1 1. real or imagined

"Hey! over here",the stranger said.

"Hello sir, how can i help you"? I asked him.

The man was pretty old. He seemed to have coloured his hair which i suspected of two reasons. First and the obvious, green does not seem the natural colour of hair. Atleast i haven't seen or heard about a green-haired person. Secondly, he had a smell similar to the smell of paint as if he had directly painted it instead of using a hair dye. Or so I thought for few days.

So moving on.

He replied,"I don't need help, but it seemed that you wanted some help".

"that's why I'm asking again, do you need help". "you seem to be lost".

As if he had read my mind, I was shocked.

But he seemed a nice guy by his looks.

"yes!", I shouted.

I had caught the attention of all the people around us.

He laughed and said,"alright zappy , let's help you".

As we were walking down the hill i asked the old man his name.

"You can just call me bro"

I thought to myself making a joke out of him that he might have a real bad memory and what kind of old people call themselves bros.

"I don't have a bad memory"."I just don't find it important".

Again, as if he read my mind.

I took a second look at him and the ground below me escaped. The man i thought was a old guy turned out a man just around my age.

Not sure, i asked him age.

" I'm 16 and in July i will turn 17".

Two years younger he said.

As i was digesting this information, my eyes felt heavy and i went blank for a few seconds.

After that i looked around and saw that i had reached home and was lying in bed.

I was sweating. "what happened. I thought was lost in the next town".

"why am i here suddenly".

"uhh, I'm thinking too much".

"I probably spaced out again and imagined all that".

I double checked and confirmed to myself that i really imagined it.

I checked the clock, It was 7:30 in the morning. At the same time my sister called me and asked to eat breakfast.

"Another day for school", i said to myself.

"suzu", i called to my sister.

"yes",she replied in a soothing tone.

"do people have natural green hair"? I asked.

" well, I haven't seen a person with one, so probably not. but why do you ask".she replied

"nothing, just out of curiosity".

Suddenly the doorbell rang and my older sister went to open the door

" hey, sei. it's saizel". "it's time for school".

saizel was my first and only friend i had after transferring to this town few years back.

She didn't had freinds either and when i approached her on the first day the words I heard few minutes later were, "can we be friends". They felt the most beautiful words but thinking back we were destined to be friends sooner or later knowing that we were seated next to each other.

After finishing up the breakfast, i left with saizel to school.

"I have been spacing out a lot lately", i said.

"oh seiren, you're just thinking too much. Just think what is important and you'll be fine", she said in a caring voice.

we reached school and Again as usual I wasn't expecting what i saw.

A guy with green hair transferred mid year.

"you've gotta be kidding".