Chapter 1

Lydia rushes like a tornado to the hall leading to the headmaster’s office. The impatience of a hungry lioness is worn upon her gaze. The unruly, curly brown hair flutter on her back graciously like the mane of a male lion. She hesitantly stands by the small oval window, where a bunch of the midday sun’s rays slips across the room giving out an orange hue. It’s a sunny winter noon brighter than it should have been. And it seems that it is not the only unusual thing happening… Nervously, she stares around the empty room. Miss Mary, Mr. K’s secretary, is absent. Her shiny, walnut desk is empty. Total silence prevails the hall. Usually, the room is full of impatient students waving continuously in front of her desk, their shouting and screaming echoing eerily around the small room like dry leaves rustling, while Miss Mary, a naturally quiet and calm individual, tries desperately to impose herself upon their screaming using her thin voice. Now the room is so quiet, that the girl thinks she can hear the breath of silence. Hmm, that is a good sign, she thinks satisfied, looking at the empty chair, sighing lightly. The absence of the secretary is definitely a good coincidence. Miss Mary could prove devastating for the perfectly organized plan. Not that she is a sacredly little girl, none the less. She is fully capable of dealing not only with Mary but also with a dozen secretaries who would try stopping her from entering the headmaster’s office. But today, since the morning, she is in an incomprehensible nervous tension. She boldly looks across the room, at the closed, white, wooden door. She hastily blinks, to cast away the suspicion of uncertainty that momentarily clouds her gaze. There is no time for turning back. Her impatience make the distance to the door look huge. She moves fast, silently to the door. Three paces are enough to take her there. At the exact moment she is ready to knock, she hears in the office the raspy voice of the math teacher, Mrs. M. Startled, she stops so close to the door, her nose almost touching the “Do not disturb” sign hanging in front of her eyes onto the wooden surface. Her mouth gapes open. “What the hell is a teacher doing inside the headmaster’s office right now, especially Mrs. M?” she wonders, while her hand ready to knock on the door, falls idly and heavily to her side. A sense of disgust flashes through her delicate facial features. Although some days earlier she had snuck into the teacher’s office making sure that today at noon, at the specific time, all teachers will be busy in their classrooms, it seems that once again Mrs. M gets involved in her business. Sure that the presence of this woman in the headmaster’s office does not herald something good, she sighs worryingly. Mrs. M has put upon herself to pester her since the first day she met her. Faithful to the mantra “if you cannot change the wind, just set your sails so you can reach your destination,” she is not intimidated by the unforeseen presence of the teacher. Being well trained for finding solutions to any kind of setbacks, she is not planning on letting the presence of Mrs. M ruin her plans. Standing in front of the closed door, she thinks and tries to calculate by how much would the presence of a third person affect her plans. She hears Mrs. M’s voice mention her name. Chills spread throughout her body like bad luck has engulfed her body.