“Aren’t you the one who gave me the directions?” he asked in hoarse voice. He cleaned the mud off his eyes and looked at me. I could see a sinister look on his face.

He is going to kill me for sure! I could almost imagine him trying to strangle me. I turned and began walking away silently.

“What directions is he talking about Misa?” the Principle asked in a stern voice.

Before I could reply, the alien spoke up.

“I was trying to find the location of the new house I had just moved into. I was sort of lost so I asked her for the direction. She told that the house was right next to a rainbow coloured building…”

“What is this rainbow that you are talking about child?” asked Ms. Su curiously. She wondered why all of a sudden they were talking about her beautiful rainbow boathouse.

“Well she told me” he said and pointed at me.

“Anyway, I went searching for this ‘rainbow’ building she told me about. So I took all the turns she told me to take and I ended up on the bank of a river. I could see the rainbow building in a distance. The surface of the river was completely covered with algae, well I didn’t know it was algae until I drove into it. I drove into the river thinking it was solid land…” he left the remaining to our imagination.

I grimaced in disgust and so did everyone else. How can someone be this dumb?

My sister saw me making faces and said, “Shouldn’t you be apologizing Misa?”

What was her problem? I’m not going to say sorry to some criminal! Well that was what I wanted to do but thanks to that statement she made, everyone turned to face me expecting an apology. Even the muddy alien looked up at me. Why does he think he deserves an apology?

But I said it anyway.

I was sent back to class after that. The day went on like it usually did. Boring classes, boring teacher, it was like as if all their happiness had been away by zombies. The only mildly interesting thing that had happened was a mini blast in the chemistry lab. Since the fumes were dangerous we were asked to leave the lab. Having nothing else to do, my friends and I decided to head to the cafeteria.

It was a long walk from the lab. The cafeteria happened to be in the opposite direction, which meant we had to pass through the high school section. I never really liked that place. It was filled with scary people. And there were also those friends of my sister who found me adorable, which I found really embarrassing. But I still decided to risk the journey, as the cafeteria had the best donuts in the world.

“I heard that today they have Rainbow donuts in the café!” said the excited Sierra. She also happened to be a donut fanatic like me.

As we were walking through the corridor a group of squealing girls ran past us almost knocking me off my feet. Sierra caught me before I hit the ground.

“Hey…” I started but soon shut up as the group that rushed past us happened to be all seniors. Luckily they seemed to have turned a deaf ear at me.

“What was that about?” asked Sierra confused.

“I don’t know. Let’s go check it out” I said and got a little closer to the crowd. They all seemed to be squealing in joy while staring out of the window.

Did a celebrity come to our school? Or even better, did an alien spaceship finally land in the soccer field?

Hoping for my second speculation to be true I pushed my way through the big crowd. As I got deeper in, I found out that crowd consisted only of girls. That was weird. Why were so many of them gathered by the window?

“Doesn’t he look cute when he smiles?” squealed one of them.

“The way he kicks the ball is just so heavenly!” exclaimed another.

Ball? Was there a soccer match today? That would explain all the squealing and sighing, but it wouldn’t explain the over excitement. It seemed different.

I got closer to the window and looked out. Sure enough there was a soccer match going on. It was the usual team playing. So why were the girls excited?

Just then someone said, “I just can’t wait for Mr. Lee to start our dance classes!”

Mr. Lee? Now who is that?

Sierra who somehow made her way to the window seemed just as excited as the rest. Is it some sort of a contagious virus? I’d better get out of here before I become one of them. As I turned to leave, Sierra grabbed my hand.

“Mr. Lee is playing!” the hyper Sierra said.

Again that name! Who is he?

She seemed to read my mind and said,” Remember the new teacher? The one you call a ‘wanted criminal’?" 

I quickly turned around and looked out another time. It wasn’t hard to spot him.  His orange hair which shined brilliantly in the sunlight was almost impossible to miss. He was dressed in a loose white t-shirt with black shorts. What sort of teacher dresses so casually? Does he just come to school to play?

“Doesn’t he look like a student?” asked an excited girl next to me.

“He does!” agreed Sierra.

“But he looks way better than the guys in my class. If only he were a student” she sighed.

“But aren’t most of the soccer team members all seniors? I thought they were all popular” said Sierra confused.

“They are. But now they are no longer that appealing” said the senior.

Weirdoes. All of them are weirdoes. Maybe I’m just wasting my time standing here and watching that ugly alien play. I turned to walk away but Sierra wouldn’t let me go. So I stood there staring out of the window.

The game was getting interesting. Mr. Lee’s team seemed to be losing. But the girls were still cheering for him. Was I the only one who was rooting for the opponent’s team?

Now the ball was with Mr. Lee.  He managed to dodge everyone one who came in his way and was swiftly advancing towards the goal. Then he kicked the ball. The minute he kicked the ball, all the girls screamed in joy. But they screamed too early. The ball had actually hit the frame of the goal, it never made into it. That only meant that Mr. Lee’s team had lost. Now that was good news.

The ball bounced off the frame and flew away from the field. It stayed in the air for a while before making contact with a tall footstool. The school was currently under renovation, some irresponsible worker must have left it in the way. The footstool toppled over bringing down along with it a tin of nails that was left unattended on it. The footstool collapsed onto the bike rack making a huge noise. The tin off nails lay upturned with its contents scattered all over the ground.

The collapsing footstool made its impact felt. All the bikes shuddered. The bike to the extreme right fell to the ground. That certain bike happened to be deep blue in color. It also happened to be a certain student’s most treasured item.  That student had loved the bike so much that she would do anything for it. That certain student that I was talking about happens to be me and I would delightfully kill Mr. Lee if there was so much of a scratch on it.

I quickly pushed through the crowd and made my way to the parking lot. All the students nearby were now standing around the bike rack. I ran towards my bike, poor thing must be hurt! Mr. Lee also happened to be there. Since he was a teacher he was supposed to take care of the situation. He calmly asked the students to stay away as they could hurt themselves. He then walked towards me asked me why I was sitting there. I just glared at that villain who had damaged my bike.

Maybe he thought he was being kind, he told me move and picked up my bike. He didn’t notice that the fallen footstool that lay nearby. As he picked it up, a leg of the footstool peeled the paint off my bike.

I screamed.

My scream startled him so much that he dropped the bike onto the nail strewn ground. This only meant more scratches. Seeing him drop my bike I collapsed to my knees. I couldn’t bear this violence. He quickly picked up the bike trying to pretend like nothing had ever happened. He took the bike to the other end of the rack. I kept watching him from the corner of my eye.

One of the students who was standing next to Mr. Lee said, “The tire seemed to be punctured.”

The word ‘punctured’ stabbed my already broken heart. With what little energy I had left in me, I got up and ran towards my bike. I pushed Mr. Lee away from my bike and crouched down only to find nails deeply embedded into the tires. At once I got up and turned towards Mr. Lee. I didn’t say anything, as it words couldn’t explain my pain. I just glared at him trying to come up with delightful ways to torture him. Maybe he read mind as that stupid smile of his slowly disappeared off his face.