I closed the bathroom door behind me and folded my muddy clothes into a plastic bag. Leaning against the cubicle door, I sighed, What a tiring day already.

Using the towel the receptionist gave me, I was scrubbing my head so that my hair would dry faster, and I guess it was kind of working—which was a good thing.

I pulled out my timetable from my school blazer and scanned through it. I should be having biology now, but with all this crazy hair and muddy clothes, the receptionist said that it was okay for me to start class in the next period.

I glanced up at the mirror and tried to comb my hair with my five fingers, not working as well as I thought it would.

“Here, you can borrow mine.”

I jumped.

“Sorry, did I scare you?”

“A little,” I replied, awkwardly.

She was a girl with red short hair. Her smile was very sweet, but her eyes were emerald green, making her look like she’s a psychic of some kind.

“Are you new?”

I nodded.

“Well, I’m Katrina. But just call me Kat.” She offered her hand to me, I shook her hand and smiled back, “I’m Juliet.” I replied, “But call me Julie.”

Kat looked at me surprised, “Woah, your name is Juliet?” She stared at me from head to toe, “You don’t look like a Juliet. I thought you’re a Sarah or something.”

I shrugged, “Well, my parents are fans of Shakespeare, and so they named me Juliet. But don’t call me Juliet, I feel more comfortable with Julie.”

She nodded in agreement, “Yeah. I understand.” She offered me her hairbrush again, “Okay then, Julie. Do you want to borrow this?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

After talking to her for a while, we actually found out that we were in the same English, chemistry and biology class. Then it was lunch.

Kat looked around the school grounds trying to find a seat for us to settle down. I raised my eyebrows, helping her scan through the area, but the shelter area was full. There was literally, no other place to sit, other than the bare ground.

Kat sighed, “I guess we have to take the picnic mat out and sit on the grass.” She grinned at me and gave me her bag. “Julie, just stand there by the tree and I’ll get the mat from my locker.”

I nodded and followed her instructions as she ran back into the hallway.

As I walked closer to the oak tree, I saw that guy again—Ice Pack Stealer. He too was walking towards another oak tree with his group of friends.

“Hey, Rome!” I heard his friends calling, “Did you hear about the new girl?”

He didn’t say anything.

“Yeah.” The other guy smiled, “I heard that she’s pretty tough.”

Are they talking about me? I wondered. I paused all the questions that were popping in my head and continued to eavesdrop.

Since I didn’t know Ice Pack Stealer friends’ names, I started calling them Dude #1, #2 and et cetera.

Dude #1 smiled, “Tough? How tough?”

“Well,” Dude #2 started, “I heard that she was the prank master in her previous school. And usually, the other guys would be afraid of her like she’s a witch or something.”

“Really?” Another guy popped into their conversation.

Dude #2 nodded, “I mean it.” He continued, “She’s really strong. There was this one time when she broke a football player’s arm with her bare hands, and he was actually twice the size of her.”

I rolled my eyes, Geez, they’re exaggerating all right! I tripped the football player by walking on his untied shoe laces by accident and he fell down so hard that he broke his arm. I didn’t break it with my bare hands or anything. He tripped!

Dude #1 raised his eyebrows, “But is she hot?”

“To be honest, I don’t know,” said Dude #2.

Dude #3 shrugged, “But by the sound of her fame, she sounds pretty scary to me.”

Then I heard Ice Pack Stealer spoke, “You shouldn’t talk about people like that. Who knows if they’re listening to you right now.” He said and turned his head towards me.

The moment I saw his head move, I quickly glanced away as though I wasn’t listening to them in the first place. The guys all turned to the same direction as Ice Pack Stealer and stared at me. “Who are you looking at, Rome?”

I could see at the corner of my eye that he turned away and said, “Nothing.”

Dude #1, on the other hand, was still staring at me. “Hey, is she new?” He tapped on Dude #2 and #3’s shoulders, “Because she doesn’t look familiar.”

“Oh, come on Jack,” Dude #2 said. “Stop checking girls out.”

Dude #1, whose name is apparently Jack, smiled, “What? I think she’s hot.”

Dude #3 rolled his eyes, “You think every girl is hot.”

Jack smirked again, “Wait a minute, she is new.”

That was when Kat came running to me with the picnic mat in her hand, “Julie!” She called out, “I finally got it!”

I turned to look at Ice Pack Stealer and saw Jack winking at me. I didn’t react but shot a deathly glare back at him. And as I glanced over to Ice Pack Stealer again; our eyes met. I quickly glanced away and turned to Kat.

“We can finally eat now,” she said.

“Yeah,” I replied, helping her spread the mat across the grass.

Kat looked at me and then at the direction I turned away from, “Who were you looking at?”

I kept a neutral expression, “No one.”

Kat narrowed her eyes and saw Jack, still staring at us. She gave him a glare that told him to back off. And I could hear him say, “Oh man, it’s that psychic girl again. Let’s go away before she does some kind of curse on us.”

Looking at Kat again, she sat down on the mat and gestured me to join her. “Jack is a big flirt,” she said, casually. “He even dated five girls at a time, once.”

“Woah!”

Kat nodded, “So be careful.” She told me with her green mystic eyes, “I think you’re his next target.”

I laughed. “Nah. I won’t be,” I grinned.

She paused for a few moments, “Wait, so you are her!”

“Who?”

Kat smiled, “I predicted that there would be a female master coming to Cliffin High.”

I looked at her awkwardly, “Really?” I paused. “Female master?”

“I used my cards to predict things, which are usually ninety-eight percent correct.” She looked at me again, “The cards said that she would come in a wet form or something.”

Kat made me think. Before I even got to school, I was sprinkled with mud. I guess she’s somewhat right.

Kat then turned her direction to the group of idiotic boys again and stared at one in particular. “I also predicted that there would be a male master too.”

I looked over to her direction, “Who is it?”

Kat smiled. “It’s the new guy,” she replied. “The one sitting closest to the tree.”

My head moved to the direction of the tree and my eyes widened, “You mean Ice Pack Stealer?”

Kat looked at me weirdly, “You guys know each other?”

I shrugged and scratched my head, not knowing how to explain the nickname I gave him. Then I told how we kind of met in the supermarket.

She laughed, “So that’s how he got his name.”

I sighed, “I got the ice pack first though.”

She nodded, “But he was standing there before you came.”

“But I held the ice pack first!” I told her again.

Kat smiled, “So I guess your meeting with him, isn’t so bad after all.”

“Well, except for that kick. I think I did it a bit too hard.” I wondered off a bit, “Nah, he deserves it!”

Kat laughed. “You’re so funny. If I became a famous psychic would you become my bodyguard?”

I had no idea that there was such career like a professional psychic. But I didn’t want to burst her bubble. “Sure! Why not?”

Just talking to Kat made me feel like I’ve known her for a few years. She’s such a nice person and with all that psychic powers—not that I believe it completely—she’s really interesting to talk to. Lunch ended and gradually, the school day did too.

As I was walking out of the corridors, I smiled as I was sipping my sweet lemonade from a straw. Kat was walking next to me, planning on what we should do this weekend.

“You want to go to the park?”

I raised my eyebrows, “Where’s that?”

“Sorry, I forgot you’re new to this town,” she giggled. “Well, it’s actually pretty close to the school and the library.”

“Okay, that sounds like a great idea. But what do you want to do there?”

She grinned, “I want to predict some things for you.”

My eyes widened, “Predict?”

She nodded, “For some reason, there seems to be a series of things that are going to happen to you. And I want to do some checking with my cards to see what they really are.”

I stared at her, “Series of things…” I paused. “Is something going to happen to me?”

She nodded with a sunshine look.

“Is it a series of good or bad things? And how can you tell?”

This time her green eyes were sparkling at me, “It’s a combination, I think.” She winked and then stared off into space. “I can tell,” Kat said. “I just can. I’m not sure how to describe it.”

I nodded slowly, “Okay then. I’ll meet you on Friday after school?”

“Yeah. But don’t worry, it’s only Monday today. So there’s still a few days for you to get ready and be mentally prepared.”

I honestly didn’t know if I’m supposed to be happy or worried.

Trying to enjoy my can of lemonade again, I started walking backwards to feel the breeze in my hair. It was so refreshing, especially with the sun shining on me like a spotlight.

“Um, Julie why are you walking backwards?” Kat asked.

“I don’t know. I think it’s a side effect whenever I drink lemonade,” I smiled.

Kat laughed, seeing how I was enjoying myself. I laughed with her and started to skip backwards.

“Julie, watch out!”

Too late. I already tripped over something that felt like a small stone, hidden in the grass. But the funny thing was, my lemonade actually flew up into the air and didn’t land on me. Instead, it flew up—and you can see the sparkling lemonade coming out of the can—and ended up landing on someone’s bike.

I stopped smiling and found myself sitting on the ground with a thud.

My eyes widened, “Oh dear.”

Kat ran to me and helped me up, “Are you okay?”

I weakly smiled. “Yeah,” I gulped. “But not the bike.”

Kat’s eyes widened. “That’s not an ordinary bike as well,” she added.

I continued her sentence, “It’s an expensive motorbike by the looks of it.”

This was not going to be good.