Chapter Seven

To add fuel in the fire, Clara got close to Mira and stretched her hand to Mira's hair to hold it, "I invited you to sit with us, thus we can become friends, but you sat beside us to steal?"

Mira was shaken by this act and tried to speak but stuttered, "I...I....I...di...did... didn't.. do."

Purba then came close to Mira and whispered, " you can't fool us thief, everybody can see you are a thief now."

Mira couldn't speak a word, she's speechless.

Lastly the head teacher scolded Mira for her works, he knew Mira was a good girl, but he get disappointed by today's behaviour.

"Does that mean, she was the thief that stole my rubber some day ago too?" in the commotion a student asked another student this.

"...I think it's the thief that also stole my bottle.." another added.

"Hey, I can't find my pencil from yesterday, search her bag again.."

"SILENCE!!!" the head teacher shouted and every student in the class stopped chattering from fear, if the head teacher wanted, he would punish them with his long and thin bamboo stick that he always carry with him and beat naughty students. It's very painful.

"No talking when I'm in the class." then the head teacher turned to look at Mira who's shaking in fear,and harshly said "Go out of the classroom and stand there untill the class ends."

Mira got out of class in small steps while looking down.Tears started to well up in her eyes. Mira knows she's being punished what she didn't do in the first place.But she can't do anything about this.After hearing everybody talking she's a thief and accusing her for their stuffs being disappearing, she's more hurt than ever.She couldn't understand why someone will do this to her.She'll ask her mommy to solve this, but she also fears, if her daddy knows about this, her daddy will accuse her mommy again for everything bad happening to Mira and will link them again to her mommy.She doesn't want that either.That's also why, she tried to suppress this feeling in her mind and get accused by them.She needs to bear another year, then she will be admitted to high school and everything will start to change.At least she hopes that.

After class, the head teacher went out from the classroom to his office. Mira was still standing outside on the classroom,with the head held down. When head teacher was gone, Mira peeked into the classroom and saw everyone is busy doing there jobs to arrange for the next class. Mira went in the class,looking nervous.

Suddenly, Purba, Clara and some of her friends who liked Mira before, came closer to her.

"Hey, Thief... give me back my rubber that you took from me yesterday," a boy said next to Purba.

"yeah.. my pencil is also missing, give me back my things Thief," another student came forward and shouted infront of Mira's face.

Mira looked at them, frightened, and in a slow voice she said, "I..I.. didn't.. I didn't t..took anything from any.. anyone."

"What did you say? you didn't took my pen behind my back? then tell me how my pen is found in your bag? did it teleported from my pencil box?" Purba shouted while pushing Mira slightly to the wall.

"N..no.. I d.. don't know how it happened." Mira tried to protest when pushed against the wall, her eyes become tearful in fear.

"Hey, search her bag, let's see what's in there, who's things she stole again, we'll take her things if we didn't find ours." Clara suggested from behind Purba.

"it's a great idea Clara, let's go.. search that thief's bag," one student quickly said that to their friends and went to search Mira's bag.

They searched Mira's bag, but couldn't find their respective lost things.But after searching, they each grabbed Mira's things, such as, pencils, eraser, pens, pencil sharpener.. and started to say..

"yes, it's mine, look I found it."

" I found mine too."

"It's mine."

"look at this new pencil pen, it's mine that I lost before."

Looking at those that Mira's mother specifically gifted her, Mira screamed, "no, those are mine, my mother gifted me those, please.. please don't take the pencil pen."

*Slap*

Suddenly Mira got slapped, when she looked up, she saw Purba glaring at her.

"It's theirs, you understand thief?" Purba yanked Mira's hair and said to her.

"...arrghhh... it h..hurts." in a slow defeated voice Mira said.

After this event, Mira got separated from her fellow friends, even her past friends sits far away from her.She now sits alone at a last row.

School ended, students got up and went home.When Mira got home, she looked haggard,but tried her best to look okay.

After looking at her, Mira's mother knew something happened, she asked Mira, "Mira what happened? why are you seem so down?"

Mira flinched, tried her best to look okay, but failed, she tried to come up with a lie and said slowly, "mommy, I lost my pencil pen you gave me."

Mrs.Asan thought for a moment and said, "oh, it's nothing, you just have to go to the storage room of school.Ask the caretaker of school for directions.When student's forgets and left something behind in the school, they're the one that collects them and stored them in the storage room.You can find every lost things there."

Hearing this Mira's eyes lit up.Now for her, her mom won't be accused for anything.

Joyfully she hugged her mom, "Thank you mommy, you're the best. I'll search for my things tomorrow."

"Haha... silly child, for this little thing you got depressed," Mrs.Asan patted Mira's back and assured her.

Now Mira will be able to replace her belongings with those and won't be accused by anyone. She's very happy for that. If someone tries to take her things again, she'll replace it again.