"Oh shoot, I'm late!!"

Seeing the clock across the room, I shimmied on a pastel green tunic and some purple leggings, slipped on my sequiny silver low-top Converse, shouted "Going to school, Mom," and raced through the door. In my hurry to the bus stop, I forgot about my impossible dirty blonde hair. I ran a finger through it, stopping about halfway at a tangle. At the bus stop I saw my best friends in the whole wide world. Alexandra, Lezlie and Jacky were the world's awesomest people. I could always count on them for company, or if I just needed someone to talk to. Lezlie stared at me with her one blue and one green eye, and inquired "Where were you and why were you so late? We thought you got hurt! bla bla bla! Blah blaaaaaaaah blah blah bl-blah!!!!!" More or less, the words became blurred as I tuned out Lezlie's ranting. Gosh, she was such a worrywart. After all, what could go wrong? Today was the first day of fourth grade and hopefully the first day of (drumroll please) The First Day I Won't Blow Up My School or a Teacher Working There!!!!! That was pretty big for me. I was super duper lucky that I had friends like them that stayed with me no matter how much classrooms I set on fire or how many teachers I dissolved. And this year was the year I got to go to their school! This was . Or as Alexandra would say, Super california surfer expert of the oceans. But what I didn't know was that those big, silly words were too lighthearted and, well, silly to describe anything I was about to experience.

"Hey Jackyyy how is the sixth grade? Do you have a seventh-grade girlfriend? 'Cause a 7th-grader told me you did!"

Jacky grinned. "No comment."

"Is Alexandra your girlfriend? She's in seventh grade!"

"Once again, my lips are sealed."

Jacky mimicked zipping his lips and throwing away the key, but I also noticed his cheeks turn a little pink. I inwardly giggled. I bet Alexy was his girlfriend. He always seemed more dorky around her.

"Wait! Alexy is Jacky's girlfirend?! Ohmygosh, I am so tweeting this!"

Lezlie prowled over to us, her mismatched eyes with a devious gleam that matched mine. She really should lay off the Twitter. She's so sensitive, if her boyfriend Harper tweeted that his mom kissed him goodnight, Lezlie would probably cry herself to sleep. On the other hand, fifth grade was not neccesarily the best time to get a boyfriend, especially if your name happens to be *cough cough* Lezlie. We might all have been different ages but we were inseperable friends. Lezlie was the second youngest and the only one of us with a boyfriend. Cheese Louise.

"*ahem* My ears are burning,"

I immediately noticed Jacky's ears turn bright red. He said dorkishly, or a better definition, Jackishly, "Oh, hi Alexandra. We, uh, weren't expecting you here."

"what, weren't expecting me to come out to recess? You thought I'd stay in and do extra credit work sor something?"

See, that's the thing. Alexy is super smart and gets excellent grades, but you wouldn't know it. She's tall, has really pretty dark wavy hair that goes down to her waist, tanned skin, and jade green eyes. She's always calm, cool, and collected, and she may look like a lot of things, but she definitely does not look like a nerd. But nonetheless, she is a TOTAL nerd.

"Can anyone come up to the board and write the word 'fluff'?" I was really in the middle reading group, but they demoted me because of my dyslexia. My hand automatically shot up, then I slowly lowered it back to my desk, hoping Mrs Freedman didn't notice.

"Okay, Isabella, you raised your hand. Can you come up and write it?"

I groaned subconciously. I stood up and walked to the board. I picked up the chalk and raised it to the board, and I messed the whole thing up right there and then. I accidentally wrote the whole word backwards. Mirrored. Reversed. Mrs Freedman stood from her desk, said "Isabella, why did you write it backwards?" in a voice that gradually became more menacing and evil and slowly began morphing into a hideous gremlin-thing with big leathery wings. I turned frantically towards my classmates, but all the desks were empty. What was happening? Confused and dazed,I barely noticed when Mrs Freedman lunged at me and made a grab for my neck. I avoided it and she mumbled something like the stupid sun is supposed to be a stupid target to big to miss. Mrs Freedman, or whatever she was, flicked the lights off to go for the kill, but there was a small orb of light around where I was standing, almost as if I was emitting that light. Mrs Freedman swore out loud. At least I thought it was a cuss, but it sounded strange, like it was in some foreign language. My mind flashed back to the Greek mythology unit we did in 3rd grade, and when all of us wrote our names in ancient Greek, using the guide from the packet. Somehow, I could read everyone's ancient Greek names without looking at their English name below and tell who it was. I convinced myself it was because I had a good memory of the packet, but now I wasn't so sure. Mrs Freedman mumbled something that I couldn't hear, then cursed really loudly. It sounded like some foreign language again, but I understood it, and really it was the worst cuss word of them all which I'm not going to say. I had no idea how I understood it, though, and as I stood there and pondered, Mrs Freedman leaped toward me. I saw that she had a gleaming bronze-colored toothpick clipped to her blouse. I wasn't so sure what a toothpick could do, or why it was shiny and bronze, but I was desperate and so I grabbed the toothpick and popped her like a balloon. The lights turned back on. Mrs Freedman was not there, nor was my backwards "fluff". Instead there was an entirely new woman sitting in Mrs Freedman's desk and she asked me to sit back down. I turned around, and all my classmates were back. "B-but--" I stammered. "Sit back down, sweetie. You needn't worry. Everything is okay." I grudgingly walked back to my seat and collapsed in my chair.

Apparently the new teacher's name was Miss Johansen and she had been the lower reading teacher for three years now, and there was never a teacher called Mrs Freedman at the school. Lezlie and Jack swore that Miss Johansen had always been there, and there was never a Mrs Freedman. But Alexandra remembered her.

"So you took her pin and popped her like a balloon?"

"Yes.. how did you know?"

"Did she burst into golden ashes?"

"Yes, but once again, how do you know all this?"

Alexy bent down to whisper in my ear. "Because I used to do that too."

Ha. I'm gloating to Isabella that I get to leave her on a cliffhanger. Isabella: Hey! Not cool.
Me: ...and I care because...