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Shivering and sore because of her wet hair and skinned hands, Mina rode slowly the rest of the way to school She decided today was turning into another epic disaster When she hit the sidewalk she must have blacked out for a split second Either that or she was hallucinating, because when she dusted off her hands and looked around, there was no sign of the donkey, rooster, dog, or cat There was no evidence that they were ever there Mina ran up and down the block looking for the donkey but with no success Maybe it wasn’t a donkey Maybe it was another large dog? Pulling up to the bike rack, she didn’t even bother and threw her bike on the ground, her feet pounding the pavement as she ran up the stairs and into school

Mina glanced at her watch; she was fiveher head down she tried to walk as fast and as quietly as she could, hoping to avoid the hall h with her first-hour teacher, she would have pity and avoid writing a tardy slip Yeah, right

Her teacher, Mrs Porter, had her back to the door, and riting on the whiteboard, so Mina slipped into the classroom and tried to nonchalantly slide into her desk next to Nan Mina took a quick peek at the rigid spine of Mrs Porter, noticing that the teacher never turned or e her late entrance She turned slightly and began to shuffle solance Mina’s way Mina was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when Mrs Porter walked over and dropped a tardy slip on her desk, with Mina’s name written in perfect penmanship across on the top

She never even saw her teacher fill out the forers and looked toward Mrs Porter’s desk in confusion

Mrs Porter’s thin pale lips tightened into what could only be described as an inhuman smile "I find that it saves time if I fill out your tardy slips in advance, Ms Grime It’s less of a distraction for the class and you seem to be the only one that has this peculiar problem" She held up a stack of the small carbon copy yellow forms and spread them so everyone could see her name printed on the next five tardy slips "As you can see, you haven’t disappointed hed but everything looked strange and aard on her She was so old that the whites of her eyes were no longer white but a pasty grey Her teeth looked like faded yellow parchment and her clothes see about Mrs Porter was a throwback to some other era and time Even the antique candy bowl that sat on her desk with ancient, uneaten candy corn seeetry of the classroom

Mrs Porter had been with the school since it first opened and refused to retire, which is why she only taught homeroom or study hall While other teachers had uest speakers and live televised distant learning, her teaching methods were so far outdated that she uessed she had never sothat Mrs Porter did and did well, and that was discipline She prided herself on handing out thethat the other teachers had gone soft

Mina shrunk into her seat, cru it into her pocket It wasn’t fair that she was always late Most of the ti her lip, she tried to study her algebra notes when a persistent foot kept nudging her Converse Mina looked up into the excited eyes of Nan, as being careful to mouth her words so as not to be overheard

"Have you heard? There’s an Assembly About you," she mouthed

"What?" Mina said audibly Quickly she ducked her head and buried it in her notebook, just as Mrs Porter swung around at the noise The wo like a bat Mina pretended to scribble in her book and out of the corner of her eye she watched as Nan pursed her lips and tapped her pencil on her book as if solving a complicated problem Mrs Porter scanned the roo

Nan blew out a breath of air thatnonchalantly on her cheek Her hair always looked effortless She raised her eyebrow at Mina as if waiting for a response Mina glanced at the back of her teacher and shook her head

Nan scribbled in her notebook and flipped up the edge so Mina could see what she wrote News reporters, photographers, ym