By: Nina He

It was a normal day for class F1-F2, with the boys squeezing in a few games of soccer outside in the few minutes before the bell rang and the girls sitting on the benches, talking about the latest school bags and best pens and stationery for class.

We were all gathered around Charlie. Her dad had brought her to Disco yesterday and she had so many pens!

“You guys can have some,” she said.

“Thank you, Charlie!” We all chorused in unison, taking two or three pens each.

And then we saw her. A tall, slim robot walking into the school yard. She had two folders tucked under her arm and her eyes were big and round and yellow. Even though she was a robot, she managed to fit on a red dress. High heels clicked, clicked, clicked as she walked.

The boys stopped their chatter, their eyes following the robot.

We, the girls, had manners, and we all knew not to stare. But you see, it was a robot. So we had to make expectations.

As the robot clicked across the ground into the building, the bell rang, and class T1-T2 rushed to line up.

“Celia,” Hannah said, walking towards me, her pink school bag swinging in her hand. “What do you think of that robot?”

I picked up my own bag, stalling as I thought of a reply. To be honest, I didn’t really know what to think of the robot. “Uh… I think… Maybe it’s a project one of the higher grades made? What ‘bout you?”

Hannah bit her lip and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Then the line was moving and walked into our classroom, talking in hushed voices about it all the way.

I froze. The robot was sitting at Mrs. Auttme’s desk!

I narrowed my eyes and whispered to Hannah, “What’s she doing there?” Hannah didn’t reply. We got into our seats next to each other and after we all settled down.

“Hello,” the robot spoke with confidence—and a slight monotone. “My name is Ms. Cybeliana. But you can call me Ms. Cyber for short. I will substitute for Mrs. Autumn today—”

Ms. Cyber was cut short by Roger shouting, “Wait—are you like a human with robot parts or somethin’?”

She laughed. “God no! They just call me that because I don’t have as much of a monotone as other robots, and my voice is very human-like.”

And then she did roll count, like any normal day, and asked which of us were getting hot lunch today. Which was zero, as always. Even if someone did need a hot lunch, no one wanted to eat it. That’s how much we hate school lunch.

“No one? Okay.” Ms. Cyber typed something into the computer. Then the day properly began.

We learned about a stinking corpse lily, which Rachel said she saw—and smelled, against her will—once.

And then it was recess. Someone had called a class meeting behind the bathrooms (the news passed from person to person quickly).

When Hannah and I arrived, all the good spots were taken. We leaned against the bathroom.

To my surprise, the person who had called the meeting was—Lily. Shy, smart, kind, Lily.

We all waited for her to speak. “I think we should do something about Ms. Cyber,” she said, twiddling her thumbs, her big golden eyes shy and nervous. I waited for her to continue. “And…and I think she’s evil and we need to stop her before it’s too late!”

“Stop her from doing what, though?” I asked. “It’s not like she did anything wrong—yet.”

Just then, Rachel pointed. “Look! It’s Ms. Cyber! She looks suspicious…and she’s heading to the nurse’s office!”

“We have to follow her!” Jonas said.

“Wait wait wait!” I said, holding up my hands. “We don’t have any proof! What if she’s just going to the principal’s office to deliver some files or something?”

“But we could find some evidence,” Rachel countered.

“Or you could get in trouble or even worse, expelled,” Hannah answered, backing me up perfectly. Turning to the rest of the class, she said, “We all know that we’re not allowed in the building in recess without a hall pass.”

“Yeah!” piped up Pepper. “Did you guys remember what happened to J.J.? He went into the building and never came back.”

The rest of the class murmured and discussed the options amongst themselves: (a) Follow Ms. Cyber and have the possibility of getting caught—or expelled or (b) stay here and miss the possibility of catching a robot-bad-guy.

“Okay, I think we should split into two groups,” Sania said, her accent making it hard to understand. “One that believes Ms. Cyber is bad, and another believes that we should stay here.”

So we did. On the bad-guy side were Lily, Jonas, Rachel, Emmy, Sania, Jade, Mark, Liam, Charlie, and Roger. On the stay side was Celia (me), Hannah, Pepper, Jason, William, Benjamin, Nora, Allison, Izzy, and Alexander.

The last person to choose was Maddy.

“Uh, guys, I think I’m going to pass…” she said, smiling nervously.

But of course, we told her she couldn’t. “Fine,” Maddy said with a deep breath. She turned towards the Ms. Cyber-is-bad group and said, “I agree with them. We should follow Ms. Cyber.”

At lunchtime, the selected few (me, Hannah, Lily, and Rachel) to spy on Ms. Cyber stood in the best spots behind the bathroom. We were all girls because the teachers liked the girls better, and if we were to get caught, maybe we won’t get in as much trouble.

Peeking out of the bathroom’s side, I saw Ms. Cyber sneaking into the school building like she did earlier.

“‘The mission is hot, we are a go,’” I said, quoting a line from City Spies.

Trying to look as natural as possible, I strode across to the building, with Hannah, Lily, and Rachel behind me. After I made sure no one was looking our way, I tiptoed into the building. Sadly, the others didn’t.

“Shhh!” I hissed at them.

“Why do we need to tiptoe? It’s not as if they won’t see us if we do it,” Rachel said.

“Yes, they might see us, but they won’t hear us, and if they hear us, they might come along and see us!” I retorted.

In the end, Rachel still wouldn’t do it, and I said I wouldn’t go spy on Ms. Cyber if she did, so we got split into two groups: Rachel and Hannah and me and Lily.

“Maybe she went back to the classroom,” I told Lily. “Come on, let’s go check.”

The others went to check the office.

As we walked, I heard the clicking sound of high-heels and we both stopped dead. Peeking into the hall where the noise came from was Ms. Cyber. She had her arm in front of her, and a holographic screen was popping up from a watch. I couldn’t see what was on the screen, though.

“Have you located the girl?” said a deep voice from the screen.

“Celiana Hammerstrong? Yes yes,” said our teacher. “I just need to trick her into going to the place, and you can have her.”

My heart missed a beat. They were talking about me! Rachel was right! We needed to get rid of Ms. Cyber before it was too late. Lily was frozen with shock next to me, but she listened as I told her the plan I just came up with.

She ran to find Rachel and Hannah and the rest of the class. I checked my watch and waited for eight minutes before running into the hall like I just got there.

“Wha—Celia! What are you doing here?” exclaimed Ms. Cyber. She had just ended her call.

“Come—come quick! M-Ms. Cyber!” I panted, pretending I was running. “Rachel…she…she fell and her leg hurts really bad!”

“Oh. I’m coming!” We ran outside and towards the bathroom. I hoped they were ready.

They were. Rachel was moaning on the ground, while Lily, Hannah, Charlie, and Izzy pretended to tend to her. “What happened?” asked Ms. Cyber.

Charlie pointed to a jump rope on the ground. “We were playing jump rope and Rachel fell!” Izzy nodded along.

“Oh!” I said, as if I just got an idea. “There’s a first aid kit outside the school! It’s a bit far, but we can help Rachel with it!” And so we ran outside. I side eyed the place behind the gate. Sania, Maddy, and Izzy stood there and gave me the thumbs up. The rest of the class was ready.

I glanced at the road. The garbage truck was coming; my timing was perfect!

“Wait. They pinned it on the tree!” I said, pointing to the tall, ancient tree. “It’s behind, so you can’t see it from here.” I glanced up at the leaves, where Roger, Alexander, Liam, and Pepper perched. You could barely see them.

“Why on the tree?” Ms. Cyber said, exasperated.

“Please climb it?” I asked, with puppy-dog eyes. She sighed and did just that. “Higher! Higher! Yes! NOW!”

“What—” Ms. Cyber looked down at me, but it was too late, Roger and Alexander grabbed her arms, swinging her into the garbage truck while Liam and Pepper pushed her body for extra support. She screamed as she fell right in the middle of the garbage truck.

Just as she hit it, a fresh wave of trash was dumped on her. We couldn’t help but laugh.

All of us sauntered back into the school and behind the bathroom, where the rest of the class was now waiting. We described our success with some extra details.

“Ms. Cyber was going to grab me, but luckily I had my quick reflexes and—”

“She was this close to me and I was so scared but I still did what I was supposed to—”

“If it weren’t for me and my push, she would still be here—”

I didn’t really care. We had used our teamwork to get rid of Ms. Cyber, and what else really mattered?