Hi, School!

Written by Anne Bernice Cheng


(Somewhere above the clouds)

There was an angel named Rian who was always curious about things. One day, she came up to the guardian angel and asked, “Guardian angel, do you know how humans live their life?” The guardian angel was surprised with her question and said, “Go and find out for yourself. I’ll give you two years to experience the life of humans.” He got the “Book of Angels”, said some spells, and sent Rian to Earth as a human.

(Japan, Earth)

After Rian got sent down to Earth, she just walked around not knowing what to do. After a long time of wandering around, Rian got hungry and found herself in front of a noodle shop called “Sohan Noodle Place”. She walked in and met a guy named Jackson. At first, Jackson thought that she was just a poor girl so he made her some ramen. Jackson gave her the ramen and waited for her to finish eating. While eating, Rian noticed that Jackson was staring at her while she ate. So she asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?” Jackson replied, “Oh, I am just wondering how you got here…” After a short silence, Rian explained how she got there and that she is an angel. Since Rian already told Jackson about what happened, Jackson introduced her to his grandmother. It might have been hard for his grandmother to understand, but she tried her best to welcome Rian to their place. When they got there, all three of them talked about life until night came. “I just got curious about how humans lived.”… As they talked, Jackson’s grandmother let her stay in their house. “Make yourself feel at home.” She said. The next morning, Rian had nothing to do since she was still new to this world. So she asked Jackson what he does every day. Jackson told her, “Everyday, I go to school.” Rian didn’t know what “school” is so he explained, “School is a place where people learn about things.” RIan had no choice but to go to Tokyo High, the school where Jackson goes, because she didn’t want to get bored doing nothing all day. So she ate breakfast, took a shower, got some random clothes from the closet (since she didn’t have any uniform), and went to school with Jackson. She doesn’t know what to do because she was just a “new student” of the school. As she was walking without knowing where she was, she met the school principal. Her face was unfamiliar, so he asked, “Are you a new student here at Tokyo High?” She nervously replied, “Uh… Y-yes I am just new here… mister.” “Well, don’t be shy and I’ll show you to your classroom.” As they were walking at the hall, some students were looking at her as if she were a monster.

(At the classroom)

It was so noisy that it sounded as if one were at the market. “Hey! Give that back to me!” “Ha-ha, look at him, so embarrassing.” “Hey do you know that Yui likes Yuma?” As the students were busy with their own worlds, Jackson was just sitting and thinking about something. “Where did Rian go? Why isn’t she here yet?” He thought. As the students did their own thing, Rian, with the principal, entered the class. The whole class went dead silent. The principal got in, told the students that they have a new classmate, and let Rian go in. Rian was still uncomfortable being around of a lot of people, but she managed to introduce herself to the class. (Jackson got surprised because, at first, he had no idea where Rian went.) After introducing herself, the homeroom teacher let her sit at the vacant seat, which is beside Jackson. “Okay class, turn to page 53 of your book.” The teacher said as classes started. “Where were you a while ago?” Jackson asked and Rian replied, “I didn’t know where to go until I bumped to that person a while ago…” “You mean the principal?” Jackson said. “Yeah… I think, well anyways what does this mean?” She pointed to a word on the book as she asked the question- Life. “Life is like a rollercoaster, it has its own ups and downs.” Jackson told her. “So you mean… It’s hard being a human?” Rian asked. “Yes, in a way.” Jackson replied. The bell rang and it was time for their physical education class. Rian did not know what to do because she didn’t have any uniform for it. So while no one was there, she used her powers to open one locker and got the uniform. Luckily, that uniform was a perfect fit. After that, she went up to the gymnasium.

(At the gymnasium)

“Toot!!” The coach blew his whistle. “Today we are going to play dodge ball. Now form into two groups.” He blew his whistle again. As the class formed the groups, the game started. Rian went to Jackson’s team, and Sofia (known as the class bully) went to the other team. Time was ticking fast as they played, and the team of Jackson was losing. Rian was the only one left, and Sofia’s team got all the balls. Sofia gave the “let’s go and kill her” look to Yui and they all threw balls at once to Rian. Of course, as the class bully, Sofia would do that. Jackson didn’t know about what happened because before that, he got hit in the head and went down to the clinic with his friends. So as he went back up, he saw Rian kneeling down with her nose bleeding as the group of bullies hit her with the balls. He ran towards her just before the ball hit Rian’s head. Then Jackson got hit instead of Rian. Sofia did not know that she would hit Jackson instead of Rian. She was so sorry since she liked Jackson. After that, Jackson got mad and went out of the gym dragging Rian with him. “Why did you just sit there and let them hit you?!” Jackson said as he wiped the blood on Rian’s nose. “You should’ve just gotten a ball and hit one of them…” They just talked and talked in front of the gym door. That was why the coach got mad thinking that they were skipping classes. So the coach got out, held the ear of Jackson and Rian; then sent them down to the guidance’s office.

(At the office)

Once they got to the office, they tried to explain what had just happened but it was no use because no one witnessed what happened a while ago. After the long “talk”, the guidance counselor sent them to detention for what they had done.

(At the detention room)

Time was tickling loudly; it was so quiet inside the room. It was as if one would rather die than experience the boredom there. Hours passed and Rian and Jackson didn’t know what to do. They got so bored because they weren’t allowed to talk to each other. Finally, after their detention, they walked home late that night.

(Back at Jackson’s home)

Jackson and Rian went back home and got surprised to see Jackson’s grandmother. “Grandma! What happened to you?” asked Jackson as he ran to his grandmother. “Are you okay?” “I think you should go to the hospital now…” Since Jackson didn’t know how to drive, they took his grandmother to the hospital through a cab. As they hurriedly went to the hospital, they looked for a doctor to get her checked up. The doctor said that Jackson’s grandmother has cardiac problems… After knowing more about her sickness, grandmother said, “I don’t want to live a hard life anymore! Anyways, I’m going to die soon so what is the help of curing my sickness?” The doctors went out of the room where they were and Rian tried to use her powers to heal Jackson’s grandmother but it was no use since she was too weak.

(Months passed…)

November 1, the day when death took Jackson’s grandmother’s soul… We will never forget such a kind-hearted woman…