My lemonade was all over this expensive motorbike. I began to panic. “Kat, do you have tissues?” I looked at her, worriedly.

“Lucky for you, I do,” she said, quickly unzipping her bag.

Taking a few tissues out, and then ended up using the rest of the packet, I tried my best to wipe the lemonade off the motorbike. It was kind of working, except it was still a little sticky on the seat. Taking another tissue out, I wiped the number plate, since there was some lemonade on it.

Rubbing and scrubbing it for a while, I noticed the number plate was familiar. I read it out loud, “GZM73.”

Kat stared at me for a while, “Is something wrong?”

I paused for a moment, jotting into my memory. Then a light bulb lit brightly over my head. It was the same number plate of the motorbike that splashed mud onto me.

My eyes were now fixated on the motorbike; I stood up. I couldn’t believe that this person goes to the same school. And like I promised, if I found out who this driver was, I would seriously punch his lights out.

I glanced back at Kat and started to walk off. She looked at me, confused. “Why aren’t you cleaning anymore?”

I rolled my eyes, “Because that was the bike that splashed mud on me this the morning.” I replied as I turned back to her. Then I saw the driver walking closer to us.

I stared at him for a while, realising that it was Ice Pack Stealer—the same person who stole the last ice pack from me. “You!” I pointed.

He looked at me weirdly, checked his surroundings—not once, but twice—before pointing to himself.

“Me?”

“Are you the owner of this motorbike?”

“Yeah,” he answered. “And?”

I shot lasers at him with my eyes. I couldn’t believe that he was the same person who splashed mud on me. I just couldn’t believe it!

“Woah, Julie. Calm down.” Kat looked at me as though I was igniting a fire to my surroundings. “What’s wrong?”

I gave a little sigh and was about to explain to Kat who this guy was. But instead Ice Pack Stealer stared at me when he noticed his motorbike, “Why is my bike sticky?”

It was his turn to shot lasers with his eyes. He then saw my empty can of lemonade, along with wet tissues, in my hand.

“You spilt lemonade on my bike?” his eyes widened.

“Not like how you splashed mud onto me this morning!” I yelled back.

His eyes were confused for a moment and then he realised it. He smiled to himself and chuckled, “So it was you…”

My blood was going to boil. Keeping my promise, I straightened my arm out with a strong firm fist and punched him hard on the side of his face.

I knocked him over, by surprise, and he fell down. “What was that for?”

I glared at him, “For this morning!”

Pulling Kat along with me, I didn’t bother turning back, “Let’s go home.”

I could see at the corner at my eye that he stood up and stared at me. He continued to stand there, rubbing his cheek.

I walked home with Kat for a bit, but since her house was so close to school, I ended up walking the rest of the way by myself.

When I got home, I took off my shoes, ran upstairs and threw my school bag onto my bed. I noticed that Mum had finally placed some nice blue curtains on the windows. Satisfied with the colour, I ran downstairs to find something to eat.

Both Mum and Dad are authors but for some reason, they like to work at the office instead of working at home. They said that when they write at home, they get distracted and ended up not finishing anything. They also told me that they sometimes work as editors as well. So working at the office would make it much easier for them to discuss things with their team. This also means that I would be home alone most of the time.

I don’t have any brothers or sisters, so sometimes it’s quite lonely at times. I wished I can have a dog, but Mum said no.

Speaking of dogs, I heard a dog barking.

I followed my ears and I closed the fridge. Wondering where the barking was coming from, I walked to the back of the house and saw a golden Labrador wagging its tail at me. It barked again as though it was greeting me.

I opened the back door and lowered myself down. “Hello there,” I said. “Where did you come from?” I sat there stroking its soft fur.

It wagged its cute little tail and tried to lick me again. I smiled as I checked for its collar. Reading the golden words, I saw its name, Hero. “That’s a cute name you have there.”

He just wagged his tail and continued to lick me. I laughed and suddenly I paused, “How did you get in here?”

I looked around. My backyard should be closed and locked up, so I really couldn’t figure out how the puppy got it. Hero wagged his tail and turned around to one of the bushes near the fences. I stood up and followed him. He wagged his little tail and went behind the bush. Then he was gone.

My eyes widened, “Where did you go, Hero?”

I heard him barked. I walked behind the bush and noticed a huge hole in the wooden white fence. “Woah…” The hole was big to the point that even I could crawl through it.

Hero wagged his tail happily telling me to come over, but I decided not to. He then sat down and looked at me intensely with his puppy eyes. Looking at him, I frowned and whispered. “But I might get in trouble.”

Hero whined and his head dropped.

I stood there watching the puppy in silence, contemplating.

“Fine. I’ll come over. But if someone comes, you need to tell me, okay?”

Hero seemed like he understood me. Crawling under the fence, I managed to squeeze myself through the hole. I sighed with relief and stood up. Once I stood up, Hero was so excited that he just jumped into my arms. I smiled and rubbed behind his ears. I think that’s his soft spot.

Looking around, this house was similar to my house. The yard was wide and big and the structure of the house was pretty much the same. I guess my house and this house were built at the same time, something like twin houses.

I glanced to my right and saw the gate that led to the front yard. The white gate was surely brand new and so was the vehicle that was on the other side. I went to take a closer look at the vehicle because for some reason it looked really familiar. My eyes widened, while my mouth opened wider than before, It’s that motorbike again?

Just to make sure that I wasn’t jumping to conclusions. I stared at the motorbike and saw the sticky surface on the seat. This is not good. Not good at all. I glanced down and checked the number plate. It was GZM73.

I rolled my eyes, “Great! It is him.”

I glanced back at Hero, “I can’t believe you have him as your owner.” Hero just wagged his tail, sat down and scratched his ears with his hind legs.

Then I heard the front door shut. I gasped, Someone is coming.

Hero wagged his tail with excitement and bounced up. “Shhh,” I told the dog, putting a finger on my lips.

“Is someone there, Hero?” I heard someone replied.

Damn it! It’s Ice Pack Stealer. My eyes scanned the yard to find somewhere that is big enough for me to hide into. But the place was pretty much spotless since his family had just moved in yesterday—the same time as my family. Where do I hide?

I glanced over to the bush that was covering the hole in the fence. I would like to try to go back through the hole again. But it would probably take a lot of time to squeeze back through.

I ended up hiding behind the biggest bush I could find.

Hero looked at me for a while and then he just wagged his tail as his owner came in.

“Oh, there you are,” Ice Pack Stealer said. “Why are you so happy?” he asked his dog.

Hero got excited and just ran around in circles. Ice Pack Stealer smiled and rubbed behind Hero’s ears, the same way that I did. He laughed, as he played with his dog.

After like a minute or two, the longest time in my life, he stopped and rested a bit. Hero came running to him and licked his face.

My hand reached down to my ankle as I tried to scratch it. When I glanced down to see why it was still itchy, I saw a mosquito buzzing around me. I kept quiet, but the bite it gave me got worst. It buzzed around my ears and then my nose. I tried to gently slap it with my hands but instead, that gentle slap sounded a lot louder than I thought. Great!

Ice Pack Stealer turned his head to my direction.

I held my breath and lowered myself down, trying to keep quiet again. But it wasn’t working.

“Who’s there?” he said, standing up.

Hero was wagging his tail and started running to towards the bush I was hiding in. I tried to gesture Hero to go somewhere else, but it wasn’t working. Hero just continued coming closer to me. The puppy then suddenly leapt onto me and licked my face.

Ice Pack Stealer saw me and his eyes widened.

“You again? What are you doing here?”