It was 7 AM. Karin awoke from her alarm feeling rather disoriented.

It was all fake, right…? There were no dragons, no fairies, and no talking butterflies. Why were her dreams even all about fairies and whatnot?

Honestly, Karin didn’t really mind it too much at all, since she had always been interested in fairies and other mythical creatures. She even held a secret belief that they actually existed — part of her had always hoped that would be the case. However, at the same time she felt it’d be too good to be true…

She shrugged it off. People would probably think she’d be crazy for believing in fairies, which is why she only ever talked about it with Rashida who at the very least kept the possibilities open. Even her own parents thought it was too far-fetched.

“Get your head out of the clouds, Karin!” was what she usually heard coming her way. Her little brother Tim had also brought it up too many times to count — when he was still little, he’d sometimes even tell his friends from school that Karin “still” believed in fairies. As Karin got older, however, she’d start lying about it and say she no longer believed in them, which at the very least stopped the bullying from younger boys.

Still… what if all that had happened yesterday was real…

Karin walked towards the bathroom, still feeling rather sleepy. She washed herself, brushed her teeth as well as her hair and put her clothes on. As she walked back into her room to grab her school bag, she heard a familiar voice —

“Good morning! Rise and shine! A new day for new opportunities, oh yes!”

Karin couldn’t immediately place whose voice it was. It wasn’t Tim, because the voice sounded too feminine. It also wasn’t her mother, because the voice sounded too high. Then who…?

Karin turned around. A pink butterfly had appeared in her room — it was Papiyon.

“Ahh!” Karin let out a scream. “Don’t ever sneak up on me like that ever again, oh my gosh!”

“My apologies,” Papiyon replied quickly. “I was just checking to see if you were already awake.”

Papiyon appearing in her room like that was a sign that everything that happened was, in fact, real…

Suddenly, Karin remembered something — the gem.

She looked down, lifted her shirt up slightly, and saw that the flower-shaped gem was still right there. Its presence was ultimate confirmation for her that everything that had happened was real.

“Yes, your powers are still contained right in there,” Papiyon said. “You were skeptical about the events from yesterday, right?”

“Y-yeah…”, Karin admitted.

“Well, don’t be. You literally saved a poor dragon from evil powers. You should be proud of yourself, even if you still have a lot to learn.”

“O-oh, thank you…” Karin could feel her face get slightly red. You know, Papiyon could sometimes be pretty nice when she wasn’t being so strict.

Papiyon flew towards the open window again. “Well, I guess I’ll be outside for a while again. I’ll see you on your way to school.”

And within a few seconds, she was gone.

🌸🌸🌸

Karin walked through the living room door. Her mom was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea while browsing on her phone.

“Good morning mom,” Karin yawned. She still didn’t feel entirely awake yet.

“Have you heard the news yet, honey? About yesterday? It sounds so unbelievable! And to think it happened only a few blocks from here! Too bad I was working, or maybe I could’ve witnessed it!” Ann sounded overly energetic this morning as she passed the phone towards her. She was visibly taken aback. “Here! Look!”

Not even a ‘good morning’ can suffice I see, Karin thought. But she quickly let that thought go when she saw the headline of the news website:

“REAL-LIFE DRAGON SPOTTED, SLAIN BY ACTUAL FAIRY”

Karin’s heart sank into the ground. Crap, she hadn’t thought about this…!

Frankly, she looked quite a bit different while transformed, but she was still rather scared that somehow, someone may have noticed it was her.

At the same time, though, Karin couldn’t help but be curious. She wondered how many lies the article would contain…

“I heard it this morning on the news and I wanted to show you. It’s crazy to think that maybe, well you know…” Ann said carefully.

“Maybe what?” Karin said mockingly while grabbing a box of cereal. She quietly hoped her mom hadn’t recognized her, though she didn’t think she would’ve.

“Well, you’ve always believed in fairies and all that stuff,” Ann answered. “I’ve always dismissed it as rubbish, but if this article isn’t some hack writing piece containing misinformation, then maybe—”

Karin poured milk into her bowl of cereal. “That was years ago, mom,” she replied. “Kids often say the darnedest things, and I was no different. And you never know with news sites these days, they’re full of lies just to bring sensationalism. And who knows, maybe it was some weird street art performance.”

Karin could feel herself getting sweaty — maybe her lie was a bit too obvious? After all, sometimes when people lie about their involvement with something, they deny it so intensely to the point it becomes unbelievable.

“Maybe you’re right… You never know what special effects they could’ve used to simulate real flying. There was probably a rope somewhere that we didn’t see, you know, like in a circus?”

Karin pretended not to listen anymore as she ate her cereal. She suddenly realized that the people at school would probably bring it up as well… Oh joy, she couldn’t wait.

Karin got up as she finished her cereal. “Alright, time to go.” She grabbed her schoolbag and walked towards the garage. “Bye, mom!” she yelled while waving.

As Karin got her bicycle out of the garage onto the porch, she noticed a small pink creature flying towards her.

“Ah, there you are,” Papiyon said with a smile on her face. “I guess I’ll join you on your ride to school.”

“Of course, how else will you be able to keep an eye on me?” Karin replied slightly mockingly while getting on her bicycle.

As she said that, they went off.

🌸🌸🌸

Karin walked into the classroom. Everyone was busy talking about something, with visibly surprised and either excited or concerned looks on their faces.

Just as expected, Karin thought with a sigh. She was slightly worried, even though nobody could’ve really recognized her in her fairy form.

Karin walked towards her chair, waiting for Rashida to come. In the meantime, she decided to eavesdrop on the classmates who were sitting behind her.

“Do you believe it? I don’t believe it. It sounds so surreal.” “But I was there! I saw it with my own eyes!” “Don’t be silly, we all know fairies and dragons aren’t real! It was probably all fake.” “No it wasn’t!” “Yes it was!”

Karin sighed again, slightly more annoyed. She knew that what happened yesterday would be the talk of the town that day, but she did not look forward to it at all. She just couldn’t shake that worried feeling…

“Hey Freckles, yo’ girl has arrived.” Rashida sat down next to Karin. It was so sudden that Karin was taken slightly aback. Then again, Rashida was simply being Rashida.

On the other hand, Karin wondered how Rashida would react to the news…

“Oh hey, water rat,” Karin joked back. “How was training yesterday?”

“It went pretty well, all things considered,” Rashida responded. “I truly think I have a chance of winning the next competition.” Her eyes twinkled with enthusiasm and pride. “Oh yeah! I have this in the bag.”

Karin felt really happy for her best friend. It was another motivation for her to do her very best at school and not get in trouble — if she were to have detention or whatever again on Rashida’s competition day, she’d be very disappointed in herself.

Needless to say, Karin would make sure to never fall asleep in class ever again.

“By the way,” Rashida wondered while changing the subject, “have you heard about what happened yesterday? I was at swimming so I couldn’t witness anything, but when I got home that evening it was all over the news. Something about a fairy and a dragon? Dang, I never realized you could’ve been right about all that stuff!”

Oh dear… Of course Rashida had caught air of it too. However, admittedly Karin felt quite a bit safer discussing this matter with her best friend.

“Yeah, I did. I guess it was kinda hard to miss though,” Karin responded. “But who knows, perhaps it was all actually—”

“Fake? Karin, aren’t you the one who always believed in fairies and all that?” Rashida had raised an eyebrow in surprise and slight judgement. “You shouldn’t be so dismissive of this, especially right now! Perhaps it’s a sign of something bigger… Part of me hopes it is, not gonna lie, haha.” A dreamy look had appeared in Rashida’s eyes.

Not that Karin had expected anything different from her best friend, but she was still relieved that Rashida had remained receptive of the idea that there is “more” to our mundane, every day life. Perhaps someday Karin could—

No.

No, she would never tell Rashida, that would be ridiculous. Besides, heroes with alter egos never tell anyone their secret, do they…?

All of a sudden, the classroom door opened.

“Good morning, you little snots.” It was mister Johnson, who clearly thought he was the most hilarious person on the planet, as always. “Is everyone present?” He veered around the class for a bit. “I see everyone is here today. Good, Now please open your textbooks at page 53, we have a lot of fun work to do today.”

The classroom still hadn’t become entirely quiet yet. Some people were still murmuring about what had happened the day before, although some quit talking as soon as they noticed mister Johnson had entered the classroom.

“Please be quiet, all of you”, mister Johnson spoke loudly to the class. “We have some actual material to learn about, unlike that rubbish sensationalist story from yesterday.” He put his materials on the desk and sat down. “Whoever still believes in fairies at you guys’ ages must surely have had an incredibly poor upbringing. At least the wonderful subject of Math is based purely on science.” Mister Johnson snickered once again, like he always tended to do when he thought highly of a statement he had made.

Karin could feel herself get angry inside, but she knew she’d make a fool of herself if she had spoken up. Besides, she was pretty sure that mister Johnson didn’t have a very high opinion of her anymore after yesterday, and Karin didn’t want to make it even worse.

She looked at Rashida, who as always sat next to her. Rashida clearly rolled her eyes at mister Johnson’s statements as she let out a deep sigh. She then proceeded to look at Karin, nodding in agreement as she noticed the look in her face in turn.

“Oh crud,” mister Johnson suddenly exclaimed, “I completely forgot to get my coffee! Be right back, and don’t forget to read page 53 of your textbooks, you little worms!”

Karin remembered the debacle with the coffee machine yesterday during detention. She wondered if it had been fixed already…

She proceeded to open her textbook on page 53, just like her teacher had ordered everyone to do. She read the first assignment on the page.

“’If you subtract A from B, then multiply C with D, then…’ Good lord, I don’t understand any of this!” Karin exclaimed in frustration.

Rashida, who was slightly better at Math, decided to help her friend out.

“The outcome is 15. Look.” Rashida pointed out how exactly she came to her conclusion. Karin managed to understand it a bit better, though Math would probably always remain difficult for her.

“Thanks,” Karin responded with a smile. “I think I can figure out the rest by myself now.”

Rashida smiled back while nodding. Karin was very grateful to have a friend like her. And not just because she was good at Math.

Karin proceeded to work on the other assignments on the page. After Rashida’s explanation, she had a lot less trouble solving them.

After about half an hour, she was finally done.

🌸🌸🌸

Karin’s eyes veered around the classroom. The teacher was still not back…

Granted, it was mister Johnson who arguably taught Karin’s least favorite subject, but she still wondered what was up. Was the coffee machine still not fixed…?

Karin also thought back to the fight with the dragon. She wondered if somehow, perhaps, the two incidents were related…?

Though perhaps that was a bit of a reach. You don’t see a dragon roam the streets every day, whereas a malfunctioning coffee machine was fairly normal. Still, it must be a fairly complicated and unusual problem if it still hasn’t been fixed by now.

Or perhaps the coffee machine was in fact functioning again, but something else was up…

One thing was certain — it was unusual for mister Johnson to be away from his classes for so long. He normally gets back as quickly as possible to torment his students with difficult Math questions and his terrible sense of humor, or lack thereof depending on personal opinion.

Karin’s curiosity was now piqued. She had to check on him — if nothing was up, she’d just make up an excuse on the spot.

And perhaps face another round of detention. Oh, if that wouldn’t be great…

But Karin decided to push her fear of possible detention aside for a moment. She got up from her chair and walked towards the classroom door.

“Hey,” Rashida stopped Karin in her tracks, “where are you going?”

Karin started to laugh. “To the bathroom, of course! Can’t a girl do her business every once in a while?”

An embarrassed look appeared on Rashida’s face. “Oh! I’m so sorry, I completely blanked there for a moment. Oops! Now go quick, otherwise you’ll wet your pants, Freckles!”

Karin sighed deeply while still laughing. Her best friend was so silly sometimes.

But Karin decided to quickly focus on her mission again. The coffee machine was in the cafeteria, so she ran in that direction.

Suddenly, she bumped into someone.

Karin looked up. It was miss Mayflower, the Niology teacher.

Internally, Karin sighed of relief. Miss Mayflower was her favorite teacher, so she probably could bail herself out of this situation easily.

“Oh hello there, Karin! How nice to see you!” Miss Mayflower had a friendly smile on her face. “Say, aren’t you supposed to be in class right now?”

“H-hello, miss Mayflower!” Karin stammered. “Well, uh… I’m currently running an errand for mister Johnson. Yeah!”

Miss Mayflower raised an eyebrow. “But I saw mister Johnson in the cafeteria earlier…”

Karin bit on her lip. She really hoped she wouldn’t get busted… Especially since she liked miss Mayflower a lot. Imagine getting punished by your favorite teacher! Now that Karin thought about it, that’s probably even worse than getting punished by a teacher you don’t like to begin with.

“Eh, well, you see,” Karin continued, “I had detention yesterday, and he wanted me to talk to him in private a bit about my grades since they’ve been really, really bad… You see, I totally busted my punishment assignment from yesterday too! Man, Biology is way cooler than Math!”

Unexpectedly, miss Mayflower winked at Karin. “You know, I agree. Which is why I became a Biology teacher rather than a Math teacher! But don’t tell mister Johnson, okay?”

Karin smiled. “I promise. But I gotta go now, otherwise I’ll forever have an F on my report card!” Karin ran off again. “Bye, miss Mayflower!”

“Bye Karin! Be careful!” miss Mayflower responded while giggling.

Karin waved at the teacher while running further towards the cafeteria. As she got there, she opened the doors of the cafeteria slightly and peeked inside.

At first, it seemed as if nobody was there.

Karin listened closely. Was there really nobody in here…?

She decided to keep really quiet and listened closely once more.

Karin believed she heard something — what was it? She stood as still as possible, making sure she made absolutely no sound.

“N-no…” Karin believed she heard faint stammering — somebody was there.

She opened the cafeteria door a little more. The coffee machine was somewhere around the corner — was that where the sound was coming from…?

And did she hear the tapping of toes…?

“I… I…” There was the stammering again.|

Karin kept as quiet as possible while listening closely.

“I… I don’t think I… they would never…” The voice sounded very afraid.

It got a bit louder.

“I can’t ask for help! They would never believe me, and if they saw it they’d just get scared! Oh no, what do I do!”

Karin could now clearly hear that it was, in fact, mister Johnson’s voice. Was he being attacked by something…?

Karin quickly went back through the cafeteria door. She decided to run towards the closest-by bathroom — she was certain this was another task for her.

Karin checked if nobody was in the bathroom and locked the door of her stall.

“Psst!” she hissed. “Papiyon! You there?”

“You called?” There was Papiyon, flying through the open bathroom window.

“There’s another one,” Karin whispered. “At least, I am pretty sure there is. I have to transform and quick!”

“Ah, good to see you’re dedicated.” Papiyon sat down on Karin’s shoulder. “Have you seen what kind of creature has been causing a disturbance? Also, where is the disturbance taking place?”

“Unfortunately I haven’t seen what it is yet,” Karin answered, “but I do know that it’s taking place in the cafeteria. Also, my Math teacher is being attacked — I may dislike him, but I don’t want him dead or even hurt!”

“Well then,” Papiyon said while getting off Karin’s shoulder again, “I guess it’s time to transform then, no?”

“You’re right,” Karin responded resolutely.

“Latsiya yamina nalitsa, tekyalas!”

Just like the day before, a gigantic cocoon appeared as Karin felt herself transforming into her fairy form again.

Thankfully, this meant that nobody in the school would recognize her anymore — but on the other hand, she had also transformed into “that weird fairy from the other day who may or may not be fake and slayed a potentially-fake-as-well dragon” and people would probably stare at her, again…

But Karin quickly decided that it was worth it. After all, she was the only one who could fix this situation.

She ran out of the bathroom stall into the hallway. This time, Karin had remembered she had the ability to fly, so she decided to do so to get to the cafeteria quicker.

Her flight was going really well — until she bumped into something.

Karin fell to the floor and rubbed her head. “Ow…” she quivered softly.

Then, she decided to look up to see what she had bumped into.

Or rather, who she had bumped into. Karin looked right into the face of the principal, mister Brimwood.

“O-oh! I am so sorry, er, p—”

Oh no. Karin just remembered she was completely unrecognizable to him in her current form.

“P…person? Human? …Earthling? Woops, I gotta go!”

But just when Karin got up to leave, the principal stopped her in her tracks.

“You…” The principal pointed at Karin, his face visibly angry. “You’ve been causing our students a lot of distress ever since you started showing up yesterday! Whatever your act is, quit it! Now! And get your butt out of my school!”

Karin bit her lip. There was only one way out of this awkward situation — fly as fast as she could.

And so she did. Karin set off with her feet, flying through the hallways at the speed of light. Man, if only she could use this skill in her day-to-day life…

“Hey! I’m not done with you yet, you circus filth!” the principal yelled angrily while trying to chase Karin. However, she was a lot faster than him, and before she knew it, she had arrived at the cafeteria once more.

🌸🌸🌸

Karin carefully opened the cafeteria door again and listened closely.

“Oh gosh… oh dear… oh gosh, oh dear! Someone, get this thing away from me and quick!” Mister Johnson was clearly at the same spot he was before and still sounded just as upset. This time, however, his voice had become quite a bit louder.

Karin flew around the corner to look what was going on — there, she saw a gigantic spider that had caught mister Johnson in its web.

Karin gulped. The dragon from yesterday was, all things considered, not very scary — it wasn’t a very big specimen, possibly still young as well, and on top of that dragons didn’t actually exist on Earth.

But a spider… a gigantic one to boot…

Karin was deadly afraid of spiders. Miss Mayflower always assured her during Biology class that no, most spiders aren’t dangerous to humans, but Karin never got over her fear for these vile creatures.

Plus, didn’t spiders eat butterflies…? A gigantic specimen such as this one would probably love to consume a fairy…

Karin slowly breathed in and out. She got this.

Meanwhile, mister Johnson had noticed her arrival.

“Oh no, it’s you! What are your secrets, huh? Show me those special effects! You’re just some magician entertainment act, aren’t you?” The teacher wriggled in the spider web. “Anyway, let’s save that for later. As you can see, I got myself in a bit of a… fickle here, and I don’t care if you’re some magician act or not, but please save me or something! Please…?” He clearly whimpered on the last words he spoke.

The gigantic spider crouched closer towards Karin and threateningly clacked its jaw. Its body was big and hairy and the paws were pretty thick — it reminded Karin of a tarantula spider she had to dissect one time in Biology class. As much as she loved the subject otherwise, that particular lesson still made her gag to this day.

But there was no time to be afraid, since she had a teacher to save, no matter how much she disliked him.

Karin slowly walked towards mister Johnson with a faint smile on her face. She hoped it hid her actual fear well enough. Then, she quickly thought of something to screw with the teacher’s brain a bit, just for some harmless fun.

“The fact that you do not believe in my powers quite amuses me, human. Unfortunately it is only I who can save you right now.” Karin grabbed her scepter tightly, pointed it at the spider, and exclaimed: “Latsiya nalitsa juyas!”

The familiar beam of flowers appeared from her scepter, firing right at the spider. However, the spider barely budged.

It threaded closer towards Karin, firing a thread beam towards her.

“Ugh!” Karin quickly dodged as the beam missed her by a hair. That was close…

She suddenly didn’t know what to do.

Karin bit her lip. Once again she tried firing the flower beam spell at the spider — unfortunately, still no dice.

Mister Johnson let out a sneering laugh. “Ha! See, I was right! You’re just a silly magician act who can’t do anything! Just wait until you’re forever banned from the school!”

Karin could feel herself raging inside. If she was ‘just a silly circus act’, then what about the spider? Wouldn’t it make more sense if that thing was fake as well? Or was that creature suddenly real, just because mister Johnson was afraid of it?

Karin sighed deeply. Right at this moment it didn’t seem like a good idea to confront him about it.

Instead, she decided to seek the help of her faithful sidekick.

“Papiyon!” Karin yelled. “I need some help over here!”

Papiyon, who had been outside ever since Karin got out of the bathroom stall, flew right back inside through the open cafeteria window.

“What may the problem be, Karin?” she asked.

“I can’t seem to be able to attack this spider,” Karin responded, audibly frustrated. “I fired a flower beam at it, but it didn’t budge! What do I do?”

Papiyon flew towards the spider, who tried firing a beam towards her as well. However, Papiyon was so fast that she was able to dodge the attacks without a problem. It truly looked as if she could move at the speed of light.

“You need to stun it so it won’t move,” Papiyon replied. “It’s the only way. Just shout ‘Latsiya kastyala, juyas!’”

Karin nodded and repeated Papiyon’s words while aiming her scepter at the gigantic spider. Within a few seconds, the spider stopped moving.

“So,” Karin asked, “does this mean I can purify it now?”

“Not yet,” Papiyon responded. “There is… something else.” She flew towards the coffee machine. “Just open it and look inside. One warning though, you might let out a scream.”

A shudder went through Karin’s spine. Oh no…

She carefully threaded towards the machine, opening it with shaking hands.

“Eek!!”

Just like Papiyon predicted, she did let out a tiny scream.

Inside the coffee machine were, what looked like, spider eggs, except they were quite a bit larger than usual. Which wasn’t a surprise given the situation.

“U-um, so…” Karin stammered, “w-what do I do with… with all that?”

“I just wanted to warn you about it in time,” Papiyon replied. “I didn’t want you to teleport the mother spider while leaving her babies in this coffee machine.”

“Do I have to purify them too?” Karin asked. She wasn’t entirely sure about it.

“No, they’re just eggs after all and can’t be enchanted like that. Just purify the mother and then teleport them back to their homeworld.”

Karin nodded. She understood it now.

Afterwards, she yelled “Latsiya nalitsa tsulaya, isenyas!”

The ‘rain’ of flowers and petals came falling from the sky again, landing gently on top of the still-stunned mother spider. The spider started emitting a light flash and, the very next moment, stopped being paralyzed.

Karin gulped. She really didn’t know how such a gigantic spider would act towards her…

It walked closer and closer towards Karin, whose face had gotten pale. She did not want to look…

Suddenly, the spider started to affectionately rub its bug-fur against Karin’s body. Clearly it wasn’t dangerous anymore, but still… Karin couldn’t help but be slightly disgusted.

“You can pet it if you like, the fur of Arachnias are pretty soft,” Papiyon stated. “They don’t attack humans by default, only when provoked. Some are even kept as pets, especially since they’re more intelligent and affectionate than smaller specimen.”

“A w-what?” Karin stuttered. “I don’t care about arachno-whatevers, I just want it off of me! The dragon was at least cute, but this thing is not!”

Suddenly, the Arachnia walked away from her, emitting a sad noise.

Papiyon shook her head. “Look at what you did, you made a mother sad. It may be unable to speak, but it can understand words just fine.”

“O-oh…” Suddenly, Karin felt bad for the creature. “Well, I guess it’s time for her and her babies to depart regardless. They’ll be better off in their homeworld, after all.”

Karin walked towards the coffee machine. “H-hey, um, spider mama? Y-your babies are uh… still here…” She hoped she said it politely enough.

The mother-spider walked towards the machine, gently took out the silk wrap containing the eggs with her paw, and proceeded to attach it to the back of her body.

So just like a wolf spider huh, Karin thought. She remembered that fact from her Biology lessons. It was, all things considered, a lot more endearing to see than she had expected.

Unfortunately, it was time for the spider and her young to leave this world.

Karin grabbed her scepter and shouted: “Latsiya suneya kashluyas!“

The gigantic portal had appeared again. The Arachnia walked towards the portal, still carrying her babies. She let out one final affectionate noise before disappearing, leaving for her homeworld.

After all of that was done, Karin suddenly remembered mister Johnson.

She turned backwards to check on him — he was still plastered in spider gunk.

The teacher’s face didn’t exactly look happy. “Yeah, now what? You were so busy with the stupid spider that you couldn’t even free me? And the stupid eggs… gross!”

Karin sighed. She hated the fact that part of her agreed with mister Johnson for once.

She walked towards him, thinking how to solve this particular problem. She decided to attempt her usual curing spell again. “Latsiya nalitsa tsulayo, ifenyas!“

The rain of flowers and petals fell down on mister Johnson, who was visibly not amused. Regardless, the spider silk dissolved slowly into the air.

Mister Johnson looked at the coffee machine with a grimace on his face. “No way I’m drinking coffee ever again after… after… that.” He begrudgingly walked towards the tea kettle, filled it with water and turned it on. “Not that this is any better. Either way, I am done with you and your ilk,” he added quickly afterwards. “You should all just go to wherever you came from and leave us normal people alone!”

Karin’s face winced. But she was born on Earth… Where would she even go then? However, she decided not to respond.

“I need to go now, sir,” she said politely. “I have to save the lives of other people as well. Farewell.” Karin flew out of the cafeteria and back into the girls’ bathroom. She quickly locked the door and tapped her gem three times.

“Man, that was exhausting,” she sighed. “I can’t wait to go home and lie down on my bed, even though the school day has only just started.” Karin didn’t know what time it was and honestly, she didn’t care. All she wanted was to get back to the classroom as fast as possible, preferably before mister Johnson. Because of this, she got out of the girls’ bathroom as quickly as possible and ran towards the classroom. Thankfully, she didn’t bump into any teachers this time.

🌸🌸🌸

“Karin! Where have you been? And where is mister Johnson?” Rashida had a very concerned look on her face.

“Don’t worry about it, miss Mayflower held me back. You know how much she likes me as a student.” Karin quickly got out her school supplies and opened her Math textbook while peering around the room. Mister Johnson had just walked into the room, shortly after Karin.

He grumpily sat down at his desk, looking very exhausted. “Sorry class, there was an… incident… in the cafeteria. The good news is that the coffee machine works again.”

Rashida looked at the teacher’s cup and raised her eyebrow. “But sir, you’re drinking tea again today…”

“Please don’t ask questions, young lady! Or else you’re getting detention!” He proceeded to drink his tea, with the same old grimace on his face.

Rashida and Karin looked at each other and giggled. If there was one thing mister Johnson enjoyed doing, it was threatening with detention.

Despite her tiredness, Karin decided to work as hard on Math as possible. It was actually relatively easy today, so she proceeded to work on the assignments in silence until the end of class.

Inside her head, she was reminiscing about what had happened this morning. Maybe spiders aren’t so bad after all.