A Week at Greenhill School
School & LifeTinglash vaqti:47 daqO‘qish vaqti:42 daq
Follow Maya as an accidental bag mix-up on a Monday morning leads to an unforgettable week of friendship, challenges, and teamwork at Greenhill School.
Follow Maya as an accidental bag mix-up on a Monday morning leads to an unforgettable week of friendship, challenges, and teamwork at Greenhill School.
Shu gapdan tinglash uchun Enter tugmasini bosing.
Chapter 1: The Wrong Bag
Maya woke up at seven o'clock. The sun was bright. The birds were singing outside her window. It was Monday morning.
"Maya! Time for school!" her mother called from the kitchen.
Maya jumped out of bed. She was not a morning person, but today she felt happy. Today was a normal school day at Greenhill School, and Maya liked normal days. Normal days were easy. Normal days were safe.
Maya put on her blue shirt and her jeans. She brushed her hair. She brushed her teeth. Then she went to the kitchen and ate some bread with jam. Her little brother Tommy was eating cereal. Tommy was six years old. He was a nice boy, but sometimes he did things.
"Good morning, Tommy," Maya said.
"Good morning, Maya," Tommy said. He was smiling. Why was he smiling? Maya did not think about it. She drank her milk. She said goodbye to her mother. She picked up her backpack from the floor near the door.
The backpack felt a little heavy. But Maya had many books, so that was normal.
Maya walked to school. It was a ten-minute walk. Her best friend Leo was waiting at the school gate, like every morning.
"Hi, Maya!" Leo said. Leo was tall and had black hair. He always had a big smile.
"Hi, Leo," Maya said.
They walked into the school together. The bell rang. They went to their classroom. Their teacher, Mr. Park, was already there. Mr. Park was a kind man with glasses. He liked tea and old books.
"Good morning, class," Mr. Park said. "Please take out your English books. Today we are going to read a new story."
Maya sat down at her desk. Leo sat next to her. Maya put her backpack on the floor. She opened it.
And then she stopped.
"What…?" Maya said quietly.
Leo looked at her. "What is it?"
Maya did not answer. She was looking inside her backpack. She saw no books. She saw no pencils. She saw no English notebook.
She saw a small green dinosaur. A plastic dinosaur. She saw a little red car. She saw three toy soldiers. She saw a yellow plastic banana. She saw a teddy bear with one eye.
Maya's backpack was full of toys.
"Oh no," Maya said. "Oh no, oh no, oh no."
Leo looked into the bag. His eyes became very big. Then he started to laugh.
"Shh!" Maya said. "Leo, please!"
But Leo could not stop laughing. "Maya… why do you have a teddy bear?"
"It is not mine!" Maya said. "It is Tommy's! These are all Tommy's toys! I took the wrong bag!"
Now Maya understood. Tommy had a backpack too. It was blue, the same color as Maya's backpack. This morning, Tommy was smiling. He was smiling because his backpack was near the door, and it looked like Maya's bag. Maya picked up Tommy's bag. And Tommy took Maya's bag to his little school.
"Maya!" Mr. Park said from the front of the class. "Please take out your book."
Maya's face was red. Very, very red.
"Mr. Park," she said, "I… I do not have my book today."
"You do not have your book? Why?"
Maya looked at her bag of toys. She looked at Leo. Leo was trying very hard not to laugh.
"I… took the wrong bag," Maya said. "My brother's bag. He has my books."
Mr. Park looked at the bag. He saw the teddy bear. He saw the plastic banana. For one second, Maya thought he was going to be angry. But then Mr. Park smiled.
"Well," he said, "that is a new one. In twenty years of teaching, no student has brought me a teddy bear. Please share a book with Leo today, Maya."
"Thank you, Mr. Park," Maya said.
The class started. Maya sat close to Leo, and they shared his book. But Maya could not think about the story. She was thinking about Tommy. Tommy was at his little school now. He was opening Maya's backpack. He was finding math books and English books and a big science book. Poor Tommy! He was going to be so surprised. And his teacher was going to be so confused.
At the end of the class, Leo looked at Maya and smiled.
"Maya," he said, "do you want my pencil? Or do you want the plastic banana?"
"Stop it, Leo!" Maya said. But now she was laughing too.
At lunch time, Maya took the teddy bear out of the bag. She looked at its one eye. "Hello, Mr. Bear," she said quietly. "Today you are a student at Greenhill School."
Leo heard her and laughed again.
When Maya went home that afternoon, Tommy was waiting at the door. His face was not happy.
"Maya!" he said. "You took my bag! I had no toys at school today! And my teacher opened your bag and she saw your big science book and she said, 'Tommy, you are a very smart boy!' But I did not understand the book! It was so hard!"
Maya laughed. She gave Tommy his bag.
"Tommy," she said, "tomorrow morning, please put your bag in a different place. Okay?"
"Okay," Tommy said. "But Maya… can I keep the science book for one more day? My teacher thinks I am smart now."
Maya smiled. "Okay, Tommy. One more day."
It was a Monday. But Maya thought: Maybe days are not so bad.
She did not know that the next day was going to be even stranger.
Chapter 2: The Surprise Test
Tuesday morning was different from Monday morning. Maya did not feel happy. Maya felt tired. Very, very tired.
Why was Maya so tired? Because on Monday night, Maya did something special. On Monday night, Maya went to a concert.
It was her first concert. Her favorite singer, Bella Luna, came to the city. Maya's older cousin Rosa had two tickets. Rosa called Maya on Sunday and said, "Maya, do you want to come to the Bella Luna concert with me?"
Maya said yes one hundred times. She was so happy! Bella Luna was her dream. She had all of Bella Luna's songs on her phone. She knew all the words.
The concert was amazing. Maya sang every song. She danced. She shouted. The concert finished at eleven o'clock at night. Then Rosa and Maya went to eat pizza. Then they walked home slowly, talking about the concert. Maya got into bed at one o'clock in the morning.
That is why Maya was so tired on Tuesday.
In the classroom, Maya put her head on her desk. Her eyes were closing. Her real books were in her bag today — she checked three times.
Leo sat down next to her. "Maya, you look terrible."
"I feel terrible," Maya said. "I went to the concert last night."
"The Bella Luna concert? Lucky you! How was it?"
"Amazing. Beautiful. But I got home very late. I did not sleep."
"Did you study for today?"
Maya lifted her head slowly. "Study? Study for what?"
Leo's face changed. "Maya… you did not study?"
"What? What are you talking about?"
"The history test. Mr. Park told us last week. There is a test today. About the Roman Empire."
Maya's heart stopped for one second. Then it started again, very fast.
"No," Maya said. "No, no, no, no. That test is next week. Next Tuesday."
"No, Maya. It is this Tuesday. Today."
Maya's mouth opened. Her eyes opened wide. Her tired face was not tired anymore.
"Leo, please tell me this is a joke."
"It is not a joke."
At that moment, Mr. Park walked into the classroom. He was carrying a stack of white papers. Many, many white papers. Test papers.
"Good morning, class," Mr. Park said with a big smile. "I hope you are all ready for our history test today."
Maya put her head on her desk again. But this time she was not sleeping. She was thinking. She was thinking very, very hard.
Romans. Romans. What do I know about Romans? They… they had soldiers. They had a big city called Rome. They ate… grapes? They wore white clothes? Did they? Oh no.
Mr. Park gave Maya a test paper. Maya looked at the first question.
Question 1: Who was the first emperor of Rome?
Maya knew this one! It was… it was… someone. A man. With a funny name. Ju… Jul… Julius? No, Julius was before. Maya tried to remember. She had seen the name in her book. But she had not really studied. She had looked at the book for ten minutes and then watched Bella Luna videos on her phone for two hours.
Maya wrote: Augustus. She thought that was right. Maybe.
Question 2: In which year did the Roman Empire fall?
Maya did not know. She really did not know. She wrote: 476. She did not know why she wrote 476. Maybe she heard the number before, maybe in a movie.
Question 3: Name three Roman gods.
Maya knew this! Roman gods were like Greek gods, but with different names. She wrote: Jupiter, Mars, Venus.
Question 4: What language did the Romans speak?
"Latin!" Maya said out loud.
"Maya!" Mr. Park said. "Quiet, please. This is a test."
"Sorry, Mr. Park." Maya wrote Latin and her face was red.
Question 5: Write a short paragraph about daily life in ancient Rome.
Maya looked at the question for a long time. She looked out of the window. She looked at the ceiling. She looked at Leo. Leo was writing a lot. Maya wanted to cry.
Then Maya started to write. She wrote about Roman people waking up in the morning. She wrote that they ate bread and fruit. She wrote that the men went to work and the women took care of the children. She wrote that in the evening, they all went to a big place to watch music. Maybe they had concerts, Maya wrote. Maybe Roman teenagers went to concerts and came home late and were very tired the next day.
She stopped writing. She looked at her paragraph. It was not a good paragraph. But it was her paragraph.
When the test finished, Mr. Park collected the papers.
"How was the test, Maya?" he asked kindly.
"Mr. Park," Maya said. "I have to tell you the truth. I did not study. I went to a concert last night."
Mr. Park's eyes were kind, but also a little bit serious. "A concert is a nice thing, Maya. But tests are also important. Next time, please remember both."
"Yes, Mr. Park. I am sorry."
After school, Leo and Maya walked home together.
"Do you think you passed?" Leo asked.
"I do not know," Maya said. "Probably not. But Leo, let me tell you about the concert. Bella Luna came on the stage, and she was wearing a silver dress, and…"
Leo smiled. He listened. And Maya smiled too. Maybe the test was bad. But the concert was amazing. And Leo was a good friend.
Chapter 3: The Science Project Disaster
On Wednesday, Maya and Leo had a big science project. They had to build a . A real ! Well, not a real real . A model . But it had to erupt — that means, it had to "explode" with red liquid, like lava.
They worked on the for two weeks. Maya's mother helped them. They made the from paper and glue and paint. It was brown and grey, with a red top. It looked like a real mountain. Maya was proud of it.
"This is the best in the class," Leo said on Wednesday morning.
"I hope so," Maya said.
They carried the carefully to school. They put it on a table in the science room. Other students had volcanoes too, but Maya thought her was the biggest and the best.
Ms. Chen, the science teacher, came in. "Good morning, class! Today we are going to see your volcanoes erupt. Who wants to go first?"
Leo's hand went up. "We do! Maya and me!"
Maya was not sure she wanted to go first. But it was too late now.
They went to the front of the class with their . Leo was holding a bottle of . Maya was holding a box of baking soda and a small bottle of red food color.
"First, we put the baking soda inside the ," Leo said to the class, like a TV scientist. "Then we add the red color. Then we add the . And then… boom!"
Maya looked at Leo. "Leo, how much baking soda should we put in?"
"A lot," Leo said. "We want a big ."
"How much is a lot?"
Leo thought about it. "I do not know. All of it?"
"All of it? The whole box?"
"Yes! This is a big . We need a lot."
So Maya put the whole box of baking soda inside the . It was a big box. Then she added all the red food color. The inside of the looked like red snow.
"And now," Leo said, "the !"
Leo opened the bottle of . It was a big bottle. A very big bottle.
"Leo, wait," Maya said. "Maybe not all of it. Maybe just a little—"
But Leo was excited. Leo was not listening. Leo poured the whole bottle of into the .
For one second, nothing happened.
Then the started to make a sound. Fizzzzzzzzz.
"Here it comes!" Leo said.
FIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
Red came out of the top of the . A lot of red . Like a red river. The went down the sides of the . Then it went across the table. Then it started to fall off the table and onto the floor.
"Wow!" the class said.
"Cool!" someone said.
Maya smiled. This was working! It was a great !
But then the did not stop.
More came. And more. And more. The red covered the table. It covered Leo's shoes. It covered Maya's shoes. It was on the floor. It was going under the other desks. One boy jumped onto his chair to escape the red .
"Leo!" Maya said. "Make it stop!"
"How? I cannot make it stop! It is a !"
Ms. Chen's face was very surprised. Then her face was a little angry. "Children! Please! Move the to the sink! Quickly!"
Leo picked up the . But the was wet and slippery. Leo was walking fast to the sink, and red was falling on the floor behind him, like a red snake. Maya was running behind Leo with paper towels. But ten paper towels were not enough for a .
And then — disaster.
Leo's foot hit the wet floor. His shoe slipped. Leo fell down. The went flying through the air. For one long second, the flew like a brown and grey bird. Then it landed — SPLAT! — right on Ms. Chen's desk. Right on top of Ms. Chen's papers. Her test papers. Her lesson plans. Her new book about dinosaurs.
Everything was red.
The room was very quiet. Nobody said anything. Even the red seemed quieter now.
Ms. Chen looked at her desk. She looked at her red papers. She looked at her red book. She looked at Leo, who was sitting on the floor with red on his face. She looked at Maya, who was holding the sad, empty paper towels.
Maya wanted to disappear. She wanted the red to cover her, to cover everything, to cover the whole school.
"Ms. Chen," Maya said in a very small voice, "I am so, so sorry."
Ms. Chen took a long breath. Then — this was the surprise — Ms. Chen started to laugh. Not a small laugh. A big, real laugh.
"Well," Ms. Chen said, "that was the biggest I have ever seen. Maya and Leo, your did not just erupt. It exploded!"
"Is that… good?" Leo asked from the floor.
"The explosion was too big. Much too big. And my desk is now a red lake. But," Ms. Chen said, "the science was correct. Baking soda and make a chemical reaction. You showed us a very strong reaction. Very, very strong."
"So… we pass?" Maya asked.
"You pass. But next time, please use a smaller bottle. And please — for the love of science — please clean my desk."
Maya and Leo spent the next hour cleaning. They cleaned the desk. They cleaned the floor. They cleaned Ms. Chen's book. The book was still a little bit pink, but you could read it.
When they were finished, Maya looked at Leo. Leo had red in his hair.
"Leo," Maya said, "next time, I choose how much ."
"Okay," Leo said. "Deal."
Chapter 4: The Missing Pen
On Thursday, Maya had her big English final . Not a small test. A big . A two-hour . The most important of the year.
Maya was not too worried. She had studied a lot. She knew the grammar. She knew the vocabulary. She knew how to write a good short story in English.
And more important than all of that, Maya had her Lucky Pen.
The Lucky Pen was blue. It was small. It was not a special pen. You could buy a pen like this for one dollar at any shop. But this pen was different. This pen was magic. Maya was sure of it.
Why was it magic? Because two years ago, Maya wrote her first good composition with this pen. She got an A! Before that day, Maya never got an A in English. After that day, she always took this pen to every . And every time she used the pen, she did well. Not perfect, but well. The pen helped her think. The pen helped her write good sentences.
On Thursday morning, Maya put the Lucky Pen in her pencil case. She put the pencil case in her bag. She checked two times. The pen was there.
At school, Maya was nervous but ready. The was at ten o'clock. At nine-thirty, Maya was in the classroom. She took out her pencil case. She opened it.
The pen was not there.
Maya looked again. She looked between her other pens. She looked at every pencil, every eraser, every ruler. No blue pen.
"No," Maya said quietly. "No, no, no."
Leo saw her face. "Maya, what is it?"
"My pen. My Lucky Pen. It is gone!"
"Are you sure? Did you check your bag?"
Maya took everything out of her bag. Her books. Her notebooks. Her water bottle. Her lunch. She looked inside every pocket of her bag. She even looked inside her shoes, which was crazy, but Maya was feeling crazy.
No pen.
"I had it this morning," Maya said. "I put it in the pencil case. I remember."
"Maybe you dropped it."
"Where? In the hall? Outside? On the bus?"
Maya looked at the clock. Nine thirty-five. Twenty-five minutes until the .
"Leo, I cannot do the without my Lucky Pen. I cannot."
Leo looked at her with serious eyes. "Maya, the pen is not really magic. You know that. You are a good student because you study, not because of a pen."
"Maybe! But I believe in the pen! And if I believe in the pen, the pen helps me! That is how magic works!"
Leo thought about this. It was not easy to argue with Maya about magic.
"Okay," he said. "Let's look for the pen. We have twenty-five minutes. Go!"
They ran out of the classroom. They looked in the hall. They looked on the stairs. They went to the front door, where Maya came in that morning. No pen. They went to the , where Maya had a glass of water. No pen. They went to the library, where Maya had gone for five minutes to return a book.
And there — on a table in the library — was a small blue pen.
"My pen!" Maya shouted.
But when she picked it up, her face became sad. It was a blue pen, yes. But it was not her pen. This pen was a little bit longer. And it had the words "GREENHILL LIBRARY" on the side.
"This is not my pen."
"Are you sure?"
"I am sure."
The clock on the library wall said nine fifty-two. Eight minutes until the .
"Maya, we have to go back."
"But my pen—"
"Maya! Listen to me. You have studied. You have worked hard. You are smart. You do not need a magic pen. You need you."
Maya looked at Leo. Leo was never this serious.
"But I'm scared," Maya said quietly.
"I know. But you can do this. With any pen."
Maya took a long breath. She nodded. They ran back to the classroom. Maya sat down at her desk just as Mr. Park gave out the papers.
"You have two hours," Mr. Park said. "Good luck, everyone."
Maya looked at her pencil case. She took out an ordinary black pen. Not lucky. Not magic. Just a pen.
She looked at the first page of the .
At first, her hand was shaking. She wrote her name, and her name looked , not like her normal name. Oh no, she thought, I really needed the Lucky Pen.
But then she read the first question. It was a grammar question. She knew the answer. She wrote it. Her hand stopped shaking.
Second question. Also grammar. She knew that too. She wrote.
Third question. A vocabulary question. Easy.
Soon Maya was not thinking about the pen. She was thinking about the . Her hand was moving fast across the paper. The ideas were coming. The English words were coming. She was doing it!
When Maya came to the last part of the — the short story — she smiled. "Write a story about a time you lost something important." Maya almost laughed. She wrote a story about a girl who lost her lucky pen five minutes before a big . She wrote about her friend who told her that the magic was inside her, not inside the pen. It was the best thing she had ever written in English.
When the finished, Maya gave her paper to Mr. Park.
"I did it," she said to Leo. "Without the pen."
"I told you," Leo said.
That afternoon, Maya went home. Her mother was in the kitchen.
"How was the , Maya?"
"Good. Very good. Mom… did you see my blue Lucky Pen?"
"Your blue pen? Oh! Yes! Tommy was drawing with it this morning. He put it in his bag. I am sorry, Maya — I should have told you."
Tommy again! Maya laughed. She laughed for a long time.
"Mom," she said, "tomorrow, please, Tommy's bag goes in a different room."
Chapter 5: The New Student
On Friday morning, Mr. Park had an .
"Class, today we have a new student. Her name is Sofia. She just came from a country called Kyrgyzstan. Do you know Kyrgyzstan? It is a country in Central Asia, with big mountains and beautiful lakes."
A girl walked into the classroom. She was small, with dark hair in two braids. She had a red coat and a big, serious face. She did not smile. Maya thought she looked a little bit scared.
"Sofia, please sit next to Maya. Maya, please help Sofia today."
Maya smiled at Sofia. "Hi, Sofia. My name is Maya."
Sofia said something. But it was not English. It was not a language Maya knew.
"Oh," Maya said. "You don't speak English?"
Sofia looked at Maya. Then Sofia said, very slowly, "A… little. Little English. My English… not good."
"That's okay!" Maya said quickly. "My English is not perfect too! We can help each other."
Sofia gave a small, small smile. Her first smile of the day.
The morning class was math. Math was good for Sofia, because numbers are numbers in every language. Sofia was very good at math. She finished all the problems before anyone else. Maya was surprised.
"Wow, Sofia, you are so fast!"
"In my school, we do this last year," Sofia said. "This is… easy for me."
"You are smart!"
Sofia's face became a little red. But she was smiling.
At twelve o'clock, the bell rang. It was lunch time.
"Sofia," Maya said, "are you hungry? Let's go to the ."
"Cafe…?"
". The place where we eat."
"Oh! Yes. Yes, please. I do not know this school."
Maya and Sofia walked out of the classroom together. Greenhill School was a big school. It had three floors and many, many halls. For Maya, it was easy. She had been here for three years. But for Sofia, it was a maze.
"This way," Maya said. "Down the stairs."
They went down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, there were three halls. One hall went left. One hall went right. One hall went straight.
Maya stopped. "Um…"
Sofia looked at her. "Problem?"
"The is… this way." Maya pointed left. "I think."
They walked down the left hall. They walked and walked. They did not see the . They saw classrooms. They saw the art room. They saw the music room. They saw a door that said "No Students."
"This is not the way," Maya said.
"You not know the way?" Sofia asked. Her eyes were big.
"I know the way! I mean, I usually know the way. But Leo always walks with me, and today he is sick at home, and… I think I was not paying attention all those other days."
Sofia was trying not to laugh.
"Are you laughing at me?" Maya said. But she was smiling.
"A little," Sofia said.
They walked back. They tried the hall that went right. They saw the gym. They saw the teachers' room. They did not see the .
Maya was worried. Not for herself — she knew she would find it. She was worried for Sofia. Sofia's first day at a new school, in a new country, and her guide was lost!
"Sofia, I am so sorry. I am a bad guide."
"It is okay," Sofia said. "In my country, I was also lost sometimes. When I move to new town, I was lost for one whole week. I cried. But then I learn. Now I can find everything."
Maya looked at Sofia with new eyes. "You moved to a new town? And then to a new country?"
"Yes. My father — his job. So we move. Many times. This is… third new school for me."
"Third? In how many years?"
"Four years."
Maya's problem — finding the — suddenly seemed very small. Sofia had left her country. Sofia had left her old school, her old friends. Sofia had come to a place where she did not know the language. And Sofia was here, on her first day, helping Maya find the .
"Sofia," Maya said, "you are very brave. I don't think I could do that."
Sofia shook her head. "Not brave. Just… no choice. But thank you."
They walked back to the stairs. This time they tried the middle hall, the one that went straight. And there, at the end of the hall, was a big door. Through the door, they could hear the sound of many voices and many plates.
"The !" Maya shouted. "I found it! I mean — we found it!"
They went inside. It was a big, bright room with long tables and many, many students. The smell of pizza and soup filled the air. Sofia's face changed. She was looking at everything with big eyes.
"So big," she said.
"Come on, let's get food."
They stood in line. Maya showed Sofia how it worked. You take a tray. You walk past the food. You choose what you want. You pay at the end. There was pizza, there was rice with chicken, there was soup, there was salad, there were apples and bananas.
Sofia chose rice and chicken. Maya chose pizza.
"In my country, we eat a lot of rice," Sofia said as they sat down. "And bread. Very good bread. My grandmother makes the best bread in the world."
"What is it called?"
"Non. It is round and… golden. When my grandmother takes it out of the oven, the whole house smells like happiness."
Maya smiled. "That sounds beautiful. Do you miss your grandmother?"
Sofia nodded slowly. "Yes. Very much. But she called me last night. She said, 'Sofia, be strong. Make new friends. The world is small.'"
"Your grandmother is a wise woman." Maya took a deep breath. "Sofia, I want to be your friend. A real friend. I will show you the school — the real way this time. And you can tell me about your country. Deal?"
"Deal," Sofia said.
They ate their lunch together. They talked slowly, in simple words. Sofia taught Maya how to say "hello" and "thank you" in her language. Maya taught Sofia some English words about school and food.
When the bell rang, they walked back to class together. And this time, Maya was paying attention to every hall, every door, every turn. Because now she had a job: to be a good guide for her new friend.
Chapter 6: The Robot Teacher
On Monday, Mr. Park was not at school. Maya was worried. Mr. Park was almost never sick.
"Where is Mr. Park?" Maya asked the school .
"He is not feeling well today. We have a substitute teacher for you. Mr. Byte. He is new. Be nice to him."
"Mr. Byte? That is a name."
"Yes," the said. "But he is a very… modern teacher. Go to class."
Maya went to the classroom. Leo was back from his sick day. Sofia was at her desk next to Maya's. The class was talking and waiting.
Then the door opened. Mr. Byte walked in.
Everyone became quiet.
Mr. Byte was a tall man. He wore a grey suit, perfectly clean, not a single wrinkle. His tie was exactly straight. His hair was short and very, very neat. His shoes were shining. He walked in small, perfect steps. Every step was the same size.
"Good. Morning. Class," Mr. Byte said. His voice was . He said every word the same way. Not fast, not slow. Not loud, not quiet. Just… flat.
"Good morning," the class said.
"My. Name. Is. Mr. Byte. I. Will. Be. Your. Teacher. Today."
Leo looked at Maya. Maya looked at Leo. They both had the same question in their eyes: What is wrong with him?
Mr. Byte walked to the front of the class. He stopped. He did not move for five seconds. His eyes looked straight ahead. He was not blinking.
Then, suddenly, he turned his head. Just his head. His body did not move. His head turned to the left, then to the right, then back to the front.
"Let. Us. Begin. Please. Open. Your. Book. To. Page. Forty. Two."
The class opened their books. Mr. Byte watched them. His eyes were very wide. He still did not blink.
"Leo," Maya whispered, "something is wrong."
"I know," Leo whispered back. "He is so weird."
Sofia was also watching. "In Kyrgyzstan," she whispered, "we do not have teachers like this."
"Nobody has teachers like this," Leo said.
"Silence!" Mr. Byte said. His voice was a little louder now, but still flat. "Whispering. Is. Not. Permitted. In. My. Classroom."
The class was silent.
Mr. Byte started the lesson. It was a history lesson. He read from the book. He read every word, but in his flat voice. "The. Roman. Empire. Was. Very. Big. It. Was. In. Europe. Many. People. Lived. There. They. Spoke. Latin."
Maya was trying to listen. But she was also watching Mr. Byte. He never moved his hands. He held the book in exactly the same position. After five minutes, Maya counted: Mr. Byte had blinked only one time.
"Does anyone. Have. A question?" Mr. Byte asked.
Nobody put up their hand.
"Good. Let. Us. Continue."
Then something happened. A fly came into the classroom. A small, normal fly. The fly flew around Mr. Byte's head. Mr. Byte did not react. The fly landed on Mr. Byte's nose. Mr. Byte did not react. The fly stayed on Mr. Byte's nose for ten whole seconds. Ten seconds is a long time when a fly is on your nose.
Leo's mouth was open. Sofia's mouth was open. Maya's mouth was open.
"Maya," Leo whispered very, very quietly, "is Mr. Byte a… robot?"
"Don't be silly, Leo."
"Look at him! He is not normal! He did not move when the fly landed on his face!"
"Robots are not real. Not real robots that look like people."
"Then what is wrong with him?"
Maya did not have an answer.
At the end of the lesson, Mr. Byte said, "You. Will. Now. Do. Exercise. Three. Write. The. Answers. In. Your. Notebook. You. Have. Ten. Minutes."
While the class was writing, Mr. Byte went back to his desk. He sat down. He put his hands on the desk, flat. He did not move. His eyes looked straight ahead. He was like a statue.
Maya was brave. She put up her hand.
"Yes," Mr. Byte said, without turning his head.
"Um, Mr. Byte… are you… feeling okay?"
"I. Am. Functioning. Normally."
Functioning? Maya's heart jumped. Functioning was a word for machines, not for people!
"Okay," Maya said. "Thank you."
She turned to Leo. "Leo," she whispered, "he said 'functioning.'"
"I heard!"
"Maybe… you are right. Maybe he is not normal."
Sofia was listening too. "In my country, there is old story. A man who is not a man. Looks like man, but inside… different. Maybe this."
Maya, Leo, and Sofia looked at each other. They had a new mission.
When the lesson was over, Mr. Byte left the classroom for two minutes to get some water. Maya, Leo, and Sofia walked to his desk quickly.
"What are we looking for?" Sofia asked.
"I don't know," Maya said. "Something ."
Leo opened a small bag on the desk. Inside was a notebook. Leo opened the notebook. The first page had a title: TEACHING NOTES FOR NEW TEACHERS.
They read the notes.
1. Stand up straight. Do not move too much. Students like a calm teacher. 2. Speak clearly. Say every word carefully. 3. Do not show emotion. Teachers must be professional. 4. Ask if students have questions. 5. This is my first day teaching. I am very nervous. I hope the students like me. I hope I do not make mistakes.
Maya read the last sentence two times. She looked at Leo and Sofia.
"He is not a robot," she said quietly. "He is nervous."
"Nervous?" Leo said. "But he is so weird!"
"He is weird because he is scared. This is his first day. Look — he wrote it. He is scared of us. He is trying to be a perfect teacher. So he is acting like a… a machine. Because machines do not make mistakes."
Sofia nodded slowly. "I understand. When I come to new country, I also try to be perfect. Because I am scared. It is easier to be a robot than to be scared."
They closed the notebook and went back to their seats just in time. Mr. Byte came back in. He stood at the front of the class. His face was the same flat face.
Maya put up her hand again.
"Yes," Mr. Byte said.
"Mr. Byte, we have a question. Is this your first day teaching?"
Mr. Byte's face changed. Just a little. His eyes moved. He blinked — once, two times, three times.
"Yes," he said. And for the first time, his voice was a real voice, not a flat voice. "Yes, it is. Is it… that obvious?"
"A little," Maya said kindly. "But Mr. Byte, you do not need to be perfect. We are just students. You can be a normal teacher. We will help you."
Mr. Byte looked at the class. The whole class was smiling at him. Leo gave him a thumbs up. Sofia nodded.
Slowly, Mr. Byte smiled. It was a small smile, but it was real.
"Thank you," he said. "Thank you, students. Maybe… maybe we can start the next lesson again. Like normal humans."
Everyone laughed. Including Mr. Byte.
Chapter 7: in the Library
On Tuesday evening, Maya and Leo had a problem. They had a big book report to write. It was for Friday. They had not started yet. So after school, they decided to stay in the school library to work.
"Two hours," Maya said. "We will stay two hours. From three o'clock to five o'clock. Then we go home."
"Deal," Leo said.
The school library was a big, quiet room. It had many tall shelves full of books. It had soft chairs. It had a big window. Maya loved the library. It smelled like old paper and wood.
The librarian, Mrs. Green, was at her desk.
"Hello, Mrs. Green!" Maya said. "Can we work here after school?"
"Of course. The library closes at five o'clock. Please leave before five."
"Yes, Mrs. Green."
Maya and Leo sat at a table by the window. They opened their books. They started to work.
The book they were reading was a long one. It was a famous old book about a boy and a big river. Maya liked the book, but it was hard. The English was old-style. Some words she did not know. Leo was also struggling. They worked slowly.
At four o'clock, Maya looked up.
"Let's take a small break," she said.
They walked around the library. They looked at the old books on the high shelves. They found a book about monsters. They found a book about outer space. They found a very old book about cooking from 1952. They laughed at the pictures.
"Look at this cake," Leo said. "It looks like a green hill with fruit on top. Who would eat this?"
"Your grandmother?"
"Hey!"
Time passed. Maya and Leo were having fun looking at books. They forgot about the time. They forgot about the book report. They forgot about everything.
Suddenly, Maya looked at her watch.
"Leo! It is five thirty!"
"What? Five thirty? But we said five!"
"I know! We were looking at the books and we forgot!"
They ran back to their table. They quickly put their things in their bags. They ran to the library door.
The door was closed.
"No problem, we just open it," Leo said.
He pushed the door. The door did not move.
He pulled the door. The door did not move.
"Maya… the door is ."
Maya's heart started beating fast. "? From outside? Let me try."
Maya pushed the door. She pulled the door. She shook the door. The door was .
"Mrs. Green!" Maya shouted. "Mrs. Green, we are still inside!"
No answer.
"Mrs. Green! Please!"
Still no answer. The library was completely silent.
"Leo, what do we do? We are in the library!"
Leo took out his phone. "I will call my mom."
He looked at his phone. The face of his phone was dark. He pressed the button. Nothing happened.
"My phone is dead. I forgot to charge it last night."
"Use my phone," Maya said. She took out her phone. But then she remembered — this morning, she had been using her phone for videos, and her battery was already very low.
Her phone's face showed: 2% battery.
"Quick, Maya, call someone!"
Maya called her mother. It rang one time. It rang two times. It rang three—
The phone turned off. Dead battery.
"No!"
They looked at each other. They were in the library. No phones. No teachers. No Mrs. Green. Just the two of them and hundreds of silent books.
Leo went to the big window. The window was too high to jump from, and also it did not open. The library had no other doors. They were trapped.
"Maya," Leo said, "I am sorry. This is my fault. I was looking at the cooking book."
"No, it is my fault too. I forgot the time. But Leo, we need to think. What can we do?"
They thought. They thought and thought.
"Okay," Maya said. "There is a phone on Mrs. Green's desk! The library phone!"
They ran to the desk. There was a phone. An old, white phone with a cord. Maya picked it up. She heard the dial tone. It worked!
"Yes! Who do we call?"
"The school has a number. It should be on the desk."
They looked. On the desk there was a paper with school numbers. They called the main school office. Nobody answered. Of course — it was almost six o'clock. The school office was closed.
"Your mom! Do you know her number by memory?"
Maya thought. She knew her mom's phone number because her mom had had the same number for years. She typed it on the library phone. It rang.
"Hello?" her mother answered.
"Mom! It's Maya!"
"Maya? You are late! Where are you? Why is this number ?"
"Mom, listen. I am at school. I am in the library. Leo and I were studying, and we forgot the time, and now the library is closed and ."
"You are in the library?"
"Yes!"
"Oh, Maya. Okay, stay calm. I will call the school. I will come to the school. Do not worry."
"Thank you, Mom."
Maya put down the phone. She looked at Leo. Now they had to wait.
They sat at the table by the window. The library was getting dark. Outside, the sun was going down. The sky was orange and pink.
"Leo," Maya said after a few minutes, "do you know what? This is actually a little bit… nice."
"Nice? We are in!"
"I know. But look. Look at the sky. Look at all these books. Listen — it is so quiet. When was the last time you were in a place so quiet?"
Leo looked around. He looked at the sky. He listened to the quiet.
"Maybe you are right," he said slowly. "A little bit nice."
They waited. Maya took the old cooking book from 1952 and read the funny recipes to Leo. Leo laughed. They found a book of old photos of the school from fifty years ago. The old students wore funny clothes. The old teachers had big, serious faces.
"Hey, look!" Leo said. "This old photo — the girl in the middle — she looks like my grandmother!"
"Really?"
"I am going to ask her tomorrow. Maybe she went to this school."
After about forty minutes, they heard voices outside the library door. Keys. The door opened. Maya's mother was there, and so was Mr. Park, and so was a surprised-looking man with a set of keys — the school's night guard.
"Maya! Leo!" Maya's mother ran to hug her.
"We were so worried," Mr. Park said. "But I am also a little bit proud. You two really love to study, don't you? Staying after school for a book report?"
Maya and Leo looked at each other. They did not say that they had been looking at old cooking books and laughing.
"Yes, Mr. Park," they said together. "We love to study."
Mr. Park raised one eyebrow. But he was smiling.
On the way home, Maya's mother held Maya's hand, like when Maya was a small child.
"Maya," she said, "this was a week. A bag of toys. A surprise test. An exploding . A lost lucky pen. A new friend from far away. A nervous substitute teacher. And now — in the library!"
Maya laughed. "I know, Mom. It was a week."
"Was it a bad week?"
Maya thought about it. She thought about Tommy's teddy bear. She thought about singing at the Bella Luna concert. She thought about Ms. Chen laughing at the red . She thought about writing her best story without the Lucky Pen. She thought about Sofia's first smile. She thought about Mr. Byte's real smile. She thought about the quiet library and the orange sky.
"No, Mom," Maya said. "It was not a bad week. It was the best week of the year."
And Maya knew something new. Normal days were easy and safe. But days — days were where the real stories lived.
