"Hey, open up in there," came the unmistakable voice of Jim, the pesky adult that was supposed to be a gym teacher but he also adopted a "over seer" status at our boarding school without anyone asking. And I don't think anyone would have asked.

"Um..." Jeremy said nervously, since it was his room. "Hold on..." He glanced quickly at Odd who was frantically trying to shove Kiwi under Jeremy's bed. Kiwi was whining rather loudly but Odd managed to push Kiwi under the bed and to block any escape attempt with Jeremy's trunk under the bed and his pillow. Then Jeremy glanced at me, but I shrugged when I glanced back. What was I supposed to do? Climb out the window and just pray I wouldn't break anything on the four-story fall to the ground? I knew I wasn't supposed to be in the boys section of the dormitories, much less in one of their rooms but we were all friends and I didn't think we would get caught (no thanks to Odd). So escape was impossible for me.

Jim was just starting to get impatient, the only thing he was skilled at. "Don't say hold on to me. I'll bust down the door if I have to."

"Okay, okay, coming." Jeremy rushed to the door, gulped, and opened it. It creaked slowly on its hinges and revealed a towering Jim in his red athletic jacket and sweat pants. I fixed my eyes on his. In one expert sweep he had already spotted everything there was to spot. "Yumi, come with me." That was all that was said. I glanced at Ulrich once, saw him shrug in helplessness at me, and I marched with Jim out the door. Just as Jim was about to close the door he opened it again and said almost directly to Odd, "I also could have swore I heard a dog whining in here."

Odd gave him a big innocent smile. "Nope sir must be mistaken. No dogs here." When Jim remained unconvinced, Jeremy and Ulrich tried to help by contributing their own big innocent smiles. Jim sighed. "All right, but if you hear anything, give me a call." He closed the door and I was busted.

"Yumi, do you mind if I accompany you to your room?" he asked, expecting what the answer would be.

"I don't mind at all," I said pleasantly, as if we were just taking a stroll around the campus. I wished our tone could stay this way all the way to my new room.

"Now Yumi," Jim started. I could tell that Jim was restraining himself from bursting at me. "Yumi, even though this is your first year you actually are living in the dorms but you know that girls aren't allowed over in the boys section and girls are certainly not allowed in their rooms." I nodded. Jim looked at me hard. "Then why were you over there?"

"Jim, weren't you ever my age before?"

Jim scratched his stubbly beard thoughtfully. "I think so."

"That'll do," I said hurriedly. "Well, don't you ever remember the thrill of reuniting with old friends after a long summer? The joy that you can spend a whole year with your best friends again?"

"Um..." Jim thought harder.

"Jim," I said gently, though inside I was shaking with laughter. "Jim, did you ever have any friends?"

"No...not that I know of." He was still thinking hard.

"Oh well then you would never understand. Anyway I just thought that since it was the first weekend of the school year and there wasn't much homework my friends and I could all have fun but I see now that that cannot be the case. Oh well." I drew out a long sigh, partly to add drama to my statement and partly to express my relief that we were nearing the door to my room.

When we were right in front of my door, I turned to face Jim. "Well, Jim," I said, satisfied that I had stumped Jim enough for a couple of days and by the time he figured out what I meant, he would have forgotten this whole fiasco. "I'm glad we had this chat." This was too easy. I did this all the time but this time it was as if he was made of stone, unable to think about anything.

Suddenly, repulsively, I said something that I shouldn't have. I don't know why I said it. Maybe it was just because it sounded good. Maybe it gave me even more satisfaction than I already had. But I said it just the same and I now know well that you can't take back what you say.

"I guess its true...what they say..." I said, inspecting Jim closely for any reactions to anything I had said before. "People that can't do, teach and people that can't teach, teach gym. Goodnight."

With that I opened my door and walked into my room and then silently closed the door again. Jim was still outside it, I could see, figuring out everything in his pea-sized brain. But what I had just said must have triggered a switch, which made him think things through quicker than ever before.

Five minutes later, Jim gave a bellow that could have been heard all the way to the end of the boys' side of the dorms. "YUMI!!!!!!"