell out of my hands and landed in the water while my pants tore, revealing my unicorn underpants. Don’t judge me. A guy can have lovely undergarments, too. The class busted out into laughter as I was now wet, in need of a new pair of pants, and permission slip-less.

Oh, Guardian Angel. Where are you? I closed my eyes.

“Minghao, why are you sitting on the floor? Give me your permission slip.” Ms. Ren was now standing with her arms crossed.

“It fell into the water.” I sighed and looked down to see me sitting cross-legged on the floor, without a tear in sight. Even the puddle of water was nowhere to be seen.

“What are you talking about? Am I going to have to give you detention anyways?” Her tone grew louder.

“No!” I said quickly as I saw the permission slip in my hand, untouched by water. After a few seconds of putting the pieces together, I stood up and gave the teacher my signed permission slip.

Yesterday, when I was running after my rogue permission slip, I was almost hit by a car. However, the car hit a pole and disappeared. That night, I was visited by my supposed Guardian Angel. However, I thought it was just a dream. I’m starting to think last night wasn’t a dream. How else can you explain me having ripped, wet pants and permission slip, then the next second my pants are perfectly intact and my permission slip is waiting to be turned in? I mean, unless I’m also a wizard. I like the Guardian Angel theory much better.

I returned to my seat and waited for instructions. Ms. Ren assigned us to read a few pages out of our newest book ‘Unnatural Events’. I opened to the page in the book and took out a piece of paper to write on. As I was reading the book, I heard the sound of someone writing, but that couldn’t be because we had just been assigned this assignment; nobody should be done reading yet. I glanced around the room to see who was writing.

“Psst. You should be reading. You don’t want to get in trouble, do you?” Hoshi whispered to me and I glanced down at my paper.

You’re Welcome

“HUH?!” I shouted a little too loud, catching the attention of everybody in the room.

“Is there a problem?” The teacher was just about done with me.

“No, sorry. I thought I saw a spider.” I lied and refocused my attention onto the paper.

A spider, really? I’ll kill it.

I suppose since he is talking to me through paper, he can probably see what I write.

No, there is no spider. We need to talk.

We are talking.

I mean ‘talk’ talk.

Not now; you’re in class.

“Is there a reason why you’re already writing? Have you finished reading the assigned chapters?” The teacher overlooked my desk. “Well? Give the class a summary so we may all move forward.”

That was my day of school. Well, my last class, to be more specific. I do have other classes but the teachers in the other classes aren’t AS bad as this one. The rest of them don’t call me out for being unlucky. Ms. Ren’s sole purpose in life is to embarrass me in front of everyone. She didn’t have to point of the fact that I was writing when I should have been reading, no. She is just evil and I need protection from her. I need to talk to Jun about her, maybe he can do something about it.

“Hey, wanna get ice cream today?” Hoshi jumped up and down as we waited for the bus.

“But.. I have to talk to someone.” I argued as he tugged on my arm.

“Pleeeeeease!! I’ll pay for you.” He stopped tugging. I looked at the incoming bus and back at Hoshi. As much as I needed to talk to Jun, he could wait. It’s not every day me and Hoshi go out for ice cream. It’s more like every other day. There’s a difference; just saying. I took up on his offer and we missed the bus, crossed the street, and entered the ice cream parlor.

“TWO PLEASE!” Hoshi decided my order for me. Then again, he is paying.

The ice cream parlor was adorable. The walls were painted white with soft pink lines coating the corners. The tables inside were made entirely of glass while the chairs were white plastic booty-holders. Hoshi picked the table nearest the window looking out onto the street where I was almost hit by a car that disappeared into thin air. As soon as we sat down, he began eating the ice cream like he hadn’t eaten all day. By the time he was finished, he was wearing half of his ice cream.

“Are you gonna eat that?” He pointed his spoon at the direction of my ice cream which had been sitting on the table for about two seconds.

“You can have half.” I slid the ice cream into the middle of the table and we shared it.

“Hey, so, what happened in class today? Why were you writing instead of reading? I thought you liked the book.” Hoshi stopped eating and relaxed himself.

“This is going to sound crazy but..” I leaned in and told him all about my experience last night. At first, his facial expression was like: Did I eat too much ice cream? But as I explained more, his facial expression went to: THAT’S SO COOL!

“Do I have a Guardian Angel?” He looked around as if his guardian angel would pop out of hiding like he lost a game of hide-and-seek.

“I mean, you seem to be a good boy. I assume you do. Though, you probably don’t even need it. You’re super lucky.” I said as a man walked into the parlor. Instantly, something felt wrong about him. That’s probably because he was wearing a ski mask and he chained the doors. How was I supposed to know he was going to mug us?

“GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY OR YOU DIE!!!”